Joyce Meyer

[afterdeathwhat]

Joyce Meyer 

-Are you paying attention-

 Since I have been asked about Joyce Meyer so often I find it necessary to comment on her teaching. She is known as being one of the top women speakers, one who tells it like it is with a frank but challenging way of putting things. She is an enigma, in that she has some very good practical information from experience and the Scripture. So there are good portions in her teaching and there are also some bad interpretations and experiences from her teachings; that are to be avoided. Meyer may not be completely engulfed in word faith teaching but she is yoked with many word faith teachers (in fellowship with Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland. Copeland’s magazine, The Believer’s Voice of Victory, has carried some of her articles) and her writings and teachings have certainly been influenced by their word faith prosperity theology.  In her broadcast the first week of January 2005 she interviewed a man giving testimony to Kenneth Hagin who is known for spreading the word/faith heresy to his disciples.

Joyce has been honest about her struggle with health and about her fight with breast cancer and getting surgery. Over the years since her popularity has grown her appearance has also changed through cosmetic surgery.  She disdains any criticism of her wearing jewelry, having a large and expensive wardrobe and even her teaching men. These are off limits. The rationale is that money spent on her appearance, changing her hair color, etc. is acceptable for her being in the public and should not to be confused with vanity. Neither does she does not see any problem of her exercising authority over men (see1 Timothy 2:12).

At 60 years of age she has become a very popular speaker. She certainly is one of the well-known and best-paid TV preachers (especially for women). Her ministry revenues have steadily increased from 1998 where they took in 40 million, to 1999 they brought in 55 million, to 2000 70 million, to 2001 near 80 million, to 2002 near 90 million. Today her Life in the Word organization estimates to take in $95 million this year. The ministry says it spends about 10 percent - $880,000 a month - on charitable works around the globe.
Her ministry is now a multimillion-dollar organization with 500 employees with offices in Europe and South Africa. "The ministry's headquarters, built a year and a half ago by Wichita-based R. Messner Construction Co. Inc. for $19 million." Meyer's ministry reaches out to the world Charisma article a number of years ago pointed out she is on 600 radio and television stations -selling nearly three million tapes and close to a million books last year (Charisma magazine).   Four million cassettes are produced annually and at the cost of $6 each, according to a Joyce Meyer Ministries pamphlet, which accounts for $24 million in revenues, her Web site bring an average $8 million a month to her ministry. (Reference-Joyce Meyer's message: Give to me and God gives to you By Carolyn Tuft and Bill Smith St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Meyer's house, the largest of the five, is a 10,000-square-foot Cape Cod style estate home with a guest house and a garage that can be independently heated and cooled and can hold up to eight cars. The three-acre property has a large fountain, a gazebo, a private putting green, a pool and a poolhouse where the ministry recently added a $10,000 bathroom."

(Article on Joyce Meyer, 11/15/2003, St. Louis Post Dispatch

“I don't want to spend my whole life talking about the promised land without ever getting there. I want to live in it ”(Joyce Meyer, “What Does Your Future Hold” May 21, 2004). According to her own message and theology this means accumulating wealth and living the good life now. So we can see Meyer is living her word/faith prosperity teaching though she may not blatantly teach it. If one listens carefully they will hear sprinkles and chunks of it, and sometimes get a whole meal of it.

At times she can come off with a sense of humor and is witty and clever, but other times haughty and even snippy with sharing her life experiences. One needs their discernment turned on when listening to her teaching, lest they take in the unhealthy concepts she is delivering. And these are certainly incorporated in her teaching, if one listens carefully.
Joyce seems to turn Scripture away from its plain meaning to endorse women teaching “The blame game started in the Garden.  Adam blamed God, 'The woman you gave me.'  You know what?  Adam was the head of the house, if he was standing there why didn't he say something?  Why didn't he say something?  Why didn't he do something?  I'm not taking that rap anymore!  You know the Bible doesn't even necessarily say that God told Eve not to eat of that tree.  He told Adam.  Maybe Adam didn't tell Eve, I don't know.” (Joyce Meyer, Mind, Mouth, Moods, and Attitudes, tape- the Attitudes, tape # 4)

If Eve was not told to not eat of “that tree” how did she tell the serpent: “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'“(Gen 3:2-3). This is like the ABC's in teaching what took place in Genesis.

The Bible explains that Eve knew she shouldn't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Paul writes, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.  For Adam was first formed, then Eve.  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:11-14).

It is for this reason women are to be under the authority of man, as the Bible teaches in 1 Cor. 11:3: “But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

                                                   Achieving Sinlessness
“I’m going to tell you something folks, I didn’t stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn’t a sinner anymore. And the religious world thinks that’s heresy and they want to hang you for it. But the Bible says that I’m righteous and I can’t be righteous and be a sinner at the same time.”
“Now whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you want to operate on it or not, you are made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.  Most people who go to denominational churches never ever hear that!  They never hear it!  Never!  All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I’m a poor, miserable sinner.’ I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner. That is a lie from the pit of hell. That is what I was and if I still am then Jesus died in vain. Amen?”  (Joyce Meyer, “What Happened from the Cross to The Throne?” audio) 
One does not have to be part of the religious world to believe this, the Bible actually says this and it certainly is not from the pit of hell. The Bibles definition of sin is anything falling short of perfection.  One of the words for sin is Harmatia -- missing the mark or target and hitting another is the most common explanation. To keep the law perfect means to have a bullseye every time. No one can do this.   “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).  So one would have to be perfected in their faith not to sin. James tells us, knowing good and not doing it is sin (James 4:17).  Not doing what should be done is sin. To sin means one is still a sinner.  It is absurd to say You stopped sinning because you stopped calling yourself a sinner. (article on are we sinless?)

Of course one can be righteous and be a sinner at the same time, because it is not our righteousness but Christ's that we are given.

Consider that Joyce stated: I didn’t stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head I wasn’t a sinner anymore.”

John makes it clear (I Jn. 1:8-10) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,  we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

John refutes the error that we have no sin nature, by using the word sin in the singular. It is not just the committal of sin but the principle of sin, he is referring to sin of every description. If we are sinless then there is no need to ever confess sins, that is something to seriously think of as a worldview. To those who profess to have become perfectly sanctified, and to live without any sin, John says  If we say that we have no sin, and continue to sin we live in self deception, “and the truth is not in us.” This kind of attitude will affect all that we do. Meyer's claim of not being  a sinner any longer is very concerning because she is promoting this as a revelation from Scripture, when it is not. Her doctrine of justification is skewed.

We are called righteous and even saints as Peter points out 1 Peter 4:18: “Now If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Even though we are covered with Christ’s righteousness our sin remains, we have a sin nature (an old nature) that has not been removed. No saint ever claimed this pure spiritual condition. Not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Not Job, Moses, David; nor anyone in the New Testament Peter, John, or Paul. None were absolutely perfect, they were all guilty of acts of sin?   They never affirmed themselves as not being a sinner. The Bible does not teach that ALL Christians are perfect or no longer sinners. Paul said he was the chief of sinners and continued to do what he did not want to at times. “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7:17). Sin is always present with us until we leave this earth.

If what Meyer says is true then this Scripture is meaningless. I Jn. 5:16: “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” To sin makes one a sinner. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us” (Heb. 12:1).

James explains in  Jms.4:17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James explains “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren” (Jm.1:14-16).

Word Faith Teaching

Meyer, in her book, writes, “Words are containers for power” (The Name, The Word, The Blood, p. 37). This is typical Copeland/ Hagin faith talk. She has promoted this on her TV broadcast: “Prov.18:21 this could be a life  hanging scripture “death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life.” The ad following for her audio series “Is your mouth saved.” The advertise says we all have the ability to speak life or death to not only other people but to ourselves as well. “Will help you to take inventory of what you’ve been saying and begin speaking faith filled words that will bring to pass God's good plan for your life” (May 14, 2000 LeSea broadcasting) .

“But you cannot throw out positive confession, and you cannot throw out all the faith teachers, and you cannot throw out positive thinking.  And you cannot get rid of those kinds of things because they're in the Bible from one end of it to the other” (Joyce Meyer, PFO Quarterly Journal, April-June 2002, p. 6.  Witchcraft and Related Spirits, pt. 1, sides 1 and 2).

Are they? If so then why do all the word faith teachers have one thing in common- heresy.

Meyer was at the Mega Fest 2004 with: Creflo Dollar, Paula White, Juanita Bynum, Bishop Eddie Long, and Bishop T. D. Jakes. All are promoters of word faith heresies. On June 15-17, 2004, Joyce appeared with: Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland Oral and Richard. and she  She was also on the TBN network Praise-A-Thon (Nov. 3, 2003), where the majority of Word Faith Movement heretical teachers reside. 

By the way we need to know that Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Eddie Long believe we are little gods. Bynum thinks she is a prophetess who can pass on the anointing to anything at anytime she chooses. T. D. Jakes does not believe in the Trinity and teaches a mix of pop psychology with Biblical principles. Paula White is a prosperity teacher who has a mixture of various aberrant trendy doctrines. The word faith associations do rub off on Meyer's teachings, this is why she is comfortable to be speaking with these people.
In fact Meyer up holds to the worst heretical teaching in word faith “You know, I was listening to a set of tapes by one man and he explained it like this, and I think this kind of gets the point across, he said, ‘Why do people have such a fit about God calling His creation, His man—not His whole creation, but His man—little gods? If He’s God, what’s He going to call them but the god-kind?’ I mean, if you as a human being have a baby, you call it a human kind. If cattle has another cattle, they call it cattle-kind. So, I mean, what’s God supposed to call us? Doesn’t the Bible say we’re created in his image? Now, you understand I am not saying you are God with a capital G.” (Joyce Meyer, Authority and Opposition, audio tape number 1236.)

Well of course not, that would be too obvious an error when The God of the Bible teaches that all other gods are false gods. One can only guess which word faith teacher Meyer was listening to, Copeland, Hagin, Savelle, Dollar, Duplantis etc.. They all have the same unbiblical tecahing.

“Romans 4:17 says God gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things as if they already existed. He created the world with faith-filled words (see Genesis 1). We are created in His image, and we can also call things that are not as though they are. We can speak positive thoughts about ourselves into the atmosphere and thereby ‘prophesy our future. (Joyce Meyer, “Your Mouth is a Weapon,” Life in the Word March 1997, p. 4.) If this is true why take an offering?

“You got a storage bin, a storage locker in heaven that has a lot of stuff in it that needs to be claimed.”(Joyce Meyer, “What Does Your Future Hold” May 21, 2004)

Read the entire article here http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac17.htm