Subject: what is a charismatic church |
Bible Note: Justme I sorry but I think you have some facts mixed up. The modern Pentecostal movement started at about the turn of the century, while Word of Faith began to rear it's ugly head around the 1960's. Word of Faith basically comes from the teaching of Hagin who basically copied the teaching of Kenyon and Bosworth. WoF is based on the metaphysical philosophy, in that something doesn't exist until you speak it into existence. Metaphysical teaching has been around all through history but it was Bosworth and later Kenyon who started to incorporate it into a religious setting. Hagin then copied their teaching into his WoF movement. To say Pentecostal and Word of Faith are the same would cause the Pentecostal founding fathers to roll over in their grave. Pentecostal is basically orthodox Christianity with the belief that the gifts of the Spirit I Cor. 12:7-13 function today and that they did not cease with the passing of the Apostles. WoF teaches that we speak thing s into existence and that God has to perform in a prescribed manner as we speak it. More importantly they believe that sickness, disease and even death does not occur until you speak it into existence. Other words what you say happens (God is forced to make it so). Example if your driving in a car and the car begins to slant down in the front and veer to the right everything is really fine, Satan is just trying to trick you into believing you have a flat right front tire. If you then say, “oh my I have a flat tire.” Then in fact the tire will be flat, however if you exercise your “faith’ and say, “there is nothing wrong with my car”. Then everything has to be made right. I will agree that many Pentecostal/Charismatic leaders today incorporate WoF teaching into theirs. These Pastors have been caught up in false teaching and therefore are not true representatives of the Pentecostal confession of faith. The Assemblies of God and Church of God two of the biggest mainline Pentecostal/Charismatic denominations have repeatedly issued statements concerning this issue in a effort to correct these wayward Pastors. These statements clearly declare WoF a false teaching. The Assemblies of God has published a "white paper" on the errors of Word of Faith. EdB |