Positive confession and prosperity gospel
Since the middle of the twentieth century a great many Eastern religions and New Age practices and beliefs have been absorbed into Western society. Almost simultaneously, preaching and teaching that emphasizes health, prosperity, and happiness are available to all Christians have infiltrated many evangelical churches. These churches are usually found under the banner of the Word of Faith movement and tend to be independent or have a loose affiliation with other churches with a similar message. The closeness to which individuals and churches adhere to the doctrines and practices of the positive confession movement (or prosperity gospel as some have called it) spans a broad spectrum ranging from those with marginal associations with the movement to those who fully embrace and center their lives on the Word of Faith message and its tenets. Therefore, one must use care and look beneath the Word of Faith label to determine the biblical soundness of their respective teachings and practices. Many preach a faith message that is doctrinally sound.
The acknowledged founder of the Word of Faith movement was Kenneth Hagin who had a spiritual vision during the 1950s that he described in How To Write Your Own Ticket With God. Hagin wrote that Christ had revealed certain things to him during vision, and this revelation became the foundation for the teachings and practices of positive confession.
…you can receive anything in the present tense, such as salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, healing for your body, spiritual victory, or finances. Anything the Bible promises you now, you can receive now by taking these four steps…
Step 1: Say it…In my vision, Jesus said, “Positive or negative, it is up to the individual. According to what the individual says, that shall he receive.”…
Step 2: Do it…Jesus dictated to me during my vision. “Your action defeats you or puts you over. According to your action, you receive or you are kept from receiving.”…
Step 3: Receive it…It is like plugging into an electrical outlet. If we can learn to plug into this supernatural power, we can put it to work for us, and we can be healed…
Step 4: Tell it…Jesus said to me, “Tell it so others may believe.”…
…You said if anybody anywhere would take these four steps, they would receive from you anything they wanted.[1] [emphasis in original]
The principal teachings of positive confession are that there are both positive and negative aspects to confession. It is believed that the pleasant circumstances of life can be enjoyed through expressing positive statements that align with specific scriptures. The unpleasant is avoided by refraining from negative statements. Effectively, what a person says is the determinant of what he will receive and what he will become. Therefore, positive confession is a tool with which one can banish poverty, disease, sickness, and other afflictions of life.[2] The growth and success of churches in the positive confession movement have occurred because it is very appealing to most people in modern America’s prevailing culture and fits well with its humanistic emphasis on self-esteem, self-improvement, success, and materialism.
However, positive confession is doctrinal deviation and fails to align with a proper and complete biblical understanding of faith at several levels. Advocates of positive confession effectively treat God (and His Word) as a mechanical dispensing machine. They may soften the message, but it is essentially saying that one need only to select the right scripture verse, speak the right confession, act upon it, and receive you request.
Teach the entire gospel
Proper interpretation of the Bible requires that we consider each scripture in light of all other scriptures relating to a specific matter. Paul was very specific when he gave this instruction to the Corinthian church.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [1 Corinthians 2:12-13. KJV] [emphasis added]
In other words, the best support and understanding of a particular scripture occurs when comparing it with other applicable scriptures—comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Matthew Henry described the alternative when he wrote, “…if the principles of human art and science are to be made a test of revelation, we shall certainly judge amiss concerning it.”[3] Advocates of positive confession are in great error when they teach that the words spoken by Christians can somehow serve as mechanical triggers to release positive or negative outcomes in their lives. Sound doctrine cannot be built on isolated portions of scripture taken out of context but must be built on the total teaching of God’s Word.
One must ask how the adherents to the teachings of positive confession would have fared during the first three hundred years of the persecuted Christian church scattered throughout the Roman Empire. How do believers in positive confession reconcile the disconnection between what they teach and the lives of the apostles? All the apostles were greatly persecuted and eventually executed except John who was exiled to Patmos. Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned numerous times and eventually beheaded. He died with the thorn still in his flesh which he had asked God to remove three times.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [2 Corinthians 12:7-9. KJV]
The truth of God’s word applies universally to all cultures and all ages. Nevertheless, positive confession appears to appeal to and find ready acceptance where people are already living in an affluent society. It is also apparent that positive confession’s teachings do not have the same acceptance in those parts of the world where faithful Bible-believing Christians continually face extreme poverty, persecution, and possible martyrdom.[4]
God’s will
God’s will must always be superior to a believer’s wants and desires. Yet, the positive confession doctrine states that the believer can have whatever he says. To decide which of these two irreconcilable positions is correct or must be amended, we look to the scriptures. We have already mentioned Paul’s thorn in the flesh. In that situation, God’s will was higher than Paul’s need for the removal of the thorn. Paul received two things because he accepted God’s will above his own—pride was crushed and the power of Christ rested upon him. Even as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane the night prior to his crucifixion that the cup might be removed, His desire deferred to the will of the Father when he said, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine, be done.” [Luke 22:42. KJV]
The desires of the believer’s heart are important to God, and He may bless accordingly. However, as we pray for our desires, we must also seek to know His will regarding those desires. James said, “Ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” [James 4:15. KJV] But there are occasions when believers may not know what to pray for. In those situations the believer needs to continue to pray and recognize the Holy Spirit makes intercession for him according to the will of God. Here we must heed Paul’s words for he said that when we do not know what we should pray for “…the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” [Romans 8:26b-27. RSV]
Pride and self are difficult adversaries and firmly rooted in the free will of man. The seductive doctrine of positive confession, unchecked by seeking the will of God, adds considerable fuel to the quest for desires and pleasures burning in the heart of man.
Positive confession v. importunate prayer
In one sense, positive confession distances the believer from the Father. Over time it often becomes easy for practitioners of positive confession to slip into a mode of prayerlessness through repetitious quoting of scriptures and confessions as opposed to seeking God’s desire for their lives. Too often we see Christians (not just positive confession adherents) approach God the way many children approach their parents. “Hey, Dad. I need several things. Here’s my list, and make it quick, will you? I have plans and won’t be around for a while. We’ll talk later.”
Importunity has many synonyms including several that have undesirable connotations: demanding, persistence, supplication, entreaty, appeal, petition, plea, insistence. Yet, Jesus emphasized the importance of importunate prayer. Its importance is revealed in Christ’s parable of the persistent friend who came asking for bread at midnight. Christ summarized his teaching in a single verse, “And I tell you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” [Luke 11:9]. In Luke 18:1-8 we see the parable of widow who constantly sought justice from an unjust judge. Christ’s teaching in this parable was that the believer ought always pray and not lose heart.
The believer may not understand the “why” of unanswered prayers, and God’s reasons for not answering may never be known. Yet, Jesus encouraged importunate prayer. It is not a sign of a believer’s doubt or impatience with God. When we approach God with humility, love, and deference to His yet-to-be-revealed will, importunate prayer is a reflection of the believer’s obedience and faith.
Positive confession in a fallen world
Advocates of positive confession imply that its adherents will reign as kings in this life. Kings dominate, and the implication is that believers practicing positive confession are not be dominated by circumstances such as poverty and sickness. Although perhaps unconsciously, the kings of this world have become the role models for many in the positive confession movement. As a consequence, their desires naturally tend to focus on the things that worldly kings value and seek.[5]
The primary role model of the Christian should be no other than Christ. And the life of Christ incarnate was far from the trouble-free life of those Christians seeking dominion on this earth. “…The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” [Luke 9:22. RSV] Christ makes clear that the way of His followers must be the way of the cross, and the way of the cross requires death to self.
But pain, suffering, and death to self appear to be foreign concepts to many in the modern church and especially to those caught up in the positive confession message. Although we live in a fallen world, many try to use the Bible as a “get out of pain and suffering free” card to be used as needed and which gives the believer an aura of self-sufficiency. But self-sufficiency is the deadly enemy of the surrender of self to God. As C. S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain, “This full acting out of the self’s surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. How impossible it is to enact the surrender of the self by doing what we like…”[6]
Positive confession v. the sovereignty of God
A favorite verse of positive confession adherents is found in John’s gospel, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” [John 14:13. KJV] Taken alone, it seems to imply that God has abdicated his sovereignty. But it has been noted above that Paul admonished Christians to compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Therefore, what John wrote in Chapter 14 must be tempered and understood by what he said in Chapter 5. “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” [John 5:14, 15. KJV] [emphasis added] Therefore, a request must be within God’s sovereign will. God’s will limits the authority of the believer. However, the positive confession movement focuses on commanding or compelling God and little time or thought is devoted to discovering His will regarding a request.[7]
Positive confession – Enemy of contentment
Another favorite verse of positive confession adherents is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” [Philippians 4:13. KJV] But Paul was not talking about “doing or commanding circumstances to change” but “being.” Paul had learned to be content in whatever situation he found himself. Whether in abundant prosperity or extreme need, he had learned to be content through Christ’s strength. But, for many in the positive confession movement, contentment is not an option when life deals them a season of hardship, sickness, financial reverses, or other trials. Yes, these needs should be matters of prayer. We should ask and believe, but we do not demand or command. And if the answers don’t come, we must not berate ourselves for our supposed failure to believe, utter the right commands, or pull the right levers to operate our mechanical God. Like Paul, we must be content knowing Christ’s strength will lead us through the valley.
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In the first chapter of this series it was stated that the diminution and/or abandonment of the Bible as the infallible and inerrant truth of God is occurring in varying degrees in many evangelical denominations, churches, fellowships, and organizations across America. In this chapter we have examined the Word of Faith movement that arose in evangelical churches during the 1950s.
Many of the Word of Faith ministers and members are highly valued and much loved brothers and sisters in Christ. As is the case in all evangelical churches, others in the movement are Christian in name only and have brought great harm and reproach to the church of Jesus Christ through the positive confession gospel’s false beliefs and doctrines.
No man has a perfect understanding of the mind of Christ and His Word. However, we are charged to study God’s Word to show ourselves approved. Upon sober reflection following a holistic study of the scriptures, many Christians who hold to the view that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God have found the beliefs and teachings of the positive confession movement violate the biblical rules of interpretation.
Although many in evangelical churches may hold varying interpretations of numerous doctrinal issues, most differences have minimal eternal consequences. However, the beliefs and teachings of positive confession mirror anti-biblical elements of the New Age and Eastern religions. In many instances these beliefs and teachings have caused great harm and reproach to the Kingdom as some believers have lost out with God or have drawn away the great truths of God’s word.[8]
Whatever the failings and errors of the positive confession and prosperity gospel, we must reiterate that the Bible is a message of faith and contains many great truths which affirm that in our day God does heal our bodies, provides for our needs, that believers are given authority, and that a disciplined mind is important for victorious living. But all biblical truths must be examined, understood, and followed in light of the total teaching of scripture.[9]
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] Kenneth E. Hagin, How To Write Your Own Ticket With God, Kindle Cloud Reader, (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Rhema Bible Church aka Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1979).
[2] “The Believer and Positive Confession,” The General Council of the Assemblies of God, August 19, 1980, p. 2. http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/pp_downloads/pp_4183_ confession.pdf (accessed October 6, 2015).
[3] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960), p. 1805.
[4] “The Believer and Positive Confession,” The General Council of the Assemblies of God, p. 8.
[5] Ibid., p. 6.
[6] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain from The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, ( New York: Harper One, 2002), pp. 607-608.
[7] “The Believer and Positive Confession,” The General Council of the Assemblies of God, p. 7.
[8] Ibid., p. 9.
[9] Ibid.
