KENNETH COPELAND VS CORONA VIRUS A.K.A. COVID-19

Since it was first discovered in Wuhan, China, the Corona Virus disease has swept across the world as a wild fire. There is virtually no country on the planet that hasn’t been affected by the disease in a way or the other. Many a country health system is groaning under the strain and pressure placed on it by the thousands and hundreds of thousand infected citizens.
But what do the word of faith preachers have to say about the Covid-19? If you don’t know who word of faith preachers, here’s a heads up. Word of faith preachers are pastors and teachers who hold the view that Jesus died in order to provide his followers with good health and prosperity. This view is also known as the gospel of health and wealth.
We will start with what Kenneth Copeland said. Kenneth Copeland is an America basedprosperity preacher who teaches his congregation that God will give you anything you want if you believe, confess and decree.
Kenneth Copeland had this to say about the Covid-19 on Friday, March 13, 2020 regarding the timing of the disease.
“This disease Covid-10 will be over much sooner than you think. Christian people who are praying all over this country have overwhelm it. Give me all the glory, says the Spirit of grace. And many, many people will come to know me through it. I am still the Lord over this nation, and I am on the throne and faith in me changes things!”
Let’s look at this statement line by line. One may wonder why Kenneth Copeland would speak like this. But if you know prosperity word of faith teaching, you’d understand that everything in the statement above is in line with their beliefs.
“This disease Covid-19 will be over much sooner than you think.” The word of faith and prosperity believe that anything you say with your mouth will come to pass. They believe that anything they decree will come to pass. Hence Kenneth Copeland can open the mouth and state that the virus would end soon. As we know, the cases of corona virus have exceeded 300.000 in the United States alone. And mind you that I the country of the majority of Word of faith prophets. It appears that the prophetic word of name it and claim it has failed. The words of Kenneth Copeland have fallen flat on the ground. The virus continues to rage throughout the world. 
The next line says, “The Christian people who are praying all over this country have overwhelmed it.”  According to Kenneth Copeland, Christians can overwhelm hard situation with their prayers. But is that what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches the believer to raise their prayers to a sovereign God who will answer them according to his own will.  But that is not what the word of faith adherents believe. Prayer for them is an avenue whereby they impose their will and desires on God through confessions, decrees and declarations. Have the prayer of the Christian people overwhelmed the Virus a Kenneth Copeland stated? The answer is no. 0n the contrary the revere seem to be the case. It is the virus that has overwhelmed the prayer of the Christian people the world over.
“Give me all the glory says the spirit of grace.”   In this sentence, Kenneth Copeland implies that his declaration came from the Hoy spirit.  This also is a clear teaching of the word of faith. They teach that God peak to them today in an audible voice just as he spoke to the prophets and apostles who wrote the Hoy scriptures. Though it I nowhere written in the Bible that God will speak to the believer today, they insist that God speaks to them. The problem with this theory I not just the fact that they can’t prove that it God’ voice they hear I the fact that they believe and insist that God speaks only to them. They reject the message of God that brought Islam because they do not believe that God spoke to Mohammed. But they are ready to force everyone to accept the message they fee God has given them. So, it doesn’t surprise me at all that Kenneth Copeland would attribute the words from his mouth to God. We know that the men are like grass and their gory like the flower of the grass. The grass dies and the flower fades but the word of the word abides forever. From this one can assume that if Kenneth Copeland’s words had been from God, they would have come to pass by now. But the situation hasn’t changes as all can see. The world is still reeling under the blows of the Covid-19. Dead body counts are on the increase.  Graphic chart lines are on a steep, sharp and upward spiral showing no sign of flattening any time soon.  And it’s been months since Kenneth Copeland spoke ‘in the name of the Lord.’   
 “And many, many people will come to know me through it.” A lot of reasons have been given for God allowing the Corona Virus to ravage the world. One of such reasons is that God wants to bring people to himself. What is bad in this logic is that it presents God as a psychopath that needs to leave a line of dead corpses behind his wake in order to make people listen to him. God would be according to this train of thoughts a crazy maniac who is killing hundreds of thousand just to prove a point. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. God is love and needn’t kill people in other to bring others to Christ. He gave his only Son more than two thousand years ago. Jesus is the only way to God. If God wants to bring people to himself, he points them to Christ through word as revealed by the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t need to bring a plague that would wipe out thousands. You may say that he did bring plagues in the Old Testament. And you’d be right. Jesus had not come then. But Jesus has already come. There is no other name given among men by which we might be saved except the name of Jesus. So God is in no way using this calamity to bring people to himself. When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, he told them that there would not be any sign except that of Jonah. As Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so also will the Son of man be in the belly of the earth. Jesus is the way through which God brings people to himself. Covid-19 isn’t.
“I am still the Lord over this nation, and I am on the throne and faith in me changes things!” This part of Kenneth Copeland statement may seem to shown belief in God’s sovereignty but a more careful look will show that it isn’t as it appears. God is Lord over this nation. He is on the throne. But FAITH IN HIM CHANGES THINGS. What this means is that God is sovereign. But faith is more sovereign. God is powerful but faith is more powerful. In word of faith teaching, God is not in charge. Faith is the most powerful force in word of faith universe. God exists in word of faith universe but is subject to faith. Hence, after stating his being Lord over the nation and being on the throne, God further said that faith in him can change all things.  In the Bible as against word of faith teaching, God is in charge. God is the one that can change all things whether there is faith or not. Faith in the bible is trusting God to do his will in our lives. In the word of faith universe, faith is forcing God to do whatever we want; hence the high pedestal and importance of faith in their teaching. Looking at the Covid-19 situation still rolling as a snow avalanche around the world, one would wonder whether there’s been no one in the word of faith universe with enough faith so far to change the situation and flatten the curve of the virus spreading and killing. Apparently there’s be no one, not even Kenneth Copeland himself has been able to harness enough faith to put an end to the pandemic.
The pandemic will definitely end but not on Kenneth Copeland’s term. Many people would die. But a lot more will survive it. Many people will come to the Lord but not because of the pandemic. They will do so because of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of salvation. The Corona Virus will definitely become history but not because of the faith and prayers of people from the word of faith universe. It will end through God’s will and providence, the prayers of the saints and the hard work of health professionals that are laboring tirelessly to find a cure. Let Kenneth Copeland and the word of faith keep faithing, decreeing and declaring. We know their words do not hold water. God will make all things beautiful in his own time.