Word of Faith Movement

This blog is an attempt to cause some of the stones raised to be thrown at Word of Faith believers to be dropped.

There are numerous websites devoted to attacking what is commonly referred to as the Word of Faith movement which is also sometimes called the Prosperity Gospel. I will primarily be addressing criticism from Calvary Chapel Aurora’s website.

http://www.calvaryaurora.org/resources/apologetics/

as well as

http://www.gospeloutreach.net/whatwordfaith.html

Calvary Chapel’s stance surprised me to be honest. I recently came into the knowledge of them around 2010 and fell in love with them. I started listening to Pastor David Guzik whom is currently Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara every day for a few months when I was struggling with aspects of the Word of Faith message and Christianity as a whole. I still listen to him and read his online commentaries today. Surprisingly for Word of Faith to be considered so unbiblical his teaching and interpretation of scriptures actually confirmed most of the things I had already learned in the Word of Faith movement. I have also read a number of Pastor Chuck Smith’s commentaries and they also support a number of core Word of Faith beliefs. I’ll be including some of those commentary notes in this essay. The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and sparked me to write this essay was a message on Calvary Chapel radio. The minister was talking about the Book of Acts and not far into the message he went on a Anti Word of Faith rant. He said that Word of Faith teaches that you should never have problems in life and that if you get sick or are poor it’s because of a lack of faith. I got angry and turned it off. I’ve heard similar claims from other non-Word of Faith Pastors that I thoroughly enjoy like Craig Groeschel as well. They don’t mean any harm they just don’t understand what they are criticizing. I’m hoping that with this essay that Christian’s will think before they repeat things they have heard from someone else. There are people on the receiving end of these accusations. These people love Jesus, believe that Jesus is the Second part of the Trinity; That Jesus walked the Earth and died to bring mankind back into a right relationship with God; that salvation is received by grace and not by works. The biggest difference is Word of Faith believes that Jesus died for more than just sins.

Most of the claims in the Calvary Chapel article seem to be based in a misunderstanding of the message. I’ve learned that you can’t listen to one message on Faith or Confession (or even one Word of Faith minister for that matter) and be able to accurately judge it and much of this article is based off views of people that are already against Word of Faith. They use critiques from John MacArthur and Hank Hanegraaf. John MacArthur is a wonderful minister but he is a Calvinist. This isn’t meant to be disparaging towards my Calvinist brothers and sisters but there are areas that a Calvinist and Word of Faith adherent or anyone that advocates God gave man Free Will cannot see eye to eye on God’s sovereignty. Word of Faith and anyone else that advocates Free Will believes that God has given men Free Will and that we can resist him and He won’t force us to do anything that goes against our wills. This flies directly in the T.U.L.I.P view of the God’s Sovereignty specifically the “I” which stands of Irresistible Grace and borders on heresy in the eyes of some.

Many of the views attributed to the Word of Faith movement aren’t true beliefs and the things that are somewhat true are taken out of context. The words Heresy, Heretics and False Doctrine are commonly used in reference to the Word of Faith Movement. Let’s look at the definition of Heresy and see if Word of Faith falls under that category.

Heresy is:

[d]octrine which is erroneous in such a way that Christians must divide themselves as a church from all who teach or accept it; those adhering to heresy are assumed to be lost, although Christians are unable to make definitive judgments on this matter. The opposite of orthodoxy. Adj.: "heretical."

- Source: A Biblical Guide To Orthodoxy And Heresy, Christian Research Journal, Summer 1990, byRobert M. Bowman.

Easton's Bible Dictionary says 'heresy' is derived from…

…a Greek word signifying (1) a choice, (2) the opinion chosen, and (3) the sect holding the opinion. In the Acts of the Apostles (5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14 ; 26:5) it denotes a sect, without reference to its character.

Elsewhere, however, in the New Testament it has a different meaning attached to it. Paul ranks "heresies" with crimes and seditions (Gal. 5:20). This word also denotes divisions or schisms in the church (1 Cor. 11:19).

In Titus 3:10 a "heretical person" is one who follows his own self-willed "questions," and who is to be avoided. Heresies thus came to signify self-chosen doctrines not emanating from God (2 Pet. 2:1).

- Source: Heresy, Easton Bible Dictionary

Charges of heresy are most serious where they involve deviation from - or denial of - the central, essential doctrines of Christianity:

Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. These doctrines so comprise the essence of the Christian faith that to remove any of them is to make the belief system non-Christian.

Central doctrines should not be confused with peripheral issues, about which Christians may legitimately disagree.

Peripheral (i.e. non-essential) doctrines include such issues as the timing of the tribulation, the method of baptism, or the structure of church government. For example, one can be wrong about the identity of "the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19) or about the timing of the rapture and still go to heaven, but one cannot deny salvation by grace or the deity of Christ (John 8:24) and be saved.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/447-heresy-heretic

Now that we have a definition for Heresy we’ll continue our study to see if Word of Faith denies central doctrines of the Christian faith. In this series I’ll also be addressing issues such as is Word of Faith a denomination, are all the teachers the same, What is the force of faith? Is “little god’s” doctrine a biblical view? What is “Name it and claim it”? Did Jesus die spiritually? Did Jesus go to hell and suffer on our behalf? Is there any biblical or historical support that backs up some Word of Faith beliefs? Also I'll be covering topics like Health and Wealth. 

I hope this study can bring some understanding and unity among us believers. I pray we can help each other grow and develop understanding in our faith walks. There are things that I don't understand and hopefully we can find balance where the ship goes off course. The next post will be on Positive Confession.

Feel free to give feedback. Let's keep it productive and positive. Name calling and insults will be deleted.