If you've ever stopped to look at your local Christian TV programming, you may have seen some well-dressed men talking or singing in what looks like an ornate living room. There are gold, throne-like chairs, rich red carpet, and an elaborate staircase. The haircuts, jewelry, and suits combine with the set to communicate material abundance. Alternately, you may have seen a man on a stool reading letters about people who were healed at home as they watched a previous broadcast. Or a revival meeting in which crowds of people fall unconscious, or a man who claims to have raised people from the dead during a recent mission trip. If so, you may have stumbled upon the Word of Faith movement.
Also known as Word-Faith or simply the Faith movement, the teaching is distinctive because of its focus on the believer's authority and rights over the physical world. This movement goes beyond the conventional charismatic belief in healing ministries and miraculous gifts. The general idea in Word of Faith teaching is that God's will is for every Christian to be gloriously healthy and wealthy; that Jesus died not only to take away our sins, but also our sicknesses, poverty, and other problems. Christians can overcome disease, loss, and debt simply by laying claim to the Bible's promises of an abundant life. The primary outlets of Word of Faith teaching are the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the Harrison House publishing company, and Oral Roberts University.
According to most Word of Faith teachers, there are three keys to receiving God's material blessings:
Word of Faith teaching did not originate with theologians or scholars, but there are a number of theological presuppositions behind this movement. One is that humans, as the image of God, have access to the same creative power He does. Faith is understood as a force by which God "calls those things which are not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17, KJV). This is called positive confession; when we say to our bodies, "You're healthy," we create health in our body. Likewise, we can bring hardship by negative confession–literally speaking ourselves sick, poor, or even dead. The support for this occasionally comes from Bible verses (such as Heb. 11:1-3) but more often consists in the teachers' personal revelations and visions. Rather than "The Bible says," the Word of Faith teacher prefers to say, "God revealed this to me."
Another underlying idea is an absolutist understanding of the promises of God: that regardless of where, to whom, or for what purpose a promise was spoken, that promise is for all believers who will claim it, and need not be qualified by its biblical context. For this reason, Word of Faith preachers will often quote promises in a rapid-fire fashion from all over Scripture, and tend to discourage any systematic interpretation of the text. For these preachers, one of the central messages of Scripture is that we Christians can have whatever we dare to claim for ourselves; as Word of Faith leader Ken Hagin has said, you can "write your own ticket with God." Here are some of the verses they frequently use for support:
One other important theological undercurrent is what might be called a transference view of authority over this world. A number of Word of Faith teachers–Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn being primary among them–begin their teaching with Genesis. They explain that God gave Adam and Eve power to control this universe, but that man gave that authority over to Satan when he sinned. Thus, Satan was rightfully "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4). God negotiated a covenant with Abraham that developed into His relationship with Israel and, ultimately, the coming of Christ. Christ was offered to Satan in exchange for the rights to this world, but Satan had not counted on Christ's resurrection. Now all who believe in Jesus have creative authority–and the abundance associated with it–as part of their inheritance with Christ. Other Word of Faith teachers focus on the covenant with Abraham as giving believers this authority.
In Word of Faith teaching, there is also an emphasis on the special position and authority of the leading Word of Faith teachers. They often speak as prophets or recipients of the Spirit's mysteries–even personal visitations from Jesus. They are introduced as having a special "anointing" of the Holy Spirit that empowers them to do miracles. Some even send out handkerchiefs they have blessed, and it is common for them to have a "word of knowledge" about a viewer in need, describe the ailment, and declare that person healed.
There are other disturbing aspects of Word of Faith teaching, such as relocating Christ's atonement in His descent into hell rather than on the cross, claiming that Satan can thwart God's will but not our spoken confessions, teaching that Jesus was materially rich during His ministry, and suggesting that Christ, as the Word, was spoken into existence by positive confession. Word of Faith preaching tends to follow a set pattern: (1) Present a discovery of a doctrine that was received by revelation or has been covered up by the church, (2) present the concept of Word-Faith or Seed-Faith as a way of realizing God's intended blessings, (3) appeal to the audience for money, and (4) along the way, sprinkle in anecdotes and unusual interpretations of Bible stories. But it is nearly impossible to construct anything like a systematic theology for the movement; the leading figures all have their own emphases and sometimes contradict one another or even their own previous statements.
What is clear, however, is that Word of Faith teachers do not represent the best the Pentecostal/charismatic movement has to offer. Mainstream charismatics acknowledge that God does not always heal or provide whatever a believer asks. On the contrary, sometimes He leads His people through great difficulties and may glorify Himself through their weaknesses. True charismatics emphasize that the purpose of spiritual gifts is to build up the church and enrich worship of God, not to gratify the individual. But even as a non-charismatic, I am frustrated how frequently Word of Faith teachers are apparently accepted by charismatics at large–in Charisma magazine, in the "Charismatic Interest" section of Christian catalogs and bookstores, and close relationships with non-Word-of-Faith revivalists. Even the prophets and apostles of biblical times were to be tested according to the motives and faithfulness of their teachings.
The extravagant lifestyle of Word of Faith teachers is not a secret–they present their wealth as proof that the teaching works; of course, little attention is given to the millions who give what little hard-earned money they have and receive nothing in return. Most of the televangelist scandals of the late 1980s were part of the Word of Faith movement–Robert Tilton, Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, and James Bakker (who has since reformed). While over the years their methods have been exposed, their miracles have been demonstrated false, and their prophecies have gone unfulfilled, the ministries continue. TBN is a worldwide network and a practical monopoly on non-satellite Christian programming. Even Christian teachers who oppose Word of Faith teaching–Jack Hayford, Hugh Ross, Charles Stanley, etc.–have little choice but to purchase time on TBN if they wish to reach a large audience with the gospel.
Having analyzed quite a bit of TBN, I am convinced that the Word of Faith is false teaching in every sense of the term, and fails every test of orthodoxy. The gospel is redefined and given a material focus, holiness is a means to prosperity, and much of the ministry seems merely a ploy for preachers to get rich off the desperate hopes of their viewers. Whereas liberalism assaulted the faith by denying everything, the Word of Faith does so by making the ludicrous a chief article of Christianity. Most disturbing is that through TBN, the Word of Faith is the version of Christianity that the American viewer most readily sees. Believers should be aware of who these teachers are and the danger they represent, both inside the church and without.
For a concise statement of my beliefs about God's providence, see my Declaration of Faith.
