The Word of Faith Heresy vs. True faith

There is a belief system that has become very common and popular in the church today. It is pretty much the face of evangelical Christianity on television that the rest of the world sees. If you have walked in Christian circles for any length of time you've heard of people like Benny Hinn, Creflow Dollar, Ken Copeland,  Jesse Duplantis, and of course, Joel Osteen. Often it had been called the "Prosperity Gospel", "The Health and Wealth Gospel", "Name it and Claim it". It is the Word of Faith movement.  The variations of the teachings range from very subtle deviations from what Jesus and his disciples taught, to the completely ridiculous. They also have different flavors. Some focus on gaining material possessions while others are focused on healing.

But there are a few things that they all have in common.

Number one;
The belief that we are the ones who have control over our circumstances. And we control our destinies by our words and the measure of faith that we possess. This actually takes our faith off of Jesus and places our faith in our own measure of faith. Literally, faith in ourselves. That is idolatry.

Number two;
The focus is on fulfillment in this life and there is no looking forward to eternity.

As I already mentioned, some of the preaching is absolutely ridiculous. But some of it is very subtle and has found its way into very solid churches. It is those subtle versions that are particularly troublesome because they are difficult to spot. I remember the pastor at a church I used to attend, often spoke about how God wanted to heal our brokenness. That sounded good until you realized that he wasn't speaking of the brokenness of our fallen sinfulness. He was speaking mostly of the brokenness of our finances, health and relationships. It was Word of Faith carefully disguised.

I'm reminded of a story I heard about an interview which involved an expert on counterfeit money. The expert was asked how much time he had spent studying counterfeit currency. The expert responded that he never studied counterfeit currency. He spent his time studying REAL money. So now when he saw a fake, he immediately recognized it as such. I truly believe that's the best way to approach this subject. It would be fruitless to sift through all of the nuances and details of Word/Faith, so I will attempt only to give an overview and then go to the Bible and see what true faith looks like.

Background

The Word of Faith movement was founded by E. W. Kenyon who was a Pentecostal preacher in the  first half of the 20th century. He studied the metaphysical, New Thought teachings of Phineas Quimby. (Another protege of Quimby's was Mary Baker Eddy who founded the Christian Science religion. She claimed to have been healed by Quimby.) This produced a combination of New Age mysticism and orthodox Christianity. Kenneth Hagin was a student of E. W. Kenyon and made the Word of Faith movement what it is today. (1)

At the heart of the teaching, is the belief that words can be used to manipulate the faith-force and bring into being what scripture promises. But the question is, does scripture really promise health and wealth for the believer, and are the covenant promises guaranteed in this life?

Over-Realized Eschatology

Eschatology is the study of the end times. Often when the word is used it is in reference to the events leading up to the return of Christ. But it actually goes much deeper. It is the study of the culmination of all things. This includes the fulfillment of the covenant promises. When we pass from this life into heaven, we will be healthy and wealthy -- forever. Many of these promises are not guaranteed in this physical life. It is true that we do experience some of the blessings in this life. That is called "realized eschatology". "Over-realized eschatology" is the belief that ALL of the covenant blessings and promises are to be fulfilled in this life.

Of course, a major problem is that we all know that often we don't experience all of the blessings in this life. Very often we pray for healing and the person does not recover. Or we pray for a better job and we continue to struggle financially. When that happens, the Word/Faith people tell you that it was because of your lack of faith that you didn't receive what you were asking for. So now the person not only didn't receive what they were praying for, but now they are dealing with self-condemnation because they believe that it is somehow their fault.
But if that is the case, then all believers of all time stand condemned because of their lack of faith; including the apostles. Paul prayed three times that God would remove his thorn, and God said no. It had nothing to do with the measure of Paul's faith. Rather, God had a better purpose. He always does! And it takes real faith to believe that.

There are many things in the Word/Faith movement that defy common sense. For example; if a man who is in his early fifties has a heart attack, and people pray for him but in spite of that, he dies anyway, is it because of a lack of faith? What if he is in his eighties? Is it still a lack of faith--or did he just get to the end of his life. If we decide that in the latter case it was his time to go, but a lack of faith in the former case, where is the line of distinction? It seems that logically, it would be theoretically possible to eliminate death and suffering altogether, simply by having enough faith.

When believers pray for something, they do so in faith, believing that God hears and will answer. But according to this belief, you won't know if your faith was sufficient until you either receive what you prayed for, or you don't. If that is true then how can you know you are saved? You may believe that you have enough faith to be saved, but you won't know for sure until you die and find yourself either in heaven or in hell.

I remember years ago hearing my pastor explain that when a person is miraculously healed in this life, we rejoice that God had mercy but we must realize that He simply prolonged the inevitable. Every single person Jesus healed eventually died. Even Lazarus went back into his tomb. And when we, along with them are raised in glory we will be truly healed. In the words of Wayne Watson's "Home Free":
     "Home free, eventually. At the ultimate healing, we will be home free."

Healing is only truly realized in the next life.

Some "Proof Texts" Used to Support Word of Faith Teaching

This is not going to be an exhaustive list, but just a few of the favorites of the Word/Faith preachers:

Mark 6:5-6, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith."
Matthew 13:58, "And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith."

Matthew's gospel expains that Jesus made a choice not to do many miracles, whereas Mark's makes it sound as if Jesus was limited because of their lack of faith. The words, "could not" are actually idiomatic in nature and it means that someone makes a choice. For example, someone might say, "I can't come over because I need to clean my house." They don't mean that they are physically incapable of coming over. They are making a choice. They are choosing to clean their house rather than come over. Jesus chose not to do many miracles in his hometown because of their lack of faith.

But this "lack of faith" doesn't mean "weak faith". In verse 3 of Mark 5, it says they took offense at him. It was rejection of Jesus as their Messiah that prompted Jesus to withold performing many miracles there.

The claim that Jesus can only act according to our faith, would actually make us more powerful than He is. My faith can make Him do something or my lack of faith can prevent Him from doing something. It is true that Jesus often told someone that their faith had made them whole. But the case of the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda demonstrates that Jesus is not limited by our faith or lack thereof. The man at the pool did not have any faith at all. He didn't know who Jesus was and didn't know that Jesus was going to heal him. But that didn't stop Jesus or hinder his ability. Sadly, all indications are that this man never did place his faith in Jesus. Once he knew who Jesus was he reported Him to the Jews.

James 5:15, "And the prayer of faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."

This comes back to over-realized eschatology. Is this an absolute guarantee in this life? The fact that James ties in the forgiveness of sins, which is essential to the next life, seems to indicate that it may happen in this life. But if not, it's guaranteed in the next.
Also it is important to understand that faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2:8 says that our faith is not from ourselves but it is the gift of God. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith.

John Piper in his article, "The Elders, The People, and The Prayer of Faith" makes the following statement:

"The text does not teach that everyone the elders pray for will be healed. It teaches that if the elders pray "the prayer of faith," the sick person will be healed. This is stated so absolutely that it seems to me that a gift of faith is meant here which assures the elders the healing will be done.
In other words, I think this phrase ("prayer of faith") puts us right back in the sphere of spiritual gifts rather than taking us out of that sphere. The elders seek God's gifting for faith so that they might pray "the prayer of faith". That gift is referred to in 1 Corinthians 12:9, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one [this]...to another faith by the same Spirit." There is a faith that comes as a special gift to pray for something extraordinary."

This seems to be borne out in the case of Paul healing the crippled man at Lystra. In Acts 14:9, it says that Paul saw that he had faith to be healed. We know that this man's faith had been given to him by God. But also apparent, is that God gave Paul a special revelation that He had given the crippled man the faith to be healed. So Paul had divine assurance that God was going to heal him.

The fact is that even the apostles were not always able to heal people. Paul could heal the crippled man in Acts 14, and Eutychus in Acts 20. But when Trophimus got sick all he could do was leave him in Miletus. And all he could do for Timothy's illnesses, was suggest he drink some wine. In Acts 5, the annointing was so powerful that Peter's shadow would cause people to be healed. But such an occasion is never spoken of again in the New Testament. Interestingly, Peter in his two epistles doesn't mention healing. But he does talk about enduring and perservering through suffering.

1 Corinthians 2:9, "As it is written, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

This is a favorite of many prosperity preachers to say that God has a wonderful plan for your life. "You can't even imagine just how wonderful it is." This is actually true. We cannot comprehend just how wonderful heaven is going to be. But is that what this passage is saying? The prosperity preachers aways leave out the next verse: (vs. 10) "But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit." So it is something that can be known but only by divine revelation. If you read back through the verses leading up to chapter 2:9 you see very clearly what Paul is talking about -- the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:18, :For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

"A text without a context is a pretext". That is why it is important to read the scriptures as a whole. Otherwise it is easy to take a verse here and there and create a heretical doctrine out of spliced passages.

The Real Faith Movement

Jesus was God in the flesh. He had existed from eternity past and by nature was the infinite God. As such, He spoke from the perspective of eternity. Often in our humanity, because we are temporal, we tend to interpret what He said from our temporal perspective. The Word of Faith movement capitalizes on this and appeals to those who are looking for answers in this present life. But the truly faithful understood that the blessings and promises they were looking for were in the future.

Hebrews 11, has been referred to as the "Hall of Fame of Faith". These are the men and women who are held up as examples of what true faith looks like. It is true that many of them experienced wonderful blessings (vs. 33-35a). But others went through horrible suffering because of their faith. Verse 13:

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw and welcomed them from a distance'. (vs 16) "Instead, they were longing for a better country -- a heavenly one." (vs 26, regarding Moses) "He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."

True faithful followers of Christ are always looking beyond what this life has to offer towards our eternal reward. But the Word of Faith movement only looks as far as this life. Jesus only made one promise for this life. 

John 16:33b, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Until that final day when we finally shed this tent of flesh and are ushered into the presence of our Savior for all eternity, we live in a world full of trouble: poverty, disease, death, and evil. We are not immune or isolated from it. But we live as "aliens and strangers on earth". We look forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In the meantime we often will have trouble. But as Paul said in Romans 8:18:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

The walk of true faith is a walk of looking forward to the future that God has promised for us; towards the time when (Revelation 21: 3-5) "...the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

This is true faith. It is not in an over-realized eschatology that says that every promise and blessing is for our present time. It is faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that He has accomplished everything on our behalf at the cross and that the glorious day is coming when the old order of things will have passed away and God will make everything new.

May God bless you all.

[(1) www.gotquestions.org. Is the Word of Faith movement biblical?]