GO FIGURE

GO FIGURE

A lady is talking about the preachers she loved. She uses the word, “love,” so I know she really likes to listen to them. I’m interested in the two for whom her ears were itching, but I don’t have to ask—she tells me immediately that she loves Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta. Then she told me that she loves Kenneth Copeland, and after searching her mind for a bit, she says that she loves Gloria Copeland too.

YOU WHAT?

This raises an important issue, so let’s look at this in a bit of detail. By any fair examination, Charles Stanley and Kenneth Copeland are as opposite as William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal were, or to go further back in history, as opposite as the Hatfields and the McCoys. Neither would send a Christmas card to the other.

Kenneth Copeland is a heretic who preaches, “You are a god.” (The same message that the serpent had for Eve in that she could become like God); the same message of cult after cult. In a sampling of his heresy, we see that it’s blatant:

    “You don’t have a god in you. You are God. ‘Force of Love,’ audiotape Kenneth             Copeland, 1987

    “‘Don’t be disturbed when people accuse you of thinking you are God … They crucified Me for claiming I was God. I didn’t claim that I was God; I just claimed that I walked with Him and that He was in Me. Hallelujah! That’s what you’re doing …'” – ‘Take Time to Pray,’ Believer’s Voice of Victory, February 1987, p. 9

    “Now Peter said by exceeding great and precious promises you become partakers of the divine class. All right, are we gods? We are a class of gods!” – Kenneth Copeland, ‘Praise The Lord’ TV Show, Feb. 5, 1986

    “You really cannot ever come to that place were you let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be called equal with God. Let this mind be in Kenneth Copeland, Oh my goodness, Ah! that thinks its not robbery to be called equal with God.” – Kenneth Copeland, Believer’s Voice of Victory, Monday 29th         January 2001, GOD TV

    “When I read in the Bible where God tells Moses, ‘I AM,’ I say, ‘Yah, I am too!'” –  ‘The         Force of Love,’ Kenneth Copeland, tape BBC-56

    “Jesus existed only as an image in the heart of God, until such time as the prophets of the         Old Testament could positively confess Jesus into existence through their constant prophecies.” – (Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue, pp. 8-10)

It’s not necessary to give examples of the teaching of Charles Stanley to show that he and Copeland are extreme opposites.

GO FIGURE

Yet, the lady loves, listens to, and maybe contributes to both of them. Go figure. No discernment. What’s going on? Can a person be that blind? Is she listening to them? Maybe she is. Maybe the problem is what we see all around us: People are not “enduring sound doctrine.” They hear and see the difference, but they don’t care, as stated in this article in the Chafer Theological Journal:

"Although it is enjoyable and beneficial to pray with believers from diverse backgrounds, it has likewise been disconcerting to hear commonly used statements such as, “Doctrine isn’t important,“All disagreement is junk”, and “We leave our doctrine outside before we come in so we can pray together in unity.”

"One believer even prayed, “Lord thank you that you have taught me that doctrine isn’t as         important as unity.” Most Christians would agree that some of the petty differences that divide the body of Christ are unfortunate and grieve the Spirit. But to assume that all doctrine is unimportant is strange to Scripture."

Maybe that’s it; in this postmodern age, there is no truth, each has his own truth—Copeland has his, Stanley has his.

What a mess!