Counterfeit Revival by Hank Hanegraaff

From the Back Cover

The best-selling expose

by the host of The Bible Answer Man broadcast,

expanded and updated for the 21st century

COUNTERFEIT REVIVAL goes behind the scenes and uncovers the contradictions, false experiences, spiritual deception, and seductive allure of esoteric experience masquerading under the banner of truth. COUNTERFEIT REVIVAL draws you into the wildly popular and bizarre world of contemporary revivalism as it documents the devastating impact on congregations world-wide.

Counterfeit Revival provides biblical remedies to counter a paradigm shift that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of contemporary Christianity.

Hank Hanegraaff knows what he is talking about. He brings his unique talent, knowledge, research, and experience to full expression in this eminently readable, inherently memorable, and exhaustively documented evaluation of today's revivalism.

Satan is a master counterfeiter. Rather than presenting evil in its naked deformity, he masquerades as an angel of enlightenment. He wants people to encounter him and think they are in touch with the living God. His deception is a counterfeit revival.

"Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established,

that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."

--Blaise Pascal

HANK HANEGRAAFF serves as President and Chairman of the board of the Christian Research Institute International...Hanegraaff also hosts "The Bible Answer Man" radio program and is the author of popular books such as RESURRECTION and THE FACE THAT DEMONSTRATES THE FARCE OF EVOLUTION...

Contents

Part 1 - Fabrications, Fantasies and Frauds...

1. The Holy Ghost Bartender
2. The Party
3. The Vineyard Connection
4. The Pensacola Outpouring
5. The Fatal Fruit

Part 2 - Lying Signs and Wonders

1. Animals, Animation, Advertisements, and Athletics
2. A Jack with a Lantern
3. A Great Apostasy
4. A Great Awakening
5. A Muddy Mixture

Part 3 - End Time Restorationizm

1. End Time Restoration of Tongues
2. End Time Restoration of Healing
3. End Time Restoration of Charismatic Unity
4. End Time Restoration of Super Prophets and Apostles
5. End Time Restoration Hoaxes

Part 4 - Slain in the Spirit

1. Sisters
2. Suspect Slayings
3. Shakers and Quakers
4. Seven Scriptural Pretexts
5. Structural Defects

Part 5 - Hypnotism

1. The Arrival of the Mesmerist
2. The Altered State of Consciousness
3. The Psychology of Peer Pressure
4. The Exploitation of Expectations
5. The Subtle Power of Suggestion

"It is easy to make someone believe a lie but very hard to undo that work again."

--Mark Twain

Christianity In Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff

From the Back Cover

"Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth."

- The Apostle Paul

Nearly two decades ago, Hank Hanegraaff's award-winning Christianity in Crisis alerted the world to the dangers of a cultic movement within Christianity that threatened to undermine the very foundation of biblical faith. But in the 21st century, there are new dangers -- new teachers who threaten to do more damage than the last.

These are not obscure teachers that Hanegraaff unmasks. We know their names. We have seen their faces, sat in their churches, and heard them shamelessly preach and promote the false pretext of a give-to-get gospel. They are virtual rock stars who command the attention of presidential candidates and media moguls. Through make-believe miracles, urban legends, counterfeit Christs, and twisted theological reasoning, they peddle an occult brand of metaphysics that continues to shipwreck the faith of millions around the globe:

"God cannot do anything in this earthly realm unless we give Him permission."

"Keep saying it ... 'I have equality with God' -- talk yourself into it."

"Being poor is a sin."

"The Jews were not rejecting Jesus as Messiah;

it was Jesus who was refusing to be the Messiah to the Jews!"

"You create your own world the same way God creates His.

He speaks, and things happen; you speak and they happen."

Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century exposes darkness to light,

pointing us back to a Christianity centered in Christ.

"Having lost the ability to think biblically, post-modern Christians are being transformed from cultural change agents and initiators into cultural conformists and imitators. Pop culture beckons, and post-modern Christians have taken the bait. As a result, the biblical model of faith has given way to an increasingly bizarre array of fads and formulas."

From the Preface

Inside the Front Cover

A modern crisis in Christianity continues to deepen as an ever-increasing number of 21st century prosperity preachers, ranging from Joyce Meyers to T.D. Jakes, convinces devotees that what happens in your life is a result of the words you speak. If you are healthy and prosperous, words created your reality. Conversely, if your baby dies or your spouse contracts cancer, you are the prime suspect.

According to one of America's most popular prosperity preachers, Joel Osteen, "The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it. This is a spiritual principle, and it works whether what you are saying is good or bad, positive or negative." Osteen's words are eerily similar to those of New Thought practictioner Joe Vitale -- contributor to Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. When asked by Larry King whether a nine-year-old Florida girl who was brutally murdered attracted this horror to herself, Vitale responded, "We are attracting everything to ourselves and there is no exception."

While Faith preachers such as Osteen have noteworthy differences from New Agers such as Vitale and Byrne, they are united in the belief that the force of faith is so powerful that even the Master of the Universe is bound by its irrevocable reality.

In Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century Hanegraaff pulls back the veil and exposes fatal flaws and feel-good fallacies that are spreading like cancer within the body of Christ.

But this is a cancer that has a cure and Hanegraaff shows us the way back to spiritual health and wholeness.

Section Titles include:

Part One: Turning Truth into Mythology

Part Two: Faith in Faith

Part Three: Little Gods

Part Four: Atonement Atrocities

Part Five: Health and Want

Part Six: Sickness and Suffering

Part Seven: Back to Basics

Appendix A: Are "God's Annointed" Beyond Criticism?

Inside the Back Cover

Hank Hanegraaff is the host of Bible Answer Man, heard daily throughout the United States and Canada. He is president of the Christian Research Institute and author of many best-selling books, including The Prayer of Jesus, Counterfeit Revival, and The Apocalypse Code. He and his wife, Kathy, reside in North Carolina and are parents to twelve children.

The Grand Poo-Bah says -- This is the number one book that you need to read if you are currently attending Victory Churches International or a Faith Movement/Word of Faith church. These churches tend to have a wide range of creative names which will not necessarily identify them as Faith Movement churches. (Their teachings will !) The Health and Wealth gospel marks them as a cult.

You also need to read the book if you listen to, follow, or own any materials distributed by the prosperity preachers. The kingpins in the Faith Movement are Kenneth & Gloria Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyers, Richard/Oral Roberts, Creflo Dollar, t.D. Jakes, Frederick K.C. Price, John Hagee, and Pat Robertson. (For a complete list see the column on the right at the beginning of the blog.)

You also need to read this book if your church claims not to be part of the Faith Movement but at the same time is promoting any of the above mentioned leaders in any way shape or form i.e. meetings, conferences, rallies or selling any books, tapes or CDs. If they are, they are definitely involved in the Faith Movement.

If your church is teaching the Health and Wealth gospel, you need to read this book. Put another way, you often hear these words from the pulpit "God wants you healthy and wealthy." If you do, you are involved in the Faith Movement.

Where to get the book

1. Your local Christian bookstore will order it for you if they don't have it.
2. Go to the website www.equip.org. The book can be ordered there.
3. Go to www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.
4. Visit Chapters Bookstore. They will order it for you.

Benny Hinn's False Teachings

The Holy Spirit apparently speaks verbally to Benny Hinn on a daily basis. For example, almost as in the role of the Roman Catholic Mary, the Holy Spirit told him, "I am here to help you in your prayers to the Father. And I am here to help you pray to the Son." Hinn claims that he derived his many supernatural experiences and new teachings by personal, verbal conversations with the Holy Spirit Himself: In other words, that the Holy Spirit personally revealed His theology to him over the years. But ask yourself the following question: Would the Holy Spirit reveal the following teachings? Or has Hinn been listening more to the visions of his own mind.

Benny Hinn teaches that every non-Christian is demon possessed; that the Holy Spirit has a body and has more sympathy than other members of the Godhead; and that Jesus "would have sinned" apart from the Holy Spirit.

He also believes that each person of the Godhead has His own spirit, soul, and spirit body. In other words, each person of the Godhead is a triune being by Himself so that collectively "there's nine of them." Jesus Christ further died spiritually, became the nature of Satan, and was born again in hell.

Christians are "little Messiahs" and "little gods" on the earth. Thus, "[Encouraging the audience] ... say, 'I am a God-man...This spirit-man within me is a God-man...' Say 'I am born of heaven -- a God-man. I'm a God man. I am a sample of Jesus. I'm a super being.' Say it! Say it! Who's a super being? 'I walk in the realm of the supernatural.' Say it!...You want to prosper? Money will be falling on you from left right and center. God will begin to prosper you, for money always follows righteousness...say after me, 'everything I ever want is in me already.'"

Hinn teaches that Christians confessing they are "a sinner saved by grace" only insult God with such "garbage."

According to his November 6, 1990 TBN sermon and other lectures, Hinn teaches that poverty is from the devil and that God wants all Christians prosperous; that "confession activates Heaven" and "confession releases the spirit world." He claimed the Holy Spirit told him that if witches and occultists can speak death by the supernatural power of words, then Christians can speak life and prosperity by the same power. God further taught him to "blow" on people for the anointing or reception of the Holy Spirit. Hinn also claims: "your spirit-man doesn't have God, your spirit-man is a part, if I may say it, is a part of Him." Thus, Hinn believes that inside the Christian is a new being "that is divine and God-like in every way!" Jesus supposedly told him "I loved you enough to become one of ya! And I love you enough to make you one of me."

Finally, Hinn teaches that supernatural visions should be common to Christians; that Jesus temporarily lost His divinity after the crucifixion; and that using such words as, "if it be Thy will," are destroyers of true faith.

Christianity Today (October 28, 1991) reported that Hinn claimed to have abandoned the Faith teachings and he publicly apologized for his errors. But a year later a new report in Christianity Today (October 5, 1992) observed that evangelical apologetics ministries "have noticed a pattern of Hinn telling people behind the scenes that he has changed, but then going on as before." One theologian who participated in the original Christianity Today interview noted that Hinn was prone to "extremism and exaggeration" and that his biblical exegesis was "frequently unsound and unbiblical."

In his book Christianity in Crisis Hank Hanegraaff, President of the Christian Research Institute, argues that Hinn's teachings can be conclusively shown to be heretical. Further, Budd Press of Watchman Fellowship, who has hundreds of pages of documentation on Hinn, told us the following on October 26, 1992: "Despite what Hinn claims, my research shows that Benny Hinn has established a track record of clearly documented false teachings, false prophecies, equivocation, and attacks on those who criticize his ministry." According to his taped series "Our Position in Christ," Hinn even claimed that he is not just a part of Jesus but because he is united with Christ, "I am Him. The word has become flesh in me." This is one example of how a Biblical doctrine can be misinterpreted through Hinn's careless use of words.

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

Christianity In Crisis CD's

When the book Christianity In Crisis was released, it instantly became a best-seller. The vast majority expressed appreciation for this landmark work -- yet some found it difficult to accept that anyone within the body of Christ could make the bizarre and blasphemous statements documented in the book. Frequently, they said, "Until I hear it with my own ears, I will not believe it!"

And that is precisely why these audio tapes were produced. Hear Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Frederick Price, Morris Cerullo, and others define and defend doctrines that have systematically obliterated the essentials of the Christian faith.

Listen as the faith teachers speak for themselves and then you decide.

Hank Hanegraaff -- host of the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast and President of the world-renowned Christian Research Institute International is heard daily throughout the USA and Canada.

If you are involved with the Faith Movement or any church or organization that teaches the health and wealth gospel or that Christ died for anything other than our sins, you need to listen to these CD's. The two CD set can be purchased at http://www.equip.org/.

A Shell of the Truth, Stuffed with Lies

With a new generation of Health and Wealth -- also called Word-Faith -- teachers gaining widespread acceptance in mainstream Christianity, CRI President and Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, is warning that their doctrines promote a "wildly distorted perception of what it means to be a Christian."

Hank calls the growing influence of the Word-Faith movement "one of the greatest threats to Christianity from within." He says he is especially concerned by the striking similarity between occult ideas popularized by secular authors like Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, and the writings of mega-church and T.V. preacher, Joel Osteen.

The Threat from Within

"Although Byrne and Osteen have noteworthy differences," Hank notes, "they agree that 'You are the Master of the Universe, and the Genie is there to serve you.'"

"For Byrne, the Genie is the 'law of attraction,'" Hank contends. "For Joel Osteen, it is the Word of Faith. Osteen writes, 'the moment you speak something out, you give birth to it. This is a spiritual principle, and it works whether what you are saying is good or bad, positive or negative.'"

In Word Faith theology, this principle is supposedly so powerful that even God is bound by it. But to make this point, Word Faith teachers have to twist God's Word. For instance, Osteen claims that "Scripture tells us that we are to 'call the things that are not as if they already were.'" However, Romans 4:17 says that it is actually God -- not us -- "who calls things that are not as though they were."

"Tragically," Hanegraaff adds, "Joel Osteen isn't the only Word Faith teacher who twists Scripture in order to advance dangerous doctrines." A host of prominent preachers have employed similar techniques, and Hanegraaff says they are plunging Christianity into an ever-deepening crisis.

Reaching the Deceived

"People flock to Word Faith churches because they are drawn to the promise of unparalleled prosperity and good health," Hank says. "But they don't see that people have swallowed the cyanide and are now sick and dying because the promises are empty."

Noting that Word Faith teachers operate using outward trappings of Christianity, Hank warns that "millions have fallen for a shell of the truth, stuffed with lies."

The good news is that many people are leaving the Word Faith movement and over the last fifteen years so many people can give credit to CRI (The Christian Research Institute) for being instrumental in getting them out of the movement. Hank says, "By God's grace, we will continue to minister to people who've been deceived by this counterfeit gospel."

(From Equip newsletter - Christian Research Institute, Vol. 21, Iss. 3 - April 2008)

I recently sent away and received the audio adaptation of Hank's highly acclaimed book, Christianity in Crisis. It uses the faith teachers' own words to expose their dangerous heresies. I highly recommend you visit Hank's website at www.equip.org to obtain this audio adaptation.