"The Word of Faith Movement"
"It's difficult to find the words to describe that moment when you realize that the prosperity gospel offers you everything that satan offered Jesus." Anonymous
My original intent was to introduce the Word of Faith movement, which I'll use interchangeably with the term "word-faith," by starting with it's conception at the turn of the 20th Century, to lay out the doctrines and conduct a complete evaluation of each one, like a dutiful nerd using the technique I learned from theologian and apologist Robert Bowman. When evaluating a theology to see if it's biblical, he instructs his students to exam three aspects of the doctrine: it's roots, shoots, and fruits.
Then I realized that I might be disingenuous if I didn't work this thing backward.
Fruits, shoots, and roots, if that makes sense.
Today we'll look at the fruit.
So in the hopes of brevity, it all began when I was introduced to the Word of Fatih movement as a 21 year old living on a military base in El Paso, Texas. With a new baby came the stark realization that life on this planet was no longer just about me. This urgency prompted the Farmer and I to visit the local mega-church we kept seeing advertised on TV.
We were both new to the concept of the big box church experience. As an army wife of an enlisted man, I breast-fed my newborn son and used cloth diapers because I couldn't afford formula and Pampers. I'm not saying this to garner sympathy, but to show that coupled with my poor theology and biblical illiteracy, my financial situation made me a prime target for this movement. Sadly, my new found, coming of age wisdom, didn't extend to my doctrine.
The distinctive theology of the Word of Faith movement is seriously flawed, but I couldn't see it. Neither could the Farmer at first, but I have to say that he was always more discerning than me.
The worse part of it was that after we left the military and flew back to Virginia, we took the theology with us, sharing it with our friends and family, encouraging them to follow it too. Some did, some didn't. It's been one of the biggest regrets of my life. Ideas have consequences.
In 2004 when my younger sister was diagnosed with cancer, I persuaded her it was the right course of action to embrace these word-faith doctrines. Would it have changed the outcome? No.
After Kathy died, as if her death wasn't difficult enough, I came within inches of wearing an orange jumpsuit. Word of Faith "friends" told my parents that the devil got Kathy. Can you even? Word of Faith people said that you didn't have enough faith. Word of Faith people asked what sin my family was engaging in to deserve this?
I want to be crystal clear that this did not come from my church family nor my parent's church family. They were both so good to all of us and have continued to love us.
What kind of people do this? Who tells grieving parents who have just lost their 37 year old daughter, and will now experience the heart wrenching pain of watching their three young grandchildren grow up without their mother, that this traumatic loss is their fault? Who does that? Not a Christian, I can tell you that.
Although there are many other verses that parallel this passage, here is our foundational text today and throughout this series: Matthew 7:15-20 Jesus speaking from his sermon on the mount:
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
A diseased tree can't bear good fruit.
And the Word of Faith fruits are rotten. Why? Why do they have rotten fruit? Not because they spew this hateful language, that's the fruit. But because the 'shoots' ( theology ) are rotten which also proves the roots are rotten, but I'll dive into that one next blog.
Word of Faith theology is a diseased tree, and diseased trees can't bear good fruit as Jesus told us. It's impossible.
Three important points to note before I go any further :
1.) Word of Faith beliefs are so prevalent in American Christianity that we hardly recognize them as they have been snuck into the church unnoticed. Not everyone talks this awful; it is usually more implied in a round about sort of way. And remember, all false teachings carry a measure of the truth inside of them. That's how they get welcomed through the church doors. ( Jude )
2.) Some of us may have a couple of these Word of Faith beliefs in our theology, but yet do not adhere to the movement full sale. We must have grace and remember that God is working in all believers to rid us of impurities through the sanctification process. Again, the purpose of this series is to educate and bring the works of darkness to light against the truth of the Scriptures, and in doing so, exalting and offering the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the beauty and power it contains to genuinely change a life.
3.) As a believer, we can fall prey to the Word of Faith trap just like I did. There are plenty of lost sheep grazing in this movement, it's not just full of goats and wolves.
I'm going to work through many of these systematically over the next few blogs putting some flesh on the bones, but here is a "doctrinal dump" of the main Word of Faith teachings starting with their original founder E.W. Kenyon in the early 20th century and proceeding through the leaders up to now. You'll note how the beliefs begin and then become muddled before spiraling out of control:
"Human nature is spirit, soul, and body, but most fundamentally spirit. God does everything by faith, and we are intended to exercise the exact same kind of faith. In the fall human beings took on Satan's nature, and he took our dominion from us. Jesus took on Satan's nature, died and went to hell and got born again. We can have wealth and health in this life by our positive confession. God has a physical body like Jesus. We don't need reason, just faith. God is not moved by our needs; he's moved by our faith. We are little gods. We are just like Jesus. We can do everything Jesus did. God said I am, so I am too. Jesus laid aside his divinity when he came to earth as man. Our words have the same power as God's words, not just to harm or heal people emotionally as Proverbs teaches us, but Ex Nihilo, meaning our words carry the same power as God's to create something out of nothing, like he did when he created the universe out of nothing. So we can speak and change situations and circumstances by our words. We pray to get results. God is not sovereign; man is in control. God needs our permission before he can act on our behalf. We give him permission when we exhibit enough faith for him to act on our behalf. We can have what we say. Our thoughts and our words are where the real power exists. It is possible for believers to be demonized. It is always God's will to heal physically and mentally in this life. If you don't get healed it's your fault, not God's. It is God's will for you to be wealthy. Jesus became poor so you could be rich and successful in the things of this world, not just in heaven. God wants to fulfill all of your dreams. God has chosen a new set of Apostles and Prophets for the church in these last days. We receive visions and visits from Jesus and new revelations that God wants us to share with others. Some of us even get to take trips to heaven. If you buy our book, you can be prepared for the future and learn about these new revelations. God is raising up new Apostles and Prophets to lay another foundation on top of the one already laid by the New Testament Apostles and Prophets and to exercise authority over the current pastors and elders in the church today. If you don't listen to us you could be cursed because we hear directly from God and speak for him. Touch not God's anointed. If you oppose us you are a heresy hunter. We will aid in the great transfer of wealth as we usher in the return of Jesus; you'll see."
I know, seriously. Did you notice the development? If you're appalled by this, remember we will be debunking through it all over the blog series. We need to do our homework and find out what the people and ministries believe we are following. And that's not always easy because they hide stuff, as Scripture tells us they will. ( Again, Jude and 2 Peter )
Some people in the word-faith movement, not all, but some don't hold to the doctrine of the Trinity or at best have a weird view and misunderstanding of it. I wanted to mention this because I hear people wondering from time to time after hearing discombobulated explanations of biblical truths from these word-faith pastors.
The Word of Faith movement is a bit complex in that it really did start out with some structure to it, some core beliefs that I will detail next blog along with the story of their founder, a Baptist pastor named E.W. Kenyon. But the movement, as you can see from the above list, has morphed over the years from it's conception as a cluster of small cells into a Frankenstein monster that I don't think the original creator could have foreseen.
Like a big, hungry blob it has sucked up all kinds of worldliness into its original ideology as it has slugged along, and its cuisine has included the American prosperity gospel, as well as televangelism that exploits the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized, schools of ministry teaching how one can tap into the supernatural, complete with grave soaking, fire tunnels, gold dust, and angel feathers ( I know, sounds like Hogwarts. ), new age Apostles and Prophets, and a string of continuous scandals involving indecencies with children, sexual misconduct, negligence, cover-ups, financial improprieties, lavish lifestyles, spiritual, physical, and verbal abuse.
When the shoots of an organization are bad, it not only produces bad fruits, but it continues to produce more shoots that can only bear even more diseased fruits of unrighteousness. As Jesus taught, a diseased tree can't bear good fruit.
It reminds me of this invasive, annoying shrub I have by my porch that continues to have myriads of shoots propagating and popping up all around it disturbing my other plants. no matter how many shoots I manage to yank out, more and more shoots keep popping up and taking their place. It's impossible to control and contain them all. This is the nature of sin. It keeps propagating.
Believing that you are a little god and that you are just like Jesus, desiring and insisting you can operate in the same power that Yahweh does, and control him like a puppet on a string by exerting the right amount of faith is not only a gross misunderstanding and twisting of Scripture, but the kind of thought that breeds an air of superiority and pride.
The same sin that made satan fall from heaven. Think about that.
Ideas have consequences.
And you can't always hide the rotten fruit no matter how hard you try. I think of a video I saw just this week of Kenneth Copeland and his wife Gloria walking through a group of disabled people in wheelchairs at an event and as they prayed for people, and by the way no one was healed, they came to a young girl who looked like she had cerebral palsy and Gloria said, "Be normal."
Do you see what I mean? It's that air of superiority that rears its ugly head. "Normal? You mean normal like you?" Imagine how the parents must have felt. These are real people with real lives. But this kind of behavior is just part and parcel of the Word of Faith world, and they can't hide their rotten fruit.
After my sister's death, I abused alcohol to numb the pain and mask my anger from all of the questions I had about this word-faith doctrine. I don't blame anyone. I own it. I was also at the same time, because of my questions, driven into the Scriptures, studying with a tenacity and longing for the truth I had never experienced before. I began to realize how little Bible I actually knew and how much I had relied on word-faith pastors to point me in the right direction which I discovered was the wrong direction.
After years of grappling and refusing to let go or give up, struggling with unforgiveness and bitterness toward the word-faith people who hurt my family, I finally found true healing. Like Job, I didn't find the answers to the suffering, but I found something infinitely better. I found God.
"What the enemy meant for evil, God was using for good."
Do you know how I found healing?
Not by applying the Word of Faith formula or speaking healing into existence or manufacturing enough faith to get God to "work" for me. Or focusing on good thoughts, confessing them over myself and exhausting myself in a constant state of works-righteousness.
No, God opened my heart to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.
When I understood that I was born a sinner and how much grace and mercy God had poured out on me in the giving of his Son to suffer the worst suffering the world has ever known, the Holy Spirit changed my heart. By his power, I could not only forgive the people who hurt my family, but I had a new desire to pray for them and the power to do so. Only God can produce that kind of fruit in a life.
That's the power of the gospel.
In closing:
Jesus gives instructions to his disciples starting in Luke 24:46, after his resurrection and once he had "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures:"
"Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
This is known as "The Great Commission." What should followers of Jesus be doing? Proclaiming repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations.
I will show over the next few blogs that the Word of Faith movement has not "moved" in this direction, but has in fact distracted and "moved" the church away from the gospel center as it absorbs more unbiblical thought in the process, moving the church away from the center that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, not only established, but gave his life to fulfill.
I think it's time to "declare" war on the false narratives poisoning the Church today in America, so we can send the true message of hope to the nations. We've spread this bull butter long enough. Shame on us.
I need to stop here, and we'll pick back up next time.
Thanks for coming along on the journey, my friend!
Until next blog, contend for the faith!
Carry on!
💜
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