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?

Paul Yonggi Cho's False Teachings

Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho pastors the world's largest church (600,000 members). He claims God spoke to him and revealed these new teachings. Cho offers a "law" of faith involving "incubating our subconsciousness" through visions, visualization (mental imaging directed toward a specific goal), and dreams. According to Cho, our subconscious is our spirit and our spirit is linked to the fourth dimension, the spiritual world. Because the spiritual world is always forming and shaping the physical world, and because we are linked in our subconscious to the spiritual world, we have power to shape it, and therefore to also shape this world. Thus, physical reality may be altered in accordance with the visualized desires.

Then God spoke to my heart, "Son, as the second dimension [e.g., a plane] includes and controls the first dimension [e.g., a line], and the third dimension [e.g., a cube] includes and controls the second dimension, so the fourth dimension [the spirit world] includes and controls the third dimension, producing a creation of order and beauty. The spirit is the fourth dimension. Every human being is a spiritual being as well as a physical being. They have the fourth dimension as well as the third dimension in their hearts."

Cho goes on to explain that by exploring the sphere of fourth dimension through visualization we can, by faith, "brood over and incubate the third dimension, influencing and changing it. This is what the Holy Spirit taught me."

In other words, all people have the innate ability to magically control creation by using the powers of their mind.

Thus, "God gave power to human beings to control the material world and to have dominion over material things, responsibility they can carry out through the fourth dimension." Just as non-Christians can join their human spirit with the spirit of the "evil fourth dimension" in order to produce miracles, so Christians can "link our spirit's fourth dimension to the fourth dimension of the holy Father...[and] become fantastically creative, and ... exercise great control and power over the third dimension [i.e., the material creation]."

By picturing what we desire inwardly in our subconsconcious mind, we somehow enter and/or manipulate "the fourth dimension" (the spiritual world) in order to actually produce miracles for us in the physical realm, the third dimension. Thus, "What becomes pregnant in your heart and mind is going to come out in your circumstances...Your word actually goes out and creates [reality]. God spoke and the whole world came into being. Your word is the material which the Holy Spirit uses to create."

Cho believes this fourth dimension principle not only has been the key to revolutionizing his ministry, but that it is necessary for all Christian ministry as well. Apart from manipulating the fourth dimension, the Church cannot be effective in Christian living or evangelism.

But is visualization really the "secret" of victorious praying and the "deeper language" of the Holy Spirit? 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?

Cho has recently 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, health, and prosperity as outlined in his book, we cannot even properly understand the Bible. "Like blind men touching an elephant to comprehend its shape, those of us who read the Bible without this foundation cannot understand or interpret fully what we read."

In essence "The believer should not be limited to the three-dimensional plane, but should go beyond that into the fourth-dimensional plane of reality. We should live in the spirit...Your success or failure depends upon your fourth-dimensional thinking: visions and dreams." And, "God is linked to those who follow His example of incubating results through visions and dreams" because God wants Christians to "grow in [their] fourth-dimensional capabilities."

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to distinguish what Cho teaches from what the mind sciences teach. In essence, Christians can use similar techniques to those in the mind sciences, but for Christian purposes. Men can do tremendous miracles merely by contacting the fourth dimension and mentally incubating its inherent capacities to influence creation. If this sounds like magic, perhaps it is. But isn't it at least possible that such a teaching will confuse Christians as to the nature of sanctification or even make them susceptible to similar techniques and methods in the world of the cults and the occult?

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

The Grand Poo-Bah says,

"Have you ever heard such drivel in your life before? How is it possible that intelligent, thinking people can be suckered in by this garbage and believe it to be true? The only answer that I can think of is that the followers of these leaders want the teachings to be true. It's not enough that Jesus died to save us from our sins. These leaders believe that if Jesus only died for our sins, people will not be interested in Christianity so they came up with a plan to offer more than forgiveness of sins as part of the plan of salvation. They've added health and wealth and the ability to manipulate your environment as incentives to accept Jesus as your personal Saviour. What a slap in the face to Jesus our Saviour who endured such pain and suffering on the Cross to secure forgiveness for our sins and make available a home in heaven for all eternity. The Resurrection has now been turned into a 'bag of goodies' which you have been promised by these charlatans that you will receive if you come to Christ. What could they possibly say to the Sovereign of the Universe on Judgment Day for having committed such a travesty?"