Evangelist Bryce Crawford, 22, recently sat down with prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland, 89, for a rare interview.
Copeland founded Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas, in 1986.
The preacher has been married three times and divorced twice. In 1967, Copeland and his current wife, Gloria, founded Kenneth Copeland Ministries (KCM) and committed themselves to preaching across the nations. In 1975, KCM launched its radio ministry.
Within one year, the ministry grew from 10 stations to broadcasting to over 500 stations throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1989, KCM launched “Believer’s Voice of Victory,” a worldwide daily broadcast. In 2006, KCM received its Cessna Citation X aircraft. In 2015, KCM launched an all-day programming network that focuses on “faith, healing, finances, and relationships,” called the VICTORY Channel. In 2018, KCM launched the Kenneth Copeland Bible College.
In 2024, Copeland prophesied the date of his own death. “I have made and entered covenant with God, and on Dec. 6, 2056,” he said. “I’ll see y’all later. I’m out of here. A hundred and twenty years old.”
As he nears 90, Copeland continues to travel the world preaching.
‘I Do Not Agree With the Prosperity Gospel’—Bryce Crawford Prefaces Before Beginning Interview
Before the interview, Crawford emphasized a few points, one being that he does not agree with the prosperity gospel.
“Kenneth Copeland is a prosperity gospel preacher who teaches another gospel that says God wants every Christian to be healthy, wealthy, and prosper, and if you aren’t doing those things as a Christian, then it is your fault,” Crawford explained. “I want to clarify, I do not agree with the prosperity gospel. That’s the whole reason why we sat down.”
He continued, “When we got the opportunity to do the first sit-down interview with Kenneth Copeland in over 15 years, I made it very clear to them, I was like, ‘Hey guys, I disagree. I’m going to be very respectful in the conversation, but I do not agree with the prosperity gospel.’”
“So this interview is a little bit different where I sat back and asked a lot more questions from a journalistic perspective, whereas I wanted to understand where he gets this doctrine from,” Crawford added. “I really don’t understand. I want to know how he finds it in Scripture, what that looks like to the person, and ask a lot of questions and do more digging to let the idea speak for itself so that we can understand why the true gospel is important.”
