John MacMillan and the Authority of the Believer
46 Paul E. Billheimer, Destined for the Throne (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1975), 57-81.
47 Compare MacMillan, The Authority of the Believer, 22; “Commanding God,” The Alliance Weekly, Oct. 7, 1939, 626; “The Kingdom of the Messiah,” The Alliance Weekly, Feb. 17, 1940, 98; “Behavior in the House of God,” The Alliance Weekly, Oct. 29, 1949, 690; MacMillan, The Adult Full Gospel Sunday School Quarterly, Sept. 4, 1949, 31, with Billheimer, Destined To Overcome, 36. Compare also “Facing Deadly Foes,” The Alliance Weekly, June 3, 1939, 338, with Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, 40. See King, “A Case Study of the Authority of the Believer,” 275-276.
48 Merrill F. Unger, What Demons Can Do to Saints, 94-97; Merrill F. Unger, Demons in the World Today (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1971), 122, 123, 193-195, 199, 203, 204, 207. Unger does not refer to MacMillan in his earlier work, Biblical Demonology. The Authority of the Believer was not directly relevant to his study in that book. He may not have been familiar with MacMillan’s Modern Demon Possession when he first wrote the book in 1952. Merrill F. Unger, Biblical Demonology (Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1952).
49 Unger, What Demons Can Do to Saints, 94-97.
50 In 1969, J. Dwight Pentecost, a colleague of Unger’s at Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote Your Adversary, the Devil, in which he included a chapter entitled “The Believer’s Authority Over Satan.” Written as a popular evangelical treatment of the topic of Satan and spiritual warfare, he does not reference other sources, as does Unger. Hence, though he does not mention MacMillan or his writings, he is very likely familiar with MacMillan’s material as he comments on Scriptures included in MacMillan’s exposition, such as Eph. 1:19-23, Eph. 2:1-10 and Col. 3:15. J. Dwight Pentecost, Your Adversary, the Devil (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1969), 156-165.
Fuller Theological Seminary professor Charles Kraft includes a chapter on the authority of the believer in his book Defeating the Dark Angels, but again like Murphy, does not cite MacMillan, though he makes several references to Unger. Charles Kraft, Defeating the Dark Angels (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publishing, 1992), 79-98.
51 In 1960, a portion of MacMillan’s Modern Demon Possession was reprinted in Demon Experiences in Many Lands, a compilation of the experiences of many missionaries dealing with demonic forces published by Moody Press. Demon Experiences in Many Lands (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1960), 132-136. In 1967, Baptist pastor C. S. Lovett, in his book Dealing with the Devil, makes use of a policeman illustration similar to that of MacMillan’s, but makes no reference to its source. C. S. Lovett, Dealing with the Devil (Baldwin Park, CA: Personal Christianity Chapel, 1967), 140, 141. John Ellenberger, professor of missions at Alliance Theological Seminary, claims that the deliverance ministry of another Baptist, Ernest Rockstad, was derived out of MacMillan’s ministry and teaching, in particular, the use of the I John 4:3 method of testing spirits. Rockstad became a mentor to Ed Murphy, a missionary and professor who recently authored The Handbook of Spiritual Warfare, the most comprehensive study on the subject to date.
Episcopalian John Richards, in his book on exorcism entitled But Deliver Us From Evil, cites MacMillan’s book Modern Demon Possession (retitled later as Encounter with Darkness) in his bibliography. John Richards, But Deliver Us From Evil (New York, NY: The Seabury Press, 1974), 233. More recently, Samuel Wilson, an ordained C&MA minister and former missionary serving as a Professor of Missions and Evangelism at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, in his article “Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare” makes reference to MacMillan’s Encounter with Darkness, calling it “an old but reasonably sound exposition of the power given to believers by our identification with Christ.” Samuel Wilson, “Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare,” reprinted on the Internet (http:// www.episcopalian .org/TESM/writings/spirwil.htm) from the Journal of the Academy of Evangelism in Theological Education. Wilson served as a C&MA missionary in Peru and as research director at World Vision’s MARC and the Zwemer Institute for Islamic Studies. He is currently Director of the Stanway Institute for World Mission and Evangelism.
Professor Timothy Warner in Spiritual Warfare: Victory Over the Dark Powers of Our World cites from The Authority of the Believer MacMillan’s illustration of the policeman’s authority to stop a car in the name of the law as an analogy of the believer’s authority in the name of Jesus, and gives him credit as the source. Timothy Warner, Spiritual Warfare: Victory Over the Dark Powers of Our World (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 74. Wayne Grudem, professor of Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, recently published his extensive Systematic Theology. In his chapter on “Satan and Demons” he discusses the concept of the authority of the believer and deals with questions regarding demonization of Christians. While he does not cite MacMillan by name. In his discussion, he does list The Authority of the Believer and The Authority of the Intercessor in his bibliography at the end of the chapter. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leischester, England: Inter-Varsity Press; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 426-428, 435. For fuller documentation and discussion, see King, “A Case Study of the Authority of the Believer,” 276-280.
52 Mark I. Bubeck, The Adversary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), 115.
53 Ed Murphy, Handbook of Spiritual Warfare (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993, 1996), 20, 49-51, 277, 300, 477, 539, 541, 542, 544, 545. Phone interview with Ed Murphy, Nov. 6, 2000.
54 J. A. MacMillan, “The Authority of the Believer,” Herald of Faith, June 1963, 9, 10, 23; July 1953, 9-11; Aug. 1963, 8, 10, 19.
55 Herald of Faith, Aug. 1963, 19.
56 C. Nuzum, “The Authority of the Blood,” Herald of Faith, Sept. 1963, 13. This article had appeared a decade earlier in Herald of His Coming. C. Nuzum, “The Authority of the Blood,” Herald of His Coming, Jan. 1953, 8
57 Kenneth Hagin, “The Authority of the Believer,” sound recording (Tulsa, OK: n.p.,1967).
58 Kenneth Hagin, Authority of the Believer (Tulsa, OK: Faith Library Publications, 1967). Several years after Hagin’s publication of Authority of the Believer, Oral Roberts University graduate student Dale Simmons (who had become a Christian in a C&MA church) was studying the writings of Kenneth Hagin, when he observed a remarkable similarity between MacMillan’s 1932 The Authority of the Believer and Hagin’s 1967 Authority of the Believer. Simmons concluded that Hagin had plagiarized MacMillan’s writings. See Dale H. Simmons, “Mimicking MacMillan,” unpublished term paper, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Apr. 23, 1984. See also McConnell, A Different Gospel, 69-71.
On the other hand, other scholars have refuted the charge of plagiarism. William DeArteaga, for instance, dismissed the accusation of plagiarism by Hagin in his book Quenching the Spirit. DeArteaga concluded that Hagin was not intentionally plagiarizing, but rather possessed a photographic memory, and engaged in “the informal borrowing that happens every Sunday from countless pulpits across the nation. … Hagin’s books and pamphlets are mostly transcribed radio and camp-meeting sermons.” For a lengthy discussion of DeArteaga’s explanation, see William DeArteaga, Quenching the Spirit (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1992), 228-229. Other scholars have confirmed this as well as pointed out to me by James Zeigler. See also James R. Zeigler, “Oral Tradition and Pentecostal Publications: The Problems of Doing History in an Electronic Age,” a paper read at the Society of Pentecostal Studies, Southeastern Bible College, Lakeland, Florida, Nov. 9, 1991; conversation with James Zeigler, Oral Roberts University. My listening to a taped sermon on the authority of the believer by Hagin in 1967 further confirms this hypothesis. Kenneth Hagin, “The Authority of the Believer,” sound recording, 1967. It would appear, then, that Hagin’s use of MacMillan is thus very similar to that of Billheimer, and also the practice of Bosworth, and even MacMillan himself, as cited above.
In today’s academic and professional publishing arenas where precise documentation and accuracy are important, such undocumented borrowing by these writers would be considered abnormal. But in the informal, non-academic, and often loose atmosphere of preaching and teaching, uncited borrowing from one another has been and continues to be commonplace and accepted practice in many circles.
59 Kenneth Hagin, The Believer’s Authority (Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church, 1984).
Category: In Depth
Followers
Fans
