A big point of contention within the theological community has been the numerous statements made by certain WoF teachers that sound like they’re humanizing God and deifying man. More than one has been known to say something along the lines of believers being gods or little gods. This isn’t a statement that I have heard Kenneth Hagin make however, and I think it’s very unfortunate that others have demonstrated a lack of wisdom and a lack of reverence for God, as well as a lack of understanding of basic theology in making such remarks.
It should be noted however, that most of these statements were made 20, 25, or 30 years ago. The people making them got written up, slapped around, and royally trashed by the watchdog groups and most of them have wised up over the years.
Unfortunately a double standard seems to have been applied here, however. Consider this quote from C. S. Lewis.
“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.” (C. S. Lewis – Mere Christianity)
No doubt the critics would respond that C. S. Lewis didn’t mean the same thing that the cults mean when he used the words “gods” and “goddesses”, and I would agree. That’s a very good point, and it’s a point that some of us have been trying to make regarding statements made by WoF teachers.
Since Kenneth Hagin was the leader of the WoF movement, I’m not going to comment any further on the others. Let’s focus on what he said. In The Word of Faith magazine he was quoting E. W. Kenyon when he said that “the believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth“. Before we can form a valid conclusion on the heretical nature of this statement we should determine what he meant by it.
In this quote he was talking about the fact that the believer has the Holy Spirit living in him. That’s orthodox Christian theology. When I was a kid in the Baptist church we learned the verse that says “therefore if any many be in Christ he is a new creature“. (II Cor. 5:17) We also learned that the Holy Spirit lives within us. (Rom. 8:9-11; I Cor. 3:16) In fact that’s one objection that many Baptists (including me, at one point) have to Pentecostal theology, because they’re taught that they already have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is just as much God as Jesus is. Again … orthodox!
The meaning of “incarnate” is precisely what its Latin roots suggest. The prefix “in” means “in” and “caro” means “flesh,” so incarnate means “in the flesh.” The word “incarnation” therefore refers to God living in human flesh, so unless you’re an android it can accurately be stated that an incarnation occurred when the Holy Spirit came to live in you.
Now “an” incarnation isn’t the same as “THE” incarnation (while the word “incarnation is used in many ways in our culture, the theological term for the joining of Christ’s divine nature and His humanity is the “hypostatic union”) which only occurred once when God became a man. It’s just like the word “crucifixion”. Lots of people were crucified during the Roman Empire, but “a” crucifixion isn’t the same as “THE” crucifixion which refers to Jesus’ sacrificial death. Take a look at what E. W. Kenyon said along these lines in his book “The Father and His Family”.
Every false religion that denies the Incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth has attempted to provide a theory of universal Incarnation in order to stimulate to a higher moral and spiritual life.
Theosophy tries to make us believe that all men have the nature of Deity.
The same thing is held by practically all our modern liberal theological teachers and preachers! That the so-called “Spark of Divinity” dwells in all men, that the New Birth is simply the awakening, the blowing-into-a-flame, of this spark of Divinity.
If man had a spark of Deity or any part of Deity abiding in him, then man was already God Incarnate.
We know that this theory is fallacious, for humanity has experimentally proven it false.
The entire New Testament contradicts it.
If we accept any of the Bible, we must accept it all.
The Incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth is no more difficult to believe nor to understand than the creation of the first man or the birth of a child.If God is Almighty, He had power to beget a child in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
If Jesus was Incarnate, Man and God can become united; God can dwell in these human bodies of ours; God can impart His own life and nature to our spirits, and we may have God’s life in these human bodies.
If Jesus was Incarnate, then immortality is a fact.
If we do receive Eternal Life for our spirits, then we have positive assurance that these bodies will become Immortal at the return of the Lord Jesus.
If the Incarnation is a fact, Christianity is supernatural.
Every man who has been “born again” is an Incarnation, and Christianity is a miracle.
The believer is as much an Incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.
We cannot conceive of any man’s desiring to doubt the Incarnation, as it offers the only solution of life’s mystery; it gives the reason for man’s being; it makes life with its burdens, sorrows, and grief which culminate in death tolerable; it throws light upon this human problem that can come from no other source.
The Incarnation has been the craving of the Universal Man, and if Jesus of Nazareth was Incarnate, the universal cry has found its answer in Christianity.The Incarnation is the basic miracle of Christianity.
It proves the Pre-existence of Christ and is the foundation and reason for all subsequent miraculous manifestations of divine power.
Man’s condition demands an Incarnation, because he is spiritually dead and without an approach to God.
The Incarnation of Deity with humanity will provide a Substitute of Deity and humanity united on such a ground that the Incarnate One can stand as man’s mediator, being equal with God on the one hand and united with man on the other; He can bring the two together.
Again, being Deity and humanity united, He can assume the obligations of human treason, satisfy the claims of justice, and thereby bridge the chasm between God and man.
As you can see, Kenyon was actually rebutting theosophy, liberal theology, and other religions that seek their own deification. He shows us how Jesus’ incarnation brought about a new age wherein God’s people would be indwelt with the Spirit of God. He’s not saying that we become God just as much as Jesus is God. He’s saying that we are restored to God through Jesus and the Spirit that He poured out following His resurrection. This is orthodox Christian theology, even if it is an unorthodox way of stating it. In Kenyon’s day it was common to use the word “incarnation” that way. Here’s a few links to prove it.
Grace and Glory by A. J. Gordon (1880) – https://goo.gl/vTSVMJ
The Life of A. B. Simpson by A. E. Thompson (1920) – https://goo.gl/7jTXT
The Acts of the Holy Spirit by A. T. Pierson (1896) – https://goo.gl/oW6jSL
A little critical thinking would come in handy here. Kenneth Hagin was an ordained minister in good standing with the Assemblies of God for thirty years. Do you really think they would have tolerated one of their ministers teaching “little gods” or deification? It’s really sad that I have to go into detail in explaining this, but that’s what happens when people are hunting heretics. They make semantics-based arguments. This is not simply a matter of parsing what Brother Hagin said. This is what he taught over the course of a half century of ministry. He said that we have the flesh to deal with, and our fleshly nature wants to sin. He said that we need to crucify the flesh, and be led by the spirit. He said that we need to renew our minds with the word of God. He said that if Jesus delays His return we’re all going to die. You don’t say those things if you believe that you’re God or “a” god.
He said once that we as believers are Christ. That also ruffled some feathers, but he was talking about our identification with Christ that Paul was talking about in II Corinthians 6:14-16.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God
Again, just look at the context. Believers in this passage are called righteousness, light, Christ, and the temple of God. We are no more literally Christ than we are literally righteousness, light, or a temple, but we can see that in our identity we are the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21), the light of the world (Mat. 5:14), and the temple of God (I Cor. 3:16). That’s why Paul was saying that we shouldn’t be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. They’re part of another kingdom and have a different lord.
When Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus he saw a light brighter than the sun, and heard a voice saying “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” But Saul wasn’t persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the church, but in God’s eyes Jesus and the church are one. He even prayed for our unity with Him in His high priestly prayer in John 17.
Again, this is orthodox theology. Almost every one of these critics who would condemn Brother Hagin for saying that we are Christ is on record that we identify with Christ’s death and resurrection in baptism. Does that mean that we literally die when we’re submerged and we’re literally resurrected when we come up? Of course not! In the same way Brother Hagin wasn’t saying that we’re literally Christ, but Paul did refer to us that way in order to make his point.
Kenneth Hagin never said that we are just as much God as Jesus. If he had ever said that I would have called him a heretic right along with many others. I was raised Baptist and spent several years in an Assembly of God church. I’m well grounded in essential Christian doctrine, and I know heresy when I see it. What Kenneth Hagin taught wasn’t heresy. He might have chosen a better way to state what he was trying to communicate, but he wasn’t saying what the critics claim that he was saying, and if they would look for the truth as much as they look for something to accuse him of they would realize that.