The Subtle Twisting of Scripture
              by Clete Hux, Birmingham, Alabama

The following are statements on a sermon tape of a well
known TV evangelist. What follows are portions of that tape.
This writer's comments are marked with **.

"The death of Jesus Christ was not a physical death alone...
if it had been a physical death and a physical death only,
Abel would have paid the price for the sins of mankind,
'cause he was the first man that died of honoring God in his
word... every prophet that walked the earth under the
Abrahamic Covenant could have paid the price, if it were a
physical death only."

**Such a view of any man's physical death being sufficient
to atone for man's sins not only shows a misunderstanding of
man's fallen sinful nature and of the fact that no fallen,
sinful man could ever be an acceptable sacrifice to atone
for sin. It also shows a misunderstanding of the
significance of Christ's physical death for man. All
throughout the scriptures it is the body and blood of Christ
that is emphasized. It is the blood {physical death} of
Christ that brings the forgiveness of sins. (Genesis 9:6;
Lev.5:11; Acts 20:28; Romans 3:25, 5:9; Ephesians 1:7;
Hebrews 9:22; I Peter 11:19; Rev. 12:11)**

"A spirit created all matter... and a non-beginning, non-
ending creature called God created the whole thing."

**To call God a creature is to misunderstand His attribute
of Self Existence - that He is not a created being. It is
also a contradiction in terms to say non-beginning, non-
ending creature because a creature has a beginning.**

"The body was a dead thing until God breathed life into
it... man had no lack of knowledge, no lack of what he
needed - he walked in a likeness of God... Can you see God
going hungry? Can you see God without enough to eat? You
say, well no, certainly not! If He needed any more, He'd
just create more. Well that's the way He made man."

"Man's made in His image and own likeness and He gave him
this universe to have dominion over and He gave him this
world to live on and dominion over the earth and by his
faith and by his creative abilities caused this world to
feed and take care of him in every way."

**This portion is particularly problematic. Notice the
subtle elevation of man to God's level. If man has no lack
of knowledge and no lack of what he needs, then man is
omniscient {all knowing} and all sufficient. These are
attributes that really only apply to God Himself in the
Scriptures.**

"Now, then he {Adam} gave that authority over into the
hands of an angel, a foreign angel by the name of Lucifer,
who had his name changed to Satan... Now when Adam gave that
creature the authority that God gave him, he {Adam} made him
{Satan} the God of this world."

**It is obvious that what is being taught here is that Adam
was made a god over this world, something the Bible doesn't
teach. It does teach that man has dominion in a supervisory
sense over the earth {Genesis 1:26} and that God holds
mankind accountable as a responsible steward.**

**However, nowhere in the Scriptures will one find God
giving the universe or the world to man in a sense of
ownership or godhood. Nor will one find Adam given the
authority to make Satan the god of this world. God has never
given up title of this world. This is made very clear to the
Psalmist in Psalms 24:1, "The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell in it."**

**When the Bible talks about Satan being "the god of this
world," it means that Satan holds a certain sway over the
world during this present age - a point of emphasis to our
Lord's third temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:8f).  But
it is a sway that is usurped, temporary, and in no sense
absolute.  "The statanic world sovereignty is in fact
apparent rather than real; for God alone is the King eternal
(1Tim. 1:17), that is, of every age, past, present, and
future" (See "The New International Commentary on the New
Testament," Phillip E. Hughes, 2 Corinthians, pp.126-127).**

**By now one probably has been wondering "Who in this world
has taught such things?" The quotes are taken from Kenneth
Copeland's sermon, "What Happened from the Cross to the
Throne?" Although he has taught these things, these
teachings are not limited to him.  A number of other
teachers have and are teaching the same things.**