In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
Luke 1:75
At Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ annual Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth, held in August of this year, the 87-year-old televangelist regaled attendees with stories about his passion for Breitling watches, of which he owns 36 coveted timepieces.
While speaking on “How to Walk by Faith and Not By Sight,” Copeland delighted in showing off the diamond-encrusted Breitling adorning his left wrist, as he asked the audience “Do you think this one’s pretty? It’s a Breitling. It has diamonds around the edge. Someone gave me this one.”
Copeland went on to share the story of the man who gave him the watch, Granny and Dove Award winning artist Mylon LeFevre. This gentleman was ill and believing in the evangelists message that sowing a seed offering directly to Copeland for healing from God, with the seed money offering in the form of a Breitling watch that retails at 10,000 dollars. It is now the 37th Breitling in Copeland’s collection.
After sharing this story, the preacher, whose worth is over 700 million dollars, said of the gift, “Whoa! A Bentley with a … um … Thank you, Jesus.”
Prosperity gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland thanked Jesus for a dying man’s seed offering of a Breitling watch, which LeFevre gave in the hope that it would bring healing. Several months prior to Southwest Believers’ Convention, LeFevre died.
The Kenneth Copelands of social media and megachurches are at the forefront in presenting the gospel message because of their notoriety and visibility. It is because of their opulent lifestyle and bizarre biblical message that many people have forsaken Christianity.
Bible scholar Justin Peters rebuked Copeland’s “wicked” teaching that sowing a seed will heal the sick. Peters said, “Kenneth Copeland knows full well that the people listening to him don’t follow him for exposition; they are there for promises of health and wealth. And there are a lot of sick people listening to him. Not just at this convention but all over the world. And they are sick; they are dying, some of them. And some have sick children, children who are dying. The bigger miracle you need, the bigger monetary seed you’d better sow,” with that in mind Peters urged Copeland to fear God’s judgment and repent.
Hopefully individuals will no longer attend Southwest Believers’ Convention or worship at Lakewood Church in Houston or Farmers Branch Church in Dallas and so many other similar establishments lead by false teachers; instead, return to the white clapboard church on the corner of Fifth and Main. It is here in these sanctuaries absent of television cameras you will find a humble pastor quietly going about his service to the Lord.
Christian integrity requires us to be pious individuals. A defining characteristic of pietism is a devotional life that manifests a personal relationship with Jesus. Pietism focuses on both correct doctrine and personal, heartfelt devotion to God. Pietists stress the importance of a transformed heart and life, seeking to align personal faith with practical, lived-out theology and devotion to Christ. Scripture itself describes piety as living out the commands of God by loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Johann Arndt was born in Germany on December 27, 1555. While Johann was studying medicine and the sciences at the university, he became quite sick with a painful disease. His physicians gave him no hope for recovery. At that juncture he vowed if God would heal him, he’d devote his life to the Lord’s service. He recovered and kept his word, and became a pastor and theologian.
Johann was concerned that theologians taught Christians to put too much emphasis on the legal achievement of Christ on the cross while neglecting the necessary heart change which alone could make a true Christian. Consequently, he encouraged his contemporaries to worship from the heart. They must have a “practical Christianity.” He taught that there must be an inward emotional component to true Christianity. His major contribution to theology was a book of meditations and prayers, Sechs Böcher vom Wahren Christentum, (Four Books Concerning True Christianity.)
Johann Arndt wrote: Give me a compassionate heart, quickly moved to grieve for the woes of others and to active pity for them, even as our Lord Jesus Christ beheld our poverty and hasted to help us. Give me grace ever to alleviate the crosses and difficulties of those around me, and never to add to them; teach me to be a consoler in sorrow, to take thought for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan; let my charity show itself not in words only but in deed and truth.
Because of his emphasis living a pious life, Johann is considered the first Pietist.