Kenneth Copeland
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Kenneth Copeland (born December 6, 1936 in Lubbock, TX) is a Pentecostal Word of Faith preacher and televangelist.
Kenneth Copeland has never claimed to be a successful pop singer before turning his life over to ministry work following his conversion on November 2, 1962. In the 1960s, he was a pilot for faith healer Oral Roberts. Copeland attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but was called into full-time ministry before graduating. Later he studied under another Pentecostal evangelist, Kenneth E. Hagin. His ministry grew through the 1970s, and in 1979, "Believer's Voice of Victory" first appeared on television.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries has its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Since 1978, Copeland and his wife, Gloria, have been holding annual week-long "Believers' Conventions" in both California and Texas. His recent regular preaching partners at these events have been Creflo A. Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, and Jerry Savelle.
He is considered one of the founding members of the Word of Faith movement.
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[edit] Teachings & Controversy
Copeland's teachings incorporate both "Classical Pentecostalism", with its emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues, as well as elements of Faith theology.
He teaches that prosperity and riches are promised to every believer, and can be gained by faith. Faith is a "force", activated by "confession", i.e. speaking the words of God.
Following E.W. Kenyon and Kenneth Hagin, Copeland has taught that Jesus had to suffer in Hell for three days and three nights in order to atone for sin. Some critics have labelled this heresy, claiming it denies the sufficiency of the blood of Christ. His teaching that believers are "little gods" has also been heavily criticized
[edit] KCM Prison Outreach
Kenneth Copeland Ministries send over 1,000,000 books, bibles and products to people in prisons every year [Kenneth, BVOV broadcast, Aug 03 2006]. In 2002, KCM received and processed 276,000 pieces of incoming mail from prisoners [kcm.org]. Partners around the world of KCM who either work or already minister in prisons request materials as they minister inside prisons in England, Italy, North Africa and Pakistan [Andrew Prescott, overseeing KCM Europe Prison Ministry, BVOV magazine, June 2006].
[edit] Teaching Articles in 'Believer's Voice of Victory' magazine
- October 2006 main article heading - 'Ready to Reveal His Glory'
- subheading: "The riches of Heaven itself have been poured into that earthen vessel called your body, where your spirit resides, the very glory of Heaven has been poured into you".
- October 2006 secondary article heading - 'Settle It'
- subheading: "The Lord is not holding back direction for your life. His Word is clear on that as well. All you have to do is ask".
- September 2006 main article heading - 'Living in the Glory'
- subheading: "He never intended us to wander around without a clue how to use the glory and power within us. He wants us to comprehend it well enough to put it to work just like Jesus did when He was on the earth".
- September 2006 secondary article heading - 'Partnering with Jesus - a divine connection'
- subheading: "We are in a divine connection that God put in place for the sake of this world."
- August 2006 main article heading - 'Dream On'
- subheading: "Faith is what clothes our God-given, Bible-based hopes with natural substance. It's what makes them become a reality in this material world".
- August 2006 secondary article heading - 'Dealing with People you find Difficult'
- subheading: "Every time you say "I love You Father," the Holy Ghost - the Spirit of Love - is knocking the old walls down, stretching you on the inside, and you're learning things you didn't know you knew".
- July 2006 main article heading - 'The Name above all Names'
- subheading: Do you receive whatever you ask of God in prayer? You can. Many Believers don't know that, but it's true. Jesus Himself said so. He didn't say it just once, either. He said it again and again. In John 14:13 He said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." In John 15:16 He said. "I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, HE may give it you".
- July 2006 secondary article heading - 'The Heavenly Protection of Earthly Authority'
- subheading: "In the face of a battle, whether it be a terrorist attack, an all-out war or an attack of nature, mankind usually rises to the occasion. Christians especially step up to the challenge and Christ shines through His Body. When we love all men and pray for those in authority, we place ourselves squarely inside the realm of His governorship".
- June 2006 main article heading - 'Jump into the field of faith'
- subheading: "Lord increase our faith!" That was the cry of Jesus' first 12 disciples... and it's been the heart cry of untold millions of believers ever since. And why shouldn't it be? Again and again in the New Testament we see people receive miracles from God... according to their faith. We hear Jesus say, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed... nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matthew 17:20). We read the words of the apostle John who wrote, "...this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4) The Bible makes it absolutely clear: Faith can overcome anything in this world order. There is literally no limit to what faith can do.
- June 2006 secondary article heading - 'The Road to Excellence'
- subheading: "Recently, God has been raising up ever-growing numbers of people who are hungry. Hungry to know their Lord in a deeper way. Hungry for all He planned them to be. Hungry to serve Him - in pulpits, on mission fields, in homes, in office buildings, and anywhere else He might choose to send them"
- May 2006 main article heading - 'Let God do the impossible in your life'
- subheading: What do you do when you're facing the impossible? How do you respond when you encounter a problem so enormous, an obstacle so overwhelming, that it essentially becomes the biggest thing in your life? It's all right to pray on the run because you ought to pray continually, but if that's all you do, you'll miss about 90 percent of what God wants to tell you.
- May 2006 secondary article heading - 'God's Wisdom - Your Priority!'
- subheading: "Every one of us has been faced with a crisis or decision that baffles us. The situation may be simple or it may be complex. It may be relevant for a moment, a day or a lifetime. Regardless of the situation, the solution is always located about 18 inches below our heads. It's tucked deep within our inner man, in our born-again spirit. All we need to do is get it from our hearts to our heads. How do we do that? Ask the Lord for wisdom".
[edit] 2006 statements on key issues and doctrines
- ON THE TSUNAMI OF 2004
[BVOV broadcast, week of January 2nd] KC: "...in that Tsunami in December of '04. That was the heaviest area on earth (as far as I know) of persecution against Christians and their churches and killing 'em and burning their churches and so forth. And the weight of sin can get so strong in any given place that it actually damages the earth and its structure and that happened there. The Scripture says that... in several... well the eighth chapter of Romans says the whole creation moans and groans for manifestation of the sons of God... and the wages of sin is death and once it breaks, man! Well, just havoc takes place. God perfected and protected His own in that Tsunami and the only thing left standing were the churches. And so here, and thank God they were full of the love of God and we were able to get finances in there and help people. And when they did, then, uh, the people that had been persecuting them had to come over to the church to get food to live. And they were lovely about it, they didn't say 'Uh Uh, now you hurt us, we're going to hurt you' - no, they said 'Come on man, we've got enough to eat...' And one pastor I'm thinking about, he had a bunch of tents set up - he said 'I got a place for you to live until you get your house put back'. And this one fellow standing there, was a... a Muslim, and he's standing there with tears running down his cheek, man, he said 'My God, my God, these people are full of love'. That's what we're supposed to be"!
"That's a spiritual fact. This thing ain't getting any better 'til after it's over. This thing is going downhill on skids, but we're going up".
- ON HOLY COMMUNION
[BVOV broadcast, week of August 28th] KC: "The Body of Christ has made a religious tradition out of it, you know - it's the second Sunday of the month - or whatever - but not realising that you are qualified to serve communion to yourself. Your pastor doesn't have to do that - it's wonderful if he does take advantage of it, but the Body of Christ needs to learn to RUN to that communion table for healing, for deliverance, for protection. I mean, man! Take the covenant in hand and stand before the Throne of God. I tell you, man! It's powerful".
"When you begin to really get an insight into what you're doing here - Jesus said 'This is My Blood of My Covenant - you drink it'. Man! That's just, I mean that's pregnant with revelation. When you take the time to spend there and think about His Blood that was shed and His... sometimes in my mind, the most important drops of Blood were the first drops. Those drops that were pushed through the pores of His skin rather than to break the covenant of love and rather than to violate this test that had come on Him, that came on the first Adam (and he blew it off) and Jesus was not about to let the devil in HIS garden and it came in the Garden of Gethsemane, man! When Blood ran down, out of the pores of His skin, and out His forehead and down His face and into His beard... those drops".
- ON CHRISTIAN FINANCIAL PROSPERITY
[talking with Leroy Thompson, BVOV broadcast, week of January 2nd] KC: "Let's go back and think about, a moment, what happened in 'Katrina' and those hurricanes. The devil's worst nightmare is a man of the Word, full of faith and prayer, knows how to pray and he got money; because he's walking in the Anointing, he is walking in a fellowship with God through prayer and then God says "You go do this" and he says "Yes, Sir. Well, when?", "Right now", "Okay." And he launches out instead of saying "Well, God, I need some gas for my car [etc.]" Well God can provide all that but all of that should have been provided before the instruction came. Now what happened in those hurricanes down there, the government failed, the city government failed, the state government failed, the U.S. government failed and a lot of people died because of it. Now, I'm not in position to judge and blame those people in government. God didn't anoint government to do that in the first place. And people have forced the government into a place of provision and that's not their role to start with. So what happened then - man, the Church stepped up! ...We had a situation... where we had an airplane that would haul 8,000 lbs of stuff and you could land it in short runways. And we went in down there in one of the closest airport that was still, where you could still land on the thing (well, you know where Slidel is?) and right on the edge of that thing. And there were hospitals crying out, they had people about to die, they had little... diabetic babies that were in insulin shock and it was going to be a month before they could get anything in there by truck! So... we took their orders, what they needed, and flew back up here to a medical supply company and went in there and got all that stuff and we had it in there by dark and there were 1,000 people that did not die that would have died before the evening of the next day, had we not had the money, and the equipment, and had it ready, and somebody to fly it and somebody to get this job done, man! I mean, we didn't have time to pray and get an aeroplane - people are dieing before morning"! [LR: "Right you need it now"] KC: "We need it right now! And God directed that thing and told us exactly where to go and exactly what to say and exactly what to do and we did and said exactly what the Spirit of God said to do and filled that aeroplane up and flew that thing in there and those doctors and nurses just stood and wept, man". [LR: Suppose you'd just had the Word and prayer?"] KC:"Well, we could have done it, but we'd have had to pray in an aeroplane, prayed in some fuel, prayed in the money, prayed in the medicine - well what's the difference, I mean, the Government would have been there by then, but of course there'd have been a thousand people dead - but I mean, that's the way the world functions. And the Church ought to be ready all the time. And they couldn't get any food and here come 'Operation Blessing' from the 700 Club, Pat Robertson and that fabulous ministry come driving up in their... and people already cooking, already feeding. Didn't ask the Government for nothing - we were there to help the Government... [LR:"God's people, they rising up and that's what needs to be done".] KC:"And we ain't scratched the surface yet".
- ON SOME THEOLOGIANS
[2006 West Point Christian Fellowship Spring Revival, April 7th] KC: "God's Word is so simple, we've had to have some really high priced help to misunderstand it! And we've had some over the years too, haven't we! I mean, they've told us for years what God didn't mean, what He can't do anymore, and I found out He said what He meant and He just settled it forever, and the quicker you get over what He said, the better off you're going to be, amen".
[edit] Controversial statements
- "Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of hell" (Kenneth Copeland, Holy Bible: Kenneth Copeland Reference Edition Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1991), 129.)
- "When [Jesus's] blood poured out it did not atone." (Kenneth Copeland: From a personal letter to D.R.McConnell, dated 12/3/79. from A Different Gospel, p.120)
- "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... 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.
- Jesus "has got to be all man. He cannot be a God and come storming in here with attributes and dignities that are not common to man. He can't do that. It's not legal." ("The Incarnation", side 1, audiocassette #01-0402, emphasis in original, Fort Worth, TX: KCM, 1985.)"
- "You don't have a God in you; you are one," (The Force of Love (Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987, audiotape #02-0028), side 1.)
- "When we use the spiritual laws that God has set up, God must obey what we request." (Praise the Lord, TBN, 2/5/86)
- "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. And Adam is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus when he came into the earth he said that if you have seen me you have seen the Father. He wasn't a lot like God , he is God manifested in the flesh. And I want you to know something, Adam was God manifested in the flesh, he was God's very image, very likeness everything he did, everything he said, every move he made was the very image of allmighty God" Following the faith of Abraham,1989, side1 audio tape (01-3001) by Kenneth Copeland
