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Religions > Bible |
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| Date: |
30 Dec 2006 10:55:36 PM |
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Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
Learn more about this "Spiritual Terrorist."
http://www.cerm.info/false_teachers.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/Poptea16.htm
Over the last several years there have been many new disciples of the
Copeland and Hagin camp that have entered on the scene with the
prosperity message. In my opinion there has been none more blatant or
conniving (and convincing) than Creflo Dollar. He may be called Dr.
but listening to his teachings it is apparent his degree in theology
was not acquired at a normal conservative Bible seminary. This man is
on the leading edge of star trek Bible interpretations, taking it where
no man has gone before. His influence is clearly from his mentor
Kenneth Copeland; he appears fairly regularly on his TV program.
According to J. Lee Grady, an editor with Charisma Magazine, Copeland
provided Dollar with financial backing. Mr. Dollar has certainly been
discipled well under Copeland's influence. He is preaching word faith
to the MAX! If one were to close their eyes and listen, they can barely
tell between Creflo and Copeland's voice inflections and personality.
I'm sure he would take this as a compliment. Simply put-Creflo is
regurgitated Copeland (and Hagin).
His teachings are based on and his spiritual mentor Kenneth Copeland,
who according to J. Lee Grady, an editor with Charisma Magazine had
provided Dollar with his financial backing (source from Atlanta
Journal-Constitution - John Blake March 5, 2000 Dollar and the Gospel
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund40.html )
Creflo Dollars TV and radio broadcast is called "Changing Your
World." His programs are broadcast in every state and in over 15
countries outside the U.S by the Trinity broadcasting Network and Lesea
network. He is often videoed wearing three-piece charcoal pinstriped
suit as he preaches his message of prosperity as the hope of the gospel
to his church.
He is the Pastor of World Changers Christian Center, a
non-denominational church in College Park (meeting in a $6.5 million
gold dome). Creflo says he paid 18 million in cash for his new facility
(Changing your world Feb. 25, 2002, LeSea). It contains 8,000 plush
theater-style seats making it comfortable for the people as his sermons
can go up to two hours. (A huge white plastic container for offerings
is positioned at the end of each row (source from Atlanta
Journal-Constitution). "the Atlanta church's operating budget is $80
million a year" [Source: The Hamilton Spectator, January 21, 2006,
Dollar and the almighty buck By Michael Luo The New York Times service
NEW YORK (Jan 21, 2006)
The church consists of 23,000 members making it metro Atlanta's
second-largest church.
Creflo has two Rolls-Royce's (which he tells his congregation was
given to him -- the church purchased the first one for him). He flies
in a $5 million private jet to his speaking engagements in the US to
Europe (the church also owns a Gates Learjet. Estimated value:
$985,000). Dollar met his wife at West Georgia College in Carrollton
and graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in education. They have
five children, three girls and two boys. He lives in a $1 million home
behind iron gates in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood and owns another
worth $1.27 million). The church has amassed a fortune in real estate,
mostly in College Park. Like other word faith teachers Dollar is often
accompanied by bodyguards in public. (reference is
http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/newsatlanta/dollar/main.html
)
The Teachings
On his website it states http://www.worldchangers.org/hspirit_t1.html
" He (the Holy Ghost) is the third person in the Trinity -- The
Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost." He also states "We believe in
water baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We
believe in the name of Jesus, and the authority invested in that name.
We should be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit."
The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity
which is to upheld by the Christian church. Though his website states
it this way, he has also stated in his definition a distortion. He
explains: "The trinity is of course God the Father, God the Son, God
the Holy Ghost. We have to be careful because religion has us sometime
thinking we have three different Gods. You know there's God
here...hey holy ghost- hey Jesus...its God one God one faith one
baptism not three Gods, not three faiths, not baptism's everytime you
mess up, one. God the father, one God, three functions one and
different functions God functioning as a father, God functioning as a
son, God functioning as the holy ghost. I am Creflo Dollar I'm a
husband to my wife I'm, a father to my children I'm a pastor to
gods sheep. Right now I'm not functioning as husband, I am not
functioning as a father, I am functioning as one of the 5 fold ministry
gifts to God's sheep. Same guy other functions you follow me. One God
other functions."(Feb.19, 2001 World Changers program Lesea
broadcasting)
The orthodox Christian teaching of the Trinity is not that the Father,
the Son and Holy Spirit are functions, but are persons. He also
confirms his position when he says for his own baptism "I used to be
a baptist, I got baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost which is none other than the name of Jesus" (tape on
file). Whether Creflo subscribes to the trinity is hard to say, as he
has stated both positions confusing the issue. This is a Oneness
Pentecostal view, that they (a denial of persons) are only roles (modes
or functions?) More specifically this is the ancient heresy of
Sabellian. There are many new teachers today who do not have a grasp on
the tri-unity of God and from this distortion they go into other
distorted (false) doctrines. When I say false I mean that they take a
truth and change it, bring it to an extreme. For example they will take
a certain circumstance or promise out of the Bible and make it a
general one for all. But in this case its just flat out false teaching
and it affects everything else that is attached to it. To be baptized
in Jesus name means to Oneness Pentecostals the same as to be baptized
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for they are all
Jesus.
Just as Creflo seems to confuse the nature of God, he also confuses the
nature of man, which becomes crucial. He teaches we have equality and
no inferiority to God in His righteousness and abilities on earth. But
for one to get this understanding their mind needs to be renewed in the
area of righteousness (like his), so they can embrace the full truth of
it by faith. "You begin to study the righteousness of God is also
defined as having equality with God" ... "we're struggling to try
and get what God says we can have because we keep seeing ourselves as
little slaves and He's the big boss." "I'm going to show you a
scripture now that will just shock you real good, make you mad, upset,
all kinds of things and then I'm going to go and walk you through
Genesis all the way back up through the Bible. But the first scripture
is going to do all kinds of stuff to your head, ... but I'm going to
show you something Jesus said and I'm going to show you where He got
it from."
Quoting Jn.10:34 and Ps.82:6 Creflo states "Wow. Let's read verse
6, ready read: "I have said ye are gods and all of you are children
of the most High. But you shall die like men and fall like one of the
princes." Well, we know who that is right? "Arise oh God, judge the
earth for thou shall inherit all the nations." " Now, notice what
He says here, "Ye are gods" small g. You are gods? Somebody says
"You trying to say we're gods?" No, I'm not trying to say
we're gods. He already said it. But what I want to know is Lord, how
can we be gods? And He answers it in the next phrase. Because you are
the children of the Most High. See if you are truly a child of God, if
you were born out of God, you got to be a part of the God class. I
know I'm not God. But I'm a child of the Most High...I'm a part
of the God class.... But then the next verse says, "Because you did
not believe you were gods, you're going to die like men." But it
says you're gods. And I said now, Lord, wait a minute here. How we
going to prove this? Because I kept hearing over and over again all
this week, we need to have a God training class for Christians. So
they can start acting ... "(Our equality with God through
righteousness 1/21/2001)
This is not what the next verse actually says, Creflo who moves in and
around the Scriptures at a fast pace makes it hard for anyone to check
on these statements as he brings them through his twist and turns to
his conclusions. Ps. 82:6-8 'I said, 'You are gods, and all of you
are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall
like one of the princes.' The biblical application of this verse was
addressed to the judges of Israel they were called gods not because
they were divine but because they represented the true and only God
when they judged the people. The word for God that is used here is
elohim, which can mean rulers, (not Yahweh elohim used only for the one
God). The word for Judges is found in Ex.21:22; 22:8-9 it is ha elohim
(other scriptures of how the acted Deut.1:16;16:18; 25:1; 2 Sam.11:7).
Jesus goes on to explain: They 'will die as mere men and fall as one
of the princes', that prince was Satan. They thought they were like
God but they will die as mere men. It is then they will know the
difference between the creator who is the true God and their own
mortality. Juxtapose this with the end of Ps.82 in verse 8: "Arise,
O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations." It
points to only one God who eventually will judge righteously and rule
over all the people one day. Nowhere in Scripture is there a teaching
of little gods verses big God, but instead the scripture teaches about
false gods verses the true God. So in reality to claim to be a little
god is to put one in the category of a false god.
To understand what Creflo teaches we need to go back to the beginning,
man's beginning in the garden and compare what he says happened in
the biblical account. Creflo has constructed a unique fairy tale from
the Genesis record about Adam and God; from this distortion it affects
almost everything else he believes; tithing, righteousness, Christ,
healing, etc. In fact it goes to the core difference on the nature of
man and God. For it affect the concept of mans relationship to God, we
being servants to him as our King.
"What was the blueprint for man" Creflo asks his members. God made
a man that reflected his image; is that correct. When you look in the
mirror what do you see? A reflection of your what? Your image yourself.
But who is that in the mirror? That's you. Now you see and image a
reflection of you. Because if you were not real, then you couldn't
produce a reflection of something that's not there. Umm, Humm. So
when God made man. All He did was take a reflection of Himself. You all
ain't listening to what I'm saying. He [speaks in tongues], son,
help me, the Hebrew translation here "God made another speaking
spirit". The actual meaning there "He made another speaking
spirit"...
So when God made man all he did was take a reflection of himself... So
he said let us make another speaking spirit. When God made Adam all he
did was make an exact imprint of hisself. He duplicated himself, he was
the image and from his image came hisself...(Our equality with God
through Righteousness 1/21/2001).
"Because the first Adam, he had my blood in him. He had blood type G
on the inside of him. I mean, the blood of any child comes from the
father. Well, the father, God, was the one that had to create the
blood to flow into Adam, cause he was the first one. So I got to get
the same thing happening here and this last Adam got to have blood type
g like this first Adam had blood type g. And then I got to have myself
on the inside of that body like I was on the inside of Adam"
(Creflo Dollar April 16, 2002 Changing your world LeSea Broadcasting) .
Here Creflo is making the comparison of Adam being God, as Jesus was
God. So he is saying Adam was the first incarnation of God created from
the ground and Jesus is the second incarnation of God created from
Mary. Another quote confirms the Adam god teaching. "Adam had running
in his veins blood type g, that was God's blood, God had to get
another man just like Adam and he had to have running in his veins the
same type blood that Adam had in his veins, so God didn't create the
2nd Adam he created the last Adam because once Jesus finishes with this
thing we ain't gonna need no other Adam, you understand" (Changing
your World, LeSea Broadcasting).
Clearly Creflo holds to Adam being God in the flesh just as Jesus is.
" That was God in that body, we always think of that with the last
Adam but we never say that with the first Adam. It was God. God took a
reflection of Himself and put it in a physical body formed out of the
dust and gave him authority of all physical things on the planet. So
that like He was God in heaven, now He's made Adam God of the earth.
Adam has been crowned God of all physical things from the dust of the
earth including the moon the stars and the planets. I'm going to show
you all thin in Scripture but just follow me now... I'm just askin'
you to trust me for a minute until I open the Bible" (sure would have
helped if he opened it before he spoke).
It is here where we take off into new star trek interpretations:
"Mars and Venus and Jupiter, all of the handiwork of God was now
placed in the authority of the God of the earth. And here's what He
told him. He said I want you to guard it and keep out all intruders.
Now that gives us a little insight on why When God made Adam all he did
was make an exact imprint of hisself. He duplicated himself, he was the
image and from his image came hisself..."(Our Equality with God
through Righteousness 1/21/2001)
Where does it say this in the Bible? I'm sure Creflo can find one
obscure Scripture and contort it to fit his man/ god theology. But the
Bible in Genesis does not say this at all. Image (as in the case of
Adam) is only the reflection of another thing, it is not the other
thing it is to reflect.
"You need to understand your not a second class something, you are
an exact duplicate of the image of God and God is a speaking spirit and
he said let us make another speaking spirit... God took a reflection
and put it in a physical body formed out of the dust and gave authority
of all physical things on the planet... he's made Adam god of the
earth Adam has been crowned God of all physical things from the dust of
the earth including the moon the stars and the planets." (ibid.)
The Bible explains that God gave Adam authority as a caretaker over the
things on the earth and it specifically mentions them (Gen.1:26-27),
but not those things outside the earth.
Gen. 1:28 "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful
and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth." So God's word does not include anything outside
our atmosphere as Creflo claims.
Crefo is not only teaching from the silence of the Bible, but
opposite the clear teaching expressed in it. Adam never had the
opportunity to exercise his authority as God put Him and Eve in a
garden (Gen.2:8, 15) and forbid him to eat from a certain tree. In fact
Adam lost his authority when he ate from the tree, he sinned and was
forbidden back into the garden that he was given jurisdiction to govern
(Gen.3:23-24). If our being is an exact duplicate of God, we should
wonder why we have such a hard time accomplishing things? Is it because
we must first discover our potential? This teaching according to Creflo
takes special knowledge to grasp. What makes Adam or us different than
Jesus? According to Creflo not much, we can do everything he can and
even more.
"Everything that God has made. He has given man authority over His
handiwork. [speaking in tongues] even the moon."(ibid) "I believe
with all my heart that those planets out there are just a bunch of
unfinished work that God was designing for man to finish as they
entered into God training 101. Now, let's get back to scripture"
(Our Equality with God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001).
That would be a good idea, to get back to Scripture, the way it was
written, not imagination, but then he would not have this revelation
would he. Here's the proof that the word faith teachers borrow the
words from each other, and that it doesn't matter if it's in the
Bible or not. Copeland who is Creflo's discipler says "I am totally
convinced that this is the reason that our surrounding planets are
unfinished. I really believe that God intended for us to have a part
in that." (Kenneth Copeland Quotes "Believers Voice of Victory
Program" week of March 12-16, 2001)
What we need to ask, is God not in control? Does He need to make
another; a man, a creature to be a god and have control on earth? The
Bible says in Col.1:15 Jesus (the Son of God) always controlled
everything, it was never Adam or any man (creature). It seems Creflo
wants to justify his control, so he and his companions in this error
(Copeland etc.) have made up this fantasy from the Bible, fables if you
will, to justify them-self in wanting to control their reality. The
Bible actually states God said, "Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Gen 1:26).
Nowhere does it say what Creflo wants it's to say. For even the
psalmists says Ps. 8:5-8 "For You have made him a little lower than
the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have
made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; you have put
all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen-- even the beasts of the
field, The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through
the paths of the seas," reiterating Genesis the things man had
dominion over are named.
The writer of Hebrews quotes this verse in Heb. 2:5-9. If one wants to
isolate this verse without its context they can preach on it to prove
man is to have control. However, if we read on" v.8-9 "For in that
He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we
see Jesus, (him) who was made a little lower than the angels, for the
suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace
of God, might taste death for everyone." Adam lost his headship and
so Jesus the son of God came from heaven to regain it. Jesus fulfills
this verse and whatever wider application it has, it is not yet
appeared. So it meaningless to presume any other meaning than what the
Bible has already given it.
Creflo doesn't believe we are lower than angels but a little lower
than God himself, according to him, we were made out of Him, "we
like him just a little lower, see he was there for us first and he
poured us out of himself so were a little lower, a little lower than
who? Then el eloheem - the God and creator of all physical things now
the implication here is that like the God and creator of all physical
things you and I, we can be like el eloheem" (April 16, 2002
Changing your World, LeSea Broadcasting).
This conflicts with Creflo's other statements about Adam: who was made
an exact imprint of hisself, "He duplicated himself" that he was on
the inside of Adam's body. God is not lower than himself is He? Either
we are equal or we are not.
Creflo further explains "So the rank is: God, man... [clapping]
because He said He made man out of His reflection. He made man, He
didn't make angels out of His reflection, He made men, He made
another speaking spirit.... God. Man. Angels. And Satan is in that
class of angels" (Our Equality with God Through Righteousness
1/21/2001).
Creflo "God made man. All He did was take a reflection of Himself.
You all ain't listening to what I'm saying. He [tongues], son, help
me, the Hebrew translation here "God made another speaking spirit."
"The actual meaning there He made another speaking spirit."
No, this is not the actual Hebrew translation. [Maybe Creflo read or
heard someone quote the Targum of Onkelos where it says of Gen.2:7 when
God breathed into man the breath of life man became a speaking spirit,
or soul. The soul in the body of man became a speaking spirit. Man was
endued with a natural faculty of speech... a speaking animal, or as a
rational, a reasonable one. Certainly what Onkelos writes does not mean
what Creflo is inserting into it to mean.]
Gen.1:26 "God made man in his image" Gen 1:24-31 the word for man
is "the red soil," from which the human body was formed (Gen 2:7).
This is the earthly physical aspect of man, related to his body. MAN -
Hebrew 'Adam ruddy i.e. a human being (meaning the individual and the
species of mankind from his offspring, etc.) This Hebrew word appears
about 562 times in the Scripture.
Nowhere does these words mean man became a speaking spirit, although he
could think, speak, and move on his own, he doesn't have the
capabilities that Creflo attributes to him. Adam means man from the
dirt not God who is man, which is uniquely found in Jesus Christ.
Creflo is insinuating that we as a creature can speak things into
existence like God does.
Lets look at what the Bible actually says "And the Lord God formed
man (Adam) of the dust of the ground." What are the features that man
was created in, that would reflect his creator to be made in his image
and likeness? God is Spirit (Jn.4:24)(uncreated) He is invisible. When
it states we were created in His image and likeness in the Hebrew
language Image (tselem) and the word likeness in Hebrew (demuth) is
related to nature in the immaterial part of man. It means we have a
spiritual/moral nature like God in a finite way. Any similarity is
with finite qualities. God is a personal being; Image means man is in
his likeness, personal. God has communicable and incommunicable
attributes. The communicable attributes put in man are finite
qualities, God has holiness in His nature (perfect no flaws in any
part). Man like his creator had holiness in his original state in the
garden.
Man having been created in His likeness we have the ability to think,
gather knowledge, we have rationality, logic, we have communication
skills using language, we have feelings and emotions such as love. We
are able to hear and see.
God is unlimited in knowledge, he knows all things. Man is limited in
his knowledge and needs to learn. God is present everywhere. Man is
confined to one place at a time. God's Creative abilities are
almighty and unlimited, He is able to do all things, man is cannot. God
the creator of all things, man cannot create from nothing but can only
use what materials are already there.
The incommunicable attributes such as eternality, God alone is
uncaused, uncreated. God possesses eternality as His nature, He is
infinite, immortal, deathless, in His spirit, God has eternal life in
himself. Man was created with an eternal spirit, which can live on
after the physical body dies, but it did not always exist as God's
Spirit did, ours had a beginning, we started in a point in time. Man
dies physically and can die spiritually; man is dependent on God to
sustain him. God never sleeps, man has to.
Yet Creflo says about the temptation, "Now, Genesis chapter 2 and 3,
Satan shows up in the form of a serpent. Now, here's the big problem
with this. If you eat of this fruit, you will be like God. What's
the problem? He's already like God. ... oh my goodness man, he was
all God He was already like God" (Creflo Dollar, Our equality with
God through righteousness 1/21/2001).
How can man be all God? After looking at the comparisons above how can
this be possible? God was always existing and caused man to exist. Can
that which is created be the uncreated?
1 Cor. 15:45 tells us man became a living, animated being; a being
endowed with life. The word "soul" psuchee, and nephesh, in the
Greek and Hebrew denote that which is alive, which is animated, which
breathes. 1 Cor. 15:44-49 "There is a natural body, and there is a
spiritual body. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a
living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However,
the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the
spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second
Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those
who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who
are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man." This is a future
tense, we do not possess this fully now.
1 Cor. 15:47 It is Jesus who is The Lord from heaven and is called in 1
Cor. 2:8, the "Lord of glory," He is the creator and giver of life
not Adam. V.49 "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly." [We shall also
bear]-transformed into the new man in the resurrection. Incorruptible,
immortal 1 Cor. 15:50.
The image of the heavenly is the nature of the resurrection body. It is
to be like Christ's own glorious body. Looking at whose image Christ is
in, Col.1:15; "He is in the image of the invisible God." Christ
alone is this image, not Adam. Christ was sinless, Adam was not. Adam
was given life, the Son of God always existed.
The Greek word for image in this text is eikon indicating a perfect
image. This is related to His nature and substance, it is a spiritual
image. Meaning, He is the very substance and nature of God (the Father)
who is invisible. He said "if you have seen me you have seen the
Father", meaning that as the Son He is expressing His Father's
nature perfectly - making the Father known. He is the very substance
and nature of the invisible God, Adam was not and we are not, He alone
is the only begotten, we are not! We are adopted sons and daughters He
is the eternal Son who is God, related to the Father in nature.
Creflo-"He says now I need to make a man to be god in this earth and
over all My handiworks so this alien spirit won't come and destroy it
again. So I'm going, heh-heh, I'm going to make Myself, I'm
going to make a reflection of Myself and I'm going to make a physical
body, giving him authority of the physical world" (Our Equality with
God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001). Looks like the God of the earth
didn't fare to well against an intruder who was a fallen creature.
Seems to me that if Adam was an exact duplicate of God and he failed
against the Devil, how can this all finally work out for the God in
heaven who didn't have as much control as Adam? (according to
Creflo's theology)
"Now read Genesis chapter 3:15. Now here's the plan now. Adam's
turned it all over. Adam... Adam now has sinned. Everything's
invaded his physical body. A god that was not supposed to ever die,
was now, I believe at 969 years of age was going to die" (First
service- Our Equality with God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001).
How does God make another God? God (Yahweh) is the only being who
self-sufficient, self-existent, and perfect being that needs nothing
outside Himself. He is all knowing, all sufficient and eternal? So how
do you make another like this?
Kenneth Copeland teaches, "God's reason for creating Adam was His
desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself, and in
the Garden of Eden He did just that. He was not a little like God. He
was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even. . . . Adam
is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus. . . .
Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh"
(Following the Faith of Abraham, side 1).
Creflo repeats what his mentor says "And God said, I tell you what
I'm going to do this time. I'm going to have to reproduce Myself.
Like I'm God up here in heaven. I'm going to make Me a god and put
Myself in the physical body so that he can guard the earth and keep out
all intruders in the earth so the next time that sucker tries to come
in he will meet the God of the earth Adam" (Our Equality with God
through Righteousness 1/21/2001).
Notice Creflo makes it clear God put himself in the physical body of
Adam, this means Adam was just like Jesus. Adam was not alive until
this spirit came into his body, so he was an incarnation like Christ,
God in the flesh. But this God in the flesh sinned, and we all sin
today. So much for being an exact duplicate, unless you want to say God
sins too. The ramifications for this position go further than Dr.
Dollar ever dreamed.
1 John 4:2 says, "that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God." Jesus is the God who came in the
flesh once, He rose in the flesh and is still in the flesh." Verse 3
then states, "that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is not of God." To say God came in the
flesh (incarnate) in any another creature (like Adam) is denying Christ
was the only God in the flesh, substituting another creature. This is
the denial that John addresses " every spirit that does not confess
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God." It is an
exclusive statement to mean Him alone in his incarnation.
Creflo saying Adam was the exact image of God, Adam being God is
denying Christ was the only God in the flesh, substituting another
creature that was made by God. Jesus is the only human being God came
in the flesh - 1 Tim.3:16: "God was manifested in the flesh," only
once, in Jesus. To say Adam was God in the flesh before Jesus is
exactly what John is addressing here, this is more serious than error,
it is heresy; John says it is the spirit of antichrist.
The spirit of iniquity is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 states,
"For the mystery of iniquity (lawlessness) is already at work: only
He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way."
The Holy Spirit in the believers, in the Church now restrains (hinders,
prevents) the Antichrist from revealing himself. Paul says the mystery
is already operating in power throughout the world. The spirit is
already at work, and will one day reach its climax in a single man.
Seven places in the New Testament the Church is called the temple,
using different Greek words to describe us. 1 Peter 2:5 writes that we
as the church are "living stones, are being built up a spiritual
house," We the people are the bricks (living stones), cemented
together as the church, a spiritual temple. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 2
Corinthians 6:19 Paul also teaches that each of us as an individual is
the temple of God because "the Spirit of God dwells in you."
Look at the description of the antichrist Rev. 13:5-6 "And he was
given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given
authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and
those who dwell in heaven."
The antichrist is arrogant ("a mouth that speaks boastfully")
Dan.11:36-39: "Then the king shall do according to his own will: he
shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak
blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath
has been accomplished; Think about these descriptions and then relate
this to the word faith movement. Self-exaltation, and self-deification
(verses 36 -37). In his self-exaltation he will speak against the God
of gods. Hmm that's an interesting statement in light of what we have
learned. "And shall prosper
," lets not forget the prosperity they claim.
Dan. 7:25 "He shall speak pompous words against the Most High." So
we can see this spirit already at work in those who are in rebellion to
the word in its true context despite they're using the word to prove
what they are teaching.
He even has the congregation chant "Say it again, I'm just like God
(they repeat it)" (Creflo Dollar April 16, 2002 Changing your World,
Lesea Broadcasting).
How can you chant this and not think what it means? If your just like
God do you need someone to make you aware of this.
God instills humility in us, not pride. The Anti-Christ does not come
as some Devil but as a lamb "he had two horns like a lamb and speaks
like a dragon" (Revelation 13:11-12). Listen carefully how some of
the word faith teachers speak and you will know what the anti Christ
will be like in some way.
Creflo moves from teaching Adam is God to our being Gods, once we are
reborn. The Jehovah's Witnesses demote Jesus to being a god, a god in
a different class than the almighty. Creflo's concept is not much
different, except he makes other men to be in this God class.
He says "But the real Creflo Dollar is a spirit made in the image of
God I look just my daddy see I'm not telling you that the container
is like God, I'm just telling you that what's in the container is
just like God." (April 16, 2002, Changing your world LeSea
Broadcasting)
There is little difference between calling the physical human shell God
and what's inside; neither statement is true.
Creflo gives an illustration of a bottle and a cup pouring one into the
other to show how God gave Adam his spirit thereby making Adam God.
"Just because I moved it from one vessel to another it didn't
change substance.... The same stuff that's in this bottle is the same
stuff that's in this cup and one day God poured out of himself into a
vessel. It didn't change just because it was poured into a different
vessel you got understand we were born from God and God poured us out
from himself and the same sap that's is in the vine is in the same
sap that's in the branches I'm telling you you've been made in
the image of God almighty ... (April 16, 2002 Changing your world LeSea
Broadcasting)
Dollars metaphysical worldview has some interesting explanations.
"Your physical body is a result of the spirit, in other words it came
forth out of the spirit. The blueprint for your body is your spirit
man, your spirit man does not look like your body, your body looks like
your spirit man. Your spirit was first then came your body. God
designed your spirit then your body grew up and took on the blueprint
of your spirit man."
The Biblical evidence for this certainly would not be there, even with
Adam God made his body first then breathed in him to make him alive.
Scientists have found that it is the dna code that makes us what we
are, they have not discovered the spirit.
Only by reading Mormon literature can one come to similar conclusions,
because you can't find any justification for this in the Bible. As
Joseph Smith the prophet of the Mormon cult said "Here then is
eternal life...to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to
learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God,
the same as all gods have done before you...To inherit the same power,
the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station
of God" (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 6, page 306).
Creflo says the same thing " I'm going to say something, WE are
gods, in this earth, and it's about time we start operating like gods
instead of a bunch of mere powerless humans" (April 17, 2002 Changing
your World, LeSea Broadcasting).
"Now I gotta hit this thing real hard in the very beginning because I
ain't got time to go through all this, but I am going to say to you
right now you are gods, little "g", you are gods because you came
from God and you are gods. You are not just human. The only human part
about you is this physical body that you live in." (Sept. 15, 22,
2002, Made after his Kind)
This should be clear to anyone by now that Creflo Dollar is not
teaching anything Christian but this is the essence of occultism and
the new age to say such statements. Man is not a god in a body. I would
recommend that those who listen to this kind of teaching search the
Scripture to see how truthful this is. For you will find there is only
one creature who wants to be called and recognized as a god--Satan, the
Devil, the deceiver.
Creflo as a guest on Kenneth Copeland's program 2002 gave his rendition
of Phil.2 v.5 let this mind be in you -- "let this way of thinking
that was in Jesus be in you let this confidence that was in Jesus be in
you. Jesus didn't think it was robbery he didn't he didn't think
it was dishonor he didn't he didn't think it was, was "oh the you
ought not think that way." No he said let this attitude let this way
of thinking be in you who being in the form of God thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. Now if I'm to take what he said here
and, and put it on, the normal attitude now should be I have equality
with God. That's my way of thinkin', now somebody says its hard to
think this way, well keep saying it I have equality with God talk
yourself into it, you've talked yourself into other things, talk
yourself into this attitude talk yourself into this way if thinkin'
talk yourself into it until you feel the confidence on the inside of
you that I have equality with God.""were not gonna shine as lights
until we change what the way we think. We're not gonna shine as
lights until we accept our equality with God, were not gonna shine as
lights until we stop thinkin' that being equal with God is a dishonor
and a robbery."
Even a novice Bible reader would not get this from this verse if read
in context, it is actually teaching that Jesus humbled himself although
He (only) was equal with God. To claim such a thing for oneself, that
only Jesus as the only begotten son could claim is totally repugnant,
this is outrageous, especially from someone who claims to represent the
Lord. What happens when your light is really darkness?
Lets summarize some of the quotes we have read --"Because the first
Adam, he had my blood in him."
"He had blood type G" Adam "he was all God" God speaking "I
got to have myself on the inside of that body like I was on the inside
of Adam."
"When God made Adam all he did was make an exact imprint of
hisself"
"I'm going to make Myself"
"I'm going to have to reproduce Myself."
"put Myself in the physical body"
"I'm a part of the God class"
"He duplicated himself, he was the image and from his image came
hisself"
"you are an exact duplicate of the image of God"
"you are gods"
The problem presented in his strained theology is this: if we are not
God then neither is Jesus. This is because he is the last Adam. And
according to Creflo Adam was an exact duplicate and the Bible calls
Jesus the very image of God, so Adam is God like Jesus is God, only
Adam was. This is all clarified by him saying we too are the exact
image, and since Adam was God from God, Jesus is, and we are the same
as Jesus.
Speak the TRUTH
Creflo says you are made of God, equal with God and are God; and claims
he is just reading what the scriptures says. But did he? He didn't
read the other Scriptures that teach YHWH is God and there is no other,
that there is none like me. Here's what the God of the Universe said
"The God's that have not made heaven and earth will perish"
(Jer.10:11). This includes any other God that comes along, this
certainly means all Gods with a small g or a big G, which includes
Creflo and his prosperous band of followers.
The Bible teaches us "I am God, and there is none like Me" (Isa.
46: 9)
.. In Deut. 32:39 "Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God
besides Me." Isa 45:5 "I am the LORD, and there is no other;
there is no God besides Me." Isa. 45:21"I, the LORD? And there is
no other God besides Me." Isa 44:6 "I am the First and I am the
Last; besides Me there is no God" Isa 43:10 "and believe Me, and
understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall
there be after Me." Imagine that, God says He knows of no other Gods
that are God. I will believe God and what He wrote before anything
Creflo says otherwise, I hope you will too.
Satan's goal is to teach self-deification to man, this teaching is
mostly coming through those who call themselves anointed ones
(christ's). These men have the ear of the Church, and fullfil Jesus'
warning that many will come in my name saying I am Christ, and will
deceive many. They come in His name claiming authority to speak things
into existence. But only God can do this. A rule of thumb, God does
not give His approval or power to those who teach blatantly false
doctrines like these, especially on His nature and mans.
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart
from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of
demons"(1 Timothy 4:1). Paul states the reason for the falling away:
They are paying attention to demons and corrupt teachings of condemned
spirits. So they are being deceived by teachings that are contrary to
the Word of God, and this is occurring inside the Church today with
those who say we are gods, as Satan did with Eve. They are being told
they have the same authority and ability Jesus did.
In a style sounding uncannily like Jim Jones Creflo states "I'll
tell you what blasphemy is, when God says you're the righteousness of
God and you go around talking about I'm unworthy, that's blasphemy.
When God says you're the head and not the tail and you go around
talking about well I'd just be draggin' behind all, that's
blasphemy. When God said he's given you authority so that you ever
have to backwards and you still walk backwards that's blasphemy.
Blasphemy folks is when you go against what God said about you true
self, (audience that's right ) "oh were all so unworthy" shut up
with that blasphemous statement. The blood of Jesus was shed to make
you worthy how dare you go around talking about your unworthy. When you
say your unworthy you're saying the blood of Jesus was not powerful
enough to accomplish what it was intended to accomplish, you no longer
some unworthy filthy rag you now are worthy because of the blood of
Jesus you are cleansed because of the blood of Jesus, your not a sinner
saved by grace you sons and daughters of the most high God, you're
God!" (April 17, 2002 Changing your world LeSea Broadcasting).
The real import of his statement cannot be communicated without hearing
it, but this quote should be sufficient to show that whatever comes to
his mind he says, in this case he ends up saying you are God. What
other God can he be talking about except the creator? To also make the
statement we are "Not a sinner saved by grace" goes against
everything in Scripture. But when you don't have a correct
perspective of God, everything else will be distorted as well. His
concept of salvation is very different and will be discussed later.
Furthermore are we worthy or of worth? These are very different
concepts. Being cleansed by Jesus' blood does not make us worthy. We
become inheritors of God's promises by His grace and we should never
lose sight of this. I can only wonder if Creflo understands what
blasphemy actually is according to the Bibles definition? 1 Tim. 1:20
Paul states "Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have
handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme." Paul explains
those who do not hold onto faith and a good conscience are blasphemers,
look at verse 19 also. These false teachers do not hold onto the
faith given to us by Christ and the Apostles. Today, they are instead
teaching extra - biblical revelation, not BIBLICAL revelation. Paul
delivered those who did this over to Satan that they may learn not to
blaspheme, but I bet they thought they were still doing God's work.
The Jews picked up stones to stone Jesus because He said he was equal
with God, they called it blasphemy for a man to make himself equal with
God. If Jesus were only a man they would have been right, but he spoke
the truth. Creflo claims this for himself and others and instead of any
rebuke, his church cheers and claps.
Blasphemy can be done in various ways according to Scripture 2 Pet.
2:12 "But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand.
They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be
caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish."
Now his ministry may tell you that Dr. Dollar does not advocate the
teaching that mankind is the supreme God. He's the big "G", and
we're the little "g". But his quotes certainly prove otherwise. To
call an idol God is idolatry but to call oneself, or another human
being God is what the Bible calls blasphemy. It matters little if one
calls themselves a god, with a little "g" since there is only ONE
God. The only other gods that the true God calls gods, are false gods.
To further confuse what he actually teaches Creflo has this to say
about Jesus
"If Jesus came as God, then why did God have to anoint him? If Jesus
- See God's already anointed... Jesus came as a man, that's why it
was legal to anoint Him. God doesn't need anointing. He is anointing.
Jesus came as a man and at age thirty, God is now getting ready to
demonstrate to us and give us an example of what a man with the
anointing can do.....Jesus didn't come as God, He came as a man, and
He did not come perfect." "And somebody said well Jesus came as
God, well how many of you know the Bible says God never sleeps nor
slumbers and yet in the book of Mark we see Jesus asleep in the back of
the boat. Y'all Please listen to me, please listen to me; this ain't
no heresy. I'm not some false prophet, I'm just readin' this out
to you the Bible, I'm just telling you all these fantasy preachers
have been preachin' all of this stuff for all of these years and we
bought the package" (Creflo Dollar Ministries: World Changers,
12/8/2002 Jesus' growth into sonship)
Contrary to Creflo's explanation, his humanity does not dismiss his
deity (Col.2:9; Heb.1:1; Jn.1:1-3) the real fantasy is to present to
the people a Jesus who is less than being fully God. He grew in his
humanity while still being God. Dollar reduces Christ to an ordinary
man who has been anointed. The purpose that Creflo is trying to get
across is to exalt our ability because of who we are in Christ. While
doing this he diminishes the foundational teaching of which
Christianity rests on. He may deny this is heresy but those who know
Jesus would not agree.
"Now Jesus was on the earth, why did he have to be anointed, if he was
on the earth? Because he was a man, he had to be anointed, he was a
man. Now God is perfect you agree with that? You can't add to it...
he knows all things, you can't add to him, you can't add to God,
God is not to be added to, he didn't become God he is God ok. So now
if Jesus was God there should be nowhere in the scripture where we see
the scripture referring to how it was added to his life... ltes go
through the scripture Heb.5 .. Jesus didn't come as God he came as a
man and he did not come perfect. Heb.5:8-9..(the congregation reads it
together) though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things
he suffered, stop. Wait a minute if Jesus came as God then why do we
see God having to learn obedience, he's perfect. Yet we see here that
Jesus learned obedience to the things that he went through. V.9: and
being made, see that word made indicates there was a process of
perfection. There added to to perfection, being made perfect he became
the author of eternal salvation....Notice it says he was made and
became... we see added things to his life to make him what he
ultimately is and."
http://www.creflodollarministries.com/archive/wcm16w_120802_a.asx
Jesus growth and learning was in his humanity, but this does not remove
his inner nature from being God which Creflo is clearly denying. The
problem is-was Jesus God or did he become God. The bible says he was
indeed God and there should be no dispute from anyone claiming to be a
Christian, but it is this fact of Scripture that Creflo challenges;
which makes all this heresy. God did add to himself another nature, His
humanity which he did not possess before he was born through the virgin
Mary.
Dollar's interpretation of the Scripture seems to be beyond
questioning: as it is the Lord directly teaching him. Within Creflo's
teachings are woven word faith and other mystical heresies galore. In
this one sermon alone Our Equality with God through Righteousness
1/21/2001 which we do not have time to review in detail by itself, he
stated we are gods to rule this world, we are in the god class higher
than the angels. Adam was God of this world, he gave life to the
animals when he spoke their names. Satan diseased all the dinosaurs so
they died before Adam was made. Adam became naked because he lost
God's glory, Adam could fly, Adam was an exact duplicate of God and
like God before the temptation, Adam had God's blood in his veins,
After Mary said be it unto me and God came into her body after nine
months. He also has stated, it took Adam 960 years to learn how to die.
Jesus went to Hell, (illegally snuck in looking like a sinner). Jesus
spoke to the Devil I want the keys back to set my children free from
Hell. Jesus was the first born again man, we are gods so we should
start walking and talking like him. And he interjects confidently to
his audience " you can't disprove none of it" (Referenced from
Our Equality with God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001 and recent
programming in 2002).
One thing we can be sure of, this is not a Biblical interpretation of
the Bible, it is classified as word faith and is far removed from the
actual meaning.
Creflo Dollars teaching on faith (pt.2)
.
|
|
| User: "rogue" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
02 Jan 2007 01:02:49 AM |
|
|
wrote (or plagiarized):
The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity
which is to upheld by the Christian church.
JERRY
Please show where in the bible it says that belief in the Trinity is
required for salvation.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Mike Painter" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
02 Jan 2007 07:12:53 PM |
|
|
rogue wrote:
johnw_cerm@yahoo.com wrote (or plagiarized):
The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity
which is to upheld by the Christian church.
JERRY
Please show where in the bible it says that belief in the Trinity is
required for salvation.
Please show in the bible where it says you are not required to follow all
the law, rather than ignore the ones you don't like.
.
|
|
|
| User: "rogue" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
02 Jan 2007 09:46:16 PM |
|
|
Mike Painter wrote:
rogue wrote:
johnw_cerm@yahoo.com wrote (or plagiarized):
The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity
which is to upheld by the Christian church.
JERRY
Please show where in the bible it says that belief in the Trinity is
required for salvation.
Please show in the bible where it says you are not required to follow all
the law, rather than ignore the ones you don't like.
JERRY
First, the existence of the Trinity is very much in doubt as there are
no clear statements of it's existence and is simply a matter of
interpretation.
Second, neither Jesus nor Paul mentions it as a requirement for
salvation, therefore it's not "essential doctrine" as claimed by John
Wolf, nor is it "law" as you imply.
Therefore, since neither Jesus nor Paul insist on belief in it to be
saved, you can keep someone out of your particular church for not
agreeing with you, but that has no effect on whether or not they are
saved. To claim otherwise is to be a spiritual terrorist, which John
Wolf surely is.
Does that clear things up?
.
|
|
|
| User: "Grinder" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
03 Jan 2007 12:34:06 AM |
|
|
rogue wrote:
Mike Painter wrote:
rogue wrote:
johnw_cerm@yahoo.com wrote (or plagiarized):
The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity
which is to upheld by the Christian church.
JERRY
Please show where in the bible it says that belief in the Trinity is
required for salvation.
Please show in the bible where it says you are not required to follow all
the law, rather than ignore the ones you don't like.
JERRY
First, the existence of the Trinity is very much in doubt as there are
no clear statements of it's existence and is simply a matter of
interpretation.
Second, neither Jesus nor Paul mentions it as a requirement for
salvation, therefore it's not "essential doctrine" as claimed by John
Wolf, nor is it "law" as you imply.
Therefore, since neither Jesus nor Paul insist on belief in it to be
saved, you can keep someone out of your particular church for not
agreeing with you, but that has no effect on whether or not they are
saved. To claim otherwise is to be a spiritual terrorist, which John
Wolf surely is.
Does that clear things up?
Sidebar: I just finished Ehrman's _Misquoting Jesus_. I heartily
recommend it for any would be bible scholars out there that do not know
Greek. For those of you that are clinging to the notion of the
immutable Word, though, you might want to stick to whatever apologetic
crap got you there in the first place.
http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Jesus-Story-Behind-Changed/dp/0060738170/sr=8-1/qid=1167805954/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9565329-6920755?ie=UTF8&s=books
At any rate, here's Erhman's rundown on the Textus Receptus with a side
order of Johannine Comma:
| THE FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION OF
| THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
|
| Even though the Complutensian Polyglot was the first
| printed edition of the Greek New Testament, it was not the
| first published version. As we have seen, the Complutum had
| been printed by 1514, but it did not see the light of
| published day until 1522. Between those two dates an
| enterprising Dutch scholar, the humanist intellectual
| Desiderius Erasmus, both produced and published an edition
| of the Greek New Testament, receiving the honor, then, of
| editing the so called editio princeps (= first published
| edition). Erasmus had studied the New Testament, along with
| other great works of antiquity, on and off for many years,
| and had considered at some point putting together an edition
| for printing. But it was only when he visited Basel in
| August 1514 that he was persuaded by a publisher named
| Johann Froben to move forward.
| Both Erasmus and Froben knew that the Complutensian
| Polyglot was in the works, and so they made haste to publish
| a Greek text as quickly as possible, although other
| obligations prevented Erasmus from taking up the task
| seriously until July of 1515. At that time he went to Basel
| in search of suitable manuscripts that he could use as the
| basis of his text. He did not uncover a great wealth of
| manuscripts, but what he found was sufficient for the task.
| For the most part, he relied on a mere handful of late
| medieval manuscripts, which he marked up as if he were
| copyediting a handwritten copy for the printer; the printer
| took the manuscripts so marked and set his type directly
| from them.
| It appears that Erasmus relied heavily on just one
| twelfth century manuscript for the Gospels and another, also
| of the twelfth century, for the book of Acts and the
| Epistles—although he was able to consult several other
| manuscripts and make corrections based on their readings.
| For the book of Revelation he had to borrow a manuscript
| from his friend the German humanist Johannes Reuchlin;
| Unfortunately, this manuscript was almost impossible to read
| in places, and it had lost its last page, which contained
| the final six verses of the book. In his haste to have the
| job done, in those places Erasmus simply took the Latin
| Vulgate and translated its text back into Greek, thereby
| creating some textual readings found today in no surviving
| Greek manuscript. And this, as we will see, is the edition
| of the Greek New Testament that for all practical purposes
| was used by the translators of the King James Bible nearly a
| century later.
| The printing of Erasmus's edition began in October 1515
| and was finished in just five months. The edition included
| the rather hastily gathered Greek text and a revised version
| of the Latin Vulgate, side by side (in the second and later
| editions, Erasmus included his own Latin translation of the
| text in lieu of the Vulgate, much to the consternation of
| many theologians of the day, who still considered the
| Vulgate to be "the" Bible of the church). The book was a
| large one, nearly a thousand pages. Even so, as Erasmus
| himself later said, it was "rushed out rather than edited"
| (in his Latin phrasing: praecipitatum verius quam editum).
| It is important to recognize that Erasmus's edition was
| the editio princeps of the Greek New Testament not simply
| because it makes for an interesting historical tale, but
| even more so because, as the history of the text developed,
| Erasmus's editions (he made five, all based ultimately on
| this first rather hastily assembled one) became the standard
| form of the Greek text to be published by Western European
| printers for more than three hundred years. Numerous Greek
| editions followed, produced by publishers whose names are
| well known to scholars in this field: Stephanus (Robert
| Estienne), Theodore Beza, and Bonaventure and Abraham
| Elzevir. All these texts, however, relied more or less on
| the texts of their predecessors, and all those go back to
| the text of Erasmus, with all its faults, based on just a
| handful of manuscripts (sometimes just two or even one—or in
| parts of Revelation, none!) that had been produced
| relatively late in the medieval period. Printers for the
| most part did not search out new manuscripts that might be
| older and better in order to base their texts on them.
| Instead, they simply printed and reprinted the same text,
| making only minor changes.
| Some of these editions, to be sure, are significant.
| For example, Stephanus's third edition of 1550 is notable as
| the first edition ever to include notes documenting
| differences among some of the manuscripts consulted; his
| fourth edition (1551) is possibly even more significant, as
| it is the first edition of the Greek New Testament that
| divides the text into verses. Until then, the text had been
| printed all together, with no indication of verse division.
| There's an amusing anecdote associated with how Stephanus
| did his work for this edition. His son later reported that
| Stephanus had decided on his verse divisions (most of which
| are retained for us in our English translations) while
| making a journey on horseback. Undoubtedly he meant that his
| father was "working on the road"—that is, that he entered
| verse numbers in the evenings at the inns in which he was
| staying. But since his son literally says that Stephanus
| made these changes "while on horseback," some wry observers
| have suggested that he actually did his work in transit, so
| that whenever his horse hit an unexpected bump, Stephanus's
| pen jumped, accounting for some of the rather odd verse
| placements that we still find in our English translations of
| the New Testament.
| The larger point I am trying to make, however, is that
| all these subsequent editions—those of Stephanus
| included—ultimately go back to Erasmus's editio princeps,
| which was based on some rather late, and not necessarily
| reliable, Greek manuscripts—the ones he happened to find in
| Basel and the one he borrowed from his friend Reuchlin.
| There would be no reason to suspect that these manuscripts
| were particularly high in quality. They were simply the ones
| he could lay his hands on.
| Indeed, as it turns out, these manuscripts were not of
| the best quality: they were, after all, produced some eleven
| hundred years after the originals! For example, the main
| manuscript that Erasmus used for the Gospels contained both
| the story of the woman taken in adultery in John and the
| last twelve verses of Mark, passages that did not originally
| form part of the Gospels, as we learned in the preceding
| chapter.
| There was one key passage of scripture that Erasmus's
| source manuscripts did not contain, however. This is the
| account of i John 5:78, which scholars have called the
| Johannine Comma, found in the manuscripts of the Latin
| Vulgate but not in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, a
| passage that had long been a favorite among Christian
| theologians, since it is the only passage in the entire
| Bible that explicitly delineates the doctrine of the
| Trinity, that there are three persons in the godhead, but
| that the three all constitute just one God. In the Vulgate,
| the passage reads:
|
| There are three that bear witness in heaven: the
| Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are
| one; and there are three that bear witness on earth,
| the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three
| are one.
|
| It is a mysterious passage, but unequivocal in its
| support of the traditional teachings of the church on the
| "triune God who is one." Without this verse, the doctrine of
| the Trinity must be inferred from a range of passages
| combined to show that Christ is God, as is the Spirit and
| the Father, and that there is, nonetheless, only one God.
| This passage, in contrast, states the doctrine directly and
| succinctly.
| But Erasmus did not find it in his Greek manuscripts,
| which instead simply read: "There are three that bear
| witness: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these
| three are one." Where did the "Father, the Word, and the
| Spirit" go? They were not in Erasmus's primary manuscript,
| or in any of the others that he consulted, and so,
| naturally, he left them out of his first edition of the
| Greek text.
| More than anything else, it was this that outraged the
| theologians of his day, who accused Erasmus of tampering
| with the text in an attempt to eliminate the doctrine of the
| Trinity and to devalue its corollary, the doctrine of the
| full divinity of Christ. In particular, Stunica, one of the
| chief editors of the Complutensian Polyglot, went public
| with his defamation of Erasmus and insisted that in future
| editions he return the verse to its rightful place.
| As the story goes, Erasmus—possibly in an unguarded
| moment—agreed that he would insert the verse in a future
| edition of his Greek New Testament on one condition: that
| his opponents produce a Greeks manuscript in which the verse
| could be found (finding it in Latin manuscripts was not
| enough). And so a Greek manuscript was produced. In fact, it
| was produced for the occasion. It appears that someone
| copied out the Greek text of the Epistles, and when he came
| to the passage in question, he translated the Latin text
| into Greek, giving the Johannine Comma in its familiar,
| theologically useful form. The manuscript provided to
| Erasmus, in other words, was a sixteenth century production,
| made to order.
| Despite his misgivings, Erasmus was true to his word
| and included the Johannine Comma in his next edition, and in
| all his subsequent editions. These editions, as I have
| already noted, became the basis for the editions of the
| Greek New Testament that were then reproduced time and again
| by the likes of Stephanus, Beza, and the Elzevirs. These
| editions provided the form of the text that the translators
| of the King James Bible eventually used. And so familiar
| passages to readers of the English Bible—from the King James
| in 1611 onward, up until modern editions of the twentieth
| century—include the woman taken in adultery, the last twelve
| verses of Mark, and the Johannine Comma, even though none of
| these passages can be found in the oldest and superior
| manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. They entered into
| the English stream of consciousness merely by a chance of
| history, based on manuscripts that Erasmus just happened to
| have handy to him, and one that was manufactured for his
| benefit.
| The various Greek editions of the sixteenth and
| seventeenth centuries were so much alike that eventually
| printers could claim that they were the text that was
| universally accepted by all scholars and readers of the
| Greek New Testament—as indeed they were, since there were no
| competitors! The most quoted claim is found in an edition
| produced in 1633 by Abraham and Bonaventure Elzevir (who
| were uncle and nephew), in which they told their readers, in
| words that have since become famous among scholars, that
| "You now have the text that is received by all, in which we
| have given nothing changed or corrupted." The phrasing of
| this line, especially the words "text that is received by
| all," provides us with the common phrase Textus Receptus
| (abbreviated T.R.), a term used by textual critics to refer
| to that form of the Greek text that is based, not on the
| oldest and best manuscripts, but on the form of text
| originally published by Erasmus and handed down to printers
| for more than three hundred years, until textual scholars
| began insisting that the Greek New Testament should be
| established on scientific principles based on our oldest and
| best manuscripts, not simply reprinted according to custom.
| It was the inferior textual form of the Textus Receptus that
| stood at the base of the earliest English translations,
| including the King James Bible, and other editions until
| near the end of the nineteenth century.
.
|
|
|
| User: "rogue" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
03 Jan 2007 05:41:16 AM |
|
|
Top posting just this once
I love this kind of history! Thanks for posting it!
.
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| User: "Grinder" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
03 Jan 2007 02:46:50 PM |
|
|
rogue wrote:
Top posting just this once
I love this kind of history! Thanks for posting it!
Buy the book, (you can get the paperback for about $10,) you won't be
disappointed. I'm pitching the book awfully hard because:
1) It's a great read, and ...
2) It morally justifies my lengthy excerpt
.
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| User: "rogue" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
03 Jan 2007 10:36:51 PM |
|
|
Grinder wrote:
rogue wrote:
Top posting just this once
I love this kind of history! Thanks for posting it!
Buy the book, (you can get the paperback for about $10,) you won't be
disappointed. I'm pitching the book awfully hard because:
1) It's a great read, and ...
2) It morally justifies my lengthy excerpt
It's on my Amazon wish list. It may be purchased very soon.
Thanks again
.
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| User: "YeshuaSaysImAWhosoever" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
31 Dec 2006 11:34:21 AM |
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wrote:
Learn more about this "Spiritual Terrorist."
Another article you've stolen.
Does LetUsReason.org know you're plagiarizing their material?
.
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| User: "Incitatus" |
|
| Title: Re: Creflo Dollar's acts of TERRORISM |
31 Dec 2006 05:29:03 PM |
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Ding dong
medication bell Mr Wolf
Off you go
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