"Health and Wealth" Teachers Claim Direct Counsel from God

Many of the leaders in this movement claim that God, Jesus, or angels appeared to them and taught them these ideas.  But we must ask, "Are these revelations biblical if they condone actions that are unbiblical or foolhardy?"  In fact, the supposedly divine visions, revelations, prophesies, and interpretations are often so false or unbiblical that one wonders if these visions are from their own mind or worse, from the devil.  Time and again in almost all of the writings of the faith teachers we find superficial or false interpretations of the Bible, misapplication, or serious errors of logic.  This means that the "health and wealth" or "faith" teachers are in serious trouble.  To start with, the Bible says that God is not the author of confusion or error (1 Corinthians 14:33; John 3:33; 17:17).

For example, "Jesus" told Charles Kapps, "I have told my people they can have what they say and they are saying what they have."  Does that make sense?  Does it even sound like Jesus?  Kapps also states, "The Spirit of God spoke to me concerning confessing the Word of God aloud: where you can hear yourself saying it.  He said 'It is a scientific application of the wisdom of God to the psychological make-up of man.'"  Again, does this sound like something the Spirit of God would say?

Another example is Kenneth Copeland's "Jesus," who supposedly told him one must "believe that your words have power, and the things you say will come to pass.  The result is that you can have whatever you say when you believe."  Does any Christian really believe Jesus said that in light of the Bible?  

Still another example of one of these faith teachers claiming God spoke directly to him is Robert Tilton.  He states, "The Spirit of the Lord has given me this prosperity message to share with you."  

Or Kenneth Hagin, who said, "the Lord spoke to me and said, 'don't pray for money anymore.  You have authority through my name to claim prosperity.'"  Kenneth Hagin promotes E.W. Kenyon's unbiblical and sometimes illogical text, The Wonderful Name of Jesus, by saying, "it is revelation knowledge.  It is the Word of God."

In Jerry Savelle's prosperity series we are told, "The revelation knowledge in this set was given to Brother Savelle supernaturally by God."    Savelle himself tells us "I was just sitting there, minding my own business . . . when suddenly the Lord appeared unto me.  When He appeared, He said these words to me: 'Son, my people are in financial famine in America and I am giving you the assignment to tell them how to get out.'  Then He began to reveal to me the keys to deliverance."

In summary you can see all these men claim direct counsel from God.  But is this really true?  The appearances of Jesus and angels, the words they spoke to these men -- these do not sound like the biblical Jesus or the angels that speak for God and the Bible.  God or Jesus would never encourage teachings that are unbiblical, unbalance or illogical, or which could bring spiritual confusion or ruin into the lives of those who live by them.

If these visions and appearances are real and not inflated self-delusions, then they can only result from Satan appearing as an "angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).  It is the devil (and certainly not the above teachers) who desires to distort the Word, encourages spiritual excesses and illogical thinking, and brings difficulties or spiritual destruction into the lives of Christian people.


For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library.  Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book.  All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com. 

The Faith Movement Televangelist and the Word of God

Just as a doctor dares not practice surgery until he has studied the several branches of medicine, so a minister, including a media minister, should not presume that he broadcasts the biblical faith until he has a grasp of systematic and biblical theology.  It exhibits a glaring deficiency in both to claim, as does Charles Kapps, that Job "was sure not under the anointing" when he said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away."  Kapps calls this statement a "lie."  Similar quotations can be multiplied.

Systematic Theology

The call for a systematic theology may seem elitist, as if every Faith Movement televagelist should have a Ph.D.  But this is not the case.  Such a call does not need to sound threatening.  Systematic theology aims at nothing more than an orderly presentation of the teachings of Scripture.  It seeks to "round up" all biblical data on a particular subject and form a conclusion as to what the Bible teaches on that subject.  Eventually a systematic order of beliefs is in place, not a grid that we press upon the Bible, but an order that we construct from the Bible.  Scripture repeatedly argues for the need to develop a sound doctrinal position (Titus 1:9).  

Frankly, it cannot be threatening.  No student of Scripture engages himself in the interpretive process without a "systematic theology" already in place, whether consciously or unconsciously, partially or fully, whether it is profound or shallow, straight or twisted, right or wrong.  This applies to Jesus (Matthew 7:28), the Pharisees (Matthew 16:2), the Apostles (Acts 5:28), and to everyone else.  From one's own doctrinal perspective, anything that is espoused must appear "good" (Proverbs 4:2, N.K.J.V.), "true" (1 Timothy 4:6), "sound" (Titus 1:9; or "wholesome"), the "opposite" of all this (see 1 Timothy 1:10), or simply "new" (Mark 1:27).

That is not to say that systematic theology should dominate the interpretive process.  It may never dictate the meaning of the biblical text or in any way be its final determinant.  The text should always speak for itself.  What it does not say it cannot mean.  Neither is this to propagate the intellectualizing of the biblical message.    The ultimate aim is not the intellectual grasp of the truth, but the submission in heart and the conformity in life to God in response to that truth.

But it is to ask for the recognition of the fact that everyone enters into the hermeneutical process with some kind of systematic theology, good or bad, the influence of which must not be underestimated.  In view of this it would be irresponsible not to develop the best systematic theology possible.  Too much depends upon it.  Although it may not impose or determine meaning, systematic theology can insure that no interpretation of a particular text clashes with any part of God's revealed truth.  It provides the parameters for possible and acceptable meaning.  Systematic theology is a watchdog then specifically equipped to challenge our interpretation of any passage when our interpretation conflicts with the overall biblical view of God, man, Christ, the Spirit, salvation, the church and the consummation.  One can fail or neglect to build a systematic theology only at one's own peril.  

In short, the parts can never be interpreted apart from the whole.  The individual pieces, in other words, have to fit the total system.  Of course, it is also true that the whole cannot be grasped apart from the parts.  In fact, the individual pieces must be allowed to perfect or change the system whenever and wherever that is necessary.  Ideally speaking, a "spiral" should be in evidence in which one's doctrinal position "checks" one's interpretation of a text and one's interpretation of a text "balances" one's doctrinal position.  But the run of the mill Faith Movement electronic message has such a glaring need for a properly developed systematic theology that in this context the emphasis upon one side of the spiral!  The deficiency in the systematic understanding of many modern day Faith Movement televangelists will be substantiated in further detail in upcoming blogs.


For more information on Victory Churches and the Faith Movement, go to the Reference Library.  Click on any book title to get a brief overview of the book.  All books on the list are available through www.amazon.com.