When he wakes each morning, Copeland can watch television on the 8-foot screen that retracts into his bedroom ceiling, according to interviews Trinity conducted with two informants. He can walk into his roughly 600-square-foot closet and select a suit to wear from three tiers of rotating racks.
His watches and jewelry are kept on an island in the middle of the closet.
If he and Gloria decide not to use the weight room or the media room, with its movie-theater-sized screen, they can head over to one of the parsonage’s two garages, where some of the 21 cars and motorcycles registered to the couple are stored, Trinity says.They may decide against the Cadillac, Mercedes, Lexus or Corvette and decide to leave the compound via a helicopter or boat, or by using one of several ministry planes — including a $20 million Cessna Citation X jet, Trinity says.
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Ian Vincent 
October 19, 2009 at 2:31 am
Fill in the blank: ________ conscience.
What word (biblical term) fits?
October 19, 2009 at 5:58 am
I agree, it looks like a seared conscience.
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Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who so walk, since you have us for an example. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our citizenship is in heaven; from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:
(Philip 3:17-20)
Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the innocent.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room to store my crops? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have prepared? So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
(Luke 12:15-21)
This rich man earned his wealth ethically. Copeland got his wealth by deceiving people, by fraud.
October 20, 2009 at 4:15 am
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who so walk, since you have us for an example. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our citizenship is in heaven; from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:
(Philip 3:17-20)
Just think of the actual backslidden Christians Paul is referring to here, the one’s he knew, the one’s he wept for : What were they like in comparison to someone like Copeland? How would a comparison go? If you put their covetousness up along side Copeland’s, how would they compare?
October 21, 2009 at 1:34 am
“…whose God is their belly…”
The word belly literally means cavity, that is, the empty space inside a person which they try to fill.
Their own self, and their selfish desires ARE their God.
Paul is saying that some believers made an exchange: exchanged true worship of God for worship of themselves, and these are both mutually exclusive.
Where can you go today where Christians are NOT exalting themselves and glorifying themselves?