Many of the Word Faith doctrines are linked directly to the mistaken concept that faith is a literal substance, "a power force...a tangible force...a conductive force." According to Kenneth E. Hagin, faith in one's own faith is the secret to getting every desire of the heart:
Did you ever stop to think about having faith in your own faith? Evidently God had faith in His faith, because He spoke words of faith and they came to pass...having faith in your words is having faith in your faith. That's what you've got to learn to do to get things from God: have faith in your faith.
To deal adequately with the many Biblical passages that Word Faith teachers twist to support their view would take several blogs to cover. Consequently, we will examine their misrepresentation and misuse of the two verses they appeal to the most -- Hebrews 11:1 and Mark 11:22. These passages are important because each one, studied carefully, actually disproves the very position the faith teachers claim they support.
In Christianity In Crisis, a 447-page critique of Word Faith doctrine, Hank Hanegraaff contends that the movement's entire theology "rests on the word 'substance' in Hebrews 11:1 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' He goes on to explain and then refute their argument:
Faith teachers interpret the word "substance" to mean the "basic stuff" out of which the universe is made...faith cannot be rightly understood to mean "the building block of the universe," since it is never used in that sense in the book of Hebrews, much less the entire Bible...the word translated "substance" in the KJV is more accurately rendered "assurance" (see NASB)...Faith is a channel of living trust --and assurance-- which stretches from man to God...true Biblical faith is faith in God as opposed to faith in substance (or "faith in faith," as Hagin puts it.)...true Biblical faith (Pistis in the Greek) encapsulates three essential elements...knowledge...agreement...trust.
Greek scholars agree with Hanegraaff: "Hypostatsis is translated in the NASB as "assurance," in the NIV as "being sure." Faith provides an inner certainty about things that simply are not open to empirical verification but are communicated by God's Word (Hebrews 11:1)...Pistis ("faith," "belief" ) and related words deal with relationships established by trust and maintained by trustworthiness."
Regarding Mark 11:22, Word Faith teachers disregard the standard "Have faith in God" translation in favour of an erroneous rendering of the text, which reads, "Have the faith of God." Charles Capps writes, "a more literal translation [of Mark 11:22]...says, 'Have the God kind of faith, or faith of God.'"
Capps is partially correct. The literal word-for-word translation of the Greek used in Mark 11:22 (echete pistin theou) is indeed "Have [echete] faith [pistin] of God [theou]." What Capps is missing, however, is that the grammatical construction of Mark 11:22 makes theou an "objective genitive." This means that the noun (i.e., theou) is the object of the action mentioned (i.e., having faith). In other words, God is the object of faith, not the possessor of faith. Hence, a proper, meaningful translation is to have faith in God.
By embracing a faulty view of faith, thousands have plunged themselves into a veritable cesspool of false teachings. One doctrine inseparably linked to the belief that faith is a force is "positive confession" which maintains that words themselves actually contain the power to change reality (positively or negatively, depending on the words spoken) when coupled with the faith force. Put bluntly, "what you say is what you get." (Walter Martin)
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