Welcome to the world of the Word of Faith movement (WoF), also known as the Prosperity Gospel. In Part 1 of “Is Faith a Force?,” we looked at the origins of the Word of Faith movement and how it was rooted in New Thought philosophy and the teachings of individuals like Phineas Quimby, E. W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Here we will look at how WoF teachings distort Scripture. But first, we’ll touch on some excerpts from a YouTube video by Steve Kozar on The Messed Up Church channel: “’Little Gods’ Theology in Kris Vallotton and Kenneth Copeland.”
In the video, Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church in Redding California said: “When you look at Jesus, it’s like looking in mirror. He’s your twin brother.” He also said we are not sinners saved by grace; that it was the oldest lie in Christendom. When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t just die to forgive our sins, he died to restore us to the glory we fell short of in Romans 3:23. Kozar said (rightly) this was a stunning, blasphemous twisting of Scripture.
Then Kenneth Copeland said: “You’re not a little like Jesus, you are exactly like Jesus!” He said we’re born with the DNA of God Almighty. Vallotton and Copeland are voicing what’s known as the little gods doctrine. Got Questions said the basic idea behind little gods belief is that humans are actually divine. They interpret Genesis 1:27, which says we were created in the image of God, to mean we were made in in the same spiritual class as God Himself. In other words, we have the “exact spiritual DNA as Jesus.”
So, when we ask something of God in faith, He is obliged to fill our request. “As ‘little gods,’ our words have much power.” Copeland went on to say in the Kozar video that when we were born again, the faith of Jesus was imparted to us in that seed. Here, faith is not something we have in God, it is a substance or force given to us. Got Questions said at the heart of the WoF movement was the belief in the “force of faith.”
It is believed words can be used to manipulate the faith-force, and thus actually create what they believe Scripture promises (health and wealth). Laws supposedly governing the faith-force are said to operate independently of God’s sovereign will and that God Himself is subject to these laws. This is nothing short of idolatry, turning our faith—and by extension ourselves—into god.
Monergism said faith as a force was one of several key doctrines taught by the Word of Faith movement that diverged from Christian orthodoxy. In WoF, faith is a spiritual force believers can use to create their desired reality. It is not just trust in God, but it’s a substance or force that when spoken aloud in the form of positive confession, brings material and physical blessings into existence. Here, faith is a tool you can use to manipulate God to get what you want.
Positive confession is the belief that words have creative power. And by verbally confessing health, wealth, or success, believers can influence their circumstances. “Conversely, negative words or confessions are thought to bring about sickness, poverty, and failure.” An individual struggling with illness should verbally declare they are healed and believe the healing will be demonstrated. Failure to do so is seen as a lack of faith.
The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements said the “rhema” doctrine was the primary key to positive confession, and Romans 10:8 was its primary passage. “The major premise of rhema doctrine is that whatever is spoken by faith becomes immediately inspired and therefore dynamic in the particular situation or event to which it is addressed.” This premise was based upon the distinction E. W. Kenyon made between what he said were two kinds of knowledge, revelation or faith knowledge and sense knowledge. Revelation knowledge “deal with things that the senses cannot discover or know without assistance from revelation knowledge.” For Kenyon and positive confession believers, revelation knowledge was in a realm above sense knowledge, and called the uninitiated into a truer and higher knowledge of God.
For more on E. W. Kenyon, see “Who was E. W. Kenyon?” or “Is Faith a Force, Part 1”
Are Christians “Little gods”?
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24-24)
Above, we noted that Steve Kozar thought the way Kris Vallotton interpreted and applied Romans 3:23 was a stunning, blasphemous twisting of Scripture to make it about us receiving the glory that is due to us because we were made in the image of God. Vallotton said we were born for glory and when Jesus died on the cross, he restored us to the glory we fell short of. We would have to reply that glory is not yet restored, but will be when God’s ‘righteous judgment’ will be revealed on the Last Day (Romans 2:5).
In his commentary on Romans, Colon Kruse said Paul believed humanity’s lost glory would be restored in the future, not the present. Citing Romans 5:2 (we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God), Colossians 1:27 (Christ in you, the hope of glory), and in 1 Thessalonians 2:12 (walk in a manner worth of God, who calls into his own kingdom and glory), Kruse said believers were being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). And they “will be restored fully when their hope of sharing in the glory of God reaches its consummation in the new age (Romans 8:18-21, 30; 1 John 3:2-3).”
The basis for the “little gods” claim rests on two passages, Psalm 82:6 which says: “I said you are gods, sons of the Most High all of you.” Then in John 10:34, as Jesus replied to the Jews who wanted to stone him for blasphemy for saying he and the Father were one (John 10:30), he referenced Psalm 82:6: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I say you are gods?’”
Got Questions said the “gods” in Psalm 82 can be understood to be human judges and rulers who have been granted authority in the earth. Then the whole point of Psalm 82 is that earthly judges must act with impartiality and true justice, because someday they will stand before the Judge. In John 10, Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6, and said: “If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
Jesus’ point is this: you charge me with blasphemy based on my use of the title “Son of God”; yet your own Scriptures apply the same term to others besides God. If those who hold a divinely appointed office or those who have a divine position in the spiritual realm can be considered “gods,” how much more can the One whom God has chosen and sent (John 10:34-36)?
Claiming Christians can be “little gods” (as Vallotton and Copeland do) is insupportable, particularly when you take other passages into account. God alone is God (Isaiah 37:16). We have never been God, we aren’t God now, and we will never be God. “If the ‘little gods’ hypothesis is accepted, it imputes to Jesus a lesser divinity of some kind; meaning He became a ‘little god’ like us.”
John said that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), but this does not indicate “a lesser divinity.” Jesus took on human flesh and blood in order to die for our sins (Hebrews 2:14), yet He retained His full position in the Godhead. God created us with a spirit, but that spirit does not hold divine qualities.
Can You ‘Name It and Claim It’?
Building upon the belief that God created us with His DNA is the idea of positive confession. This means that if we find texts in the Bible that support what we want to get from God and sow them in our hearts, we can then claim the thing we wanted. Confessing positively is to express in words what we want or believe, and as a result, make them a reality. This practice is based on a new age idea called “the law of attraction,” not biblical truth. Got Questions said it teaches “like attracts like”— that a positive statement or thought will draw a positive reaction. For more information on the law of attraction, see “The Shocking Truth about the Law of Attraction & Word of Faith.”
Everything is infused in a pantheistic way with God’s presence and power. This is not the omnipresent God of the Bible, but ‘god’ in a Hindu/pantheistic way. The net result is believing that our words hold the power to force God to give us what we want. The results from positive confession are powered by the faith of the individual. In How to Release the Power of God, Joel Osteen said:
What is it you want to get from God? If you want healing, then sow healing seed! If you want a miracle, sow some miracle seeds! If you want to be unafraid, then sow some seeds along this line. If you want deliverance from fear, habits, Satan’s power, then get the appropriate seeds and sow them in your heart.
This leads to the old belief in the retribution principle, that illness and poverty are punishment for sin, or lack of faith. In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus whether a man blind from birth or his parents had sinned. Jesus replied in John 9:3: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The entire book of Job refutes this principle. See, “The Foundation of the Book of Job.”
Another problem is positive confession in the WoF movement misinterprets the promises of God. It doesn’t distinguish between universal promises made by God to all His followers, as in Philippians 4:19 (“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus”) and personal promises made to individuals at a certain time for a particular purpose (Jeremiah 29:11; Genesis 17:16). Jesus promised hardship, not prosperity (Matthew 8:20). He didn’t promise peace in a family; He promised that families would have problems as some chose to follow Him and some didn’t (Matthew 10:34-36). And He didn’t promise health; He promised to fulfill His plan for us and grace in the trials (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Monergism concluded its critique of the Word of Faith movement with the following:
The Word of Faith movement is considered a heresy by historic Christian orthodoxy due to its distortion of biblical teachings on faith, wealth, suffering, and the sovereignty of God. While it promises health, wealth, and success through positive confession and faith, it undermines the central message of the gospel, which calls for repentance, faith in Christ, and a life of self-denial. Historic Christian teaching affirms that salvation is found through faith in Christ alone, and that suffering and trials are part of the Christian life, with the ultimate hope being eternal life in the presence of God.
Faith is not a force and positive confession does not bring material and physical blessings into existence. We are not little gods with the exact same “spiritual DNA” as Jesus. Scripture says, “May the Lord be with you,” NOT “May the Force be with you.”
