E. W. Kenyon
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Essek William Kenyon [aka] E. W. Kenyon (1867–1948) was an evangelist pastor of the New Covenant Baptist Church and president of the Bethel Bible Institute in Spencer, Massachusetts, for twenty-five years. The school later moved to Providence, Rhode Island and became Providence Bible Institute. It later became Barrington College and merged with Gordon College, which was named after one of Kenyon's many mentors, A.J. Gordon.
Kenyon was born on April 24, 1867 in Hadley, New York. He became a church member in his early 20s and gave his first sermon at a Methodist Church in Amsterdam, New York. Although desiring to be an actor, Kenyon earned a living as a piano and organ salesperson. During this time, Kenyon declared himself an agnostic. In an attempt to hone his acting skills, Kenyon attended the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston for one year in 1892.
Kenyon first married Evva Spurling. Like Kenyon, Spurling was also an agnostic. The two were married on May 8, 1893. Shortly afterward, Kenyon attended the services of Clarendon Street Church led by pastor Adoniram Judson (A.J.) Gordon. At this service, Kenyon and his wife became Christians. Later that year, Kenyon joined the Free Will Baptists and became a pastor at a small church in Elmira, New York.
In 1898, Kenyon opened Bethel Bible Institute, which remained in operation until 1923. Evva Kenyon returned to Essek in 1910. She died in 1914. Subsequently, Kenyon married Alice M. Whitney, having a son and a daughter.
[edit] Faith controversy
Kenyon has become—in death—a controversial figure in the debate regarding the orthodoxy of the Word of Faith movement. Kenyon influenced many people during his lifetime including Tommy L. Osborn, F.F. Bosworth, and Kenneth Hagin. His influence is undeniable. The question seems to turn on whether Kenyon endorsed heretical doctrine or just a variation from traditional orthodoxy. The center of the storm seems to be Kenyon's attendance at Emerson College.
In 1979, Oral Roberts University President Charles Farah wrote From the Pinnacle of the Temple, a declaration of war on the Faith movement. He traced Kenyon's roots to the metaphysical cults to Kenyon's time at Emerson. One of Farah's students, Daniel Ray McConnell, wrote his Master's thesis built upon what has been called the Kenyon connection. This thesis was later edited and sold to the public in 1988 as A Different Gospel. McConnell's basic argument was that Kenyon got his doctrine from the cults, Hagin got his doctrine from Kenyon by plagiarizing it, and thus the entire Faith movement was built on a cultic root. Christian Research Institute leader Hank Hannegraaff reiterated much of McConnell's thesis in 1993 in Christianity in Crisis.
However, information was also gleaned from other quarters. William DeArteaga, a charismatic based in Atlanta, argued that Kenyon did not teach heretical doctrines but did gain some heterodox concepts from Emerson College. This argument was one of many DeArteaga presented in Quenching the Spirit. A Norwegian scholar named Geir Lie then entered the fray with his 1994 thesis that was eventually released as E.W. Kenyon: Evangelical Minister or Cult Founder? Lie argued that Kenyon's doctrine was pure, but he may have been influenced to a certain degree by the metaphysical cults.
Perhaps the most scholarly argument was advanced in 1997 by Dr. Dale H. Simmons. Simmons was a classmate of McConnell's at ORU in the early 1980s. Simmons' research indicated that Kenyon drew influence from both the Higher Life movement of the late 1800s and the cult of New Thought. Simmons' argument was that Kenyon might have been unaware of the degree of similarity between both systems.
In 1998, the first truly pro-Kenyon book was introduced by a Word of Faith pastor named Joe McIntyre. McIntyre's book, E.W. Kenyon: The True Story, argued that Kenyon was in no way influenced by the cults but was completely and thoroughly orthodox in his doctrinal teachings. McIntyre took no pains to conceal the notion that his book was a "rebuttal" to McConnell's argument. McIntyre, currently heads the Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society.
What is the truth? McConnell seems to represent one extreme while McIntyre represents the other. Both books have strengths and weaknesses that undercut each man's argument. The only (inarguable) truth seems to be that Kenyon was no stranger to controversy either in his life or his death.
Kenyon's entire teaching ministry revolved around the cross. Few ministers have centered their focus more completely on the work of Jesus. He felt called and compelled to preach and teach what he referred to as the FINISHED work of Christ. In his first periodical, The Tabernacle Trumpet, he wrote in October 1900: The fall of man was complete; it took in the whole man - body, soul, and spirit; his redemption must cover all that was lost. Our redeemer must redeem us from all three of these. In order to redeem us from sin, "He was made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! (2 Cor. 5:21) In order to redeem us from sickness, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath made Him sick. Surely He hath borne our sickness and carried our diseases," that we might be healed. In order to redeem us from death " He tasted (experienced) death for every man, that whosoever believeth on Him should never die." For Kenyon , the finished work meant man was a new creation. Man only had one nature, not two natures. As a new creation the old nature had passed away (2 Cor. 5:17). Man had become through the new birth righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24) The believer didn't need a second work of grace to eradictate indwelling sin. It was taken out at the new birth when man became, in reality, a new creature.
[edit] Works
- Advanced Bible Course: Studies in the Deeper Life
- Bible in the Light of our Redemption: A Basic Bible Course
- Blood Covenant
- Father and His Family: The Story of Man’s Redemption
- Hidden Man of the Heart
- Identification
- In His Presence: The Secret of Prayer
- Jesus the Healer: Has Brought Healing to Thousands
- Kenyon’s Living Poems
- New Creation Realities
- New Kind of Love
- Signposts on the Road to Success
- Two Kinds of Faith
- Two Kinds of Knowledge
- Two Kinds of Life
- Two Kinds of Righteousness
- What Happened: From the Cross to the Throne
- Wonderful Name of Jesus: Our Rights and Privileges in Prayer
