In Hagin’s suggested lifestyle of “healing” but not regularly giving to the poor, there seems
little likelihood that the kind of divine healing success experienced by Jesus and His apostles
will be replicated by a believer opting to not do good by giving to the poor. For the Christian
believer to do the ‘greater works than Jesus did’ entails the Christian believer doing greater
works of service to the poor than Jesus did (John 14: 12). For, Jesus went about ‘doing good’
and healing. Having faith to be divinely healed is not automatic, although the healing
evangelist’s message states God lovingly wants to give faith, God lovingly will give
faith to those who ‘hear,’ since “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
(Rom. 10:17, my italics). Nevertheless, if the believer refuses to hear the reported word of
God’s message on lovingly regularly giving to the poor, the ability of that believer to receive
the gift of faith from God is compromised: God is reported unwilling to show
mercy/compassion when He judges the person who has not been merciful/compassionate
(James 2:13a). This is a fulfilment of Jesus’ reported saying “You cannot serve God and
money” (Matt. 6:24, Good News Bible).
540The Christian believer is taught they have a part
538 The underlying theme is the command from God that you should ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’
539 The point that the neighbourly action is reportedly implied to have been performed on a Jew by a Samaritan
( one of a race of ‘ritually unclean’ half-Jews despised by ‘ritually clean’ Jews ), emphasises we should be prepared to recognise anyone in need as our neighbour – no matter whether they come from a nation/race ‘at loggerheads’ with our own, as the despised Samaritan showed himself willing to do.
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to play, such as lovingly regularly giving money to the poor, in making themselves eligible to
receive faith for blessing from God like Cornelius did; Zacchaeus reportedly declared he
would give half his fortune to the poor, and then declared he would pay the hefty fines for
theft in the Mosaic law, presumably out of the half of his fortune left him, to those he had
wronged – and Jesus’ reported response to Zacchaeus was “This day is salvation come to this
house...” (Luke 19:9). And as late as 212 AD Christians in Alexandria were reported as
holding their property in common.
541Repeatedly, the continuation of prosperity is taught to
be conditional on obedience to God’s commandments: “Keep therefore the words of this
covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do” (Deut. 29:9). These words were
reportedly spoken to a relatively small people who had wealth since they had reportedly
recently obediently plundered the riches of an immensely prosperous state, Egypt (Ex. 3:22,
12:36).
542Keeping the “words of this covenant” is not merely speaking aloud its promises
of
prosperity, but entails performing the covenant in true adherence to the stipulations of “words
of this covenant.”
543This scripture refers back to the reported admonition of Israel to
“walk in all his [God’s] ways” (Deut. 10:12). Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom
540 Many bible translations use ‘Mammon’ the word Jesus reportedly used to symbolise ‘money’ and ‘wealth.’
Mammon was the Syrian god of wealth, so Jesus suggests that if anyone is serving wealth they are idolatrous, servants of Mammon not of God. That is why covetousness, the wanting of more, is idolatry : it is the serving of the god ‘more wealth,’ be it named Mammon or whatever other name may be ascribed ( Eph. 5: 5, Col. 3: 5 ). But there are those who bless the covetous whom reportedly the Lord abhors ( Ps. 10: 3 ); and reportedly the Pharisees were covetous ( Luke 16 : 14 ).
541 Redmond Mullin, The Wealth of Christians, ( Exeter : The Paternoster Press, 1983 ), pp. 46, 62, citing
Tertullian, Apologeticus, Loeb, 1977 ( xxxix, 5-10 ).
Clement of Alexandria taught that a Christian held possessions “for his brothers’ sake rather than his own... [ that ]...all possessions are by nature unrighteous, when a man possesses them for a personal advantage as being entirely his own, and does not bring them into the common stock for those in need.” ( Clement of Alexandria, [ trans. G. W. Butterworth ], Quis Dives Salvetur, Loeb, 1919, pp. 303, 337, cited in Mullin, Wealth of
Christians, p. 56. )
Augustine of Hippo’s The Epistle to Diognetus, written in 124 AD, says : “If a man will shoulder his
neighbour’s burdens; if he be ready to supply another’s need from his own abundance; by sharing the blessings he has received from God...such a man is indeed an imitator of God.” ( Cited in Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 57. ) So also, in 253 AD Cyprian is reported as sending 100,000 sesterces from Carthage to the Christians in devastated Numidia, while around this time, the Roman church cared for about 1,500 needy people, many of whom were refugees or strangers, with Rome being a major source of funds for other Italian communities and fugitives from persecution. ( Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 61. )
542 The word badly translated ‘borrowed’ in the King James version of these verses is the Hebrew word natsal,
meaning ‘to snatch away.’ Jay Green in his KJ3 translation substitutes this ‘borrowed’ with the more accurate translation ‘plundered’ ( see for example Young, Concordance, p. 926 ).
543
For the reported promises of prosperity forming the blessings of compliance see Deut. 28: 1-14 ; a much longer list of curses for non-compliance follows in Deut. 28: 15-68.
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argued:
“Tell me, then, whence art thou rich?...The root and origin of it must have been
injustice. Why? Because God in the beginning made not one man rich, and another
poor...He left the earth free to all alike. Why then, if it is common, have you so many
acres of land, while your neighbour has not a portion of it?”
544When Hagin teaches the scripture “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27),
he does not challenge his audience as to whether or not they are going to cooperate with God
to facilitate their being changed from a reported “glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). If they
refuse to cooperate with God’s reported utterances then Christ being in them will, in that
parlance, remain unfulfilled hope of glory. Concerning 1 John 5:4-5, Hagin stresses it is
our ‘faith’ that overcomes, but verse 5 shows this faith to be simply that of “he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God.” That is, this ‘faith’ implies the faithful life of the Christian
believer.
Possibly because Hagin is aware of the promise to faithful Christians that God will supply all
their needs, he feels able to teach God will supply faith for every Christian’s need (Phil.
4:19, see Phil. 4:15-18); and Hagin makes another extra-biblical promise with his over-
narrow version of ‘gospel works:’ “As you determine to feed upon the Word continually, you
will see your faith grow to be able to receive the wonderful promises God has provided for
His children.”
545However, against this is the richness of reported James 2 ‘gospel works’
described in terms of physically helping brothers or sisters “naked and destitute of
daily food,” rather than indulging in what may be cynical proclamation over them of ‘faith
confessions’ such as ‘In the Name of Jesus be warmed!,” “In the Name of Jesus be filled!”
A gospel of such proclamations devoid of the gospel works of physically helping the poor is a
dead gospel (James 2:14-17,20,26).
546James reportedly writes that by works a (wo)man is
544
John Chrysostom was patriarch of Constantinople ( 398-404 AD ). ( Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 51, citing John Chrysostom, Homilies on the First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, Hom. XII, Oxford, 1848, p. 100f. )
545 Cf. Rom. 10: 17 ;Hagin, Bible Faith, p. 5, my italics. This is very similar to what Smith Wigglesworth is
reported as saying : “Faith is the principle of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit, Who inspired the Word, is called the Spirit of Truth; and as we receive with meekness the engrafted Word, faith springs up in our hearts.” ( Hibbert, Smith Wigglesworth, p. 99. )
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justified, not by faith only (James 2:24). This can be seen by way of being a commentary on
Rom. 5:1, and agreeing with the completeness of Eph. 2:8-10.
547Abraham’s faith was
expressed in his works; his “faith worked with his works” (James 2:22). Origen,
commenting on Matthew’s gospel, taught a Christian should sell their possessions and give
the proceeds to the poor.
548And, those who reportedly argued they had prophesied, cast out
devils, and done many wonderful works “in thy name [“in the Name of Jesus”]” probably
fulfilled Hagin’s feeding upon the word, seeing their faith grow, and receiving ‘the wonderful
promises’ - yet Jesus says to them “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”
(Matt. 7:22-23).
549Jesus here denounces these in the context of “by their fruits ye shall
know them” arguably disqualifying prophesying, casting out devils, and doing wonderful
works from consideration as ‘good fruit;’ the one who actually enters the kingdom of Heaven
546
By contrast Hagin and Bosworth follow Judd Montgomery in stressing that these scriptures teach that “it is following on our acting on our faith when God’s healing is manifested.” ( see Bosworth, Christ the Healer, p. 120. )
547 Romans 5: 1 - “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Eph. 2: 8-10 - “For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
548
Origen, Commentary On Matthew, XV, 15, cited in Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 52. So, too, it is reported that : “By 410 [ AD ] Pope Leo the Great, urged on by John Cassian, had set up registers and systems of relief for the poor, and in the Eastern Empire, by the sixth century, the Church had special privileges and financial support so that it could undertake full official responsibility for the relief of the poor.” ( Mullin, Wealth
of Christians, p. 66. )
Again, it is reported that the senator Cassiodorus, compiling in about 550 AD an academic syllabus of classical and patristic learning for his monks at Vivarium, wrote “Above all else welcome the traveller, give alms, clothe the naked, break bread for the hungry...he is truly comforted who comforts the wretched.” ( Mullin, Wealth of
Christians, p. 67. ) Benedict, drawing on earlier rules in his own Rule ( written before 580 AD ), instructed :
“relieve the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick, bury the dead, help those that are in trouble, comfort the afflicted.” ( Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 67. ) The monk Gildas, writing in 540 AD, described a church already corrupt : the priests “certainly do not care for the wellbeing of the people, but make sure their own bellies are full...They regard the honourable poor as snakes, and cultivate the wicked rich ; they say with their lips that alms should be given, but give not a halfpenny themselves.” ( Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 67. ) Happily by contrast, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, finished in 731 AD, praises the Irish monks who had only those buildings essential to the communal life, and “Owned no property except cattle; and if they received any kind of contribution from the wealthy, they promptly gave it to the poor.” Bede also recounted the East Saxon king Sebbi who, with his wife, after thirty years of rule, brought the bishop “no small sum to be given to the poor, keeping nothing for himself, preferring to stay poor in spirit for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” ( Mullin, Wealth of Christians, p. 76, citing Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, [ Bertram Colgrave, & R. A. B. Mynors (eds.) ], Oxford, 1969, III, xxvi, p. 310 ; IV, iii, p. 338 ).
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Hagin says “A person gets saved by receiving Jesus Christ into his heart. The only way people can lose their salvation is by what they do about Jesus...If they keep on yielding to the devil, mature Christians could finally get to the point where they choose to deny Christ...” However, Hagin means by this denying Jesus their telling Him they don’t want Him as Lord, whereas in Matt. 7: 22-23 these reportedly do say “Lord, Lord,” yet Jesus tells them their denial of Him somehow involves their being “workers of iniquity.” ( Hagin, Triumphant