The “Faith” Movement believes that the human mind and tongue contain a supernatural ability or power. When a person speaks expressing his faith in supposedly divine laws, his positive thoughts and positive verbal expression allegedly produce a “divine force” that will heal, produce wealth, bring success, and in other ways, influence the environment. Kenneth Copeland teaches that “the powerful force of the spiritual world that creates the circumstances around us is controlled by the words of the mouth. This force comes from inside us.” Thus, “There is nothing in this earth so great or powerful…that it cannot be controlled by the tongue…You can even control Satan by learning to control your own tongue.” According to the “Faith” teachers, God automatically responds and accomplishes what we command when we positively confess our needs and desires in faith.
This is why Christians must allegedly learn to operate their inner man or “spirit man” in the power of the spirit world through supernatural laws, laws that will operate for anyone, whether believer or unbeliever.
As Charles Capps observes, “Words are the most powerful thing in the universe”; “This is not theory. It is fact. It is spiritual law”; and “These principles of faith are based on spiritual laws. They work for whoever will apply these laws. You set them in motion by the words of your mouth. Unless Christians abide by and operate such laws successfully, God Himself is hindered in His ability to act in their lives. Why? Because both God and Christians are bound by these laws. As Fred K.C. Price and others teach, just as God’s own power originates in the faith He exercises in His spoken words, so this is true for Christians. For example, “God created the universe by the methods you have just put into motion by the words of your mouth. God released His faith in words.”
What this means is that both man and God are limited in their ability to act supernaturally unless the proper Faith formulas are spoken that permit their power to operate. Only when men and women initiate God and His laws can they perform miracles.
For example, “God created the universe by speaking it into existence. He has given that same ability to you in word form.” Thus, God is a “word faith” God who created man in His image and gave him the potential to use the power that He displayed in creation. “Man is a spirit then, very capable of operating on the same level of faith as God.” As a result, “you have the power of God at your disposal.” All this explains why most Faith teachers think that man is a literal god – in the words of Copeland, a being “in the God class.” By imitating God’s use of cosmic laws, man can perform supernatural acts just as God does.
But Faith teachers also claim there is a danger in all this. These cosmic laws work indiscriminately. If Christians are not careful, Satan can deceive them because he, too, can operate by using the tongues of men in the god-class. For example, “Negative Confession” – anything spoken forth denying the principles of the Faith Movement – allows Satan to enter the lives of Christians and deceive them.
In any case, even the mission of Christ Himself is appropriated to the Faith philosophy. Why did Jesus come? According to the Faith Movement, one reason Jesus came was to make us strong “Faith Christians” who could do the things He did – and much greater things. Jesus came into this world because of the power of God’s spoken word and because of God’s “faith in his faith.” In fact, Jesus was the epitome of the true “Faith” man. He knew how to perfectly use the spiritual laws of the universe and therefore had tremendous powers and did incredible miracles. Thus, Jesus was an example of the Successful Man. Robert Tilton teaches “Jesus came to deliver humanity from failure, and to bring us into success.” And “God created man to be successful, but man failed … So God sent Jesus to recover us from failure and to restore us to that position of being successful… [Because of our failure] God came up with another plan. That plan was to send Jesus. Through Jesus, we were given the strength and power to be successful…”
In Commanding Power, Kenneth Hagen, Jr., teaches that the atonement of Christ brought Christians “commanding power” or the ability to command things around us to conform to our desires. “Our problem is that we’ve been doing a lot of praying and a lot of confessing, but we haven’t been doing any commanding. It is fun to command! … Jesus already paid the price for us to do it…”
Further, on the cross and in hell, Jesus not only defeated Satan and bore the penalty of sin, but He also bore the curse of the law (Galations 3:13) which paid the penalty for our disease, poverty, and illness so that no Christian need experience these.
What this means is that for the Faith Movement Jesus is not merely our Saviour from sin. He is the Redeemer of our faith, the perfect example of “Faith principles” in action. As “little Christs” and “little gods,” we are to be imitators of Him.
Now consider again what you have read, and ask yourself this question: If the Faith Movement has an unorthodox view of God, Jesus, faith, salvation, the Bible, sanctification, man, angels, etc., can it logically be considered orthodox Christianity? Further, if the Faith Movement is not orthodox, how can Christians logically justify their participation in it?
(from The Facts On The Faith Movement by John Ankerberg and John Weldon)
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