Are you really trying to understand what Copeland has said?
Are you reading what you posted with a open heart?
Some how I think you are taking him completly out of context, beside the humor you are also missing and thinking he is being serious.
Evangelist, I will reply to each of your questions in short order, then address what I consider to be the issues of primary importance.
Are you really trying to understand what Copeland has said?
Yes, I believe that I have sincerely tried to understand what Copeland has said. I am certainly not trying to mis-understand him or mis-interpret his words. Why would I waste my time doing that? I am open to the possibility that my interpretation of his words is mistaken, and I would be willing to acknowledge that my interpretation is mistaken if someone (perhaps you or Copeland) were to provide a more plausible or compelling alternative. Which quotes do you believe that I have misunderstood or misinterpreted? Why? What alternative interpretations would you suggest? Please be specific.
Are you reading what you posted with a open heart?
Well, that depends on whether my interpretation of what I posted is correct or not. According to my understanding, each quote makes a false or heretical assertion, and a couple are examples of outright blasphemy. Neither my heart nor my mind is "open" to heresy, falsehoods, or blasphemy.
As a sinner, I am certainly susceptible to such things, but I would never
knowingly or
deliberately let my guard down and seriously consider adopting views that contradict the Scriptures or which the Church has condemned as heretical. In that sense, my heart is
not open to what I posted. If you can suggest an interpretation of Copeland's words that does not contradict Scripture or the historic doctrines of the Church, then I will certainly approach his views with an open heart and mind. My mind and heart are open to the possibility that I have misunderstood or misinterpreted his words, and I am waiting patiently for someone to show me (not merely assert) that I have.
Some how I think you are taking him completly out of context
I do not believe that I am quoting him out of context. I have listened to Copeland many times on television and have read several books and articles which have presented and analyzed his views on these subjects in detail. I chose each of the quotes as
representative of many other statements that Copeland has made repeatedly over the years. Each quote is consistent and coheres with everything he has taught over the last three decades. They are also consistent and cohere with what other Word-Faith preachers, such as Kenneth Hagin, Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn, Fred Price, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and Joel Osteen teach.
Nothing in the immediate context of these quotes would alter my understanding of them in the least; in fact, my interpretation of them has been determined precisely by the original context in which they appeared. If Copeland had been referring to the errors or false doctrines of others, or if his statments were nothing more than illustrations of false teachings which Copeland himself was renouncing or condemning, then my selective quotations would indeed be distorting, misleading, and out of context. However, the fact of the matter is that Copeland stands behind each of these statements and says these kinds of things all the time, and he has never, to my knowledge, recanted any of them, even when he has been directly challenged or confronted. The burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that Copeland means something other than what he is saying. I am simply taking him at his word.
beside the humor you are also missing and thinking he is being serious
I don't think I am missing any of the humor in Copeland's statements either. I have actually heard recordings of a number of these statements, and the humorous tone of Copeland's voice is unmistakable, as for example, when he says: "When I read in the Bible where he [Jesus] says, 'I Am,' I just smile and say, 'Yes, I Am, too!'" I understand that Copeland is attempting to be humorous; but, I do not find anything about this blasphemous statement funny. And however humorous Copeland's tone, he means what he says and intends it to be taken quite seriously: he believes that he and all other Christians are "little gods": "Every Christian is a god...You don’t have a god in you, you are one" (Kenneth Copeland,
The Force of Love (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987), audiotape #02-0028, side 1.
Evangelist, if you believe that I have misunderstood any of Copeland's assertions then please provide some evidence or arguments to demonstrate my errors, or at the very least specifically identify what you believe my errors to be. Although Robin and several others have already done this, let me state clearly what Copeland and other Word Faith teachers profess that is clearly unbiblical and heretical:
He teaches that men are gods, not just beings created in the image and likeness of God, but gods:"You're all God.
You don't have a God living in you; you are one!...When I read in the Bible where God tells Moses, 'I AM,' I say, 'Yah, I am too!'" Kenneth Copeland,
The Force of Love (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987), audiotape #02-0028, side 1.
"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 was as much like God as you can get, just the same as Jesus when he came to earth, he said if you have seen me you have seen the father. He wasn’t a lot like God he’s God manifested in the flesh, I want you to know something:
Adam in the Garden of Eden was God manifested in the flesh." Kenneth Copeland,
Following the Faith of Abraham I (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #01-3001, side 1.
He teaches that God the Father has a body:"God is a spirit-being with a body, complete with eyes, and eyelids, ears, nostrils, a mouth, hands and fingers, and feet." (Kenneth Copeland ministry letter, 21 July 1977.)
"God is...a being that stands somewhere around six two, six three, that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple hundred pounds a little better, has a span of eight and, I mean a nine inches across." Kennth Copeland,
Spirit, Soul, and Body (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987), audiotape #01-0601, side 1.
He teaches that Jesus' suffering and death upon the cross was insufficient to atone for human sin, and that in order to accomplish this he had to be tortured in hell for three days:"
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 (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, n.d.), audiotape #BCC-19, side 1.
"
Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of hell...He [Jesus] allowed the devil to drag Him into the depths of hell....
He allowed Himself to come under Satan's control...every demon in hell came down on Him to annihilate Him....They tortured Him beyond anything anybody had ever conceived. For three days He suffered everything there is to suffer." Kenneth Copeland, "The Price of It All,"
Believer's Voice of Victory, September 1991.
He teaches that when Jesus died on the cross he also died spiritually and took on the nature of Satan, and was later "born again" in hell:"The death of Jesus Christ was not a physical death alone. If it had been a physical death, Abel would have paid the price for mankind. He was the first man that died because of honoring God and His Word. If it had been a physical death only, it wouldn't have worked! And if He hadn't died spiritually, that body never would have died." Kenneth Copeland,
What Happened From the Cross to the Throne, (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #00-0303, side 2.
"The righteousness of God was made to be sin.
He [Jesus] accepted the sin nature of Satan in His own spirit and at the moment that He did that He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" You don't know what happened at the cross. Why do you think Moses, obeying the instruction of God, hung the serpent up on the pole instead of a lamb? That used to bug me. I said, "Why in the world would you want to put a snake up there -- the sign of Satan? Why didn't you put a lamb on that pole." And the Lord said, "Because,
it was the sign of Satan that was hanging on the cross." He said, "I accepted in my own spirit spiritual death and the light was turned off." Kenneth Copeland,
What Happened From the Cross to the Throne (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #00-0303, side 2.
"See, you have to realize that He [Jesus] died; you have to realize that
He went into the pit of hell as a mortal man made sin. But He didn't stay there, thank God. He was reborn in the pit of hell and resurrected." Kenneth Copeland,
What Happened From the Cross to the Throne (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1990), audiotape #00-0303, side 2.
"That 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....Jesus was born again -- the firstborn from the dead the Word calls Him -- and He whipped the devil in his own backyard!" "The Price of It All,"
Believer's Voice of Victory, September 1991.
There are a number of other heretical beliefs which Copeland teaches, such as that the incarnate Christ was not fully God, that His incarnation was the result of God speaking Him into existence through His "faith-filled words" and positive confession, that faith is God's source of power and the only way He can do anything on this earth, etc., etc., etc. If you don't believe me just check out any of the following books, which cite Copeland's and other Word-Faith teachers' many heresies in explicit and thorough detail:
Hank Hanegraaff
Christianity in CrisisRobert M. Bowman
The Word-Faith ControversyD. R. McConnell
A Different GospelEvangelist, please flee from this accursed cult to the blessed shelter of the true Church of our Lord Jesus Christ! There are many here who are willing to guide and help you. Please pray that God would open your eyes to His Eternal Truth and lead you away from these false teachers. Read carefully, then reread Wes's list of characteristics of false teachers: each one of them applies to these Word-Faith preachers. Be a good Berean and see if these doctrines which Copeland teaches are biblical. If your heart and mind are open, I or someone else here will gladly provide the verses that will reveal their errors.