The word on the word of faith

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Word of Faith
Classification	Protestant
Theology	Neo-charismatic movement, Prosperity Gospel, New Apostolic Reformation
Founder	Kenneth Hagin
Origin	1966; 57 years ago United States

Word of Faith is a movement within charismatic Christianity which teaches that Christians can get power and financial prosperity through prayer, and that those who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection have the right to physical health.^[1]: 8 The movement was founded by the American Kenneth Hagin in the 1960s, and has its roots in the teachings of E. W. Kenyon.^[1]: 5–6

History[edit]

The Baptist minister E.W. Kenyon (1867–1948) is generally cited as the originator of Word of Faith’s teachings. Kenyon’s writings influenced Kenneth Hagin Sr., the recognized «father» of the Word of Faith movement.^[2]: 76 Hagin, who had founded a ministry known as the Kenneth E Hagin Evangelistic Association, started disseminating his views in the Word of Faith magazine in 1966, and subsequently founded a seminary training Word of Faith ministers.^[1]: 6–7

Teachings[edit]

Distinctive Word of Faith teachings include physical, emotional, financial, relational, and spiritual healing for those who keep their covenant with God.^[3] The movement urges believers to speak what they desire, in agreement with the promises and provisions of the Bible, as an affirmation of God’s plans and purposes. They believe this is what Jesus meant when he said in Mark 11:22–24^{[bible 1]} that believers shall have whatsoever they say and pray with faith. The term word of faith itself is derived from Romans 10:8^{[bible 2]} which speaks of the word of faith that we preach.^[4]

Healing[edit]

The Word of Faith teaches that complete healing (of spirit, soul, and body) is included in Christ’s atonement and therefore is available here and now to all who believe. Frequently cited is Isaiah 53:5^{[bible 3]}, «by his stripes we are healed», and Matthew 8:17^{[bible 4]}, which says Jesus healed the sick so that «it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, ‘Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses’.»

Because Isaiah speaks in the present tense («we are healed»), Word of Faith teaches that believers should accept the reality of a healing that is already theirs, first by understanding that physical healing is part of the New Testament’s promise of salvation. It is reinforced by confessing the Bible verses which assert this healing and believing them while rejecting doubt. This does not deny pain, sickness, or disease, but denies its right to supersede the gift of salvation in Isaiah 53:5 and many other passages.^[5] According to adherents, sickness is generally Satan’s attempt to rob believers of their divine right to total health.^[6]

Prosperity[edit]

Word of Faith teaching holds that its believers have a divine right to prosper in all areas of life, including finances, health, marriage, and relationships.

Word of Faith preachers such as Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland claim that Jesus was rich, and teach that modern believers are entitled to financial wealth.^{[1]: 30 [7]}

Faith and confession[edit]

In Word of Faith teaching, a central element of receiving from God is «confession», often called «positive confession» or «faith confession» by practitioners. Practitioners will claim and affirm they have healing, well being, prosperity, or other promises from God, before actually experiencing such results. They do so in demonstration of their faith, which they believe will ultimately result in the fulfillment of their words. While similar, it should not be confused with Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking theology focusing on the individual, as evidenced by the motto, «Faith in God and believe in oneself».^[8] Noted Word of Faith teachers, such as Kenneth E. Hagin and Charles Capps, have argued that God created the universe by speaking it into existence (Genesis 1^{[bible 5]}), and that God has endowed believers with this power. Thus, making a «positive confession» of God’s promise and believing God’s word stirs the power of resurrection which raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20^{[bible 6]} Ephesians 3:20^{[bible 7]}), and brings that promise to fulfilment. This teaching is interpreted from Mark 11:22-23^{[bible 8]}. A more recent variant of positive confession is «decree and declare».^[9] Word of Faith preachers have called faith a «force».^[10]

Conversely, «negative confession» can harm, so believers should be conscious of their words. This is argued on the interpretation of Proverbs 18:21^{[bible 9]}, «Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and they that love them will eat the fruit thereof», also Numbers 14:28^{[bible 10]}, «…saith the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do», among other scriptures.

Criticism[edit]

Many of the movement’s essential beliefs are criticised by other Christians. Christian author Robert M. Bowman, Jr. states that the word of faith movement is «neither soundly orthodox nor thoroughly heretical».^[11]

One of the earliest critics of Word of Faith teaching was Oral Roberts University professor Charles Farah, who published From the Pinnacle of the Temple in 1979. In the book, Farah expressed his disillusionment with the teachings, which he argued were more about presumption than faith.^[12]

In 1982, one of Farah’s students, Daniel Ray McConnell, submitted a thesis, Kenyon Connection, to the faculty at Oral Roberts University, tracing the teaching back through Hagin to Kenyon and ultimately to New Thought, and calling the distinctive Word of Faith beliefs a heretical «Trojan Horse» in the Christian church. McConnell’s repeated this argument in his book, A Different Gospel, in 1988.

One of McConnell’s classmates, Dale H. Simmons, published his own doctoral research at Drew University, arguing that Kenyon was influenced by heterodox metaphysical movements and the Faith Cure movement of the nineteenth century. In 1990, The Agony of Deceit surveyed the critiques of Word of Faith doctrines. One of the authors, Christian Research Institute founder Walter Martin, issued his personal judgment that Kenneth Copeland was a false prophet and that the movement as a whole was heretical.^[13]

Milder criticisms were made by William DeArteaga in his book Quenching the Spirit. He concedes some New Thought influence in Kenyon’s teaching, but argues that Kenyon’s views helped the church rediscover some biblical truths. Arguing similarly but in an opposite direction is Robert M. Bowman, Jr., formerly of the Christian Research Institute. His book The Word-Faith Controversy is more sympathetic to Kenyon’s historical background yet more critical of his doctrine than is DeArteaga’s work.

Baptist evangelist Justin Peters, an outspoken critic of the Word of Faith movement, wrote his Master of Divinity thesis on Benny Hinn and has appeared frequently as an expert on Word of Faith pastors in documentaries and TV news stories. In his seminar «A Call for Discernment», he traces the movement’s origins to the Phineas Quimby’s New Thought Movement and Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In contrast, Pastor Joe McIntyre, now head of Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society in Washington, argues that the primary influences of Kenyon were A.B. Simpson^[14] and A.J. Gordon of the Faith Cure branch of the Evangelical movement. McIntyre’s version is told in the authorized biography, E.W. Kenyon: The True Story.

That same year, Pentecostal scholar Gordon Fee wrote a series of articles denouncing what he called The Disease of the Health-and-Wealth Gospel.

In 1993, Hank Hanegraaff’s Christianity in Crisis charged the Word of Faith movement with heresy and accused many of its churches of being «cults.» He accused the Word of Faith teachers of «demoting» God and Jesus, and «deifying» man and Satan.^[15] Hanegraaff has focused a significant portion of his anti-heresy teaching since the 1990s on addressing and refuting Word of Faith teachings.

Other critics, such as Norman Geisler, Dave Hunt and Roger Oakland, have denounced Word of Faith theology as aberrant and contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Critics have also condemned the teachings on wealth, arguing that the Bible condemns the pursuit of riches.^[16][17]

John Piper points out that Christ warned the apostles that they would suffer great persecution^[18] for his sake: except John, all eleven, after Judas Iscariot, suffered martyrs’ deaths. In a January 2006 sermon entitled «How our Suffering Advances the Gospel,» Piper stated bluntly that «the prosperity gospel will not make anybody praise Jesus; it will make people praise prosperity.»

‘Little gods’ belief[edit]

Many Word of Faith teachers use phrases such as «little gods» to describe believers. Kenneth Hagin wrote that God had created humans «in the same class of being that he is himself,»^[19] and reasoned that if humans are made in God’s image, they are «in God’s class»,^[20] and thereby ‘gods’.^[20][21]

Many Evangelical critics have condemned the «little gods» teaching as cultic. Hank Hanegraaff, for example, contends the ‘little gods’ doctrine is on a par with the teaching of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Jim Jones.^[22]

See also[edit]

• Full Gospel
• Chris Oyakhilome
• Abundant life
• Margaret Court
• Sam P. Chelladurai
• Word of Faith Ministries
• Word of Faith Fellowship

Bible passages[edit]

1. Romans 12:2
2. Matthew 11:25-30
3. Galatians 5:1
4. Mark 11:12-25
5. Colossians 2
6. Hebrews 6:1-2
7. 1 Corinthians 3
8. Galatians 3
9. Romans 7:1-6
10. Matthew 18:1-6
11. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
12. Matthew 17:14-20
13. Matthew 20:1-16
14. Matthew 8:5-18
15. Matthew 25:14-30
16. Luke 19:11-27
17. 1 Corinthians 13
18. Matthew 22:36-40
19. John 21:15-19
20. Matthew 16:13-20
21. Matthew 6:5-14
22. Matthew 7:15-23
23. 1 John 4:6
24. 2 Peter 2
25. Jude
26. 1 Corinthians 5
27. Hebrews 11-13

^[23]

Notes and references[edit]

External links[edit]

• Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society
• Kenneth Hagin Ministries

The theology Charla grew up in goes by many names: word-faith, word of faith, name it and claim it, the health and wealth gospel, and prosperity gospel. This “gospel” teaches that we can speak things into existence — blessings, money, and healing. If you can name it, you claim it. I (Hillary F.) met Charla when I visited a Christian bookstore after speaking in North Carolina. Her heart for the Lord was clearly evident, and her story about coming out from the prosperity gospel worldview was compelling. I asked if she would be interested in sharing with our Mama Bear crew what this teaching did to her and what she has been learning since. I hope her story resonates with you all like it did with me.

When Fear Infiltrates Prayer, by Charla Matthews

My journey as a Christ-follower was consumed with more questions than answers, which set the scene for God to reveal a problem with my prayer life.

Seated at my writing desk, I pulled a piece of heavy-weight notebook paper from a file and began recording my words of prayer followed by a passage of Scripture. Turning to Scripture is a spiritual discipline that I use for walking in the peace of God; it calms the storms in my spirit. The passage I wrote that day was John 16:23-24.

“In that day, you will not question me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, He will give it to you. Until now, you have asked for nothing in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”

Normally, after I write down the Scripture after my prayer, I put away my journal and move forward with my day. But Jesus’ words in John 16 did not feel peaceful to me that day. In fact, I felt kind of rattled. So much so that I chose to linger a while in silence, yearning to understand the cause of my discontent.

I resisted a word study and left my commentaries on the shelf. I simply felt led by the Holy Spirit to wait on the Lord and read the passage again. I noticed that reading the words in my name caused a stir in my spirit, but not the good kind. I didn’t bristle exactly; I kind of shied away. I desired the fullness of joy promised in His Words, but joy was not what I felt.

What does that mean? Why did merely reading the words ‘in my name’ cause me so much discomfort? I had limited my use of the phrase out of fear that I would misuse it again. Click To Tweet

A simple question whispered in faith. A simple answer revealed the truth of my heart. The tethers of bondage were applied so subtly and so long ago that I hadn’t even known they were there. I turned back to my paper and penned these words:

Father, I allowed fear to infiltrate my life…for years. Oh. My. Soul. My time under false teaching…it still has a weed in my spirit doesn’t it? They used “in My name” as a formula — a mystic spell or incantation — for prosperity, status, bossing You around. They used Your name, Jesus, for personal gain. They reduced Your holiness to a ticket for claiming goods and self-glory. They hurt the hurting. They impoverished the poor. They bankrupted the spirits of so many in need; they still do. I was so afraid of speaking, “in Jesus’ name” in an unholy motivation that I stopped. You opened my eyes to see. Wow.”

You see, for several years I sat under a slithery and deceptive false teaching. Some call it Word of Faith. Others call it the prosperity gospel. Those who know the truth call it false doctrine. (Hillary and Amy addressed these doctrines in their podcasts about #WakeUpOlive and Todd White).

God delivered me from the Word of Faith lies more than 10 years ago, yet there I sat bound by fear and limited in prayer.

It’s not that I never said “in Jesus’ name” when I prayed; it’s that I limited my use of those words out of fear. I can try to explain it, but only God really knows how my prayers were limited because of my fear of misusing the name of my Savior.

However, I am a living testimony to the words of God through Paul the Apostle:

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:26-28, NASB)

Father, I allowed fear to infiltrate my life…for years. Oh. My. Soul. They used ‘in my name’ as a formula — a mystic spell or incantation — for prosperity, status, bossing you around. They used your name, Jesus, for personal gain. Click To TweetWhen God exposed the evil of their teachings and the error my ways, my spirit fractured in humiliation and fright. I confessed my fall, the deception perpetrated by the Word of Faith movement, the lie that anyone has the right to command the One True God, in any manner. I repented of the lie I had believed that ANYONE could ‘command’ the One True God. #wordoffaith Click To Tweet

God set me on a journey under the banner of Absolute Truth. He redeemed my time under false teaching and used it to glorify Him in truth. I know the difference now between using Jesus’ name in an unholy way and speaking the name of Jesus from a pure heart of truth.

The Word of Faith gospel negates one three-letter word, which is found in the words of Christ in John 16:23-24: ask. Jesus instructed His people to ask in His Name. The Word of Faith doctrine teaches people to command God (i.e. declare it to be so) and then use the name of Jesus as the “passcode” for getting whatever it is they desire. Like Santa Clause or a genie in a bottle. Wiggle your nose and declare that God will do something, and poof! He will do it.

A relationship defined by commanding others defies relationship, right? Contrast that with a relationship defined by asking questions in faith and receiving answers in love. The latter elevates the relationship; it acknowledged that the answers come from the One who knows all and has our best interest at heart. There is a difference between a relationship built on commanding, and one based on asking in faith. #wordoffaith Click To Tweet

Let me give you an example to clarify the point. I recently received a phone call where I learned of a sizeable (and unexpected) debt. Debt that I would have to pay in the midst of my husband’s job loss and medical crisis. If I followed the command-formula of the Word of Faith doctrine, my prayer would have sounded something like this:

“Father, I have a financial need and your Word tells me to come boldly to your throne with my need. Your Word also tells me to ask anything of you in Jesus’ name in faith that you will grant my request. So, in Jesus’ name, I need (insert any amount of money) and I expect to see it in my bank account in time to make that payment. I thank you for answering my prayer spoken in faith and according to your Word; because you tell me to remind you of your promises to your people. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen. So be it. I declare in faith, it is done.”

Instead, this is how I prayed according to Jesus’ teaching:

“Father, I come to you in Jesus’ name because He made the way for me be your child and seek your will. It’s true I feel overwhelmed and my tears testify to that fact. But my tears do not reduce the power of my faith in you. You hear. You know. You care. How will this debt be paid? I don’t know but You do. You own all, and I am yours. I know you will show me your way, and until I know your answer, I will continue with the tasks at hand. Thank you for access to you through prayer, and thank you for the way you choose to answer.”

Just consider how this story began. I asked my Father the simple question, “What does that mean?”

When I pray in Jesus’ name now, there is a holy and sacred pause because of who He is. We, His followers, are taught to place our faith in Him, to ask, and to know that He hears and will respond. Praying in Jesus’ name reminds me — turns my heart toward — the merciful truth of who He is and what He did for me.

My prayer life is more powerful and more sacred because of who I am in — and because of — Christ.

Charla Matthews is a sojourner in Christ who seeks to listen to — and obey — the single Voice of Truth. She thrives on communicating God’s Word through teaching and writing. Charla enjoys a good belly laugh, gets misty-eyed during profound moments with God, and strives for quality living with family and friends. Above all else, she loves Jesus without shame. Connect with Charla on her website, Truth in the Midst.

Word of Faith (also known as Word-Faith or simply Faith) is a family of Christian churches^[1] as well as a label applied by some observers to a teaching movement kindred to many Pentecostal and charismatic churches and individuals worldwide. The basic doctrine preached is that of salvation through Jesus Christ^[2] and what that salvation entails. It is based on Jesus’ teachings concerning the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and the state humans can receive through the atonement and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This state of new being or creation (found in the biblical passages 2 Corinthians 5:17^{[bible 1]} and Galatians 6:15^{[bible 2]}) can be received only through faith in the Word of God.

The Word of Faith movement has many distinctives; although it shares teachings in common with prosperity theology, they are not the same thing.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, many beliefs that the movement holds as essentials are often the target of criticism for having views that according to some Christians diverge from Christian orthodoxy. It emphasizes speaking, stating, or confessing verses found in the Bible, called the Word of God. The belief is that if one believes the Word of God and confesses it then the believer shall receive what they confess. This act of believing and speaking is said to be described by Jesus in Mark 11:22-23^{[bible 3]}. The term word of faith itself is derived from the biblical passage Romans 10:8^{[bible 4]} which speaks of «the word of faith that we preach.»

Origins

One of the first proponents of Word of Faith was E. W. Kenyon. A New England Bible teacher, schoolmaster, and prolific writer, Kenyon authored eighteen books that are used still today by many who call themselves Word of Faith. Word of Faith teaching emerged as a reaction to traditional Pentecostalism, which taught the idea of the power of God displayed in the present day by acts of healing, miracles, and so on. These spiritual manifestations were unpredictable and took place as «the Lord willed.» In contrast to this, Kenyon taught that supernatural acts could be guaranteed to happen based on a covenant between God and his people.

At the core of Kenyon’s teachings was the concept of the Old and New Testaments as blood covenants. A blood covenant is a contract that binds two parties together as one «blood», or family, and pledges them to the mutual interest and prosperity of one another. This kind of covenant would be symbolized by a «covenant cut» and the spilling of blood, for example with circumcision in Genesis 17:10^{[bible 5]}. In Genesis 17^{[bible 6]}, a covenant is established by God with Abram and his descendants, the future Israel. God pledges himself to the well being of Israel including protection from violence, sickness, poverty (which meant overall financial prosperity), etc. In return Israel was expected to «fully obey» and pledge itself to the interests and service of God;^[3] for example, in blessing the nations in Genesis 12:3^{[bible 7]}. With the belief that Christians are heirs to that covenant by identification with Abraham’s descendants through Jesus Christ in Galatians 3:29^{[bible 8]}. From Kenyon’s perspective, interpreting the scriptures in this way meant that the supernatural could be guaranteed whenever necessary to fulfill God’s «covenant promises» to his people.

Kenneth Hagin was heavily influenced by Kenyon’s writings. Hagin has been referred to as the “father” of the modern Word of Faith movement. He elaborated on Kenyon’s theology of covenant confession, preaching a four-part formula for receiving God’s promises: “Say it; do it; receive it; tell it.” Many Bible preachers and teachers have been influenced either directly or indirectly by Kenneth Hagin and his teaching. The most recognized include Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Jerry Savelle, Bill Winston, Joel Osteen, Charles Nieman, Jesse Duplantis, Jason Mckay, Keith Moore and Hobart Freeman^{[citation needed]}.

Teachings

Healing

The Word of Faith teaches that complete healing (of spirit, soul, and body) is included in Christ’s atonement and therefore is available here and now to all who believe. Frequently cited is Isaiah 53:5^{[bible 9]}, «by his stripes we are healed», and Matthew 8:17^{[bible 10]}, which says that Jesus healed the sick so that «it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, ‘Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses’.»

Because Isaiah speaks in the present tense («we are healed»), Word of Faith teaches that believers should accept the reality of a healing that is already theirs. Accepting this healing is done by confessing the verse or verses found in the Bible declaring they are healed (i.e. Word of Faith) and then believing them fully without doubt. It is not an act of denying the pain, sickness, or disease, but an act of receiving the gift mentioned in Isaiah 53:5.^[4] According to adherents, sickness is an attempt by Satan to rob believers of their divine right to total health.^[5]

Prosperity

Word of Faith teaching holds that God wants his people to be financially prosperous, as well as have good health, good marriages and relationships, and to live generally prosperous lives. Word of Faith teaches that God empowers his people (blesses them) to achieve the promises that are contained in the Bible.^[6] Because of this, suffering does not come from God, but rather, from Satan. As Kenneth Copeland’s ministry has stated, the idea that God uses suffering for our benefit is considered to be «a deception of Satan.» and «absolutely against the Word of God.» ^[7] Additionally, if someone is not experiencing prosperity, it is because they have given Satan authority over their lives. God is not able to do anything at all unless the person invites Him to.^[8]

Some argue that Jesus and the apostles were also financially wealthy,^[9] owning homes, having monetary resources and businesses. The following arguments have been offered for this claim:

1. Jesus’ ability to travel without apparently working to earn a living for three years
2. Jesus and the apostles references to owning homes^[10]
3. Jesus had a treasurer (Judas Iscariot)^[10]
4. Jesus consorting with the upper echelons of society
5. The businesses that each of the apostles apparently owned/worked in^[11]

This is contrary to the traditional view of Jesus, who is often viewed as being a poor, wandering teacher.^[12] Based on the concept that Jesus and His apostles were arguably wealthy, as well as the historical examples of His people having great wealth, and the promises for financial prosperity throughout the Old and New Testaments, Word of Faith proponents teach that modern believers also have access to the «blessing» and may also become financially wealthy.^[13] Teachers like Kenneth Copeland assert the Prosperity Gospel is validated by the teachings of the Apostle John: «Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth» (3 John 2^{[bible 11]}). Copeland posits that “as the seeds of prosperity are planted in your mind, in your will and in your emotions…they eventually produce a great financial harvest.»^[14]

Faith and confession

Within the Word of Faith teaching, a central element of receiving from God involves «confession». This doctrine is often referred to as «positive confession» or «faith confession» by practitioners, and «name it and claim it» or «blab it and grab it» by detractors. The teaching should not be confused with Norman Vincent Peale’s concept of positive thinking. Noted Word of Faith teachers, such as Kenneth E. Hagin and Charles Capps, have argued that God created the universe simply by speaking it into existence (Genesis 1^{[bible 12]}), and that humans have been endowed with the ability (power) to speak things into existence. Thus, making a «positive confession» (by reciting a promise of scripture, for example), and believing that which one says, generates power which enables those things to come into fruition. This teaching is interpreted from Mark 11:22-23^{[bible 13]}. Word of Faith preachers have likened faith to a «force».^[15]

Likewise, according to Word of Faith teaching, «negative confession» can yield negative results, and hence believers should be conscious of their words. This is argued on the interpretation of Proverbs 18:21^{[bible 14]}, «Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and they that love them will eat the fruit thereof», also Numbers 14:28^{[bible 15]}, «…saith the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do», among other scriptures.

Critics and controversy

Word of Faith’s orthodoxy has been questioned and criticized by various ministers, authors, and bloggers. The book The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin devotes an entire appendix to the alleged heretical teachings. Martin and other objectors disagree with Word of Faith’s views on healing, prosperity, and faith. The book also raises questions regarding the movement’s teachings on several issues, including: the atoning work of Christ, soteriology, and theodicy.^[16] Despite the criticism by several prominent theologians, authors, and online critics, the movement continues to air television programs and publish articles and books. Furthermore, within the Christian sphere, the Word of Faith movement is the fastest growing branch of Pentecostal Christianity.^[17][18]

Critics

One popular critic and opponent of The Word of Faith, D.R. McConnell of Oral Roberts University, has charged in a thesis entitled Kenyon Connection, that Kenyon adopted the teachings of New Thought and relabeled them. Thus, the Word of Faith movement, in McConnell’s view, constitutes a «Trojan Horse». This argument was the primary conclusion reached by McConnell’s master’s thesis published as a book, A Different Gospel.

Similar criticisms were made by William DeArteaga and Robert Bowman. Formerly of the Christian Research Institute, DeArteaga concedes some new thought influence in Kenyon’s teaching, but he argues that Kenyon’s views helped the church rediscover some biblical truths. The primary work in defense of this theory is DeArteaga’s Quenching The Spirit. Arguing similarly but in an opposite direction is Bowman, whose Word-Faith Controversy is more sympathetic to Kenyon’s historical background yet more critical of his doctrine than DeArteaga.

Baptist evangelist Justin Peters, an outspoken critic of the Word of Faith movement who wrote his Master of Divinity thesis on Benny Hinn and has appeared frequently as an expert on Word of Faith pastors in documentaries and TV news stories, traces the movement’s origins to the metaphysical cults of the late 19th and early 20th centuries ( Phineus Quimby’s New Thought Movement, Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science) in his seminar «A Call for Discernment». In contrast, Pastor Joe McIntyre, now head of Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society in Washington State, argues that the primary influences of Kenyon were A.B. Simpson and A.J. Gordon of the Faith Cure branch of the Evangelical Movement. McIntyre’s version is told in the authorized biography, E.W. Kenyon: The True Story.

One of the earliest critics of the teaching was Oral Roberts University professor Charles Farah, who published From the Pinnacle of the Temple in 1979. In the book, Farah expressed his disillusionment with the teachings, which he argued were more about presumption than faith.^[19]

That same year, Pentecostal scholar Gordon Fee wrote a series of articles denouncing both the health and the wealth gospels. In 1982, one of Farah’s students, Daniel Ray McConnell, submitted a thesis to the faculty at Oral Roberts University arguing that Kenyon was the father of the teaching, that Hagin had plagiarized his doctrines from Kenyon, and that the unique doctrines of the Word of Faith were heretical. McConnell’s thesis was published as the book A Different Gospel in 1988.

One of McConnell’s classmates, Dale H. Simmons, published his own research in earning a doctorate at Drew University. Simmons argued that Kenyon was influenced by heterodox metaphysical movements and the Faith Cure movement of the nineteenth century. In 1990, The Agony of Deceit was published as a conglomeration of critiques of Word of Faith doctrines. One of the authors, Christian Research Institute founder Walter Martin, issued his personal judgment that Kenneth Copeland was a false prophet and that the movement as a whole was heretical.

In 1993, Hank Hanegraaff’s Christianity in Crisis charged the Word of Faith movement with heresy and accused many of its churches of being «cults.» He accused the Word of Faith teachers of «demoting» God and Jesus, and «deifying» man and Satan.^[20] Hanegraaff is derided within the Word of Faith community as a present-day «Christian Witch Hunter.»^{[citation needed]} Hanegraaff has focused a significant portion of his anti-heresy teaching since the 1990s on addressing and refuting Word of Faith teachings.

Other critics, such as Norman Geisler, Dave Hunt and Roger Oakland, have denounced Word of Faith theology as aberrant and contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Critics have also condemned the teachings on wealth, arguing that the Bible condemns the pursuit of riches.^[21][22]

The «health and wealth» teachings had been heavily criticized, with opponents arguing that Word of Faith teachers^[who?] tend not to stress some scriptures warning against emphasis on material prosperity and telling of the importance of helping the poor.^{[citation needed]}

John Piper points out that Christ warned the apostles that they would suffer great persecution^[23] for the sake of his name (except John, all eleven, after Judas Iscariot, suffered martyrs’ deaths). In a January 2006 sermon entitled «How our Suffering Advances the Gospel,» Piper stated bluntly that «the prosperity gospel will not make anybody praise Jesus; it will make people praise prosperity.»

‘Little gods’ controversy

Many Word of Faith teachers have sought to emphasize the full meaning of the believer’s status as a child of God (through Christ) by using phrases such as «little gods» to describe them, a practice that has garnered some criticism from some other segments of the Christian community. Kenneth Hagin wrote that God «made us in the same class of being that he is himself,» and that the believer is «called Christ» because «that’s who we are, we’re Christ!»^[24] According to Hagin, by being «born again», the believer becomes «as much an incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth».^[25] Hagin like Kenyon reasons that that humans are made in God’s image. Since God is spirit, then humans must essentially be spirit as well and ‘in God’s class’,^{[26] [27]} and thereby ‘gods’.^{[28] [29]} Kenneth Copeland says Adam was «not a little like God … not almost like God …»,^[30] and has told believers that «You don’t have a God in you. You are one.» Based primarily on the Psalms 82:6^{[bible 16]}, which says «I have said, Ye are gods and all of you, children of the Most High»; this was also corroborated by Jesus making reference to this scripture in John 10:34^{[bible 17]}.^[31] A common theme in Word of Faith preaching is that God created man as «an exact duplication of God’s kind.» (Hebrews 1:3^{[bible 18]}, John 14:12^{[bible 19]}, etc.)^[32] In all of this, there is no argument of man’s ability to exist and operate independently of God, but rather, the emphasis is on what the believer can become in God.^[33]

Suffer the Children, a documentary highlighting some of the teachings of the Word of Faith movement, has a video clip of Creflo Dollar teaching the «little gods» doctrine to his congregation based on the notion that «everything reproduces after its own kind»:^[34]

Dollar: «If horses get together, they produce what?»
Congregation: «Horses!»
Dollar: «If dogs get together, they produce what?»
Congregation: «Dogs!»
Dollar: «If cats get together, they produce what?»
Congregation: «Cats!»
Dollar: «So if the Godhead says ‘Let us make man in our image’, and everything produces after its own kind, then they produce what?»
Congregation: «Gods!»
Dollar: «Gods. Little «g» gods. You’re not human. Only human part of you is this flesh you’re wearing.»

The promulgation of this teaching is one of the most contentious doctrines to its critics, who consider it heresy. Mormon scholar Stephen E. Robinson, whose religion teaches that man can become gods after eons of exaltation, has declared the «little gods» teaching heretical as well.^[35] Conversely, Christianity regards this Mormon teaching as heretical also, and entirely unsupported by the Bible. Many Evangelical critics have asserted that the teaching is, in fact, cultic; Hank Hanegraaff, for example, contends the ‘little gods’ doctrine is on a par with the teaching of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Jim Jones.^[36] Justin Peters, whose first encounter with Word of Faith doctrine came at the age of 16 when a faith healer «slayed [him] in the spirit» in an attempt to cure his cerebral palsy, states in A Call for Discernment that the reason the Word of Faith movement holds so tenaciously to «health and wealth» tenets is because of the «little gods» teaching: «A god should never be sick, and a god should never be poor.»^[37] In response, Word of Faith defenders have claimed the teaching is simply underscoring the biblical view of the believer’s «true identity in Christ».

Critics, such as Christian apologist and CARM founder Matt Slick and Bible critique author W. Gary Phillips, believe referencing scriptures Psalms 82:6 and John 10:34, where it is said that men are gods, is using these Scriptures out of context.^[38] The biblical application of these verses is addressed to the Judges of Israel where they were called gods, not because they were divine, but because they represented the true and only God when they judged the people. The Hebrew and Greek words used in both Scriptures for «gods» can also be applied to magistrates and used to describe someone as «mighty».^[39] One of the problems with this alternative interpretation, however, is that when Jesus quotes this passage in the new Testament, he seems to suggest the idea of deity instead: «If God called those to whom He gave His word Gods — and you cannot deny the scriptures — how can you say I blaspheme because I say I am a son of God?»

Jesus died spiritually

Often referred to as JDS, there is a teaching that to atone for sins, Jesus had to die both physically and spiritually. As an outcome of his ‘dying spiritually’, the Word of Faith movement argues Jesus thus needed to be born again, as any other sinner, and that although Jesus Himself was never a sinner, Jesus was forsaken by God just as if He had committed every sin in human history.

E.W. Kenyon, a founder of the doctrine that later became known as Word of Faith, was the first to explicitly articulate the doctrine in a number of his works, including What Happened From The Cross To the Throne and Identification: A Romance In Redemption. This doctrine was later supposedly taken up by Hagin, Copeland and many of their followers.^[40] The doctrine asserts that Jesus’ bodily sacrifice was but the beginning of atonement, which continued with Jesus’ suffering in Hell. Copeland claimed that Jesus took on humanity’s «satanic nature» and was «born again» in Hell.^[41] Hagin’s teaching was featured in his book The Name of Jesus (1978 edition), yet in a 1991 letter to the Christian Research Institute, Hagins son Kenneth Hagin Jr denied this interpretation and claimed Hagin Sr had never taught the notion of a born again Jesus or the adoption of Satan’s nature^{[citation needed]}. D.R. McConnell has labeled the teaching heresy, believing it compromises the teaching that Jesus’ blood atoned for sin.^[42]

See also

• Full Gospel
• Kenneth Hagin
• Kenneth Copeland
• Oral Roberts
• Health and Wealth Gospel
• Benny Hinn
• Joyce Meyer
• Trinity Broadcasting Network
• E.W. Kenyon
• Prosperity theology
• The Prayer of Jabez
• Chris Oyakhilome
• New Thought
• Abundant life

Further reading

Support

• James-Dave.com, The Word of Faith: A Biblical Overview by James H. Boyd
• Faith and the Pharisees: Sincere Critics Have Been Sincerely Wrong by Ted Rouse (ISBN 1-890900-03-6)
• KCM.org, The Laws of Prosperity by Kenneth Copeland (ISBN 0-88114-952-7) (now online as a PDF)
• Quenching the Spirit: Discovering the Real Spirit Behind the Charismatic Controversy by William DeArteaga (ISBN 0-88419-432-9)
• The Tongue: A Creative Force by Charles Capps (ISBN 0-89274-061-2)
• What You Say Is What You Get by Don Gossett (ISBN 0-88368-066-1)
• ChristianBiblicalProsperity.com, Living a Life Filled with God’s Prosperity
• TBM.org, Tom Brown gives a defense of the Word of Faith
• Victoryword.100megspop2com, Defending the Modern Faith Movement
• Hopefaithprayer.com, Explaining Faith Issues Blog
• Biblical-prosperity.blogspot.com , Articles supporting Word of Faith
• Articles on Word of Faith, Articles supporting Word of Faith. Shining light on JDS «Jesus Died Spiritually», Little gods, Healing, Prosperity
• God in a Box: The Sovereignty of God in the Word of Faith Theology by Chad Marinelli, D.B.S (ISBN 1-933582-32-4)^[43]
• [1], Expert on the Word of Faith
• http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=7366] MP3 of a show discussing Word of Faith with Justin Peters an Expert on The Word of Faith.

Criticism

• Charismatic Chaos by John MacArthur (ISBN 0-310-57572-9)
• Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff (ISBN 0-89081-976-9)
• A Different Gospel by Dan R. McConnell (ISBN 1-56563-132-3)
• New Wine or Old Deception by Roger Oakland (ISBN 0-936728-62-0)
• Seduction of Christianity by Dave Hunt (ISBN 0-89081-441-4)
• Righteous Riches. The Word of Faith Movement in contemporary African American Religion by Milmon F. Harrison (ISBN 0-19-515388-X)
• The Word-Faith Controversy by Robert M. Bowman, Jr. (ISBN 0-8010-6344-2)
• The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels by Gordon Fee (ISBN 0-935789-00-6)
• Unfeigned Faith by Judson Cornwall (ISBN 0-8007-5057-8)
• The Love of Power or the Power of Love by Tom Smail, Andrew Walker, and Nigel Wright. (ISBN 1-55661-454-3)
• The Atonement of Christ and the «Faith» Message, by Brian Onken
• The Atonement and Word Faith Theology by the Watchman Fellowship, an independent Christian research and apologetics ministry.
• Freedom From the Faith Movement, The Personal Testimony of Jeff Beard
• Modern Day Heroes of Faith, an analysis of Word of Faith as it is presented on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Bible passages

1. ^ 2 Corinthians 5:17, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
2. ^ Galatians 6:15, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
3. ^ Mark 11:22, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
4. ^ Romans 10:8, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
5. ^ Genesis 17:10, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
6. ^ Genesis 17, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
7. ^ Genesis 12:3, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
8. ^ Galatians 3:29, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
9. ^ Isaiah 53:5, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
10. ^ Matthew 8:17, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
11. ^ 3 John 1:2, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
12. ^ Genesis 1, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
13. ^ Mark 11:22, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
14. ^ Proverbs 18:21, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
15. ^ Numbers 14:28, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
16. ^ Psalms 82:6, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
17. ^ John 10:34, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
18. ^ Hebrews 1:3, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)
19. ^ John 14:12, King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)

Notes and references

External links

• Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society
• Kenneth Hagin Ministries

Word of Faith Movement at a Glance

• What: A popular, diverse subculture within the Christian Church. Known primarily for its emphasis on the pursuit of health and wealth, both of which can be obtained through ‘positive confession’ and/or ‘acts of faith’ (such as donating money or throwing away medicines).
• Other Names:
  
  • Also known as simple Word-Faith, or Faith (e.g “the Faith message”). Less frequently: Positive Confession
  • Critics often refer to it as the health and wealth gospel, Name-it-and-claim-it (or, derogatorily, Blab-it-and-grab-it), Prosperity Teaching (or Prosperity Gospel).

    These labels tend to focus on just one or two aspects of Word-Faith theology.

• Membership: This worldwide movement does not have official, elected leaders, nor does it have offices, official publications or membership figures.

  Kenneth Hagin Ministries/Rhema Ministries based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is considered to be the center of the movement, along with his Rhema Bible Training Center — the movement’s principal ministerial school.

  “The International Convention of Faith Ministries (organized 1979), a ministerial association based in Arlington, Texas, is the closest thing to a Word-Faith denomination, though not all Word-Faith ministers belong to it. Kenneth Hagin Ministries operates the movement’s primary school (RHEMA Bible Training Center) and one of its leading publishing houses (Faith Library Publications).” ¹

• Founder: Kenneth E. Hagin ² is considered the “father” or “architect” of the Word-Faith movement. Some say the founder was actually E. W. Kenyon ³, much of whom’s theology was adopted by Hagin (who also plagiarized some of his writings ⁴). Both Hagin and Kenyon are sometimes referred to as the “grandfather of the Word-Faith Movement.”
• Key Proponents: John Avanzini, Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, Ken and Gloria Copeland, Kenneth W. Hagin (son of the late Kenneth Hagin), Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Frederick Price, Robert Tilton, and many others.

  The late Paul Crouch, founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), was a major faith advocate. The network contributed — and continues to contribute — much to the wide spread of Word-Faith teachings. ⁵

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• Controversies:
  
  • This movement’s doctrines range from aberrant to heretical, mixed with Biblical truth and generous helpings of nonsense.
  • The movement is diverse, and does not have an official set of doctrines that must be adhered to. It follows that not all proponents and adherents teach, believe or practice each of the doctrines normally associated with Word-Faith theology. In addition, not all doctrines receive equal emphasis.
  • Many Word-Faith doctrines lie at the basis of — or permeate — other erroneous teachings and movements, such as the New Apostolic Reformation or the so-called Prosperity Gospel.
  • Some critics of the Word-of-Faith movement ⁶ say that Kenyon studied metaphysical New Thought teachings, as well as the theology of Christian Science — a cult of Christianity. They claim he combined mind science (where the term “name-it-and-claim-it” originated) with Pentecostalism — resulting in a curious blend of doctrines which were later adapted and popularized by Hagin.

    Others ⁷ insist that Kenyon was an aberrant teacher whose doctrines originated in the evangelical faith-cure movement of the nineteenth century.

• Doctrines: As noted, this is a widely diverse movement, that does not have an official leadership, denominational structure, or even an official body of doctrines.

  That said, at the root of Word-Faith theology is the belief that faith is a “force.” God spoke everything into existence. Before the fall, man had the same ability to speak things into existence. Sin separates man from God, but once a person has made peace with God by accepting the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, he becomes not only a child of God but also incarnate — just as Jesus was and is: both God and man.

  Many Word-Faith teachers claim that since God made us in his image and after his likeness, Christians are in fact “little gods.” For instance, Kenneth Copeland has said, “You’re all God. You don’t have a God living in you; you are one! … When I read in the Bible where God tells Moses, ‘I AM,’ I say, ‘Yah, I am too!’” ⁸

  As such, a Christian must learn to grow in faith by making ‘positive confessions’ through which they activate the laws governing the faith-force. They should ‘speak things into existence.’ They are also warn that ‘negative confessions’ are just as powerful. Saying “I have a headache,” when you indeed have a headache, is a ‘negative confession’ that actually aggravates your condition. ^{9 10}

  

  Kenneth Copeland’s wife Gloria teaches positive confession. Screenshot from the video, Word of Faith Teachers: Origins & Errors of Their Teaching, by Keith Thompson

  Instead faith teachers insist you should either say something like, “headache be gone,” or start claiming (‘confessing’) that you already have received your healing — even while it may not yet be in evidence.

  This means that God — whom faith teachers claim is himself bound by the laws of the ‘faith-force — must obey our words.

  A particularly pernicious teaching is that in order for God to be able to bless someone financially, that person must first demonstrate faith by giving donations (usually to those who preach this message).

  Another harmful teaching of the faith movement is that sickness usually (or always) is the result of sin and/or a lack of faith on the part of the person who is ill.

  Some Faith proponents claim that critics of the movement are modern-day Pharisees who oppose the movement of the Holy Spirit.
  Other Doctrines:

  • Jesus died spiritually as well as physically, and was born again in hell before he rose from the death. This is a heretical doctrine.
  • There are apostles and prophets today. While most Word-Faith teachers do not outright claim to have an authority that matches or supersedes that of Scripture, they do allege that God gives them direct revelation in the form of words of knowledge, prophecies, and visions. Proponents and followers tend to put personal revelation at least on a par with Scripture.
  • God wants for Christians to be healthy and wealthy. Many Word-Faith teachers equate poverty with sin, including a lack of faith. Wealth, and health, needs to be “claimed” because Jesus through his atoning death has freed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), and we are now freed from all disease and poverty (Deuteronomy 28).

Some Opinions on the Word-Faith Movement

There are many strong — and strongly-worded — opinions on this movement.

Much of the criticism is based on the research of Daniel R. McConnell whose 1982 thesis, Kenyon Connection, was published as A Different Gospel (1988). According the McConnel, Kenyon got his doctrine from the metaphysical cults, Hagin plagiarized Kenyon and fathered the Faith movement.

There are many peculiar ideas and practices in the Faith theology, but what merits it the label of heresy are the following:

1. its deistic view of God, who must dance to men’s attempts to manipulate the spiritual laws of the universe;
2. its demonic view of Christ, who was filled with “the Satanic nature” and must be “born again in hell”;
3. its gnostic view of revelation, which demands denial of the physical senses and classifies Christians by their willingness to do so; and
4. its metaphysical view of salvation, which deifies man and spiritualizes the atonement, locating it in hell rather than on the cross, thereby subverting the crucial biblical belief that it is Christ’s physical death and shed blood, which alone atone for sin. All four of these heresies may be accounted for by Kenyon’s syncretism of methaphysical thought with traditional biblical doctrine

– Source: D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel, page 185

Evangelical author Dave Hunt in 1985 published The Seduction of Christianity, an exposé of what he viewed as the infiltration of cultic ideas into Christianity — a seduction that “will be instrumental in bringing about the great apostacy that he believes will decimate the church and prepare for the coming of the Antichrist.” ¹¹

Written from a cessationist‘s point of view, John MacArthur’s book Charismatic Chaos, published in 1992, addresses all groups and doctrines which embrace the modern use of tongues, prophecy, signs and wonders, miracles, and faith healing.

Word-Faith teachers owe their ancestry to groups like Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, Theosophy, Science of Mind, and New Thought–not to classical Pentecostalism. It reveals that at their very core, Word-Faith teachings are corrupt. Their undeniable derivation is cultish, not Christian. The sad truth is that the gospel proclaimed by the Word-Faith movement is not the gospel of the New Testament. Word-Faith doctrine is a mongrel system, a blend of mysticism, dualism, and gnosticism that borrows generously from the teachings of the metaphysical cults. The Word-Faith movement may be the most dangerous false system that has grown out of the charismatic movement so far, because so many charismatics are unsure of the finality of Scripture.
– Source: John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos, p. 290

Also in 1992, William L. DeArteaga, who describes himself as a “Christian historian and expert on revivals and the rebirth and renewal of the Christian healing movement,” wrote Quenching the Spirit: Discover the REAL Spirit behind the Charismatic Controversy. The book is a defense of what he considers as the “move of God” as expressed in the controversial revival movements of the Toronto Blessing, the Brownsville Revival, and the “prophetic movement.”

Hank Hanegraaff, the controversial leader of the Christian Research Institute, reiterated much of McConnell’s thesis in his book Christianity In Crisis (1993) — “a landmark book … that confronts head-on a deadly cancer that is ravaging the body of Christ”. ¹² While copiously annotated and documented, the book suffers from a sensationalistic tone.

Three years later DeArteaga published a revised version of Quenching the Spirit that includes a response to Hanegraaff’s book. He acknowledges that there are some doctrinal problems in the Word-Faith movement, but just as in the earlier book he vilifies and condemns those who reject the movement and the “move of God” as Pharisees.

The most balanced approach to the Word-Faith movement is The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel, by Christian apologist Robert M. Bowman Jr. Published in 2001. Bowman notes:

The faith-healing and prosperity-gospel aspects of the movement are what give it both its intense appeal to many and its extreme notoriety to many others. What most people do not know is that the “health and wealth” promise is merely the tip of the theological iceberg. It is the teachings about faith, words, and confession — and what these teachings in turn imply about God, human beings, Jesus Christ, and the nature of the Christian life — that have turned out to be the most controversial aspects of the Word-Faith movement. […]

• The distinctive theology of the Word-Faith movement is in many respects seriously unbiblical, and at least some of the movement’s leading teachers espouse heresy. This heresy, however, is not accurately described in the literature critical of the Word-Faith movement.

• Sweeping generalizations about the Word-Faith movement as cultic or heretical fail to take sufficient stock of the diversity within the movement.

• The Word-Faith teachers’ views on healing and prosperity are actually the least problematic aspects of their distinct theology. In significant ways their views, while troublesome, are more moderate than those of their predecessors in the faith-cure and early Pentecostal traditions.

• The popular characterization of the Word-Faith teaching as a “gospel of greed” hawked by religious con artists is generally an unfair caricature applying only to certain teachers on the fringe of the movement.

• While the errors of the Word-Faith movement are largely rooted in problematic elements of the Pentecostal tradition, a theologically sound form of Pentecostalism has emerged that rises above those weaknesses.
– Source: Robert M. Bowman Jr. The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel, preface

Bowman documents that the faith movement presents greater complexity than most of its critics acknowledge.

Published in 2001, The Word-Faith Controversy was the result of 15 years of research into movement. In the preface he relates that, during a panel discussion at the 1994 annual conference of the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), he “could not come up with an intelligent-sounding technical term with which to categorize the movement.”

Instead I found myself giving the rather inelegant answer that the Word-Faith movement was a mess. It is, I explained, neither soundly orthodox not thoroughly heretical. It could not be categorized without qualification as either Christian or cultic. ¹³ Some of the leaders did teach some heretical ideas, but none of them seemed to advocate those heretical ideas consistently, and most people in the movement did not embrace those heresies.
– Source: Rob Bowman, The Word-Faith Controversy, Preface

Unlike many Word-Faith critics Bowman does not stereotype and attack the movement based on the most outlandish teachings of it’s most radical proponents — pointing out that many Word-Faith believers themselves also reject such off-the-wall teachings.

Instead he looks at the movement as a whole. He first traces the roots of the faith movement, documenting why Kenyon’s theology was not simply recycling New Thought, “a ‘baptized’ version of metaphysics,” as McConnell put it. He then shows that real roots of Kenyon was instead influenced mostly by evangelical faith-cure and early Pentecostal movements.

The final two-thirds of the book consists of a point-by-point examination of the Word-Faith movement’s most prominent teachings.

Bowman presents his case in a with clarity and logic, as well as with kindness and respect, insisting that the movement is “neither soundly orthodoxy nor thoroughly heretical.” He maintains that Word-Faith movement “as a whole should be classified as aberrant or suborthodox ¹⁴, while at the same time recognizing that at least some of the leading teachers of the movement do teach heresy. ¹⁵

He explains why he holds this opinion:

First of all, none of the of the Word-Faith teachers explicitly rejects orthodox doctrines. […]

Second, the Word-Faith teachers at times affirm orthodox doctrines. […]

Third, … the Word-Faith movement is a radical wing of an orthodox tradition. […]

Fourth, the Word-Faith movement teaches patently unbiblical ideas about the nature of God, the nature of human beings, and the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. […]

Fifth, some of the Word-Faith teachers have espoused blatantly heretical and even blasphemous ideas. ¹⁶ […]

Finally, … the Word-Faith teaching is demonstrably detrimental to a sound Christian life, though in varying degrees.

I believe that we should draw the following conclusions about the Word-Faith movement:

1. The movement as a whole is suborthodox and aberrant. By suborthodox I mean that the teaching in certain crucial respects falls below the standards of orthodoxy. By aberrant I mean that its teaching in other respects deviate from orthodoxy in ways difficult to classify easily,. The doctrine that God has a spirit body is an example of a suborthodox views. The doctrine that full healing is guaranteeed in this life in the atonement I would classify as aberrant.
2. Some of the teachers in the movement, as well as on its fringes, are clearly teaching heresy. This would be my assessment of the theologies of Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps, and Earl Paulk (the last of whom is on the fringes of the movement).
3. Many of the Christians who participate in the movement are orthodox, if theologically uninformed. My own experience of talking to people in the Word-Faith movement is that many, if not most, of them do not believe heretical and near-heretical ideas espoused by the leaders. For example, I have yet to meet a member of a Word-Faith church, or a devotee of a particular Word-Faith teacher, who agreed with Copeland’s view of Jesus have having been positively confessed into existence. Typically such persons find it difficult to accept that their favorite teacher espouses such views.
4. The Word-Faith movement should not be described as cultic. As bad as some of the teaching is in the Word-Faith movement, this movement simply does not belong in the category of cults ¹⁷ along with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christian Science. When heretics are found within a Christian tradition it is not correct to label the whole tradition or movement cultic. For example, in my estimation the ultraliberal Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong is an outright heretic, but that does not make the Episcopal church (which regrettably tolerates him) a cult.

– Source: Robert M. Bowman Jr. The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel, Pages 226, 227, 228

Apologetics with Gentleness and Respect

‘Apologetics’ is the branch of Christian theology concerned with the intelligent presentation and defense of the historical Christian faith.

The word is derived from the Greek “apologia,” a legal term meaning “defense” — and translated in some Bible versions as “answer.”

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
– Source: 1 Peter 3:15-16, NIV, Emphasis ours.

Apologetics deals with challenges from both outside and inside the Church.

But regardless of who we interact with — Christians or non-Christians — we must engage them with gentleness and respect.

This Biblical command is often ignored by those who address the erroneous beliefs of Word-of-Faith proponents. You don’t have to search long in, say, YouTube to find examples of Christians trying to confront false teachings with and attitude of rudeness and ridicule.

It is good to be clear, honest and straight-forward in addressing errors and communicating truth. But if we do so without love — which results in gentleness and respect — we are not doing ourselves nor our audience any favors.

Christians who wish to help others understand and repent from the errors of the Faith message would do well to read 1 Corinthians 13 — and to act accordingly.

Video documentary on the Word-Faith movement

This video, produced by Keith Thompson of Reformed Apologetics Ministries documents the errors and origins of Word-Faith teachings. Includes many examples quoted from the movement’s leading proponents. (Note that Thompson does at the end recount McConnell’s views regarding the movement’s origins).

Research resources on the Word-Faith movement

For material dealing largely with individual preachers within this movement see our topical index.

Articles

• The Atonement and Word-Faith Theology Watchman Fellowship: “The obvious abuses of the Word-Faith movement concerning the “health” and “wealth” gospel are readily acknowledged by most evangelical Christians. However, the most serious errors of the movement involve the ‘faith’ teachings on the atonement of Christ.”
• Atonement Where? by Moreno Dal Bello. “A biblical analysis of the disturbing claims put forward by the Faith Movement, which include the inefficiency of Christ’s blood, alone, to atone for the sins of Man; the need for Christ’s spiritual death, and that the redemption of Mankind was completed in Hell!”
• A critical look at the ‘Word of Faith’ teachings Published by Ministry Watch, a ministry that educates donors to make informed, discerning decisions in deciding which organizations and teachers to support financially. Says that many of the Word-Faith Ministries are “Legally organized as a church in order to avoid financial disclosures; however, it is not what would commonly be known as a traditional congregational church.” Many of the organizations are tightly controlled by a few people — often family members. Ministry Watch says “these Word of Faith ministries are also characterized by a lack of financial accountability and transparency in financial dealings,” and therefore get a “F” Transparency Grade.
• Do You Need A Faith Lift? The Dangers of Misplaced Faith and Those Who Are Responsible Presented with typical straightforwardness by G. Richard Fisher, in The Quarterly Journal, Vol. 25 No. 3, July-September 2005, page 5. Published by Personal Freedom Outreach. ¹⁸
• An examination of the Word-Faith movement by Richard J. Vincent. This ‘text file’ has been around for a long time — dating back to the pre-WorldWideWeb time of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). It addresses some teachings by Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and John Avanzini, referencing television broadcasts and cassette tapes.
• The ‘Faith’ Movement may be Prospering but is it Healthy? by Stuart St.John
• Heresies of the Word Faith Movement A limited collection of quotes by faith teachers Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Fred Price, Paul Crouch, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Marilyn Hickey — along with Biblical responses.
• Heresies of the Word-Faith Movement (Different from the listing above this one). The text can be found on many websites, but the link leads to a January, 1998 capture by the Internet Archive. It may have first been published a few years before that. I do believe the publisher, then known as the Christian Youth Alliance, was the originator of this file. It consists of quotes by, for the most part, Benny Hinn, Morris Cerullo, Kenneth Copeland and John and Paul Crouch – documenting the errors of their teachings.
• Positive Confession Watchman Fellowship looks at this aspect of Word-Faith theology: the notion that if a believer speaks “spiritual” or “faith-filled” words then he can have what he says.
• Wells Without Water: The Errors of the Word-Faith Movement by Tricia Tillin. Four-part series ” designed to demonstrate, using verbatim transcripts of the tapes of Kenneth Copeland, some of the errors in the ‘Positive Confession’ movement.”
• What’s wrong with the Word-Faith Movement? (+ part 2) by Hank Hanegraaff. A helpful overview that first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 15, number 4 (1993).

Books

• Christianity In Crisis: The 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff, the controversial president of the Christian Research Institute.
• A Different Gospel: Updated Edition A classic on the subject, by Dan R. McConnell who, among things, warns of the movement’s cultic nature in its doctrine of healing and its understanding of the atonement, and demonstrates how far the movement’s doctrine of prosperity is from Scripture’s true teaching.
• The Facts on the Faith Movement by John Ankerberg and John Weldon. Available in Kindle format only.
• The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel by Robert M. Bowman Jr.. An excellent book in typical Robert Bowman style: a balanced approach that includes documented facts, well-reasoned opinions, and a logical presentation that helps the reader to grasp the complex nature of this diverse movement. Highly recommended.

Profiles

• Word-Faith Movement written by Rob Bowman, and published by Watchman Fellowship
• Word of Faith Wikipedia entry

See Also

• Positive Confession
• Prosperity Gospel
• Resources for Studying the Errors of the Word-Faith Movement

Videos

• Spiritual Shipwreck of the Word Faith Movement Presentation by Justin Peters, who among other things addresses some popular ‘Christian’ books that include lots of non-Christian material.
• Walter Martin on the Word-Faith Movement Not a video, but an audio file by Walter Martin, author of The Kingdom of the Cults.
• Word of Faith Heresy Exposed, A Call for Discernment – Part 1 (Part 2, Part 3)
• Word of Faith Teachers: Origins & Errors of Their Teaching A 3-hour video by Keith Thompson, of Reformed Apologetics Ministries, This excellent presentation covers the following issues: Are we little gods?, Preaching a Different Jesus, Declaring Health, Wealth, and Happines, and Questionable Origins of the Movement. A DVD of the video can be purchased for a donation at Keith’s website.

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