Kenneth E. Hagin

Kenneth Erwin Hagin (August 20, 1917 - September 19, 2003) was an influential American Pentecostal preacher. He is often referred to as the "father" (or "grandaddy") of the "Word of Faith" movement. Many of his followers often refer to him affectionately as "Dad Hagin" or "Papa Hagin". Hagin never received any formal theological training, however, he received an honorary doctorate from Oral Roberts University in the 1970s.

Personal life

Kenneth Hagin was born in McKinney, Texas, the son of Lillie Viola Drake Hagin and Jess Hagin. He was so small and lifeless that the doctor thought that he was still born. He had two children, a son named Kenneth Hagin Jr. who is presently the pastor of Rhema Bible Church and President of Kenneth Hagin Ministries, and a daughter named Patricia. He was married to Oretha Rooker.

On many occasions Kenneth Hagin demonstrated his ability to memorize large portions of scripture and other materials. Testimony of friends and family indicate that he possessed an amazing memory with which he could recall specific details such as the day of the week that a specific date fell on and that days weather.

Hagin died three days after lapsing into a coma due to a heart arrhythmia in September 2003.

Claimed he was healed

According to Hagin's testimony, he was sickly as a child, suffering from a deformed heart and what was believed to be an incurable blood disease. He was not expected to live and became bedfast at age 15. In April 1933 during a dramatic conversion experience, he reported dying three times in 10 minutes, each time seeing the horrors of hell and then returning to life. He also claimed that he was raised from a deathbed in 1934 by "the revelation of faith in God's Word". There is no firm evidence of the original diagnosis, but his account, as documented in his autobiography, is not contradicted by any eyewitnesses.

Two years later he preached his first sermon as the pastor of a small community church in Roland, Texas, 9 miles from McKinney.

His favorite scripture was Mark 11:23: "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith". Dr. Hagin often said "I have quoted this scripture so many times that some people may have thought I wrote it, but I didn't, it is God's holy word and promise."

Beginning to preach

During the next 12 years he pastored five Assemblies of God churches in Texas: in the cities of Tom Bean, Farmersville (twice), Talco, Greggton, and Van.

Establishing a faith-based corporation

In 1949, he began an itinerant ministry as a Bible teacher and evangelist. Hagin was at this time also given full admission to the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) which had been established in 1951. In 1963, Kenneth E. Hagin Evangelistic Association was incorporated, and the offices of the ministry moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1966. That same year, he taught for the first time on radio — on KSKY in Dallas. In 1967, he began a regular radio broadcast that continues today as Faith Seminar of the Air. Teaching by his son, Rev. Kenneth Hagin Jr., is also heard on the program.

Since its inception in 1963, his organization grew to include numerous media outreaches and ministries. These are:

• 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
• the RHEMA Prayer and Healing Center, located on the Rhema campus in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

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. There are many other outreaches and RBTC graduates throughout the world.

Controversial legacy

Hagin was considered by his followers to be a dynamic preacher, teacher, and prophet known for preaching divine healing and prosperity through searching God's word and believing God in faith for financial gifts, then claiming and receiving them by faith. His Bible teaching focused mainly on faith. Critics of the "prosperity gospel" consider his teachings to be controversial.

Allegations of Plagiarism

In 1983, two students at Oral Roberts University alleged that the bulk of Hagin's theological teachings were lifted verbatim from the writings of other authors. D.R. McConnell, who wrote his Master's thesis about the Word of Faith movement alleged that Hagin had plagiarized the writings of evangelist E.W. Kenyon, teaching not only the ideas of Kenyon but also lifting text word-for-word from many of Kenyon's eighteen published works.

Dale Simmons, one of McConnell's colleagues doing research for his paper entitled "An Evaluation Of Kenneth E. Hagin's Claim To Be A Prophet", discovered what he has described as plagiarization by Hagin of an author named John A. MacMillan. In this case it is alleged that Hagin not only plagiarized word-for-word, but also the title, "The Authority of the Believer".

Upon discovering Hagin's use of MacMillan's material, Simmons contacted the publishing house that published MacMillan's original work. The president of the publishing company confronted Hagin with evidence of the plagiarism. Hagin's response was to claim that he had not plagiarized anyone but that his acknowledgment of MacMillan had been an oversight. Hagin then implicitly claimed that the plagiarism was actually proof that his teaching and MacMillan's teaching were from God. In a portion of a letter printed on page 68 of "A Different Gospel" by D.R. McConnell, Hagin argued that persons speaking on the same subject use 'virtually the same words' because 'it is the same Spirit that is leading and directing.' Simmons did not accept this argument, noting that it begged the question why Hagin felt it necessary to read any books at all if God was going to inspire him to have the same thoughts and words as another author. This information is available from Oral Roberts University in Dale H. Simmons' Master's thesis, An Evaluation of Kenneth E. Hagin's Claim To Be A Prophet. Simmons repeats these charges in his 1997 book, E.W. Kenyon: The Postbellum Pursuit of Peace, Prosperity, And Plenty. Hagin did, however, give credit to MacMillan when a new copy with a new title ("The Believer's Authority") was released in 1984.

The charismatic movement is divided over the question of whether or not Hagin plagiarized. Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Company, based in Washington state, argues that Hagin did not plagiarize based on the fact that his books were merely sermons that were converted into book form. For some, this argument, however, fails to explain how it was that Hagin claimed to have received many of these plagiarisms 'by divine inspiration.' It also contradicts the testimony of Kenyon's daughter, Ruth Houseworth, who told D.R. McConnell that Hagin had plagiarized her father's writings. Houseworth repeated this statement in a letter to author Judith Irene Matta, MTh.

William DeArteaga, a defender of the Faith movement, acknowledged that Hagin was guilty of plagiarism in his 1992 book, "Quenching The Spirit" (p. 243-245 of the 1996 edition). Geir Lie, a scholar who is favorable to E.W. Kenyon went so far as to say that Hagin's plagiarism was conscious and systematic (according to DeArteaga). Derek Vreeland, another charismatic scholar, presented his findings at the Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies . Vreeland, too, believes Hagin to be guilty of deliberate plagiarism.

The 'informal borrowing' that is common among preachers may account for some of the instances of plagiarism. Hagin lived near Dallas in his formative years, and E.W. Kenyon's works were very popular in the Dallas area at that time (the 1930s). Although this fails to explain the massive amount of plagiarism Hagin apparently committed, it is worth noting that in many instances he has cited by name sources that he used including Dr. Lillian B. Yeomans, Smith Wigglesworth, Corrie ten Boom, Ethan O. Allen, and some other (mostly Pentecostal-type) preachers. He has also favorably remarked about the ministry of Charles G. Finney. Even one of Hagin's major critics, D.R. McConnell, acknowledges the instances where Hagin gave credit to the sources he used.

Allegations of introducing gnostic heresies

Author Judith Irene Matta, M.Th., has accused Hagin of being instrumental in reviving gnosticism. Church father Irenaeus of Lyon's "Against Heresies" (180 ad) is considered by many the backbone of all Christian criticism of gnosticism. Matta's book uses Irenaios' systematic exposition of these teachings to debunk what she considers the revived gnosticism in word of faith teachings.

Healed But Still Sick?

It has also been noted that although Hagin argued in numerous books - including "Healing Belongs To Us," "Seven Things You Need To Know About Divine Healing" and "Faith Takes Back What The Devil's Stolen" - that he had never been sick since 1933, he contradicted himself numerous times. For example, although Hagin taught that God NEVER used sickness as punishment for a believer, he claimed that his arm was 'only 99 percent healed' by God in order to remind Hagin 'not to disobey Him.' (This is found on page 102 of the 1996 edition of "I Believe In Visions.").

Works

• A Better Covenant
• A Commonsense Guide to Fasting
• A Fresh Anointing
• Authority of the Believer
• Baptism in the Holy Spirit [Study Guide]
• Bible Faith Study Course
• Bible Prayer Study Course
• Biblical Keys to Financial Prosperity
• Bodily Healing and the Atonement
• Casting your cares upon the Lord
• Classic Sermons
• Concerning Spiritual Gifts
• Don't Blame God
• El Shaddai
• Exceedingly Growing Faith
• Faith Food Devotions for Autumn
• Faith Food Devotions for Spring
• Faith Food Devotions for Summer
• Faith Food Devotions for Winter
• Following God's Plan For Your Life
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit
• Growing Up, Spiritually
• He gave Gifts unto men: A Biblical perspective of Apostles, Prophets and Pastors
• Healing Belongs to Us
• Healing Scriptures
• Health Food: A Daily Guide To Spiritual Nourishment For The Soul
• How to Keep Your Healing?
• How to Turn Your Faith Loose?
• How you can be led by the Spirit of God?
• How you can know the will of God?
• I Believe in Visions
• Laying on of Hands
• Love: The Way to Victory
• Marriage, Divorce & Remarriage
• Ministering to your Family
• Mountain-Moving Faith
• Must Christians Suffer?
• New Thresholds of Faith
• Obedience in Finances
• Plans, Purposes and Pursuits
• Prayer Secrets
• Praying to get Results
• Prevailing Prayer to Peace
• Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Spiritual Death
• Right and Wrong Thinking
• Seven steps for judging Prophecy
• Seven Things You Should Know about Divine Healing
• Seven Vital Steps to Receiving the Holy Spirit
• The Art of Prayer
• The Believer's Authority
• The Gift of Prophecy
• The Holy Spirit and His Gifts
• The Human Spirit
• The Interceding Christian
• The Key to Scriptural Healing
• The Midas touch: a balanced approach to biblical prosperity
• The Ministry Gifts (Study Guide)
• The Name of Jesus
• The New Birth
• The Present-Day Ministry of Jesus Christ
• The Real Faith
• The Threefold Nature of Man
• The Triumphant Church: Dominion over all the Powers of Darkness
• The Women Question
• Three Big Words
• Turning hopeless Situations around
• Understanding How to Fight the Good Fight of Faith
• Understanding the Anointing
• Welcome to God's Family: A Foundational Guide for Spirit-Filled Living
• What Faith is?
• What to do when Faith seems weak and Victory lost?
• Zoe: The God-Kind of Life

External links

• Official Website of Rhema Bible Church
• A New Site Featuring Hagin's Articles
• E.W. Kenyon society response stating Kenneth Hagin did not plagiarize Kenyon
• RHEMA Connection: Uniting alumni, churches, ministries, and friends