Religious Cults & False Prophets~ Discussions and DebatesWord Faith teachers and their Blasphemous Heresies!!! :: WOF Movement?WOF Movement? And then your interpretation of the man's comment:
I've never posted in a forum like this before, though I've been a Christian for... probably 20-years or so. The reason I don't do it is because I've been convinced that there is no point: that people more or less come to forums to express their opinions - not to seek the truth. It shouldn't be so among brethren... but that's been my concern anyway. So - for my first attempt at persuading someone to take a different look at a topic (and perhaps my last)... Here are a few questions: 1) Would it at all interest you to find out whether Brother Hagin's testimony of his own divine healing was truthful? If you found out it was truthful, would it occasion at least your consideration of his teachings? In other words - would you consider that he might know something (i.e. anything at all) from the Lord? 2) Why and how did you read into Brother Hagin's statement that your Dad wasn't a Christian? From my understanding of this quote, and as one who has listened to Hagin quite a bit, I'm fully confident that Hagin meant absolutely nothing of the kind. He's basically saying, yeah - if God had has perfect way in my life, I wouldn't get sick. Now - I'm not totally sure I buy that either, but he may be right. (Note: this doesn't mean one wouldn't be tested/tempted or encounter trials... this is a reference specifically to sickness). But he's not for a moment suggesting I'm not a Christian simply because I'm sick. If that were so, Hagin would have never prayed for a single Christian to be healed! He would have never laid hands on any of them - instead, he would have required that they say the sinner's prayer! So - think about it: even if you believe Hagin was just completely out of his mind... it is easy to confirm that he did, in fact, pray for Christians to be healed. And with that single observation, I don't see any merit left in your interpretation. I don't for a minute believe that my reality here on earth is lining up completely with the heavenly reality of the kingdom of God. As it is written, the "word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith". My faith is not yet perfected, so if you followed me around with a video camera tomorrow you'd see (easily) that I don't live, moment by moment, as one who has been "delivered... out of the power of darkness, and translated... into the kingdom of the Son of his love". No - I believe the verse in Mark that states, "He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief" is applicable to my day-to-day walk. God does not have an open floodgate of influence in my life (unfortunately!). If he did, then his perfect will would be manifest in my life already. My personal belief is the God's opportunity to impact my life is limited to either my own faith, or the faith of someone praying for me. The other so-called "Word of Faith" teacher I listen to is Norvel Hayes. He relates in his testimony of how is mother died of cancer when he was just a little boy. Years later, after becoming a man and getting born again, he cried out to God for the truth, saying (more or less) "Why, God! Why did you kill my mother?!? She loved you, Jesus! I want to know the truth!" After days of praying he claims (I believe him) that the Lord spoke to him and told him "I didn't kill her, nor did I have anything to do with it. She couldn't receive divine healing from me because she'd never been taught how". Now - that last quote may be all you can stand... I dunno! But I can defend the scriptural logic of it easily - at least to my own satisfaction. I don't recall Paul praying for the church that our "faith" would grow, but he did pray earnestly and seriously that "the eyes of (our) understanding" would be "enlightened" that we "might know the hope of (our) calling". In other words: it isn't automatic. Paul was praying for Christians! So - if the passage in Hebrews that states (in one translation) that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for", then... hope is really important! That dear woman didn't have any when it came to cancer, so she died even though it is obvious that Jesus would have liked to have seen her healed. So, all of this leads me to believe that a Christian's faith in God is subject to their hope in God. I'll close with this: It is disheartening to me to see so many Christians jumping on the "bash the Word of Faith Movement" bandwagon. Is there any perfect doctrine in circulation today? Think about age old, still unresolved debates such as Calvinism vs. Arminianism. I mean, if you are going to do anything other than just read the bible out loud (assuming you have a good translation everyone agrees on!), doesn't every preacher/teacher eventually branch off into their own interpretation and, in doing so, risk error? Are there *any* perfect teachers? If there are - why is the Body still so imperfect? I'm a person that has never personally experienced divine healing. But I still believe it is real. I also have disagreements with *plenty* of things that are taught in the so called "WOF" movement. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of ministers associated with WOF that I'd spend any of my time listening to. But... big deal! I take what I believe is right, and leave the rest in the Lord's hands (being mindful that I am not to lean on my own understanding - but trust in the Lord!). |
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