Kenneth Copeland: "I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is....The biggest one in the whole Bible is God." Learn more about Kenneth Copeland by checking my DeviantArt page here: http://artngame215.deviantart.com/#/d4ssvh6
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Yes, I heard what he said, and I read what he said. But as I said before, what he says NEVER appears in its entire context anywhere on the Internet. What you are doing is relegating someone because of a snippet from an interview that you do not have full access to. I am confident that any person hearing this quote before it is cut off, realizes that Copeland is about to say more. And I am EQUALLY confident that Copeland was about to say something to the effect of "Yes, God is a failure - at least that is what one would assume based on their limited understanding; HOWEVER..." Why do I think that he was about to say something like that? Because 1) If he was going to further show from the Bible how God was a failure, what he said further would have been quoted to better demonize him; however, 2) that he wasn't further quoted, indicates that whoever is trying to denounce him didn't want you to have the entire interview, which suggests he was going to appropriately substantiate his claim that at first appeared blasphemous; and 3) the Church fathers used to do rhetorical things like that all the time. Pascal and the reformers did that. The modern apologists like Chesterton, Lewis, and Zacharias do and did things like that. They would constantly talk about how God appears to be a tyrant, a child, a bloodthirsty demon, etc. etc., and then come back and explain how that understanding and viewpoint is WRONG. And most importantly, 4) Copeland is constantly prompting his listeners to TRUST in God and to have FAITH in God and to understand that God is the Lord of all things - if he truly meant that God was a humongous failure (and this wasn't just a rhetorical strategy that you simply do not have the full quote to), then he wouldn't stand up for such things. That doesn't make sense. What does make sense is that somebody who disliked Copeland only posted PART of his quote on the Internet, and individuals took the PARTIAL QUOTE from a PARTIAL INTERVIEW and didn't consider that he was going to substantiate himself later. What if somebody had quoted Paul only partially? What if somebody had quoted Jesus only partially? With only partial context and partial quotes, you would assume Jesus wanted people to eat Him, that He advocated for war within one's family, and with only a partial quote, you would assume that rich people have no hope for entering Heaven. But Jesus EXPLAINS himself after He says that He should be eaten like bread, and after He says He came to bring a sword, and after He says that a rich person entering into Heaven is impossible. And so the same courtesy should be extended to Copeland.
Copeland doesn't believe God was the epitome of failure. He was going to explain himself. Do not rely on snippets from the Internet. Critically examine everything. Hold on to what's good.
Sven, Copeland clearly said God was a failure. It's been documented and you can even hear him clearly say it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p5qL_kBFRo&feature=related at the beginning and towards the middle. Though he says "The reason you don't think of God as a failure is He never said said he was a failure. And you're not a failure till you say you're one." Which implies Copeland thought of God was a failure anyways, as though he know's what failure is better than God. Copeland looked like he was questioning God's deeds and couldn't believe them. To Copeland, God was more of a failure in His deeds than other people of the Bible as He says.
God gave those angels free will though. It was by their decsion that they choose to rebel. But he didn't lose them as Copeland says, he kicked them out of heaven. I think Jesus and Paul at least did a better job of explaining those feelings of feeling like a slave to the law than many could.
I want to preface this by stating that I do not know of Kenneth Copeland, and I will probably never listen to him or watch whatever program he might have; however, I don't think the biggest failure quote you had is fair, and after a skip through Internet Land, I have discovered that the quote never appears except in isolation. And nothing screams "I am purposefully misinterpreting this man for my own agenda" than a quote running rampant across the Internet devoid of context.
I would bet money (IF GAMBLING WASN'T AGAINST THE BIBLE ho ho ho) that Copeland is indulging in a little rhetoric here, which would be obvious if the quote you had wasn't cut off. It is the type of paradox that our Christian brothers and sisters have participated in since the first iota was written in the Bible. It is this technique of saying something that at first runs contrary to everything we know, and then the rhetorician explains the sense of the thing he is trying to show, to the illumination and edification of all. It is comparable to how Christ's first audience must have felt when He said that they could be free, if they would only yoke themselves with Him - how does grafting oneself to another make them free? It is comparable to how some of Paul's readers must have felt when he said that many of the free men were slaves, and many of the slaves were free.
The first impression of the matter is that a slave is not free. And the first impression of the matter is that God did fail - for His angels opposed Him, the first humans defied Him, His prophets and priests were rejected, and His only Son was accosted and nailed on the cross. That is how everything appears. But the truth is that the slave is free not from his earthly master, but from the wages of his carnal nature, a freedom which transcends our mortal life. And the truth is that God has not failed because even when darkness blanketed the entire world like a quilt, still His promise and His plan pervaded the sheet like a sword. And I am more confident that that was the conclusion Copeland was going to come to than I am that Japan exists. He sought to shock His audience, and then show them that through all life's trials and tribulations, the one ultimately in control is God.