- Mar 28, 2005
- 21,816
- 10,795
- 76
- Country
- New Zealand
- Faith
- Charismatic
- Marital Status
- Married
When I became a Christian in the late 1960s, the books by E.W. Kenyon were popular among Pentecostals. I read a number of his books and found them insightful and encouraging. I learned that I am the righteousness of God in Christ through his writing.
What I found was that his version of 'confession of faith' was that we confess God's Word out loud to enhance our faith. It goes along with "Believe in the heart concerning righteousness and confession of the mouth for salvation." He wrote bring out attention to what the Word of God said about us, and that we should believe it and confess it.
It is said that Kenyon was the initiator of the modern Word-Faith movement. Some have questioned some of the elements that influenced him, but these don't come through in the books I read. The only theological bit that I disagree with is that Jesus went to hell between the Cross and the Throne, something that the modern Word-Faith teachers assert.
But Kenyon's teaching was nothing like modern Word-Faith prosperity teaching. He never used "naming and claiming" to get a bigger bank balance, bigger house, the latest luxury motor car, or a fleet of private jets to travel around the world. What Kenyon concentrated on was to have stronger faith in God's Word. I did not detect anything like: "If you believe hard enough, it will happen", as modern Word-Faith teachers would have their disciples believe.
But in the last ten years, we have seen a rise of Word-Faith prosperity teachers that promise greater wealth in return for a "seed faith" offering, not to the poor, but to their own ministries. Kenneth Copeland said that giving to the poor instead of his ministry was akin to losing God's blessing of prosperity. The only way to prosperity was to give to his ministry. Benny Hinn promises guaranteed physical healing if people give $1000 to his ministry.
The problem with that is as with any pyramid scheme, it is the man at the top who gets the most wealth, while those further down get little or nothing. The promises of prosperity and guaranteed healing never seem to materialise in spite of the talk and motivational speech making.
Also, we have a Word-Faith teacher telling us that God only does what we give Him permission to do, and another saying that to be like Jesus is to become little 'gods' and are able to do what Jesus did. They say that Jesus was not God while on earth, but just a man empowered by the Holy Spirit, that He only became God when He was resurrected. These teachings are just plain blasphemy and heresy. In the light of teaching like these, one can come only to one conclusion: these false teachers teaching another gospel, and therefore are outside of the Christian faith. They are not born again.
E W Kenyon never taught these heresies. He encouraged his readers to abide by the Word of God, to confess it by faith, and personalise the promises for themselves. His book, "The Father And His Family" is a powerful account of the Gospel and clearly describes how Jesus paid our debt of sin when He suffered and died on the Cross, rose again on the third day, and presented His blood in the heavenly Holy of Holies, and is now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.
The modern Word-Faith movement teaches none of this, nor do they teach repentance from sin. They teach that being Christian is to be healthy, wealthy and motivated to have positive thoughts about themselves. They teach that any kind of negative thinking robs people of the blessing. Kenyon never taught those things.
It is a tragedy that the Word-Faith movement, a small part of the Charismatic movement, looked upon mainly as outside of the mainstream in the 1970s-80s, has now overtaken much of the mainstream that the waters are so muddied, that true, Bible-believing Charismatics are hidden under the weight of the false teachers and prophets. It is a fulfillment of Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares. Some have tried to weed out the false teachers and prophets, but in the process, true Charismatics are being harmed and disillusioned, with many abandoning the movement and even adopting cessationism.
I think that true, Bible-believing, and Reformed Charismatics should take a stronger stand in calling out and opposing the false Word-Faith teachers and prophets, instead of feeling threatened and defensive toward those who are doing what they can to expose and call the false teachers and prophets out by teaching what the Scriptures actually say what the true Gospel of Christ is.
What I found was that his version of 'confession of faith' was that we confess God's Word out loud to enhance our faith. It goes along with "Believe in the heart concerning righteousness and confession of the mouth for salvation." He wrote bring out attention to what the Word of God said about us, and that we should believe it and confess it.
It is said that Kenyon was the initiator of the modern Word-Faith movement. Some have questioned some of the elements that influenced him, but these don't come through in the books I read. The only theological bit that I disagree with is that Jesus went to hell between the Cross and the Throne, something that the modern Word-Faith teachers assert.
But Kenyon's teaching was nothing like modern Word-Faith prosperity teaching. He never used "naming and claiming" to get a bigger bank balance, bigger house, the latest luxury motor car, or a fleet of private jets to travel around the world. What Kenyon concentrated on was to have stronger faith in God's Word. I did not detect anything like: "If you believe hard enough, it will happen", as modern Word-Faith teachers would have their disciples believe.
But in the last ten years, we have seen a rise of Word-Faith prosperity teachers that promise greater wealth in return for a "seed faith" offering, not to the poor, but to their own ministries. Kenneth Copeland said that giving to the poor instead of his ministry was akin to losing God's blessing of prosperity. The only way to prosperity was to give to his ministry. Benny Hinn promises guaranteed physical healing if people give $1000 to his ministry.
The problem with that is as with any pyramid scheme, it is the man at the top who gets the most wealth, while those further down get little or nothing. The promises of prosperity and guaranteed healing never seem to materialise in spite of the talk and motivational speech making.
Also, we have a Word-Faith teacher telling us that God only does what we give Him permission to do, and another saying that to be like Jesus is to become little 'gods' and are able to do what Jesus did. They say that Jesus was not God while on earth, but just a man empowered by the Holy Spirit, that He only became God when He was resurrected. These teachings are just plain blasphemy and heresy. In the light of teaching like these, one can come only to one conclusion: these false teachers teaching another gospel, and therefore are outside of the Christian faith. They are not born again.
E W Kenyon never taught these heresies. He encouraged his readers to abide by the Word of God, to confess it by faith, and personalise the promises for themselves. His book, "The Father And His Family" is a powerful account of the Gospel and clearly describes how Jesus paid our debt of sin when He suffered and died on the Cross, rose again on the third day, and presented His blood in the heavenly Holy of Holies, and is now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.
The modern Word-Faith movement teaches none of this, nor do they teach repentance from sin. They teach that being Christian is to be healthy, wealthy and motivated to have positive thoughts about themselves. They teach that any kind of negative thinking robs people of the blessing. Kenyon never taught those things.
It is a tragedy that the Word-Faith movement, a small part of the Charismatic movement, looked upon mainly as outside of the mainstream in the 1970s-80s, has now overtaken much of the mainstream that the waters are so muddied, that true, Bible-believing Charismatics are hidden under the weight of the false teachers and prophets. It is a fulfillment of Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares. Some have tried to weed out the false teachers and prophets, but in the process, true Charismatics are being harmed and disillusioned, with many abandoning the movement and even adopting cessationism.
I think that true, Bible-believing, and Reformed Charismatics should take a stronger stand in calling out and opposing the false Word-Faith teachers and prophets, instead of feeling threatened and defensive toward those who are doing what they can to expose and call the false teachers and prophets out by teaching what the Scriptures actually say what the true Gospel of Christ is.
