WOF teachings?

Goodbook

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I don't know where to put this so will do here.

I was on another forum and thought ok everyone christian, I will treat everyone like Jesus did and also learn the Bible together. It was not divided into denoms so I thought ok. Wonderful.

But then I find that...something weird going on.
There's one or two people always on there and seem whatever I post they kinda do the opposite, like point out every flaw if I happen to do a typo and insinuate that I don't have any blessing and I need to learn more because they are rich and give heaps to charity and that I must be unhappy and selfish because I among other things got sick and had a cold!

As far as I know, there is no cure for the common cold and yes, you can rebuke a fever but not a cold (I have tried).
Is this WOF teaching? Or is it Christian Science...which is kinda the same?

BTW I just eat chicken soup, which is also good for the soul. Also people on there, lot of them seem to think America is the same as Israel. So they talk all the time about blessing Israel etc. I found out this was dispensationalism. Which I was thankfully, not sucked into.

in Galatians it says that anyone bringing another gospel will be accursed. I'm thinking they have another gospel. What do I do..just stay away and let them keep arguing among themselves? Always seems to be some kind of arguing going on and whenever someone joins it's like welcome, and then...I get the distinct impression if you don't give to our ministries, you're not gonna get blessed! Maybe they want people to pay to keep the site running? And only the ones that pay to be on there have any real say in discussion?

They also, some of them, seem absolutely fine with occult symbols. IDK. Just want to know what's going on. Its only a few people, but seems spoil it for the rest.
 

Goodbook

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I just wanted to hang out on a forum thats christians are friendly not judging you how much money you earn and can give to them. :-(
I like this part of the forum cos in general people ask each other for help and happy to give biblical advice. For free.
 
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Goodbook

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BTW it is not part of this forums. I am not complaining about this one. I mean its not perfect..but, at least, I don't get an evil vibe from it. Although some parts are no go areas for me. Just wondering about the WOF thing. Also known as prosperity gospel/name it claim it/health wealth. A lady in the church I used to attend, I think maybe she succumbed to it as the books she was donating to the library when I was setting it up had a lot of that stuff in it. She was the one that died and her body got burned up. When she got ill she said some things to me that were a bit strange. Other church members were concerned too.
 
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Albion

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As far as I know, there is no cure for the common cold and yes, you can rebuke a fever but not a cold (I have tried).
Is this WOF teaching? Or is it Christian Science...which is kinda the same?
They're nowhere near the same, but since both of these churches are well outside the mainstream, I'd recommend hanging out on one of the more usual denominational forums. You list yourself as "Christian" when it comes to denomination, so maybe the non-denominational forum. I'm sure you can find one that's closer to your belief system than those two (WOF or Christian Science).
 
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BFine

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Reminds me of the other Christian forum I use to belong to before they
closed their doors... that type of behavior lead to many Christians who
tried to uphold biblical standards to leave that site.
I wasn't surprised when I found out a little while later, that site was no
longer in existence.

I know of one Christian site that's pretty exclusive... you can't just go
join it, another Christian member of that site recommends you, then the
site mod(s) gets in contact with you and find out where you attend church,
how long you have been a Christian, etc. if your info is correct, then you
will be approved for membership.
 
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Goodbook

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oh gosh. Well at least I know I'm not alone. I think they banned me..but I was going to leave anyway. They would not let me discuss certain things. I also got quite annoyed when they would delete peoples entire threads without saying anything...and a lot of members disappeared without trace. I kinda knew something was up when people started arguing over the Bible and just refused to read what it actually said. Like they would have one verse and make it mean something completely opposite, while ignoring all the evidence around it elsewhere in scripture. Diabolical.

:-(
 
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Dave-W

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I spend over a decade in a WOF congregation so I got to know their theology fairly well. (I fought it constantly)

WOF believes in the power of confessing the Bible. (which is a good thing in and of itself) But often that means lying about what is true (if it is negative). And if you say or type something negative (even if true) then you are making a "negative confession" which handcuffs God and gives the devil free reign in your life.

For example: if you fall and break your arm, and it is hanging limp at your side, you cannot say your arm is broken. You have to say "By His stripes I WAS (past tense) healed;" meaning you do not have a broken arm. To say it is still broken (even though it clearly is) means you have no faith so God cannot work in your life; and it opens up the devil to do all kinds of other garbage in your life.
 
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Dave-W

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oh gosh. Well at least I know I'm not alone. I think they banned me..but I was going to leave anyway. They would not let me discuss certain things. I also got quite annoyed when they would delete peoples entire threads without saying anything...and a lot of members disappeared without trace. I kinda knew something was up when people started arguing over the Bible and just refused to read what it actually said. Like they would have one verse and make it mean something completely opposite, while ignoring all the evidence around it elsewhere in scripture.(

That is part of their "no negative confession" paranoia. Even to hear a negative confession and not immediatly rebuke it is to agree with it and all its bad influence comes on them as well. It makes us and our words more powerful than God and His word.
 
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LoricaLady

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I can't speak for those people but it has absolutely been my impression on other forums here that some people are absolutely preaching antiBiblical messages. Of course they want to recruit others to their side and squash dissent from it, too. I've seen, for ex., a fair number of atheists - especially in evolution vs. creation debates - and even a few avowed witches pushing anti Christian doctrines.

If you feel led by the Holy Spirit to debate such folk then of course go for it. Mho is that generally that will not be the case. In Proverbs we are told that if we argue with fools they will only get very angry with us. We are also told not to toss our pearls (of wisdom) to the swine nor to give what is holy to the dogs. Again, only the Holy Spirit can guide on that. I pray that He will, for you.
 
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Dave-W

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oh gosh. Well at least I know I'm not alone. I think they banned me..but I was going to leave anyway. They would not let me discuss certain things. I also got quite annoyed when they would delete peoples entire threads without saying anything...and a lot of members disappeared without trace. I kinda knew something was up when people started arguing over the Bible and just refused to read what it actually said. Like they would have one verse and make it mean something completely opposite, while ignoring all the evidence around it elsewhere in scripture. Diabolical.

There is a website that I have visited a couple of times. (never registered) I had heard tales. It is run by very conservative old line Church of Christ ministers. They will ban people for just asking the "wrong" question with no warning or anything. Of course those posts are immediatly deleted lest anyone else see the question.
 
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Goodbook

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Well, the funeral thread would never be allowed on the forum i was on. It seemed they only wanted to discuss 'positive and encouraging topics' so..something like warnings of an economic downtown would be encouraging, but warning people about the mark of the beast would not be. (Since they all believed everyone be raptured before then)

I had heard of a strange teaching that orignated in america (as a lot os pseudo christian self help books are published there) that all the worlds money at the end times would transfer into the hands of american christians. Lol. It was like they believed the kIngdom would come to america because they supported (i.e gave money) to the nation of israel. So..according to some crazy mixed up logic, they were blessed if they blessed (ie. Gave money) to zionist causes and every other country was cursed because they had supposedly they cursed zionist israel. Ignoring the fact that..there is a new covenant and gentiles are grafted into believing israel through Jesus. And the sermon on the mount was quite clear that blessings does not actually mean giving money. And the book of acts is quite clear that the holy spirit can never be bought or sold. And christians do not curse anyway...we are meant to bless our enemies. So I could easily point out something like their irrational fear of muslims and hypocrisy in that area, considering 911 that america actually buys all their oil really cheaply and are not willing to give that up cos of their lifestyle. So they in league with them anyway.

But that would be kinda needling them a bit. They dont care about who israel really is. Its always america this or that. American christians going to be raptured cos they oh so special and blessed. Im like hello? The world does not revolve around america. Christians are from every tongue, nation and tribe here. Is there twink in your Bible?

Then i point out people dying or being killed for their faith but they dont want to know that! jesus is going to rescue them before they are put to any kind of test, of course! Rescued and raptured invisibly and then people going to wonder if aliens stole them. Right. Nobody is going to die! Uh...small problem. jesus actually DIED on the cross. And no matter how much you point out the bible saying the dead inchrist will rise first and we going to be gathered together at the end. They will always kind of screw that over and say...something weird about how left behind fiction books are literally true etc.

I give up.
 
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Goodbook

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I spend over a decade in a WOF congregation so I got to know their theology fairly well. (I fought it constantly)

WOF believes in the power of confessing the Bible. (which is a good thing in and of itself) But often that means lying about what is true (if it is negative). And if you say or type something negative (even if true) then you are making a "negative confession" which handcuffs God and gives the devil free reign in your life.

For example: if you fall and break your arm, and it is hanging limp at your side, you cannot say your arm is broken. You have to say "By His stripes I WAS (past tense) healed;" meaning you do not have a broken arm. To say it is still broken (even though it clearly is) means you have no faith so God cannot work in your life; and it opens up the devil to do all kinds of other garbage in your life.
es, the lady i knew was always quoting that verse as if by saying it was so, she would be instantly healed.
I thought confession meant confessing your faults and sins to God...but they are clearly meaning something totally opposite.
 
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Dave-W

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Yes, the lady i knew was always quoting that verse as if by saying it was so, she would be instantly healed.
I thought confession meant confessing your faults and sins to God...but they are clearly meaning something totally opposite.

"Confess" means to "say the same as." Con (with) fess (say)

So there is confessing of sin and there is confessing of HIM as Lord. (Rom 10.9-10) And there is a place for confessing God's word.

Where WOF gets it wrong is based on this: "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (rhema) of God." Rom 10.17.

So to get faith to be healed or what ever) they take a verse that they see as fitting the situation and start saying it over and over so they can "hear" it. Rhema means a spoken (as opposed to a written) word. But the text says GOD needs to be saying it, not them. So in all their confession they are tricking themselves into believing it is God saying it when it is really themselves.

Derek Prince once described this approach as turning God into a "cosmic vending machine." You place your coin in the slot by confessing the right scripture, pull the knob and out pops your blessing.

In that scenario - who is really calling the shots - God or us?
 
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Goodbook

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The word of God is Jesus!
Faith comes from hearing Jesus!
I could read and repeat the Old Testament over and over and over and nobody would ever come to faith that way if they never heard the gospel that Jesus declared!

?! weird. They obviously never read any if the verses surrounding that verse either.
 
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Dave-W

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The word of God is Jesus!
Faith comes from hearing Jesus!
The Word of God is used 3 different ways in the bible:
The written word is the bible.
The Living word is Yeshua/Jesus.
The spoken word is just that and can come from the Father, the Son or the Spirit.

I could read and repeat the Old Testament over and over and over and nobody would ever come to faith that way if they never heard the gospel that Jesus declared!
Many of the evangelists in our Messianic movement can and do lead people to faith in Yeshua/Jesus using no NT scriptures at all.
It is all in the OT if you know how to unearth it.
 
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High Fidelity

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Not sure if Prosperity Theology is commonplace is WOF, but it's enough to keep me well, well away.

People like Joel Osteen are a good example, at least in my opinion, of what's wrong with modern Christianity.

So yes, in the grand scheme of things I think WOF will be a lot different to what most people are used to.
 
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Dave-W

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Yeah - "Prosperity" is a major plank in WOF theology.

Some common (negative) descriptors of WOF theology that particularily apply to the prosperity message:

"Name it and Claim it"
"Confess it Possess it"
"Blab it and Grab it"
 
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Hospes

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It seems to me that kind of thinking makes the person to be God and God to be some kind of genie you always wanting stuff from.
Agreed. Another way I see it is that WOF sees God as a vending machine and your currency is "faith". If you have enough "faith", you simply have to deposit it into the machine correctly to get what you want. If you're not getting anything from the machine, then it's because you don't have enough "faith" or don't know how to properly work the machine. To put it mildly: it is a horrendously low view of God, making him our servant - as you wrote our genie - and simply a means to our ends.

Anyone who knows the living God, creator of the universe, immutable, self-sufficient, frighteningly glorious, would not for a nanosecond think he is a puppet.
 
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Goodbook

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Thinking on this..they probably looked at me weird thinking I didnt know how to work their machine.
For example. One was always asking some kind of question to do with faith. Saying faith was key. Yes its true. But then he would add that ppl didnt know how to 'use' faith. He then started saying a bunch of stuff that sounded like Christians Science teaching. Like the key to good health was repeating certain scriptures out loud.

Im sure this is what this church lady did. She would repeat by his stripes I am healed over and over. I heard through church that she actually had some kind of cancer but she would never admit to it. It seems like..these kinds of believers want to believe they already immortal?? Even when evidence is so to the contrary? That they are already living in a kingdom so they entitled to every luxury and worldly riches as thats how God wants them to live? And that anyone poor and sick simply doesnt have any faith?
 
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