Archive for the ‘Word of Faith’ Category
Friday, August 20th, 2010
I received an spam email from Bishop Eddie L. Long inviting me to a conference and other ways their church makes money…but this really caught my eye. I can’t believe how much Eastern thinking has infected these preachers…they have been watching too much Oprah.
Enjoy -
The universe has laws. There are a lot of “new age” philosophies these days, but as believers of Jesus Christ, we are given the divine opportunity to co-create (our reality) with God. The things you believe and expect are the things you will attract. That is why it’s important to guard your thoughts and make sure they align with The Word. Ask yourself: What do I believe and expect of myself and others? Do I believe in and expect the promises of God? These answers will dictate what you attract. We all write our own life story. It’s up to you to decide if it will be a horror, drama, mystery, fiction or inspirational book. Your choice.
I love how he even talks about “new age” philosophies, then goes on to promote on as Christian. Jesus talked about the “blind leading the blind”.
We’ll see if it takes another year for a post, but things have been busy.
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Eat the Meat, Spit out the Bones has always been a statement that bothers me. It is thrown out to say we should not worry about some false teaching mixed in with the bible, but just be mature enough to “Eat the Meat, Spit out the Bones”. I have a friend who asks, would you eat a bowl of ice cream if you knew there was a little dung mixed in, even if you knew you wouldn’t taste it? Of course not, and false teaching is like dung. Below is an article that I tend to agree with:
EAT THE MEAT, SPIT OUT THE BONES
There are a lot of clever-sounding sayings that make the rounds among Christians, and one of these is “eat the meat, and spit out the bones.” Many have written to exhort me to do this, and they mean that I shouldn’t worry so much about exposing error. They wonder why I can’t just “eat the meat, and spit out the bones.”
There is a bit of truth to this saying, in that God’s people are always to exercise biblical discernment when hearing sermons or reading Christian books. We are to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
But the Bible also twice warns that “a little leaven leaventh the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 5:9) and exhorts us to mark and avoid those who teach doctrine contrary to that which we have learned in Scripture (Rom. 16:17). There is great danger in eating the wrong spiritual meat!
What if the meat is rotten or poisoned or hasn’t been cooked or properly stored? The U.S. government regulates how restaurants must cook meat, because undercooked meat is dangerous. When I worked in a restaurant in my youth, I was taught to handle the meat very carefully and to store it properly, because it spoils easily. If you eat meat that is spoiled or poisoned or undercooked, even if you spit out the bones, you will be in trouble. The writings of men like Brian McLaren and Richard Foster and Chuck Colson and Rick Warren contain plenty of rotten meat. Those who advise God’s people to “eat the meat, and spit out the bones,” must explain to us how they know that this “meat” is safe.
Also, what if the bones have splinters or what if you get a bone stuck in your throat? When I was growing up in Florida, I went fishing often with my dad and granddad, and they were careful about which fish they kept and which they threw away, because some had too many bones to eat safely. And Mom was very careful to keep an eye on us when we were eating fish because of the ever-present danger of getting a bone stuck in our throats. This happened from time to time anyway, and it was a very unpleasant thing and, in fact, can be fatal. Likewise, very few Christians are able to wade through sermons or books by compromising preachers on their own and expertly spit out all of the “bones” of error.
And what if you don’t know the difference between meat and bones? A toddler doesn’t know the difference, and if it tries to eat meat and spit out bones, it will quickly be in trouble. Likewise, the average Christian today is far too biblically ignorant and carnal to distinguish properly between truth and cleverly presented error.
My friends, beware of clever sayings that aren’t supported by Scripture.
We live in a shallow, apostate, carnal age, and it behooves us to study the Bible diligently and to think biblically!!!!
Written by David Cloud
|Hat Tip: sermonindex.net|
Tags: false teacher, Prosperity Gospel, The City Church, Word of Faith
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
When I attended the City Church Pastor Wendell heralded Kenneth Hagin as the “Father of Faith”. I find this interesting that so many do this in direct disobedience to Jesus; “call no man Father” Matthew 23:9. I believe Jesus taught this so we would not fall in the trap of believing men over God, as so many trapped in the “Word of Faith” heresy do.
Kenneth Hagin is heralded to be the originator of the “word of faith” doctrine that has spawned many of the health and wealth preacher of today. Many of the well known teachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Leroy Thompson, Charles Capps and lesser known ones (like Pastor Wendell).
Unfortunately he is a well known plagiarist from E.W. Kenyon. For side-by-side examples of the plagiarism, you should view this web page.
The modern “faith movement” (that the City Church is a part of) has it’s roots in Gnostic beliefs (see this article).
One of the things I find appalling is how undiscerning (and un-practical) the followers of these leaders are. If God wants all Christians to be healed by the atonement, then why do the leaders (gurus) of this movement get sick at the same rate everyone else does. If God wants us to be wealthy and prosperous, why does the vast majority of wealth lie in the hands of unregenerate sinners? Is God’s hand short? NO. Their theology is false.
We are told to study the scriptures to see if what we are taught is true. If these “name it and claim it” teachings were so important, don’t you think Paul would have said something about it…especially when he wrote about the sick?
See 2 Timothy 4:20:
Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.
Why didn’t Paul just use his faith muscles and have Trophimus healed? Why didn’t Paul ask Timothy to rebuke the symptoms of Trophimus and use faith filled words to heal him? I can tell you why, because Paul knew biblical faith and the healing of Trophimus was in the hands of a sovereign and merciful God. God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, not on those who can conjure up enough faith and say the magic (faith filled) words.
I also found this article outlining some of the hypocrisy from within the movement when it comes to sickness.
I pray and hope that many who are being seduced by the unbiblical promise of health and provision would not follow Christ for these fleshly desires. I was personally dragged into these doctrines and seduced by the promise of money for following God (being taught godliness is a means to financial gain ).
Jesus even turned away people who followed him for the food (provision). Read John 6:25-70 where Jesus drove the multitudes away with the hard words of the Gospel, not bringing them in with soothing words of comfort. Today, health and wealth preachers widen the road to salvation with soothing promises for the flesh.
Why should we follow Jesus? Peter answered that question:
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:67,68
Notice he didn’t say “because of the miracles you perform” or “because you feed and cloth us”, but because He is the Bread of Life, the Son of God!
It is wrong to take the focus off of who Christ is. We should emphasis how we benefit from Christ spiritually, and not put the emphasis on how we can benefit from God physically. We should look at the example Jesus gave in John chapter 6 for this.
In conclusion (this is getting to long) the main advocates of this doctrine show the same level of health as the rest of the world. Even local Seattle preachers of this heresy are fighting major sickness in their bodies in opposition to what they teach. They even go to doctors just like the heathen do.
One thing is for sure, the preachers of this doctrine do live a life of wealth like they preach…unfortunately it is often off the backs of those who need money or health. They claim “if you have a need, sow a seed” and make money off the needy. Shame on them.
Tags: Kenneth Hagin
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
I found an article from the website http://www.intotruth.org – it has some great articles on the Word of Faith movement and why it is simply un-biblical. This list can be used to see if your church is an unbiblical “word of faith” church. The one I attended denied being part of the movement, but followed most of the doctrines.
The article I read is called “Ten Reasons to Reject WORD-of-FAITH Teachings“.
Here is reason #1:
It requires ‘revelation knowledge’.
Like the gnostic heresies all through the ages, Word-of-Faith needs special knowledge in order to be effective. Leaders see themselves as having a commission to bring new spiritual revelation to the Body, and they condemn ’sense-knowledge’ as inadequate. In this scheme, it is not sin and disobedience that causes us to fail, but ignorance of the Word. Moreover, this revelation knowledge is limited to the few who can receive it; the less intelligent are at a disadvantage. This is elitism.
How true. It does create elitism, the pastors have their (usually wealthy) group of close friends, but they do not mix with the crowds. They come to you with a “word from God” and we are to follow their lead as an army, not as brethren.
Also, this “revelation knowledge” leads to great heresies, such as “money cometh” and there is no hell, and seed faith (found nowhere in the bible).
Read the whole article here.
Tags: Prosperity Gospel, Word of Faith
Friday, April 13th, 2007
The Secret is a new movie telling people “The Secret” of health, wealth and general success is the law of attraction. I haven’t seen the show, but from what I hear they teach a “name it and claim it” version of the gospel very similar to what Word of Faith preachers espouse. Similar to what some Christian Word Faith and prosperity teachers push from the pulpit today, “The Secret” tells its viewers to “believe, ask and receive”.
These teachings are nothing new. There is nothing new under the sun, but this is new to Christianity. I have heard preachers say the secret is stolen from the Bible, and Jesus taught this years ago. This is simply not the case. Jesus taught to lay down your desires and follow God. He also taught to have faith in God, where the Word of Faith heresy teaches to “have faith in your faith”.
From what I hear “The Secret” has many similarities to “Word of Faith”. This is why the preachers need to say “The Secret” stole from the Bible. Unfortunately for them, it is well established that “Word of Faith” stole from the mind sciences and it not aligned with Jesus Christ’s teachings.
Let me know your thoughts on this subject, especially if you have seen the video.
Wikipedia article on the secret.
Wikipedia article on Word Faith
As you will see, both doctrines teach to get what you want in the here an now. The secret teaches we are gods (some word faith teachers say this too), while the other uses God to get what we want.
Tags: The City Church, The Secret, Word of Faith
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