Contending For Truth : Word of Faith Exposé – III

Basilius M. Kasera, an young theologian based in Namibia, has written an excellent booklet called “Heresy Unmasked”, which skillfully unveils the core teachings of the Word of Faith movement. Having been a WoF preacher himself, he is able to take the scriptures that are commonly used to support their heresies and give the true meaning of the verse in context. 

For about 10 years of his life, Kasera was a follower and propagator of WoF teachings, while being involved in key leadership roles in these circles. Kasera currently is a Reformed preacher and works as a lecturer at the Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary.  He blogs at Reformation Searchlight.

Dealing with such subjects as Positive Confession, Divine Health, Prosperity etc, Kasera shows his readers not only the dangers and source of these doctrines, but brings solid biblical truth to correct such errors. In the booklet, Kasera analyzes ten major doctrines of the WoF movement. They are :

1) God in the WoF movement

2) Jesus Christ in the WoF movement

3) Positive Confessions

4) Divine health

5) Material Prosperity

6) Little gods doctrine

7) Wealth Transfer

8) The wealthy Jesus of WoF movement

9) Prosperity scriptures in light of scriptures

10)  Scripture versus the prosperity gospel

In conclusion, Kasera also has three appendixes where he explains what true saving faith is according to the Bible, whether God has faith, as taught by the WoF preachers and finally on the implications of WoF teachings on theology, ecclesiology and eschatology.

This booklet is a must-read for those currently or previously involved in WoF. These doctrines and practices must be repented of and diligent study must be given to remove such teachings that make up an entirely different gospel.

Heresy Unmasked – Analysis of WoF Doctrines (95 Pgs)   Read | Download

Contending For Truth : Word of Faith Exposé – II

Last week, in our Contending For Truth, Theoblogy introduced its readers to the ministry of Justin Peters and his seminar "A Call for Discernment", exposing the dangerous teachings of Word of Faith (WoF) movement. Through four small videos, an overview of the seminar was presented in it. This week, Theoblogy has the actual recordings of this seminar, which Justin did at BMA Theological Seminary, Jacksonville, Texas,  in the month of October 2010. 

In addition to the introductory session, where Justin speaks on the duty of discernment, the seminar has three main sessions. The first session deals with the metaphysical cultic origins and the dangerous doctrines of WoF movement. In his second session, Justin deals with mangled manifestations like abuse of tongues, heavenly encounters, slaying in the spirit, divine revelation knowledge etc.  The final session is on the hurt of healing, dealing with healing and investigating whether is it always God’s will, is healing in the atonement, what about the biblical record etc. Each session is approximately 70 to 75 minutes in length.

Concerning the seminar, Justin is quick to clarify that “It would be easy to make the assumption that this is an anti-charismatic seminar. Such is not the case. When it comes to the fundamental tenets of orthodox Christianity, charismatics are in agreement with me as a Southern Baptist. I am not charismatic, but neither am I anti-charismatic. The Word of Faith Movement, however, does at times denigrate and even deny some of the fundamental, non-negotiable truths of the Christian Faith (as documented in the seminar, especially in Sessions 1 and 2). It may be said that all Word of Faith adherents are charismatic, but not all charismatics are Word of Faith. I have had a number of charismatic pastors to attend my seminars and, to a man, they have found little, if any, with which they would disagree.”

A Call for Discernment is not intended as a personal attack on anyone, it is simply, as the name implies, a call to the church for discernment.

A Call for Discernment  - 2 disc DVD set  Seminar Outline |  Buy

Introductory Session: The Duty of Discernment  Listen | Download | Handout

Session 1: Dangerous Doctrines  Listen | Download | Handout

Session 2: Mangled Manifestations  Listen | Download | Handout

Session 3: The Hurt of Healing  Listen | Download | Handout

Contending For Truth : Word Of Faith Exposé

Justin Peters gives his seminar called, "A Call for Discernment", a fair, comprehensive and biblical critique of the modern Word of Faith movement. Word of Faith theology (WoF) dominates most of today’s Christian satellite and cable television and is making alarming inroads into many of our churches. This seminar contains dozens of audio and video clips (primarily the latter) of various WoF leaders such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Jessie Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, etc. incorporated into a PowerPoint format. This format allows people to see and hear for themselves what these individuals are actually teaching. Everything then is, in turn, balanced with Scripture. Peters make a clear distinction between WoF and clear thinking Charismatics, for he believes that WoF is not even Christian in its origin. In his seminar, he expounds these heretical views of this movement. Below is the overview of this seminar in 4 parts (total time: 35mins). 

Contending For Truth : The John C. Maxwell Exposé

John C. Maxwell

Author and speaker John C. Maxwell is considered to be an expert in leadership and people from all walks of life look to him for wise counsel in becoming great leaders in their field of work. Maxwell is looked upon by many pastors as an expert in church leadership too. However what most of these pastors do not take into account is the lack of any serious theological or biblical character of Maxwell’s principles of leadership.

Dr. Richard G. Howe, Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics and Director of the Ph.D. program at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC has written a very excellent paper on these dangers of Maxwell’s teachings. Dr. Howe says his paper is an “attempt to alert the reader to the explicit and implicit dangers in the writing of John C. Maxwell.”[1]  Dr. Howe humbly affirms that he does not doubt whether Maxwell is a sincere Christian, “but his misuse of Scripture, his tacit endorsements of New Age writers and doctrines, and his questionable doctrines of psychology and theology should give any Christian concern in the use of his material in otherwise legitimate local church initiatives. It is with that concern that this paper is offered.”[2]

Dr. Howe’s “main concerns about the Maxwell material, broadly speaking, are:

First, the manner in which Maxwell handles the Scriptures to "teach" his principles is sometimes egregiously mistaken. It is my contention that the Bible is not necessarily teaching the principles that Maxwell thinks. His handling of the Scripture indicates that Maxwell does not know (or at least is not utilizing) the proper methods of biblical interpretation. This is not to say that I necessarily disagree with the principles themselves. I might agree with some of them and disagree with others. But I believe that it is of paramount importance that we let the Bible teach what it does and not try to justify our own ideas (even if those ideas are true) by a violation of sound principles of biblical interpretation. I regret that the use of Maxwell's materials sends the wrong signals to the church family as to how to use and interpret the Bible. This is especially of concern regarding the younger Christians in the church family.

Second, Maxwell either implicitly or explicitly endorses some New Age teachers and doctrines. Even if Maxwell himself (or the church leadership) understands the dangers of New Age doctrines, it is a dangerous thing to give such tacit endorsement in front of a church family, especially considering those who are younger in their faith.

Third, in addition to the New Age elements that are peppered throughout his material, Maxwell also employs questionable theological doctrines such as a mistaken notion of the miraculous, a conspicuous absence of the cross and questionable psychological doctrines including self-esteem psychology and temperaments psychology. It is to each of these concerns that I would now like to direct my attention.” [3]

First, Dr. Howe enlists some of the common verses used by Maxwell to “teach” his principles, shows how what Maxwell is saying from these verses cannot hold under a proper examination of the verse and its context. Some of these texts are just part of a verse and when quoted in full, has little to do with what Maxwell is teaching.  After working out on these texts, he enlists the New Age teachers and their doctrines which are endorsed by Maxwell. Dr. Howe here gets into discussing each of these New Age teachers and shows how their doctrines are unscriptural and dangerous. The paper then moves to the third section where key theological problems of Maxwell are discussed briefly.

Dr. Howe’s paper employs a language that is both gracious and perspicuous. His arguments are for preserving biblical fidelity in matters of theology, doctrine and practice. Unlike some of the cheap discernment ministries available on the internet, Dr. Howe does not appeal to any ad hominem arguments. Dr. Howe rather employs his scholarship in a wise and pastoral manner to serve the church in discerning the dangers of one of the most popular leadership gurus of our time.

Recommended for  everyone, especially pastors.

Some Concerns about John C. Maxwell  Read | Download

Footnotes

-------------------

[1] Some Concerns about John C. Maxwell,  Dr. Richard G. Howe.  Pg 20.

[2] Ibid, Pg 20.

[3] Ibid, Pg 2.

Contending For Truth : Joyce Meyer Exposé

The Bible is very clear that one of the duties laid upon all true believers is to so love the truth of God that one is even willing to contend for it. In Jude 3, the apostle exhorts us to earnestly contend for the faith (not subjective believing, but rather in the objective sense, the body of truth we believe) which was once was for all given to the saints. It is interesting that the word used in Greek for contending is the same word from which we get the word “agonizing”. Thus the apostle is asking us to agonize for the truth. Yes to suffer acute and excruciating pain to safeguard the purity of God’s truth from being polluted by false prophets and false teachers. It is after this introduction in verse 3, that Jude spends the rest of the book in describing and warning against false prophets and teachers. 

In keeping with this end, we are to stand against heretics of our day and age. We should show no mercy in calling that which is error as error. Yes this does not give us any sanction to be bitter with them or air our own personal vendetta against them. Thus being humble yet making no compromises, we need to test every spirit and make sound judgments regarding every single preacher we listen to. 

At present there are many who are involved in what is called discernment ministries. They write and speak about popular preachers, examining and critiquing the teachings of these men and women. They are like watchmen giving warnings to the church. The main difficulty one encounters with these discernment ministries is that the vast majority of the materials, though has very accurate criticism of false preachers of our day, presents these in a very legalistic or elitist spirit. It does not seem to be presented primarily as a help for true believers, but rather as a gloating over the ignorance and falsehood of the false preachers. 

Fortunately there are exceptions and the following criticism is one which certainly is a humble, straight forward exposé of Joyce Meyer. The following link is shared out of two main reasons. First of all, as stated so far, it is difficult to find humble, straightforward criticisms. Secondly, it is rare to find clear criticisms of Joyce Meyer. Everyone seems to be saying things against her in broad terms, like she believes in Word of Faith theology or that she supports Prosperity Gospel etc. However in the following audio by Fran Sankey, you will hear a very clear articulation of the particular doctrines of Meyer which are to be deemed as rank heresy. 

The key areas where her understanding of the Bible is heretical are : the atonement of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the justification of sinners by God in Jesus Christ. At least those are the fundamental areas where she is wrong. Though there are many more things in her theology and ministry that could be questioned, the below exposé focuses only on these three core doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Like all Word of Faith (WOF) preachers, Joyce has a faulty understanding of the atonement, commonly known as the Spiritual Death of Jesus. In this whole theory it is the Devil and his sensational killing of Jesus in hell that somehow attained our salvation. God is just a weak spectator in this whole theory. It is not the wrath of God that Jesus bore, but the cruel torture of the devils in hell. Joyce then makes a really funny twisting of scriptures to get over some of the biblical obstacles to preach this theory. She also makes a really common Charismatic claim that she got all these information not from the Bible, but from special revelation. Thus she assaults the sufficiency of Scriptures and makes it plain that she indeed is preaching an extra biblical truth. 

When it comes to resurrection, she mistakes resurrection with the new birth and like all WOF teachers, she calls Jesus the first human to be born again. Fran Sankey shows how only humans born with the original sin need to be born again and Jesus being sinless need no such new birth. 

Finally there is another shocking audio clip of Meyer yelling about her sinlessness. She again goes wrong in her understanding of what justification means. She mistakes sin to be merely the external deeds and forgets that we still carry indwelling sin in our nature. Thus there is no category of imputed righteousness in her theology and this forces her to think, she is called righteous by God because she indeed is righteous. 

Thus her theology – whether it be regarding the atonement or the resurrection or her own justification, it is all built on faulty premises.

Fran Sankey uses actual audio clippings of Joyce Meyer and makes a clear case of heresy against her in a very straight forward manner without any ridicule or gloating over her. All these clippings are from the 90s. It seems most of today’s Christians are unaware of these convictions of Meyer as she now focuses much on practical things like managing emotions or having a healthy body etc.

It is easy to criticize people but let us go a step further and pray that people like Joyce Meyer will be spared of God’s wrath and be saved by Him. Let us pray for the illumination of her mind and for her repentance.

Highly recommend this for all women (and even some men) who listen to her.

Joyce Meyer’s Shocking Doctrines  Listen | Download