The Word of Faith Movement

A loose network of ministries and churches, begun in the teaching of E. W. Kenyon and spread by Kenneth Hagin and others, that teaches the believer to speak and act in faith for healing and prosperity. It has no creed and no governing body, and its teachers differ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, About KCM (mission statement and "What We Believe")

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, "My Faith Works! Confession"

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Tithe

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Giving

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Prosperity (teaching excerpts by Kenneth Copeland)

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Find a Church

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, "Put On Your Dancing Shoes and Praise the Lord" (March 10, 2026)

Joyce Meyer Ministries, What We Believe (Statement of Faith)

Lakewood Church, About (statement of beliefs)

The Christian Post, "Joyce Meyer admits her views on prosperity, faith were 'out of balance'" (reports her Instagram clip)

The Christian Post, "Interview: Joel Osteen on Life, Tragedy and Why He Shuns 'Prosperity Gospel' Label" (April 2013)

The Christian Post, "Interview: Joel Osteen on Prosperity Gospel, Crystal Cathedral, and Jesus"

The Christian Post, "Creflo Dollar Slams Critics: 'If I Want to Believe God for a $65 Million Plane, You Cannot Stop Me'"

The Christian Post, "Calif. Megachurch Pastor Fred Price Jr. Steps Down Over 'Personal Misjudgments'" (June 27, 2017; quotes Crenshaw Christian Center's website on the 2009 succession)

E. W. Kenyon, The Father and His Family (archive.org scan; third-party upload, edition not verified)

Kenneth E. Hagin, Faith Food: Daily Devotions for Summer (Tulsa: Kenneth Hagin Evangelistic Association, 1986), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only)

Kenneth E. Hagin, The Human Spirit (Tulsa: Faith Library, 1973), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only)

Kenneth E. Hagin, Jesus: Name Above All Names (Faith Library, 2003), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only)

Frederick K. C. Price, Is Healing for All? (1976), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only); the same line is quoted by Jackson

Frederick K. C. Price, High Finance: God's Financial Plan, Tithes and Offerings (1984), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only); the same lines are quoted by Jackson

Gloria Copeland, God's Will Is Prosperity (1978), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text of the book's own scan (the book is lending-only); the same line is quoted by Jackson

Robert Jackson, "Prosperity Theology and the Faith Movement," Themelios (The Gospel Coalition), written in the late 1980s; it quotes Price, Hagin, Gloria Copeland and Kenyon from their books and summarizes Daniel McConnell's research

9Marks, review of Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Robert M. Bowman Jr., The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001), quoted from the archive.org search-inside text

Lausanne Theology Working Group (Africa), "A Statement on Prosperity Teaching" (consultations at Akropong, Ghana, 2008 and 2009; copy on the Africa Centre for Apologetics Research site)

Association of Religion Data Archives, group profile: Rhema (1978 - Present)

Kenneth E. Hagin (Wikipedia; last resort, used only for the date Rhema Bible Training Center opened)

Frederick K. C. Price (Wikipedia; last resort, used only for his dates)

The teaching has three layers: Kenyon's writings in the first half of the 1900s, Hagin's ministry and Bible school from the 1960s and 1970s, and the many ministries that grew from them. Scholars disagree about how much of Hagin's teaching came from Kenyon, and the teachers themselves tell it differently.

Kenyon studies in Boston

E. W. Kenyon, a preacher and writer, attended the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston in the last decade of the 1800s. Daniel McConnell, whose research Robert Jackson summarizes, argues that the metaphysical movements around that school left a mark on Kenyon's writing. Jackson adds that Kenyon was not a Pentecostal.

Healing and New Thought meet

Kate Bowler traces the movement to two streams: Pentecostal and Holiness divine healing, which held that Christ's atonement secured health for the body, and New Thought, which held that the mind shapes reality. She writes that Kenyon "united Holiness-Pentecostal and New Thought themes".

Kenyon dies

All of Kenneth Hagin's published work came after Kenyon's death, as Jackson notes.

Hagin's account of his teaching

Kenneth Hagin said Jesus gave him the new teaching in a series of visitations in the 1950s. McConnell, as Jackson reports, sets passages of Hagin beside passages of Kenyon and concludes the wording is too close to be coincidence. Jackson says Hagin's claim "does not match the evidence" McConnell found.

Hagin's ministry grows

Hagin, a former Assemblies of God pastor, left his post to travel as an evangelist and began his ministries in the 1960s. The Association of Religion Data Archives lists these ministries as "Rhema".

Rhema Bible Training Center opens

Hagin opens a Bible school at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. This date rests on Wikipedia, the last resort, and matches the 1974 mark on the lineage chart. Jackson later says ministers in the first network "have to have passed through Hagin's college".

Rhema Bible Church

Hagin's ministries grow into Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1978, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.

The first networks

Jackson reports that in 1979 Hagin's son-in-law, Doyle Harrison, founded the International Convention of Faith Churches and Ministers, and that in 1985 Kenneth Hagin Ministries founded the Rhema Ministerial Association International. Ministers in the first, he says, had to pass through Hagin's school and swear an affidavit to the second's constitution, ethics and tenets of faith.

The first scholarly critiques

McConnell's research, and a critique of the movement by Robert Jackson himself, put the question of Kenyon's influence before evangelical readers. The movement's teachers were at the same time spreading it to Britain, South Africa and Scandinavia.

Lausanne consultations

African Christian leaders met at Akropong, Ghana, in October 2008 and September 2009, and the Lausanne Theology Working Group published "A Statement on Prosperity Teaching". It both affirms and rejects parts of the teaching (see Part 4).

A son succeeds Frederick Price

Frederick K. C. Price handed Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles to his son, Fred Price Jr., on March 15, 2009, according to the church's website as quoted by the Christian Post. The church's own words speak of the new pastors "forever remaining humbly submitted" to Price and his wife.

Bowler's history

Kate Bowler's Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press) gives the first full history of the movement and of the megachurches and Bible schools that carry it.

E. W. Kenyon

A preacher and writer whose books on faith, righteousness and the believer's identity in Christ are the source the movement's scholars point to. His words in this chart are from a scanned copy of one of his books.

Kenneth E. Hagin

Founder of Rhema. Jackson reports that leaders of the movement, among them Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price and Charlie Capps, openly acknowledge Hagin as a source of inspiration and teaching.

Kenneth Copeland

Founder, with Gloria Copeland, of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which publishes the statement of belief quoted here. Its chief executive officer is John Copeland.

Frederick K. C. Price

Founder of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles in 1973, with about 300 members. His books on prosperity and healing are quoted here from their scanned text. Wikipedia, the last resort, gives his dates.

Creflo Dollar

Founder of World Changers Church International. The ministry's own site returned an access block, so his words here come from a Christian Post report of a message to his church.

Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen

Meyer and Osteen are the best known of the softer voices. Both are described as prosperity teachers by critics, and both have said, in the words quoted below, that they hold a narrower view.

What scholars call it. Jackson names the movement "the faith movement" and the teaching "prosperity theology". Bowler calls the broader family "the prosperity gospel". The Lausanne statement says the teaching "cuts across denominational barriers" and appears "in varying degrees in mainstream Protestant, Pentecostal as well as Charismatic Churches". For that reason this chart never says "the Word of Faith movement believes". It says which teacher or ministry holds a view.

Sources not reached. Rhema's own site (rhema.org) and the site of Creflo Dollar Ministries refused every request, and this chart does not go around such a block. It therefore quotes Hagin from his books, as they appear in the Internet Archive's search text, and Dollar from a news report. The chart cannot say what Rhema's own pages teach today.

Every ministry here names the Bible the rule. Hagin said his teaching came to him in visitations from Jesus.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries and Lakewood Church each publish a short statement that names the Bible the authority. Robert Jackson, summarizing Daniel McConnell, reports a second claim in the movement's history: Kenneth Hagin said that Jesus gave him the teaching in a series of visitations in the 1950s. No ministry here makes that claim part of its published statement of belief.

We believe the Bible in its entirety to be the inspired Word of God and the infallible rule of faith and conduct.

The Bible is the infallible Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and contains every answer to man's problems.

The Bible is the authority on which we base our faith, conduct, and doctrine.

Jackson and McConnell argue that the wording of Hagin's books follows Kenyon's. They do not say the teachers reject the Bible. They say the teachers' key ideas came from Kenyon before the 1950s. Rhema's own statement was not reachable.

Saved by grace through the blood of Christ. Baptism is a witness. Several teachers add that healing and prosperity are part of redemption.

The statements that could be read affirm salvation as a gift. Kenneth Copeland Ministries says "personal salvation of believers through the shed blood of Jesus Christ". Joyce Meyer Ministries says salvation is "not a result of what we do". Meyer's ministry and Lakewood call water baptism a sign and not the moment of forgiveness: Meyer's ministry calls it a way to "identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus", and Lakewood calls it "a symbol of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ". E. W. Kenyon went further in his book: he taught that a person "born again" is an incarnation. That teaching is weighed in Part 4, under the believer's nature.

We believe in personal salvation of believers through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We can have a personal relationship with God through salvation, God's free gift to man. It is not a result of what we do, but it is only available through God's unearned favor.

We believe that water baptism is a symbol of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ and a testimony to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Joyce Meyer Ministries also says: "We believe in water baptism, as taught and demonstrated by Jesus, as the way for believers to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus." Kenneth Copeland Ministries lists "water baptism" with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, with no statement of what water baptism is for.

At Lakewood, Communion is received regularly as a remembrance of Christ's death. No other ministry's practice could be read.

Only one ministry's statement here speaks of the Supper. Lakewood Church says it believes in "regularly receiving Communion" and gives the Supper's meaning as remembering Christ's sacrifice, citing 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. It names no day and no interval, and nothing about who may come. The statements of Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Joyce Meyer Ministries say nothing of the Supper, and Rhema's pages could not be reached. This chart does not guess at what their churches do.

We believe in the regularly receiving Communion as an act of remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made for us through dying on the cross.

Each ministry is led by its founder or the founder's family. The churches are independent, and no statement describes elders.

There is no governing body. Kenneth Copeland Ministries lists "partner" churches and says it "is not responsible for the beliefs or practices" of any of them. Crenshaw Christian Center passed from its founder, Frederick Price, to his son in 2009, and the chief executive of Kenneth Copeland Ministries is John Copeland. Joel Osteen describes Lakewood's volunteers as "kind of like the military, it's all structured", with a captain over every ten. Jackson reports that in the late 1980s ministers in the Hagin network swore to the tenets of the Rhema Ministerial Association. No statement here speaks of a plurality of elders over each congregation.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries is not responsible for the beliefs or practices of other churches and does not guarantee alignment with KCM values.

When you become a volunteer, you're going to be put on a team, and you're going to have a captain who's going to have 10 people under him.

forever remaining humbly submitted to lovingly, watchful eye and tutelage of Apostle and Dr. Betty

Praise is taught as powerful and joyful. The ministries describe a choir and celebration. Their sources here say nothing of instruments.

The sources that could be read speak of worship as praise that works. Kenneth Copeland Ministries says "praise is never small" and calls it "powerful spiritual positioning". Joel Osteen speaks of people who "serve in the choir". No saved page describes instruments or the form of a Sunday service at any of these ministries, and the Rhema pages were blocked.

Praise shifts your focus. It clothes you in joy.

Faith, however, praises when the answer has not yet appeared.

serve in the choir, the children's ministry or men's ministry

The baptism in the Holy Spirit, tongues and every gift are for today. Kenneth Copeland Ministries sets the Spirit baptism apart from the new birth.

The ministries here all teach that the gifts of the Spirit continue. Kenneth Copeland Ministries names "the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as distinct from the new birth" and "speaking with tongues". Joyce Meyer Ministries says "the gifts of the Spirit are active and relevant today", without naming tongues. Lakewood's page points to a teaching on baptism in the Holy Spirit by Lisa Osteen Comes, whose text was not read. Healing is the gift most stressed: Kenneth Copeland Ministries says "healing is included in redemption".

We believe in water baptism, in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as distinct from the new birth, in speaking with tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance (Acts 2:4), in the gifts of the Spirit, and the evidence of the fruit of the spirit. We believe that all of these are available to believers.

The gifts of the Spirit are active and relevant today.

We believe in divine healing, through faith in the Name of Jesus Christ, and that healing is included in redemption.

Christ's soon return, the resurrection, eternal happiness for the saved and eternal punishment for the lost.

The two published statements agree on the main points. Kenneth Copeland Ministries holds "the soon-coming, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ", the resurrection of the dead, and the eternal punishment of the lost. Joyce Meyer Ministries describes hell as "a real place". Neither statement says how Christ's return is ordered or sets out a millennium. The Lausanne statement, an outside critique, charges some prosperity teaching with promising rewards in this life more than the next; that is its charge and not these ministries' words.

We believe in the Christian’s hope—the soon-coming, personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead, the eternal happiness of the saved, and the eternal punishment of the lost.

The Bible describes hell as a real place. It is a place of suffering and a place of permanent separation from God for those who die without accepting Christ.

Faith spoken: the confession of the Word

Faith is a force that is released by words, so the believer speaks what he wants God to do.

Several teachers hold that faith, spoken and held without doubt, brings what it names. Kenneth Copeland Ministries publishes a "My Faith Works!" confession for believers to say, with Mark 11:23-24 as its first reference. Frederick Price, in Is Healing for All?, tells the sick to confess healing "in the face of every symptom". Joyce Meyer says she once taught this and now thinks it "got out of balance": she says she used to think any illness meant too little faith. Kate Bowler writes that Hagin taught that "our words spoken in faith shape the reality of our lives."

I do not doubt, but believe in my heart that I have what I speak by faith.

YOU MUST CONFESS THE WORD OF GOD IN THE FACE OF EVERY SYMPTOM AND EVERY PAIN.

I'm glad for what I learned about prosperity, but it got out of balance. I'm glad for what I've learned about faith, but it got out of balance

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.

So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Mark 11:23-24 is the best text these teachers have, and it stands at full weight: Jesus did say "believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24), and the promise is not to be shrunk. But Jesus begins with "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22), so God is the one trusted and faith is not a force the speaker wields, and the words are a promise about prayer: "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for" (Mark 11:24), joined at once to "whensoever ye stand praying, forgive" (Mark 11:25). The same Lord prayed with perfect faith, "all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:36), and the cup was not removed. So John asks "according to his will" (1 John 5:14), and James says some ask "amiss" (James 4:3). A teaching that a believer has "what I speak by faith", and that a failed answer proves too little faith, goes beyond what the text says; Joyce Meyer has said so of her own past teaching.

Why the Lausanne statement matters here. The statement rejects "the notion that God's miraculous power can be treated as automatic, or at the disposal of human techniques, or manipulated by human words, actions or rituals." It also affirms "the miraculous grace and power of God" and "expectant faith in the living God." Both halves are fair: the Scripture does promise answered prayer.

Meyer's words. The Christian Post reports her saying faith "is a powerful force but it's not just an automatic, you put your trust in God". These words come only from the news report of her Instagram clip, and the clip could not be fetched.

Mark 11:23-24 in its setting. The words come between the cursing of the fig tree and the Lord's return to the temple, and they were said to his disciples. Jesus' own prayer in Gethsemane shows what faith in God looks like when the answer is no.

Healing in the atonement

Some teachers hold that Christ's death secured healing for the body as surely as forgiveness for the soul.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries says "healing is included in redemption." Joyce Meyer Ministries says divine healing "is active in the lives of people today through Jesus, who is the Healer", without saying healing is in the atonement. The teaching rests on Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:16-17 and 1 Peter 2:24. Jackson's critique records a teacher's argument, from Frederick Price, that a sick believer who lacks healing lacks faith.

Divine healing is active in the lives of people today through Jesus, who is the Healer. Healing includes physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual restoration.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.

who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.

And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Take Isaiah 53:5 at full weight: "with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5), and Matthew does apply the chapter to the body, saying Jesus healed the sick "that it might be fulfilled" (Matthew 8:17). But Matthew sets that fulfillment in Jesus' own healings in Galilee, before the cross, and not in a promise that no believer will be ill. Peter quotes the same words for the cross, and there the wound is sin: he "bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Paul, who healed others, prayed three times that his thorn would leave and was told "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9), and he wrote, "Trophimus I left at Miletus sick" (2 Timothy 4:20). Christ's death does purchase the body's full healing, but that comes at "the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:23), and a teaching that makes present health a right, and each sickness a failure of faith, says more than the apostles said.

Where the teaching is nearest the text. Jesus did heal "all that were sick" (Matthew 8:16), and the sick are to ask for prayer (James 5). A church that prays for the sick in faith keeps a New Testament practice. The error is in making each failure a failure of the believer. Paul also told Timothy to "use a little wine" for his "often infirmities" (1 Timothy 5:23), with no rebuke of his faith.

Prosperity as God's will

Several teachers hold that God wants believers to be well off, and that poverty is not his will for them.

The fullest statements here are Kenneth Copeland's and Frederick Price's. Kenneth Copeland, on his ministry's site, says that a believer who asks only for enough is guilty of "selfishness". Frederick Price, in High Finance, writes that "prosperity is the will of God. It is God's perfect will that everyone prosper in every area of life." Creflo Dollar, answering critics of a ministry appeal for an aircraft, told his church to "dream for the best house" and "dream for the best car." Joel Osteen holds a milder version: he says God "wants you to prosper in your health, in your family, in your relationships, in your business, and in your career," and denies that he teaches the prosperity gospel. Joyce Meyer said in 2019 that her teaching on prosperity "got out of balance."

They think that’s humility, but it’s not. It’s selfishness!

We need to realize that prosperity is the will of God. It is God’s perfect will that everyone prosper in every area of life.

Dream for the best healing. Dream for the best deliverance; dream for the best house. Dream for the best car.

Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

and lest thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as at this day.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.

wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain: for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; but having food and covering we shall be therewith content. But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Their best texts stand at full weight: John does pray "that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health" (3 John 1:2), but it is a greeting to one man, Gaius, and its measure is "even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 1:2), not a rule that every believer will be well off. Moses does say "it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18), but he says it to Israel entering the land, against the pride that says "My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17), and the wealth serves "that he may establish his covenant" (Deuteronomy 8:18). Christ "became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), but Paul writes it to move the Corinthians to give their money away to the poor saints, "that there may be equality" (2 Corinthians 8:14), and he describes the apostles "as poor, yet making many rich" (2 Corinthians 6:10). Paul had learned "both to abound and to be in want" and to be content in either (Philippians 4:12), and he names those "supposing that godliness is a way of gain" (1 Timothy 6:5) and warns that "they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare" (1 Timothy 6:9). To teach that it is "God's perfect will that everyone prosper", and to read want as a failure of faith, turns a gift God may give into a promise he did not make.

Contentment. Paul wrote from prison: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content" (Philippians 4:11). An apostle who had been hungry did not count his want as a failure of faith.

What Lausanne affirms and rejects. The statement says there is "a biblical vision of human prospering" and that "the Bible includes material welfare (both health and wealth) within its teaching about the blessing of God." It rejects the notion that "wealth is always a sign of God's blessing" or that "poverty or illness or early death, is always a sign of God's curse." Both halves hold.

Jesus' own life. Jackson quotes Frederick Price: "Jesus must have had plenty. He was never caught short." The Lord himself says "the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). Price's point that Jesus fed thousands and had followers who traveled with him is true, but a gift of others is not wealth owned.

Sensitive material. This chart says nothing of any teacher's private finances. It reports only what the teachers say in public.

Seed-faith giving and the tithe

Giving, and above all the tithe, is taught as sowing a seed that God returns with increase.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries teaches that the tithe is "a sacred covenant connection" and that "you're sowing a seed in faith". It also says giving starts "a cycle of blessing": the more a believer gives, "the more God will return provision to meet that need." Gloria Copeland, in God's Will Is Prosperity, reads Mark 10:30 as a promise of returns on gifts. The Lausanne statement defines the prosperity gospel partly by this practice, "the 'sowing of seeds' through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings."

You are not paying a bill to God; rather, you’re sowing a seed in faith and showing Him your heart.

The more you give of what you need, the more God will return provision to meet that need.

Give one house and receive one hundred houses or one house worth one hundred times as much.

Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel’s sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

But this I say, He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Let each man do according as he hath purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work:

Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

But Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

Paul does tie giving to harvest: "he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6), and God "loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). The promise there is that God gives "all sufficiency in everything" (2 Corinthians 9:8), for giving and not for goods, and Paul is gathering relief for the poor saints in Jerusalem. In Mark 10:30 the hundredfold comes "with persecutions" (Mark 10:30) and includes brothers, sisters and mothers, which is the new family of the church and not a hundred houses. Malachi 3:10 is a command to Israel under the law to bring the tithe to the storehouse, and the New Testament gives the church no command to tithe. Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none" (Acts 3:6), and gave what they had. A teaching that asks the poor to give in order to get a return puts the gift in the wrong hands and for the wrong end.

Jackson's judgment. Jackson grants that some New Testament passages do support giving and receiving, and says "what is crucial however is the motivation of the giver, and not the certainty of material abundance." He adds that the movement's teachers do not seem to embrace sacrificial giving.

The believer's nature: "the same class of being"

Teachers differ on how like God the believer is. The strongest statement is Kenyon's; the "little gods" language is Copeland's in Bowman's account, and Hagin warned against it.

E. W. Kenyon wrote that "every man who has been 'born again' is an Incarnation", and that "the believer is as much an Incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." He meant the born again only, and denied the Theosophist claim "that all men have the nature of Deity." Kenneth Hagin wrote that man is "in the same class of being as God", by which he meant that God and man are both spirits, and he added at once that he did not say man is divine. Late in life he warned readers who were confused by teaching "that we are little gods". Robert Bowman, a scholar of the movement, writes that Kenneth Copeland "is not afraid to say that human beings are meant to be gods" and "argues directly from the image of God to the little gods concept". This chart reports "little gods" as Bowman's account of Copeland: Copeland's own words were not found in his books' scanned text or on his ministry's site. Kate Bowler notes that the healing evangelist John G. Lake spoke of "god-men". Not every teacher here holds this view. None of the ministry statements read teaches it.

Every man who has been “born again” is an Incarnation, and Christianity is a miracle.

He is in the same class of being as God. Notice, I did not say man is divine. He is, however, able to commune with God because he is a spirit being.

people who quote scriptures such as First John 4:17 don’t really believe we are deity or little gods. But because of the way they express themselves, one could be led to think they do believe that.

for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

I said, Ye are gods, And all of you sons of the Most High. Nevertheless ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

The best text is Psalm 82:6, which Jesus himself quotes: "I said, Ye are gods" (John 10:34). But the psalm goes on, "ye shall die like men," and Jesus uses the verse to show that scripture calls even Israel's judges "gods" to whom the word came, which is no claim that men share God's nature. The word "Incarnation" belongs to the Son alone, who was "existing in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6) and "emptied himself" (Philippians 2:7), and Kenyon's statement that the believer is "as much an Incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth" puts a man beside the Lord. The serpent's first promise was "ye shall be as God" (Genesis 3:5). Hagin's words are narrower, and he said "I did not say man is divine"; man made in God's image can commune with God, but "the same class of being" still blurs the line Scripture keeps between the Creator and the creature. The verdict falls hardest on Kenyon's statement and on the "little gods" language wherever a teacher uses it, a language Hagin himself warned against.

Whether the phrase is Copeland's. A fuller treatment needs the recordings Bowman cites. Until they are read, "little gods" is reported here as Bowman's account of Copeland. Bowman links the two teachers on the premise ("For Copeland, as for Hagin"), but Hagin's 2003 book shows that Hagin did not accept the "little gods" conclusion.

Hagin's devotional. His Faith Food (1986) says believers can fellowship with God "because we are in the same class of being as God. God is a Spirit." The sense is the same as in The Human Spirit.

Part 4 weighs each position against the Scripture. It judges the teaching of the teachers named. Where one teacher holds a view that others do not, the verdict says so.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Every ministry here names the Bible the rule, and that is where the standard lies. Hagin's claim that Jesus gave him the teaching in visitations in the 1950s adds a second source, and Paul says "any gospel other than that which we preached unto you" is accursed (Galatians 1:8). Jackson's account of McConnell's research suggests the teaching in fact came from Kenyon, who was shaped by the metaphysical movements, so the teaching's key ideas did not come from the text of Scripture itself. Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Joyce Meyer Ministries do not hold to Hagin's visitations in their published statements, so this verdict falls hardest on Hagin's teaching and those who rely on it.

What stands in their favor. They say the Bible is inspired and the rule. That puts them nearer the line than churches that bind a creed or a later prophet.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Joyce Meyer Ministries teach salvation by grace through Christ's blood, as Ephesians 2:8 does: "by grace have ye been saved through faith". Meyer's ministry and Lakewood call baptism a testimony and a symbol, where Peter says "be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), so baptism in these statements is not what the apostles preached: it is put after salvation, where Peter puts it before the remission of sins. The statements read name believers as the ones baptized but do not name the mode. This places the position where the site places other evangelical churches that hold the same view of baptism.

Health and wealth. Kenneth Copeland Ministries says its mission is to bring believers to "wholeness and prosperity in every area of life", and the Lausanne statement fears the way of salvation may be "misrepresented and substituted with material wellbeing" where the teaching dominates. No statement read makes giving or confession a condition of salvation, so that teaching is weighed in full under healing, prosperity and seed-faith giving above, as it is on the Universal Church chart, and not counted twice here.

On Kenyon. Kenyon's statement that the believer is an incarnation is weighed under the believer's nature above. No ministry statement read teaches it.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Lakewood's statement is right on what the Supper is: a remembrance, "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24). It sets no day. The disciples at Troas were "gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7) "upon the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), and the first church "continued stedfastly" in it (Acts 2:42), so the first-day Supper is binding. "Regularly" does not say that, and the miss on the day is real. On its meaning Lakewood stands near the line, and it sets no bar Scripture is against. This verdict rests on one ministry's one sentence and says nothing of what Rhema, Copeland's partner churches or World Changers do.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The apostles "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), a plurality under Christ in each congregation, who were not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). The ministries here are each the work of one teacher, and Copeland's ministry lists partner churches while saying it is not responsible for what they believe or practice. Independent churches with one pastor would sit a step nearer; this course is set one step further out because ministries such as Crenshaw Christian Center and Kenneth Copeland Ministries belong to a founder and pass within his family, as Crenshaw passed from father to son in 2009. It is not moved for binding doctrine: no ministry here claims an office whose word binds beyond Scripture, and the Rhema Ministerial Association's affidavit, as Jackson describes it in the 1980s, binds ministers to a written statement of tenets, which is weighed under authority.

Where it stands nearer. The congregations are independent of any denominational hierarchy, which is the New Testament pattern. But the New Testament pattern is a plurality of elders in each congregation, and no statement read describes one.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

The New Testament asks believers to be "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19) and names no instrument. Kenneth Copeland Ministries' teaching on praise, joyful and open, is true to the Psalms and to Paul's "singing with grace in your hearts unto God" (Colossians 3:16). The weakness in the sources is a gap, not a finding. They describe a choir, a stage and large events, but say nothing of instruments or the order of the assembly. The course is set in the middle on what the sources show, and no more can be said until those services are described.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries teaches a baptism in the Holy Spirit "distinct from the new birth" and "speaking with tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance", and Joyce Meyer Ministries teaches that the gifts of the Spirit "are active and relevant today". The New Testament shows the miraculous gifts given through the hands of the apostles (Acts 8:17-18), with God "bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers" (Hebrews 2:4) to confirm the word. Paul asks "do all speak with tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:30) and expects the answer no. On this site's conviction, the gifts came with the apostles and ceased with them. Joyce Meyer says she once taught that sickness meant too little faith; where any teacher still does, that adds a second error to the first.

What is true here. The Holy Spirit does dwell in every believer, and God still hears prayer and heals. The verdict is on the claim that a tongues-speaking baptism or a command of healing is the believer's right.

But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

The statements of Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Joyce Meyer Ministries hold the resurrection, judgment, eternal happiness for the saved and eternal punishment for the lost, as Revelation 20:11-15 teaches. They say "soon-coming" without setting a day, as they must: "of that day and hour knoweth no one" (Matthew 24:36). The question the sources raise is emphasis, not creed. A teaching that promises the believer healing and wealth now speaks little of the cross, trials and the world to come, and Paul told the churches "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). The statements themselves give no cause to place the position further out.

These ministries hold what the line holds on much that matters: the Bible is inspired and the rule, salvation is the gift of God through Christ's blood, Christ will return, the dead will rise, and the lost face judgment. They preach faith in a God who hears prayer, they pray for the sick, and they give. Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries and Lakewood publish plain statements, and Joyce Meyer has said in public that her teaching on faith and prosperity got out of balance. The Lausanne statement itself affirms "a biblical vision of human prospering."

The question that remains is whether faith is trust in a God who gives as he chooses, or a force a believer can use to receive what he names. The New Testament teaches the first. Jesus said "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22), and Paul prayed three times that his thorn be taken away and was told "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Where a teacher turns a promise to one man or one nation into a rule for every believer, and counts the believer's sickness or poverty as his own failure, the teaching goes past what the apostles taught.

Each teacher in this chart has to answer for his or her own words, and not every one stands in the same place. The way to the line is the apostles' word alone.

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