Exposing the Heresy of Creflo “Cashflo” Dollar: Jesus Became God

Dear Friends:

The time has come for me to get back to why I set up this blog, that is to defend the historical Christian Faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints (Jude 1:3). The late Dr. Walter Martin, the Founder of the Christian Research Institute, once said “Controversy for the Sake of Truth Is a Divine Command.” How right this Christian Scholar was. These words are especially relevant for today’s post-modern society given that much of the culture is seduced by the demonic philosophy called “Relativism.”That being said, let me get on to the business at hand which is to expose some of the heretical teachings of some of the most prominent Ministers in America today. While I am very familiar with these Ministers and much of their teachings, I must say that to hear some of the poison that is spewed out of their mouths, gives me even more incentive to be used of the Holy Spirit to bring attention to these “damnable heresies” that has caused many people the “Shipwreck” of their faith.

I recently heard a talk (you couldn’t possibly call it a sermon) from Creflo Dollar, and the title of the talk is “Jesus Became God.” Yes, you read it right! The talk is about twenty-seven minutes long and Creflo is making every attempt to “Demote” Jesus Christ as just a mere man who later became God. I worked on the structure of this talk and decided that I would tackle it one point at a time. That way, you can get a clear sense of what he was trying to convey, and my refutation of this heresy.

While it is certainly not my intention to just simply be critical of Mr. Dollar, I do not make any apologies for being able to approach his teachings from a “critical thinking” perspective. Moreover, it is vitally important that we examine any teaching through the lens of Scripture. That is the work of a Christian Apologist. The first major point of dollar’s message is “Jesus Didn’t Know that He was the Son of God; He had to Grow into Sonship” . Dollar goes on to cite several Scriptures including the baptism of Jesus account in Luke 3.

There, according to Dollar is where “God confirms to Jesus for the first time at the age of 30 that He was in fact His Son”. The obvious question that must be raised is, is this the truth? Did Jesus live His entire life from childhood to the age of thirty (30) without ever knowing that He was the Son of God? A better question is when exactly did Jesus know that He was the very Son of the living God?

As we look at the Scripture, we’re going to see that Dollar’s assertion that Christ was ignorant of His “Sonship” until His baptism in the Jordan River, and the Father’s subsequent affirmation is utter non-sense! Furthermore, this kind of teaching constitutes what Paul calls “Doctrines of Demons” and “Deceiving Spirits” (1 Timothy 4:1). The fact is Jesus knew that He was the Son of God and that He was Himself God! Let’s examine some Scriptures.

First, I reference Luke 2:41-50. This is the occasion when Jesus and His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary were in Jerusalem for the Annual Feast of the Passover . Jesus was only12 years of age at this point, and yet while his parents were on their way back to Nazareth, Jesus remained behind. The parents discovered that Jesus was not with them and they turned around to go back to Jerusalem to find Him.

They eventually found Him in the Synagogue where He had just confound the so-called Religious Scholars of His day. When they saw Jesus, Mary began to rebuke Him for the way she believed that He had dealt with them. However, Jesus calls her attention to a profound truth that further confirmed to His Mother who He was, that He understood His true identity, and what His Mission on Earth was really about.

He said: “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s Business?” Verse 50 says, “But they (His earthly parents) did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.” This verse clearly shows that Jesus knew who He was and what His mission on earth was all about. He clearly demonstrates this much prior (18 years to be exact) to His baptism at age 30. This one Scripture alone easily debunk’s Mr. Dollar’s foolish assertion that Jesus was ignorant of His identity prior to His baptism.

Second, I reference John 17:1-5. This of course is our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer in which He prays for Himself (vs. 1-5), His disciples (vs. 6-19), and for All Believers (vs. 20-26). While praying for Himself, Jesus points out something of grave importance and it has to do with His relationship to the Father from Eternity Past! He says, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You Before the World Was.”

Wow! Jesus just blows Creflo Dollar’s foolishness out of the water with this statement. He clearly is saying that His relationship with the Father goes way back even before the world was ever created! This relationship has always been and will always be. It goes back to Eternity Past, which no one can fully understand the full implication of that statement except to say that the Father and Son relationship has no beginning and no ending!

At a later writing, I will speak about The Eternal Sonship of Christ to further debunk Dollar’s false teaching that Christ did not know that He was the Son of God. However, I want to speak further to this issue using the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union. The hypostatic union is the term used to describe how God the Son, Jesus Christ, took on a human nature, yet remained fully God at the same time.

Jesus always had been God (John 8:58; 10:30), but at the Incarnation (John 1:14) Jesus took on human flesh and became a human being. The addition of the human nature to the divine nature is Jesus, the God-man. This is the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ, one Person, fully God and fully man! Let me illustrate it in order that you might see the picture of what I’m saying clearly.

Jesus As God

• He is worshiped (Matt. 2:2, 11; 14:33)
• He is prayed to (Acts 7:59)
• He is the sinless one (1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15)
• He know all things (John 21:17)
• He gives eternal life (John 10:28)
• All the fullness of Deity dwells in Him (Col. 2:9)

Jesus As Man

• He worshiped the Father (John 17)
• He prayed to the Father (John 17 and many other Scriptures)
• He was tempted (Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1)
• He grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52)
• He died on the Cross (Rom. 5:8)
• <>He has a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39)

To sum this first part up, we have seen just how absurd Mr. Dollar’s statement really is. On next week, we will examine Pastor Dollar’s assertion that “Jesus was not God because He was not Perfect”, but rather, “He grew into Sonship”. I realize that many critics will quickly say, “I don’t believe Pastor Dollar has taught this.” Well, if you feel that way, then I would respectfully ask that you leave me your e-mail or you can contact me, and I will send you a downloaded copy of the actual message and you can hear for yourself what blasphemous teachings that has come out of the mouth of one of the Word of Faith movement most popular teachers.

Blessings to All!

Grateful For Rev. Jerry Falwell!

Dear Friends:

I trust by now that most of you have heard about the passing of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, Thomas Road Baptist Church, and the Liberty University/Seminary. While this posting doesn’t speak to an issue of Christian Apologetics, it does speak of a man who made a difference in our society.

Like many of you, I did not always agree with Rev. Falwell’s politics, however, after reflecting for the last three hours or so, I thought about the impact this man has made on the moral conscious of our Country. No one can argue that it was Mr. Falwell’s strong convictions that spoke loud and clear whenever there was a need to hear a voice crying in the wilderness of America.

When we wanted to live ungodly and deviant lifestyles, he called our attention to the high and holy standard of Almighty God and he reminded us that “Rightesousness exalted a Nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”(Proverbs 14:34). We didn’t like seeing him in the forefront leading the way to fight for what is right and honorable. Someone asked me today, “do you think we will ever have that kind of voice again?” My reply was “I hope so for America’s sake!”

Tragically, the so-called Christian leaders today are only interested in being “politically correct;” they’re not very concerned with upholding the Righteous Laws of God for fear of being rejected or for being labeled as a trouble maker. I’m going to miss Rev. Falwell and I thank the Lord for his strength to speak the truth in love…even when it was unpopular to do so.

My prayers go out to his family, the church family, and the entire University/Seminary staff and administration. While we will miss his voice, we can trust that his labor was not in vain and that what he stood for will continue to speak to multitudes even beyond the grave. thank you Dr. Falwell for being the man you were , and we trust that your homegoing has caused many of the old saints to shout with unspeakable joy!

Blessings to All!

The Mary Winkler Case: Was Justice Served?

Dear Friends:

I’m sure by now that most of you have heard about the verdict in the case of the Minister’s wife who shot and murdered her husband on last year. Mary Winkler apparently “snapped” and decided that killing her pastor, husband, Matthew Winkler was the appropriate thing to do given her testimony during her trial. Mrs. Winkler testified that her husband criticized her every move, made her watch porn films with him, and then have sex with him immediately after the movie was over.

As a direct result of her testimony, the jury came back with a verdict of guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder as the prosecutor sought. There was mixed emotion about this verdict. Was it fair? Was it justice? Did the jury let a cold-hearted killer go practically free given the light sentence of 3-6 years she is now facing? Well, I’m sure that there are other questions that all of us could come up with, and I’m equally certain that we could debate this matter for weeks on end. However, I do have a take or two about this matter that just might surprise you. As I observed this unfortunate situation unfold, several things became painfully apparent to me:

First, as soon as the news got out that a minister’s wife shot her husband, there was an overwhelming sense of sympathy and compassion for this woman by the townspeople and the media alike. She was treated very delicately by the prosecution’s office and the Judge in the case did the unthinkable by allowing her to be released on bail. I immediately thought to myself, “when does that ever happen to a minority?” If that had been a poor Black woman or another poor ethnic person, there’s no way that bail would have been set!

Second, When the information started leaking in the media that Mary Winkler had actually “confessed” to the killing, people immediately began to denigrate the Pastor; after all they asserted, “surely he must have done something to push his wife off of the edge that she would do something like that.” However, it was interesting that some folks from the church where Mr. Winkler served as Pastor began to offer praise for their Pastor and re-affirm him as a loving husband, doting father, and a tremendous Pastor and Preacher for their church.

Something just didn’t add up. While Matthew Winkler’s parents affirmed their son’s character and good will, they also supported their daughter-in-law. I must admit that I was deeply moved by that gesture as I’m not sure if I could extend myself in that way to my child’s killer.

Third, here are the specific things that I find troubling about this case and I hope that you will hear my heartbeat on this matter. The jury was looking for a reason to not convict this woman of first degree murder! As Mrs. Winkler testified very slowly and methodically, she seemed to grip the hearts of everyone in Court including the prosecution. She testified that her husband criticized her, made her wear “high heel shoes”, took the checking account from her after she was scammed of $17,000 dollars.

She painted him as a cruel, abusive brute who made her kill him. However, the jury apparently never paid a bit of attention to the testimonies by Church members, people of the community, and relatives that painted a completely portrait of Matthew Winkler that showed him to be an honorable man. It is my contention that the jury needed to acquit this woman probably because she had children, and because she appeared as the “victim”. While we may never know what really happen inside the Winkler’s household, I don’t believe for one moment based on Mary Winkler’s testimony that her husband deserved to be murdered in cold blood!

Was justice served? I think not. But I know that there is a judge who will someday make this and other unjust situations right. This is an important case for our judicial system because contrary to what we believe, there are different standards of justice depending on one’s race, sex, and socio-economic status. Whenever thugs see this kind of thing, they feel justified in committing crimes simply because in their minds the justice system is flawed and it plays favorites and is unfair.

To give a few closing and hopefully thought-provoking commentary, I wonder would the verdict have been the same if the defendant was a black woman who had shot her husband in the back? What if Mr. Winkler had done the exact same thing to Mrs. Winkler? Would the verdict have been the same? In this case, we will never know of course. However, let’s not close our eyes and ears to the so-called” greatest judicial system in the world,” we might just see and hear some things that will change our minds. That’s my take, what is yours?

Blessings!