A Look at the Death of Jesus in The Believer’s Authority
I want to look at just a few statements by Hagin in this article, but look really in depth at the scriptures to compare the statements to check their validity. In future parts of this series, we will cover more ground and not go so in depth because the false teaching will be logically apparent, and we won’t need so much of the in-depth scriptural support. In fact, because of how Hagin is missing so much of the truth in his book with just a few statements, I wanted to go in depth, because this article covers some false teaching that becomes part of the crux of Hagin’s misunderstandings that he revisits throughout his book and many of the twisting of scriptures he does places a lot of weight on these ideas he shares that we will cover. Multiple points of confusion come out in his teaching based on the following statements, as his book unfolds. So, be prepared for a lot of scripture to do our examination which is our safeguard, right after a long quote or two from Hagin.
How Hagin Sees The Cross of Christ
Hagin writes on page 16: “We are seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High. All things have been placed under our feet.”
He continues “The trouble with us is we’ve preached a “cross” religion, and we need to preach a “throne” religion…The cross is actually a place of death…” “…we don’t need to remain there; let’s go on to Pentecost, the Ascension, and the throne! The cross is actually a place of defeat, whereas the Resurrection a place of triumph. When you preach the cross, you’re preaching death, and you leave people in death.”
1 Corinthians 1:17 reads, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 18 For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (The fact that it is the power of God to those who are being saved is really good news. This is really good news in another sense to all those denominations that believe in the gifts of the Spirit because it simply shows us one avenue by which God delivers his power to us. Right here in black and white it says the cross is the power of God. The cross is available to all who will come to the cross. And the power of the cross is available to all who come to Christ)
Lets continue to the next few verses: 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of this world foolish? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. (This is good news to those who have failed to know God by only going to the wisdom of the world. You don’t need to be intellectually smart to qualify for the wisdom of God. God can put that wisdom directly in your heart, no matter if you are a small child who didn’t study this in college, or a person with a theological degree.)
Furthermore, the diverging lots of those who see the cross in opposite ways are as follows: 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. 23 But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. 24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God.” This phrase “the Jews require a sign” reminds me of people of the charismatic movement or of the Word of Faith Movement such as Hagin who require miracles and signs in order to think that God is really among them. But that is not the measuring stick that scripture presents us with. It’s interesting that here the Lord in his preaching is making clear that we are to preach Christ crucified because the preaching of the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Again verse 18 just six verses ago, says “For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” So, it is not the preaching of miracles that shows us the power of God as clearly as the preaching of the cross speaks of the power of God. Very interesting when you think of how Hagin says on page 16 of his book “The Believer’s Authority”: “The cross is actually a place of defeat, whereas the Resurrection is a place of triumph.” (Hagin capitalizes the word Resurrection as if it is a proper name like God himself, as he does the word “Church” throughout his book telling the reader that the church shares the throne-room-authority of Christ. At first glance it appears he was just emphasizing the word Church by capitalizing it. But the word Church he seems to be giving some special focus of equal importance as Christ by capitalizing it, or may be drawing an equal parallel between the church and Christ because Hagin says on page 17, we are “…sharing not only his throne but also his authority. That authority belongs to us!”
Hagin’s View of the Cross is Powerless, But He Gives the Believer Equality With Christ In Heaven
And on page 15 Hagin quotes 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 which says “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with and infidel?” In response to this Hagin says “The believer is called “righteousness,” and the unbeliever is called “unrighteousness.” The believer is called “light,” and the unbeliever, “darkness.” The believer is called “Christ,” and the unbeliever, “Belial.” Hagin continues to quote another scripture saying “First Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” We are one with Christ. We are Christ” Hagin says! This is quite clearly blasphemy because it elevates man to the place of God.
So this is important to understand about Hagin and understanding this is the tone of his book—he preaches a theology of glory (for the believer) and spits at the theology of suffering (specifically Christ’s cross). Later on in his book he not only will deny that the theology of suffering is a biblically valid place for the church to walk through from time to time, but he squarely spits on the idea that the reality of the theology of suffering is a tolerable and normal Christian experience.
Glory Only For The Believer!! More Authority Gives You More Glory!!
To further highlight Hagin’s view of the believer, on page 17 he writes about how sharing the authority of Christ’s throne causes us to be able to demand things be done for us like kings and everything has to obey you when you demand your God-given rights. This is arrogance that flies in the face of Christ-like humility! Hagin on page 16 as previously stated, wrote, “When you preach the cross, you’re preaching death, and you leave people in death. We died all right, but we’re raised with Christ. (Sounds like glory to me!) We’re seated with Him. Positionally, that’s where we’re at right now. We’re seated with Christ in the place of authority in heavenly places.” On page 17 he continues “We’re to reign as kings in life by Jesus Christ. That’s authority isn’t it? Whatever the king said was law; he was the last authority. We partake of the authority that Christ’s throne represents.” (More glory according to Hagin for the believer!!)
This is quite a shame for a person who calls himself a man of God to use such derogatory language to describe the cross that the Bible designates as a tool that brings the believer to a place of freedom from sin. And it is quite inflating of the believer to such high disregard for Christ’s law to say if someone is a Christ follower, “whatever they say is law.” That assumes the believer would never make any mistakes in his thinking whatsoever when giving a law to be in perfect and prime harmony with God’s law. What hogwash! We are not home yet!!
The Bible Shows Us Jesus’s Death is A Place of Power for the Believer
To emphasize the importance scripture shows us of the theology of suffering and the believer identifying with Christ’s death, Romans 6:8-14 reads, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” We have to recognize the death of Jesus and identify with it as verse 11 states: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin (count yourselves currently dead to sin, not having been dead to sin once upon a time a while ago) but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Currently dead to sin and currently alive to God both at the same time. This means we can and should rely upon the death of Jesus to do its work in us. “12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; (we must recognize the place of Jesus’s death and recognize Jesus’s full perfection was offered as a gift through his death) and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Now if we are to count ourselves dead to sin, we can only do that because the death Jesus died was to sin, once and for all. If Jesus died to sin, he couldn’t have become sin, because he being perfectly holy was simply an offering for sin, in my understanding and could not become sin itself. So we can only count ourselves dead to sin, because Christ died to sin, and his death was a real death to sin, and it was a physical death.
And in my understanding, if he had become sin, he couldn’t have died to it, because how could he maintain his state of perfect righteousness and be the offering that washed away our sins? And it is his death that we can identify with, and it is what gives us power to separate ourselves from sin and temptation.
Jesus’s death gives us power to not be swayed by sin, and not be swayed by temptation. Because Christ was unresponsive to sin and temptation, inasmuch as he did not give in to it, he simply stood in the freedom of his holiness, and stood in his non-attraction to sin and temptation. His death on the cross shows us that his power to live right every day while he was on the earth is the power he has made available to us to be separated from or unresponsive to giving in to sin and temptation. There is real power in the death of Christ, because in his death he gave his every act of holy choices and holy living every day of his life as an offering to God on our behalf.
This gives us the hope that there is great power in the death of Jesus and in his death to sin, and that we all can find true freedom from the bondage to any sin habit or compulsion. The immensity of his righteousness, and the immensity of his holiness was his gift to God on our behalf, and this is perfect eternal righteousness and perfect eternal holiness that he gave as an offering to God as he did forever without blemish. This offering to God of eternal righteousness and holiness along with his death to sin, is the power by which Christ can fully change any sinner.
Again, in verse 18, it reads “For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We must forever take the preaching of the cross to be the power of God on our behalf, and know the victory that the death of Jesus gives us over sin, and over fleshly desires and appetites.
Hagin Tells Us “The Trouble With Us Is We’ve Preached a “Cross” Religion, and We Need To Preach a “Throne” Religion
It truly sounds like Hagin is trying to make the preaching of the cross sound like it is a snare to the believer rather than a place of finding true victory. Because we know that if we died with Him we shall also live with Him. Romans 6:8.
Let’s revisit 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 again. It reads “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” What would it have been about the preaching of the cross that should not be done in an eloquent preaching kind of way? It’s not that it should not be done that way, but that it could not be done eloquently. There is nothing eloquent about talking about a bloody, violent and brutal Roman crucifixion. It has not a shred of eloquence, pun intended. It shreds all drops of eloquence and expels all pictures of eloquence out of the mind. If one tried to describe the cross of Christ with eloquent words, the cross would be robbed of its power, as Paul is describing, in verse 17. Another reason Paul was saying that to focus on eloquent words was not the goal, is because the more consistently you can just state the facts of the truth about the crucifixion, the more direct and pure the message will be, and you can get rid of the flowery language which is like a mere and meaningless decoration on an already beautifully humble flower. That humble flower was like a flower picked and offered on a sweltering hot day that wilts its life out as the brutality takes hold of it to drain it of life. Only Christ is needed to be spoken of in the plain and mean sense, and there is not room and no need for any meaningless decorations. So away with the eloquence!!
To Hagin, the preaching of the cross is real foolishness. Again on page 16 he writes “The trouble with us is we’ve preached a “cross” religion, and we need to preach a “throne” religion. By this I mean that people have thought they were supposed to remain at the cross. Some have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, have backed up to the cross, and have stayed there ever since…The cross is actually a place of defeat,” Hagin writes, “where the Resurrection is a place of triumph (p 16).”
Hagin Doesn’t Want Us To Identify With Christ’s Death But With His Throne
How could Hagin be so grossly wrong? His doctrine is clear off the chart and does not find value in identifying with the Christ that was obedient to the point of death. We can safely assume that if God portrayed Christ so clearly dying on the cross that several verses out of the Bible tell us of the brutal history of the event as well as how many people witnessed it, and by this we can truly see God must have thought about, and measured Jesus’s death on the cross to be of such monumental importance for every one of the gospels to devote several scriptures to describe it for us. So clearly these facts plainly tell us of its weightiness for us to learn about it and to take it in and to help us grasp some of the sense and meaning of God’s love for us.
By Hagin’s statements, we can see he has a grossly limited understanding of the theology of suffering, that is depicted quite pervasively throughout both the Old and New Testaments, and Hagin only focusses on the theology of glory. 1 Corinthians 1:18 again reads, “For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And it is!
Hagin Attempts to Shun A Blasphemer After He Did What the Blasphemer Did
To sum up chapter 3 of his book, entitled Seated With Christ Hagin tells of a false preacher called Father Divine who he says was once saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. “He had the real thing.” Hagin writes, “Then he began studying these very Scriptures we have been studying. He reasoned, “If we are Christ, then I am Christ. Christ is God, so I am God.” He founded a cult that was very popular,” Hagin says. “…It’s easy to get into the ditch on either side of the road—into excess, wild fire, and fanaticism, Let’s go down the middle of the road and maintain balance.” But this is the same Hagin who is studying and misinterpreting the same scriptures as this Father Divine and said in a quote from page 15 to 16, “1 Corinthians 6:17 which reads, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” We are one with Christ. We are Christ” Hagin writes!
Hagin’s Middle of the Road Assumes “We Are Christ”
If Hagin were alive today I would tell him this is not the middle of the road, this is blasphemy! And Hagin doesn’t say why his blasphemy is Okay and Father Divine’s was not! Just because we are one spirit with the Lord, like we are one body with the Lord does not make us the Lord, it makes us part of his body and part of His Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 6:17. Just as a husband and wife come together as one body, the husband’s sins are accountable to the husband, and the wife’s sins are accountable to the wife. The husband does not become contaminated by the sins of his wife, and vice versa. Our spirit is not as pure as Christ’s spirit, but he allows us to be cleansed by his sacrifice and we have received a deposit of his spiritual virtues and fruits into our spirits. But our spirits have impurities as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” And we wouldn’t have to cleanse our spirits if our spirits were as pure as Christ’s.
So it follows logically that we should not assume any authority of Christ’s when so much of his authority is relatable to being trusted with it because he was proven absolutely pure and good and sacrificial in the highest sense towards sinners who need him. We should take pains to make sure the authority we actually believe belongs to us is actually the authority he has entrusted to us. Nothing more and nothing less. We should endure suffering because we are not home yet, and because of it’s purifying effects upon us. We should also both know and be comfortable with our humble state and have faith leaning on God to use his authority, which is graciously mixed with mercy and kindness and goodness, in our lives all our days as He sees fit, because He is God, and we are not. LG
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