I didn't know Hagin wrote this book.
Text of forwarded message follows:
highly, why didn't they pay attention to their guru?]
Kenneth Hagins Forgotten Warning
Before he died in 2003, the revered father of the Word-Faith
movement corrected his spiritual sons for going to extremes with their
message of prosperity.
Charismatic Bible teacher Kenneth Hagin Sr. is considered the father of
the so-called prosperity gospel. The folksy, self-trained Dad Hagin
started a grass-roots movement in Oklahoma that produced a Bible college
and a crop of famous preachers including Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle,
Charles Capps, Jesse DuPlantis, Creflo Dollar and dozens of others-all of
whom teach that Christians who give generously should expect financial
rewards on this side of heaven.
Hagin taught that God was not glorified by poverty and that preachers do
not have to be poor. But before he died in 2003 and left his Rhema Bible
Training Center in the hands of his son, Kenneth Hagin Jr., he summoned
many of his colleagues to Tulsa to rebuke them for distorting his
message. He was not happy that some of his followers were manipulating
the Bible to support what he viewed as greed and selfish
indulgence.
Those who were close to Hagin Sr. say he was passionate about correcting
these abuses before he died. In fact, he wrote a brutally honest book to
address his concerns. The Midas Touch was published in 2000, a
year after the infamous Tulsa meeting.
Many Word-Faith ministers ignored the book. But in light of the recent
controversy over prosperity doctrines, it might be a good idea to dust it
off and read it again.
Here are a few of the points Hagin made in The Midas Touch:
1. Financial prosperity is not a sign of Gods blessing. Hagin
wrote: If wealth alone were a sign of spirituality, then drug traffickers
and crime bosses would be spiritual giants. Material wealth can be
connected to the blessings of God or it can be totally disconnected from
the blessings of God.
2. People should never give in order to get. Hagin was critical of
those who try to make the offering plate some kind of heavenly vending
machine. He denounced those who link giving to getting, especially those
who give cars to get new cars or who give suits to get new suits. He
wrote: There is no spiritual formula to sow a Ford and reap a
Mercedes.
3. It is not biblical to name your seed in an offering. Hagin was
horrified by this practice, which was popularized in faith conferences
during the 1980s. Faith preachers sometimes tell donors that when they
give in an offering they should claim a specific benefit to get a
blessing in return. Hagin rejected this idea and said that focusing on
what you are going to receive corrupts the very attitude of our giving
nature.
4. The hundredfold return is not a biblical concept. Hagin did the
math and figured out that if this bizarre notion were true, we would have
Christians walking around with not billions or trillions of dollars, but
quadrillions of dollars! He rejected the popular teaching that a believer
should claim a specific monetary payback rate.
5. Preachers who claim to have a debt-breaking anointing should not be
trusted. Hagin was perplexed by ministers who promise supernatural
debt cancellation to those who give in certain offerings. He wrote in
The Midas Touch: There is not one bit of Scripture I know about
that validates such a practice. Im afraid it is simply a scheme to raise
money for the preacher, and ultimately it can turn out to be dangerous
and destructive for all involved.
(Many evangelists who appear on Christian television today use this bogus
claim. Usually they insist that the miraculous debt cancellation will
occur only if a person gives right now, as if the anointing for this
miracle suddenly evaporates after the prime time viewing hour. This
manipulative claim is more akin to witchcraft than Christian
belief.)
Hagin condemned other hairbrained gimmicks designed to trick audiences
into emptying their wallets. He was especially incensed when a preacher
told his radio listeners that he would take their prayer requests to
Jesus empty tomb in Jerusalem and pray over them there-if donors included
a special love gift. What that radio preacher really wanted was more
people to send in offerings, Hagin wrote.
Thanks to the recent resurgence in bizarre donation schemes promoted by
American charismatics, the prosperity gospel is back under the nations
microscope. Its time to revisit Hagins concerns and find a biblical
balance.
Hagin told his followers: Overemphasizing or adding to what the Bible
actually teaches invariably does more harm than good. If the man who
pioneered the modern concept of biblical prosperity blew the whistle on
his own movement, wouldnt it make sense for us to listen to his
admonition?
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma. The Midas Touch is
available from Kenneth Hagin Ministries at
rhema.org.
http://www.charismanews.com/
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End of forwarded message text:
John