Word of Faith movement
13 min read
The Word of Faith movement is also referred to as the Positive Confession movement. It's a false movement rooted in meta-physical cults such as Christian Science, New Age, New Thought, and Gnosticism.
The Word of Faith movement is influenced by many high-profile pastors and teachers. Some of this movement's most influential leaders are Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Paul and Jan Crouch, Fred Price, Oral Roberts, Creflo Dollar, Myles Munroe, Joyce Meyer, and more.
The Word of Faith movement is often combined with other false teachings and movements, such as the New Apostolic Reformation and the Prosperity Gospel.
History
The great-grandfather of the Word of Faith movement was Phineas Quimby. He was the founder of a metaphysical cult called "New Thought". The New Thought cult taught that whatever you think about and speak is what you attract. This heresy is still around today. It was recently repackaged as "The Secret" and was promoted by Oprah Winfrey. Quimby was a student of cultism, hypnosis, and parapsychology. Quimby’s teachings became the foundation for the Christian Science cult.
Christian Science
Christian Science actually has nothing in common with either Christianity or Science. Mary Baker Eddy founded this movement in 1879. She claimed that she was physically healed by Phineas Quimby. She was not actually healed by him but only thought she was. She became so impressed by Quimby's teachings that she took his doctrines and further developed them to create what is today called Christian Science.
There are a lot of Christian Science influences in the Word of Faith Movement. One such influence is the denial of physical symptoms when it comes to sickness and disease. When people in this movement get sick, they deny that they’re sick. They won't confess that they are sick because they believe there is a negative power in such a confession.
The founders
The grandfather of the Word of Faith Movement was an evangelist named Essek William (E. W.) Kenyon. He lived between 1867 and 1948. E. W. Kenyon studied the metaphysical New Thought teachings of Phineas Quimby. He combined mind science with Pentecostalism, creating a strange mix of Christianity and mysticism.
Kenneth E. Hagin is considered to be the father of the Word of Faith movement as we know it today. He lived between 1917 and 2003. He attended college at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, a place where metaphysical cults flourished. He was heavily influenced by them. He studied under E. W. Kenyon and had ties with the New Age and New Thought cults.
Kenneth Hagin taught that no believer should die until they are at least 120 years old. Kenneth Hagen did not live up to his own teachings. He was around 86 when he died. There goes his credibility.
Like many of the Word of Faith preachers, Kenneth Hagin claimed that most of what he taught was received directly from Jesus. False teachers use this claim as a way of protecting themselves against biblical criticisms. If you tell them that you can’t find their teachings in the Bible, they will tell you that it’s because they got it from an even higher authority, Jesus himself.
Hagen claimed that Jesus physically appeared to him at least eight different times throughout his life. The words that Hagen claimed Jesus dictated to him turned out to be more like the words of E. W. Kenyon rather than those of the Jesus of the Bible.
We must always be wary of teachers who claim divine origin for what they teach. The origins of their teachings are not as supernatural as they claim them to be. These false teachers simply plagiarize other people and repackage old heresies for a more modern audience.
Teachings
The Word of Faith movement is all about the pursuit of health and wealth. The emphasis of this movement is on acquiring material blessings. This movement teaches that health and wealth can be obtained through positive confessions of faith.
The Word of Faith movement believes that while on earth, Jesus was wealthy. Followers of this movement say that Jesus lived in a big house, had a great deal of money, and wore the finest clothes. There is no Biblical or historical evidence of such claims. However, they continue to make these claims to justify their hunger for more and more wealth.
The force of faith
The Word of Faith movement promotes a belief in the "force of faith." They believe that faith is a spiritual force. They teach that words can be used to manipulate the spiritual dimension in order to create what they believe Scripture promises them, that is health and wealth.
This movement declares that all things, even God himself, are subject to this "force of faith" because it works according to spiritual laws of the universe. This places these so-called spiritual laws above even God himself.
Little gods
According to the Word of Faith movement, God created human beings in His image as little gods. Before the fall, humans had the potential to call things into existence by using the faith-force. After the fall, humans took on the devil's nature and lost the power of faith-force to call things into existence.
To restore God's design, the movement believes that Jesus Christ gave up His divinity and became a man, died spiritually, took the devil's nature upon himself, descended to hell, was born again, and rose up from the dead with God’s nature. The movement believes that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to replicate the incarnation in believers so that we can become little gods, just as God intended from the beginning.
Believers are supposedly little gods who are as much an incarnation of God as Jesus was. Every Christian is said to be a little Messiah and a little god that is everything that Jesus was.
Being little gods, Christians are said to have access to the "God-kind of faith" that can be used to call into existence anything they want. Believers are told to never pray that God's will be done because it is Christians who have authority on the earth, not God.
False teachings
Followers of the Word of Faith movement end up denying Jesus' very words. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, he taught them to pray that God's will would be done on the earth as it is in heaven, not their will (Matthew 6:9-10).
To get what they want, the Word of Faith movement teaches Christians to do three things. The first is to decide what they want and to then release the power of the "force of faith" by declaring positive confessions for what they want. Some examples are "I am healed", "I am well", "I am rich". The second is to believe that whatever they declared with their mouth will be received. The third is to ignore the physical reality and to persist in claiming what they want to receive.
It's funny how members who follow this movement never use the "force of faith" for humility, holiness, purity of heart, sacrifice, selfishness, or sacrificial love. Their confessions of "faith" are always fuelled by materialism.
The Word of Faith movement preys on people's worldly desires to make the leaders at the top rich. These leaders get rich by telling people that sending them money proves your faith. They call donating an act of faith that helps to unlock your blessings.
This movement believes that the power of an audible confession is so great that sometimes a person can unknowingly bring tragedy upon themselves by making negative confessions. They think that someone who jokingly says "I feel like I’m going crazy" may actually become insane.
The Word of Faith movement teaches that God’s people should have a blessed life. Everything bad, including poverty and sickness, comes from the devil. If a Christian is not experiencing a blessed life of health and wealth, they are said to be living in sin, or lacking enough faith to bring into existence what they want.
This movement puts a lot of guilt, stress, and frustration upon believers. They wrongly blame themselves for what they are not receiving. They end up thinking, "If only I was more holy or if only I had more faith, then I wouldn't be struggling with my health and finances." Just because they are not receiving what they want, it does not mean it's their fault. We are not the ones in control of circumstances to make things come to pass as we please.
The Word of Faith movement turns humans into God and reduces God to human limitations. The Word of Faith movement does not adhere to anything taught in the Bible. It's no wonder that they attribute their teachings to personal revelation rather than to the Bible.
The Word of Faith movement is popular because it presents an attractive set of teachings. As part of this movement, you can essentially speak into existence whatever you want. There is really no need for God in the Word of Faith movement. The Word of Faith movement gives you the illusion of full control over whatever you want in life. This movement is idolatrous, wrongfully giving us and our faith a God-like status.
Exposing the Word of Faith movement
The Word of Faith movement tells the same lie that the devil told Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is the lie that says, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).Those who buy into the Word of Faith movement are still believing this lie.
Who else in the Bible wanted to be just like God? Satan. He wanted the worship that God was getting. The little god and "faith-force" teachings of the Word of Faith movement that make us out to be just like God, are Satanic.
Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland is one Word of Faith preacher who bought into this Satanic lie and tries to make others buy into it as well.
In this quote, Kenneth Copeland claimed to be on the same level as Jesus by claiming to be God, the eternal "I am". This is outright blasphemy against God.
Myles Munroe
Word of Faith preacher Myles Munroe taught the outrageous lie that we are more powerful than God. He spread the false teaching that God needs our permission to do things on the earth. He elevated man and placed God under man. This too is blasphemous.
Who wouldn't love the idea of a god who only does what we permit him to do? However, that sounds more like the genie in Aladdin than it does the God of the Bible.
Faith is not a force.
Faith is not a force. Faith is an assurance of what we hope for and a conviction of what we do not yet see (Hebrews 11:1). We receive the assurance of faith through what God's word says.
Faith is not something that we wield independent of God. Faith doesn't work apart from a dependence upon God. The Bible says that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Saving faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). It is formed in us as we hear the word of God (Romans 10:17). We can do nothing to earn faith. It is because of Christ's saving work that God gives anyone faith (Ephesians 2:5).
Contrary to the Word of Faith movement, we should not be hoping or depending upon our own words or our own faith. We should be depending upon God.
We can be confident that God hears us when we ask Him anything according to His will. Prayer is about praying in accordance with God's will rather than our own. Jesus taught us this by example during his prayer to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane, right before his crucifixion (Matthew 26:39).
Jesus surrendered his will and asked that the Father's will be done. While the Word of Faith tries enthrone us and our desires, the Bible reminds us who is really seated on the throne.
God is in the heavens. He is the sovereign one. We are not. God does all that He pleases to do, not everything that pleases us - as the Word of Faith movement would have us believe.
If God happened to experience hunger, he would not need to tell us that he is hungry. He would not need our permission to eat. He created the world and the world is his, not ours.
Conclusion
The Word of Faith movement is a false movement based on selfism. It is self-centered, not Christ-centered. It’s all about my health, my wealth, my success, and my prosperity. It’s a totally different gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ presented in the Bible.
Followers of this movement have a different God and a different Jesus. It’s not enough to believe in Jesus. We must believe in the right Jesus. We must believe in the Jesus of the Bible.