Word of Faith
Outside historic orthodoxy
A movement teaching that faith is a force and words have creative power, so believers can speak health and wealth into being; some of its teachers also deny creedal truths about God and Christ.
Also called: Word of Faith movement, Word-Faith, positive confession, name it and claim it
What it means
The Word of Faith movement grew out of twentieth-century American healing revivalism and has spread worldwide through broadcasting. It teaches that faith is a spiritual force released by spoken words, so that believers who confess health and wealth will receive them, and those who speak doubt or sickness bring it on themselves. This is often called positive confession, or "name it and claim it."
Many in the movement go further. Some teach that humans are little gods, created as the same class of being as God; that God himself works by faith and is bound by the laws of faith; and that Christ's atonement was completed not on the cross but by his suffering in hell, after which he was born again. These claims run against the Creator-creature distinction and the finished work of Christ confessed by the historic creeds.
Not every church touched by the movement holds all of this, and many sincere believers have been drawn to it by genuine need. But the historic church and the Protestant confessions reject its core teaching, and its distinctive claims about God and Christ fall outside orthodoxy.
What Scripture says
God alone is God, and there is none like him; he declares the end from the beginning.
On the cross Jesus said, It is finished, declaring his atoning work complete.
Believers should say, If the Lord wills, rather than boasting about what they will do.
Paul's plea for healing was refused, for God's power is made perfect in weakness.
Those who imagine godliness is a means of gain depart from sound words.
What is wrong with it
Scripture teaches that faith is trust in God, not a force we wield, and that God answers prayer according to his will, not ours. Believers are told to say "if the Lord wills," not to command outcomes. Paul's thorn and the poverty of the apostles contradict the promise of guaranteed health and wealth.
The movement's claims about God and Christ are worse still. God is the Creator, utterly distinct from his creatures, and he is bound by no law outside himself. Christ's atoning work was finished on the cross, and he, the eternal Son, never needed to be born again. To teach otherwise is to deny what the creeds confess about God and his Son.
How it undermines the truth
It undermines the doctrine of God, making him a being who works by the same spiritual laws as we do. It undermines the person and work of Christ, by relocating the atonement and treating the eternal Son as needing new birth. It undermines the gospel, turning salvation into a means of material gain, and it undermines prayer, by replacing humble petition with confident command.
How it can harm a church
People are taught that their sickness or poverty is their own fault for speaking wrongly or believing too little. The dying are sometimes told not to admit they are sick, and grieving families are told that a lack of faith cost them their loved one. Many give money they cannot afford, expecting a harvest that never comes.
Over time, the disappointed can lose their faith entirely, while those who stay may never hear the true gospel of Christ crucified for sinners. Leaders are often shielded from accountability, since their wealth is held up as proof of the teaching.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 2.1; WCF 8.4-5; LBCF 1689 2.1; LBCF 1689 8.4-5
On this site: Prosperity & signs
Related terms
Prosperity gospelSerious error
The teaching that God promises financial wealth and physical health to believers who have enough faith, often unlocked by giving money to a ministry.
Soft prosperityFlagged as a concern
A milder form of prosperity teaching that does not promise riches outright but implies that faith and giving will bring success, comfort, and blessing in this life.
Classical theismHistoric orthodoxy
The historic Christian teaching that God is infinite, eternal, unchanging, and perfect in himself, not dependent on or improved by his creation.
Penal substitutionary atonementHistoric orthodoxy
On the cross, Christ took the place of sinners and bore the penalty their sins deserved, satisfying God's justice so that He could forgive them.
HeresyTerm
A denial of an essential Christian doctrine, persisted in after correction.