Word/Faith Doctrines

The two biggest dangers I see in the WOF movement is that it causes discouragement amongst those who do not get what they want and are convinced it's because of a lack of faith on their part. I guess if Paul had enough faith he would have the thorn removed and if Christ had enough the cup would have been removed.

The other danger I see is much more serious. The focus is no longer Christ but self. No message to store up in heaven, but to store here on earth. It works to satisfy the flesh and not the spirit. God is now a drive thru window where I can place my order and pull on through.

As far as scripture too support these thouhts. There are way too many so I guess I will just reference the Bible. Read just about anywhere and you will see these teachings are false and dangerous.

I didn't see him on your list, so I would like to add that In heard Rod Parsley state that he was a Prophet who spoke the word of God and everything he said bore the same authority as the Scriptures. I am told that he was once a Baptist, so sad.

 

I have read some critics of the word faith movement. I consider the word faith movement to be one of the dominant heresies of today. This "word-faith" heresy which originated with E. W. Kenyon and Kenneth Hagin is being aggressively pushed by Copeland, Hinn, Crouch, Capps, Savelle, Avanzini, Price and others of similar stripe.

John MacArthur writing in “Charismatic Chaos”, p. 290 states of the Word faith movement as follows:

“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 “

D.R. McConnell, a graduate of Oral Roberts University writes about the word faith movement in “A Different Gospel”, page 186, as follows:

“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 “

 

The heretical teachings of this word faith movement are summarized by 16 points presented [page 497ff] in the “Kingdom of the Cults” by Walter Martin and revised by Hank Hanegraaff.

Heresy #1

“He’s [God is] very much like you and me. A being that stands somewhere around 6’2”, 6’3”, who weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred pounds, little better, [and] has a [hand] span of nine inches across.” [Kenneth Copeland, quoted by Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, page 121]

“God spoke Adam into existence in authority with words [Genesis 1:26, 28]. These words struck Adam’s body in the face. His body and God’s were exactly the same size.” [Kenneth Copeland, quoted by Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, page 379]

“He [God] measured out heaven with a nine inch span ... The distance between my thumb and my finger is not quite nine inches. So I know He’s bigger than me, thank God. Amen.” [Jerry Savelle quoted by Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, page 122]


Heresy #2

Faith is the literal substance that God used to create the universe, and He transported that faith with His words. Here, essentially, is what God did. God filled His words with faith. He used His words as containers to hold His faith and contain that spiritual force and transport it out there into the vast darkness by saying, ‘light, be’! That's the way God transported His faith causing creation and transformation. The way that He created the world was that, first of all, he conceived something on the inside of Him. He conceived, He had an image, He had a picture.


Heresy #3

All things, including God, are subject to this ‘force of faith’ beause it works according to spiritual ‘laws’ of the universe. There are laws of the world of the spirit. The spiritual world and its laws are more powerful than the physical world . The world and the physical forces governing it were created by the power of faith--a spiritual force. It is this force of faith which makes the laws of the spirit world function. The force of faith is released by words. Faith-filled words put the law of the Spirit of life into operation.


Heresy #4

The greatest thing God conceived of and created was an exact duplicate of himself. This duplicate god--named Adam-was God manifested in the flesh.


Heresy #5

God eventually went to Adam, who was anatomically male and female, and separated the female part from the male part to make a womb-man (woman). Adam named this ‘man with a womb’ Eve. She, like Adam, was a god.


Heresy #6

The Fall caused Adam and Eve's divine natures to be replaced with Satan’s nature. They also lost their rights of rulership to planet earth. Even God was barred from having full access to earth because Adam and Eve were under His lordship when they ‘fell’. Through their disobedience Satan became the god of this world.


Heresy #7

God formulated a scheme to take back the earth, but in order to execute His plan He had to find a human who would invite Him (give Him permission) to work within the earthly realm. Finally, God got to a point where He had His plan ready for operation. And He saw a man named Abraham. In return for allowing God to bring the Messiah through his lineage, Abraham received unlimited health and wealth.


Heresy #8

For centuries God visualized Jesus. Then, when it was finally time for the Messiah to come forth, God spoke him into existence through faith in the same way that He had visualized and spoken into existence everything else. Bringing forth Jesus, however, was also dependent upon whether or not Mary would lend her faith to help form the body of the Lord out of the literal ‘Word’ (confession).


Heresy #9

While on earth Jesus was wealthy. He lived in a big house, had a great deal of money, and wore the finest clothes.


Heresy #10

Although Jesus declared that he walked with God and that God was in Him, he never actually claimed to be God. In fact, during his three years of public ministry Jesus did not stand in a class by himself.... He was ministering on earth as a human being -- a prophet anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus remained sinless so He could redeem men from their Satanic natures.


Heresy #11

In order to redeem humanity, Jesus had to die spiritually as well as physically. When He died spiritually, he died in the same way that Adam died. In other words, He lost His divine nature and was given the nature of Satan. Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood did not atone for our sins. The atonement took place in hell through the devil's torturing of Jesus’ spirit for three days and three nights. Unfortunately for Satan, Jesus was taken to hell ‘illegally’ because He had never sinned. This ‘technicality’ enabled God to use His ‘force of faith’ to revive Jesus’ spirit, restore Jesus’ divine nature, and resurrect Jesus’ body. Through the resurrection process Jesus was ‘born again’.


Heresy #12

When a person is born again they experience exactly what happened to Jesus. Their satanic nature is replaced by God’s divine nature. The transformation is so identical to Jesus’ transformation that Christians become little gods (small “g”) and are as much an incarnation of God as was Jesus.


Heresy #13

Because Christians are ‘little gods’, they now have access to the ‘God- kind of faith’, which can be used to get virtually anything they want. Christians, rather than God, have authority in the earth over Satan and sickness and disease. Consequently, believers should never pray God’s will be done.


Heresy #14

To obtain specific desires, Christians must do three things: (1) loose the power of the “force of faith” by speaking or positively confessing whatever is wanted (e.g., ‘I am healed’, ‘I am not sick’, etc.); (2) believe that whatever has been confessed will definitely be received; and (3) ignore or look beyond the visible reality (i.e, remaining sickness, low finances, etc.) and continue claiming what has been confessed.


Heresy #15


Everything bad, including poverty and sickness, comes from Satan. God’s people should have a completely blessed life. A Christian not experiencing such a life is either: (1) in sin; or (2) lacking enough faith to bring about what is desired.


Heresy #16

The power of audible confession is so great that sometimes a person can unknowingly bring tragedy upon themselves by making negative confessions. For example, a woman who is mugged may have actually caused that mugging if at any time prior to the experience she made comments like, ‘I live in such a dangerous part of the city that I'm afraid I’ll be mugged’. The woman should have been saying, ‘I will not be mugged’. Similarly, someone who jokingly says ‘I feel like I'm going crazy’ may actually become insane.

The above 16 points show how the word-faith teachers have corrupted the truth contained in the Word of God into gross heresy. I cannot say that all those caught up in the word-faith movement are unsaved but thay are surely following heretical teachings.

 

A main component of the WOF is the prosperity gospel. Here is John Pipers view on it;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s

 

WOF heresy has turned many people away from the truth of the Word of God. The Bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing when we leave.:wavey: :jesus:

 

Mr. Vincent uses Gal 1:6-9 erroneously.

Yet Scripture does not call Word/Faith heretical.

 

He uses Galatians 1:6-9 correctly. WOF is another gospel and erroneous itself.

 

I'm interested in what Scripture calls heresy, not our human gymnastics.

 

Do you agree with the WOF teachings?

 

Am I in some Diet of Worms?

Should I quote Luther?

 

Are you calling a deacon board a heresy since it's contrary to Scripture?

The Scripture knows only of an eldership board.

There are matters of opinion that we all disagree on.

Are Presbyterians heretics for practicing infant baptism?

 

You are welcome to dodge the question. But it appears you support it.

 

And I'm shocked that you guys have hastened to judgment.

I've never once said that I support Word/Faith doctrine.

But I'll not call every practice that I disagree with a heresy until the Scripture tells me to.