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 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 never graduated. 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 1991, 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.
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 (see D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel, updated edition, Hendrickson, 1995).
Controversial statements
- "God's reason for making Adam was his desire to reproduce himself. I mean a reproduction of himself and in the garden of Eden he did that. He was not a little like God, he was not almost a lot like God ... he was not even subordinate to God even. Now this is hard on the human mind, but I am telling you what the Bible says. The Bible says let us make man in our image and give him dominion....
- "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"
- "This is all a copy of home, it's a copy of the mother planet...and Adam is as much like God as you could get .... Adam in the garden of Eden was God manifested in the flesh"
- Following the faith of Abraham,1989, side1 audio tape (01-3001) by Kenneth Copeland
External links
- [Kenneth Copeland Ministries homepage] - Copeland's official web site.
- [Archived broadcasts of "Believer's Voice of Victory"]
- [Christian Apologetics Website Critical of Kenneth Copeland]
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