There are people who sincerely believe that they are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet for decades they have been preaching ideas that, when carefully examined, bear striking similarities to the Law of Attraction, Positive Thinking philosophy, New Thought metaphysics, divination, Christian Science, Quantum spirituality, Pantheism, Pragmatism, Panentheism, and other philosophical and metaphysical systems.
The vocabulary they use is biblical, but biblical vocabulary does not automatically make a message biblical.
This is where one of the greatest dangers facing the contemporary Church lies. A message can be saturated with Scripture, constantly mention Jesus, faith, blessing, confession, authority, dominion, power, prosperity, and the Holy Spirit, and yet be driven by a philosophy fundamentally different from the faith taught by Christ and His apostles.
The question, therefore, is not merely, "Does this preacher quote the Bible?"
The more important question is, "What worldview is being communicated through the Bible verses being quoted?"
I have become increasingly concerned about this because I have observed how philosophical and psychological ideas foreign to biblical Christianity have been baptized with Christian terminology and presented as though they were the original teaching of Scripture.
For years, I have tried to engage people close to me concerning these issues because I believe they are far more serious than ordinary denominational disagreements. We are dealing with the nature of God, the nature of faith, the authority of Scripture, the purpose of prayer, the sovereignty of God, and ultimately the Gospel itself.
Jesus asked a profoundly searching question concerning His return:
"Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
Luke 18:8
That question should make every generation of Christians examine the faith it professes.
What kind of faith will Christ find?
Will He find the faith of the apostles, a faith that trusts God, submits to His sovereignty, rests upon Christ, and depends entirely upon divine grace?
Or will He find a religious system that has retained the vocabulary of Christianity while replacing biblical faith with human-centered philosophies?
I believe this question deserves serious consideration.
I.The Word of Faith and the Law of Attraction
One of the most troubling developments within the Word of Faith movement is the transformation of biblical faith into a kind of spiritual technology.
Faith is presented not simply as trusting God, but as a force capable of producing desired outcomes.
Words are treated as creative instruments.
Confessions are treated as mechanisms for changing circumstances.
Declarations are treated as instruments for determining reality.
Visualization, positive thinking, expectation, and verbal repetition are combined with selected biblical texts to produce what is essentially a Christianized version of the Law of Attraction.
The fundamental assumption becomes:
Think it, believe it, speak it, and receive it.
But this is not the biblical doctrine of faith.
The Bible teaches faith in God.
The Word of Faith system can subtly transform this into faith in one's faith.
That distinction is enormous.
Biblical faith rests upon the character, promises, wisdom, and sovereignty of God. The Word of Faith system often shifts the focus toward the believer's ability to believe correctly, speak correctly, confess correctly, visualize correctly, and maintain a sufficiently positive mental attitude.
The desired outcome becomes the objective.
And faith becomes the mechanism for obtaining it.
At that point, the difference between biblical Christianity and the Law of Attraction becomes dangerously blurred.
II.How Joel 3:10 Is Turned Into the Law of Attraction
Consider Joel 3:10:
"Let the weak say, I am strong."
Joel 3:10
This verse is frequently extracted from its prophetic context and transformed into a universal principle of positive confession.
The believer is told that if he is weak, he must not say he is weak. He must say he is strong. If he is sick, he must not acknowledge his condition. If he is experiencing financial difficulty, he must speak prosperity. If circumstances contradict his desired outcome, he must verbally reject those circumstances and declare the opposite.
The underlying philosophy is remarkably similar to the Law of Attraction:
Do not speak what you see. Speak what you want to become your reality.
But Joel 3:10 is not teaching a metaphysical law through which human beings create reality with their words.
The passage belongs to a prophetic context concerning God's judgment and the gathering of the nations. It is not a universal formula teaching that human beings possess an inherent creative power through speech.
This distinction is absolutely essential.
God speaks, and reality comes into existence because God is the sovereign Creator.
Human beings speak, but their words do not possess God's creative sovereignty.
There is an infinite difference between God speaking reality into existence and human beings attempting to speak their desired reality into existence.
To confuse the two is to blur the Creator-Creature distinction.
The Word of Faith movement has frequently taken the biblical principle that words matter and transformed it into the metaphysical proposition that words create reality.
Those are not the same thing.
III.Job 22:28: When a Rebuked System Becomes a Christian Technique
An even more serious example is Job 22:28:
"Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee."
Job 22:28
This verse has become one of the foundations for the doctrine of "decreeing and declaring."
Christians are taught that they can decree what they want, declare it with faith, and expect God to establish it.
But there is a fundamental hermeneutical problem that cannot be ignored.
Who is speaking in Job 22:28?
Eliphaz.
And what is happening in the book of Job?
Eliphaz is one of Job's friends who repeatedly offers explanations for Job's suffering. His theology is eventually rebuked by God.
At the conclusion of the book, God says to Eliphaz:
"My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right."
Job 42:7
This should stop us in our tracks.
A statement made by a man whom God subsequently rebuked for speaking wrongly about Him has been extracted from its context and transformed into a spiritual law and practical technique for Christians.
What Scripture records as part of Eliphaz's flawed theology is being presented as though God gave Christians a technique for controlling reality.
This is not sound biblical interpretation.
The Bible records many statements made by people who were wrong. The fact that something appears in Scripture does not automatically mean that God endorses the speaker's statement.
Context matters.
Speaker matters.
Genre matters.
Theological setting matters.
And most importantly, the whole counsel of Scripture matters.
Yet Job 22:28 is routinely isolated from the argument of the book and turned into a formula:
Decree it. Declare it. Believe it. God will establish it.
That is not what the book of Job teaches.
Indeed, it is almost the opposite of what Job teaches.
Job teaches us that God is sovereign even when His purposes are beyond our understanding. Human beings do not control God by formulas, decrees, or declarations.
The Word of Faith movement has therefore taken what should have been approached with careful hermeneutics and turned it into a technique.
That is a serious abuse of Scripture.
IV.Isaiah 45:11 and the Sovereignty of God
Another passage frequently misunderstood is Isaiah 45:11:
"Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me."
Isaiah 45:11
Some have interpreted this as God's permission for believers to command Him.
But such an interpretation creates a fundamental theological contradiction.
Can the creature command the Creator?
Can human beings sit in judgment over the wisdom of God?
Can the sovereign God be summoned by His creatures and sent on errands?
Can the Almighty be placed under human authority?
No.
The broader context of Isaiah 45 is overwhelmingly about God's sovereignty. God declares that He alone is God. He creates. He forms. He saves. He governs. He accomplishes His purposes.
The passage cannot legitimately be transformed into a blank cheque authorizing Christians to command God to fulfil their desires.
The Christian interpretation of prayer must therefore be governed by the broader teaching of Scripture.
Jesus taught us to pray:
"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Matthew 6:10
Notice the direction of submission.
Our will is brought into submission to God's will.
Biblical prayer does not teach us how to make God's will conform to ours.
It teaches us to trust Him sufficiently to submit our will to His.
This is the Creator-Creature distinction that the Word of Faith system repeatedly threatens to blur.
V.When God Becomes a Supernatural Vending Machine
This is where I believe the system becomes particularly dangerous.
Once God is viewed primarily as the One who exists to fulfil human desires, prayer can become little more than a mechanism for obtaining things.
God is effectively turned into a supernatural vending machine.
Insert the correct faith.
Insert the correct confession.
Insert the correct declaration.
Press the appropriate spiritual button.
Receive the desired outcome.
But that is not the God revealed in Scripture.
God cannot be manipulated by religious techniques.
He cannot be controlled by positive thinking.
He cannot be compelled by declarations.
He cannot be forced by decrees.
He cannot be summoned by human beings.
He cannot be reduced to a cosmic responder to human covetousness.
God is sovereign.
And any theology that makes God functionally subordinate to the desires of human beings has fundamentally distorted the doctrine of God.
VI.The Problem of Covetousness
There is another issue that cannot be ignored.
When the primary objective of faith becomes obtaining health, wealth, possessions, promotion, comfort, success, influence, and personal advancement, covetousness can be given a religious vocabulary.
And covetousness can become indistinguishable from spirituality.
But the New Testament repeatedly warns believers about covetousness.
Christianity is not a divine mechanism for maximizing human comfort.
The Gospel is not a prosperity strategy.
Jesus did not die on the cross to give us a technique for acquiring everything we want.
The Gospel is the announcement that sinners can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
That is infinitely greater than material prosperity.
VII.The Blurring of the Creator-Creature Distinction
One of the deepest philosophical problems in this system is the blurring of the distinction between God and humanity.
Once human beings are taught that they possess a form of creative power through their words, imagination, faith, or declarations, the distance between Creator and creature begins to collapse.
This is precisely where metaphysical systems such as New Thought, Christian Science, Pantheism, Panentheism, and related philosophies can begin to enter Christian vocabulary.
The language remains Christian.
The assumptions become increasingly metaphysical.
The believer begins to think of himself as possessing a divine-like capacity to create circumstances, determine outcomes, and exercise control over reality.
But biblical Christianity does not teach that human beings are little creators.
We are creatures.
Dependent creatures.
Finite creatures.
Fallen creatures.
Redeemed creatures.
Our entire existence depends upon God.
We do not possess God's sovereignty.
We do not possess God's omnipotence.
We do not possess God's creative authority.
We do not possess the ability to determine reality by speaking our desires into existence.
The attempt to attribute divine prerogatives to human beings is not spiritual maturity.
It is theological confusion.
VIII.Faith in Christ Is Not Faith in a Technique
This is why I insist that we must recover the biblical meaning of faith.
Faith is not confidence that my preferred outcome will happen because I have spoken positively enough.
Faith is not confidence in the power of my confession.
Faith is not confidence in my ability to manipulate spiritual laws.
Faith is not confidence that God must do what I have declared.
Faith is trust in God.
And ultimately, Christian faith is faith in Jesus Christ.
The object of faith matters.
If my confidence is ultimately in my words, then my faith is not resting upon Christ.
If my confidence is ultimately in my ability to believe strongly enough, then my faith is not resting upon Christ.
If my confidence is ultimately in my declaration, then my faith is not resting upon Christ.
If my confidence is ultimately in a spiritual law that I believe I have learned to activate, then my faith is not resting upon Christ.
Christ must remain the object, foundation, and substance of Christian faith.
IX.The Gospel of Christ Versus the Gospel of Men
This is why I believe the Church must recover the distinction between the Gospel of Christ and the gospel of human desire.
The Gospel of Christ says:
- God is sovereign.
- Human beings are sinners.
- Christ is the Saviour.
- Salvation is by grace.
- Faith rests upon Christ.
- Prayer is dependence upon God.
- God's will is supreme.
- Scripture is authoritative.
- Christ is Lord.
The Word of Faith system, at its worst, can say:
- I have authority.
- My words have power.
- My confession determines my outcome.
- My declaration establishes my reality.
- My faith activates the promise.
- God must respond to my faith.
- My desires become God's assignment.
That is a radically different worldview.
X.This System Must Be Rebuked
I therefore believe this system must be confronted with the strongest possible biblical clarity.
We must stop calling every positive declaration "faith."
We must stop calling every desired outcome a "promise."
We must stop turning Scripture into a collection of metaphysical formulas.
We must stop extracting verses from their contexts to support doctrines that Scripture does not teach.
We must stop turning Job 22:28 into a Christian decree-and-receive technique when the speaker is Eliphaz, whose theology God subsequently rebuked.
We must stop turning Joel 3:10 into a Law of Attraction principle.
We must stop interpreting Isaiah 45:11 as though God has surrendered His sovereignty to human beings.
We must stop confusing biblical prayer with spiritual manipulation.
We must stop confusing faith in Christ with faith in faith.
We must stop confusing God's promises with human presumptions.
We must stop baptizing Positive Thinking, metaphysics, and the Law of Attraction with Christian vocabulary.
And we must stop presenting covetousness as faith.
God is not our servant.
God is not our errand boy.
God is not a supernatural vending machine.
God is not obligated to fulfil every desire we baptize with the word "faith."
God cannot be manipulated by declarations, decrees, positive thinking, visualization, or religious formulas.
This is not a theological technicality.
It is the very foundation of biblical Christianity.
XI.The Church Must Return to the Faith of Christ
My concern is not to attack people personally. Many who have embraced these teachings have done so sincerely because they were taught them by trusted pastors, teachers, parents, mentors, and spiritual authorities.
But sincerity does not make a doctrine true.
A doctrine must be tested by Scripture.
A teaching must be examined according to its context.
A theological system must be judged by its doctrine of God, its doctrine of man, its doctrine of sin, its doctrine of salvation, its understanding of faith, and its interpretation of Scripture.
We cannot afford to assume that something is biblical merely because it contains biblical vocabulary.
The serpent quoted Scripture.
Satan quoted Scripture.
The Pharisees quoted Scripture.
Job's friends quoted theological ideas.
The question is therefore not simply whether Scripture is being quoted.
The question is whether Scripture is being interpreted faithfully.
This is why I am deeply concerned about what has happened in portions of Pentecostalism and the Word of Faith movement.
The problem is not Pentecostal fervour.
The problem is not emotional worship.
The problem is not believing that God can perform miracles.
The problem is not expecting God to answer prayer.
The problem is what happens when faith in God's sovereign power is replaced by a supposed spiritual technology through which human beings believe they can control outcomes.
That is where biblical Christianity is in danger of being replaced by a religious form of Positive Thinking.
And when that happens, the Gospel of Christ is obscured beneath the gospel of men.
XII.The Final Question
The Church must therefore ask itself a question that is more important than popularity, denominational loyalty, tradition, or the number of miracles claimed:
What Gospel are we actually preaching?
Are we preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Or have we taken Christian vocabulary and filled it with philosophical ideas borrowed from the world?
Are we teaching people to trust God?
Or are we teaching them to manipulate circumstances?
Are we directing people to Christ?
Or are we directing them toward the power of their own words?
Are we teaching submission to God's sovereignty?
Or are we teaching human beings how to command God?
Are we teaching prayer as dependence?
Or prayer as technique?
Are we teaching faith in Christ?
Or faith in faith?
These questions cannot be avoided.
The Church must return to the Scriptures.
It must recover sound hermeneutics.
It must restore the Creator-Creature distinction.
It must recover the sovereignty of God.
It must expose the difference between biblical faith and Positive Thinking.
It must distinguish prayer from manipulation.
It must distinguish God's promises from human presumption.
And above all, it must return to the Gospel.
The Gospel is not a technique for getting God to give us what we want.
The Gospel is not the Law of Attraction with Bible verses attached to it.
The Gospel is not Positive Thinking baptized in Christian vocabulary.
The Gospel is not a method of controlling reality through declarations.
The Gospel is not a system for satisfying human covetousness.
The Gospel is Jesus Christ.
Christ crucified.
Christ risen.
Christ exalted.
Christ reigning.
Christ as Lord.
Christ as Saviour.
And sinners reconciled to God by grace through faith in Him.
Therefore, my message to the Church is simple:
Let us stop putting the power of God at the service of human desire.
Let us stop turning Scripture into a manual of metaphysical techniques.
Let us stop confusing confidence with faith, declarations with prayer, desire with promise, and presumption with trust.
Let us stop trying to make God conform to our will.
Let us bow before the sovereign God.
Let us trust Him when He gives and when He withholds.
Let us pray, "Thy will be done."
Let us abandon faith in faith and return to faith in Christ.
Let us abandon the Gospel of human potential and return to the Gospel of divine grace.
Let us abandon the pursuit of spiritual control and return to humble dependence upon God.
And let us recover the faith of the apostles before Christ returns and finds that we have retained the vocabulary of Christianity while losing the substance of the faith.
For the Christian does not need a technique to control God.
The Christian needs to understand that he must absolutely surrender to Christ.