Kenneth E. Hagin
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Kenneth E. Hagin (August 20, 1917 - September 13, 2003) was a Pentecostal minister for about seventy years. He is often referred to as the "father of the modern Word of faith movement".
Hagin began his ministry after, he claimed, God miraculously healed him of a deformed heart and an incurable blood disease at the age of 17. He also claimed that he was raised from a deathbed in 1934 by "the revelation of faith in God's Word". There is no evidence known to exist regarding the original diagnosis.
Hagin was considered by his followers to be a dynamic preacher, teacher, and prophet known for preaching healing and prosperity through asking God for financial gifts, then claiming them by faith. Critics of the "Prosperity Gospel" movement consider his teachings to be controversial, even heretical.
Since its inception, his organization, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, grew to include numerous media outreaches and ministries. These include Faith Library Publications, with 65 million book copies in print; "RHEMA Praise", a weekly television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network; "Faith Seminar of the Air", a radio program heard on many stations nationwide and on the Internet; "The Word of Faith", a free monthly magazine with roughly 250,000 subscribers; crusades conducted throughout the nation; RHEMA Correspondence Bible School; and the RHEMA Prayer and Healing Center.
In 1974, Hagin founded RHEMA Bible Training Center USA, which now has training centers in fourteen countries and has 23,000 alumni. In 1979, he founded the Prayer and Healing Center there to provide a place for the sick to come to "have the opportunity to build their faith". Its Healing School continues to be held free of charge twice daily on the RHEMA campus.
In 1983, two students at Oral Roberts University, Daniel Ray McConnell and Dale H. Simmons, accused Hagin of plagiarizing the works of several other preachers, including E.W. Kenyon, John A. MacMillan, and Finis Jennings Dake. Their charges were backed by other researchers, including W.R. Scott, William DeArteaga, and Derek Vreeland. H. Robert Cowles, publisher of MacMillan's book, confronted Hagin with the accusation of plagiarism. Hagin's claimed reason in an April 23, 1986 letter to Cowles was that he used exactly the same words as MacMillan because God had supernaturally led him to do so. (This story is contained in D.R. McConnell's "A Different Gospel.").
Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society contains a 'response' to the allegation of plagiarism of Kenyon where they present their own opinion that Hagin did not plagiarize. A careful read of that response, however, shows that it is a carefully worded rhetorical reply that only considers evidence favorable to Hagin's innocence. The reply limits itself only to 'books' that are transcribed sermons, failing to mention either: a. that some of the plagiarisms were contained in magazine articles; and b. this pattern continued LONG after 1986 when Cowles first confronted Kenneth Hagin with the MacMillan plagiarism. As a major example, they point out that Hagin cited Kenyon's book "The Wonderful Name of Jesus" in his own 1978 book, "The Name of Jesus." They fail to interact with all of the data, however, since McConnell demonstrated that Hagin had already plagiarized and passed Kenyon's work off for his own in a December 1976 article in his "Word of Faith" magazine. Kenyon's Publishing Society considers the allegation of plagiarism 'refuted,' yet even Kenyon's daughter Ruth considered Hagin to be just one more preacher (and there were many others besides Hagin including Way International cult founder Victor Paul Wierville) who had used her father's material without giving proper credit.
Hagin died from a heart attack in 2003.
See also
External Links
- Official Website of Rhema Bible Church (http://www.rhema.org)
- A Skeptic's View of Hagin's theology (Apologetics Index) (http://www.apologeticsindex.com/h00.html#haginken)