I know that we all feel that we often have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I feel that way lately but I feel energized by the Holy Spirit.
Last night I spent 5 1/2 hours studying the first 12 words of 2 Timothy. I was truly blessed in my study and praise God for His perseverance that lives in and through me.
I worked last night on some work for "One Step Further" my study with Pastor Wayne on Wednesdays. I told the group that I would give them a list of "Word Faith Prosperity Teachers". I went a step further to define their doctrine. For the sake of those who might be interested I'll cut and paste my document here.
God bless,
Pastor Eric
One Step Further(A study with Pastor Wayne Barber)
.
Hs. Eric S. HighlandBirch Tree Fellowship
.
Studies in 2 John and 3 John
.
Notes on Prosperity Teachers:
Also known as, “Prosperity Doctrine,” “Health and Wealth,” “Name It and Claim It,” or “Blab It and Grab It” (the latter term tends to be used by those who criticize the teaching).
.
The prosperity teaching is an aberrant doctrine, largely promoted by the Word Faith movement.
.
Here’s how it is sold: God wants you to be rich (and/or healthy), but He cannot bless you unless you first send money (also known as a “seed-faith offering”) to whichever televangelist or teacher tells you about this scheme.
.
The teaching is part and parcel of “Positive Confession”, one of the doctrinal pillars of Word-Faith theology:
.
1) Positive Confession: The Theology of the Spoken Word (Rhematology), or thought actualization, is commonly known as positive confession. It stresses the inherent power of words and thoughts. Each person predestines his own future by what he says verbally and by how well he uses spiritual laws. As such, it is as if we live in a mechanistic universe instead of a personal one (see, Kenneth Copeland, Laws of Prosperity, p. 15; Charles Capps, The Tongue A Creative Force, pp. 117-118; Releasing the Ability of God, pp. 98-99, 101-104).
.
2) The Gospel of Health: Isaiah 53 is used to justify blanket coverage for the physical healing of every Christian who has enough faith. “…it is the plan of our Father God in His great love and His great mercy that no believer should ever be sick, that every believer should live his life full span down here on earth and that every believer should finally just fall asleep in Jesus” (Hagin, Seven Things You Should Know About Divine Healing, p. 21). Hagin also denies having a headache for forty-five years, labeling such as “simply symptoms rather than any indication of a headache” (In the Name of Jesus, p. 44).
.
3) The Gospel of Wealth: A central tenet of the prosperity gospel is that God wills the financial prosperity of every Christian. If a believer lives in poverty, he/she is living outside God’s intended will. “You must realize that it is God’s will for you to prosper” (Copeland, Laws of Prosperity, p. 51).- Source: Word-Faith Movement, “Other Doctrines”, a Watchman Fellowship profile.
In brief, the teachings of these men and women may be summarized as follows:
1. God created man in “God’s class” (or as “little gods”), with the potential to exercise the “God kind of faith” in calling things into existence and living in prosperity and success as sovereign beings.
2. We forfeited this opportunity, however, by rebelling against God in the Garden of Eden and taking upon ourselves Satan’s nature.
3. To correct this situation, Jesus Christ became a man, died spiritually (thus taking upon Himself Satan’s nature), went to Hell, was “born again”, rose from the dead with God’s nature again, and then sent the Holy Spirit so that the Incarnation could be duplicated in believers, thus fulfilling their calling to be little gods.
4. Since we are called to experience this kind of life now, we should be successful in every area of our lives.
5. To be in debt, then, or be sick, or (as is often taught) be left by one’s spouse, and not to have these problems solved by “claiming” God’s promises, shows a lack of faith.
While certain aspects of the above doctrine may vary from teacher to teacher, the general outline remains the same in each case. – Source: Robert Bowman, “Christian Research Institute speaks out on the errors of the Word-Faith movement” (as related to prosperity teachers)
.
There are countless Word-Faith Prosperity Teachers. Commonly they deny the uniqueness of the Christ and they teach a false prosperous message.
.
Some of the more commonly known Word-Faith Prosperity Teachers are:
.
Rod Parsley: “Poverty is a sin, because God told you to multiply”. Poverty is a curse because God wants you to be rich and very rich.” “Jesus is not sick, I don’t have to be sick.” (Rod Parsley has back problems and has been kept out of the pulpit weeks at a time)
.
Oral Roberts: In a 1987 fund raising campaign, Oral Roberts claimed that if he did not raise 8 million dollars by March of that year God would kill him. The money was supposed to provide scholarships for medical students who attend Oral Roberts University. (The medical college was closed due to financial troubles and no medical scholarships were distributed from these monies. He did in fact raise the 8 million dollars.)
.
Kenneth Copeland: “Adam in the Garden of Eden was God manifested in the flesh.”
.
Marilyn Hickey: “What do you need? Start creating it, start speaking about it.” “Speak to your billfold, say ‘You big thick billfold full of money.’”
.
Benny Hinn: “Christians are ‘Little Messiahs’ and ‘Little gods’ on the Earth. Thus [Encouraging the audience] say ‘I am a God-man’” “God will begin to prosper you; for money always follows righteousness.”
.
Mike Murdock: “If you take that into your spirit you will reach millionaire status in three years.”
.
Kenneth Hagin: “The believer is as much an Incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.”
.
Creflo Dollar: “You are gods because you came from God you are not just human.” “Money is trying to get into your hands even as I speak.” “Somebody said ‘Oh I didn’t come here because I need some money, I need peace!’ Well honey you need some money or you ain’t never gonna know no peace.” “I didn’t come to preach this message today to get nothing from you. I didn’t come here on Delta today, I came here on my own plane you understand what I’m saying? I came here to get this message to you.”
.
Joel Osteen: “I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring it. It’s not enough to just read it it’s not enough to just believe it. You’ve got to speak it out. Your words have creative power. And one of the primary ways we release our faith is through our words. And there is a divine connection between you declaring God’s favor and you seeing God’s favor manifest in your life…. You’ve got to give life to your faith by speaking it out.”
.
Fred Price: “God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man....Yes! You are in control! So if man has control, who no longer has it? God.....When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let Him. And the way we let Him or give Him permission is through prayer.” (Frederick Price Quoted from - “Christianity in Crisis” by H. Hanegraaff, 1993)
.
Joyce Meyer: Meyer, in her own book, writes, “Words are containers for power” (The Name, The Word, The Blood, p. 37). This is typical Copeland/ Hagin faith talk. She has promoted this as well on her TV broadcast. “Prov.18:21 this could be a life hanging scripture “death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life.” The ad following for her audio series “Is your mouth saved.” The advertisement says we all have the ability to speak life or death to not only other people but to ourselves as well.
.
“Will help you to take inventory of what you’ve been saying and begin speaking faith filled words that will bring to pass God's good plan for your life.” (May 14, 2000 LeSea broadcasting)
.
“But you cannot throw out positive confession, and you cannot throw out all the faith teachers, and you cannot throw out positive thinking. And you cannot get rid of those kinds of things because they're in the Bible from one end of it to the other.” (Joyce Meyer, PFO Quarterly Journal, April-June 2002, p. 6. Withcraft and Related Spirits, pt. 1, sides 1 and 2)
.
She makes her position clear by saying “words are containers for power they carry creative or destructive power positive or negative power so we need to be speaking right things over our lives and about our futures if we expect to have good things happen because what you say then is what you probably end up having tomorrow. We need to warfare with words. I believe that praise and worship is warfare. We talked about this last night, how when we are praising and worshipping God that there's actually a, an odor that comes off of us that is offensive to the enemy. And I don’t know if you ever had the opportunity to smell a demon possessed person but I have, and I tell you it is a stench; and I was saying about that this morning and I thought you know people that are demon possessed have an offensive odor to me and I’m glad because I am holy ghost possessed that I’ve got an offensive odor to the devil.” (broadcasted on the Bible Answerman Jan.2003)
.
Her appeal to money to be given to her ministry is from the prosperity teaching that originated with Oral Roberts. “Sowing and reaping is a spiritual law...Sow generously and you will reap generously.” (Joyce Meyer, “What Does Your Future Hold” May 21, 2004)
.
“We need to claim as much of that inheritance as we possibly can...One of the things you can do right now is speak positive things about your future right now.” (ibid.)
.
She says “I've got to keep the anointing on my life. I can't keep it on my life unless I'm a giver” (May 14, 2000) (insinuating money and other things). Clearly this is a word faith view.
Speaking about trials she apologizes and states “that’s not a negative confession, I’m not cursing your life” (Life in the Word Mar.6 2003 Lesea Broadcasting)” This shows her word faith influence of not speaking negatively.
.
Brian Houston: “Why would the Scripture say, ‘Let the poor say I am rich’ if it wasn’t the will of God to break the power of poverty out of people’s life.”
.
In the interest of trees I’ll stop there, you can do your homework. A place to start might be by taking a look at other known prosperity teachers active or formally active in ministry:
.
John Bevere, Markus Bishop, Juanita Bynum, Morris Cerullo, Kim Clement, Paul and Jan Crouch, Jesse Duplantis, Rodney Howard-Browne, Larry Huch, T.D. Jakes, Bishop Eddie L. Long, Clarence McClendon, Joyce Meyer, Myles Munroe, Steve Munsey, Peter Popoff, R.W. Shambach, Robert Schuller, Karl Strader, Paula White, Ed Young, John Alexander Dowie, Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter, Charles Parham, Frank Sandford, Azusa Street Mission, William Branham, Franklin Hall, Kathryn Kuhlman, Aimee Semple McPherson (Foursquare church/gospel), A.J. Tomlinson, A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Charles Price, David Duplessis, Smith Wigglesworth, Morris Cerullo, John Wimber, Charles and Frances Hunter, Jamie Buckingham, Laughing Revival and many others.
