Over the last several years there have been many new disciples of the Copeland and Hagin camp that have entered on the scene with the prosperity message. In my opinion there has been none more blatant or conniving (and convincing) than Creflo Dollar.  He may be called Dr. but listening to his teachings it is apparent his degree in theology was not acquired at a normal conservative Bible seminary. This man is on the leading edge of star trek Bible interpretations, taking it where no man has gone before. His influence is clearly from his mentor Kenneth Copeland; he appears fairly regularly on his TV program. According to J. Lee Grady, an editor with Charisma Magazine, Copeland provided Dollar with financial backing. Mr. Dollar has certainly been discipled well under Copeland’s influence. He is preaching word faith to the MAX! If one were to close their eyes and listen, they can barely tell between Creflo and Copeland’s voice inflections and personality. I’m sure he would take this as a compliment. Simply put-Creflo is regurgitated Copeland (and Hagin).

 His teachings are based on and his spiritual mentor Kenneth Copeland, who according to J. Lee Grady, an editor with Charisma Magazine had provided Dollar with his financial backing (source from Atlanta Journal-Constitution - John Blake March 5, 2000 Dollar and the Gospel http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund40.html )

Creflo Dollars TV and radio broadcast is called “Changing Your World.” His programs are broadcast in every state and in over 15 countries outside the U.S by the Trinity broadcasting Network and Lesea network. He is often videoed wearing three-piece charcoal pinstriped suit as he preaches his message of prosperity as the hope of the gospel to his church.

He is the Pastor of World Changers Christian Center, a non-denominational church in College Park (meeting in a $6.5 million gold dome). Creflo says he paid 18 million in cash for his new facility (Changing your world Feb. 25, 2002, LeSea). It contains 8,000 plush theater-style seats making it comfortable for the people as his sermons can go up to two hours. (A huge white plastic container for offerings is positioned at the end of each row (source from Atlanta Journal-Constitution). The church consists of 23,000 members making it metro Atlanta's second-largest church.

Creflo has two Rolls-Royce’s (which he tells his congregation was given to him --  the church purchased the first one for him). He flies in a $5 million private jet to his speaking engagements in the US to Europe (the church also owns a Gates Learjet. Estimated value: $985,000). Dollar met his wife at West Georgia College in Carrollton and graduated in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in education. They have five children, three girls and two boys. He lives in a $1 million home behind iron gates in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood and owns another worth $1.27 million). The church has amassed a fortune in real estate, mostly in College Park. Like other word faith teachers Dollar is often accompanied by bodyguards in public.     (reference is http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/newsatlanta/dollar/main.html )

The Teachings

On his website it states http://www.worldchangers.org/hspirit_t1.html  “ He (the Holy Ghost) is the third person in the Trinity -- The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost.” He also states “We believe in water baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the name of Jesus, and the authority invested in that name. We should be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

The first and most important is the primary doctrine of the Trinity which is to upheld by the Christian church.  Though his website states it this way, he has also stated in his definition a distortion.  He explains: “The trinity is of course God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. We have to be careful because religion has us sometime thinking we have three different Gods. You know there’s God here...hey holy ghost- hey Jesus…its God one God one faith one baptism not three Gods, not three faiths, not baptism’s everytime you mess up, one. God the father, one God, three functions one and different functions God functioning as a father, God functioning as a son, God functioning as the holy ghost. I am Creflo Dollar I’m a husband to my wife I’m, a father to my children I’m a pastor to gods sheep. Right now I’m not functioning as husband, I am not functioning as a father, I am functioning as one of the 5 fold ministry gifts to God’s sheep. Same guy other functions you follow me. One God other functions.”(Feb.19, 2001 World Changers program Lesea broadcasting)

 The orthoox Christian teaching of the Trinity is not that the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit are functions, but are persons.  He also confirms his position when he says for his own baptism “I used to be a baptist, I got baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost which is none other than the name of Jesus” (tape on file).   Whether Creflo subscribes to the trinity is hard to say, as he has stated both positions confusing the issue. This is a Oneness Pentecostal view, that they (a denial of persons) are only roles (modes or functions?) More specifically this is the ancient heresy of Sabellian. There are many new teachers today who do not have a grasp on the tri-unity of God and from this distortion they go into other distorted (false) doctrines. When I say false I mean that they take a truth and change it, bring it to an extreme. For example they will take a certain circumstance or promise out of the Bible and make it a general one for all. But in this case its just flat out false teaching and it affects everything else that is attached to it. To be baptized in Jesus name means to Oneness Pentecostals the same as to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for they are all Jesus. 

Just as Creflo seems to confuse the nature of God, he also confuses the nature of man, which becomes crucial. He teaches we have equality and no inferiority to God in His righteousness and abilities on earth. But for one to get this understanding their mind needs to be renewed in the area of righteousness (like his), so they can embrace the full truth of it by faith. “You begin to study the righteousness of God is also defined as having equality with God” … “we’re struggling to try and get what God says we can have because we keep seeing ourselves as little slaves and He’s the big boss.” “I’m going to show you a scripture now that will just shock you real good, make you mad, upset, all kinds of things and then I’m going to go and walk you through Genesis all the way back up through the Bible. But the first scripture is going to do all kinds of stuff to your head, … but I’m going to show you something Jesus said and I’m going to show you where He got it from.”

Quoting Jn.10:34 and Ps.82:6 Creflo states “Wow. Let’s read verse 6, ready read: “I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the most High. But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.” Well, we know who that is right? “Arise oh God, judge the earth for thou shall inherit all the nations.” “  Now, notice what He says here, “Ye are gods” small g. You are gods? Somebody says “You trying to say we’re gods?” No, I’m not trying to say we’re gods. He already said it. But what I want to know is Lord, how can we be gods?  And He answers it in the next phrase.  Because you are the children of the Most High.  See if you are truly a child of God, if you were born out of God, you got to be a part of the God class.  I know I’m not God.  But I’m a child of the Most High…I’m a part of the God class…. But then the next verse says, “Because you did not believe you were gods, you’re going to die like men.”  But it says you’re gods.  And I said now, Lord, wait a minute here.  How we going to prove this?  Because I kept hearing over and over again all this week, we need to have a God training class for Christians.  So they can start acting …  ”(Our equality with God through righteousness 1/21/2001)

This is not what the next verse actually says, Creflo who moves in and around the Scriptures at a fast pace makes it hard for anyone to check on these statements as he brings them through his twist and turns to his conclusions. Ps. 82:6-8 ‘I said, 'You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.’ The biblical application of this verse was addressed to the judges of Israel they were called gods not because they were divine but because they represented the true and only God when they judged the people. The word for God that is used here is elohim, which can mean rulers,(not Yahweh elohim used only for the one God). The word for Judges is found in Ex.21:22; 22:8-9 it is ha elohim (other scriptures of how the acted Deut.1:16;16:18; 25:1; 2 Sam.11:7). Jesus goes on to explain: They ‘will die as mere men and fall as one of the princes’, that prince was Satan. They thought they were like God but they will die as mere men. It is then they will know the difference between the creator who is the true God and their own mortality.  Juxtapose this with the end of Ps.82 in verse 8: “Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations.”  It points to only one God who eventually will judge righteously and rule over all the people one day. Nowhere in Scripture is there a teaching of little gods verses big God, but instead the scripture teachesabout false gods verses the true God. So in reality to claim to be a little god is to put one in the category of a false god.  

To understand what Creflo teaches we need to go back to the beginning, man’s beginning in the garden and compare what he says happened in the biblical account. Creflo has constructed a unique fairy tale from the Genesis record about Adam and God; from this distortion it affects almost everything else he believes; tithing, righteousness, Christ, healing, etc. In fact it goes to the core difference on the nature of man and God. For it affect the concept of mans relationship to God, we being servants to him as our King.

“What was the blueprint for man” Creflo asks his members. God made a man that reflected his image; is that correct. When you look in the mirror what do you see? A reflection of your what? Your image yourself. But who is that in the mirror? That’s you. Now you see and image a reflection of you. Because if you were not real, then you couldn’t produce a reflection of something that’s not there. Umm, Humm. So when God made man. All He did was take a reflection of Himself. You all ain’t listening to what I’m saying. He [speaks in tongues], son, help me, the Hebrew translation here “God made another speaking spirit”. The actual meaning there “He made another speaking spirit”…

So when God made man all he did was take a reflection of himself… So he said let us make another speaking spirit.  When God made Adam all he did was make an exact imprint of hisself. He duplicated himself, he was the image and from his image came hisself…(Our equality with God through Righteousness 1/21/2001).

“Because the first Adam, he had my blood in him.  He had blood type G on the inside of him.  I mean, the blood of any child comes from the father.  Well, the father, God, was the one that had to create the blood to flow into Adam, cause he was the first one.  So I got to get the same thing happening here and this last Adam got to have blood type g like this first Adam had blood type g.  And then I got to have myself  on the inside of that body like I was on the inside of Adam”  (Creflo Dollar April 16, 2002 Changing your world LeSea Broadcasting) .

Here Creflo is making the comparison of Adam being God, as Jesus was God. So he is saying Adam was the first incarnation of God created from the ground and Jesus is the second incarnation of God created from Mary. Another quote confirms the Adam god teaching. “Adam had running in his veins blood type g, that was God’s blood, God had to get another man just like Adam and he had to have running in his veins the same type blood that Adam had in his veins, so God didn’t create the 2^nd Adam he created the last Adam because once Jesus finishes with this thing we ain’t gonna need no other Adam, you understand” (Changing your World, LeSea Broadcasting).

Clearly Creflo holds to Adam being God in the flesh just as Jesus is.

 “ That was God in that body, we always think of that with the last Adam but we never say that with the first Adam. It was God. God took a reflection of Himself and put it in a physical body formed out of the dust and gave him authority of all physical things on the planet. So that like He was God in heaven, now He’s made Adam God of the earth. Adam has been crowned God of all physical things from the dust of the earth including the moon the stars and the planets. I’m going to show you all thin in Scripture but just follow me now… I’m just askin’ you to trust me for a minute until I open the Bible” (sure would have helped if he opened it before he spoke).

It is here where we take off into new star trek interpretations: “Mars and Venus and Jupiter, all of the handiwork of God was now placed in the authority of the God of the earth.  And here’s what He told him.  He said I want you to guard it and keep out all intruders.  Now that gives us a little insight on why When God made Adam all he did was make an exact imprint of hisself. He duplicated himself, he was the image and from his image came hisself…”(Our Equality with God through Righteousness 1/21/2001)

Where does it say this in the Bible? I’m sure Creflo can find one obscure Scripture and contort it to fit his man/ god theology. But the Bible in Genesis does not say this at all.  Image (as in the case of Adam) is only the reflection of another thing, it is not the other thing it is to reflect.

 “You need to understand your not a second class something, you are an exact duplicate of the image of God and God is a speaking spirit and he said let us make another speaking spirit… God took a reflection and put it in a physical body formed out of the dust and gave authority of all physical things on the planet... he’s made Adam god of the earth Adam has been crowned God of all physical things from the dust of the earth including the moon the stars and the planets.” (ibid.)

The Bible explains that God gave Adam authority as a caretaker over the things on the earth and it specifically mentions them (Gen.1:26-27), but not those things outside the earth. 
Gen. 1:28  “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” So God's word does not include anything outside our atmosphere as Creflo claims.
 
  Crefo is not only teaching from the silence of the Bible, but opposite the clear teaching expressed in it. Adam never had the opportunity to exercise his authority as God put Him and Eve in a garden (Gen.2:8, 15) and forbid him to eat from a certain tree. In fact Adam lost his authority when he ate from the tree, he sinned and was forbidden back into the garden that he was given jurisdiction to govern (Gen.3:23-24). If our being is an exact duplicate of God, we should wonder why we have such a hard time accomplishing things? Is it because we must first discover our potential? This teaching according to Creflo takes special knowledge to grasp. What makes Adam or us different than Jesus? According to Creflo not much, we can do everything he can and even more.

“Everything that God has made. He has given man authority over His handiwork. [speaking in tongues] even the moon.”(ibid) “I believe with all my heart that those planets out there are just a bunch of unfinished work that God was designing for man to finish as they entered into God training 101.  Now, let’s get back to scripture” (Our Equality with God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001). 

That would be a good idea to get back to Scripture the way it was written, not imagination, but then he would not have this revelation would he. Here’s the proof that the word faith teachers borrow the words from each other, and that it doesn’t matter if it’s in the Bible or not. Copeland who is Creflo’s discipler says “I am totally convinced that this is the reason that our surrounding planets are unfinished.  I really believe that God intended for us to have a part in that.” (Kenneth Copeland Quotes “Believers Voice of Victory Program” week of March 12-16, 2001)

What we need to ask, is God not in control? Does He need to make another; a man, a creature to be a god and have control on earth? The Bible says in Col.1:15 Jesus (the Son of God) always controlled everything, it was never Adam or any man (creature). It seems Creflo wants to justify his control, so he and his companions in this error (Copeland etc.) have made up this fantasy from the Bible, fables if you will, to justify them-self in wanting to control their reality. The Bible actually states God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen 1:26). Nowhere does it say what Creflo wants it’s to say. For even the psalmists says Ps. 8:5-8 “For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; you have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen-- even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas,” reiterating Genesis the things man had dominion over are named.

The writer of Hebrews quotes this verse in Heb. 2:5-9. If one wants to isolate this verse without its context they can preach on it to prove man is to have control. However, if we read on” v.8-9 “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.  But we see Jesus, (him) who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” Adam lost his headship and so Jesus the son of God came from heaven to regain it. Jesus fulfills this verse and whatever wider application it has, it is not yet appeared. So it meaningless to presume any other meaning than what the Bible has already given it.

Creflo doesn’t believe we are lower than angels but a little lower than God himself,  according to him, we were made out of Him, “we like him just a little lower, see he was there for us first and he poured us out of himself so were a little lower, a little lower than who? Then el eloheem - the God and creator of all physical things now the implication here is that like the God and creator of all physical things you and I, we can be like el eloheem”  (April 16, 2002 Changing your World, LeSea Broadcasting).

This conflicts with Creflo's other statements about Adam:  who was made an exact imprint of hisself, “He duplicated himself” that he was on the inside of Adam's body. God is not lower than himself is He? Either we are equal or we are not.  

Creflo further explains “So the rank is: God, man... [clapping] because He said He made man out of His reflection. He made man, He didn’t make angels out of His reflection, He made men, He made another speaking spirit.... God. Man. Angels. And Satan is in that class of angels” (Our Equality with God Through Righteousness 1/21/2001). 

Creflo  “God made man. All He did was take a reflection of Himself. You all ain’t listening to what I’m saying. He [tongues], son, help me, the Hebrew translation here “God made another speaking spirit.” “The actual meaning there He made another speaking spirit.”  

No, this is not the actual Hebrew translation. [Maybe Creflo read or heard someone quote the Targum of Onkelos where it says of Gen.2:7 when God breathed into man the breath of life man became a speaking spirit, or soul. The soul in the body of man became a speaking spirit. Man was endued with a natural faculty of speech… a speaking animal, or as a rational, a reasonable one. Certainly what Onkelos writes does not mean what Creflo is inserting into it to mean.]

Gen.1:26 “God made man in his image” Gen 1:24-31 the word for man is “the red soil,” from which the human body was formed (Gen 2:7). This is the earthly physical aspect of man, related to his body. MAN - Hebrew 'Adam ruddy i.e. a human being (meaning the individual and the species of mankind from his offspring, etc.)  This Hebrew word appears about 562 times in the Scripture.

Nowhere does these words mean man became a speaking spirit, although he could think, speak, and move on his own, he doesn’t have the capabilities that Creflo attributes to him. Adam means man from the dirt not  God who is man, which is uniquely found in Jesus Christ. Creflo is insinuating that we as a creature can speak things into existence like God does.

Lets look at what the Bible actually says “And the Lord God formed man (Adam) of the dust of the ground.” What are the features that man was created in, that would reflect his creator to be made in his image and likeness? God is Spirit (Jn.4:24)(uncreated) He is invisible. When it states we were created in His image and likeness in the Hebrew language Image (tselem) and the word likeness in Hebrew (demuth) is related to nature in the immaterial part of man. It means we have a spiritual/moral nature like God in a finite way.  Any similarity is with finite qualities. God is a personal being; Image means man is in his likeness, personal.  God has communicable and incommunicable attributes. The communicable attributes put in man are finite qualities, God has holiness in His nature (perfect no flaws in any part). Man like his creator had holiness in his original state in the garden.  

Man having been created in His likeness we have the ability to think, gather knowledge, we have rationality logic, we have communication skills using language, we have feelings and emotions such as love. We are able to hear and see.

God is unlimited in knowledge, he knows all things. Man is limited in his knowledge and needs to learn. God is present everywhere. Man is confined to one place at a time. God’s Creative abilities are almighty and unlimited, He is able to do all things, man is cannot. God the creator of all things man cannot create from nothing but can only use what materials are already there.

The incommunicable attributes such as eternality, God alone is uncaused, uncreated. God possesses eternality as His nature, He is infinite, immortal, deathless, in His spirit, God has eternal life in himself.   Man was created with an eternal spirit, which can live on after the physical body dies, but it did not always exist as God’s Spirit did, ours had a beginning,  we started in a point in time. Man dies physically and can die spiritually; man is dependent on God to sustain him. God never sleeps, man has to.