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Friends, More on Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff:
"Creflo Dollar
"Because you came from God you are gods -- you're not just human." -- CREFLO DOLLAR
"Another Word of Faith televangelist who is the very embodiment of bad theology is Dr. Creflo A. Dollar, founder and pastor of World Changers Church International (WCCI). Despite heresy that strikes at the very core of Christianity, he has been awarded an honorary doctor of divinity from Oral Roberts University. Lest one think that the word heresy is a bit much, consider the fact that Dollar not only denies the deity of Christ, but also denigrates pstors who proclaim that Christ is fully God as "fantasy preachers." He further chides followers for falling for such fantasies:
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 alseep in the back of the boat. Please listen to me. Please listen to me. This ain't no heresy. I'm not some false prophet. I'm just reading this thing out of the Bible. I'm just telling you, all these fantasy preachers have been preaching all of this stuff for all of these years and we bought the package!"
"And this is not an isolated incident. Dollar has gone so far as to say that because Jesus got tired, He could not have been God. As rationale for this deviation from essential Christian doctrine, Dollar simply says, "If he [Jesus] came as God and he got tired -- he says he sat down by the well because he was tired -- boy, we're in trouble." Moreover, "If Jesus came as God, then why did God have to anoint him?" He answers is own question, saying, "Jesus came as a man, that's why it was legal to anoint him -- God doesn't need anointing. He is anointed. 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."
"Dollar's departure from orthodoxy cuts to the heart of Christ's passion on the cross. While it is true to say that Christ set aside the prerogative for independently using His divine attributes when He took on the limitations of humanity -- it is false to say that Christ was divested of a single attribute of deity. Indeed, the historic Christian church has consistently maintained that in the Incarnation, Christ was undiminished deity! If Christ was not fully God, His passion on the cross would have been insufficient to atone for sin. As man, Christ is our representative -- the Second Adam; as God, His death was sufficient to provide redemption for the sins of the world. To suggest, as Dollar does, that those who teach that "Jesus came as God" are fantasy preachers is to say that a whole host of credible pastors from Charles Spurgeon to Charles Stanley have missed the answer to Christ's most basic question - namely, "Who do you say that I am?"
"Not only does Dollar demote Christ, but he also deifies Christians. On one occasion he went so far as to pour water from a bottle into a glass as evidence for his contention that "the same stuff that God is, man is." Says Dollars, "Notice the substance didn't change just because it was moved from one vessel to the other. Listen to what I am saying. When God poured of himself into man, the stuff that man came from didn't change."
[pages 48-49. Hanegraaff, Hank. (2009). Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.].
God save us all from all of our sins, and from believing in or saying heresies. May God have mercy upon us sinners. Amen. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
"Creflo Dollar
"Because you came from God you are gods -- you're not just human." -- CREFLO DOLLAR
"Another Word of Faith televangelist who is the very embodiment of bad theology is Dr. Creflo A. Dollar, founder and pastor of World Changers Church International (WCCI). Despite heresy that strikes at the very core of Christianity, he has been awarded an honorary doctor of divinity from Oral Roberts University. Lest one think that the word heresy is a bit much, consider the fact that Dollar not only denies the deity of Christ, but also denigrates pstors who proclaim that Christ is fully God as "fantasy preachers." He further chides followers for falling for such fantasies:
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 alseep in the back of the boat. Please listen to me. Please listen to me. This ain't no heresy. I'm not some false prophet. I'm just reading this thing out of the Bible. I'm just telling you, all these fantasy preachers have been preaching all of this stuff for all of these years and we bought the package!"
"And this is not an isolated incident. Dollar has gone so far as to say that because Jesus got tired, He could not have been God. As rationale for this deviation from essential Christian doctrine, Dollar simply says, "If he [Jesus] came as God and he got tired -- he says he sat down by the well because he was tired -- boy, we're in trouble." Moreover, "If Jesus came as God, then why did God have to anoint him?" He answers is own question, saying, "Jesus came as a man, that's why it was legal to anoint him -- God doesn't need anointing. He is anointed. 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."
"Dollar's departure from orthodoxy cuts to the heart of Christ's passion on the cross. While it is true to say that Christ set aside the prerogative for independently using His divine attributes when He took on the limitations of humanity -- it is false to say that Christ was divested of a single attribute of deity. Indeed, the historic Christian church has consistently maintained that in the Incarnation, Christ was undiminished deity! If Christ was not fully God, His passion on the cross would have been insufficient to atone for sin. As man, Christ is our representative -- the Second Adam; as God, His death was sufficient to provide redemption for the sins of the world. To suggest, as Dollar does, that those who teach that "Jesus came as God" are fantasy preachers is to say that a whole host of credible pastors from Charles Spurgeon to Charles Stanley have missed the answer to Christ's most basic question - namely, "Who do you say that I am?"
"Not only does Dollar demote Christ, but he also deifies Christians. On one occasion he went so far as to pour water from a bottle into a glass as evidence for his contention that "the same stuff that God is, man is." Says Dollars, "Notice the substance didn't change just because it was moved from one vessel to the other. Listen to what I am saying. When God poured of himself into man, the stuff that man came from didn't change."
[pages 48-49. Hanegraaff, Hank. (2009). Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.].
God save us all from all of our sins, and from believing in or saying heresies. May God have mercy upon us sinners. Amen. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
