Perverting The Straight Ways Of The Lord
Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils 1 Timothy 4:1
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jud 1:4
I have presented a few critical, but true, materials on the Word of Faith Movement on this site in the last few months. I would try to present in this post a few websites and links readers are advised to access for deeper understanding of the source of these satanic teachings. I think these warnings cannot be given often enough.
The Word of Faith Movement, apart from the idolatry and fraud in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox ‘churches’, is the major work of Satan in the 20th and 21st centuries and the source of the greatest forms of spiritual deception in Christianity. The Word of Faith is particularly evil because it styles itself as a Christian movement while denying and distorting all the basic doctrines and teachings of the Bible. The distortion starts from the name: Word of Faith. Most people make the erroneous assumption that the fact the phrase, “Word of Faith” is found in the Bible means the teachings are Bible-based. Nothing can be further from the truth. Word of Faith, given the set of doctrines and teachings it presents, simply means Word of Command. Faith, in Word of Faith, is not faith in God but faith in your word. In Yoruba occultism this is known as Àșę.
In Word of Faith, God is your slave: you tell Him what you want and He does it! If He does not do it quickly enough, you ‘command Him to hurry up and fulfill His side of the bargain’! If He still refuses to move quick enough to your liking, you ‘snatch your inheritance‘ from His hands! In Word of Faith, Jesus is not God, not even the only begotten Son of God: He is a mere man raised to Christ status by virtue of His better knowledge of spiritual laws and principles! You also can have this Christ status and can speak things into existence by mastering the laws and principles that Jesus used during His time on earth! You can issue words of Àșę to God and command forth your health and wealth as you will.
You must affirm only positive things about your life while being careful to avoid saying anything negative about yourself, your health or prospect. This includes denying sickness when you are ill and never announcing the sickness or deaths of ‘church’ members. The announcement of the death or sickness of your ‘church’ members will destroy your carefully-woven teachings and beliefs and you must never fall into such traps. This must be so since ‘power of life and death’ supposedly lies in your mouth, not in the power or will of a sovereign and all-powerful God. You are a god and gods rule by their words and thoughts!
Word of Faith and Fake Miracle Claims
Every Word of Faith preacher claims miracles and signs and wonders to bolster his title of bishop, apostle, man of God, evangelist or prophet, even when these claims cannot be verified. They need these claims to convince their gullible audience since most of their doctrines are outside the plain teachings of the Bible.
Word of Faith and Power From The Dead
Where fake claims to miracles will not do, most Word of Faith and Prosperity preachers resort to pure occultism. The confessions of Benny Hinn, of getting special ‘anointing’ from his visits to the tombs of Kathryn Kuhlman and Aimee Semple McPherson, or of one-on-one dialogues with an unaffected witch by David Oyedepo, as weird as they might sound, are not uncommon. For a group of people who created their own god from strange doctrines and teachings, these, in fact, are the norm.
Word of Faith, Occultism And Hypnotism
Occultism, Eastern (Indian) spiritualism and hypnotism are combined to produce various strange phenomena unknown to the Bible and true godliness. The Hinduism’s Kundalini practices of being ‘slain in the spirit’ and babbling incoherent gibberish in the name of ‘speaking in tongues’ are imported into their strange ‘Christianity’ as evidences of their ‘second blessing’.
In some countries such as Nigeria, there are very few worship centers you can visit to hear the clear, clean and true gospel of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of the ‘Christianity’ is occultism and materialistic. “What is in it for me?” The legitimate demands of a good Creator on His creation and His hatred of sin and sinners have no place in the sermons.
Important Sources
The foregoing is a brief introduction to the main body of this post. Click on the links below and open the various publications and books detailing the occult roots of this evil movement. If you are serious about understanding the nature of the evil out to destroy you, God orders you to have true knowledge of the spiritual world.
1 http://www.inplainsite.org/html/word_of_faith.html
2 http://www.christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_NewThought3.html
3 http://www.banner.org.uk/wof/tract3.html
4 http://www.christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_FoxSanford.html
5 The book, “A Different Gospel” by D R McConnell is recommended for readers. Buy the book. It gives a historical and theological introduction to the teachings of the Word of Faith Movement.
Readers may find it at:
https://www.christianbook.com/a-different-gospel-ebook/d-r-mcconnell/9781598569254/pd/23884EB