A Different Gospel by D. R. McConnell

Forewarned is Forearmed

Every Christian should read this book in order to be aware of the dangerous implications of the wide-spread and cultic Word of Faith movement preaching what is popularly known as "Name It and Claim It" theology. A DIFFERENT GOSPEL is a bold and revealing examination of the biblical historical basis of this movement. This new and revised edition is complete with a foreword by Hank Hanegraaff, author of "Christianity in Crisis," and a new afterword by D.R. McConnell.

The author knows the movement first hand and has a heart for those snared by it. He is also an academically trained observer who has based this work on careful historical and biblical analysis. McConnell warns of the movement's cultic nature in its doctrine of healing and its understanding of the atonement and demonstrates how far the movement's doctrine of prosperity is from Scripture's true teaching.

D.R. McConnell did graduate work at Oral Roberts University in theological and historical studies. He currently serves as senior pastor for the Crossroads International Church in Amsterdam.

A DIFFERENT GOSPEL, a book for the heart and mind, is must reading for those who seek reliable information about the Word of Faith movement.

Part 1 - A Historical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement

Chapter 1 - The True Father of the Modern Faith Movement

Chapter 2 - The Cultic Origins of the Faith Movement

Chapter 3 - The Kenyon Connection

Chapter 4 - The Role of Kenneth Hagin in the Faith Movement

Chapter 5 - The Faith Controversy and the Beginning of the Faith Denomination

Part 2 - A Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement

Ch 6 - The Doctrine of Revelation Knowledge: Super-Christians and the New Gnosticism

Ch 7 - The Doctrine of Identification: The Born-Again Jesus and the Atonement of the Devil

Ch 8 - The Doctrine of Faith: Faith in God versus Faith in Faith

Ch 9 - The Doctrine of Healing: Sickness, Symptoms and Satan

Ch 10 - The Doctrine of Prosperity: Success and the Upwardly Mobile Christian

Ch 11 - Summary and Conclusion

Afterward: The Faith Movement Today

Preface to the Original Edition

This study is an expanded and updated version of my master's thesis, "The Kenyon Connection: A Theological and Historical Analysis of the Cultic Origins of the Faith Movement," which was submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology at Oral Roberts University in 1982. Since that thesis was completed much new historical information about the origins of the Faith Movement has come to light, most of which has confirmed my original thesis concerning its "connection" to the metaphysical cults. The theological analysis demonstrating the cultic parallels between the faith theology and metaphysics has been greatly expanded in this study and, I hope, clarified. I have endeavoured to write for the church, both clergy and laity, and I have tried to make simplicity not profundity, my guiding principle.

With a few notable exceptions, the Faith Movement has not been the object of scholarly historical research. Dr. Charles Farah and Dr. Gordon Fee have provided able biblical and theological critiques of the movement, but its historical origins were not within their areas of interest. Other critiques, although well-meaning, have shed far more heat than light. Bruce Barron's The Health and Wealth Gospel (1987) contains pertinent biographical information on some of the key players of the movement, but offers little regarding its historical background. Clearly a strong need exists for a definitive history to be written of the Faith movement.

One would suspect, therefore, that what follows is an attempt to provide that history. That is not the case. I have included much historical information about the Faith movement in this work, but it in no way constitutes a neutral historical treatise. Although I believe that I have treated the historical evidence in a fair fashion and that my findings will bear the scrutiny of historiographical analysis, I must admit that my intent is not to merely report this information in the placid manner of a professional historian. I have used my historical findings as the basis of a theological polemic against the Faith theology, something a true historian would never do. I have chosen to do so because I believe that, because of its cultic origins, the Faith theology represents a serious threat to the theological orthodoxy and spiritual orthopraxy of the independent charismatic movement. I do not, therefore, give the slightest pretense of wanting just to write history...

From the Foreward by Hank Hanegraaff

In my book Christianity in Crisis I pointed out that some of the most scholarly rebuttals of the Faith Movement have come from within the ranks of the charismatic movement. Notable examples include Walter Martin, Gordon Fee, and Charles Farah. None is more noteworthy however than Dan McConnell. From his perspective as a former adjunct professor of theology at Oral Roberts University, he has critiqued Faith theology in a profound and persuasive fashion.

McConnell demonstrates with irrefutable documentation the historical development and heretical doctrines of Faith theology to such cults as Religious Science, Christian Science, and the Unity School of Christianity.

E.W. Kenyon, the real father of the modern-day Faith movement, "majored" in metaphysics. McConnell provides ample documentation that Kenneth Hagin, referred to by Charisma magazine, as "the granddaddy of the Faith teachers" and the "father of the Faith movement" in reality plagiarized Kenyon. Hagin's theological perversions were in turn proliferated through men like Frederick Price and Kenneth Copeland, who is today dubbed by Time magazine as the chief exponent of Faith theology...

The crisis currently faced by Christianity -- in the form of the Faith movement -- does not center upon on-going dialogues and debates among charismatic and non-charismatic believers. Rather, it involves a life-and-death struggle between orthodoxy and heresy -- between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the cults.

With penetrating analysis and painstaking attention to detail, Dan McConnell unmasks Faith theology to reveal its cultic identity and to refute its false teachings. He is to be commended for providing an able defense and a potent antidote against a growing cancer feeding on the Body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul warned the Christians in Galatia to guard against those preaching a different gospel -- a "gospel" contrary to what was proclaimed by Christ and the apostles (Galatians 1:6-9). With so many religious beliefs, philosophies, and teachings circulating today, we must be even more diligent to observe Paul's admonition and heed his words.

"Watch your life and doctrine closely," he told young Timothy, "Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16).