Bad Theology from Joseph Good
by Jackie Alnor
Ó 1992 The Christian Sentinel

One would think that since the world’s largest Christian television network has the word "Trinity" in its title, one requirement for having a program on the network would be to affirm the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

But that’s not necessarily so. As the Christian Sentinel continues to document, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) headed by Paul and Jan Crouch sponsors a number of heretical teachers’ programs – and some of these deny the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

One such Trinity-denying teacher is Joseph Good, president of the Hatikva Ministry of Dallas. Good has two shows on TBN, and each is aired twice per week. They are called "In the Footsteps of the Messiah," and "Ancient Israel." His programs consist of teaching about Jewish traditions and practices by studying the writings of ancient Judaism. Good is an interesting, engaging speaker, who often delivers his talks while his lanky frame scribbles his concepts on a chalkboard. Although he is a Gentile, he gives the impression he is Jewish, even to the point of wearing a yarmulke skull cap as standard gear. Instead of pronouncing Jesus in the standard English way, he refers to Christ as "Yeshua," as many Messianic Jewish congregations do.

What few TBN viewers realize is that in many respects he is in agreement with some of the first century Jews on the nature of the Messiah. They had wrong ideas about the Messiah, even to the point of missing Jesus, despite the fact he fulfilled hundreds of prophecies. Viewers don’t realize that Good will often quote Cabbalistic, occultic sources in order to document his point. And these sources are repudiated by Christian and orthodox Jewish scholars alike!

Though Joe Good carefully avoids talking about the nature of God on his TV show, he is quite open about his heretical teachings in the purview of his Hatikva Ministry. He did a seminar in 1989 about the nature of Christ that is most revealing. The tapes from the seminar were transcribed and sent to Paul Crouch of TBN by Good’s ex-pastor, Kerry Trahan, in the hopes of getting some help in confronting the heresies Good taught.

"Yeshua was an attribute of the Father that was made flesh," Good said. "But in being made flesh, he was a man. Totally a man… Yeshua we do not see as being God when he walked here on earth. We see him as a man. A man anointed by God, sent by God to perform a function. Now in his resurrection, we do not see him as God. We see him as a man anointed by God and that has been restored back to what man was intended to be" [before the fall of Adam].

In a nutshell, Good says that Jesus and Adam are the same – perfect men – and we can become the same in our perfected state. In Good’s own words he denies the deity of Jesus and teaches that we should not worship Him as God. Consider these statements: "You can not worship anyone but God… I don’t know if there’s a difference between worship and homage. Now if Yeshua is not deity and I’m supposed to be doing homage to him, and what I’ve been doing is worshipping, I better find out what homage is and get my things defined, so I can take him in the light that he is."

By his own admission he says, "I believed in the Trinity, now obviously I don’t." In one tape called, "Difficult Verses," Good uses the same arguments used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses to deny Christ’s deity. In the account in the Gospels where the apostle Thomas bowed down to Jesus, Good claims he was merely doing homage to him because of who he represented – God. He compared that with the Old Testament story of Joseph when his brothers bowed down to him because he represented the Pharaoh.

I could go on and on with hundreds of heretical statements from Joseph Good, but space prevents me from doing so. The incredible fact remains that TBn has seen the transcripts and refuses to remove Good from the network. In fact, Paul Crouch has not personally responded to any of the letters written to him by Pastor Trahan and several others.

TBN’s official response was written by Paul’s brother, Philip Crouch, Vice President of TBN. He brushed the whole thing off, praising Good for giving a "profound New Testament relationship to Old Testament theology." He watered down the problems with Good to a mere disagreement over the "kenosis" or emptying of Jesus of deity during His incarnation. He mistakenly added, "The point would seem to us to be moot because Joseph does believe that Jesus is very God. Whatever Jesus was or was not while on earth is rather irrelevant in our opinion."

But of course by what we quoted here it is obvious that Good still denies the deity of Jesus Christ, Philip Crouch chose to ignore the evidence and sweep the subject under the rug after his brother Paul passed the buck to him.

If TBN truly cared about Joseph Good and the numerous followers TBN provides for him, they would ask some of their pastor/friends to speak to him and lovingly confront his heresies as directed by Scripture. By their silence, they are willing accomplices to the damage he is inflicting upon the body of Christ. Perhaps TBN needs to remove the word, "Trinity," from their name.

TBN subsequently denied renewing Joseph Good’s shows and, according to a Hatikva source, refused to provide them with copies of their TBN-produced programs. It pays to make noise when defending the faith.