Is Kenneth Copeland Becoming Roman Catholic?
A week or two ago, there was some uproar over the fact that Kenneth Copeland had the Roman Catholic pope speak at his conference. I wasn’t initially going to respond, leaving the work to the hundreds of other blogs going nuts over it. I decided to throw in my two cents, however, when I saw some posts about Kenneth Copeland slipping into Roman Catholicism. I listened to the audio of this particular event. Ken Copeland had a friend named Bishop Tony Palmer who said the Lord called him to the Roman Catholics. He wasn’t called to tell them to repent of their false gospel of works. No. He was called to be a charismatic minister among them. He went on to tell a story about how Ken was one of his spiritual fathers, and the only one that would support him in this call. He also named Pope Francis as one of his spiritual fathers, having actually known him before he became pope. Tony said that Luther’s battle was over, and that there is no longer a need to protest. We just all need to come together. At the end of Palmer’s lecture, he rolled a video of the pope addressing the Copeland conference with a message about how we need to all unite. You can watch the whole thing above.
So, what do we make of this? Have we Protestants been getting it wrong? Does Rome actually teach what we do? Not at all. Check out Canons 9 & 14 from the Council of Trent:
Canon 9:“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to the obtaining [of] the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.”Canon 14:“If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema.”
Do you believe that we are justified by faith alone - i.e. “Luther’s protest”? Then, according to the Roman Catholic church, you are considered “anathema”. Anathema is a Greek word meaning “accursed.” It’s the same word that the apostle Paul used when talking about those who believe a false gospel.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!Galatians 1:8
The protesting is not over. The argument is not gone. Rome still holds this position as it was rehashed in the Vatican II documents and new Cathechism of the Catholic church. This mixing of faith and works for justification is a message that has poisoned the majority of churches here in America. They might not explicitly teach faith + works = justification, but it is certainly implied. And I had a hunch, just having spent years listening to Kenneth Copeland, that his site would express this sort of teaching somewhere. So, I spent some time reading through Kenneth Copeland’s site, and particularly in the section on salvation. If you are familiar with Copeland at all, then you know that the man’s theology and Bible handling is about as straight as a dog’s hind leg. I came upon a section where Ken tells his reader’s that they can trust they are saved, and found exactly what I expected to find. I’ve seen some articles that talk about how Ken is going the way of Rome. Based on what I read on his site, his message is essentially the same faith + works message. Check it out:Several days or weeks from now, you might not feel saved. You may begin to wonder if you were ever really saved to start with. You will have doubts—Satan will see to that! But when those thoughts and feelings come, just go back to the Word of God. You will see that it still says the same thing. God never changes and His Word never changes. It is still just as true today as when it was first spoken. People may try to convince you that it doesn’t work. Temptations may come to convince you that it didn’t work. Doubts will come to your mind. But all those things do not alter the fact that God’s Word is true.Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The moment you make Jesus the Lord of your life will be the moment you have a desire to live, instead of a desire to die. I can testify to that fact in my own life. Before I accepted Jesus as my Lord, I was headed straight to hell. Everything I liked to do was bad for me. The habits I had formed for 25 years were destructive to my body and my mind. But when I made Jesus the Lord of my life, all those desires were changed. I suddenly had a desire to get rid of my filthy habits. I had a desire to get rid of tobacco, alcohol, immoral thoughts and behavior, profanity, etc. My desires had been changed. Why? Because I was changed. The real me, my spirit, was reborn. The change in my spirit brought changes to my mind and body.These changes are available to you, too. God is right there, ready to accept you, ready to change you. You don’t have to live in sin any longer. You don’t have to live a defeated life any longer. You don’t have to be anything except God’s child. You can walk the road of life victoriously with Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You won’t have to take a back seat to Satan again. You can be the head and not the tail!View the entire article [here]
I have to admit, I was pleased at first that Ken tells people to look to the Word of God for assurance. But, I was soon reminded of how masterfully this guy can twist Scripture. He says, “Just go back to the Word of God.” Go back where? To Christ’s perfect life, wrath-bearing death on the cross, and resurrection for our justification? No. Go back to the “abundant life” part. This is the point of Scripture that Word Faith guys like Ken LOVE to emphasize. They insert all sorts of meaning into it as though we are promised amazing, wealthy, healthy, and robust lives, when all it really provides is another way of saying “eternal life.” Ken tells you to reflect on how, like him, you may have stopped smoking, drinking, having immoral thoughts and behaviors, etc. As he says, “These changes are available to you, too. God is right there, ready to accept you, ready to change you. You don’t have to live in sin any longer.” There is our assurance according to Copeland. It is our life change. In other words, WE are our own assurance. Not Christ. Not His work. Our work. And that is exactly the foundational message of Rome. “Yes, Christ died. But when you need justification, look to yourself.”
Throwing people back on the law for assurance is the worst thing we could possibly do. It offers no hope. No hope. No “trying.” It only condemns, and gives strength to our sin. There is no wiggle room to “do your best”. It is only, “Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! Do! or be justly cast into the lake of fire. Be perfect, or be justly cast into the lake of fire. Don’t just obey to obey, actually have the desire and love to obey all the time or be justly cast into the lake of fire.” This preaching will either have people running for the door when they soon realize they can’t do it, or have them believing they actually can do it and deceive themselves. We not only need to storm Rome with the amazing message of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. We need to bring this message to American evangelicalism. 