-Are you paying attention-
Since I have been asked about Joyce Meyer so
often I find it necessary to comment on her teaching. She is known as being one
of the top women speakers, one who tells it like it is with a frank but
challenging way of putting things. She is an enigma in that she has some very
good practical information from experience and the Scripture. So there are good
portions in her teaching and there are some bad interpretations and experiences
from her teachings that are to be avoided. Meyer may not be completely engulfed
in word faith teaching but she is yoked with word faith teachers (in fellowship
with Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland Copeland’s
magazine, The Believer’s Voice of Victory, has carried some of her
articles) and her writings and teachings have certainly been influenced by
their theology.
Joyce has been honest about her struggle with health and about her
fight with breast cancer and getting surgery. Over the years since her
popularity has grown her appearance has also changed through cosmetic
surgery. She disdains any criticism of
her wearing jewelry, having a large and expensive wardrobe and even her
teaching men. The rationale is that money spent on her appearance, changing her
hair color, etc. is acceptable for her being in the public and should not to be
confused with vanity.
At 60 years of age she has become a very popular
speaker. She certainly is one of the best-known
and best-paid TV preachers (especially for women). Her ministry revenues have steadily
increased from 1998 where they took in 40 million, to 1999 they brought in 55
million, to 2000 70 million, to 2001 near 80 million, to 2002 near 90 million.
Today her Life in the Word organization estimates to take in $95 million this
year. The ministry says it spends about 10 percent - $880,000 a month - on
charitable works around the globe.
Her ministry is now a
multimillion-dollar organization with 500 employees with offices in Europe and
South Africa. "The ministry's headquarters, built a year and a half ago by
Wichita-based R. Messner Construction Co. Inc. for $19 million." Meyer ministry reaches out to the world through
satellite, cable and the Internet. Charisma article a number of
years ago pointed out she is on 600 radio and television stations -selling
nearly three million tapes and close to a million books last year (Charisma). 4 million cassettes are produced annually
and at the cost of $6 each, according to a Joyce Meyer Ministries pamphlet,
which accounts for $24 million in revenues, her Web site bring an average $8
million a month to her ministry. (Reference-Joyce Meyer's message:
Give to me and God gives to you By Carolyn Tuft and
Bill Smith St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Meyer's house, the largest of the five, is a 10,000-square-foot
Cape Cod style estate home with a guest house and a garage that can be independently
heated and cooled and can hold up to eight cars. The three-acre property has a
large fountain, a gazebo, a private putting green, a pool and a poolhouse where
the ministry recently added a $10,000 bathroom."
(Article
on Joyce Meyer, 11/15/2003, St. Louis Post Dispatch
At times she can come off with a sense of humor and
is witty and clever, but other times haughty and even snippy with sharing her
life experiences. One needs their discernment turned on when listening to her
teaching lest they take in the unhealthy concepts she is delivering. And
these are certainly incorporated in her teaching if one listens carefully.
“Now whether
you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you want to
operate on it or not, you are made the righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ. Most people who go to
One does not have to be part of the religious world
to believe this, the Bible actually says this and it certainly is not from the
pit of hell. The Bibles definition of sin is anything falling short of
perfection. One of the words for sin is
Harmatia -- missing the mark or target and hitting another is the most common
explanation. To keep the law perfect means to have a bullseye every time. No one
can do this. “Everything that does not
come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).
Knowing good and not doing it is sin (James 4:17). Not doing what should be done is sin. To sin
means one is a sinner.
Of course
one can be righteous and be a sinner at the same time, because it is not our
righteousness but Christ's. John makes it clear (I Jn. 1:8-10) “If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” John refutes the error that we have no
sin nature, by using the word sin in the singular. It is not just the committal
of sin but the principle of sin, he is referring to sin of every description.
To those who profess to have become perfectly sanctified, and to live without
any sin, John says If we say that we
have no sin, we live in self deception, “and the truth is not in us.”
We are
called righteous and even saints as Peter points out 1 Pet 4:18 “Now If the
righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
Even though we are covered with Christ’s righteousness our sin remains, we have
a sin nature that has not been removed. No saint ever claimed this
pure spiritual condition. Not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Not Job, Moses, David,
Peter, John, or Paul. None were absolutely perfect, they were all guilty of
acts of sin? They never affirmed
themselves as not being a sinner. The Bible does not teach that ALL Christians
are perfect or no longer sinners. Paul said he was the chief of sinners and
continued to do what he did not want to at times. “But now, it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7:17)
If what Meyer
says is true then this Scripture is meaningless. I Jn. 5:16 “If anyone sees
his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He
will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” To sin makes
one a sinner. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily
ensnares us”
James
explains in Jms.4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not
do it, to him it is sin.” James explains “But each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not
be deceived, my beloved brethren” (Jm.1:14-16).
Meyer, in
her book, writes, “Words are containers for power” (The Name, The Word, The
Blood, p. 37). This is typical Copeland/ Hagin faith talk. She has promoted
this as well on her TV broadcast. “Prov.18:21 this could be a life hanging scripture “death and life are in the
power of the tongue. And they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for
death or life.” The ad following for her audio series “Is your mouth saved.”
the advertise says we all have the ability to speak life or death to not only
other people but to ourselves as well. “Will help you to take inventory of what
you’ve been saying and begin speaking faith filled words that will bring to
pass God's good plan for your life.” (May 14, 2000 LeSea broadcasting)
“But you cannot throw out positive confession, and you cannot throw
out all the faith teachers, and you cannot throw out positive thinking.
And you cannot get rid of those kinds of things because they're in the Bible
from one end of it to the other.”
Meyer was at the Mega Fest 2004 with: Creflo Dollar, Paula White,
Juanita Bynum, Bishop Eddie Long, and Bishop T. D. Jakes.
By the way: Dollar believes we are
little gods as does Eddie Long. Bynum thinks she is a prophetess who can pass
on the anointing to anything she wants. T. D. Jakes does not believe in the
Trinity and teaches psychology. White is a prosperity teacher who has a mixture
of various aberrant trendy doctrines. The word faith associations do rub off on
her teachings, this is why she is comfortable to be speaking with these people.
“I don't want to spend my whole life talking about the promised
land without ever getting there. I want to live in it ”(Joyce Meyer, “What Does
Your Future Hold” May 21, 2004) This means accumulating wealth and living the
good life now according to her own message.
She makes
her position clear by saying “words are containers for power they carry
creative or destructive power positive or negative power so we need to be
speaking right things over our lives
and about our futures if we expect to have good things happen because what you
say then is what you probably end up
having tomorrow. We need to warfare with words. I believe that praise and
worship is warfare. We talked about this last night, how when we are praising
and worshipping God that there's actually a, an odor that comes off of us that
is offensive to the enemy. And I don’t know if you ever had the opportunity to
smell a demon possessed person but I have, and I tell you it is a stench; and I
was saying about that this morning and I thought you know people that are demon
possessed have an offensive odor to me and I’m glad because I am holy ghost
possessed that I’ve got an offensive odor to the devil.” (broadcasted on the
Bible Answerman Jan.2003)
Despite
the concept of words being in control, there have been many who have overcome
some very unhealthy lives whether they be words spoken about them or where they
came from. There is nothing in scripture that they have an offensive odor
except if they have not taken a bath, and those who are not demon possessed
would smell the same way without a bath as well. And yes, I have had the
opportunity to smell and converse with demonized people and one
cannot immediately tell by smell.
“Sowing and reaping is a spiritual law...Sow generously and you
will reap generously.”
“We need to claim as much of that inheritance as we possibly
can...One of the things you can do right now is speak positive things about
your future right now.”
She says
“I've got to keep the anointing on my life. I can't keep it on my life unless
I'm a giver” (May 14, 2000) (insinuating money and other things). Clearly this
is a word faith view. Jesus said he would never leave nor forsake us, poor or
rich, giving or not.
Speaking about trials she
apologizes and states “that’s not a negative confession, I’m not cursing your
life” (Life in the Word Mar.6 2003
Lesea Broadcasting)” This shows her word faith influence of not speaking
negatively.
She also
has some interesting views on warfare “Several years ago I found myself completely
worn out from trying to fight the devil. I learned many 'methods' of spiritual
warfare; however, they did not seem to be working ... I had fallen into the
trap that many Christians fall into. I had the right teaching, but the wrong
order ... I was feverishly applying methods I had learned - like fasting and
prayer ... rebuking and resisting evil spirits ... empty formulas which wear us
out and produce no results except maybe a sore throat” (The Word, The
Name, The Blood, pp. 28, 32, 33 reference PFO article January-March 1996).
“Our
warfare is a supernatural warfare you don’t fight the devil the same way you
would a natural war. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal they’re not
natural weapons but their mighty through God to the pulling down of
strongholds. One of the reasons why I tell you talk back to the devil is
because the word of God is supernatural weapon it is a spiritual weapon…”
Do we
fight the devil or do we stand in Christ and he is to flee?
“Now spirits don't have bodies, so we can't see them. Okay? There
probably is, I believe there is, and I certainly hope there is several angels
up here this morning that are preaching with me. I believe that right before I
speak some anointed statement to you, that one of them bends over and says in
my ear what I'm supposed to say to you.”
This
is more than concerning and not comforting to hear that Joyce has spirits
(angels) speak to her. When she is supposed to be hearing from the Holy Spirit
who leads a teacher into the word
She
also practices “Pain is a spirit. When it gets on your body, tell it to
leave.” ( Joyce Meyer, From the Cross to the Throne, audio
tape, sermon recorded at Life Christian Center in Saint Louis, Mo -referenced
from Personal Freedom Outreach).
On the
subject of the blood of Jesus she does say some things that are correct, but
she also uses the blood in an unbiblical manner. She writes, “One of the ways
we can honor the blood is by singing about it, talking about it, studying about
it and meditating on it” (p. 100). Where does the Bible teach or even hint as
such a thing, we don’t honor the blood apart from the person we honor, the
person it flowed from. While it is good to study what the blood can do and the
Old Testament types, she goes beyond anything the Scripture states. For example
This is wrong use of the blood of Christ. Jesus is
our high priest who applied the blood to our lives when we believe in faith on
his Atonement (Eph.1:7; Col. 1:14) we cannot apply the blood over anything. We
do not handle the blood, our high priest Jesus does. It is applied to those who
are recipients of salvation (Heb.10:19-22). His blood was applied only to
those who have faith in the atonement of Christ. It has to do with our
forgiveness and cleansing of sin and a guilty conscience, not to fight
demons. (for more on pleading the blood) We don't see any
Christian plead the blood against demons in the Scripture. This is strictly a
modern Charismatic tradition.
“And in Luke 23:43, Jesus said unto him, ‘I say unto you today you
shall be in paradise with me.’ There’s no punctuation in the original
translations of the Bible. We have punctuated it and in this particular
Scripture it was punctuated wrong. They put in there: ‘I say unto you comma
today you shall be in paradise with me’ making it appear that the minute Jesus
died on the cross He went straight to paradise. No, no, no. He did not. The way
it should read is: ‘I say unto you today comma. I’m telling you today. Today
I’m telling you that you are going to be in paradise with me.’ But He didn’t
say, ‘You’re going to be there today.’ He said, ‘I’m telling you this today.’” (Joyce Meyer, From the Cross to the Throne)
This
is the same wrong argument you get from a Jehovah’s Witness except she is
trying to prove that Jesus went to hell not paradise (the good side in Hades).
“Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ And He meant the Old
Covenant. The job He had to do was just getting started. He really did the job
the three days and nights that He was in hell. That’s where the job was
done” “He was pronounced guilty on the cross but He paid the price in hell.”
(From the Cross to the Throne Joyce Meyer,
audio tape)
In her
book The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make - August, 1991
edition First Printing
“Jesus paid on the cross and in hell.” “Jesus
took your place in hell.” “Jesus went to hell for you.”
While the
Bible teaches Jesus descended into Hades (not hell) he did not pay a price
there, he descended victoriously.
She goes on to say this
emphatic statement “There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they
believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe
with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell” (Joyce Meyer, the Most important decision
You will ever make 1991).
Either
Jesus' work was finished on the cross or he has lied and should have correctly
stated “it is continued” and said after he raised
it is finished. If Jesus finished his work of salvation in hell and
not on the cross then we have a different gospel presented. When we take
communion it is pointing to the work of our salvation paid at the cross.
Personal Freedom Outreach reported that, “A pastor
at whose church Meyer was to speak told her about serious concerns he had about
her booklet. As a result, she has revised parts of it.” But the revisions did
not affect this teaching of the Born Again Jesus.
In the
the second printing of the book she deleted the following words:
“...the
Father filled His spirit again. For three days He was alone paying for our sins
as “only a man.” The price had to be paid by someone just like us.” (p. 38,) “He
went to hell to pay the debt you owed.” (p. 41)
Her view has been held for some years and is not new “Jesus died as
our substitute. He who knew no sin was made to be sin. He took upon himself our
sin nature. And he died- he was separated and cut off from God. He went down
into the prison house of suffering in our place. He was there for three days
and nights” (Made Alive, The word of faith Apr. 15, 1982)
To make matters worse she strangely echoes Kenneth Copeland's view “…All
the hosts of hell was [sic] upon Him. Upon Him. They got on Him. They
got Him down in the floor and got on Him. And they were laughing and
mocking.” “Sunday morning, here comes the Son. Sunday morning, God
gets Himself together. Ho, hoooo. Justice has been met, somehow the
thing's been taken care of. And ol' God gets His voice together and He
hollers out three words and they go roaring through the universe and entering
the gates of hell. He said, 'It is enough! It is enough!” (audio
tape, From the Cross to the Throne, sermon recorded at Life Christian
Center in Saint Louis, Mo.] reference1999 - Personal Freedom Outreach).
Anyone who removes our salvation by the way of the cross is teaching
another gospel (Gal.1:6-9, 2Cor.11:3-4). Doesn’t matter how much wisdom they
appear to show, how funny they may be or what you seem to get from their
teachings- it is another gospel.
If Meyer's would remove herself from the faith movement she may have a
healthier and more correct teaching on the core doctrines.
“It amazes me, and not only does it amaze me, it aggravates me. These
people who think they've got a ministry of exposing what's wrong with everybody
else...Why is it that people think that it's their call to go around and find
out what's wrong with everybody else and print it? Do you know when people were
try to stop Jesus, finally some very wise man said, 'Why don't you just leave
us alone? If it's of God, you're not gonna stop it. And if it's not God, it
won't last too long anyway.' Hallelujah! I mean, that's just the way I feel
about it” (Like a Mighty Wind, Joyce Meyer).
Let me answer her statement by saying that some
people do ask questions and we have every right to examine ones teachings that
are spoken publicly to see if they are right or wrong. It's not that ministries
are looking for what is wrong but are trying to watch out for the brethren who
are babes in Christ and those who are naive and don't know any better,
especially in this time of deception. Let me put this another way, what is with
these teachers that think they can sat ANYTHING they want publicly and
not allow anyone to examine whether it is correct or not. If she
spoke what is right (such as on the atonement and word faith teachings) there
would be nothing she needs to be concerned about. However, her using Gamaliel's
argument shows how non-biblical her source for validation is. Gamaliel did not
make up his own mind on following Jesus as the Messiah. Gamaliel was not
a wise man, he was not saved nor was this Godly wisdom, for God tells us to
test all things not let them be. Joyce should know this. But maybe she
doesn't want to know this.
pt.2
Meyer prosperity message