I often hear charismatic Word of Faith preachers twist Genesis and the Creation narrative of God making man in His own image—and how man and animals were created in such a way that like kind begets like kind—to support their false “little gods” doctrine. It is a rank and damning heresy to hold to such views. However, there is a kernel of truth in the “like begets like” mantra rampant within Word of Faith circles: heresy begets heresy.

And within the charismatic Word of Faith movement, there is a heresy begotten that is so antithetical to Christian orthodoxy that it can only be described as a heresy of the highest order. This is the claim, shameless and blasphemous, that Jesus Christ—God incarnate, sinless and sovereign—was “born again” in the depths of Hell. It is a teaching that not only distorts the very essence of the gospel but also stabs with a wooden stake right into the heart of the Christian faith, undermining the deity, the purity, and the salvific work of Jesus Christ.

Listen to this heresy from Kenneth Copeland:

Central to the Christian doctrine and biblical soteriology is the truth that Jesus taught us the necessity of being “born again” to enter eternal life (John 3:3), a spiritual rebirth necessitated by our fallen nature in Adam (Romans 5:12) and our condition of being dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). To be born again is to experience a divine transformation of the heart, enabling belief and obedience to God (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This profound truth applies to humanity, ensnared by sin and in dire need of redemption.

However, the purity of this doctrine is sullied by the false teachings espoused by proponents of the Word of Faith movement. They claim that Jesus Himself, following His crucifixion, descended into Hell, was “born again” there, and thereby secured the power for His resurrection. This claim is not only biblically unfounded but represents a grave misunderstanding of the nature of Christ and the purpose of His sacrifice.

Jesus Christ, Scripture tells us unequivocally, was without sin (II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15). As the spotless Lamb of God, He bore the sins of the world upon the cross, offering up His life as a perfect sacrifice to atone for our transgressions. The suggestion that He needed to be “born again” implies a need for redemption from sin, a concept that is antithetical to His divine nature and mission. Such heresy not only erodes the foundation of Christian soteriology—the study of salvation—but also maligns the character of Christ, portraying Him as less than fully divine and suggesting a break in the Trinitarian unity.

This rank heresy propagated by the Word of Faith movement is but one of the manifestations of its departure from the centrel tenets of Christianity and it reflects a deeper, more insidious agenda—to redefine the nature of Christ and His work on the cross, thereby creating what the Scriptures refer to as “another gospel” that is damnable fundamentally different from the one delivered by the apostles. This is not merely a theological error, it is a deliberate assault on Christ as it repackages ancient heresies in modern garb to seduce the undiscerning and lead them astray.

The assertion that Jesus was “born again” stands as a testament to the anti-Christian and, indeed, anti-Christ spirit that permeates the Word of Faith movement. It is a doctrine that seeks not to exalt Christ but to dethrone Him, stripping Him of His deity and reducing His redemptive work to a mere act of human achievement. Such false teachings must not only be refuted but also exposed for what they truly are, a perilous departure from the gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel that promises life not through mystical rebirths in the afterlife but through faith in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

In the face of such profound theological distortion, the call to the faithful is clear—to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), standing firm in the truth of Scripture and the historic creeds of Christianity. It is a call to vigilance, to discernment, and to a watchful commitment to the true gospel that needs no amendment, no addition, and certainly no heretical reinvention.