The Power of the Spoken Word: Biblical or Occult Law? (Part III)

By: Frances Swaggart

Early one morning, I was watching television, off and on, as I was dressing for work. A “Christian” program came on, and two women were talking about “the power of the spoken word.” A comment was made that, as Christians, we supposedly have “the power” to help or hinder our circumstances based on our “confession.” Again, about a week later, while watching TV early one Sunday morning, a program came on with a minister teaching on the “power of the tongue.” Both programs referred to Yonggi Cho’s book, “The Fourth Dimension”. And this time as I listened, I remembered reading a book years ago entitled, “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napolean Hill. I realized the terminology that I was hearing from these “Christian” preachers and teachers was identical to this book I had read! Napolean Hill, however, openly admitted that his practices brought him in contact with demon spirits.

SPIRITS

In a chapter entitled “The Sixth Sense,” Napoleon Hill describes his encounter with spirits, which he referred to as his “invisible counselors.” Hill’s spirits appeared to him and spoke with him after a regular routine of consulting figments of his imagination. “After some months of this nightly procedure, I was astounded by the discovery that these imaginary figures became, apparently real. Each of these nine men developed individual characteristics, which surprised me.”1 Hill’s original goal had been to “reshape his own character” by imitating the nine men (Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Burbank, Napoleon, Ford, and Carnegie), whose lives had most impressed him, but his intense visualization and conversation with these imaginary heroes eventually brought him into contact with demonic spirits who impersonated the men. “These meetings became so realistic that I became fearful of their consequences, and discontinued them for several months. The experiences were so uncanny, I was afraid if I continued them I would lose sight of the fact that the meetings were purely experiences of my imagination . . . during my meetings with the ‘Invisible Counselors,’ I find my mind most receptive to ideas, thoughts, and knowledge which reach me through the sixth sense. I can truthfully say that I owe entirely to my ‘Invisible Counselors’ full credit for such ideas, facts, or knowledge as I received through ‘inspiration’ . . . my original purpose in conducting Council meetings with imaginary beings, was solely that of impressing my own subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion . . . I now go to my imaginary counselors with every difficult problem which confronts me and my clients.”2

ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS?

Man will accept things on an imaginary scale before he will accept them as reality. This is why Satan often begins the process of ‘opening the mind’ to his lies through the use of man’s imagination and/or the creative mind. And, this is why the realm of the subconscious is so dangerous! It is a submissive state of mind, which does not have the ability to think objectively. An individual is more open to suggestion and, thereby, more open to demonic suggestion! The Bible, however, has instructed Believers to “take captive every thought,” making it obedient to Christ! “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the Knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5). How are we to do such in an altered state of consciousness? In fact, nowhere in Scripture does the Lord instruct His People to lose touch with their conscious thought! Believers never enter a trance-like state to hear from the Holy Spirit! “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (I Thess. 5:6).

DEMON SPIRITS

We find on the Website of Jerry and Esther Hicks (authors of “The Law of Attraction: The Basic Teaching of Abraham” whom Rhonda Byrne acknowledged for their contribution to “The Secret”), the clear statement that: “Abraham, a group of obviously evolved teachers, speak their broader non-physical perspective through the physical body of Esther.”3 This is nothing less than channeling spirits through the use of a medium [Esther]. In other words, Esther allows herself to be demonically possessed, so that the demon may speak the teachings using her vocal chords. Even Oprah Winfrey openly embraced this horrific practice. On April 5, 2007, as she invited Ester Hicks to channel “Abraham” live on her XM radio show! Oprah’s Website describes the encounter: “During the show, Oprah has the opportunity to talk to these spiritual teachers, or Abraham, as Esther channels their wisdom. Esther explains to Oprah how she channels Abraham — ‘I just relax and quiet my mind,’ Esther says. ‘I usually focus on my breathing, and within a few seconds I feel the energy of Abraham, a collective consciousness.’ Although Oprah doesn’t know what to expect during the actual channeling session, she discovers that the only apparent change with Esther is a slight variation in the tenor and cadence of her speech pattern. Esther shares with Oprah what she says Abraham can bring to people’s lives. ‘Everyone gets to create their own reality and Abraham’s not interested in telling us what we should create — they’re only interested in showing how we go about creating what our life path is about,’ Esther says.”4

REALITY AND FANCY!

You see, in dealings with the demonic realm, you may find yourself lost in a world where you can no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy. How like the Devil! If he doesn’t choose to destroy you with delusional madness, he will convince you you’re a genius while using your distorted mind to deceive others. God wants you to know the truth, while the Devil does nothing but lie. Jesus said, “. . . there is no truth in him (the Devil). When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Jn. 8:44). We certainly did not find the Disciples having pretend conversations with Moses, Abraham, or any other Bible great, yet imaginative practices are still being heavily promoted in the Church world today. It is often promoted in inner healing “ministries” or other “Christian” counseling settings. In Yonggi Cho’s, “The Fourth Dimension”, Cho tries to incorporate visualization into Christian prayer: “We should always try to visualize the end result as we pray. . . . If you have not visualized clearly in your heart exactly what you hope for, it cannot become a reality to you. . . . Through visualizing and dreaming, you can incubate your future and hatch the results.”5 In the forward to this book, Robert Schuller wrote, “I discovered the reality of that dynamic dimension in prayer that comes through visualizing. . . . Don’t try to understand it. Just start to enjoy it! It’s true. It works. I tried it.” Even David Jeremiah, in one of his daily commentaries, recently told Christians to, “Visualize the Lord Jesus sitting across the table from you. . . .”6 What a tragedy Christian leaders are falling for these practices! Believers today must begin to develop a clear distinction between reality and fantasy, good and evil, light and darkness, and then “. . . touch not the unclean thing . . . ”! (II Cor. 6:17). The Devil will only continue to muddy the waters for those who continue to indulge in fantasies.

WORD OF WHAT FAITH?

Now, let’s trace how the “Word of Faith” doctrine made its way into the Church. Kenneth Hagin is referred to as “the father” of the “Word of Faith” movement, as he claimed to have received the teachings as “revelations” from God. Hagin’s teachings were further popularized by Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, John Osteen, Frederick Price, Charles Capps, and others who followed them and exonerated Hagin as their “spiritual father.” But, a close examination reveals that Hagin’s so-called “revelations” did not actually come from God at all, but rather another man, namely E.W. Kenyon! Hagin, in fact, plagiarized Kenyon’s writings to such an extent that it would be accurate to say that the entire Word of Faith movement, which has infiltrated the Church, to this day, came solely from the teachings of E.W. Kenyon. In chapter 1 of his book, A Different Gospel, D.R. McConnell quotes many of the word-for-word plagiarisms Hagin made of Kenyon.7 The evidence is overwhelming! Therefore, we must examine E.W. Kenyon, his place in the religious world and the true source of his ideas.
Although Kenyon associated himself with various Christian denominations throughout his lifetime, his doctrines did not seem to reflect any of the traditional theologies. “None of the distinctive Wesleyan-Holiness doctrines are present in Kenyon’s theology, and many are flatly contradicted by him.”8 “Yet even at the end of his life Kenyon still rejected the two distinctive doctrines of Pentecostalism: subsequence and initial evidence . . . Kenyon may have taught and practiced divine healing, but he did so as a non-Pentecostal . . . Kenyon’s practice and teaching of divine healing pre-date the Pentecostal movement . . . Kenyon never preached the doctrinal distinctives of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement: the second work of grace, instantaneous sanctification, and sinless perfection.” 9

THE METAPHYSICAL CULTS

Many mistakenly think that the only possible source for “Word of Faith” teaching was the Pentecostal movement, but this is not correct. There was another source from which Kenyon took his venomous doctrines: “Finally, and most critically, Barron (author of ‘Health and Wealth Gospel’) all but ignores another healing movement that pre-dates Pentecostalism by more than fifty years: the metaphysical cults. He assumes that the Wesleyan-Holiness-Pentecostal streams are the only possible source for the Faith movement’s teachings on healing, positive confession, and prosperity. The Faith teachers’ views on these topics are much closer in content to the metaphysical cults than to the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition . . . Barron (author of ‘The Health and Wealth Gospel’) fails to distinguish adequately between Classical Pentecostalism and the post World War II healing and charismatic revivals. He tends to blame the former for the excesses of the latter. Classical Pentecostalism rejected many of the doctrines and practices of the healing evangelists.”10 “Even those who knew of Kenyon’s cultic ties still have trouble categorizing his theology. Ern Baxter comments, ‘His thinking differed widely from Pentecostalism and for that matter a thoroughgoing evangelism. He was rather a distinct person. I wouldn’t quite know how to categorize him theologically. One would be hard put to give him any theological definition.’ ” 11 “An extremely important point needs to be stated here: the doctrines of correct thinking and believing, accompanied by positive confession, with the result of calling a sickness a symptom (denial of reality supported by a Gnostic dualism) are not found in Christian writings
until after New Thought and its offsprings had begun to develop them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to state that the doctrine originated and developed in these cults and was later absorbed by Christians in their quest to develop a healing ministry.”12

E.W. KENYON

In fact, it looks as if Kenyon was trying to compete with the metaphysicians: “Because he had no theological background in the more biblically sound healing movements that arose from the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition, in formulating his ‘new type of Christianity’ of healing and prosperity, Kenyon drew from the only background in these areas that he did have: metaphysics. He did not do so because he agreed with everything that the cults taught and practiced, for it is obvious that he did not. In attempting to respond to the cults and offer a Christian alternative to their beliefs and practices, Kenyon did, however incorporate metaphysics into his theology.”13 “The reason that the church failed in its healing ministry was, in Kenyon’s estimation, a dangerous antisupernaturalism that had infiltrated the church, reducing its gospel to pious platitudes and ethical demands that were void of the power to deliver and heal.”14 Kenyon may have been right about the lack of spiritual power in the Church at that time, but he tried to solve the problem in a very wrong way.

To Be Continued . . .

1 (Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich p.318)
2 (Ibid p.320-323)
3 (http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/about_us.php)
4 (http://www.oprah.com/xm/oprah/200704/oprah_20070405.jhtml)
5 (Yonggi Cho. The Fourth Dimension. p. 44)
6 (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=717&more=1&c=1)
7 (D.R.McConnell. A Different Gospel. 1988, 1995 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. p.8-11)
8 (Ibid p.22)
9 (Ibid p.23-24)
10 (Ibid p.22)
11 (Ibid p.33)
12 (H. Terris Neuman. ‘An Analysis of the Sources of the Charismatic Teaching of ‘Positive Confession,’ p.43)
13 (D.R.McConnell. A Different Gospel. p.48)
14 (Ibid. p.46)