The Sound Truth of the “Word of Faith” Movement

by Robert Andrew Quaife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defintion of the Word of Faith: The “Word of Faith” movement defines the word “Faith” with God’s mighty power to supernaturally intercede in our lives.

 

 

      The belief of the “Word of Faith” movement also named the “Health and Wealth” Gospel has made quite a stir on whether it is scripturally correct or not. The belief teaches that God wants believers to be prosperous, and that it is already God’s will for his people to be completely healed. The move was originally founded by Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin. This teaching is pushed by many mega churches throughout the US including Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Charles Capps, Creflo Dollar Ministries, Jesse Duplantis Ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries, and others. However, many people disregard the teaching because they say it is an ungodly philosophy and that the teaching is not biblically correct.

 

      The “Word of Faith” movement defines the word “Faith” with God’s mighty power to supernaturally intercede in our lives. With great power one must first have great responsibility. This connection coincides with Luke 16:10 which says, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much…” This quote comes to the fact that when one is suffering, in which they have “what is least,” and continues in “Faith,” they have the responsibility to be faithful with much. This connection is why we need to speak life rather than death so that we can eat the good fruit from the seed that we originally spoke in the past (James 3:10, Proverbs 18:21, Luke 17:6…). This understanding is how Elijah called fire from heaven, Moses parted the Red Sea, and how King Solomon became the wisest wealthiest man that has ever been.

 

       I am going to discuss the foundation of the “Word of Faith” movement, through in context scriptures and logic (logos), to convict a person that this doctrine holds true. While many have strayed off the path of the movement, and it seems like this is a new age confusion, by analyzing five topics I hope to convince the good in people.

 

Arguments Against the “Word of Faith” and the Sanctity (Holiness) of God

 

    The biggest argument, and rightfully so, is the fact that the “Word of Faith” movement attacks the sanctity of God. When movement preachers slightly veer off the path and say some quote that is taken out of context it makes the movement look bad. Also, the majority of the people in this world cannot responsibly handle any form of power well. Additionally, when a movement, like the “Word of Faith,” tells you that systematically you have control of your future, some extreme listeners will misinterpret the movement on an extreme tangent.

 

     Another reason why there is such a contradiction with the movement is preachers often say some weary things to engage the audience. They can engage the audience by telling jokes or being emotionally tied to the situation in which they are in the heat of the situation were small disconcerting words can slip. The reason why it is such a problem is because opposers to the movement often use these quotes out of context to show that the movement is a false doctrine. Finally, while some of these things are disconcerting at the moment, one has to think of the major picture, and understand that all preachers, while they are preaching, do not fully understand the movement well, as of any religion.

 

Don’t Follow the Emotionally Blind Man

 

       On the other hand, it is so disconcerting how gossip dilutes any understanding of the truth. It is interesting how people generally believe what the herd believes without a background check on the conversation. This dilution is also found in the Christian Church. So when one person speaks the truth, another interprets it differently, which compounds into rumors that causes a person, without understanding the Bible, to believe in a diluted truth.

 

       Evidence of these destructive rumors is between when “The Law” (The Ten Commandments and others, 4,000 years ago) was given and Jesus’s time (2,000 years ago). While many may believe that the prostitutes, thief’s, tax collectors and others where the people who caused the most problems for Jesus, it was actually the exact opposite, the Pharisees and Sadducees where actually the villains in Jesus’s time. The Pharisees and Sadducees were the scholars of the Christian Bible at the time (they were known as Jews, which all of the teaching is in the Old Testament of the Bible). The reason why the Pharisees were the villains in the Bible is because after “The Law” was given Jews thought that they needed more laws than what was given, this spiraled from one extra law to over four hundred. By having these extra laws it diluted the truth and caused people to devalue the whole concept because it is a mindless ritual of mostly mindless laws. And by Jesus’s time, plus the “dog eat dog” society, caused the Jewish Scholars (could say Christian scholars) to preach conversely to what they themselves believed, they were hypocrites. Furthermore, since the Pharisees did not drop there hypocritical scholarly ways (didn’t repent), they became the biggest opposers of Jesus’s time. Jesus referred to them as “brood vipers (Matthew 23:33), and other harsh things to swallow.

 

           However, I am not saying opposers to the movement are Pharisees, but how confusion can compound. The part in our lives that can correlate to the Pharisees is the fact that people cling so dearly to their Faith or religion, that in turn causes people to be hostile to what they believe, and even violent. This understanding can also be explained by this scripture, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life… (Matthew 7:13-14).” This quote explains why in any situation one can veer off the path, it is sad how this scripture is also prominent in the Church as well as in the world.

 

          It’s implausible how people can be so tame finding an escape through being passive, than fighting for what is right. This tiredness is when people are so caught up by gossip in which the feeling of finding the truth of the conversation slowly diminishes because they are so busy. Hopefully people will be more prone to biblical truth, rather than the dilution of gossiping knowledge.

 

Money

 

          Opposers of the “Word of Faith” movement interpret the scripture that says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10),” as money is evil, which is an assumption to what the scripture says. This assumption allows accusers to condemn the movement by saying, “The movement closely resembles some of the destructive greed sects (MacArthur, 1991, par. 19),” the movement is the act of “gaining material possessions (Jones, 2006, par. 21 )”. However, the Bible actually does say that it is God’s Will for his children to be wealthy by saying, “His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. (Psalms 112:2-3),” 2 Corinthians 8:9, Deuteronomy 28:11-13, Psalm 35:27, Psalm 16:11 and others all stand witness to this fact. Furthermore, it is better to have a righteous rich man making important decisions than, a foolish rich man making lackluster important decisions, which points to the simple fact that money is power in this world.

 

           Also, being prosperous in not only about having money or gaining material wealth as opposers to the movement would say. It is about succeeding in life and having the tools one needs to do so. Such tools could be the ability to address people properly in a job, having a good family and friends, having abundantly more than what we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) , being ready to tackle the next task, and other important qualities.

 

If It Is Bad It Is A Curse With No Counter Positive

 

         These accusations of the “Word of Faith” movement condemn the environment around the movement because people believe true Christians should be poor. They believe that we should be poor because they interpret Jesus as being poor, which in a nut shell was not the case –an example would be Jesus’s robe was seamless and had rare colors that were extraordinarily expensive at the time.

 

        The actual environment around the “Word of Faith” should be as Kenneth Copeland said, speaking about the Jews,

“They never got blessings and curses mixed up. They knew: If it’s good, it’s a BLESSING. If it’s bad, it’s a curse. You could never convince a Jewish person who knew the Old Testament that things like poverty and sickness were BLESSINGS (Copeland, 2011, page 5).”

This simple connection is something a child would understand. It gets confusing when opposers to the movement say, a person went through suffering because God wanted to refine their thinking. This contradicting connection of through suffering we receive what God wants is confusing. If opposers to the movement say God causes bad things to happen for our benefit are demons just twiddling their thumbs watching God work? Of course not. This quantification correlates to the fact that did God want Eve, in the Garden of Eden, to eat the apple that caused her demise? These questions don’t make sense because in the time of Noah (Noah’s Arch) God wanted to wipe man off the map, but found Noah as a righteous man worth saving. If a perfect God created man why would he want to destroy it not to long later? This question does not make any sense because of course God did not want Eve to eat the apple. However, by Eve eating the apple she opened this overwhelming flow of sin, causing man to go on a different path with sin, that causes our suffering, hardship, and all the bitter things that condemn our lives. Additionally, Christ had to pay the ultimate penalty (The Crucifixion) for the small slip that Eve made so God obviously did not want these bad things to happen, but they happened anyway.

 

           So one could see God did not want Eve to eat the apple, and he didn’t want sin in our lives. Instead of God causing these things to happen, he allowed them, which is not only to refine our thinking, but to be more than conquerors in this world (Romans 8:37).

 

           This fact that it is not God’s will for the Church to suffer really drops the foundation on why opposers are against the movement. Moreover, if it was God’s will for us to suffer (which it’s not, stipulation) it would give explanation to why there is so much evil in this world. However, through this scriptural analysis it is not God’s will for the Church to suffer, then why is there all of this evil in the world? It is because God’s people are the body, and Christ is the head (Colossians 1:18); if the body does not respond to the head the head cannot make any discussions. So since it is mostly up to God’s children rather than just God, it gives reason to why there is so much evil in this world with an almighty God. While having this kind of control becomes disconcerting because it seems like we have done a bad job (there is so much evil in this world), it really only took one man at that time to put strait a whole dispersion of trouble (Jesus, Joseph (Genesis), Elijah, King David, King Solomon, and others).

 

It Takes a Continuous Effort

 

           The last topic I would like to cover is how it takes a continuous effort. The great prophets’ (Joseph (Genesis), Elijah, King David, King Solomon, and others) of the Bible had to continually believe in God’s word rather than what their circumstances told. While a man is saved through Salvation (Confessing Jesus as their Lord and savior, Romans 10) onto death, he has to continue to believe to receive. This idea is what “Faith” is, you have to believe in God’s word rather than what our circumstances direct us to, meaning that our circumstances usually direct us to defeat. So we often have to believe oppositely to what our circumstances tell.

 

         To continue, these prophets were almost always originally found in some kind of trouble, one was the least of all his brethren (King David), or another his bothers were plotting to kill him (Joseph, Genesis). However, it wasn’t the fact that they were born to lead, it was the fact they continued to believe in what scripture told than what their caustic eyes were seeing that made them so great. Furthermore, because they could handle little in times of suffering they were proven to handle much (Luke 16:10).

 

            So if we want things to change we have to do it, not by enduring suffering, but by building a new mindset and Faith to tackle our circumstances. This understanding is how Moses parted the Red Sea, Elijah called fire from heaven, and David killed Goliath. Additionally, by choosing to draw their own line in the sand or choosing to believe scripture rather than what their caustic eyes were seeing, caused them to move mountains in the future.

 

           To look to the future Jesus left us with this statement,

“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16: 17-18)

Jesus never said continue with our lives and I will guide you to my ways, he said you are my body (Colossians 1:18) you carry out my good work. It was not the fact that the great prophets were chosen by God, it was the fact that they choose to put into practice what God word has said that made them great. Hopefully, by drawing back the noise in the “Word of Faith” movement you begin to piece together the common knowledge of the movement with the many scriptures to know that the doctrine holds true.

 

Rhetorical Analysis:

 

        My Audience for this article is the Christian radio station KRKS. However, to reach KRKS I thought I would post my article on a hostile forum to gain momentum in the subject. There are many dog biting forums out there, which would be counter to my cause because there is no convincing them. So I found a Catholic form (http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=840367) where I posted my article on a hostile “thread” in the forum. Hopefully, this will appeal to the audience I am trying to go after.

 

        My audience would captivate people from the age of 17 to 50 for any gender who are generally good people. I don’t mind being yelled at, but I would like to appeal to the good and wise group of people.

 

       I think the key to appealing to my audience is to stay neutral (pathos), I don’t want to say anything to offend them, but I don’t want to be too soft either (drawing a line in the sand). By staying neutral I will be able to add scriptural logic, logos, in which by adding various scriptures I will seem very educated in the subject which is the ethos perspective.

 

       My argument seems to subside with logos because in this situation the argument is who has the right understanding of scripture, not emotional common sense (pathos). Additionally, when a person wants someone to look too for Biblical understanding they want to see a lot of scripture to support their arguments (logos). Ethos in this context subsides with logos because I am not a preacher in which I lack authority. Also, by having various scriptures and lots of cited sources, which is logos, I also appeal to the ethos perspective. This all subsides with the understanding that if someone is supporting their arguments with credible information they have authority (ethos) in this subject. In summary, arguments that surround Christianity should be logos and ethos, and not pathos because that is not what scripture teaches.

 

        Next, I would like to start out with a problem with some people of the “Word of Faith” movement teachers that causes the simple situation to be a defining factor of “yes or no” in the movement. Hopefully, addressing this defining problem will draw them in because it is a problem, but through logic (logos) I will be able to show why this happens so they realize it is not as significant as they think.

 

       Also, there is a scripture that says three (three scriptures) must stand witness to the fact. So if I have a point I am portraying I should have at least three scriptures to prove that fact. I will try to hold true to that scripture but sometimes it gets unnecessary and one is enough for the certain aspect. Finally, I need to be careful with rhetorical strategies because if I rub the reader the wrong way it may be one less person who reads my essay.

 

       As well, I have to be weary on the formatting. When one is arguing a point on religion we have to be exceedingly careful what we say. The environment around the argument should be heartwarming and not flashy. It is not acceptable to have things like cartoons as pictures because of the fact the reader will think the writer does not take his religion seriously, and does not have the knowledge to make a thoughtful argument. In summary, I want my paper to be truthful because if it doesn’t line up with scripture I should not be arguing the perspective.

 

     It is incredible how people will so easily stray off any path, whether it is biblical, a hobby or an understanding. This misdirection dilutes the knowledge on any subject making people perceive a deception as the truth. Hopefully, by having a clean none-condemning essay on the “Word of Faith” movement I will appeal to the truth in the majority of the people who read it. Moreover, not just by logic or common sense, but by scriptural logic to appease them. Finally, by not condemning the people who oppose the movement my essay will stand out from the crowd and their anger would be extinguished.

 

Works Cited (See page)