Errors of Positive Confession and Consequences

Consider the following illustrations of Positive Confession Belief and ask yourself the following questions.

1. Would God reveal such teachings to His people for their welfare?
2. Are these formulas or words found in the Bible?
3. Are they based on trusting God or upon a presumption?
4. Are they reflecting the life and teachings of Jesus?
5. Do they make sense, or are they irrational?
6. Are they wise or foolish -- or could they be dangerous?

E. W. Kenyon

". . . When God imparts to us His nature, there comes with it all the attributes of God Himself.  They are undeveloped but they are there lying latent in our human spirits."

Kenneth Hagin 

"Give what you can't afford."
"God wants His children to . . . wear the best clothing.  He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything . . . just claim what you need."
"Too few people today know that they can write their own ticket with God."

Kenneth Copeland

"As a born again believer, you have the same spiritual capacity Jesus has."
"Believers are not to be led by logic.  We are not even to be led by good sense . . . .  The ministry of Jesus was never governed by logic or reason."

Charles Capps

"He [God] said, [to Capps] . . . I am not the one causing your problems.  You are under an attack of the evil one and I can't do anything about it.  You have bound me by the negative words of your mouth."
"We have said, 'Oh, it looks like the wicked prosper.'  Well, we said they were, that is one reason they are prospering."
"In fact, I am convinced the only thing you can't have here on earth is the glorified body.  You can have the kingdom [of heaven] and the benefits of it right here on earth."

Robert Tilton

"[re: John 15:7] Jesus didn't put any limits on this . . . .  You are wall-to-wall Jesus . . . the miraculous should be commonplace in every church . . . He [Jesus] was talking about demanding your rights and having restored back to you what the devil stole from man in the fall!"

Paul Yonggi Cho

Dr. Cho is one of the less extreme Positive Confession teachers.  He claims God spoke to him and revealed His teachings about the "law" of faith involving "incubating our subconscious through visions, visualization (mental imaging directed toward a specific goal), and dreams. . . .  Physical reality may be altered in accordance with the visualized desires.  By picturing what we desire inwardly in our subconscious mind, we somehow enter an/or manipulate "the fourth dimension" in order to actually permit God to produce miracles for us in the physical realm. . . .  Your word actually goes out and creates [reality].  Cho believes that genuine pagan miracles are part of the potential of the human spirit . . . .  Visualization is held to be the secret of victorious praying.  It is our mental power to alter the fourth dimension which produces effective ministry here on the earth.

But did God ever teach these things in the Bible?  Does God require of us a certain state of consciousness -- or simple trust in Him?  Do we have power over creation or does God?  Is visualization really the "deeper language" of the Holy Spirit?

Cho has recently and correctly rebuked the American Faith teachers for excesses and imbalance.  But in his book Salvation, Health and Prosperity he teaches that apart from knowing the truths of the threefold blessings of salvation, of health, and of prosperity, we cannot properly understand the Bible . . . .  He also teaches, "if Jesus is with us now, the same things which He did 2000 years ago should appear daily in our lives.  By this we can judge whether Jesus' sayings are true or not:  if these things are not happening among us, the promises of Jesus have become empty words to us."

Logical Consequences May Follow this Belief System

Without the slightest hesitation we may say the health and wealth gospel of Positive Confession is a blight upon the church.  It is a perverted gospel of cheap grace which reverses biblical values, produces fear and spiritual bondage or intimidation, holds out false promises, leads to false guilt and despair,  in some people, produces apostasy and in others results in personal tragedy.

For example, like Christian Scientists and Jehovah Witnesses, some Christian parents accepting the faith teachings have let their own children die by withholding from them life-saving medication.  They have done this under the mistaken assumption that, in spite of evidence to the contrary, their child was divinely healed.  Thus, to continue to give them medication would supposedly be a "lack of faith" in their divine healing.  Does anyone need to be told that teachings that cause the deaths of others are not godly, no matter how godly they sound?

The problems and destruction already wrought by these teachings is considerable, yet thousands of churches and millions of Christians continue to support these "ministries," while godly ministries suffer for lack of support.  Why would some Christians continue to supply the very funds without which these ministries could not exist?  Put simply, because they are promised what they want to believe.  "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3,4).

Are You Attending "The Church of the Itching Ear"?

If you attend "The Church of the Itching Ear", with all of its false teachings, are you going to heaven?

"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. 

False Prophesies and a "Born-Again" Jesus

Those who teach the "little gods" heresy have also embraced other serious errors.  Among them are (1) the teaching that Jesus never claimed to be God when on earth and (2) the belief that Jesus died on the cross spiritually as well as physically, assuming the nature of Satan, going to hell, suffering punishment at Satan's hand, and being "born again" in the resurrection.  All of this had to happen, it is said, for our Lord to be our complete Saviour.  Deriving such blasphemies from E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth Copeland offered his followers and alleged prophesy from Jesus Christ Himself:  "Don't be disturbed when people accuse you of thinking you are God. . . .  They crucified me  for claiming that I was God.  But I didn't claim that I was God;  I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in me.  Hallelujah, that's what you're doing."

Elaborating on this later, Copeland declared, "I didn't say Jesus wasn't God.  I said He didn't claim to be God when He lived on earth."  In response to his many critics, Copeland said, "Search the Gospels for yourself.  If you do, you will find what I say is true."  Having done just that, we find that what he says is not true and that Jesus contradicted him in the Gospel of John by affirming He was the great I AM of Exodus 3, for which the Jews sought to stone Him, claiming blasphemy as their ground.  They understood what apparently escaped Kenneth Copeland (i.e., that Jesus claimed deity).  Prophesies such as Copeland's do not originate with Christ or the Holy Spirit, and Scripture flatly rejects them as false.  We are, therefore, warned not to fear false prophets (Deut. 18:22).

In his Phillipians epistle, Paul confirms Christ's own self-understanding:  "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  Who, [existing or never ceasing to be in the form of God] nevertheless: took upon Him the form of a servant." (2:5-7, KJV).

The "born-again" Jesus concept perverts, on the other hand, the doctrine of Christ's finished work on the cross, as demonstrated in the following quotations:

It was not sufficient for Christ to offer up only His physical life on the cross.  His human spirit had to  "descend into hell" . . . .  While Christ was identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner.  During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him what he would, and all hell was "in carnival." (Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, pp. 83-84.)

Jesus is the first person ever to be born again.  Why did His spirit need to be born again?  Because it was estranged from God . . . .  What is spiritual death?  The opposite of spiritual life . . . .  Spiritual death means something more than separation from God.  Spiritual death also means HAVING SATAN'S NATURE . . . .  When one is born again, he takes upon himself the nature of God.  Sin is more than a physical act; it is a spiritual act.  He became what we were, that we might become what He is . . . .  His spirit was separated from God.  And He went down into hell in our place.  (Kenneth E. Hagin, The Name of Jesus, pp. 29-32)

If Jesus paid the full penalty of sin on the cross only, that is, by His physical death alone, then sin is wholly a physical act . . . .  Jesus' work was not finished when He yielded up His physical life on the cross.   (Billheimer, Destined for the Throne, p. 94.)

It is unnecessary to analyze this error further.  It proclaims itself.  When Scripture speaks of Christ's being made sin for us (II Cor. 5:21), both the context and grammar indicate that He became a "sin offering,"  of which Isaiah spoke (Isaiah 53:4-7, 10) and which is duly recognized by a footnote on the passage in the New International Version.


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. 

1. Why Would God Allow Dedicated Christians To . . .

. . . Experience the Sign and Revelatory Gifts if they are not from Him?

Some evangelical churches have lapsed into cold, lifeless formalism.  They may be doctrinally right, but they may have lost their fervent love and zeal for God.  If a Pentecostal/Charismatic church has a high regard for the Bible, prayer, soul-winning zeal and a willingness to attempt great things for God, then this fills a void left by less-emotional churches.  Among these good things there resides a deceiving cancer that undermines the good that is being done.  This cancer is the matter of new revelations from God, of tongues, prophecy, words of knowledge, visions or dreams.

Neil Babcox, a former charismatic pastor left the charismatic church because of this issue.  He says, "When a prophet said "Thus said the Lord"", he meant that the very Word of God was being proclaimed, with infallibility, purity and divine authority.  The prophecies that I had spoken and heard others speak paled and diminished to the point of nothingness compared with the Bible".

Ezekiel protested "Thus saith the Lord God, Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!"  Ezekiel 13:3.

Isn't that what we were -- "prophets who had seen nothing?"

When the genuine prophets of God spoke, they spoke with certainty regarding every word.  This finds no parallel today.  The Bible's prophets knew with 100% certainty that they were speaking the very words of God.

"The spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me." Ezekiel 2:2.

Many who prophesy and claim to speak new revelations from God today know in their own hearts that they don't have the certainty of the Bible prophets, yet they continue to speak "new" revelations.

"Then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name:  I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them:  they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart".  Jeremiah 14:14.

It is no small thing to claim to speak new revelation from God, given the deception of Mormon prophecy.

This emphasis on new revelation undermines the authority of Scripture.  Dave Hunt rebukes the positive and possibility thinking of Paul Yonggi Cho and Robert Schuller with their occultish visualisation techniques, temptation to power and deification of man which is invading the church.

Charismatics teach that a proper understanding of Scripture does not come through correct interpretation, but through revelation (only to certain leaders), and that these new revelations supplement the Bible, and that these must be accepted as a "great move of God". 

•  Charismatics often say:  "...we have revelation knowledge as God continues to speak to His people".  This sounds really spiritual, but it is in fact adding to Scripture.

Because the Scriptures are perfect, we cannot add to them.

• John Wimber states:  "rational control (of the mind) must be forfeited for tongues speaking to occur, for ecstatic worship, for messages from God to be received directly into the mind, and for miraculous healings to happen".

• Charismatics Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin's heresies were exposed in "The Agony of Deceit". (available at www.amazon.com)

Kenneth Copeland claimed that Jesus spoke new revelation to him, saying:  "Jesus did not come to earth as God, but only as a man;  Jesus never claimed to be God during His earthly ministry".

• John White, a famous author, claims that Jesus Christ personally appeared to him on three occasions to give new revelation that would become part of Scripture.

[This is an excellent tool which true Christians can use to quickly identify those who are charlatans claiming to be Christians.  Any one who claims to receive special revelation knowledge, therefore adding to Scripture, or uses the phrase "God told me" can immediately be dismissed as a charlatan and a liar.  The Copelands and the Wimbers of this world need to feel the full wrath of every true Christian today.  They need to be called out publicaly on this issue.]

The Faith Movement, the Cults and the Occult

The relationship between Faith teachings and cultic theology.

Most Faith teachers have publicly stated that they are not teaching "Christian Science," "Mind Science," or "New Thought." This seems to indicate that even the Faith teachers recognize their similarities to cultic systems or at least awareness of the charges that others have made.

Nevertheless, despite the disclaimers, in many places their Faith teachings are either similar or nearly identical to those found in the Mind Science religions. The concepts of :

1. positive confession
2. prosperity and success
3. divine health
4. manipulation of creation
5. sensory denial
6. rejection of medical science

All of these teachings can be traced to the cultic Mind Science theologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Unity School of Christianity, New Thought, and Science of Mind. (These three groups, along with the Faith Movement, also teach that "negative confession" can produce disease, tragedy, and even death.)

In fact, some teachings and practices found in the Faith Movement are also found in other unbiblical religions and cults. For example, the concept of believers being "gods" or having divine powers is found in Mormonism and Armstrongism. The practice of "decreeing" things into existence can be seen in some occult and Eastern groups such as The Church Universal and Triumphant, and Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.

Perhaps all this is why charismatic historian D.R. McConnell so readily documents the cultic origin of the Faith Movement through E.W. Kenyon:

[The modern Father of the Faith Movement Kenneth Hagin plagiarized in word and content the bulk of his theology from E.W. Kenyon. All of the Faith teachers, including Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, whether they admit it or not, are the spiritual sons and grandsons of E.W. Kenyon. It was Kenyon, not Hagin, who formulated every major doctrine of the modern Faith Movement...The roots of Kenyon's theology may be traced to his personal background in the metaphysical cults, specifically New Thought and Christian Science...Kenyon attempted to forge a synthesis of metaphysical and evangelical thought...the result in Faith theology is a strange mixture of biblical fundamentalism and New Thought metaphysics.]

For example, consider how cultic influences have intertwined themselves in the doctrine of healing:

The Faith theology of healing is based, not on the ability to detect physical symptoms but to deny them. The physical symptoms are not real. They will become real, however, if the believer acknowledges their existence and fails to apply the principles of spiritual healing. Only people who do not know how to believe God for spiritual healing resort to medical science. The Faith view of medical science is cultic...and is the same view preached by the founder of 19th century metaphysics, P.P. Quimby.

(from The Facts on the Faith Movement by John Ankerberg and John Weldon).

Kenneth Hagin's False Teachings

Kenneth Hagin, Jr. believes that his Faith teachings are "the secret of success with God." Kenneth Hagin, Sr. argues that "Christians should have super-prosperity and super-success"! Thus, on one occasion God allegedly told him that He expects His people to meet in the very best places in town.

Interestingly, the Hagins, along with Tilton and Copeland, concede that the Faith message isn't working too well. Nevertheless, progressing upward from positive confession, they now emphasize the "commanding power" of the believer that was purchased for them at Calvary:

...The greatest fact from God's Word: commanding power...that every...child of God is capable of operating...Commanding is different from confession...Our problem is that we have been doing a lot of praying and a lot of confessing, but we haven't been doing any commanding.

God told Hagin, Sr. verbally,

"In the first place...don't pray about money anymore...Claim whatever you need." ... The Lord continued, "You say, 'Satan take your hands off my money!' ...Say, 'I claim..., 'naming whatever it is you want or need.' ...I said to the Lord, "Now Lord, I can't believe that you want us to meet our needs -- but our wants?" He replied..."in the 23rd Psalm...it says, 'The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not WANT.'" ... [Thus, God continues] "Claim whatever you need or want. Say 'Satan, take your hands off my finances.' Then say, 'Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.'"

(Perhaps this explains why Hagin wrote the booklet, How to Write Your Own Ticket with God.)

Thus Hagin proceeds with: "Can you see what he was saying? Turn your order in! Send the ministering spirits out to get it by saying, 'Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.'" In another place Hagin explains, "The devil is the one who stops money from coming to you...The Lord told me several years ago as I was complaining about needing money, ' Well, I can't do anything about it. It's up to you. You command it to come in Jesus' name...You even can speak to the angels, 'he told me, 'and they will go to work for you...'"

Hagin further teaches that "sickness and disease are of Satan...It is not the will of God for Christians to be ill." He believes that prayers made in hope are made in vain and that trusting God from the heart without positive confession is not enough: "Nowhere does the Bible teach that if you just believe in your heart you will get an answer." Hagin also teaches that faith is a tangible force/power and that fear is an evil spirit: "I always have treated fear as if it were a spirit..."

Finally, Hagin still believes that Christians know God through their spirits, not their minds. Because the inner spirit is the "real" man and the Holy Spirit communicates with the inner spirit, He does not communicate with our minds. This is why our spirits must dominate our minds. (cf. Romans 12:2; Luke 24:25; Hebrews 8:10; 1 Corinthians 14:32).

Despite Hagin, Sr.'s apparently great faith, in his own books he confesses that he regularly forgets Scriptural truth and has a problem with staying in the will of God. Indeed, at times he seems to be out of God's will as much as he is in it. This is so in spite of the fact that he gets regular visions -- and at least eight personal visits (so far) from Jesus -- to encourage him and keep him on the proper path. If Jesus was really guiding Kenneth Hagin, Sr., one can but wonder, would he have the kinds of problems he confesses? For example, why did even God have to tell him that "another trouble with you is that you don't practice what you preach"?

(From The Facts on the Faith Movement by John Ankerberg & John Weldon)

Confessing It Means Possessing It

Word Faith celebrity, Kenneth Copeland, says, "What you are saying is exactly what you are getting now. If you are living in poverty, in lack and want, change what you are saying...The powerful force of the spiritual world that creates the circumstances around us is controlled by the words of the mouth." Kenneth E. Hagin, who served for many years as Copeland's mentor, echoes his protege: "Your right confession will become a reality, and then you will get whatever you need from God."

Positively confessing something is the very first step to getting what is wanted (i.e., healing, a new boat, someone to marry, etc.). The "force of faith" coupled with a carefully conceived positive confession is really the only way to produce results because such methods are what releases God's ability to bring about the things desired: "God's word conceived in the heart, then formed with the tongue and spoken out of the mouth becomes a spiritual force releasing the ability of God."

The stress placed on correct "speaking" often leads to some rather interesting instructions on how to "make" God work:

What do you need? Start creating it. Start speaking about it. Start speaking it into being. Speak to your billfold. Say, "You big, thick billfold, full of money." Speak to your chequebook. Say, "You, chequebook, you. You have never been so prosperous since I owned you. You're just jammed full of money." Say to your body, "You're whole, body! Why, you just function so beautifully and so well. Why, body, you never have any problems. You're a strong healthy body." Or speak to your leg, or speak to your foot, or speak to your neck, or speak to your back...Speak to your wife, speak to your husband, speak to your circumstances; and speak faith to them to create in them and God will create in them what you are speaking.

This exhortation, as humourous as it sounds, masks a cruelty that comes through whenever someone in the Word Faith movement faces trials. Just as positive words have the power to create positive (good) results, negative words have the power to create negative (bad) results, at least to the Word Faith followers. Consequently, those suffering have only themselves to blame, say the Word Faith teachers. As Frederick K.C. Price says, "If you keep talking death, that is what you are going to have. If you keep talking sickness and disease, that is what you are going to have, because you are going to create the reality of them with your own mouth. That is a divine law." (Walter Martin)