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by Rita Lady
E. W. Kenyon, a great-grandfather of the Charismatic movement, was heavily influenced by the writings of H. Clay Trumbull. Trumbull, who was the editor of Sunday School Times in the 1875, believed in the metaphysics of New Age, tribal blood “cutting” covenants, and the occult. He intermingled religious texts (Bible, Qu'ran, etc.) and ceremonies from different cultures and claimed that they’re all linked to God’s covenants. Kenyon’s book ‘The Blood Covenant’ was a homage to Trumbull’s expository on blood covenants and its supposed relationship to God’s covenants. In Chapter One of Kenyon’s book, he expressed confusion about what Jesus said in John 6:53, but stated that Trumbull’s book helped him understand. “Then, there was placed in my hands a book by Dr. H. Clay Trumbull, the old editor of the Sunday School Times, in which he showed there had been a Blood Covenant practiced by all primitive peoples from time immemorial. He proved that this Blood Covenant was the basis of all primitive religions.” “He [Trumbull] proved that this Blood Covenant was the basis of all primitive religions. He gave data from all parts of the world showing that even to The Blood Covenant this day, in Africa, India, China, Borneo, and the Islands of the Seas, men are practicing a Blood Covenant very similar to our Lord's Table.” However, we know from context of the verses surrounding John 6:53 that Jesus was speaking spiritually...metaphorically. He was not advocating cannibalism or blood-mingling. Kenyon goes on in his book to echo the beliefs of Trumbull who spent a great deal of time focusing on the importance of ceremonial cutting or “cutting the covenant,” drinking blood, and intermingling blood between men (sometimes in an amulet) to consummate a covenant. Kenyon stated that David and Jonathan would have participated in a cutting ceremony. “...If two men loved each other as devotedly as David and Jonathan, or as Damon and Pythias, they would cut the Covenant for that love's sake.” Of course, you will not see such rituals performed by God’s people in the Bible, surely not David and Jonathan. In fact, what Kenyon is promoting is blood sorcery or a “blood-brother” ritual in the occult world, to be precise. Leviticus 19:26 tells us: “You are not to eat anything with blood in it. You are not to practice divination or sorcery.” It is peculiar that Kenyon juxtaposed two Greek mythological characters alongside two Godly biblical men to give credence to satanic blood rituals. But this comes as no surprise since ‘The Blood Covenant’ appears to be a homage to Trumbull and his inclusion of eastern religions. “He [Trumbull] proved that this Blood Covenant was the basis of all primitive religions. He gave data from all parts of the world showing that even to The Blood Covenant this day, in Africa, India, China, Borneo, and the Islands of the Seas, men are practicing a Blood Covenant very similar to our Lord's Table.” According to E. W. Kenyon: “The Gospel is this: that God, on the ground of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is able to declare that He is righteous, and that He Himself is our righteousness, the moment we believe on Jesus. This is the most staggering thing the mind ever grasped ... that God Almighty becomes your righteousness the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you learn to walk as Jesus walked, without any consciousness of inferiority to God or Satan, you will have faith that will absolutely stagger the world!” This is not the Gospel of Salvation. Far from it. Let’s review this carefully. Kenyon is declaring that there are grounds (Christ’s sacrifice) by which God is “able to declare” that he is righteous. The idea that God’s sovereignty is subject to anything is mindbogglingly blasphemous. I felt defiled even writing about it. God’s righteousness and omnipotence is contingent upon nothing and no one; as the Psalmist tells us: “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your Law is truth.” (Psalm 119:142) “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the ocean depths.” (Psalm 135:6) Let’s continue. Kenyon stated that God becomes “our” righteousness the moment we believe on Jesus Christ, and that God’s righteousness has been imparted to us. This is a strange, twisting of scriptures. God does not become our righteousness. “He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) God’s righteousness is imputed. To impute is to ascribe, credit, or attribute. “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4 and 3) We are only seen as righteous because of Christ’s righteousness, faithfulness, and finished work on the cross. By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua. (Romans 3:24) It should be clear by this point that E. W. Kenyon believed in a different Jesus and taught a different gospel. But if it isn’t, perhaps this final observation will help. In the introduction of Chapter 18 titled “What the Lord’s Table Teaches,” he makes an astounding admission: "There are two outstanding characteristics of the Father and Jesus. They are more than characteristics, they are a part of Themselves. God is love. Not only is He a love God, but He is a Father God. He believed the universe into being. When man went astray, He believed that He could bring him back, that a challenge of love would reach him. He believed men into New Creations, and He believes them into victory. He believes them into the love walk with each other. God is a Father God; Jesus is like His Father. He was the introducer of love to the world." Kenyon denied the deity of Christ. Notice the sleight-of-hand usage of the words Father, God, Jesus. He used the indefinite article “a” when describing God as “a Father God.” Why use “a"? Are there other Father Gods? Additionally, if God is a Father God as he stated, then the Son is not God, and the Holy Spirit is not God because they are not the Father. Here are two of many verses on the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit: For in Him {Christ} all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9) Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. (Matthew 12:31) Now, I’d be remissed if I did not address his creation story. Genesis is clear. God created and spoke. He did not “believe” anything into existence as Kenyon asserts. As a matter of fact, you will not find one verse to support his claims that God believes. To believe is to suppose, have an opinion, or accept something as true. Believe, a transitive verb, is a very human attribute that is necessarily subject to something external and has the capacity to waver. God, however, is omniscient and does not change. He doesn’t need to wonder or surmise since he knows all things. The idea that God believes, disbelieves, or has an opinion is antithetical to His omniscience. Like his predecessor H. Clay Trumbull, E. W. Kenyon is considered by some to be a Holy Spirit filled great-grandfather of the Christian faith. But the truth is, he authored beguiling books filled with secret gnostic knowledge, occultic ceremonies, a different god and a different gospel. He laid the foundation for teachers like William Branham and Franklin Hall, who would go on to pave the way for the Charismatic Latter Rain Movement and what we know today as the New Apostolic Reformation. Sources: The Blood Covenant, by E. W. Kenyon ©1969, Bible Gateway |
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