World-renown Pentecostal “evangelist” Morris Cerullo has died after a brief bout with pneumonia. His family made the announcement on Instagram, writing: “Today we remember the incredible life of this great man. Your Legacy will live on!” and posted a picture with a quote of the motto he lived by.
Cerullo was an international evangelist and Assemblies of God minister who founded Morris Cerullo Wordwide Evangelism (MCWE) and traveled the world preaching his message of wealth and prosperity.
Naturally, Charisma Magazine, the birthplace of the sneaky squid spirit, spoke glowingly of Morris, frequently featured him in their articles, and in his eulogy recounted his exploits:
Cerullo ministered in 150 nations in over 400 cities on six continents, where he has personally trained 5 million Christian leaders and ministered to millions more, according to his ministry website. He dedicated his life to helping hurting people and traveled more than 250,000 miles every year to minister healing and salvation to the world, even into his old age.
They also give one of his “accomplishments:”
In 1999, Dr. Cerullo trained 40,000 nationals from over 32 African nations who attended a meeting in Lagos, Nigeria. Approximately 85% of the nationals were pastors who took the teachings back to their churches, where they trained thousands more.
While not known too well in the United States, he has better name recognition overseas, where for 50 years he put on crusades and “miracle and healing rallies” that he claims resulted in untold thousands of healings, particularly in Africa. No one was actually healed, of course, given that the name-it-and-claim-it prosperity gospel is a false gospel. In fact, several people perished from cancer and a brain aneurysm after stopping taking their medication, believing they were healed after being proclaimed so by Curello.
Like Kenneth Copeland, Cerullo was filthy rich. He claimed his estimated net worth was over 100 million dollars and liked to flaunt it with expensive sports cars. He owned a 12 million dollar mansion in San Diego, high up in a gated community in the most exclusive part of town, and a $50-million jet that one stewardess claimed under oath had a gold plated interior.
As it were, his theology was pure word/faith prosperity preaching. Think an older, more Africa-focused version of Kenneth Copeland. He believed himself to be a prophet who regularly spoke for God directly, and routinely received revelation from the Holy Spirit, which he would pass on in exchange for money. That is, “God wants you to have miracles and super-abundance. He wants to make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. But in order to do so, you must seed into my ministry, to reap 100 fold. Please consider giving $100, $500, or even $1000 as a sign of faith, and claim what is promised to you today!”
He also would also prophesy doom and gloom predictions that would invariably not come true, such as saying God told him there would be a complete worldwide monetary crash by 1994, making him a false prophet, and he became so many times over.
Given that his theology was pure charismatic-nutbar, it is unsurprising to see that he taught the “Little God” heresy.
“Did you know that from the beginning of time the whole purpose of God was to reproduce Himself?…Who are you? Come on, who are you? Come on, say it: ‘Sons of God!’ Come on, say it! And what does work inside us, brother, is that manifestation of the expression of ALL THAT GOD IS and ALL THAT GOD HAS. And when we stand up here, brother, you’re not looking at Morris Cerullo; you’re looking at God. You’re looking at Jesus.” (Morris Cerullo, The Endtime Manifestation of the Sons of God, (San Diego: Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, n.d. audiotape 1, sides1 and 2.)
Cerullo released on his website on January 24th, 2020, just a scant 6 months ago, a prophetic message for the new year which naturally preached a year of prosperity and super-abundance. Here is a small taste of what that looks like and gives you an idea of what the huckster was like even in his old age, even as he was approaching death:
My Beloved Partner,
Prepare for your life to change as you cross a prophetic timeline that will take you into a new experience of God’s abundance and plenty. Get ready, this year, for God’s harvest of provision, overflow and miracle answers, and floodtides of His blessings! These blessings, pouring out of the windows of heaven, will be more than enough to meet your specific and personal needs for your individual life.
God has given me seven prophetic promises for you to receive in this breakthrough season of SEVEN MIRACLES OF PLENTY! The number seven is used as a sign of perfection … I sense that God has appointed this season as a turning point in every area of your life!…
God’s seven powerful miracles are ready to unfold in your life as you move forward in your faith. I don’t care what you have been facing, THE WINDS OF CHANGE ARE BEGINNING TO BLOW IN YOUR DIRECTION FOR YOUR PERSONAL BENEFIT!
Pursue God’s miracles with all of your heart, because you will never possess what you are unwilling to pursue. God’s will for you is for you to pursue good health, happiness, and His abundant blessings. Your heavenly Father wants you to experience all of those blessings. Launch the greatest harvest in your life that you have ever known with SEVEN MIRACLES OF PROSPERITY!
As God’s prophet, I encourage you to let God lead you IN YOUR GIVING that He may bless you IN YOUR RECEIVING! Do what God wants you to do to be CONNECTED TO YOUR MIRACLE! What you hold in your hand is only the seed. When you place it in God’s hand, it becomes the harvest! Your special seven miracles of harvest seed offering will now release God’s special favor at a very critical time in your life. Your seed offering is your purchase order in the storehouse of heaven!
I don’t know why Charisma or other Christian websites are glowing over this man as if his death was a great loss to the Christian community, or why they’re not covering his demonic theology and telling it like it is.
Cerullo claimed to have trained over half a million pastors and leaders in this nonsense. Other than a last-minute death bed confession, there is no reason to think this man died as a Christian believer. His whole ministry was incredibly destructive and damaging, a cornucopia of theological trash and doctrinal perversity, and we’re glad that with his death he has finally been stopped.
