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p.3 Divine healing, faith, confession and other strange unbiblical teachings If you wonder where the disgraced Todd Bentley got his stories and ideas from, you can look no further. “The first time it happened to me was in 1950. 1 was preaching in Oklahoma. A woman came forward for prayer. She said she was 72, but she looked like she was about to give birth to a baby. Of course, she had a tumor. I started to lay bands on her to pray when the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Hit her in the stomach with your fist." On the inside of me, I said, "Lord, You're going to get me in trouble, going around hitting women in the stomach with my fist! I don't believe I much want to do that!" Well, if you get to arguing about it, the anointing will leave you-it will lift from you just like a bird flying away after sitting on your shoulder. It left me. When it left me I thought, Well, I'll go ahead and minister with laying on of hands. I laid hands on her again and the anointing came again and the Word of the Lord came again: "Hit her in the stomach with your fist." I decided I had better stop and explain that to the crowd before I started doing it. So I told them what the Lord said, and I punched her in the stomach with my fist. And God and hundreds of people are my witnesses that that stomach went down like you'd stuck a pin in a balloon . “(Hagin, Understanding the Anointing, 114-115) 2 pages AFTER Hagin tells a story of another man he was told to hit in the head and a young female college student he hit in the kidney. To act on this can be dangerous to ones wellbeing, especially with elderly and infirm people, yet many other (Hagin, Understanding the Anointing p.116-117) Copying is the best form of Flattery but not when you’re copying what is false, wrong or harmful. Smith Wigglesworth was the originator of this spiritual punch for healing Healing Hagin repeated KENYON’s false teaching, “ I know that I am healed because he said that I am healed and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body .” (E.W. Kenyon, the Hidden man on p.99) Does the Bible teach that “ Lying symptoms of the devil will dissipate and disappear. Your body will work perfectly.” (Hagin Holy Ghost Meeting Oct. 12-24 or longer, St. Louis Family Church, Jeff C. Perry, Pastor, satellite broadcast.) So anytime you are ill your body is lying? Or, are you lying to yourself that you are not ill? K. Hagin in his book ‘In the name of Jesus’ says In teaching on divine healing and health , I have so often said , I haven’t had a headache in so many years (45 to be exact) I guess the devil got tired of hearing me say it. Just a few months ago, as I left the office building and started home, suddenly my head started hurting, someone might say, "well, you had a headache. No, I didn’t have one! I don’t have headaches. I haven’t had a headache since August 1934. 45 years have come and gone and I haven’t had a headache…but if I had a headache , I wouldn’t tell anybody. And if somebody asked me how I was feeling, I would say, I’m fine, thank you . " (In the name of Jesus p.44) Notice he says he wouldn't tell you how he really feels because words can express or make reality, it goes against what he wants it to be. Is this being honest? Hagin would not confess a headache but he had 4 major cardiovascular failures. Kenneth E. Hagin Sr., died at the age of 86, after collapsing at home Sept. 14. He was put in a cardiac intensive care unit and died five days later on September 19, 2003. Hagin had said he would determine when he would die. And so ended his religious career of fake faith and speaking out confessions. But it unfortunately continues in the many who were incorrectly taught by him; so many disciples of the wrong kind of faith. Praying Whatever you do, don't pray, "If it be Your will. " " It is unscriptural to pray, 'If it is the will of God.' When you put an 'if' in your prayer, you are praying in doubt . “ (K.Hagin Exeedingly growing faith 2nd ed. p.10 ) According to Hagin the apostle John is wrong, he writes I Jn. 5:14-15 “ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. According to Hagin Jesus is wrong Matt 6:9-10 " In this manner, therefore, pray: our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So many times we do not know his will for a particular situation or person and we are to trust that he does. Whose will is to be done, not ours, but Gods, this is further solidified by his saying: " It makes a great deal of difference what one thinks. I believe that is why many people are sick, even though they are prayed for by everyone in the country. They get in every healing line and still never receive healing. The reason they are not getting healed is that they are thinking wrong ." (Kenneth E. Hagin, Right and Wrong Thinking [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries 1978], 19.) Just like Mr. Branham said on thinking. So God’s grace and power are only enacted when WE say, or think what is right? Hagin’s positive confession, is stated You will never receive anything from God beyond the words you speak. … If you don't like what you have in life, then begin to change the way you are thinking, believing, and speaking. Instead of speaking according to natural circumstances out of your head, learn to speak God's Word from your spirit. Begin to confess God's promises of life and health and victory into your situation. Then you can begin to enjoy God's abundant life as you have what you say!" Word of Faith magazine, "You Can Have What You Say") When I preach on the mind, it frightens some congregations. They immediately think of Christian Science . (Kenneth Hagin, Right and Wrong Thinking (Tulsa: Faith Library, 1966), pp. 18-19) And rightly so, the popular phrase by the faith teachers , "What I confess, I possess," were originally coined by Kenyon. Kenneth Hagin plagiarized much of Kenyon's work, not just Branham’s. He stated “you must accept the thing you have confessed. ".....I simply acted on Mark 11:23,24. I began to say, "I believe God. I believe I receive healing for the deformed heart. I believe I receive healing for the paralysis... ." (How to Write Your Own Ticket With God, Kenneth Hagin p.16) His belief is what makes it real even if it is not seen physically. "If you don't have enough faith in you to hold on to what you have, the devil is going to steal it away from you ." This could be mistaken to be Benny Hinn but it is Hagin, Speaking to a pastor who supposedly was totally healed of deafness in a large healing meeting. " But by the time the meeting was dismissed, he couldn't hear a thing ,” “He put his hearing aid back on." (Kenneth Hagin, "How to Keep Your Healing," (Tulsa: Rhema, 1989), 20-21.) This is The Word of Faith teachings he had taught for more than fifty years that spread like gangrene to supplant real genuine biblical faith. In an early 1990s edition of his magazine, The Word of Faith, Hagin’s teaching of what is now identified as "positive confession," which was a slight improvement over Branham’s right mental attitude. " Often you create your own negative situations yourself with wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong speaking. So start believing according to God's Word. Then begin making positive confessions of faith and victory over your life. … You will never receive anything from God beyond the words you speak. … If you don't like what you have in life, then begin to change the way you are thinking, believing, and speaking. Instead of speaking according to natural circumstances out of your head, learn to speak God's Word from your spirit. Begin to confess God's promises of life and health and victory into your situation. … as you have what you say!" (You Can Have What You Say) Faith One of Branham’s doctrines, which affected some of the modern “word/faith” teaching, involves the power of the “spoken word.” Kenneth Hagin is credited for the “word/faith” message, but in actuality he copied Branham’s teaching, both copied Kenyon. Hagins definition and application are in two main elements , "Positive Confession" which is to verbalize positive thoughts and speak it aloud ( the word or your words) occultis, shamans have believed have used in all cultures. His son Kenneth Hagin, Jr.: Somebody will argue, " You're talking about positive thinking!" That's right! I am acquainted with the greatest Positive Thinker who ever was: God ... The two most prominent teachers of positive thinking [Peale and Schuller] are ministers . (The Word of Faith magazine, November 1984, p. 3.) “Jesus said He had the God-kind of faith; He encouraged His disciples to exercise that kind of faith '" (Having Faith in Your Faith [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1988]) He spoke of the ‘God kind of faith’, but only humans need to have faith. God does not need to trust anyone, for there is no one greater. So his premise on faith was a wrong interpretation. But it was further distorted by him saying “ having faith in your words is having faith in your faith. That's what you've got to learn to do to get things from God: Have faith in your faith .” (Kenneth Hagin, Having Faith in Tour Faith, pp. 4 - 5.) Faith in your faith! FAITH in your words spoken is not the same as having faith in Gods words. Again remember what I stated that sums up his philosophy “ Believe in God! Believe in yourself… we need to begin to believe in ourselves." ("How to Make the Dream God gave you Come True" Faith Library Publications: 1981) "Having faith in your faith" is NOT what Jesus taught: "Have faith in God is our duty, our proof we are in Christ; that is whom we are to rely on, not OURSELVES, not OUR WORDS. Kenneth Copeland, his most dedicated disciple (also of Branham) repeated Hagin’s teaching, The "law of faith" is to the spiritual realm what the law of gravity is to the physical realm. Whenever the law is set into motion, it works. " The force of gravity...makes the law of gravity work...this force of faith...makes the laws of the spirit world function ." Kenneth Copeland (The Laws of Prosperity, 1974, 18-19) The "force of faith is released by words." Kenneth Copeland (Authority of the Believer II, 1987, audiotape #01-0302, side 1) Kenneth Hagin’s Christianity is more akin to Christian, or Religious science. As non-Christians obtain miracles by scientifically applying its laws. Nowhere does the Bible say this. Kenneth Hagin repeated what Branham taught “It used to bother me when I'd see unsaved people getting results [miracles], but my church members not getting results. Then it dawned on me what the sinners were doing- They were cooperating with this law of God-the law of faith.” (Kenneth Hagin, Having Faith in Your Faith (Rhema, 1980), pp. 3-4). Faith works for unbelievers? Sinners cooperate with faith! They have no trust in God, they refuse the gospel but Hagin claimed they were healed from God and believers were not. This is so opposite of what the bible taught, but not surprising, as he taught so much that was distorted. If you write your own ticket, then God has no will in your life, you are in charge,you’re will is done by your mouth, which means Jesus is not Lord. That means it’s not Biblical faith, but as Hagin put it (Just Branham did) it is a force. Kenneth Hagin said non-Christians can obtain miracles by scientifically applying laws of faith. Which means this is not Biblical faith. In Hagin's book, Having Faith in Your Faith, he teaches, anyone can develop universal "laws of faith" to get what he wants. Hagin teaches that for a pastor or anyone to drive a Chevrolet instead of a luxury car isn't "being humble, that's being ignorant" of God's "law of prosperity" that works for "whoever you are," saint or sinner . Kenneth Hagin would vacillate from faith in faith to calling it God kind of faith, " Jesus used the fig tree to demonstrate that He had that God-kind of faith, then He said to the disciples--and to us--'You have that kind of faith.'...Jesus said He had the God-kind of faith; He encouraged His disciples to exercise that kind of faith; and He said that 'whosoever' could do it. . . . That is why Jesus said, 'whosoever shall say . . . and shall not doubt IN HIS HEART.' " (Having Faith in Your Faith [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1988], 3) Healing “Like salvation, healing is a gift, already paid for at Calvary. All we need to do is accept it. All we need to do is possess the promise that is ours. As children of God, we need to realize that healing belongs to us” (Hagin, Healing Belongs to Us, p. 32). That “God is glorified through healing and deliverance, not sickness and suffering” (Hagin, The Key to Scriptural Healing, p. 17). So all those who have an illness who are suffering are not glorifying God as they overcome their circumstances and live a life pleasing unto him. I would say they are; more so than those who follow Hagin’s on health and faith. It is not Gods will for any to be sick (Healing the fathers provision p.9 " I believe that it is the plan of our father that no believer should be sick that every believer should live his life to full time and actually wear out if Jesus tarries then fall asleep in Jesus I state boldly that it is not the will of God my father that we should suffer with cancer and other dread disease and reap pain and anguish . No its Gods will that we should be healed." God does not afflict people with sickness and disease (Word of Faith magazine Dec. 1990) But that is exactly what he said he would do to Israel. (Exod. 15:26, Deut. 7:15, 28:60, 30:19-20, and 32:45; 2 Chron. 21:14-15 all teach that God can afflict people for chastisement) Kenneth Hagin jr. mentions that his own young son (Hagin's grandson) was "diagnosed as having a brain tumor that required immediate surgery," there is no mention of any faith healing whatsoever (Kenneth E. Hagin, Jr., The Answer for Oppression (Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1983], 14-16, 23). "… I state boldly that it is not the will of God my father that we should suffer with cancer and other dread disease and reap pain and anguish. No, its Gods will that we should be healed ." (Hagin repeats E.W. Kenyon in his book the Hidden man on p.99.) “ I know that I am healed because he said that I am healed and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body .” So you are healed when you are not healed physically, that is not Christianity. Did Jesus do this? No the people saw that someone was actually healed. Kenyon's teaching about "the power of Thought words" accompanied a warning never to make a "negative confession, that we create our own reality with the words of our mouths: 'what I confess, I possess." (E.W. Kenyon, The Hidden Man. An Unveiling of the Subconscious Mind (Kenyon, 1970), p. 98.) It was Branham who used these same concepts of Kenyon and Kenneth Hagin and others further developed them. Whether Branham got these from reading Kenyon or came to the same wrong conclusions because of new thought influence we may never know. “ Symptoms, they're lying vanities. Don't receive them. Don't have nothing to do with them. If you look to them, you're looking away from God. We look at the unseen, not at what we see. No one could look at what they see and be a Christian. You've got to believe the things that's unseen, for it's by faith are you healed, not by sight or by feeling .” (50-0810, Expectations, Tent Meeting, Cleveland, OH) Branham likewise said before Hagin, also copying Kenyon " get away symptoms. You're a lying vanities.” (53-0907A, Lord, Show Us The Father And It Sufficeth Us, Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, Chicago, IL) Founder of Christian Science Mary Baker Eddy said “ Realize the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted in the case of sickness, anymore than it is in the case of sin .” (p.386 Science and Health) Receiving healing, just as receiving salvation, is simply a matter of appropriating what already belongs to us (The Word of Faith magazine 6/90); healing is included in the gospel ( The Word of Faith magazine 8/92). Get Wealthy by confessing it Hagin wrote, " The Lord Himself taught me about prosperity. I never read about it in a book. I got it directly from heaven" (How God Taught Me About Prosperity, Tulsa: Faith Library, 1985). 'In the first place-and this will help you don't pray about money anymore; that is, the way you've been praying. Claim whatever you need .'(Word of faith magazine, "How God Taught Me About Prosperity," Kenneth Hagin). Nonetheless those on his mailing list he requested money to be sent to his ministry; after all he knows his “claiming” doesn’t work. Hagin claimed that Jesus Christ taught him that it is wrong to have riches, when he had more warnings (and the apostles did too) on money, pursuing riches than any other subject. You must be rich was part of Hagin’s word faith speaking formulae…he taught the use of faith to gain them. That is why he is considered the father of the prosperity gospel (not Copeland).How God taught me about prosperity is his book from a personal visit but no nowhere is this taught by Jesus or the apostles. No the bible does not say we must be poor, but it certainly does not teach what Hagin claimed. “God desires His children to be wealthy. Kenneth Hagin says that God not only wants to deliver believers from poverty, "He [also] wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to wear the best clothing, He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything ." (Quoted by D.L. McConnell a different Gospel p.175) Now we are being told he never taught prosperity, riches. To the rescue comes J. Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine who claims Before He died Kenneth Hagin warned against today’s materialistic gospel.(Jun 11, 2019) Are we to believe that he went against everything he taught for 50 years, sorry this is unacceptable: He taught, anyone can develop universal "laws of faith" to get what he wants. Hagin teaches that for a pastor or anyone to drive a Chevrolet instead of a luxury car isn't "being humble, that's being ignorant" of God's "law of prosperity" that works for "whoever you are," saint or sinner . (Having Faith in Your Faith) Sorry Mr. Grady but he did teach on wealth,riches, just not exactly these phrases or applications you mentioned, which means he can’t rebuke anyone on this matter because what he said was just as unbiblical. Then the Lord said this to me …. 'If you will learn to follow that inward witness I will make you rich. I will guide you in all the affairs of life, financial as well as spiritual'. I have followed that inward witness and He has done just what He said He would. He has made me rich” (p.33"How To Be Led By The Holy Spirit", Kenneth Hagin.) His disciple Kenneth Copland is far richer and he too claims God gave him revelation. Among Grady’s statements on Hagin are: It is not biblical to “name your seed” in an offering; The “hundredfold return” is not a biblical concept; Financial prosperity is not a sign of God’s blessing; “debt-breaking” anointing should not be trusted, People should never give in order to get. Hagin wrote: “There is no spiritual formula to sow a Ford and reap a Mercedes.” Except Hagin did give a formulae and Grady for whatever reason will not acknowledge it. Hagin claims Jesus told him, " If anybody, anywhere, will … put these [positive confession] principles into operation, he will always have whatever he wants from Me or God the Father " Hagin promised health and WEALTH to Christians, and SAID: " All you have to do is visualize it, speak it into existence." Hagin taught that for a pastor or anyone to drive a Chevrolet instead of a luxury car isn’t “being humble, that’s being ignorant” of God’s “law of prosperity” (Having Faith in Your Faith) Hagin at times would say the right things, “It is not wrong to have money; it is wrong for money to have you. “but these were not his theme . He tells the story in the book “Biblical keys to financial prosperity” of how the Lord dealt with him early on because “ I hadn't taught the people at that smaller church about tithing and giving. …the Lord said to me, "You robbed those people. You did them wrong ." He was to go back and ask that congregation to forgive you, …. Then I want you to teach them on the subject of tithing and giving.” He also said “ There is a sense in which we do give to get. But we don't give just to get. The "getting" is not our main motive.” This becomes a subtle contradiction in his teaching. Using Gal. 6:7 he said “ churches that give to ministers always prosper. They prosper because they're sowing the right kind of seed.” He explained it the same way it is taught today. you can't reap a crop naturally or supernaturally without sowing seed. (p.91) Tithing is not a New Testament operation but giving is and it has nothing to do with seed sowing The reason one fails “they're trying to exercise faith for finances, but they haven't planted any seed.” He taught Jesus Christ was rich. Yet for our sakes, He became poor, that we through His poverty, might be rich .” Citing Abraham was rich, Someone said, "You mean, God said He is going to make all of us rich?" Yes, that's what I mean. (just not millionaires; even though Abraham was) (p.21, 26 financial prosperity) He increased his wealth by saying out loud (1950) “ Satan, take your hands off of our money. Go, ministering spirits and cause the money to come." (here we have the confession ‘money cometh to me now’) Did he personally go to the disciples that were under him and correct them? No! Copeland and his other disciples were using seed sowing and the rest of what Grady says he denied, for years. Does Grady give a source for when he said a negative confession on being rich by doing these actions? I can’t find it. I would like to see the quotes of this and not just 2nd or third hand stories that try to clean up his image years after. Those who support Hagin’s multiple heresies certainly loved what he said and use it to defend him regardless of what is wrong. P4. The strange and stupendous stories of the supernatural
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