Thursday, May 24, 2007
Falwell Spoke the Truth
Woe to you, you leftist hypocrites! You cast stones in glass houses and blame the Christians as Rome burns. Why is that God haters came out of the woods when the Rev. Falwell passed away last week? The left wing politicos were quick to remind everyone of Falwell’s so-called bigoted statements, but how is that any different then their bigoted rebuttals this week. Does the media ignore Christian bashing rhetoric when they feel it is well founded? Why does Bill Maher get away with joking about the death of Falwell and a monologue that assaults Catholics and Fundamental Christians on his HBO show. Funny how just a few months ago, Don Imus was fired for a bigoted tirade, but because Maher’s target is those pesky Christian’s, it is ok to speak hate about them. I guess freedom of speech does not apply to a preacher who is suppose to speak out against the sins that we all commit. I guess Springfield just wants Roger Ray and Rick Warren in the pulpit so that they are not convicted of their sins. A punishment worse then 9/11 is coming if we (society) do not turn from our wicked ways. God help us! God will not hear our prayers until we humble ourselves, pray and seek his face, and turn form our wicked ways. Do it now!!!!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Virgina Tech is a sign of things to come
America, not guns caused the tragedy last week. We as a nation have forsaken Christ for the last time. Our children are reaping the fruits of what we have sown before them. In the 1960’s, we kicked Christ out of our schools. In the 1970’s, we legalized (unconstitutionally) the murder on demand of the unborn. And since then, we have began to reap what we sewed, when Oklahoma City was rocked and Columbine was violated. Not much has changed. School violence is becoming common. Abortions are still legal. And Christ is still unwelcome in schools. Jesus , or any mention of His name, was missing from the “invocation” the day after VT’s tragedy? All those so-called ministers of God never once encouraged the people to find hope in Jesus. So America, you will keep reaping violence until you get a clue and restore Christ. May God have mercy on those so-called clergymen. You are not His priest. Hosea says it best, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6
Friday, April 20, 2007
Prosperity gospel is heretical
Redemption in Hell Researched by Pastor Joe M. of Holy Rock Church in Springfield MO
Did Jesus “Die Spiritually” and Go To Hell at Death?
Make no mistake about it; these are heretical views with absolutely no biblical accuracy whatsoever.
I. Redemption in Hell
In the words of one Faith teacher, "Satan conquered Jesus upon the Cross." Proponents of Faith theology say that Jesus endured three days and nights of unimaginable abuse at the hands of Satan and his hordes of demons in hell. This was God’s payment to Satan so that He could get back into a universe from which He had been banished.
§ Frederick Price
Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God…Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound and they threw a net over Jesus and dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." (Frederick K.C. Price, Ever Increasing Faith Messenger (June 1980), 7.
§ Kenneth Hagin
"He [Jesus] tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner man went to hell in my place. Can’t you see that? Physical death wouldn’t remove your sins. He’s tasted death for every man. He’s talking about tasting spiritual death." (Kenneth E. Hagin, How Jesus Obtained His Name (Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, n.d.), tape #44H01, side 1.
"Christ's physical death on the cross was not enough to save us." (Kenneth Hagin, How Jesus obtained His Name, Tape 44H01)
Here is a picture of Christ in awful combat with the hosts of darkness. It gives us a glimpse of the tremendous victory He won before He rose from the dead. The margin of King James reads, "He put off from Himself the principalities and the powers." It is quite obvious and evident that whole demon hosts, when they had Jesus within their power intended to swamp Him, to overwhelm Him, and to hold Him in fearful bondage. But the cry came forth from the throne of God that Jesus had met the demands of Justice, that that man's redemption was a fact. And when that cry reached the dark regions, Jesus arose and threw back the host of demons and met Satan in awful combat. God has made this investment for He has made this deposit on which the church has a right to draw for. Oh that our eyes would open, that our souls would dare to rise in the realm of the omnipotent where that name would mean to us all that God the Father intended it to mean! In one sense, this is practically unexplored table land in Christian experience." (Kenneth Hagin, "The Name Of Jesus: The More Excellent Name," The Word of Faith [April 1976], pp. 4-6)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"When Jesus cried, ‘It is finished!’ He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne…Jesus’ death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption." (Kenneth Copeland, Jesus—Our Lord of Glory, Believer’s Voice of Victory 10, 4 (April 1982):3.
§ Jan Crouch
The wife of TBN president Paul Crouch, approvingly recited the following words from Paul Billheimer’s book during a live communion service aired on TBN: "Because He was "made sin," impregnated with sin, and became the very essence of sin, on the cross He was banished from God’s presence as a loathsome thing. He and sin were made synonymous…[I]t was not sufficient for Christ to offer up only His physical life on the cross. His pure human spirit had not "descend" into hell…His spirit must not only descend into hell, but into the lowest hell…The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was "the essence of sin" he was at Satan’s mercy in that place of torment…While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was "in carnival." (Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988 [orig. 1975]), 83-84. Quoted by Jan Crouch during the "Praise the Lord" program TBN (August 20, 1987).
II. Jesus Was “Born Again” in Hell
§ Kenneth Copeland
“In hell He [Jesus] suffered for you and for me. The Bible says hell was made for Satan and his angles. It was not made for men. Satan was holding the Son of God there illegally…The trap was set for Satan and Jesus was the bait." (Kenneth Copeland, Walking in the Realm of the Miraculous (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1979), 77. Satan blew it on a technicality, according to Faith theology, because Satan had dragged Jesus into hell illegally. As Copeland puts it, "The Devil forgot to take into consideration that Jesus hadn’t sinned Himself but, rather, had merely become sin as a result of the sin of others." (Kenneth Copeland, What Happened from the Cross to the Throne (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #02-0017, side 2. Satan and every demon in hell tortured Christ’s allegedly "emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit" without legal right. (Kenneth Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory program (April 21, 1991). And this was exactly the opening God had been looking for. Seizing the moment, He spoke His faith-filled words into the bowels of the earth, and suddenly—"[t]hat Word of the living God went down into that pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life. He began to look like something the devil had never seen before. He was literally being reborn before the devil’s very eyes. He began to flex His spiritual muscles…Jesus was born again—the first-born from the dead." (Kenneth Copeland, The Price of it All, Believer’s Voice of Victory 19, 9 (September 1991):4-6. Kenneth Copeland called upon revelation knowledge when he said: "The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, ‘Son, realize this. Now follow me in this and don’t let your tradition trip you up.’ He said, ‘Think this way—a twice-born man whipped Satan in his own domain.’ And I threw my Bible down…like that. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘A born-again man defeated Satan, the firstborn of many brethren defeated him.’ He said, ‘You are the very image, the very copy of that one.’ I said, ‘Well now you don’t mean, you couldn’t dare mean, that I could have done the same thing?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, if you’d had the knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could’ve done the same thing, ‘cause you’re a reborn man too." (Kenneth Copeland, Substitution and Identification (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #00-0202, side 2.
Kenneth Copeland (through whom Jesus allegedly delivered the following prophecy): "They crucified Me [Jesus] for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him [the Father] and that He was in Me." ("Take Time to Pray," Believer's Voice of Victory 15, 2 [February 1987]:9.)
§ Benny Hinn
"My, you know, whoosh! The Holy Ghost is just showing me some stuff. I’m getting dizzy! I’m telling you the truth—it’s, it’s just heavy right now on me…He’s [referring to Jesus] in the underworld now. God isn’t there, the Holy Ghost isn’t there, and the Bible says He was begotten. Do you know what the word begotten means? It means reborn. Do you want another shocker? Have you been begotten? So was He. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. You say, ‘What are you talking about?’…He was reborn. He had to be reborn…If He was not reborn, I could not be reborn, I would never be reborn. How can I face Jesus and say, "Jesus, You went through everything I’ve gone through, except the new birth?" (Benny Hinn, Our Position ‘In Christ,’ Part 1 (Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Center, 1991), videotape #TV-254.
§ Jan Crouch read Paul Billheimer’s commentary on TBN
"In order to be made alive unto God and restored to fellowship with His Father, He [Jesus] had to be reborn—for He had become the very essence of sin. Since sin had totally alienated Him from the Father, the only way He could be restored to fellowship with the Father was through a new birth to new life." (Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988 [orig. 1975]), 83-84. Quoted by Jan Crouch during the "Praise the Lord" program TBN (August 20, 1987).
Kenneth Hagin
Why did He need to be begotten or born? Because He became like we were - separated from God. Because He tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner men went to hell in my place. Can't you see that? Physical death wouldn't remove your sins. He's tasted death for every man. He's talking about tasting spiritual death. Jesus is the first person that was ever born again. Why did His spirit need to be born again? Because it was estranged from God." (Kenneth Hagin, "How Jesus obtained His Name" audio tape #44-H01)
III. The Reincarnation of Jesus through Rebirth
Jesus was reincarnated from demonic to divine and then emerged from hell as an incarnation of God. When you are born again, you too are reincarnated from demonic to divine, becoming "as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth."
According to Faith Teachers, Jesus regained His divinity the moment He was reborn in hell. Commenting on Hinn’s remarks about Jesus defeating Satan in the underworld,
§ Paul Crouch
"That’s when His [Jesus’] divinity returned." (Paul Crouch, Praise-a-Thon program on TBN (November 6, 1990).
§ Kenneth Hagin
"Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." (Kenneth E. Hagin, The Incarnation, The Word of Faith 13, 12 (December 1980):14.
§ Kenneth Copeland
God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself, and in the Garden of Eden He did just that. He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even. . . . Adam is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus. . . . Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh." Kenneth Copeland, Following the Faith of Abraham I, side 1
"I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is....The biggest one in the whole bible is God....I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least--that's a big loss, man. Kenneth Copeland, Praise-a-Thon program on TBN [April 1988]
IV. The Cross was Insufficient
§ Charles Capps
"Notice that when Jesus said, 'I have finished the work' [John 17:4], we know that He had nor finished the work. But I want you to catch something in the way He prayed and the way He talked--He spoke the end results. He never spoke what was. He never admitted death or defeat. . . . Jesus was speaking the end results in His prayer to the Father." (Authority in Three Worlds, 258-.59, emphasis in original.)
§ Frederick K.C. Price
"Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God. . . . Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound. And they threw a net over Jesus and they dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." (Ever Increasing Faith Messenger [June 1980], 7; quoted in D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988], 120.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"It wasn't a physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin...anybody can do that." (Kenneth Copeland, What Satan Saw on the Day of Pentecost, audiotape #BCC-19, side 1)
V. Jesus took on the Nature of Satan
§ Charles Capps
"The sinless son of God became as a serpent that He might swallow up all evil....If you will behold what happened when the sin offering was made and the fact that Jesus became a serpent upon the pole, it will change your life. . . . Jesus died spiritually, not for any of His own sin! He became the serpent on the pole, the snake on the ground, in the Old Testament type." (Authority in Three Worlds, 177, 166-67.)
§ Paul E. Billheimer
"The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was 'the essence of sin' he was at Satan's mercy in that place of torment. . . .While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was 'in carnival.' " (Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN [Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988(orig. 1975)]. 84.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"He [Jesus] is suffering all that there is to suffer. There is no suffering left apart from Him. His emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing [hell]. And the Devil thinks he's got Him destroyed." ("Believer's Voice of Victory" program [21 April 1991]. This message was originally delivered at the Full Gospel Motorcycle Rally Association 1990 Rally at Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas.)
§ Benny Hinn
"Jesus Christ knew the only way He would stop Satan is by becoming one in nature with him...He became one with the nature of Satan, so all those who had the nature of Satan can partake of the nature of God."(Benny Hinn, TBN December 15 1990)
VI. Jesus was Tortured in Hell
§ Charles Capps
" If there's any part of hell Jesus did not suffer, you'll have to suffer it. But, thank God, Jesus suffered it all, for you! In the place of the wicked dead, all the demons of hell and Satan rejoiced over the prize. The corridors of hell were filled with joy. 'We've done it! We've captured the Son of God! We'll no longer be in the pit of the damned! The earth and all that is therein is ours! Forever it will be ours!' Rejoicing in hell had never been so great as it was that day. But it was short-lived." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"Satan didn't realize He [Jesus] is in there [hell] illegally. . . . This man had not sinned. This man has not fallen out of the covenant of God, and He had the promise of God for deliverance. And Satan fell into the trap. He took Him into hell illegally. He carried Him in there [when] He did not sin." ("What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990], audiotape #02-0017, side 2.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"I can't understand Christians that refuse to believe that Jesus went to hell. I want to tell you something if he didn't go, you're going to have to." (The Christian Channel Europe "Believer's Voice of Victory" [May 1998)
§ Charles Capps
"When Jesus was in the pit of hell. in that terrible torment, no doubt the Devil and his emissaries gathered around to see the annihilation of God's Son. But in the corridors of hell, there came a great voice from heaven: 'Turn Him Loose! He's there illegally!' And all of hell became paralyzed." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
VII. Other Heretical Doctrines About Jesus Christ
Kenneth Copeland (through whom Jesus allegedly delivered the following prophecy) : "They crucified Me [Jesus] for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him [the Father] and that He was in Me." ("Take Time to Pray," Believer's Voice of Victory 15, 2 [February 1987]:9.)
E.W. Kenyon : "Jesus was conceived without sin. His body was not mortal. His body did not become mortal until the Father laid our sin nature upon Him when He hung on the cross. The moment that He became sin, His body became mortal, only then could He die. When this happened. spiritual death, the nature of Satan, took possession of His Spirit....He was to partake of Spiritual Death, the nature of the Adversary. . . .Jesus knew that the moment had come, and He was to he made Sin. He must partake of that dread nature of the Adversary. His body would become mortal. Satan would become His master. . . . He [Jesus] had been lifted up as a serpent. Serpent is Satan. Jesus knew He was going to be lifted up, united with the Adversary." (What Happened from the Cross to the Throne [Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1969], 20, 33, 44-45.)
Joyce Meyer
“And you’ve got to really glean some things out of the Word of God to really get hold of what He [Jesus] did for you during those three days. Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ And He meant the Old Covenant. The job He had to do was just getting started. He really did the job the three days and nights that He was in hell. That’s where the job was done.” (Joyce Meyer, “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?” audio)
“He was pronounced guilty on the cross but He paid the price in hell.” (Joyce Meyer, “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?” audio)
“There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell” (Joyce Meyer, "The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make", 1991 pg. 36)
Did Jesus “Die Spiritually” and Go To Hell at Death?
Make no mistake about it; these are heretical views with absolutely no biblical accuracy whatsoever.
I. Redemption in Hell
In the words of one Faith teacher, "Satan conquered Jesus upon the Cross." Proponents of Faith theology say that Jesus endured three days and nights of unimaginable abuse at the hands of Satan and his hordes of demons in hell. This was God’s payment to Satan so that He could get back into a universe from which He had been banished.
§ Frederick Price
Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God…Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound and they threw a net over Jesus and dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." (Frederick K.C. Price, Ever Increasing Faith Messenger (June 1980), 7.
§ Kenneth Hagin
"He [Jesus] tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner man went to hell in my place. Can’t you see that? Physical death wouldn’t remove your sins. He’s tasted death for every man. He’s talking about tasting spiritual death." (Kenneth E. Hagin, How Jesus Obtained His Name (Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, n.d.), tape #44H01, side 1.
"Christ's physical death on the cross was not enough to save us." (Kenneth Hagin, How Jesus obtained His Name, Tape 44H01)
Here is a picture of Christ in awful combat with the hosts of darkness. It gives us a glimpse of the tremendous victory He won before He rose from the dead. The margin of King James reads, "He put off from Himself the principalities and the powers." It is quite obvious and evident that whole demon hosts, when they had Jesus within their power intended to swamp Him, to overwhelm Him, and to hold Him in fearful bondage. But the cry came forth from the throne of God that Jesus had met the demands of Justice, that that man's redemption was a fact. And when that cry reached the dark regions, Jesus arose and threw back the host of demons and met Satan in awful combat. God has made this investment for He has made this deposit on which the church has a right to draw for. Oh that our eyes would open, that our souls would dare to rise in the realm of the omnipotent where that name would mean to us all that God the Father intended it to mean! In one sense, this is practically unexplored table land in Christian experience." (Kenneth Hagin, "The Name Of Jesus: The More Excellent Name," The Word of Faith [April 1976], pp. 4-6)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"When Jesus cried, ‘It is finished!’ He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne…Jesus’ death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption." (Kenneth Copeland, Jesus—Our Lord of Glory, Believer’s Voice of Victory 10, 4 (April 1982):3.
§ Jan Crouch
The wife of TBN president Paul Crouch, approvingly recited the following words from Paul Billheimer’s book during a live communion service aired on TBN: "Because He was "made sin," impregnated with sin, and became the very essence of sin, on the cross He was banished from God’s presence as a loathsome thing. He and sin were made synonymous…[I]t was not sufficient for Christ to offer up only His physical life on the cross. His pure human spirit had not "descend" into hell…His spirit must not only descend into hell, but into the lowest hell…The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was "the essence of sin" he was at Satan’s mercy in that place of torment…While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was "in carnival." (Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988 [orig. 1975]), 83-84. Quoted by Jan Crouch during the "Praise the Lord" program TBN (August 20, 1987).
II. Jesus Was “Born Again” in Hell
§ Kenneth Copeland
“In hell He [Jesus] suffered for you and for me. The Bible says hell was made for Satan and his angles. It was not made for men. Satan was holding the Son of God there illegally…The trap was set for Satan and Jesus was the bait." (Kenneth Copeland, Walking in the Realm of the Miraculous (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1979), 77. Satan blew it on a technicality, according to Faith theology, because Satan had dragged Jesus into hell illegally. As Copeland puts it, "The Devil forgot to take into consideration that Jesus hadn’t sinned Himself but, rather, had merely become sin as a result of the sin of others." (Kenneth Copeland, What Happened from the Cross to the Throne (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #02-0017, side 2. Satan and every demon in hell tortured Christ’s allegedly "emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit" without legal right. (Kenneth Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory program (April 21, 1991). And this was exactly the opening God had been looking for. Seizing the moment, He spoke His faith-filled words into the bowels of the earth, and suddenly—"[t]hat Word of the living God went down into that pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life. He began to look like something the devil had never seen before. He was literally being reborn before the devil’s very eyes. He began to flex His spiritual muscles…Jesus was born again—the first-born from the dead." (Kenneth Copeland, The Price of it All, Believer’s Voice of Victory 19, 9 (September 1991):4-6. Kenneth Copeland called upon revelation knowledge when he said: "The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, ‘Son, realize this. Now follow me in this and don’t let your tradition trip you up.’ He said, ‘Think this way—a twice-born man whipped Satan in his own domain.’ And I threw my Bible down…like that. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘A born-again man defeated Satan, the firstborn of many brethren defeated him.’ He said, ‘You are the very image, the very copy of that one.’ I said, ‘Well now you don’t mean, you couldn’t dare mean, that I could have done the same thing?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, if you’d had the knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could’ve done the same thing, ‘cause you’re a reborn man too." (Kenneth Copeland, Substitution and Identification (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #00-0202, side 2.
Kenneth Copeland (through whom Jesus allegedly delivered the following prophecy): "They crucified Me [Jesus] for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him [the Father] and that He was in Me." ("Take Time to Pray," Believer's Voice of Victory 15, 2 [February 1987]:9.)
§ Benny Hinn
"My, you know, whoosh! The Holy Ghost is just showing me some stuff. I’m getting dizzy! I’m telling you the truth—it’s, it’s just heavy right now on me…He’s [referring to Jesus] in the underworld now. God isn’t there, the Holy Ghost isn’t there, and the Bible says He was begotten. Do you know what the word begotten means? It means reborn. Do you want another shocker? Have you been begotten? So was He. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. You say, ‘What are you talking about?’…He was reborn. He had to be reborn…If He was not reborn, I could not be reborn, I would never be reborn. How can I face Jesus and say, "Jesus, You went through everything I’ve gone through, except the new birth?" (Benny Hinn, Our Position ‘In Christ,’ Part 1 (Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Center, 1991), videotape #TV-254.
§ Jan Crouch read Paul Billheimer’s commentary on TBN
"In order to be made alive unto God and restored to fellowship with His Father, He [Jesus] had to be reborn—for He had become the very essence of sin. Since sin had totally alienated Him from the Father, the only way He could be restored to fellowship with the Father was through a new birth to new life." (Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988 [orig. 1975]), 83-84. Quoted by Jan Crouch during the "Praise the Lord" program TBN (August 20, 1987).
Kenneth Hagin
Why did He need to be begotten or born? Because He became like we were - separated from God. Because He tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner men went to hell in my place. Can't you see that? Physical death wouldn't remove your sins. He's tasted death for every man. He's talking about tasting spiritual death. Jesus is the first person that was ever born again. Why did His spirit need to be born again? Because it was estranged from God." (Kenneth Hagin, "How Jesus obtained His Name" audio tape #44-H01)
III. The Reincarnation of Jesus through Rebirth
Jesus was reincarnated from demonic to divine and then emerged from hell as an incarnation of God. When you are born again, you too are reincarnated from demonic to divine, becoming "as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth."
According to Faith Teachers, Jesus regained His divinity the moment He was reborn in hell. Commenting on Hinn’s remarks about Jesus defeating Satan in the underworld,
§ Paul Crouch
"That’s when His [Jesus’] divinity returned." (Paul Crouch, Praise-a-Thon program on TBN (November 6, 1990).
§ Kenneth Hagin
"Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." (Kenneth E. Hagin, The Incarnation, The Word of Faith 13, 12 (December 1980):14.
§ Kenneth Copeland
God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself, and in the Garden of Eden He did just that. He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even. . . . Adam is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus. . . . Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh." Kenneth Copeland, Following the Faith of Abraham I, side 1
"I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is....The biggest one in the whole bible is God....I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least--that's a big loss, man. Kenneth Copeland, Praise-a-Thon program on TBN [April 1988]
IV. The Cross was Insufficient
§ Charles Capps
"Notice that when Jesus said, 'I have finished the work' [John 17:4], we know that He had nor finished the work. But I want you to catch something in the way He prayed and the way He talked--He spoke the end results. He never spoke what was. He never admitted death or defeat. . . . Jesus was speaking the end results in His prayer to the Father." (Authority in Three Worlds, 258-.59, emphasis in original.)
§ Frederick K.C. Price
"Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God. . . . Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound. And they threw a net over Jesus and they dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." (Ever Increasing Faith Messenger [June 1980], 7; quoted in D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988], 120.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"It wasn't a physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin...anybody can do that." (Kenneth Copeland, What Satan Saw on the Day of Pentecost, audiotape #BCC-19, side 1)
V. Jesus took on the Nature of Satan
§ Charles Capps
"The sinless son of God became as a serpent that He might swallow up all evil....If you will behold what happened when the sin offering was made and the fact that Jesus became a serpent upon the pole, it will change your life. . . . Jesus died spiritually, not for any of His own sin! He became the serpent on the pole, the snake on the ground, in the Old Testament type." (Authority in Three Worlds, 177, 166-67.)
§ Paul E. Billheimer
"The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was 'the essence of sin' he was at Satan's mercy in that place of torment. . . .While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was 'in carnival.' " (Destined for the Throne, special edition for TBN [Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1988(orig. 1975)]. 84.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"He [Jesus] is suffering all that there is to suffer. There is no suffering left apart from Him. His emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing [hell]. And the Devil thinks he's got Him destroyed." ("Believer's Voice of Victory" program [21 April 1991]. This message was originally delivered at the Full Gospel Motorcycle Rally Association 1990 Rally at Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas.)
§ Benny Hinn
"Jesus Christ knew the only way He would stop Satan is by becoming one in nature with him...He became one with the nature of Satan, so all those who had the nature of Satan can partake of the nature of God."(Benny Hinn, TBN December 15 1990)
VI. Jesus was Tortured in Hell
§ Charles Capps
" If there's any part of hell Jesus did not suffer, you'll have to suffer it. But, thank God, Jesus suffered it all, for you! In the place of the wicked dead, all the demons of hell and Satan rejoiced over the prize. The corridors of hell were filled with joy. 'We've done it! We've captured the Son of God! We'll no longer be in the pit of the damned! The earth and all that is therein is ours! Forever it will be ours!' Rejoicing in hell had never been so great as it was that day. But it was short-lived." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"Satan didn't realize He [Jesus] is in there [hell] illegally. . . . This man had not sinned. This man has not fallen out of the covenant of God, and He had the promise of God for deliverance. And Satan fell into the trap. He took Him into hell illegally. He carried Him in there [when] He did not sin." ("What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" [Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990], audiotape #02-0017, side 2.)
§ Kenneth Copeland
"I can't understand Christians that refuse to believe that Jesus went to hell. I want to tell you something if he didn't go, you're going to have to." (The Christian Channel Europe "Believer's Voice of Victory" [May 1998)
§ Charles Capps
"When Jesus was in the pit of hell. in that terrible torment, no doubt the Devil and his emissaries gathered around to see the annihilation of God's Son. But in the corridors of hell, there came a great voice from heaven: 'Turn Him Loose! He's there illegally!' And all of hell became paralyzed." (Authority in Three Worlds, 143, emphasis in original.)
VII. Other Heretical Doctrines About Jesus Christ
Kenneth Copeland (through whom Jesus allegedly delivered the following prophecy) : "They crucified Me [Jesus] for claiming that I was God. But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him [the Father] and that He was in Me." ("Take Time to Pray," Believer's Voice of Victory 15, 2 [February 1987]:9.)
E.W. Kenyon : "Jesus was conceived without sin. His body was not mortal. His body did not become mortal until the Father laid our sin nature upon Him when He hung on the cross. The moment that He became sin, His body became mortal, only then could He die. When this happened. spiritual death, the nature of Satan, took possession of His Spirit....He was to partake of Spiritual Death, the nature of the Adversary. . . .Jesus knew that the moment had come, and He was to he made Sin. He must partake of that dread nature of the Adversary. His body would become mortal. Satan would become His master. . . . He [Jesus] had been lifted up as a serpent. Serpent is Satan. Jesus knew He was going to be lifted up, united with the Adversary." (What Happened from the Cross to the Throne [Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1969], 20, 33, 44-45.)
Joyce Meyer
“And you’ve got to really glean some things out of the Word of God to really get hold of what He [Jesus] did for you during those three days. Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ And He meant the Old Covenant. The job He had to do was just getting started. He really did the job the three days and nights that He was in hell. That’s where the job was done.” (Joyce Meyer, “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?” audio)
“He was pronounced guilty on the cross but He paid the price in hell.” (Joyce Meyer, “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?” audio)
“There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell” (Joyce Meyer, "The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make", 1991 pg. 36)
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Is Taxes Lawful?
Taxes- Are they Christian?
Tax day is here and for many of faith we are like so many others required to fund the civil government with the sweat of our brow. While my political opinion is that taxes on labor is unconstitutional and unethical; as a Christian I know I have a commandment from my Lord to be civilly obedient as long as it does not violate the Word of God. So what is the Word of God on Taxes? If we remember, the Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up with this very question. Jesus’ answer is priceless. “Who’s picture is on the coin“, he asked? So then he said, give to Cesar what is Cesar’s and what is God’s to God. So what do we owe Cesar? Paul expounds on this in Romans 13. In this chapter he explains the civil government is a tool of God to maintain order and that we are to obey and honor them. And that includes taxes. In verse six it says, “because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting them to this very thing” What is “this” in that verse? It is the fact we are to obey the civil magistrate as long as they do not violate God’s law. So sad to say we have to pay taxes no matter how unconstitutional they are. Remember the magistrate does not yield the sword in vain (Romans 13:4). Break the law (even though there is no law to pay Federal income taxes) you should be prepared to pay the consequences. So, as verse five says “Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath (the sword), but also for conscience sake.” So be a good Christian and pay your taxes, God loves a cheerful giver and so does George W.
Tax day is here and for many of faith we are like so many others required to fund the civil government with the sweat of our brow. While my political opinion is that taxes on labor is unconstitutional and unethical; as a Christian I know I have a commandment from my Lord to be civilly obedient as long as it does not violate the Word of God. So what is the Word of God on Taxes? If we remember, the Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up with this very question. Jesus’ answer is priceless. “Who’s picture is on the coin“, he asked? So then he said, give to Cesar what is Cesar’s and what is God’s to God. So what do we owe Cesar? Paul expounds on this in Romans 13. In this chapter he explains the civil government is a tool of God to maintain order and that we are to obey and honor them. And that includes taxes. In verse six it says, “because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting them to this very thing” What is “this” in that verse? It is the fact we are to obey the civil magistrate as long as they do not violate God’s law. So sad to say we have to pay taxes no matter how unconstitutional they are. Remember the magistrate does not yield the sword in vain (Romans 13:4). Break the law (even though there is no law to pay Federal income taxes) you should be prepared to pay the consequences. So, as verse five says “Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath (the sword), but also for conscience sake.” So be a good Christian and pay your taxes, God loves a cheerful giver and so does George W.
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