the Name Of

J e s u s:

It’s for Life,

Not Just for Christmas

 

an examination of this precious subject & a biblical refutation of the false claims of

E. W. Kenyon & Kenneth E. Hagin

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Anyone who has a prayer life of any substance, will know the sweetness of The Name of Jesus. I’m not talking about how long we pray for, or what we pray about. I mean the deep satisfaction of fellowship with the lover of our souls, our all in all & our beloved Lord & Saviour. We say His Name because it encapsulates everything He has done & everything He is. Jesus. Sweet Jesus. Wonderful Jesus. Because of these things, any falsehoods perpetrated against Him & His Name are infuriating. Peter says, ‘Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.’ (1^st Peter 2:6-8). My only desire is that The Name of Jesus is once again precious to The Church, because His Name is as much Him as He Himself.

There is one chief end to any & all heresy; that end is subversion. In these articles we have identified one of many trends, designed to denigrate The Lord Jesus Christ. E. W. Kenyon & Kenneth E. Hagin have managed to infect the Charismatic movement & Neo-Pentecostalism with significant Christological errors.

Please feel free to correct me, if I’m wrong. Please feel free to enlighten me, if there is something I have missed.

Both Kenyon & Hagin claim that The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, which was a place of defeat. Descended into hell & suffered there at the hands of demons. He was born again in this ‘prison house of suffering’, like a common sinner & raised from the dead. Then He was given The Name that had been eternally secret. That Name is now the property of The Church & the key to power & prayer.

They say The Name guarantees answers to prayer in our favour & whatever we demand will be ours. These are the bare bones of their teaching. Again, if you have a copy of The Name of Jesus by Kenneth E. Hagin & or E. W. Kenyon's volume on the same subject, burn them. They make excellent kindling. Take your Bible & examine the claims these men made, in the light of The Scriptures. So, with one last swing of the bat, let’s look.

Hagin states: ‘If you study the Scriptures carefully, you will find that nowhere does Jesus mention faith or belief when He talks about using the Name of Jesus, except in the future tense.’. I’m confused Ken.

The Name of Jesus © copyright Kenneth Hagin 1979 (emphasis added).

 

How can Kenneth Hagin reach that conclusion, with no biblical proof whatsoever? To the contrary Ken, if you had studied The Scriptures carefully, you would have seen that there is abundant evidence for a completely opposite determination. If what Hagin states is true, how then did the disciples, the seventy & the unknown, unnamed exorcist use The Name of Jesus? With no faith in Christ Himself? The problem is that Kenyon & Hagin’s beliefs about faith are skewed.

The disciples et al could not have healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils or cleansed lepers, unless they had believed in The Lord Jesus Christ. On that basis, they confidently used His Name. You cannot separate The Lord Jesus from His Name, but when viewed through the Gnostic lens of the Charismatic movement & Neo-Pentecostalism, His Name becomes a thing, a charm, a talisman or magic wand.

If invoking The Name of The Lord requires no faith in Christ, why did the seven sons of Sceva have the snot beaten out of them by one man? Riddle me that! (Acts 19:13-17). Faith in His Name is faith in Him, whether it was when He was here on the Earth, or now, when He is at His Father’s right hand.

¹¹ He came unto his own, and his own received him not. ¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: ¹³ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11-13).  

²³ Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did (John 2:23).

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18).

³¹ But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 30:31).

We could go on & on, but you can look at this in your own time. The meat in the sandwich is the fact that the modern teaching on The Name of Jesus attempts to place you at the centre of the narrative, replacing Jesus Christ as both subject & object. When it becomes about you, what you have, what you can do & who you are, there will be trouble ahead.

Hagin continues: ‘Kenyon writes, "the right to use His Name is a conferred blessing to the Church: it is a Right that belongs to every child of God. "Then he gives our four-fold right to use the Name. 1.We are born into the family of God and the Name belongs to the family. 2.We are baptized into the Name, and being baptized into the Name, we are baptized into Christ Himself. 3.It was conferred upon us by Jesus Who gave us the Power of Attorney. 4.We are commissioned as Ambassadors to go and herald this Name among the nations. "I cannot see," Kenyon observes, "where we need to have any special faith to use the Name of Jesus, because it is legally ours.’. Well hallelujah. He finally got something right! But don’t click your heels just yet. Let’s go back to The Scriptures.

¹⁶ And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all (Acts 3:16).

¹² But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women (Acts 8:12).

⁴³ To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins (Acts 10:43). 

Some will argue the toss about what I’m about to say & I am more than willing to take objections, another time. However, Kenyon is only correct in one of his assertions. That assertion, is the ambassadorial role of The Church. The main reason that I point this out is the fact that it is the one item on his list that is solely about The Lord Jesus Christ. All of this big talk about legal rights & special privileges is pure prattle. Nobody wants to be a bondservant!

It is not about you. It is not about me. It is not about anybody else, but Jesus Christ & Him crucified. Where is the seeking of His will? Where is the representation of His character? Where is the reverence of His Person? It is nowhere to be seen in this false teaching. Instead, Christ is demeaned, demoted & dispensed with. You don’t need Him when you simply have His Name & apparently, we don’t need to have any special faith in order to wield it. You can wave it like a charm & receive whatever you want. Or so they say. It is heresy & blasphemy. Where does a heretic get his heresy? From another heretic. Let me give you a prime example of where it leads. This is why my blood boils with incandescing rage. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot be separated from His Name! Listen to this.

“The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, ‘A born again man defeated Satan, the first born of many brethren defeated Him, He said you are the very image and the very copy of that one.’“ I said, goodness, gracious sakes alive. I began to see what had gone on in there and I said, well now you don’t mean, you couldn’t dare mean that I could have done the same thing? God said, “Oh yeah, if you’d known that, had the knowledge of the Word of God that he did, you could have done the same thing because you’re a reborn man too.” This is not what The Scriptures teach! Whichever god spoke to him, is a liar & Copeland is a blithering idiot, at best, for believing it as well as teaching it!

Kenneth Copeland (emphasis added).

 

Wow! That means that dear old Ken could have borne the sins of the world. Endured the defeat of the cross. Suffered in hell at the hands of devils, been born again, then beaten satan before rising from the dead. He would then have received the name above every name. At the name of Kenneth, every knee would bow. He would have ascended bodily into heaven & finally taken his place at the right hand of God. Do you see how utterly ridiculous those claims are? He sails dangerously close to Mark 13:6.

What a shame that he has to tolerate the indignity of living in luxury, flying privately & having more money than anyone could reasonably spend on themselves.

The entire premise, drive & ambition of this teaching is to somehow show God as our obligated servant. He cannot say no to us, when we use The Name of His Son. However, how can we forget the words of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself? ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ (Matthew 7:22-23).

With no faith required in order to use The Name of Jesus, because it belongs to The Church legally, how can The Lord reasonably dismiss those who have prophesied, cast out devils & worked miracles in His Name. I’ll tell you how He can do this. Because He never knew them. Based on the teaching of E. W. Kenyon & Kenneth E. Hagin, many will argue ‘..we have power of attorney & the legal right to use The Name because it belongs to us, legally & we demand our place in The Kingdom..’. They will probably quote John 16.

Please, find even one instance in Scripture where an individual with no faith in The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, successfully used His Name. I’ll wait….

Be careful brethren, because when I look at the way in which this teaching has advanced within The Church at large, all I see is something more akin to conjuring, than consecration & closer to witchcraft than watchfulness. There are those who boldly decree & declare in The Name of Jesus, not recognising that without relationship, obedience or indeed holiness, they are working iniquity. I didn’t say it. The Lord Jesus did. I dare you to argue with Him. I’ll wait…

Scripture is peppered with examples of the correct attitude towards The Name of The Lord. None of these examples involve the believer orchestrating whatever they want. The Name of Jesus is attached to whatever He wants. At least it ought to be. It is His will that is to be done on earth, as it is in heaven, not ours!

¹⁷ And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified (Acts 19:17).

¹⁷ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:17).

²⁰ Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).

¹¹ Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: ¹² That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (1^st Thessalonians 1:11-12). 

We could go on & on. In these meetings we have endeavoured to highlight the supreme error perpetrated against The Lord Jesus Christ & His Name? E. W. Kenyon & Kenneth E. Hagin both set the doctrinal bar very low in their assertions & significant parts of The Church followed them.

They conclude: ‘I am more convinced today than I was yesterday, that in these last days, there is going to arise a company of believers who will see and know their authority, their rights and privileges in Christ. They will know that the Name of Jesus belongs to them. They will take up that Name and start using it as unconsciously as they take their car keys and unlock the car door, then put them in the ignition and start the car. There is coming the knowledge of what was revealed in  the Word of God, But which we failed to see because we tried to comprehend it with human reasoning.’.

The Name of Jesus © copyright Kenneth Hagin 1979 (emphasis added).

 

Well, you can believe that if you want to. However if we study The Scriptures carefully, as Kenneth Hagin helpfully advised, we will see something else.

¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not (2^nd Peter 2:1-3).

The Name of Jesus has been reduced to a thing instead of being revered as The Name of The Eternal Son. In His Name, in His stead, in His representative place, The Church is commissioned to use it to conduct His business & carry out His will. Blessed be His holy Name.

 

 

 

 

 

copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxvi all rights reserved.

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