KENNETH E. HAGIN
The Blueprint of the Modern Faith Movement
Full Name: Kenneth Erwin Hagin
Born: August 20, 1917
Died: September 19, 2003
Nationality: American
Known For: Word of Faith teaching, healing ministry, teaching on the believer’s authority, Rhema Bible Training College
Spouse: Oretha Hagin
Major Institution: Rhema Bible Training College
Key Themes: Faith, confession, divine healing, the Holy Spirit, spiritual authority and prosperity
Notable Later Work: The Midas Touch
Kenneth Erwin Hagin was one of the most influential teachers in twentieth-century Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity and is widely regarded as one of the principal architects of the modern Word of Faith movement.
His influence did not come primarily through enormous healing tents or spectacular mass crusades.
Hagin became influential because he taught.
He taught believers to trust the promises of Scripture.
He emphasized the relationship between believing in the heart, speaking with the mouth and acting upon God's Word.
He taught extensively on divine healing, the authority of the believer, spiritual gifts and being led by the Holy Spirit.
Through books, magazines, radio broadcasts, cassette tapes, conferences and especially Rhema Bible Training College, his teaching travelled far beyond the United States.
Ministers influenced by his message carried similar ideas into South Africa, Nigeria and other parts of Africa, as well as Europe, Asia and beyond.
Yet Hagin's legacy is also controversial.
Critics challenged aspects of his theology concerning healing, confession and prosperity. Scholars and researchers raised serious questions about similarities between some of Hagin's writings and those of earlier teacher E. W. Kenyon.
And late in his own life, Hagin publicly warned that some prosperity teachers had taken financial teaching far beyond what he believed Scripture supported.
His story is therefore not simply the story of a preacher.
It is the story of a teacher whose ideas became a movement larger than himself.
EARLY LIFE
Kenneth E. Hagin was born on August 20, 1917, in McKinney, Texas.
His childhood unfolded under difficult circumstances.
There was family instability.
Financial hardship.
And serious health problems.
As a teenager, Hagin spent extended periods confined to bed.
He later testified that he suffered from severe heart problems and blood-related conditions that left him physically weak and facing the possibility of an early death.
For a teenager only beginning life, mortality became unusually real.
Hagin would later describe experiences during this period that became foundational to his understanding of salvation.
THE NEAR-DEATH TESTIMONIES
Hagin repeatedly testified that during severe episodes of illness, he experienced what he believed were encounters with death.
He described his spirit leaving his body and descending toward a place of torment before returning.
These accounts became important within his preaching concerning salvation and eternity.
Historically, they should be presented as Hagin's retrospective spiritual testimony rather than independently documented medical events.
But Hagin himself regarded them as unquestionably real.
He believed he had confronted the reality of eternity.
That experience profoundly affected him.
He surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.
Yet even after his conversion, his physical condition remained severe.
He was still confined to bed.
Then one passage of Scripture became central to his life.
MARK 11:23–24
Hagin began focusing intensely on the words of Jesus recorded in Mark 11:23–24 concerning speaking to a mountain, believing without doubting and receiving through prayer.
He read the passage repeatedly.
The words eventually reshaped his understanding of faith.
Hagin became convinced that he had been waiting to feel healed before behaving as though God's promise were true.
His interpretation reversed that order.
Believe first.
Act on what you believe.
Then expect circumstances to change.
In August 1934, Hagin decided to act upon that conviction.
According to his testimony, he pushed himself out of bed.
He stood.
Then he began walking.
He subsequently described experiencing a dramatic restoration of health.
For the rest of his ministry, Hagin returned repeatedly to this experience as evidence of one foundational principle:
FAITH ACTS ON GOD'S WORD BEFORE THE CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE.
That principle would become central to his teaching.
FROM BAPTIST ROOTS TO PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE
Hagin's early Christian background was Baptist.
After his healing testimony, however, he increasingly encountered Pentecostal Christians and their teaching concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Hagin became convinced that the experience described in the Book of Acts remained available to Christians.
He testified that he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues.
He eventually became associated with the Assemblies of God.
This transition brought together two major themes that would define his ministry.
The first was:
FAITH.
The second was:
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Hagin would spend decades combining the two.
Believe God's Word.
Understand your position in Christ.
Exercise spiritual authority.
And learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
THE SMALL TEXAS CHURCHES
Before international recognition, Hagin spent years serving as the pastor of small churches in Texas.
Communities such as Tom Bean, Roland, Larue and Farmersville became part of the largely unseen preparation for his later ministry.
There were no international conferences.
No Rhema campus.
No global publishing network.
No thousands of ministers calling him “Dad Hagin.”
There were ordinary congregations.
Sunday services.
Funerals.
Hospital visits.
Counselling.
Prayer.
And the everyday responsibilities of pastoral ministry.
This period is important because Hagin's message did not first emerge on an international platform.
He developed and repeated his central teachings while serving ordinary believers in local churches.
Faith.
Healing.
Prayer.
The Holy Spirit.
And acting upon God's Word.
These principles became the foundation upon which the later ministry was built.
THE HEALING REVIVAL
By the late 1940s, American Pentecostalism was entering one of its most dramatic periods.
The post-war healing revival produced major evangelists including:
William Branham.
Oral Roberts.
T. L. Osborn.
And many others.
Networks connected with Gordon Lindsay's Voice of Healing helped create a national revival culture focused on healing, prophecy, spiritual gifts and supernatural manifestations.
Hagin moved increasingly into itinerant ministry within this environment.
But his ministry gradually developed a somewhat different identity from some of his contemporaries.
He was not primarily remembered for massive theatrical healing campaigns.
He increasingly became known as a:
TEACHER.
Hagin wanted Christians to understand what he believed belonged to them through Jesus Christ.
Instead of creating permanent dependence upon a famous evangelist, his teaching emphasized learning how to exercise faith personally.
That emphasis became one of the secrets of his long-term influence.
THE VISIONS OF JESUS
Beginning around 1950, Hagin testified that he experienced a series of extended visions in which Jesus Christ appeared to him.
According to Hagin, these encounters included instruction concerning:
-
faith;
-
divine healing;
-
spiritual authority;
-
demonic oppression;
-
ministry gifts;
-
and the believer's position in Christ.
Historically, these experiences should be understood as Hagin's spiritual testimony rather than independently verifiable historical events.
Within his ministry, however, they became deeply significant.
Hagin believed that Jesus had personally instructed him concerning principles he later taught publicly.
Several themes found in books such as The Believer's Authority developed within this spiritual worldview.
Through Hagin's teaching, ideas concerning spiritual authority became increasingly influential throughout Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity.
THE MESSAGE BECOMES MEDIA
Kenneth Hagin Ministries developed an effective communication network.
Radio broadcasts carried his sermons beyond physical meetings.
The Word of Faith magazine placed teaching directly into people's homes.
Books reduced large theological themes into accessible language.
Cassette tapes became especially important.
Entire sermon series could now travel from church to church and from believer to believer.
Hagin's teaching materials were deliberately straightforward.
Readers and listeners encountered foundational ideas repeatedly:
Believe with the heart.
Speak with the mouth.
Act upon God's Word.
Exercise spiritual authority.
Expect healing.
Learn to follow the Holy Spirit.
The simplicity made the teaching highly transferable.
A pastor did not need an advanced theological degree to communicate it.
A believer could hear a cassette tape and repeat the principles to someone else.
A book could cross an ocean.
The message was becoming larger than the messenger.
RHEMA BIBLE TRAINING COLLEGE
In 1974, Hagin established what became Rhema Bible Training College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
It became perhaps his most important institutional achievement.
A sermon can influence an audience.
A Bible school can reproduce ministers.
Rhema trained pastors, evangelists, missionaries, teachers and other Christian workers.
Students left Oklahoma and planted churches.
Some established ministries.
International students returned to their home nations.
Rhema-affiliated training institutions eventually developed elsewhere.
Through this system, Hagin's teaching could move beyond books and recordings into an organized network of trained ministers.
This is also where his story became increasingly connected with Africa.
RHEMA AND SOUTH AFRICA
One of the most important African leaders connected with Rhema was Ray McCauley.
McCauley studied at Rhema in the United States before returning to South Africa.
There he became the founder and senior leader of Rhema Bible Church in Randburg, which developed into one of South Africa's influential charismatic congregations.
McCauley's ministry emerged during a period of enormous political and social change in South Africa.
Through Rhema and the wider charismatic movement, themes closely associated with Hagin's teaching became increasingly familiar:
Faith.
Healing.
Confession.
Prosperity.
The authority of the believer.
The Holy Spirit.
Hagin did not create South African charismatic Christianity.
South Africa possessed its own Pentecostal and revival history long before Rhema.
But Hagin's teachings became an important stream within the country's developing charismatic landscape.
Through Bible training, books, recordings and ministers influenced by Rhema, that impact moved beyond one congregation.
HAGIN'S INFLUENCE IN AFRICA
Hagin's teaching spread throughout Africa through several channels.
Books crossed borders.
Cassette tapes circulated among pastors.
Bible schools reproduced teaching material.
Preachers travelled.
Conferences connected ministries internationally.
Some African ministers encountered Hagin personally.
Others never met him.
Yet they encountered his vocabulary.
Believe.
Speak.
Act.
Receive.
Exercise authority.
Trust God's promises.
Expect supernatural provision.
Within Nigeria and other major centres of African Pentecostal growth, these ideas became part of a much larger theological environment.
It is important not to suggest that Hagin personally created African Word of Faith Christianity.
African Pentecostalism possessed its own history, indigenous leaders, revival movements and theological development.
But Hagin's books, recordings and networks became significant ingredients within that wider ecosystem.
DAVID OYEDEPO AND THE WIDER WORD OF FAITH ENVIRONMENT
One major African Christian leader whose ministry developed within the broader environment of Word of Faith teaching is Bishop David Oyedepo of Nigeria.
Oyedepo developed a distinctly Nigerian ministry with its own theological emphases, African Pentecostal context and spiritual influences.
Nevertheless, themes such as faith, confession, covenant, supernatural provision and practical application of Scripture overlap strongly with teachings that circulated internationally through the Word of Faith movement.
This illustrates how theological movements often develop.
Ideas travel.
They enter new cultures.
Local leaders adapt them.
They combine them with other influences.
Eventually something emerges that is both connected to the international movement and distinctly local.
Hagin's role within African Christianity should therefore be understood as one significant influence among several, not as the sole origin of those ministries.
KENNETH COPELAND
Perhaps no internationally recognized minister has more openly acknowledged Hagin's influence than Kenneth Copeland.
Copeland encountered Hagin's teachings during the formative period of his own ministry.
Over time, Hagin became an important spiritual mentor.
Copeland frequently referred to him affectionately as:
“DAD HAGIN.”
This relationship became especially important because Copeland developed one of the largest media platforms associated with the Word of Faith movement.
Hagin taught primarily through books, tapes, seminars and Bible training.
Copeland carried similar concepts through extensive television and international broadcasting.
In this sense, the teacher's influence was multiplied through another minister's platform.
The movement expanded beyond the reach of either man individually.
WHAT DID KENNETH HAGIN TEACH?
The phrase Word of Faith eventually became a broad label covering many ministries with significantly different teachings.
Understanding Hagin therefore requires examining his own central emphases.
HEART FAITH
Hagin distinguished between intellectual agreement and what he called believing with the heart.
A person could mentally agree that a biblical promise was true while still failing, in his understanding, to exercise genuine faith.
Faith needed to become an inward conviction.
CONFESSION
Hagin placed considerable emphasis on biblical passages connecting belief and speech.
He taught that what believers truly believed in their hearts should be expressed through their words.
This gave rise to one of the best-known patterns associated with his teaching:
Believe. Speak. Act. Receive.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE BELIEVER
Hagin taught that the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ had consequences for the believer's spiritual authority.
Christians, he argued, should not live as helpless victims of demonic powers.
They should understand their position in Christ and exercise biblical authority.
DIVINE HEALING
Healing remained deeply personal for Hagin because of his own testimony.
He taught that divine healing belonged within Christ's redemptive work and could be received through faith.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Hagin emphasized being led by the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, spiritual gifts and maintaining sensitivity to God's guidance.
MATERIAL PROVISION
He also taught that God cared about material and financial needs and rejected the idea that poverty itself was inherently spiritual.
That teaching eventually became one of the greatest sources of controversy surrounding the wider movement.
THE PROSPERITY CONTROVERSY
As the Word of Faith movement expanded, teaching concerning financial prosperity became increasingly prominent.
Some ministers taught giving in highly transactional terms.
Give a particular financial seed.
Expect a particular financial return.
Give to receive a miracle.
Measure spiritual success through wealth.
Such teaching increasingly disturbed Hagin.
He believed God provided for believers.
He believed Christians could trust God for financial needs.
He believed in generosity and giving.
But late in his life, he concluded that parts of the movement had moved beyond biblical balance.
This led to one of the most important developments in his later ministry.
THE MIDAS TOUCH
In The Midas Touch, Hagin confronted what he regarded as excesses within prosperity teaching.
He warned against manipulative fundraising.
He challenged the elevation of money into the centre of Christianity.
He questioned extravagant claims being presented as biblical promises.
This created an important historical irony.
A man frequently described as one of the fathers of modern prosperity teaching was warning prosperity preachers against financial excess.
The episode demonstrates how movements can move beyond their founders.
A teacher develops an idea.
Others adopt it.
Some extend it.
Others exaggerate it.
Eventually, the founder may look at what has developed and say:
That is not what I meant.
Hagin's later warnings are therefore essential to any balanced account of his legacy.
E. W. KENYON AND THE BORROWING CONTROVERSY
Another serious controversy concerned the relationship between Hagin's writings and those of earlier Christian teacher E. W. Kenyon.
Researchers identified passages where Hagin's language appeared strikingly similar to Kenyon's earlier writings.
Critics accused Hagin of extensive uncredited literary borrowing.
The issue became important because Hagin often presented his teachings within a narrative emphasizing personal Bible study and supernatural revelation.
Defenders offered different responses.
Some emphasized similarities within broader Christian traditions.
Others acknowledged literary dependence while challenging claims that Hagin's entire theology should therefore be reduced to Kenyon.
Whatever position one takes, the textual similarities form an important part of scholarly discussions concerning the historical origins of Word of Faith theology.
A responsible biography should neither ignore nor exaggerate the issue.
ORETHA HAGIN
Behind Kenneth Hagin's public ministry stood his wife, Oretha Hagin.
She shared the early years when ministry was small and resources were limited.
She lived through the local-church period.
The travelling ministry.
Financial uncertainty.
The transition into publishing.
The development of Rhema.
And eventually the growth of an international organization.
Together they raised their children, including Kenneth W. Hagin and Patricia Harrison.
Oretha's contribution was less publicly visible than Kenneth's, but she formed part of the foundation supporting the ministry's development.
KENNETH W. HAGIN AND SUCCESSION
As Kenneth E. Hagin grew older, his son Kenneth W. Hagin took increasing responsibility within Kenneth Hagin Ministries and Rhema.
This became an important part of the ministry's long-term survival.
Organizations built completely around one charismatic personality can collapse after the founder dies.
Hagin had built more than a travelling preaching ministry.
There was:
A Bible college.
Publishing.
Conferences.
Media.
Property.
Leadership structures.
And a second generation prepared to continue the work.
This infrastructure allowed Rhema and Kenneth Hagin Ministries to continue beyond the founder's lifetime.
DEATH
On September 19, 2003, Kenneth E. Hagin died.
He was 86 years old.
His physical voice had fallen silent.
But by then, the language he had spent decades teaching had travelled across the world.
United States.
South Africa.
Nigeria.
Ghana.
Zimbabwe.
Europe.
Asia.
And many other regions.
Preachers who had never personally met Hagin used teaching concepts they had encountered through his books and recordings.
Rhema graduates continued pastoring churches and leading ministries.
Bible schools continued training students.
Sermons continued circulating.
And ministers influenced by Hagin were now influencing millions themselves.
THE TEACHER OF TEACHERS
Kenneth Hagin never became the most spectacular healing evangelist of his generation.
He did not build the largest television network.
He did not pastor the world's largest congregation.
Yet his influence became enormous because he developed into something perhaps more consequential:
A TEACHER OF TEACHERS.
Kenneth Copeland carried Word of Faith concepts through international broadcasting.
Ray McCauley helped establish Rhema's influence within South African charismatic Christianity.
Rhema graduates established ministries across nations.
Books and cassette tapes entered churches Hagin himself never visited.
African ministers interpreted and adapted faith teaching within their own contexts.
Generation after generation began repeating language closely associated with Hagin:
“Believe it in your heart.”
“Confess it with your mouth.”
“Act on the Word.”
“The believer has authority.”
Supporters believe Hagin helped restore practical faith and spiritual authority to believers who had become passive.
Critics argue that his theology contributed to problematic approaches to prosperity, healing and positive confession.
Both perspectives form part of his historical legacy.
And Hagin's own late-life warnings concerning financial excess reveal that he himself recognized dangers within the movement that grew around his teaching.
FROM A SICKBED TO A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
To understand Kenneth Hagin's life, return to Texas in 1934.
A teenage boy lies in bed.
His health is failing.
He reads the words of Jesus in Mark 11.
Again.
And again.
Eventually, he becomes convinced that faith requires action.
So he gets out of bed.
According to his testimony, his body begins recovering.
Whatever conclusions individuals reach concerning the miraculous dimension of the story, one historical fact is undeniable:
Kenneth Hagin never stopped preaching the lesson he believed he learned from that experience.
Believe God's Word enough to act upon it.
That conviction carried him:
From a sickbed...
to small Texas churches...
into the healing revival...
onto radio...
into books...
onto cassette tapes...
into Rhema...
across Africa...
and ultimately into a global theological movement.
His ideas inspired faith.
They created institutions.
They generated controversy.
They influenced movements.
And they helped shape the vocabulary of contemporary Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity.
Kenneth Erwin Hagin.
The sick teenager.
The pastor.
The faith teacher.
The author.
The founder of Rhema.
The mentor.
The teacher of teachers.
One of the principal architects of the modern Word of Faith movement.
A GENERAL OF IMPACT
Generals of Impact preserves the stories of revivalists, missionaries, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers and men and women whose faith, sacrifice and obedience impacted generations.