Has Kenneth Copeland lost his mind?

If you haven't seen the latest ravings of this mad man, you can see them Here . This is the same man who loves money more than God or Jesus or the written word and has bragged about his being wealthy and a billionaire. You can see that here and here. He once screamed at his audience, claiming to be using the creative power of his spoken word, "Moneeeeeeey, come to me."

This is the same man who said, "When Jesus says I Am, I just smile and say, 'I am, too.'"

This is the same man who said that God, God, mind you, is around 6 foot 4.

This is the same man that said Jesus had to been born again in hell after Satan's demons had a field day with Him, jumping up and down on His back and laughing their heinies off.

This is the same man who claims that Jesus Himself appeared to him one day while he was shaving and told him that he could've done the same thing He, Jesus, had done, whip Satan.

Kenneth Copeland and his buddies all preach a different gospel and a different Jesus. Paul said let him and them be accursed, Galatians 1:6-9.

The Ten Commandments in the 21st century

The Ten Commandments

Part One: Why the Law?

Exodus 20

TEXT/INTRO: Take your Bible and turn to the Old Testament book of Exodus and chapter 20, Exodus 20 and we’ll be reading beginning with verse one.

I’m going to pose a question as I begin that may encourage all of us to stick it out to the end, and the question is this, “what do the ten

commandments have to do with me, one who is in Christ and living in the 21^st century? Why do I need to hear about the ten commandments?” For instance, what does the first commandment have to do with anyone living in our day and time? “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” The answer is, “we’re living in a world and in an age when there are literally millions of so-called gods out there in the spiritual realm offering millions of alternatives to the one true God.” Which one have you “decided” to follow and why that one or perhaps you’re in a religion that says there are many gods such as Hinduism or New Age?

         And did you know that human beings are just as likely to worship the human body and form as some false deity? Listen to this, ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Rom. 1:25 NAU)

Atheism and evolution are both idolatrous. And, yes, I’m well aware of the two types of evolution, microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution has to do with the comparatively minor evolutionary change taking place within a species. Human beings for example. We keep getting taller, overall, and fatter. Macroevolution has to do with the notion that species evolve from being one species to being another, like the bogus theory that man evolved from apes or primordial ooze. And that’s what evolves into the worship of the creature rather than the Creator. Macroevolution has man as the center of all things.

False gods can be almost as persuasive and alluring as the one true God, the God of Abraham and Israel and Jacob and Joseph and David. Yahweh has His prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, and Satan has his (1 Cor. 12:1-12; Eph. 4:11; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 Jn. 2:18-20; 4:1-3).

And second, the ten commandments are relevant because God holds the entire world accountable for its behavior and for its rejection of Him as the Great I AM.  ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Rom. 3:19 NKJ) We’re going to see in just a moment to whom the law was given but

before that I’ll let you know that God holds everyone accountable to Himself for their rebellion and especially for rejecting His Son.

I hope that helped clue you in on why the ten commandments are essential for our day and time. They can’t save anyone, but as we will see later, they point the way to how one must be saved.

A different approach to spiritual warfare: part one

            I’m hearing a lot of “chatter” on the internet these days about spiritual warfare. Quite a number of theologians and pastors and evangelists see the COVD19 pandemic as a spiritual attack perpetrated by the devil. I tend to agree with them. Not on every point, but overall. I can see this being the work of our enemy. If you need any source for believing that, take a look at the book of Job.

You may know why I used the word chatter in that sentence… or not. Chatter is what the FBI and the CIA and the Secret Service use to refer to talk they have discovered while ease-dropping on our nations enemies who are constantly plotting some kind of attack on our nation. Those agencies have to constantly be on alert for attacks against our country planned by Muslim terrorists, the Chinese and Russian governments. And, thankfully, they have been able to thwart planned attacks here on our shores, like the van bomb in New York City a couple of years ago. It’s an ongoing and relentless effort to protect our citizens. And from what I’ve read over the last few years, there have been many attempted attacks against us.

         Now, take your Bible and turn to “the” passage on spiritual warfare, Ephesians chapter 6 beginning with v.10 (repeat). I’m going to call this study “On-Scripture Chatter On Spiritual Warfare.” See what I did there?

         We have covered this topic over the last few years but with this never-heard-of-before virus, it’s experiencing a resurgence within the church and even outside the church. And, besides, I love this chance to study it again with a different perspective than I had years ago. 

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

 ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:10-12 NAU)

         By the way, as often as I and many others use the term “spiritual warfare,” the term never occurs in the Bible. Did you know that? Seriously. If you have a device with you that can look stuff like that up, check it out. Those two words never occur together in the Bible. But the concept certainly does. One can find it in places like 2 Corinthians 10 and 1 Timothy 4 and 1 Peter 5:8-9 and 2 Peter 2 and 1 John 2:18 and 4:1. So, it’s very real and very dangerous if we’re not prepared.

         Pay attention to how Paul begins this section. He says, and I close with this,

¹⁰ Finally, That’s an important word. It tells us how important the topic was to the apostle Paul that he would introduce it with the word “finally.” He isn’t saying “I’ve saved the best for last,” but he is saying pay attention to what he is about to teach you about this experience of spiritual warfare and how we’re to wage war with the devil and his minions.