Kenneth Hagin's False Teachings

Kenneth Hagin, Jr. believes that his Faith teachings are "the secret of success with God." Kenneth Hagin, Sr. argues that "Christians should have super-prosperity and super-success"! Thus, on one occasion God allegedly told him that He expects His people to meet in the very best places in town.

Interestingly, the Hagins, along with Tilton and Copeland, concede that the Faith message isn't working too well. Nevertheless, progressing upward from positive confession, they now emphasize the "commanding power" of the believer that was purchased for them at Calvary:

...The greatest fact from God's Word: commanding power...that every...child of God is capable of operating...Commanding is different from confession...Our problem is that we have been doing a lot of praying and a lot of confessing, but we haven't been doing any commanding.

God told Hagin, Sr. verbally,

"In the first place...don't pray about money anymore...Claim whatever you need." ... The Lord continued, "You say, 'Satan take your hands off my money!' ...Say, 'I claim..., 'naming whatever it is you want or need.' ...I said to the Lord, "Now Lord, I can't believe that you want us to meet our needs -- but our wants?" He replied..."in the 23rd Psalm...it says, 'The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not WANT.'" ... [Thus, God continues] "Claim whatever you need or want. Say 'Satan, take your hands off my finances.' Then say, 'Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.'"

(Perhaps this explains why Hagin wrote the booklet, How to Write Your Own Ticket with God.)

Thus Hagin proceeds with: "Can you see what he was saying? Turn your order in! Send the ministering spirits out to get it by saying, 'Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.'" In another place Hagin explains, "The devil is the one who stops money from coming to you...The Lord told me several years ago as I was complaining about needing money, ' Well, I can't do anything about it. It's up to you. You command it to come in Jesus' name...You even can speak to the angels, 'he told me, 'and they will go to work for you...'"

Hagin further teaches that "sickness and disease are of Satan...It is not the will of God for Christians to be ill." He believes that prayers made in hope are made in vain and that trusting God from the heart without positive confession is not enough: "Nowhere does the Bible teach that if you just believe in your heart you will get an answer." Hagin also teaches that faith is a tangible force/power and that fear is an evil spirit: "I always have treated fear as if it were a spirit..."

Finally, Hagin still believes that Christians know God through their spirits, not their minds. Because the inner spirit is the "real" man and the Holy Spirit communicates with the inner spirit, He does not communicate with our minds. This is why our spirits must dominate our minds. (cf. Romans 12:2; Luke 24:25; Hebrews 8:10; 1 Corinthians 14:32).

Despite Hagin, Sr.'s apparently great faith, in his own books he confesses that he regularly forgets Scriptural truth and has a problem with staying in the will of God. Indeed, at times he seems to be out of God's will as much as he is in it. This is so in spite of the fact that he gets regular visions -- and at least eight personal visits (so far) from Jesus -- to encourage him and keep him on the proper path. If Jesus was really guiding Kenneth Hagin, Sr., one can but wonder, would he have the kinds of problems he confesses? For example, why did even God have to tell him that "another trouble with you is that you don't practice what you preach"?

(From The Facts on the Faith Movement by John Ankerberg & John Weldon)