Article by Rev. Robert S. Liichow

One of the most blatant and blasphemous heresies taught by the major internationally known Word of Faith teachers is the doctrine that says Jesus Christ, God the Son died spiritually and had to be reborn spiritually due to becoming a lost sinner.

The History of this doctrine:

The person who brought this concept to the forefront was E.W. Kenyon. Kenneth Hagin took his erroneous concepts of the believer's identification with Christ and broadcast them internationally. All of the Word of Faith teachers take what Hagin teaches as divine truth and so they have continued to spread of this error. Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Marilyn Hickey, Jerry Savelle, Charles Capps, Robert Tilton, and others have propagated this lie to literally hundreds of thousands of Charismatic Christians.

What the Doctrine Teaches:

I have almost all of E.W. Kenyon's books and have taught some of his concepts. Kenyon believed that Jesus died two deaths. He died physically and He died spiritually. (Bold and italics have been added for emphasis by me):

"Jesus was conceived without sin. His body became mortal, only then could He die. When this happened, spiritual death, the nature of Satan, took possession of His Spirit."⁽¹⁾

^{"He was to partake of Spiritual Death, the nature of the Adversary. It has been said that God could not do a thing like that. That is sense knowledge reasoning. . .Satan would become His master."(2)}

^{"He is spiritually dead. The worm. He has become what John's Gospel, 3:14, said. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of Man be lifted up. He had been lifted up as a serpent, Serpent is Satan. Jesus Knew He was going to be lifted up, united with the Adversary."(3)}

^{"You remember that He uttered the sentence, "It is finished." You can now understand that He did not mean that He had finished His Substitutionary work, but that He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do first. . .If Jesus paid the penalty for Sin on the cross, then Sin is but a physical act. If His death paid it, then every man could die for himself. Sin is in the spirit realm. His death was but a means to an end. . .When Jesus died, His spirit was taken by the Adversary, and carried to the place where the sinner's spirit goes when he dies."(4)}

^{"He is the first born out of spiritual death, the first person who was ever born again. . . His spirit absolutely became impregnated with the sin nature of the world. . . Christ did not have sin reckoned to Him. He was made to be sin.(5)}

^{"Satan triumphantly bore His Spirit to the Dark Regions of Hades. All the sufferings and torments that Hell could produce were heaped upon Jesus. When He had suffered Hell's agonies for three days and three nights, the Supreme Court of the Universe cried, "Enough." He had paid the penalty and met the claims of Justice. Satan saw Him justified. God made Him alive in Spirit right there in the presence of the cohorts of Hades. Jesus was made a New Creation. . .Jesus was born into the New Covenant in Hades."(6)}

^{What's Wrong With This Picture?}

^{There is much wrong on almost every point with this teaching. To begin with the Kenyon/Word of Faith concept of Identification goes too far. They make Jesus too human and man too divine.}

^{Their basic concept is this: Jesus was fully God, but He came and ministered as a man anointed with the Holy Spirit. The works He did, He did as an anointed man, not as God. Jesus came and ministered as a prophet under the Old Covenant. Because Jesus ministered as an anointed man, we too then are to minister in exactly the same capacity and garner the same results. The texts cited below were our proof texts:}

^{John 20:21}

^{Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."}

^{John 14:12}

^{"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.}

^{Acts 10:38}

^{"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.}

^{After all, if Jesus did what He did by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the same Spirit, then it is only logical that we get the same results. We, the believers, are sent out just as the Father sent Jesus and we are to do the works of Jesus and even greater works. This is the common line of reasoning within the Word of Faith Movement (WOF) and the more recent offshoot called (for lack of a better term) the Signs and Wonders Movement. Let me quote a man I used to hold in high esteem (our February Rogue of the Month )}

^{"But when it comes to ministry, Jesus does not stand in a class by Himself. . . Even though Jesus was the Son of God, and divine blood flowed through His veins, yet He was ministering on the earth as a human being - a prophet anointed with the Holy Spirit."(7)}

^{What these folks do not know is that they have bought into an old heresy, long ago condemned by the Church. An ancient heretic named Nestorius taught that Jesus performed His works by the power of the Holy Spirit and not by virtue of being God the Son. The reaction of the early Church fathers was to damn any person teaching such things. Why? Because to believe this way is (1) take away from the deity of Christ, (2) left Christ as a person with two natures, one divine and the other human, which thus logically takes away His capacity as Savior. The Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D. stated "If anyone shall say that . . .His miracles. . . in the flesh were not of the same Person: let him be anathema.(8) In other words, people teaching these things and believing these things were put outside of the community of faith! Yet today these blasphemous concepts are espoused boldly and those who dare question them are cursed by the heretics who teach them!}

^{Another glaring problem with this doctrine is that it effectively destroys the Trinity of God. All WOF teachers/followers with declare that they believe in One God in Three Persons. They say they believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, these Three comprise the One God. So far so good. How then do they explain that God the Son dies spiritually? Are there three "Spirits" within the godhead? I know Benny Hinn taught that God was actually nine parts (each member of the Trinity having a spirit, soul, and body), but the question before them is can one Person within the godhead die, become sin, and not effect the other aspects of deity? In their minds this question obviously does not pose a problem. Which leads me to the logical conclusion that those who teach and adhere to such doctrine are not Trinitarian but tri-theists and as such damnable heretics.}

^{Another interesting question is where do they get any Scriptural basis for teaching that Satan is in hell? Also, what is their justification for teaching that Satan rules in hell with his demon forces? Kenyon/Hagin/Copeland/et. al teach that Satan and demons tormented Jesus for three days, so to them, Satan has such authority. The fact is the Bible does not place Satan in hell at any point prior to his final judgment and being cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). The Bible never shows Satan or demons to have any authority in hell whatsoever. They fallen creatures are never seen as punishing the wicked in hell. This entire aspect of the doctrine is myth and it is not even extra-Biblical it is totally non-Biblical. Yet it is taught and preached as divine revelation to multitudes who swallow-and-follow this pernicious lie.}

^{(My wife and I remember Kenneth Copeland preaching on what happened from the cross to the throne. He could almost make you weep when he declared the awful suffering of Jesus at the hands of Satan and later had us on our feet shouting the victory when the Father recreated His Spirit in hell). That stuff can "preach" well but is totally without Biblical support.}

^{The Born-Again Jesus:}

^{As cited above the WOF doctrine teaches that Jesus had to be born-again. They take for Biblical proof these texts:}

^{Col. 1:18}

^{He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.}

^{Hebrews 1:5-6}

^{For to which of the angels did He ever say, "Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee"? And again, "I will be a Father to Him And He shall be a Son to Me"? And when He again brings the first-born into the world, He says, "And let all the angels of God worship Him."}

^{All that Colossians teaches is that Jesus Christ has preeminence over all existence. It in no way indicates that Jesus Christ was at any point a created being (as the Jehovah Witnesses would have us believe, and I suppose the WOF teachers as well).}

^{For the WOF teacher the "today I have begotten Thee" of Hebrews 1:5 refers to when the Father begot Jesus again in hell. Benny Hinn says it this way- ". . .He was begotten. Do you know what the word begotten means? It means reborn. Do you want another shocker? Have you been begotten? So was He. Don't let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. . .He was reborn. He had to be reborn. . .If He was not reborn, I could not be reborn."(10)}

^{The early Church Fathers have understood this passage and others like it to refer to the fact of the Son being eternally begotten of the Father versus being re-born in hell.}

^{"And Again when He brings the firstborn into the world" has nothing to do with Jesus being born-again and brought into the world from hell. The text simply does not teach this.}

^{Jesus was not ever "born-again." He was without sin, the spotless sacrifice, He never became sin, He was never "lost." From the beginning the Church has regarded such teaching as damnable heresy and it still is.}

^{What does the Bible Say?}

^{The Scriptures teaches that our sin was imputed to Christ (Isa. 53:4,5) and His righteousness was imputed to us (2 Cor. 5:21). In this sense we have true identification. The redemptive work was done on the cross, not in hell.}

^{Hebrews 10:10}

^{By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.}

^{1 Peter 2:24}

^{and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.}

^{Col. 1:22}

^{yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--}

^{Col. 2:15}

^{When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.}

^{In His teaching regarding His forthcoming death the Lord Jesus stresses two elements, both physical in regards to the coming New Covenant. He stresses His body, as symbolized in the bread and His blood, as shown in the wine. He says nothing about spiritual death.}

^{Jesus never went and suffered in hell under the torments of Satan. In fact, He told the thief on the cross that he would be with Jesus in paradise that very day (Lk. 23:43).}

^{On the cross some of His last words were "Father into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Lk. 23:46).}

^{Colossians 2:15 makes it very clear that Jesus won the victory for the redeemed on the cross. It was there that He made an open show, or public display, and triumphed over the rulers and authorities.}

^{The victory for our redemption was won by Christ on the cross. To preach otherwise is to proclaim a different gospel which the apostle Paul warned us would happen and he also declared what would happen to such who do so-}

^{2 Cor. 11:4}

^{For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.}

^{Galatians 1:8-9}

^{But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.}

^{Some Books To Read Regarding This Issue:}

^{1. 1 Kenyon, E.W. What Happened From the Cross to the Throne, seventh edition, pg. 20}

^{2. 2 Ibid. pg. 33}

^{3. 3 Ibid. pgs. 44-45}

^{4. 4 Ibid. pg. 47}

^{5. 5 Ibid. pg. 63}

^{6. 6 Ibid. pg. 89}

^{7. Hagin, Kenneth, Hear and Be Healed, pgs. 8,13-14}

^{8. Electronic Bible Society Rom, Early Church Fathers}

^{9. Robertson's Word Pictures, NavPress CD Rom}

^{10. Hinn, Benny, Our Position In Christ available on video tape #TV-254}

^{11. Robertson's Word Pictures, NavPress CD Rom}

^{Copyright©1997 Rev. Robert S. Liichow}

^{Obtained from http://www.discernment.org/jesus.htm}