Today we will observe a major theological error at the root of many Prosperity teachers’ heresies. As we’ve noted along the way, their emphasis on health and wealth is but the tip of the iceberg in their heretical teaching. The more brazen charlatans in this movement move beyond the surface issues of merely saying believers are entitled to wealth, and they supply an underlying framework for their claims. This framework is clearly a complete mischaracterization of the nature of God, man, and the Gospel.
Let me begin by giving you the crux of their argument. Prosperity (or Word-Faith) teachers hold to what is called: “Little god theology” – The basic premise is that we are basically of the same nature as God Himself. Let me provide you with a few quotes, so you can see where they take this teaching:
Kenneth Hagin says – “Man…was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority…. He made us the same class of being that He is Himself…. He lived on terms equal with God…. The believer is called Christ, that’s who we are; we’re Christ.”
Kenneth Copeland says – “God’s reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself…He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even… You don’t have a God in you, you are one!”
This is obviously blasphemous teaching – The likes of which we must shun at every turn! But these two men are not outliers in their thinking and teaching, but it is the very same things that popular figureheads like T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, and Benny Hinn regularly proclaim as well.
For justification of this doctrine these false-teachers point to passages like Ps. 82:6 that says – “I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’” But as is always the case with heresy, they strip such verses from their context and thus change their intended meaning. Psalm 82 is meant to be a scathing rebuke to unjust leaders, the like of which consider themselves to be “gods.” The Psalm begins by saying: “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?” (Ps. 82:1-2) These, so-called lower-case “g” gods, are displayed for their ignorance – “They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness…” (Ps. 82:5a). And ultimately they will be judged and destroyed – “But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes” (Ps. 82:7). They are clearly being shown to be anything but equal in standing to the true God. They have no power, and no authority, in comparison to God – And they will suffer the just punishment for their arrogance.
Nonetheless, Prosperity teachers run with their own interpretation of such passages and claim that the reason they should expect (and even demand) that God would grant them their desired blessings is because of their own god-nature. Thus a major error in their doctrine is their deification of man – But they do not stop there. In fact, while they raise man to such heights, they also do not fear to bring God low:
Benny Hinn declares – “God came from heaven, became a man, made man into little gods, went back to heaven as a man”
There is so much wrong with that statement that it is hard to know where to begin. But I’ll just keep it simple. God did not become a man in the sense that He transformed from being God, into being a man. The Bible rather teaches that Jesus took on human nature, but never ceased to be God. He is both fully God and fully man (Jn. 1:14, Php. 2:5-8). We cannot take anything away from the deity of Christ and claim to be orthodox in our theology. He is fully God, or He could not be our Savior! The nature of God in His three persons is so crucial to our faith – That in centuries past it has been defended from those who sought to confuse or distort the issue. Those that have proclaimed some error have been denounced as the heretics they are. But Benny Hinn is undeterred but takes his heretical teachings even further:
Benny Hinn – “Man, I feel revelation knowledge already coming on me here. Holy Spirit, take over in the name of Jesus. … 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. Say, what did you say? Hear it, hear it, hear it. See, 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. Huh, what did you say? Let me explain: 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. You say, Huh, I never heard that. Well you think you’re in this church to hear things you’ve heard for the last 50 years? You can’t argue with the Word, can you? It’s all in the Word.”
Such wild and crazy distortions ought to be spurned and scorned by every believer – So why aren’t they? Why do millions of people follow such nonsense? Well, it is because such theological frameworks are utilized as the basis to promise people the health and wealth that they desperately desire. If “God is just like you” and you are a god, then you deserve everything God has, and you deserve it right now! So claim it! Benny Hinn says it’s all from the Word – And so people just eat it up. O that people would know the Word better than that – They could easily prove that such things are nowhere found on its pages. Those who buy into such things actually damn themselves in their idolatry and error. O that we could see it plainly for what it is!
Comments