sergeriver
Cowboy from Hell
+1,928|7183|Argentina
Have you ever heard of this movement?  I saw this in a documentary.  I'm not a religious guy, but if you ask me this seems pretty crazy and it could be considered heresy by any Christian.
Word of Faith, also known as Word-Faith or simply Faith, is a movement within Pentecostal and charismatic churches worldwide. Its central doctrine is that health and prosperity are promised to all believers, and are available through faith.

Their teachings:
The Word-Faith movement teaches that physical healing was included in Christ's atonement, and therefore is available here and now to all who believe.  Because Isaiah speaks in the present tense ("we are healed"), many of the most prominent Faith preachers teach that believers should overlook the symptoms of sickness, and instead positively believe and confess that they are already healed.  Sickness is an attempt by Satan to rob believers of their divine right to total health.  Word of Faith Ministers have been accused of teaching that believers are "little gods". Kenneth Hagin wrote that God "made us in the same class of being that He is Himself," and that the believer is "called Christ" because "that's who we are, we're Christ!".  According to Word-Faith theology, financial prosperity and wealth was also included in the Atonement. This is based on an interpretation of the words of the Apostle Paul: "Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).  In order to atone for sins, Jesus had to die both physically and spiritually. As a consequence of his 'dying spiritually,' the Faith movement argues that Jesus thus needed to be born again just as any other sinner. While making it clear that Jesus Himself was never a sinner, they argue that Jesus was 'forsaken by God' just as if Jesus had committed every sin in human history.

What do Christians think about this?
Major_Spittle
Banned
+276|7081|United States of America
What was the name of the documentry?
sergeriver
Cowboy from Hell
+1,928|7183|Argentina

Major_Spittle wrote:

What was the name of the documentry?
The wackos are everywhere.  j/k.  It was a documentary about Jesus in Discovery and they mentioned several controversial groups within Christianism.  This one called Word-Faith or Prosperity Gospel seemed very weird.  That's why I want to know what do Christians think about it.
Major_Spittle
Banned
+276|7081|United States of America
What was the name of the Documentry?
ATG
Banned
+5,233|6955|Global Command
Religions FTL
( derail on )
By the way serge, I couldn't respond via karma, but no I wasn't offended about what got said in your closed topic, I really appreciate it. As a guy who has been working full time from age 15 it means a lot.
( derail off )
sergeriver
Cowboy from Hell
+1,928|7183|Argentina

Major_Spittle wrote:

What was the name of the Documentry?
I really don't know.  It was a series of documentaries about Religion, mainly about Christianism during the holidays.

Last edited by sergeriver (2007-02-03 19:03:43)

Stingray24
Proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy
+1,060|6871|The Land of Scott Walker
You are correct in your assertion that this is heresy, serge - especially the Jesus needing to be born again part.  Currently my wife and I attend a charismatic denomination but we do not believe what has been stated in the description of the “faith movement”, nor does our church or denomination.  God is certainly more than capable of healing so we should ask for it if we are sick.  Overlooking symptoms of sickness is downright ridiculous.  My view is that God gave humans the intelligence to develop and discover medicine and we should utilize our intelligence and allow modern medicine to help us when we need it.  Prayer for healing and faith isn't eliminated by the field of medicine and God may very well use a highly trained doctor to bring healing to one’s body.
lavadisk
I am a cat ¦ 3
+369|7256|Denver colorado
That's one way to think.. If all goes on plan they will die off from the flu or some other kind of sickness.
sergeriver
Cowboy from Hell
+1,928|7183|Argentina

Stingray24 wrote:

You are correct in your assertion that this is heresy, serge - especially the Jesus needing to be born again part.  Currently my wife and I attend a charismatic denomination but we do not believe what has been stated in the description of the “faith movement”, nor does our church or denomination.  God is certainly more than capable of healing so we should ask for it if we are sick.  Overlooking symptoms of sickness is downright ridiculous.  My view is that God gave humans the intelligence to develop and discover medicine and we should utilize our intelligence and allow modern medicine to help us when we need it.  Prayer for healing and faith isn't eliminated by the field of medicine and God may very well use a highly trained doctor to bring healing to one’s body.
I don't share your beliefs, but I must respect the logic of your explanation.  As always you show that Humans can be Religious and still smart.
usmarine2007
Banned
+374|6793|Columbus, Ohio
Fuck religion!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070204/wl_ … hanasia_dc

Who is this asshole to say stuff like this? I hope he has a slow painful death.


P.S.  Stop your men from touching little boys you sick fucks.
sergeriver
Cowboy from Hell
+1,928|7183|Argentina

usmarine2007 wrote:

Fuck religion!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070204/wl_ … hanasia_dc

Who is this asshole to say stuff like this? I hope he has a slow painful death.


P.S.  Stop your men from touching little boys you sick fucks.
The Pope is an ex-Nazi, so you can't expect nothing from this guy.  I wouldn't generalize about Religious people, not all preachers or priests are molesting kids.  But I must agree there's been a lot of cases of abuse.
OrangeHound
Busy doing highfalutin adminy stuff ...
+1,335|7075|Washington DC

sergeriver wrote:

Have you ever heard of this movement?  I saw this in a documentary.  I'm not a religious guy, but if you ask me this seems pretty crazy and it could be considered heresy by any Christian.
Word of Faith, also known as Word-Faith or simply Faith, is a movement within Pentecostal and charismatic churches worldwide. Its central doctrine is that health and prosperity are promised to all believers, and are available through faith.

....

What do Christians think about this?
This movement is one that should interest non-religious people much more than Christians.  In my view, it embodies so much of the criticism that the non-religious levy against the religious.

What is it?
The Word-Faith religion is actually the marriage of four different belief systems.
  • Most prominent is it's Christian dimension (and this is the religion it clams to be a part of).  It is most closely aligned to the Pentecostal branches of Christianity:  emphasizing ecstatic expressions of the Spirit, a strong Biblical underpinning, and conservative social positions.
  • Its second largest dimension is a Eastern Mysticism or New Age understanding of "spiritual power."  That is, that there is a power that can be tapped into and wielded for whatever reason one discerns.
  • Most interestingly, the third component of the Word-Faith religion is the good ole' American dream:  wealth, prosperity, good health, good job, the good life, pleasure, joy, etc.
  • Finally, there is a classic cult dimension to the Word-Faith religion.  I've just recently been observing the effects of this on people where they have been taught that the Word-Faith teachers are the absolute source of truth, and if any other teacher disagrees with a Word-Faith teacher (on any point) then they are evil and are to be avoided.  This creates a huge chasm with others, isolating the Word-Faith followers from contradictions.  And, finally, since the followers of Word-Faith are highly devoted, they tend to also be in high pursuit of Word-Faith values and relationships.


What do I think of Word-Faith?
The spiritual devotion that the followers exhibit should be a model for others who pretend to be Christian.  However ....

Overall, I think the Word Faith religion is a destructive direction for people ... not so much on the theological issues (for the New Age and secular elements can be easily removed), but on the cult-like element that exists.  What I mean is that the religion is really a pyramid scheme where the leaders (e.g., Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, and many other local personalities) are incredibly wealthy from the donations of followers. They promise that a similar prosperity - not just wealth, but in all dimensions of life - are available to all if you just have "faith."

This starts a depressing cycle:  (1)  pray and seek prosperity/wealth (2) it doesn't come (3) you are told you don't have enough faith and/or devotion to God (4) you invest money into the movement to show your devotion, and you pour yourself into study and godly pursuits (5) back to step 1.

As the cycle continues, the follower becomes less "prosperous" and begins to believe that they have no faith.  They may become spiritually depressed, further isolated, emotionally abused, etc.

I have now encountered multiple people in this situation ....
UGADawgs
Member
+13|6747|South Carolina, US
Sounds a lot like Christian Science, which by the transitive property makes this idea pretty dumb. God doesn't just drop stuff into people's laps, and those who do believe so are hopelessly deluded.
gun.KingRat
Member
+12|7116
The word of faith movement is nothing but con men. They prey on desperate people by twisting Christianity for their financial advantage. This is the so called "Name it and claim it" scam. Before I was saved, I thought all preachers on tv were scam artists because of the few bad apples. It is especially difficult since they are usually intermixed on the same channels due to a lack of Christian friendly networks.

With a reasonable understanding of the Bible and true Christian theology it is easy to spot the con men. Here are some of the good and some of the bad evangelists on television:

Good - Charles Stanley, Zola Levitt, David Jeremiah, D. James Kennedy, John Hagee ( although he does yell in sermons and sounds much like the scam preachers )

Bad - 99% of folks from Oral Roberts Univ.  Some of the worst - John Bevere, Markus Bishop, Juanita Bynum, Morris Cerullo, Kim Clement, Kenneth Copeland, Paul Crouch, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Hagin, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Larry Huch, T.D. Jakes, Bishop Eddie L. Long, Clarence McClendon, Joyce Meyer, Myles Munroe, Steve Munsey, Mike Murdock, Joel Osteen, Rod Parsley, Peter Popoff, Fred Price, Oral Roberts, R.W. Shambach, Robert Schuller, Karl Strader, Robert Tilton, Paula White, Ed Young

Board footer

Privacy Policy - © 2025 Jeff Minard