As a follow up to last week’s posts, we want to give you a glimpse into the finances of one of the ministries we highlighted – World Changers Church International, which can also be called “Money Changers Church”.
Remember LeRoy Thompson and Creflo Dollar from last Wednesday and how they “anointed” the money given by their followers? Well, that “anointed money ritual” must really be working!!! Check out this excerpt from a 2007 AP article.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071111_1__ATLAN54662
Rev. Creflo Dollar’s church made $69M in 2006
By Associated Press
Published: 11/11/2007 2:47 PM
The Rev. Creflo Dollar disclosed the World Changers Church International’s financial information to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but said the money he spends is his own.
One of our readers recently made the following comment:
“I would not describe Creflo as a cult leader nor would I describe Worldchangers as cult-like or cultish.”
The word “cult” has several meanings. The definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that I believe is most applicable to the prosperity preachers is:
“CULT – a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.”
With that in mind, let’s focus on the ministry of Creflo Dollar. The primary resource I will be using in this post is Hank Hanegraaff’s Christianity in Crisis 21st Century. Here’s a direct quote made by Creflo Dollar during a September 15, 2002 program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network:
“Because you came from God you are gods – you’re not just human.”
Does that sound “ORTHODOX” (conforming to established doctrine especially in religion) to you?
On page 46 of his recent book, Hanegraaff writes:
“Lest one think that the word heresy us a bit much, consider the fact that Dollar not only denies the deity of Christ but also denigrates pastors 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 asleep 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 to you 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!”
Dollar made the above statement on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (December 8, 2002) according to Hanegraaff’s footnote.
Does that sound cult-like to you? It does to me!!!
Hank Hanegraaff explains that this is not an isolated incident. Hanegraaff writes:
“Dollar has gone so far as to say that because Jesus got tired, He could not have been God. As rationale for thid 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 his 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.”
The above quotes came from Dollar’s December 8, 2002 program broadcast on TBN.
Hanegraaff goes on to explain:
“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 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 redeption 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?”
In tomorrow’s post, we will explain why Dollar finds it necessary to demote Jesus Christ.
only a techie question. you’re archives are not complete when do you expect that you will have the full wonderland story up again? thanks!
That’s a very good question! Hopefully, the archives will be complete soon. Don’t worry… it WILL happen. Thanks for asking. Blessings to you!
I’m rather sure that historians and theologians do not appeal to Merriam-Webster when trying to define and describe various religious movements. I also suspect that a business professor would have a thing or two to say about a student who turns in a paper that relies on a popular dictionary to define key concepts.
An Evangelical who uses the definition of a “cult” cited above would in turn have to define pretty much any belief system outside of orthodox Christianity (as that person defines “orthodox”) as a “cult.”
So, yea, Creflo’s theology is unorthodox when placed in the historical context of orthodox Christianity.
But cult? I don’t think so.
“Hanegraaff goes on to explain:”
There’s Hank Hanegraaff again, is this site related to CRI, are you or any member of your family working for him in any way?
Are you going to do a inside look of doings of Hank Hanegraaff ?
Cliff Mathis says:
“So, yea, Creflo’s theology is unorthodox when placed in the historical context of orthodox Christianity.”
As we have made extremely clear, The Wartburg Watch is a blog that focuses on the Christian faith. Why are so intent on defending Creflo Dollar’s unorthodox theological beliefs?
I figured you would chime in about Hanegraaff. He is one of the few Christians to investigate the prosperity preachers, and I admire him for that. Expect to see his book referenced quite a bit in this series.
And yes, at some point we will report on Hanegraaff’s own failings and how he took steps to correct them.
I saw Creflo Dollar one time on television for about 2 minutes. My impression was that he had style (in his own context, of course) and that his name (while weird to me – that CAN’T be the name he was born with) was unbelievably ironic.
Assuming your post is accurate, Dollar doesn’t even have the rudimentary doctrines of the Christian faith right. If he doesn’t understand the trinity and diety of Christ, he shouldn’t be teaching anywhere, let alone serve on the Board of ORU.
Faithful Christian churches have a real opportunity and obligation to preach and teach solid doctrine. If I knew someone in Dollar’s church, the first thing I would to would be to invite them to a small group Bible study that would focus on doctrinal essentials and hope that they could slowly move away from Dollar and his church.
But, again, I wonder how much some the of SBC charismatics may actually help to mainstream a guy like Dollar. Charismatics often frequent the same type conferences, use some of the same language etc. I am not an expert at different types of Charismatics and how they draw doctrinal lines, but my experience shows that they are loath to do that. So, a person attending an SBC church with a Charismatic emphasis, in my opinion, will soon be introduced to the larger Charismatic family, which includes a lot of creepy guys like Copeland, Hagan (RIP), Robinson, Dollar etc.
Difficult reading today, Deb? I AGREED with you that Creflo’s theology is UNORTHODOX. Maybe you should reread what I wrote. It was rather straight-forward. I just do not believe that Creflo is a cult-leader nor do I believe WorldChangers is a cult nor do I believe that we should appeal to Merriam-Webster to define complex historical/theological terms and concepts – an appeal which I am sure that the authors of this blog did not make in their business school years….
I hope you will correct your statement as I have not defended the beliefs of Creflo.
“…at some point we will report on Hanegraaff’s own failings and how he took steps to correct them.”
Does that mean that you will allow Copeland, Dollar, Hinn, etc, to tell how they have taken steps to ” to correct them” (themselves) as alot of your quotes by Hank Hanegraaff date back to the early turn of the century on these critters.
You’re beginning to sound like some of these Mega Preachers who say quit looking back, today is a new beginning (in defending good o’boy Hank).
Guest 99,
You mean the prosperity preachers have stopped preaching their unbiblical prosperity doctrine? I think not…
Today’s post will enlighten our readers on what Creflo Dollar has been up to in recent years. Stay tuned…
The term “cult” is typically used in two ways: theological and sociological. From the standpoint of orthodox Christian theology, a cult is generally a present-day religion that claims to be Christian but denies one or more of the essential doctrines of orthodox Christianity, particularly the Trinity or the unique deity of Christ. From a sociological perspective, a cult is a religious group seen as hyper-authoritarian, exploitative and potentially dangerous to the members and/or society as a whole. It is not uncommon for a group that would be considered a cult theologically to also be one sociologically. (Jehovah’s Witnesses are a classic example.) But technically a group can be one and not the other. Based on these definitions, Dollar and other Word-Faith teachers are definitely theologically cultic (based on their denial of essential orthodox Christian doctrine), and individual churches and teachers within the movement may or may not be a cult in the sociological sense. Likewise, there are some groups that a basically theologically orthodox, but they exercise a degree of control over their members’ personal lives for them to be considered sociologically cultic. From what I’ve read on this blog and others, at least some Sovereign Grace churches would fall into this category.
“You mean the prosperity preachers have stopped preaching their unbiblical prosperity doctrine?”
I think not also, but you are willing let Hank Hanegraaff off the hook just because he said …sorry? without penalty? hmmm
by the way a cult is a small group
a non cult is mainstream
There’s nothing wrong with quoting Hannegraaff when he is right; doing so doesn’t mean that we have to accept everything he ever said or did. There’s an old saying: “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” I’m not saying that Hannegraaff is mostly wrong, nor that he is mostly right. Just that when he’s right it is okay to say so, just as it is okay to say when he is wrong.
Every time I see someone dismissing every thing that someone says (whether Hanegraaff, or Dollar, or Rogers, or Gaines, or Spurgeon, or Wesley, or Sproul, or Warren), as if there is no way they can be right about anything (just because they are wrong about something), it seems to me to reflect the very same mindset of those who accept everything that those individuals say. Either way, a human being is elevated to the point either where they can do no wrong, or we should at least expect that they can do no wrong — and if they ever do, then everything they ever said must be rejected as not credible. Seems like either way people are somehow expecting others to be infallible.
Believe it or not, even Hitler and Stalin said some truths along the way. We should neither follow men blindly, nor reject them blindly. Rather, we must weigh all things, from all sources, against the Word of God and be led and taught by His Spirit, and stop expecting humans to be perfect.
Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are large groups, not small, and they are both cults, theologically speaking. Size doesn’t matter.
Thanks for your wise comments, Junkster. I don’t expect pastors to be perfect since that’s an impossibility, but I do believe we should hold pastors to a higher standard. That’s what we’re attempting to do here on The Wartburg Watch. Cults come in all shapes and sizes for sure!
Thanks, Deb. A higher standard would be good, but at this point I’d be happy if churches started holding pastors to the same standard that many pastors seem to have for their members. 🙂
Junkster says:
“Every time I see someone dismissing every thing that someone says…”
I’m not quibbling on the ones your dissing,
but to promote someone like Hank Hannegraaff who lives in luxury, making money off the books that are promoted is hypocritical at best. Why is it that you can’t discuss the merits of the one’s your are attacking without bringing Hank Hannegraaff into the discussion (unless your just doing a book report?).
So I’ll ask again…. is this site related to CRI, are you or any member of your family working for him in any way?
You can breathe a sigh of relief, Guest 99. We have NO CONNECTION whatsoever with Hank Hanegraaff or CRI. However, we find his resources to be of value as we explore some of these faith issues.
I would not want to be held accountable for everything that has been done in the name of Jesus Christ, nor do I expect that He wants to be held accountable for all of that either! So let us be wary of those who paint everyone associated with a person or movement with the same broad brush and understand that few of us are in full agreement with everything that another person says. As my Momma used to say, if two people agree on everything, one is unnecessary. And I even find that I do not always agree with what I have said in the past!
That said, we need to exercise discernment about pastors, teachers, book authors, etc., to see whether a particular sermon, teaching, book or whatever is useful in our mission in this world. And we need to compare their lifestyles with both the teaching of Christ (e.g., Matthew 25) and with their own teaching. Are they striving for a Godly life?
Junkster, Good points on the cult definitions. It amazed me how little I understood cultic behavior before I got into looking at it years ago. You are not going to believe what prompted my investigation. Companies. Yep. I saw much cultic behavior in certain companies. There was even a book written about it called Corporate cults. The same theme runs through them all: Uniformity and conformity. It is too lengthy to get into here but to give you an example many SGM guys have shaved their heads. Hmmmmm.
Ya know, you can set spam filters for this stuff. If you’re running WordPress on your own server (instead of their free hosted servers), I know there’s places in the Admin area to set that.
Thanks for the tip, Paula!
No prob. 🙂
Hey, did you get my email?
Hi Paula
Please resend it to my email and I will forward it to Deb.We are using a new system and its taking us awhile to get used to it.
dee@thewartburgwatch.com
Hmm… if there are issues with receiving email, maybe it would be better to have her email me? I always include mine in my posts. Thanks!