Tallen
9th August 2009, 07:09 PM
The Prosperity Message of Kenneth Copeland: Examined
By: Ted A. Clore
Part II
Prospering God’s Way
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3Jo 1:2-4 KJV)
Mr. Copeland continues his technique of redefining and looking for his theology with his third “proof scripture”. He continues to build on the same faulty foundation with the same building material he started with. That is, he is building from his presuppositions and Eclectic Theology.
He continues:
“As you read our basic scripture text, remember Jesus said in John 17:17, “Thy word is truth.” For a clearer meaning substitute the Word for truth as follows: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth [the Word] that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth [the Word]. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth [the Word]” (3 John 2-4).”
With two faulty views, 1) that we can build our own faith by “believing and acting” upon the word of God, and 2) that we can swap words as we decree from a theology, Copeland can now proceed to the finished view of the foundation and read those principles into the scripture.
Mr. Copeland now gives a third scripture that states that the Apostle John wishes that this beloved believer would prosper and be in health, even as his soul was prospering. What does this mean?
I have already shown that the gospel of peace and reconciliation is the foundation for all of what God is building in the believer, that is, all that is needed for “faith”. Both the Apostle Paul and John, when they were referring to the gospel truth, were referring to the already received message that the believer has. It is a message that brought the believer fruit, and bore in him something that God intended, not something the person would create by his own actions. The result of God is light and life, and is only wrought in the believer through the Spirit of God and the gospel message, 2 Tim 1:9-10. A person prospers in the Kingdom of God through the gospel message that Jesus Christ has wrought healing and benefited the believer at His cross and with His shed blood. It is the message that proclaims that this reconciliation and restoration of fellowship has occurred at the cross that the Apostles were claiming as the message of God, Col 1:20. It was the message that the believer was prospering, not with earthly wealth and health necessarily, but with the prosperity of the kingdom of God and the health of a restored relationship with the Father. Consider:
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1Co 1:17-18 KJV)
The Apostles words were carefully penned; the gospel is to the believer the power of God. Now let me ask you, what is the power of God to the saved? If you have answered something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have missed my point. Consider again:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16 KJV)
Again the Apostle tells us that the power of God to the believer is the Gospel message of Christ. Now once again I am compelled to ask, what is the power of God to the saved?
Also, let’s not make the same mistake that Mr. Copeland has made. That is, let’s not assume we can read our theology into the scriptures and think we have set a foundation for what we believe, but let us instead let the scripture make it perfectly clear, and then believe according to it. The Apostles have made it perfectly clear on numerous occasions that the gospel message is both the source of our faith and the power of God. Can you imagine that, we already have received that which is needed in building our faith and establishing us in the kingdom of God, and it was received when we believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and His shed blood upon the cross? That was where we were reconciled to God, and through that message of healing and good tidings we as believers can have full confidence that we are justified in God’s eyes. We can come to God, through that effort of Christ and God accepts us for what we are in Christ.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1Jo 2:1-2 KJV)
That is the Gospel message that we have received. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and that He advocates our innocence before the Father. Our faith rests in the gospel of Christ. That is why the Apostle declares to us that we should not rest in the wisdom of men. Wisdom that has no hesitancy to change the word of God on a whim or wisdom that reads its philosophies and traditions into the scriptures is not a place of rest. But wisdom that is found in a unique message that every believer has already encountered and believed, that is the gospel of peace and good news of Jesus Christ becomes our confidence and assurance in the kingdom of God.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (1Co 2:5 KJV)
The power of God to the saved is the Gospel message, and if I ask you what is the power of God to the saved, you should declare it is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. It is there that we realize our reconciliation with the Father through Him. And scripture explicitly states that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What is the power of God? It is the gospel message of peace. That is where our faith rests, that is the source of our faith and that is where the prosperity and health of the believer is found. It is a message that confuses all worldly thinking and those that approach the scripture with human philosophies and human born effort. And it is this fact that Mr. Copeland has missed with his philosophy and presumptions. That is, he believes that man can create faith by “believing and acting”. But the Apostles teach us that we cannot create faith from our side, it is something that is born as fruit in the heart of those that have comprehended the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Mr. Copeland continues, that he is free to substitute words because he has established upon his philosophy and tradition that “truth” and “word” are synonymous terms. And so he asserts his belief into the scripture.
“For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth [the Word] that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth [the Word]. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth [the Word]”
Now, remember he has stated that the believer can create faith. It comes down to a responsibility of the believer; “When we see it in the Word, believe it, and begin to act on it, faith is created.” This is not what scripture tells us though, and honestly this is a contrivance to assert a doctrine in a most deceptive manner. Nothing more than what was attempted in the beginning when the serpent beguiled the woman and man fell into his trespass and sin. That is, man thinks he can do what is reserved for God, and assumes the role of the Creator. He says to himself, I want to be like God and partake of the things that are reserved for Him alone. And so he creates a doctrine of justifying his rebellion and contrary thinking to the purpose of God. Reading the word of God in a manner never meant, and for his own purposes. Man continuously returns to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, hoping to find in his own reasoning justification for his actions and empowerment from his own ability.
Mr. Copeland continues in this same thinking. Trying to attribute to man what is reserved for God alone. That man is trying to create his faith from his own inventions rather than letting it be a fruit that is produced from the union and fellowship of God and man. And as Mr. Copeland has no ill feelings about changing the word of God to fit his theology and purpose, so man had no problem in the garden to change the word for his own purpose either. He has listened to the serpent and allowed him to define the word of God. Not as God has said, but as he has said in his own heart and in so doing has bought into the evil that is created with it.
The Eclectic Theology has now enabled Mr. Copeland’s mind to justify 1) the belief that we create our own faith, and 2) change the word of God for his own purpose, and now 3) read the changed word of God as though it was stated by God. This is done in the manner he wishes it, and this he claims is “putting the word of God first and foremost” in the study of his doctrine. Actually what he has done is listen to the subtle lie that changes the word of God and the voice that whispers to the human heart, “hath God said”? (Gen 3:1)
The Apostle when he was talking to the “wellbeloved Gaius” in 3 John was not equating the word and truth as a synonymous idea. But he was writing through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and relaying to him what God had spoken. This was a consistent message from the beginning. A message the Apostle had heard from the Lord’s lips, and a message of the gospel of peace. Gaius’ soul prospered because he had the gospel already in his heart, and the Apostle was greeting him in this epistle, not to wish that he would gain health and wealth from the world, but that he wished he would prosper like he knew his soul had prospered from the message of Christ. And how was his soul prospering? It was prospering because Gaius was walking in truth, truth that existed within the heart of Gaius, already. And this is the message of God to him and us, there is no greater joy to God than the believer walking in the truth, and the truth is the gospel message of Jesus Christ. When we walk recognizing that the power of God is already in our heart and mouth, and that we can rest in the assurance that man and God are reconciled through Jesus Christ, we are prospering as our soul prospers. The Apostle was not establishing a principle that temporal health and wealth was something he wished upon the believer, but instead he was wishing that he were prospering in truth. Truth being the health and wealth of the believer in Christ, a purchased gifted that can’t be measured in temporal wealth and health, but is given to the him in the gospel.
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3Jo 1:1-4 KJV)
Man doesn’t create faith for the kingdom of God. That is something provided by God’s grace found in the gospel message when it is comprehended. Man doesn’t have the ability to act and find that he is strengthening himself with faith in a spiritual kingdom, (John 18:36). That is something provided by Spirit of God and through grace found in the gospel message. Man doesn’t have the ability to act and find him strengthening himself in a spiritual kingdom by what he does in this temporal one. The two ideas are mutually exclusive.
Mr. Copeland has at the outset of this teaching started off on the wrong foot, with the wrong understanding and with an agenda to support a heterodox theology. He has at the outset done exactly what he didn’t want to do, that is he forgot that he was going to put the word of God foremost in his study. Instead he has taken liberty with the scripture and put his theology foremost and then looked for a way that he could then support it. It is a subtle but dangerous technique that is being shown in this book. But it is something that is consistent within the Word-Faith adherents and apologist. That is that in an effort to prove the Eclectic Theology there are logical mistakes and flaws in its apologetic.
If the foundation of this teaching is done is such a sloppy manner, and the foremost scriptures in the teaching are misapplied, and there are logical fallacies that are used to build it upon within the first few words, how can we trust it at all? How can one trust something that is built upon sand and with materials of such poor design? I will propose we can not take this teaching with anything other than distrust and the realization that well meaning men can be deceived and lead many into error and deceit. The Prosperity Doctrine of the Word-Faith movement, a defining doctrine of this sect, is shown defective and aberrant. Something every believing Christian should avoid, keeping the Gospel message of Jesus Christ first and foremost in our preaching and teaching. Never taking away from that message and realizing that all is built upon one sure foundation:
That God sent his Son, who shed His blood upon a cross, to bring to His people the promise and assurance of their God that they stand before Him being justified through His blood and broken body. This is the faith that every Christian believer has in common, and it is the source of all the health and wealth in the kingdom of God.
By: Ted A. Clore
Part II
Prospering God’s Way
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3Jo 1:2-4 KJV)
Mr. Copeland continues his technique of redefining and looking for his theology with his third “proof scripture”. He continues to build on the same faulty foundation with the same building material he started with. That is, he is building from his presuppositions and Eclectic Theology.
He continues:
“As you read our basic scripture text, remember Jesus said in John 17:17, “Thy word is truth.” For a clearer meaning substitute the Word for truth as follows: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth [the Word] that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth [the Word]. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth [the Word]” (3 John 2-4).”
With two faulty views, 1) that we can build our own faith by “believing and acting” upon the word of God, and 2) that we can swap words as we decree from a theology, Copeland can now proceed to the finished view of the foundation and read those principles into the scripture.
Mr. Copeland now gives a third scripture that states that the Apostle John wishes that this beloved believer would prosper and be in health, even as his soul was prospering. What does this mean?
I have already shown that the gospel of peace and reconciliation is the foundation for all of what God is building in the believer, that is, all that is needed for “faith”. Both the Apostle Paul and John, when they were referring to the gospel truth, were referring to the already received message that the believer has. It is a message that brought the believer fruit, and bore in him something that God intended, not something the person would create by his own actions. The result of God is light and life, and is only wrought in the believer through the Spirit of God and the gospel message, 2 Tim 1:9-10. A person prospers in the Kingdom of God through the gospel message that Jesus Christ has wrought healing and benefited the believer at His cross and with His shed blood. It is the message that proclaims that this reconciliation and restoration of fellowship has occurred at the cross that the Apostles were claiming as the message of God, Col 1:20. It was the message that the believer was prospering, not with earthly wealth and health necessarily, but with the prosperity of the kingdom of God and the health of a restored relationship with the Father. Consider:
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1Co 1:17-18 KJV)
The Apostles words were carefully penned; the gospel is to the believer the power of God. Now let me ask you, what is the power of God to the saved? If you have answered something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have missed my point. Consider again:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16 KJV)
Again the Apostle tells us that the power of God to the believer is the Gospel message of Christ. Now once again I am compelled to ask, what is the power of God to the saved?
Also, let’s not make the same mistake that Mr. Copeland has made. That is, let’s not assume we can read our theology into the scriptures and think we have set a foundation for what we believe, but let us instead let the scripture make it perfectly clear, and then believe according to it. The Apostles have made it perfectly clear on numerous occasions that the gospel message is both the source of our faith and the power of God. Can you imagine that, we already have received that which is needed in building our faith and establishing us in the kingdom of God, and it was received when we believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and His shed blood upon the cross? That was where we were reconciled to God, and through that message of healing and good tidings we as believers can have full confidence that we are justified in God’s eyes. We can come to God, through that effort of Christ and God accepts us for what we are in Christ.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1Jo 2:1-2 KJV)
That is the Gospel message that we have received. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and that He advocates our innocence before the Father. Our faith rests in the gospel of Christ. That is why the Apostle declares to us that we should not rest in the wisdom of men. Wisdom that has no hesitancy to change the word of God on a whim or wisdom that reads its philosophies and traditions into the scriptures is not a place of rest. But wisdom that is found in a unique message that every believer has already encountered and believed, that is the gospel of peace and good news of Jesus Christ becomes our confidence and assurance in the kingdom of God.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (1Co 2:5 KJV)
The power of God to the saved is the Gospel message, and if I ask you what is the power of God to the saved, you should declare it is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. It is there that we realize our reconciliation with the Father through Him. And scripture explicitly states that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What is the power of God? It is the gospel message of peace. That is where our faith rests, that is the source of our faith and that is where the prosperity and health of the believer is found. It is a message that confuses all worldly thinking and those that approach the scripture with human philosophies and human born effort. And it is this fact that Mr. Copeland has missed with his philosophy and presumptions. That is, he believes that man can create faith by “believing and acting”. But the Apostles teach us that we cannot create faith from our side, it is something that is born as fruit in the heart of those that have comprehended the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Mr. Copeland continues, that he is free to substitute words because he has established upon his philosophy and tradition that “truth” and “word” are synonymous terms. And so he asserts his belief into the scripture.
“For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth [the Word] that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth [the Word]. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth [the Word]”
Now, remember he has stated that the believer can create faith. It comes down to a responsibility of the believer; “When we see it in the Word, believe it, and begin to act on it, faith is created.” This is not what scripture tells us though, and honestly this is a contrivance to assert a doctrine in a most deceptive manner. Nothing more than what was attempted in the beginning when the serpent beguiled the woman and man fell into his trespass and sin. That is, man thinks he can do what is reserved for God, and assumes the role of the Creator. He says to himself, I want to be like God and partake of the things that are reserved for Him alone. And so he creates a doctrine of justifying his rebellion and contrary thinking to the purpose of God. Reading the word of God in a manner never meant, and for his own purposes. Man continuously returns to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, hoping to find in his own reasoning justification for his actions and empowerment from his own ability.
Mr. Copeland continues in this same thinking. Trying to attribute to man what is reserved for God alone. That man is trying to create his faith from his own inventions rather than letting it be a fruit that is produced from the union and fellowship of God and man. And as Mr. Copeland has no ill feelings about changing the word of God to fit his theology and purpose, so man had no problem in the garden to change the word for his own purpose either. He has listened to the serpent and allowed him to define the word of God. Not as God has said, but as he has said in his own heart and in so doing has bought into the evil that is created with it.
The Eclectic Theology has now enabled Mr. Copeland’s mind to justify 1) the belief that we create our own faith, and 2) change the word of God for his own purpose, and now 3) read the changed word of God as though it was stated by God. This is done in the manner he wishes it, and this he claims is “putting the word of God first and foremost” in the study of his doctrine. Actually what he has done is listen to the subtle lie that changes the word of God and the voice that whispers to the human heart, “hath God said”? (Gen 3:1)
The Apostle when he was talking to the “wellbeloved Gaius” in 3 John was not equating the word and truth as a synonymous idea. But he was writing through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and relaying to him what God had spoken. This was a consistent message from the beginning. A message the Apostle had heard from the Lord’s lips, and a message of the gospel of peace. Gaius’ soul prospered because he had the gospel already in his heart, and the Apostle was greeting him in this epistle, not to wish that he would gain health and wealth from the world, but that he wished he would prosper like he knew his soul had prospered from the message of Christ. And how was his soul prospering? It was prospering because Gaius was walking in truth, truth that existed within the heart of Gaius, already. And this is the message of God to him and us, there is no greater joy to God than the believer walking in the truth, and the truth is the gospel message of Jesus Christ. When we walk recognizing that the power of God is already in our heart and mouth, and that we can rest in the assurance that man and God are reconciled through Jesus Christ, we are prospering as our soul prospers. The Apostle was not establishing a principle that temporal health and wealth was something he wished upon the believer, but instead he was wishing that he were prospering in truth. Truth being the health and wealth of the believer in Christ, a purchased gifted that can’t be measured in temporal wealth and health, but is given to the him in the gospel.
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3Jo 1:1-4 KJV)
Man doesn’t create faith for the kingdom of God. That is something provided by God’s grace found in the gospel message when it is comprehended. Man doesn’t have the ability to act and find that he is strengthening himself with faith in a spiritual kingdom, (John 18:36). That is something provided by Spirit of God and through grace found in the gospel message. Man doesn’t have the ability to act and find him strengthening himself in a spiritual kingdom by what he does in this temporal one. The two ideas are mutually exclusive.
Mr. Copeland has at the outset of this teaching started off on the wrong foot, with the wrong understanding and with an agenda to support a heterodox theology. He has at the outset done exactly what he didn’t want to do, that is he forgot that he was going to put the word of God foremost in his study. Instead he has taken liberty with the scripture and put his theology foremost and then looked for a way that he could then support it. It is a subtle but dangerous technique that is being shown in this book. But it is something that is consistent within the Word-Faith adherents and apologist. That is that in an effort to prove the Eclectic Theology there are logical mistakes and flaws in its apologetic.
If the foundation of this teaching is done is such a sloppy manner, and the foremost scriptures in the teaching are misapplied, and there are logical fallacies that are used to build it upon within the first few words, how can we trust it at all? How can one trust something that is built upon sand and with materials of such poor design? I will propose we can not take this teaching with anything other than distrust and the realization that well meaning men can be deceived and lead many into error and deceit. The Prosperity Doctrine of the Word-Faith movement, a defining doctrine of this sect, is shown defective and aberrant. Something every believing Christian should avoid, keeping the Gospel message of Jesus Christ first and foremost in our preaching and teaching. Never taking away from that message and realizing that all is built upon one sure foundation:
That God sent his Son, who shed His blood upon a cross, to bring to His people the promise and assurance of their God that they stand before Him being justified through His blood and broken body. This is the faith that every Christian believer has in common, and it is the source of all the health and wealth in the kingdom of God.