| Name | Kenneth Copeland |
|---|---|
| Residence | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Birth date | December 06, 1936 |
| Birth place | Lubbock, Texas, United States |
| Occupation | Author Speaker Televangelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Religion | Word of Faith, Pentecostal |
| Spouse | Gloria Copeland |
| Children | John Copeland, Kellie Copeland, Terri Pearsons |
| Website | www.kcm.org |
Kenneth Copeland (born December 6, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American author, public speaker, and televangelist. He is a proponent of the Word of Faith movement, and is considered to be the founder of the prosperity gospel. He is the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
Following his religious conversion, Copeland turned the rest of his life over to the gospel and ministry work. In the 1960s, he was a pilot and chauffeur for Oral Roberts. In the fall of 1967, he enrolled in Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kenneth is married to Gloria Copeland. His children are John Copeland, Kellie Copeland and Terri Pearsons.
He was a member of the Oral Roberts University Board of Regents until it was replaced in 2008 with a new board that promised to hold to higher standards of financial accountability. In October 2007 a lawsuit against the university was presented for financial and political wrong doing. Copeland's oldest daughter, Terri, is married to pastor George Pearsons, who served until January 2008 as the ORU Board chairman. Subsequently, in January 2008, the Huckabee campaign paid for use of Kenneth Copeland Ministries' facilities for a fundraiser. Copeland also claimed that he had had a phone call with Huckabee in which Huckabee allegedly vowed support despite a pending investigation by the U.S. Senate into Copeland's finances if he was elected. The fundraising at the church was criticized by the Trinity Foundation.
In 2007 Copeland was accused of using his $20 million Cessna Citation X jet for personal vacations and friends. The Copelands' financial records are not publicly available, and a list of the Board of Directors is not accessible as these details are protected and known confidentially by the Internal Revenue Service. Responding to media questions, Copeland pointed to an accounting firm's declaration that all jet travel complies with federal tax laws.
Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:American Pentecostals Category:American television evangelists Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity Category:Imperial Records artists Category:Oral Roberts University people Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:People from Lubbock, Texas Category:Pentecostal writers Category:Oral Roberts University alumni
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Copeland has produced more than 70 teaching series covering a wide variety of issues. She has written many best-selling books including a NY Times Best Seller - God's Master Plan For Your Life, Hidden Treasures, Hearing From Heaven and Blessed Beyond Measure. In honor of her achievements she was selected as “Christian Woman of the Year” by the Christian Woman of the Year Association in 1994.
On November 6, 2007, United States senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced an investigation of Kenneth and Gloria Copeland's ministry by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Grassley asked for the ministry to divulge financial information to the committee to determine if the Copelands made any personal profit from financial donations, and requested that the Copelands' ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. The investigation also scrutinized five other televangelists: Benny Hinn, Paula White, Eddie L. Long, Joyce Meyer, and Creflo Dollar. The Copelands and others refused to provide full information to the inquiry. No misconduct or charges were brought against any of these ministries as a result of the investigation.
The inquiry has stirred considerable controversy in many Christian circles, as several groups that would normally not be considered in agreement with the Copelands and the other televangelists listed have questioned whether Senator Grassley used proper protocol. KCM created a website, www.believersstandunited.com to help explain their side of the inquiry.
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| Name | Kenneth E. Hagin |
|---|---|
| Caption | Kenneth Erwin Hagin |
| Birth place | McKinney, Texas, U.S. |
| Death date | (age 86) |
| Death place | Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Death cause | old age |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Pioneer of the "Word of Faith" movement |
| Education | some college |
| Occupation | preacher |
| Religion | Pentecostal Christianity |
| Spouse | Oretha Rooker |
| Children | Kenneth Wayne Hagin, Patricia Harrison |
| Parents | Lillie Viola Drake Hagin and Jess Hagin |
His favorite scripture was Mark 11:23:
Two years later he preached his first sermon as the pastor of a small community church in Roland, Texas, from McKinney. During the next twelve years he pastored five Assemblies of God churches in Texas: in the cities of Tom Bean, Farmersville (twice), Talco, Greggton, and Van.
Since its inception in 1963, his organization grew to include numerous media outreaches and ministries. These are:
In 1974, Hagin founded RHEMA Bible Training Center USA, which now has training centers in fourteen countries and has 30,000 alumni. In 1979, he founded the Prayer and Healing Center there to provide a place for the sick to come to "have the opportunity to build their faith",. Its Healing School continues to be held free of charge twice daily on the RHEMA campus.
Physical Healing: It is always God's will that a believer be physically healed of any sickness or infirmity. (; ). Hagin based the belief of healing for all on the understanding that healing for the physical body was included in redemption. If redemption was available to all, then healing would also be available to all. (Word of Faith magazine, 6/90; 7/92; 8/92; 12/92, Kenneth Hagin, Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Death and Healing Belongs to Us).
Material Wealth: It is always God's will that every believer be 'financially blessed' through faith. Although Hagin emphasized that material prosperity was a redemptive blessing, he never taught that living by faith excluded hard work and wise business practices. In his later years he wrote a book entitled, "The Midas Touch" in which he wrote sharply and correctively about the so-called prosperity gospel and many of the extreme teachings that were being circulated under this heading. He warned the body of Christ of the dangers of greed and explained that the purpose of financial blessing is for the furtherance of the work of the gospel. (Kenneth Hagin, How God Taught Me About Prosperity and The Midas Touch).
Faith and Authority: Hagin believed that the believer through his position in Christ had authority over elements of this world and elements of the satanic world. By faith the believer can exercise the authority of God to change impossible situations into possibilities (1:37) (). Faith, to Hagin, is a matter of belief in God's word which also entails a vocal expression of God's Will or confession thereof. According to Hagin, God has promised to answer believing prayer and respond positively to the believer's exercise of faith (Kenneth Hagin, I Believe in Visions, What Faith Is, Bible Faith; A Study Guide).
Salvation: Hagin claimed in several of his books that he physically died three times as a child. Each time he descended to hell but was brought back to life when a voice spoke. On the third trip to hell, Hagin claims to have asked Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. Crying, 'God! I belong to the church! I've been baptized in water' twice, to no avail, he cried out a third time. It is at that point, he claims, that he was saved and brought back to life a final time. Hagin goes on to say that he was praying so loud when he arrived back in his body that "traffic was lined up for two blocks on either side of our house!" After this dramatic experience, Hagin came to believe that church membership and water baptism were not sufficient to save but rather the 'new birth worked by the power of the Holy Spirit' in response to a personal confession of faith in the Lordship and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even though it seems that this new birth could apparently be had even after death, it is only through that he was already 'coming back to life' that he was saved.' (ibid., Word of Faith magazine, 10/01, Kenneth Hagin, The New Birth; I Went to Hell).
Substitutionary Act: Hagin spoke of Jesus' death in substituionary terms. The doctrine of 'Substitution' as taught by Hagin differs widely from the same doctrine as taught by many other branches of Christianity. The normal theory of Substitutionary atonement is that the son Jesus paid our debts, previous, current and future to the Father within the Godhead. Hagin claimed that Jesus died as the substitute for all of humanity, as do most Christians (Bible, ), but also believes that Jesus suffered the torments of hell for three days and that He 'defeated the devil', stripped him of all authority and was resurrected after being 'quickened in spirit' or 'born again'. Hagin held that those who received Christ were born again and shared in the benefits of Christ's resurrection and power through their identification with His death, burial and resurrection. (Kenneth Hagin,The Name of Jesus; The Triumphant Church).
Sacred Scriptures: Hagin's beliefs followed in the reformed tradition in that the Bible is viewed to be the literally true, inerrant word of God as written by men under the guidance of the Spirit of God. Although Hagin often spoke of the dramatic spiritual encounters he claimed to have had, he always insisted that faith was to be established upon the word of God alone and not upon the experiences of man. Many times in his ministry he made the statement, "Don't believe anything because I said it. Search the scriptures and prove it out for yourself" (Kenneth Hagin, How You Can Know the Will of God and The Believer's Authority).
After Hagin's death in 2003, his son Kenneth W. Hagin continued to run the institution. RBTC claims to have trained more than 30,000 graduates who reside and minister in more than 100 countries.
Category:1917 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity Category:American Pentecostals Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Oklahoma Category:People from the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex Category:People from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Category:Education in Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:Place of death missing
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| Name | Smith Wigglesworth |
|---|---|
| Caption | Smith Wigglesworth |
| Birth date | June 08, 1859 |
| Birth place | Menston, Yorkshire, England |
| Occupation | Plumber, Evangelist |
| Spouse | Mary Jane Featherstone (Polly), 1860-1913 (widowed) |
| Children | Alice, Seth, Harold, Ernest & George |
| Death date | March 12, 1947 |
| Death place | Glad Tidings Hall, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England |
Nominally a Methodist, he became a born again Christian at the age of eight. His grandmother was a devout Methodist; his parents, John and Martha, were not practicing Christians although they took young Smith to Methodist and Anglican churches on regular occasions. He was confirmed by a Bishop in the Church of England, baptized by immersion in the Baptist Church and had the grounding in Bible teaching in the Plymouth Brethren while learning the plumbing trade as an apprentice from a man in the Brethren movement.
Wigglesworth married Polly Featherstone on May 2, 1882. At the time of their marriage, she was a preacher with the Salvation Army, and had come to the attention of General William Booth. They had one daughter, Alice, and four sons, Seth, Harold, Ernest and George. Polly died in 1913.
Wigglesworth learned to read after he married Polly; she taught him to read the Bible. He often stated that it was the only book he ever read, and did not permit newspapers in his home, preferring the Bible to be their only reading material.
Wigglesworth worked as a plumber, but he abandoned this trade because he was too busy for it after he started preaching. In 1907 Wigglesworth visited Alexander Boddy during the Sunderland Revival, and following a laying-on of hands from Alexander's wife Mary Boddy he experienced speaking in tongues (glossolalia). He spoke at some the Assemblies of God events, though he never joined the denomination.
Wigglesworth ministered at many churches throughout Yorkshire, often at Bethesda Church on the outskirts of Sheffield, where he claimed to have had many prophecies. He also had an international ministry: as well as Sweden, he ministered in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Pacific Islands, India, Ceylon, and several countries in Europe. Some of his sermons were transcribed for Pentecostal magazines, and these were collected into two books: Ever Increasing Faith and Faith that Prevails.
Wigglesworth said he had made a commitment to God that he would not sleep at night before he had won a soul for Christ every day. He claimed that on one occasion he could not sleep because he had not met this commitment, and that he went out into the night and met an alcoholic to whom he spoke and persuaded to become a believer.
Wigglesworth is considered one of the most influential evangelists in the early history of Pentecostalism and is also credited with helping give the movement a large religious audience.
David du Plessis recounted that Wigglesworth prophesied over him that God would pour out his Spirit on the established churches, and that David du Plessis would be greatly involved in it. Later du Plessis was very much involved in the Charismatic movement.
Wigglesworth continued to minister up until the time of his death on March 12, 1947.
Lester Sumrall, the late American evangelist, knew Smith Wigglesworth and attended his meetings. Smith Wigglesworth would on occasion strike people who were brought to him. Sumrall recounted that at one meeting, a man with stomach cancer had been brought in to the meeting on a stretcher wearing a hospital gown. He was too weak to walk and in such poor condition, that he was accompanied by a doctor. When Wigglesworth came to minister healing to him, he struck him in his abdomen, with his fist telling him in his thick colloquial accent to "be 'ealed" in Jesus name. The doctor put a stethoscope to the man's heart saying "You killed him! You killed him!" Wigglesworth paid little attention and kept on ministering to other people. A few moments later, according to Sumrall, he got up off his stretcher and walked around, completely healed, with his back side showing since he was wearing only a hospital gown.
Many books have been written telling of Wigglesworth's manner of life and the miraculous healings done in his meetings. Nevertheless, he said on more than one occasion that he would rather see one person saved through his preaching than 10,000 healed.
Category:1859 births Category:1947 deaths Category:Faith healers Category:Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity Category:Christian mystics
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| Name | Reinhard Bonnke |
|---|---|
| Birth date | April 19, 1940 |
| Residence | Orlando, Florida |
| Birth place | Königsberg, East Prussia |
| Occupation | Evangelist |
| Website | Christ For All Nations |
Reinhard began holding tent meetings that accommodated 800 people. As attendance steadily increased, larger tents had to be purchased. In 1984, he commissioned the construction of the world’s largest mobile structure—a tent capable of seating 34,000. This tent was destroyed in a wind storm just before a major crusade. There was a question as to how to proceed. The team decided to hold the crusade “open air.” Instead of the expected 34,000 attendees, the event saw over 100,000 people, significantly more than the tent would have allowed. Crowds have been exceeding “tent” size ever since.
Since the start of the new millennium, through a host of major events in Africa and other parts of the world, the ministry has recorded 55 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ.
As part of the discipleship-training program, 185 million copies of CfaN follow-up literature have been published in 103 languages and printed in 55 countries.
Bonnke has written many books which have been printed in different languages. In the early 1990s Bonnke, who had prophesied a major world revival which would start in the United Kingdom, was involved in an initiative to reverse the decline in church attendance there. This involved the distribution of millions of copies of a booklet he had written called Minus to Plus to homes throughout the country, which was hoped to win 250,000 converts. However, only 20,000 were claimed to have been 'won over', and these were mostly those returning to the faith rather than coming to it for the first time. Church attendance in the United Kingdom continued to decline.
Reinhard Bonnke has hosted 'Fire Conferences' in many different countries of the world, aimed at equipping church leaders and workers for evangelism and for distributing millions of copies of Minus to Plus to homes around the world.
More recently, Bonnke has spent several years developing the 'Full Flame Film Series,' a series of eight inspirational films aimed at inspiring and challenging the church to Holy Spirit evangelism.
During a Reinhard Bonnke crusade in December 2001 at the Grace of God Mission Church in Onitsha, Nigeria, a local pastor was allegedly raised from the dead. The authenticity of this claim has been questioned, especially the fact whether the subject was injected with embalming fluid or not. The authenticity of this claim has also been supported by a firsthand investigation conducted by a member of Heaven's Family. That member posted an article that is a response to skeptical statements and a comparison chart that has been publicly posted at www.deceptioninthechurch.com.
Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kaliningrad Category:German Pentecostals Category:Evangelists Category:Faith healers Category:People from Königsberg Category:People from East Prussia
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| Name | Oral Roberts |
|---|---|
| Birth date | January 24, 1918 in Ada, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Death date | December 15, 2009 in Newport Beach, California, U.S. |
| Church | Pentecostal |
| Congregations | Pentecostal Holiness Church;United Methodist Church |
| Offices held | Founder and President, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association;Co-founder, President, and Chancellor, Oral Roberts University |
| Salary | $161,872 from Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association |
| Spouse | Evelyn Lutman Roberts; married 1938–2005 (her death) |
| Children | Ronald Roberts (deceased)Richard RobertsRebecca Nash (deceased)Roberta Potts |
| Parents | Ellis Melvin RobertsClaudius Priscilla Roberts(nee Irwin) |
| Website | http://www.oralroberts.com/oralroberts/ |
As one of the most well-known and controversial religious leaders of the 20th century, Roberts' ministries reached millions of followers worldwide over six decades. but he also pioneered TV evangelism and laid the foundations of the prosperity gospel and abundant life teachings.
Roberts became a traveling faith healer after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs" where "he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing."
Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (OREA)., even though on several occasions people died at his healing prayer sessions, and began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1954. His divine healing ministry called for prayer to heal the whole person — body, mind and spirit. Many labeled him a faith healer, but he rejected this with the comment: "God heals — I don't." He played a major role in bringing American Pentecostal Christianity into the mainstream. From 1968 through 1987, Roberts was a member of the United Methodist Church’s ministry. Even though Roberts was often associated with the prosperity gospel and the faith movement because of his close doctrinal and personal ties with Word-Faith teachers, his abundant life teachings did not fully identify him with that movement.
In 1977, Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, and the hospital would be a success. In 1980, Roberts said he had a vision which encouraged him to continue the construction of his City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, which opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989, but the importance of treating the whole person – spirit, mind, and body – was conveyed to many medical professionals. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises. In 1983 Roberts said Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer.
Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." . Later that year, he announced that God had raised the dead through Roberts' ministry. Some of Roberts' fundraising letters were written by Gene Ewing, who headed a business writing donation letters for other evangelicals such as Don Stewart and Robert Tilton.
Roberts maintained his love of finery and one obituary claimed that even when times become hard, "he continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets – airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures". That year, the Bloom County comic strip recast its character Bill the Cat as a satirized televangelist, "Fundamentally Oral Bill." In 1987 Time stated that he was "re-emphasizing faith healing and [is] reaching for his old-time constituency." In addition, he said a country club membership was purchased for the Roberts' home. The lavish expenses led to McNevin's resignation from the Board.
His organizations were also affected by scandals involving other televangelists. The university was given a donation of $8 million by entrepreneur Mart Green, and although the lawsuit was still in process, the school submitted to an outside audit, and with a good report an additional $62 million was given by Green. Oral Roberts continued in his role as ORU chancellor, helping in the leadership of ORU along with Billy Joe Daugherty, who was named as the executive regent to assume administrative responsibilities of the Office of the President by the ORU Board of Regents. Oral Roberts continued as the ORU chancellor until his death,
Even though Roberts' prosperous lifestyle, unorthodox fund-raising techniques, and the expanse of his organizations raised criticism and controversy, there was no credible evidence of malfeasance while he was in charge, The Oklahoma Senate adopted a resolution honoring the life of Oral Roberts, and he accepted this honor in 2009 at the age of 91, seven months before his death. The Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters (OAB) elected Roberts to the OAB Hall of Fame one month before his death. The legacy he left behind upon his passing was worthy of his favorite quote: "Make No Small Plans Here."
Oral Roberts died on December 15, 2009 at the age of 91. He had been "semi-retired" and living in Newport Beach, California.
According to a 1987 article in the New York Review of Books by Martin Gardner, the "most accurate and best documented biography is Oral Roberts: An American Life, an objective study by David Harrell Jr., a historian at Auburn University. Two out-of-print books take a more critical stance: James Morris' The Preachers (St. Martin's Press, 1973) and Jerry Sholes' Give Me That Prime-Time Religion (Hawthorn, 1979)."
Category:1918 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American evangelists Category:American Pentecostals Category:American television evangelists Category:American people of Cherokee descent Category:American people of Choctaw descent Category:Faith healers Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:Oklahoma Baptist University alumni Category:Oral Roberts University people Category:People from Oklahoma Category:People from Pontotoc County, Oklahoma
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