'Thank you, Jesus': Kenneth Copeland praises God for Bentley with Breitling clock as seed offering from dying man
Prosperity gospel preacher Kenneth Copeland thanked Jesus for a dying man's seed offering of a Bentley with a Breitling clock, which he had given in the hope that it would bring healing.
At Kenneth Copeland Ministries' annual Southwest Believers' Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, held from July 29 to Aug. 3, the 87-year-old televangelist regaled attendees with stories about his passion for Breitling watches, of which he owns around 36 coveted timepieces.
Speaking on "How to Walk by Faith and Not By Sight" two Mondays ago, Copeland delighted in showing off the diamond-encrusted Breitling adorning his left wrist to a man seated in the front row.
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"Do you think that one's pretty?" Copeland asked the man. "It's a Breitling. It has diamonds around the edge. Someone gave me that one."
Copeland said he began gifting Breitling watches as seed gifts, adding that he and Pat Robertson, the late founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and host of "The 700 Club," had a "tradition" of gifting Breitlings to each other.
Later, he mentioned his friend Mylon LeFevre, who was ill and, "believing in God for healing," sowed a seed offering directly to Copeland in the form of a Bentley with a Breitling clock. It was to be the 37th Breitling in Copeland's collection.
"Whoa! A Bentley with a … um … Thank you, Jesus!"
According to the website HotCars, in 2022, Bentley offered a $230,000 Breitling clock in its Bentayga model. At the time, the site reported that the addition of the diamond and gold clock "nearly doubles the starting price for a new Bentayga."
Bible scholar Justin Peters, a harsh critic of World of Faith prosperity preachers and the New Apostolic Reformation movement, rebuked Copeland's "wicked" teaching that sowing a seed will heal the sick.
"Kenneth Copeland knows full well that the people listening to him don't follow him for exposition; they are there for promises of health and wealth," Peters said. "And there are a lot of sick people listening to him. Not just at this convention but all over the world. And they are sick; they are dying, some of them. And some have sick children, children who are dying.
"The bigger miracle you need, the bigger monetary seed you'd better sow," Peters added, urging Copeland to fear God's judgment and repent.
As a warning to the televangelist who has boasted of being a billionaire, Peters read from Matthew 7:21-23, which states: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"
Peters said he doesn't hate Copeland but was filled with "righteous indignation" because of the "audacity" the televangelist had to tell the story of a man who sowed a seed for healing from cancer yet died. "He's dead," Peters lamented.
LeFevre, who spoke at a Copeland event two months before he died last year, was a Grammy and Dove Award-winning artist whose music career spanned decades. In 2005, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. At age 17, a song he wrote titled "Without Him" was recorded by Elvis Presley, according to Movieguide. He later worked with famous musicians such as Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
"Kenneth Copeland is a wicked, dark man. He hates you, and the only person he hates more than you is God," Peters declared. "Enjoy that Bentley, Mr. Copeland. … May God have mercy.
Visibly anguished and distraught, Peters said he doesn't want Copeland to go to Hell but cautioned, "That is exactly where you are headed right now." He cited Psalm 119:104, which says, "Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."
