by Clete Hux
Long before the temptation in the garden, Lucifer desired to be like God. Really he wanted to take God’s place. Scripture records him wanting to ascend into the heavens to be like the most high God (Isa. 14:13-14). We know the story and the pride manifested by Satan. Even after having been humbled and kicked out of heaven, he did not lose his desire to be God. When he fell, he still maintained his pride. Not having accomplished his objective, he then entered the garden of Eden to pawn this same desire off on the human race. After questioning both God’s authority and benevolent loving care for Adam and Eve, he tells the woman that, if she eats the forbidden fruit, her eyes will be opened and she will be like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5).
Ever since that day, human beings have been on the supreme ego trip, believing to various degrees the lie that man is God or can be God. Mankind has sought to usurp God’s sovereignty and elevate himself to a position that Scripture nowhere justifies. We see this travesty in many false religions and cults. For example, the Mormon Church teaches that God is a man and that human beings can become gods. And the New Ager says, “We are all God or part of God.” Christians are rightly appalled when they hear such things.
Yet, when some of today’s televangelists openly promote very similar teachings, somehow, in most Christian minds, it is just not as serious a problem. As a matter of fact, it is often condoned. Such is the case with regard to many of the teachers of the Word-Faith movement who are often seen on the Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) and other religious stations. On the surface, Word-Faith teachers are heard proclaiming what sounds like orthodox teachings. However, when careful examination is given to their views of theology and anthropology, it is not hard to discover serious distortions of truth. There are many aspects of the Word-Faith movement which are covered in other articles in this issue and many more that could be covered, but in this article I will examine the Word-Faith views on God and Man.
The “God” of the Word-Faith Movement
One of the most fundamental and basic points at which Word-Faith doctrine departs from orthodoxy is in their view of God. In what follows, I will outline the major beliefs of the Word-Faith teachers about God.
First, they believe that God is only one among many gods. Christianity is in the family of religions which adhere to monotheism—the belief that there is only one God. Both Islam and Judaism are also in the monotheistic family. Though espousing monotheistic views on the surface, many in the Word Faith camp teach varying forms of polytheism (the belief in more than one God).
Kenneth Copeland is the most popular of the Word-Faith teachers. About fifteen years ago, Copeland gave a prophecy in which he stated that Jesus didn’t claim to be God. In Copeland’s words, the Lord said,
Don’t be disturbed when people accuse you of thinking you’re God. . . .They crucified me for claiming that I was God. But I didn’t claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in Me. Hallelujah. That’s what you’re doing.1
A little later Copeland was asked if this meant that he questioned the deity of Jesus. Copeland’s response sounded orthodox: “Absolutely not! The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is something that can never be brought into question by any born-again believer.” 2 However, Copeland proceeded in his explanation to misinterpret the kenosis passage in Philippians 2:5-7 by saying that Jesus lived his life here not as God but as a man.3 Most significantly, however, our Lord supposedly told Copeland that he (Copeland) was God, suggesting that there is more than one god (polytheism).
Benny Hinn taught his Orlando Christian Center congregation a form polytheism known as tritheism when he said:
. . .God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person; and he is a triune being by Himself separate from the Son and the Holy Ghost. . . .God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the Holy Ghost is a person. But each one of them is a triune being by Himself. If I can shock you—and maybe I should—there’s nine of them. . . .God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person with his own personal spirit, with his own personal soul, and his own personal spirit-body.4
So, in at least two ways, Word-Faith teachers espouse polytheism. First, by corrupting the doctrine of the Trinity so that the Godhead itself contains multiple gods. Second, by teaching that human beings are or can be divine. I will say more about this second point later.
Second, the Word-Faith teachers claim that God is a “faith” God. For example, Kenneth Copeland teaches that God created all things including the universe, out of a spiritual substance known as “faith. In a sermon, Copeland says, “Faith is real, is a power, is a force! It’s used by God at His will. This world and everything in it was created by Him and He used His faith to do it. Now you couldn’t really and truly say that He created it out of nothing because faith is something. The whole thing was born out of the force of faith that was resident inside the being of God.”5 For the Word-Faith Movement, faith is not a spiritual attitude of trust in God, but is a tangible substance. We learn this from the quote just given. We also learn that Copeland denies the doctrine of creation out of nothing. He also undermines God’s independence because, on this view, God is dependent on faith in order to create. Copeland is not alone in these views. They are shared by many Word-Faith teachers, including Charles Capps and Jerry Savelle.6
They appeal to Scripture texts such as Mark 11:22 and Hebrews 11:1 to justify this view. In the former text, Jesus said, “Have faith in God,” but the Word-Faith teachers translate Jesus’ words as “have the faith of God.” However, renowned Greek scholar A.T. Robertson very adequately shows that the phrase is not to be translated in the subjective genitive (meaning that the noun is the subject of the action—or that God is the subject of faith) such as “have the faith of God,” but is to be translated in the objective genitive (meaning that the noun is the object of the action—that God is the object of faith. He goes on to show that translating this text in the subjective genitive is preposterous. He says, “it is not the faith that God has, but the faith of which God is the object.”7
In Hebrews 11:1, the author tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV). The Word-Faith proponents point to the word “substance” in the KJV translation and say, “See here? Faith is a substance.” It is true that the Greek word here (hypostasis) can be translated “substance.” But it can also mean, depending on the context, “assurance,” or “confidence.” Now, the second clause of this verse says, “being certain of what we do not see.” This phrase parallels the phrase in question and helps us understand what it means. What does it mean that faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for? It is being certain of what we don’t see. Faith is not a substance or a force, it is an inward attitude of trust or confidence in the promises of God.
Third, the movement’s God is a failing God. According to them, God originally gave Adam authority over the earth. However, Adam bowed his knee to Satan, thus giving the devil ownership of God’s handiwork. This “transfer of property rights,” left God on the outside of creation, looking helplessly at the results of Adam’s treason.8 Copeland explains, “I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is. . . .The biggest one 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. . .that’s a lot of real estate.”9
E. W. Kenyon, who is revered by all the faith teachers as being the Founding Father of the Faith teaching, originally elaborated on the legalities of Adam’s authority:
Adam evidently had a legal right to transfer this dominion and authority into the hands of the enemy. God has been obliged through the long period of human history to recognize Satan’s legal standing, and legal right and authority, and on this ground, and this only, can we understand the legal side of the Plan of Redemption…Adam had legally transferred to him [Satan] the Authority with which God had invested him.10
Fourth, God is a less than sovereign God. God’s apparent failure raises the question of how God will somehow regain control of the situation. Evidently, according to some of the faith teachers, God has to have some help. He had to have a covenant in order to get back into the earth. However, it is to be noted that the covenant these teachers are talking about is a distortion of the Abrahamic Covenant. According to them, through this covenant, and only through this covenant, could God once again move in the earth. Charles Capps says God needed legal entry through man.11 Copeland says, “God had no avenue of lasting faith or moving in the earth. He had to have covenant with somebody…He had to be invited in, in other words, or He couldn’t come. . .”12 Frederick K. C. Price is even more blatant with his explanation:
Adam, as I said, gave it [the earth] away to the serpent, to the Devil. As a result of it, he got his behind kicked out of the garden. He went out of Eden, out of the garden. He began to wander around, and he has troubles from day one. Now God was out of the business. God was out of the earth realm. God had no more stock in this earth realm. No more. None at all. Nothing He could do. Not a thing in the world He could do…The only way God could get back into this earth realm, He had to have an invitation. Ha-hah! He had to have an invitation. And so, God looked around—saw different men. . .saw a man named Abraham.13
This distortion of the Abrahamic Covenant tells us clearly that the Word-Faith God is not sovereign over creation. When the faith teachers require God to have legal entry into His own creation or make Him into the biggest failure in real estate history, it is obvious that God is not in control. Price turns God’s sovereignty over to man when he says, “God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man. . . .Yes! You are in control! So, if man has control, who no longer has it? God.”14
Fifth, their God is a planetary God. Kenneth Hagin has explicitly taught that God has a physical body. He says, “Even though God is a Spirit, we know that He has a face and hands, a form of some kind. He is no less real because He is a Spirit than He would be if He had a physical body.”15 Kenneth Copeland appears to embellish this by giving God a planet to live on: “Heaven has a north and a south and an east and a west. Consequently, it must be a planet.”16 Obviously, if God has a body he needs somewhere to reside. Copeland elaborates further:
You don’t think earth was first, do you? Huh? Well, you don’t think God made man in His image, and then made earth in some other image? There is not anything under this whole sun that’s new. Are you hearing what I’m saying? This is all a copy. It’s a copy of home. It’s a copy of the Mother Planet. Where God lives, He made a little one just like His and put us on it.”17
One might ask, ‘what does God actually look like on this planet?’ Copeland says, “God is. . .a being that stands somewhere around 6’2” or 6’3”, that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred pounds, little better, and has a span of nine inches across.”18 Morris Cerullo, in an alleged out-of-body experience, describes God this way: “Suddenly, in front of this tremendous multitude of people, the glory of God appeared. This form that I saw was about the height of a man 6 feet tall, maybe taller, and twice as broad as a human body, with no distinguishing features such as eyes, nose, or mouth.”19
However, the Word-Faith teachers are mistaken. God says in Isaiah very plainly that he cannot be compared to anything else, including man. And Jesus is emphatic in John 4:24 that “God is a spirit.” We are also told, contrary to Cerullo, that “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). One thing is clear. The Word-Faith “God” is not the God of the Bible.
The “gods” of the Word-Faith Movement
It is expected that one’s view of God will affect one’s view of man. As far as the Word-Faith teachers are concerned, it appears that they not only have lowered God to the level of man, but have raised man to the level of God. Many of their defective views concerning God parallel their view of man.
First, man is a “faith being.” Since God is a “faith being,” and man is made in the image of God, man is a “faith being” also. This means that human beings have the capacity to use words of faith to manipulate the force of faith just like God can. Human beings can thereby create whatever they desire. Charles Capps, for example, claims that God said to him, “If men would believe me, long prayers are not necessary. Just speaking the Word will bring what you desire. My creative power is given to man in Word form.”20
Second, human beings were originally created as gods. Mormonism teaches that human beings can achieve godhood,21 but Word-Faith teaches that we are already gods. Creflo Dollar, a disciple of Copeland, interprets Philippians 2:5-6 as teaching that Christians are “equal to God.”22 And Kenneth Hagin has asserted that
“Man. .was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority. . . .God has made us as much like Himself as possible. . . .He made us the same class of being that He is Himself. . . .Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms equal with God. . .”23
Like Mormons, the Word-Faith teachers say that our equality with God began with Adam. Mormons advocate what they call the Adam – God doctrine. Brigham Young, second leader of the Mormon Church taught that “Adam. . .is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.”24 In a similar vein, Copeland explains that “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. . . .I want you to know something, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh!”25 Comparing God’s body with Adam’s, he says, “Adam’s body and God’s were exactly the same size.”26 Further Charles Capps has taught that the word “likeness” in the original Hebrew means “an exact duplication in kind…Adam was an exact duplication of God’s kind!”27
Benny Hinn has taught even stranger things about Adam. On a TBN telecast he taught that Adam was the first superman, able to fly like the birds, swim like the fish. Hinn explained that Adam, having dominion over his subjects, was able to do whatever his subjects did, otherwise Adam didn’t have dominion, because the Hebrew meaning of dominion meant just that.28 He has also taught the bizarre doctrine that “God’s original plan is that the woman was to bring forth children out of her side.”29 Copeland, not to be outdone, says, “Adam was made in the image of God. He was as much female as he was male. He was exactly like God. Then God separated him and removed the female part. Woman means ‘man with the womb.’ Eve had as much authority as Adam did as long as they stayed together.”30
Third, man is a covenant god. As mentioned earlier, Hagan has said that “man was created equal with God, without any conscious inferiority.” Copeland also taught that Adam was not even subordinate to God. As previously stated, they teach that, because of Adam’s treason, God was on the outside looking in at his creation and had to have an ivitation back in. According to Hinn, God told Abram that God “could not touch this earth till a man gave it back to Him.”31Copeland says that God told Abraham, “I’m making a proposition to you. You can tell me to buzz off if you don’t like it.”32
The faith teachers claim, therefore, that the Abrahamic Covenant is the basis for our commanding God to do His part in the Covenant. Robert Tilton taught, “We make our own promises to do our part, then we can tell God, on the authority of His Word, what we would like Him to do. That’s right, you can actually tell God what you would like His part in the Covenant to be.”33 Copeland says, “As a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus. Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent, because it is His Word.” Copeland goes so far as to say that “God was the lesser party and Abraham was the greater” in the covenant between them.34
Fourth, believers today are little gods. Paul Crouch stated emphatically,
He [God] doesn’t even draw a distinction between Himself and us. . . .You know what else that’s settled, then, tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the Devil to try and bring dissention within the body of Christ that we are gods. I am little God!. . . .I have His name. I’m one with Him. I’m in covenant relation. I am a little god! Critics be gone!35
Kenneth Hagan declared, “You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was. Everyman who has been born again is an incarnation.”36 Earl Paulk of the Harvester Church in Atlanta explains it this way: “Adam and Eve were placed in the world as the seed and expression of God. Just as dogs have puppies and cats have kittens, so God has little gods; we have trouble comprehending this truth. Until we comprehend that we are little gods, we cannot manifest the kingdom of God.”37
Copeland announced, “I say this with all respect, so that it doesn’t upset you too bad, but I say it anyway—when I read in the Bible where He says, I AM, I say, Yes, I am too!”38 Of course, such a blasphemous statement contradicts the Bible. What Copeland has done is take one of the names for God (“I Am”) and apply it to himself as Jesus did (cf. John 8:58).
Creflo Dollar has adamantly taught the “little gods” doctrine more than any in the Faith movement. He has said,
What do you think’s gonna happen when all this is over with? The Father’s gonna take you and all those unfinished planets out there—Hallelujah! [He starts speaking in tongues] Since you’re learning how to operate in this earth…what do you think’ gonna happen when God Almighty declares, “I want you to create a universe. I want you to speak to these world and like I said, ‘light be,’ you say, ‘light be,’ Like I say, ‘Let here be a firmament in the midst, you do the same. You are my sons and daughters, bless God!’”39
Dollar comes close to Mormonism with these words. Mormonism teaches that if one progresses far enough in the “Law of Eternal Progression,” he or she becomes a god or goddess and will be given his own planet to populate.40
The faith camp bases the “little gods” teaching, by and large, on John 10:34 and Psalm 82:6. In John 10:34, Jesus is speaking to Jews who were upset over His claim of equality with God. Jesus responded by referring them to Psalm 82:6, saying, “Is it not written in your own law, ‘I have said you are gods?’” Why would Jesus answer them this way? The Word-Faith teachers, again similar to Mormonism, assert that Jesus is affirming the little gods doctrine.
By looking at the contexts of Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34, however, we can see that Jesus is doing nothing of the sort. In Psalm 82, God addresses the Israelite civil magistrates or judges. He refers to them as “gods” (Heb. elohim) because they had been appointed to fulfill the “god-like” role of administering justice, deliberating issues of life and death. In this sense, their responsibilities were “God-like.” These judges were not called gods because they possessed deity, but because of their role.
When Jesus reasons with the Jews in John 10, He was basically saying, “If human judges, because of their role and work, can be called ‘gods’ (though they aren’t gods by nature),then, I—the Son of God—can be called God even more so.” What the judges in Psalm 82 were by role, Jesus was by nature.
By nature, these judges were men, as indicated in Psalm 82:7,where it says that they “will die like men.” It is a contradiction in terms to be a god and die like a man. When Jesus called himself the Son of God, on the other hand, he was referring to His deity, not the deity of men, because men don’t have any deity to be defended.
Evaluation and Conclusion
How have the Faith teachers arrived at such preposterous teachings on theology and anthropology? For one thing, they have a disdain for formal theological training (other than Rhema). Their rejection of “traditional Christianity” is often seen in the way they preface the introduction of their theological innovations: “This is where we’re going to depart from ordinary church. . . . Don’t let your tradition trip you up.”41
Secondly, they have adopted what appears to be a gnostic worldview. It is at least a mixture of gnosticism with Christianity. As a first century heresy, Gnosticism taught that there is “secret knowledge” or “gnosis” obtainable only from an elite group of gnostic priests and which was necessary for spiritual maturity. The “elite” of the Word-Faith (Hagin, Copeland, etc.) claim to receive “revelation knowledge” (even apart from Scripture) in their “spirit-man” which they can impart to their followers.
Also like gnosticism, the faith teachers downplay the significance of the natural, physical realm. Man is seen as a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body, existing in “God’s class” and the body is seen as just the tabernacle in which the spirit man (the “real” man) resides.42 To the faith teachers it is only through the Spirit that one can receive direct communication with God, “Revelation Knowledge.” On the other hand, the soul or mind of a person is seen as bound by “Sense Knowledge,” and therefore completely incapable of understanding spiritual matters. A dualistic rivalry is set up between spirit and mind, where logic is rejected in favor of the intuitive impressions of one’s heart or spirit. Kenneth Hagen states it this way: “One almost has to bypass the brain and operate from the inner man which is our heart or spirit.”43 Hagan, as well as a host of other teachers, seem to be unappreciative of the human mind as the gift of God and a valuable tool for objective reasoning and the discerning of truth and error.
However, the Lord tells us that as Christians we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). Also, in Isaiah 1:18, God makes an appeal to man’s ability to reason when he says “Come, let us reason together. . .” So, not only are we not to reject our minds as unreliable in spiritual matters, but the Bible even sets forth our minds as playing a central role in our sanctification.
Another contributing factor in the faith teachers’ accumulation of error, is something called reciprocal teaching. In their Gnostic-like dualism, the faith camp teaches that the physical realm is just a reflection of spiritual existence.44 That everything in the spiritual realm is reflected or reciprocated in the earthly realm. This means, as we have seen, that whatever God is we are. So, since the Most High God is divine in nature, we are divine by nature—little gods. It also means that the physical laws that govern this earth are based on spiritual laws that govern the universe. Moreover, this earth is an image or smaller reflection of the planet where God lives. And if that is so, then man having a body and being made in the image of God is just a reflection of God Himself. That is the reason Copeland can localize God on a planet and say that “he is a being who stands 6’2”, 6’3”, weighing a couple of hundred pounds or little better.”
In summary, the Bible does not teach the theology and anthropology which the faith teachers espouse. At best, the faith teachers are confused about the nature of God and the nature of Man. In their desire to make man something more than Scripture warrants, they have also distorted the nature of God, making Him out to be simply a big man who is not sovereign over His creation, who did not even create ex nihilo, and who needs our permission before he can do anything in this world. There is no biblical basis for such teaching. Instead, the Bible teaches that God is spirit (John. 4:24), and that He is the unique and absolute Sovereign of the universe (1 Tim. 6:15).
And the Bible is equally clear that human beings are not “little gods.” Satan himself is the author of this doctrine (cf. Gen. 3:5). God emphatically declares in Scripture, “Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides me” (Deut. 32:39). In Isaiah 44:6, He says, “I am the First and I am the last; besides Me there is no God, ” and Isaiah 43:10 says, “Believe in Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, no shall there be after me.”
Clete Hux is the Counter-Cult Specialist for the Apologetics Resource Center.
NOTES
1 Kenneth Copeland, “Take Time to Pray,” Believer’s Voice of Victory (February, 1987).
2 Kenneth Copeland, “Question and Answer,” Believer’s Voice of Victory (August 1988).
3 Ibid.
4 Benny Hinn, sermon on TBN (Oct. 3, 1990). Even though Hinn retracted this statement when challenged, two years later he taught the same thing (See his sermon on TBN, Oct. 23, 1992). Hinn appears to have gotten this teaching from Finis Jennings Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1983). On page 55 of his notes, Dake records: “All 3 persons have their own personal body, soul, and spirit and make the Divine Trinity.”
5 Copeland, “Spirit, Soul, and Body I,” audiotape #01-0601, side 1 (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985).
6 See Charles Capps, Dynamics of Faith & Confession (Tulsa: Harrison House, 1987), 28-29; and Jerry Savelle, “Framing Your World with the Word of God – Part 2,” auditape #SS36 (Ft.Worth, TX: Jerry Savelle Evangelistic Association, n.d).
7 A.T. Robertson, A Short Grammar of Greek Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 227-228; and A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (Nashville: Broadman, 1934), 500. See also my article “How the Health and Wealth Gospel Twists Scripture” on the Watchman Fellowship website at www.watchman. org/reltop/health$.htm.
8 Copeland, “God’s Covenants with Man II,” audiotape #01-4404, side 1 (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985).
9 Copeland, TBN “Praise-a-Thon” program (April 1988).
10 E. W. Kenyon, The Father and his Family, 17th ed. (Lynwood, WA: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 1964), 38-39.
11 Charles Capps, Authority in Three Worlds (Tulsa: Harrison House), 60-61.
12 Copeland, “God’s Covenants With Man II,” audiotape #01-4404, side 1 (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985).
13 Frederick K. C. Price, “Ever Increasing Faith” audiotape #PR11 (TBN, May 1, 1992).
14 Frederick K.C. Price as quoted Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1997), 11.
15 Kenneth E. Hagan, New Thresholds of Faith (Tulsa: Kenneth Hagan Ministries, 1972), 30.
16 Kenneth Copeland, “Spirit, Soul, and Body I.”
17 Kenneth Copeland, “Following the Faith of Abraham I,” audiotape #01-3001, side 1 (Ft. Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989).
18 Copeland, “Spirit, Soul, and Body.”
19 Morris Cerullo, The Miracle Book (San Diego, CA: Cerullo World Evangelism, 1984), x-xi.
20 Charles Capps, God’s Creative Power Will Work for You (Tulsa: Harrison, 1976), 6.
21 Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 321.
22 Creflo Dollar, TBN Broadcast (Winter 2002).
23 Kenneth E. Hagan, Zoe: The God Kind of Life, (Tulsa: Kenneth Hagin Ministries), 35-36, 41.
24 Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1 (Liverpool: F.D. richards, 1855; repr., Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1967), 50.
25 Copeland, “Following the Faith of Abraham I.”
26 Holy Bible, Kenneth Copeland Reference Edition (Ft. Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1991), 45.
27 Capps, Authority in Three Worlds, 15-16.
28 Benny Hinn, “Praise the Lord” program on TBN (Dec. 12, 1991).
29 Benny Hinn, “Our Position in Christ #5—An Heir of God,” audiotape #A031190-5, side 2 (Orlando, FL: Orlando Christian Center, 1990).
30 Kenneth Copeland, Sensitivity of the Heart (Ft. Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1984), 23.
31 Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, 212.
32 Ibid.
33 Robert Tilton, God’s Miracle Plan for Man (Dallas, TX: Robert Tilton Ministries, 1987), 36.
34 Kenneth Copeland, “Legal and Vital Aspects of Redemption,” audiotape #01-0403 (Ft. Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1985).
35 Paul Crouch, “Praise the Lord” program on TBN (July 7, 1986).
36 Kenneth E. Hagan, “The Incarnation,” The Word of Faith 13:12 (Dec. 1980): 14.
37 Earl Paulk, Satan Unmasked (Atlanta: K. Dincesisen, 1984), 96.
38 Kenneth Copeland as quoted on “Word-Faith: The Cancer Within,” video (Adonai Productions, 1991).
39 Creflo Dollar, TBN broadcast (Spring 2002).
40 Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. II (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1955), 48.