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Jesse Duplantis speaks during Kenneth Copeland Ministry's "Victorython" fundraiser. (Photo: Indy100.com/ videograb)
Televangelist Jesse Duplantis has been encouraging viewers to give money to fellow preacher Kenneth Copeland’s ministry by telling them doing so can “speed up the time.”
As Indy100.com reports:
During a recent four-day, live TV event Victorython on the Victory channel, Duplantis made the bizarre claim that people aren’t donating to their churches generously enough, and this is the reason why Jesus has not yet made a reappearance.
“I honestly believe this — the reason why Jesus hasn’t come is because people are not giving the way God told them to give,” he said, “when you understand this, you can speed up the time.”
The website published a video with excerpts of Duplantis’s remarks in which he says he believes that if people call into the Victorython, they can move God to hasten Christ’s return to earth.
“And I really believe this. If people would call this number and put this Victory all over the world, every available voice, every available outlet — the Father, he would say, ‘Jesus, go get ’em,'” Duplantis says in the video. “Because, you see, he wants to see us as much as we want to see him.”
“So what has hindered all these things is because people are not doing in the financial realm — because we live in an economic world — what God’s called them to do. He’s called us to do that,” Duplantis adds. “So I don’t have a problem with giving. I don’t have a problem receiving. It doesn’t make any difference. I just made up my mind, I want Jesus to come.”
In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples that no one except God the Father knows the time of his Second Coming. While in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus describes the conditions of the time of his return, nowhere does he suggest His followers can manipulate God’s hand by giving money to churches.
It is unclear what biblical support Duplantis has found to insist Christians can “speed up the time” by giving money to his friend’s ministry or to any church. The brief clip published by Indy100.com does not show if any of the several other men on stage with Duplantis challenged his unusual claim.
The “Victorython” is an annual event held by Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Contributions to Copeland’s fundraiser “will go toward the vision of expanding VICTORY Channel all over the globe,” according to the ministry.
Duplantis and Copeland are known as prosperity preachers, a community of charismatic church and ministry leaders who teach that Christians can earn spiritual and material favors from God by giving money, usually to their own religious organizations.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated.
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