Apprising Ministries has long been warning you concerning the formation of what looks to be a new ecumenical evangelical magisterium (EEM), e.g. Familiar Names Rick Warren, James MacDonald & Others To Headline At Mark Driscoll’s 2013 Resurgence Conference.

Unfortunately, at the same time—as ridiculous as it may seem—the apostasy within mainstream evangelicalism has become so widespread that Word Faith Heretics Like Creflo Dollar Draw Nearer To Evangelical Acceptance. We even saw that Word Faith Heretic Cindy Trimm Receives Award From Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Sadly, as I discussed in Emerging Ecumenical Evangelephants And The Word Faith Movement, such as these in the EEM are now even lending their considerable credibility to prosperity preachers. As an example, you may consider James MacDonald Was A Bit Late In Mainstreaming T.D. Jakes.

Against this backdrop, I’ll remind you that in Rick Warren Brings Love On Record I showed you one of those being championed by Rick Warren into this EEM is the popular evangelical prophet-pastor Steven Furtick. Furtick is one of the leading purveyors of a new hybrid kind of theology.

You may also remember I told you in Stven Furtick Bringin” On Word Faith And The Pastrixes that Furtick has combined the self-esteem Seeker Driven message with a lite version of Word Faith prosperity preaching, which I referred to as  Furtickism. He’s already had the notorious T.D. Jakes in to preach to his Elevation Church.

Furtick’s introduction of Jakes that night is quite revealing as you may recall from Steven Furtick: T.D. Jakes Is My Favorite Preacher In The World. We’ve also seen Furtick develop a close working relationship with Word Faith mogul Joel Osteen as well, e.g. Steven Furtick As Televangelist At Lakewood Church Of Joel Osteen.

Now Furtick would appear to be doing the same with Word Faith queen Joyce Meyer. So when he proudly sent out the following yesterday, we’re really not surprised. Especially when we think back to Ravi Zacharias: Word Faith Preacher Joyce Meyer “Such A Great Bible Teacher” God Is Using:

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Evangelical leaders, such as they are, ignore this syncretism of Word Faith and mainstream evangelicalism to the peril of their younger sectors who’re blindly following their new self-appointed ecumenical evangelical magisterium. I’ll leave you with a few examples of Joyce Meyer’s theology, which she has never repudiated.

In his article Joyce Meyer Matt Slick of CARM presents many of her heretical teachings that are absolutely classic Word Faith mythology. Not the least of which are:

1. Jesus stopped being the Son of God:  “He could have helped himself up until the point where he said I commend my spirit into your hands, at that point he couldn’t do nothing for himself anymore. He had become sin, he was no longer the Son of God. He was sin.”(http://storage.carm.org/joycemeyer/joyce-meyer-Jesus-became-sin-stopped-being-son-of-God.mp3)
   1. Response:  This is heresy.  Jesus did not ever stop becoming the son of God.  Essentially what she is saying is that Jesus stopped being divine, the eternal son, second person of the Trinity. This is an attack on the very nature of Christ and it is a dangerous false teaching.  Joyce Meyer needs to repent and retract this statement.  There is no place in Scripture that says Jesus stopped being the son of God.  She’s adding to the word of God and placing in the hearts and minds of listeners false doctrine.
2. Jesus was born again:  “The minute that blood sacrifice was accepted Jesus was the first human being that was ever born again,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neKsa_74w7k&feature=related)
   1. Response:  This is just plain wrong.  Being born again means to be saved from the wrath of God for a person’s sins (Eph. 2:1-3), to have a new birth (John 3:3), and to be regenerated (2 Cor. 5:17).  Mrs. Meyer is simply wrong biblically.  Why does she teach this?  It can only be because she has bought into many of the errors of the Positive Confession movement where it is sometimes said that Jesus lost his divine nature, went to hell, finished the atonement in hell, and was born again!  This is a serious error since it implies that Jesus needed to be changed…
3. Jesus paid for our sins in hell:  “He became our sacrifice and died on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time he entered hell, where you and I deserve to go (legally) because of our sin. He paid the price there.” (The most important decision you’ll ever make, by Joyce Meyer, second printing, may 1993, page 35)
   • Response:  This is blatantly wrong.  Jesus did not pay the price of our redemption in hell.  He paid the price on the cross.  It was finished on the cross when he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).  Also, consider the following verses:
   • Col. 1:20, “and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
   • Col. 2:14, “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
   • 1 Pet. 2:24, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
4. Jesus went to hell in our place and was tormented:  “Jesus paid on the cross and went to hell in my place. Then as God had promised, on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. The scene in the spirit realm went something like this: God rose up from his throne and said to demon powers tormenting the sinless son of God, ‘let him go.’ Then the resurrection power of Almighty God went through hell and filled Jesus. On earth his grave where they had buried him was filled with light as the power of God filled his body. He was resurrected from the dead — the first born again man.” (The most important decision you’ll ever make, by Joyce Meyer, second printing, may 1993, page 36)
   • Response:  Where does she get this completely fictitious dialogue between God and the demon powers?  It is made up, not founded in scripture, and mistakenly assumes that Jesus went to hell, the place of torment and suffering after he died on the cross.  The Bible does not teach any such thing.  However, it does say that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9).  This can mean that Jesus was physically buried, or that Jesus went to Hades to inform those who had already died about who he was and what he did on the cross, or it can be referring to his incarnation as is contrasted with his ascending into heaven (Eph. 4:10).  But there is simply no reason to believe that Jesus suffered in hell and finished the atonement there.  See response to Quote 1.
5. If you don’t believe Jesus went to hell, you cannot be saved:   “His spirit went to hell because that is where we deserve to go… There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth.” (The most important decision you’ll ever make, by Joyce Meyer, second printing, may 1993, page 37) (source)

Next, below is an audio clip where you can listen to Joyce Meyer teaching “positive confession,” i.e. spoken words supposedly have creative power, which is a cornerstone of man-centered WF mythology:

[mejsvideo src=”https://www.apprising.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Joyce-Meyer-Teaching-Positive-Confession.mp4″ width=640 height=360]

Finally, the audio clip following has Joyce Meyer teaching, a la reigning Word Faith king Kenneth Copeland, the central WF fable that human beings, created in the image of God, are then “little gods” by nature:

[mejsvideo src=” https://www.apprising.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Joyce-Meyer-Teaching-Humans-Are-Little-Gods.mp4″ width=640 height=360]

Quite obviously the Bible knows nothing of this kind of Star Trek mythology. However, long ago, the Lord already had informed us in His Word:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Well, guess what; we’re here…

Further reading

• STEVEN FURTICK, JAMES MACDONALD, AND JOEL OSTEEN
• BILLY GRAHAM: LONG A LEADER IN EVANGELICAL APOSTASY
• BETH MOORE WORSHIPS AT JOEL OSTEEN’S CHURCH AS PASTRIX CHRISTINE CAINE PREACHES