Word Of Faith Movement: Is It Metaphyisical? (Part Two)

Word Of Faith Movement: Is It Metaphyisical?

Part 2

By Troy J. Edwards

When describing Christian healing I find it most helpful to use the term "divine healing." What I mean by divine healing should not be confused with Mary Baker Eddy's teaching on healing. Christian Science rejects the idea of a personal God, whereas Christianity teaches that Christ is God, the second Person of the trinity – fully God and fully man. Jesus is neither like the "It" of Eastern religions nor the vague Moral Principal of many modern theologians. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form," writes Paul in Colossians 2:9 (also see Heb. 1:2-4). "When we speak of 'divine healing,'" Baxter writes, "we always mean healing by direct intervention of the one and only true God, the living and personal God revealed in Holy Writ and crowningly so in our Lord Jesus Christ." - John Wimber[1]

Wimber was a leader who was used of God to spawn a new movement within the already exploding Charismatic movement. The movement became what is known as the Vineyard Fellowship. Wimber by no means affiliated himself with the Word-Faith movement that had arisen at the same time. Nevertheless, both movements and it's founders have had their share of criticism and persecution.

Although Wimber was not affiliated with the Word-Faith movement, I believe his statement above summarizes the vast difference between Christians and the metaphysical cults[2] when it comes to the teaching of God given principles for appropriating God's healing power in our lives. Christians, including those affiliated with Word-Faith teaching, believe in a personal God and not an abstract one as Christian Science does.

Wimber felt the need to seperate his teaching from the metaphysical cults. The same has become necessary for the Word-Faith movement which has received some very strong but unfounded accusations in this area. While doing research on the internet for the purpose of this article, I went to one of the major search engines. I typed in "metaphyisical cults". I did not get any information whatsoever on Christian Science, New Thought, or any of the affiliated metaphysical cults (which is what I was honestly tryng to research). To my utter disappointment I got over 5 pages with links to sites that criticize E.W. Kenyon and Word-Faith teaching.

It breaks my heart that Word-Faith critics feel their need to associate Word-Faith teaching with metaphysical cults. Therefore, the purpose of this series of Essays will demonstrate that the teachings of E.W. Kenyon and the Faith movement that was spawned through him and Kenneth E. Hagin has no affiliations whatsoever with Metaphysical cults. We will prove to our readers through our series that the theology of the Faith movement is Biblical and in line with the classics Christian writers of past decades.[3]

E.W. Kenyon, R.A. Torrey and the Metaphysical Cults

Reuben A. Torrey (1856-1928), one of those who could be considered E.W. Kenyon's mentors,[4] was on who taught the vast difference between the Christian's God and that of the metaphysical cults:

Many wrong ideas about God are being promoted today. The Christian Scientists are one group that is spreading falsehood. They constantly quote one of our texts: "God is love"; in fact, they quote it more than any other passage in the Bible. But by "God is love" they do not mean at all what 1 John 4:8 or 1 John 4:16 clearly mean when taken in their context. By "love" the Christian Scientists do not mean a personal attribute of God; they mean an impersonal, abstract quality that is itself God. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, frankly and flatly denied that God is a person.[5]

Torrey taught heavily against the metaphysical concept of God, especially that of Christian Science.[6] Anyone who reads the works of Dr. Torrey would never mistake him to be a sympathizer of the cults, most especially the metaphyisical ones. It is worthy to repeat the truth that Kenyon's own theology was strongly influenced by Torrey's own teaching. Is the pupil greater than his teacher?

E.W. Kenyon: Not A Metaphyisical Cult Sympathizer

There is no doubt that if Torrey, being one of the many evangelical teachers that Kenyon admired, would have a major influence on Kenyon's stand against the cults. The fact that Kenyon admired Torrey and incorporated much of Torrey's theology into his has been carefully documented by those who sought the truth concerning the true origins of Kenyon's theology. Knowing how Torrey felt about the Metaphysical cults and knowing how Kenyon appreciated Torrey should cause us to rethink any accusations concerning any alleged mixing of Christianity and New Thought teachings in Kenyon's writings.

Kenyon, like his mentors, taught against these cults and showed no sympathy towards any of their teachings:

Christian Science, Unity, and other Metaphysical and philosophical teachers of today do not believe that God is a person. They will tell you that He is a perfect mind, but He has no location. It is just a great universal mind which finds its home in every individual. He has no headquarters. It is a mind without a brain, without personality. They do not believe in sin as Paul taught it in the Revelation given to him. They do not believe that Jesus died for our sins, but that He died as a martyr. They do not believe He had a literal Ressurection, a physical Ressurection, but as one puts it, "a metaphysical resurrection." (whatever that means).

If God is not a person and Jesus did not put sin away, then who is Jesus and what is the value of our faith in Him? One of them calls Him "The way-shower". He is not a way-shower. HE IS THE WAY. Their faith in Jesus and their faith in God is, after all, faith in themselves and what they inherently have within themselves.[7]

These do not sound to me like statements that come from a man who embraced metaphysical teachings and incorporated them into his theology. This sounds like a man who went against the false teaching of these cults. This sounds like a man who emulated one of the many evangelical teachers he admired, R.A. Torrey.

E.W. Kenyon, A.B. Simpson, and Divine Healing

Lest we think that the comparisons of the Word-Faith teaching to metaphysical cults is a new tactic, rest assured that it is far from it. We will see later in our study on this subject how this form of persecution has been common with every move of God. Many of God's choice servants and their teachings have been subject to the same type of labeling that Kenyon and the Word-Faith movement after him has had to endure.

I am not ashamed to say that I have a deep appreciation for the writings of Albert Benjamin Simpson. Simpson is the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance churches. It was during a period of time when I was experiencing a crisis in my faith walk that I began to read (or more accurately "devour") the writings of this great man. I found his teaching so much similar to Kenyon's. Actually, I should say that Kenyon's teachings were so much similar to Simpson since I found out some years later that Simpson was, like R.A. Torrey, one of Kenyon's theological sources of inspiration.[8]

A.B. Simpson was one of the men who brought the teaching of divine healing into the American evangelical movement. Occasionally, those within the "Faith-Cure" movement,[9] which Simpson was very much a part of, found it necessary to differentiate their teaching from that of the devilish activities of their day. Answering the objection that the same healing results in the valid ministries of his time are said to follow the practices of spiritism, animism, clairvoyance and similar occultic practices, Simpson responded:

They are the revived forces of the Egyptian magicians, the Grecian oracles, the Roman haruspices, the indian fakirs. They are not divine. They are less than omnipotent, but they are more than human. Our Lord has expressly warned us of them and told us to test them, not by their power but by their fruits – their holiness, humility and homage to the Word of God. Their very existence renders it imperitive that we should be able to present against them – like the rod of Moses that swallowed the magician's' rods and at last silenced their limited power – the living forces of a holy Christianity in the physical as well as the spiritual world.[10]

Simpson also pointed out that counterfeits and counterfeiters will abound but we should not reject the genuine article:

Extravagances, perversions and counterfeits we know there are. Unauthorized and self-constituted healers and mercenary impsoters abound. There are rash and indiscriminate anointings of persons that discredit the truth. But the truth of God is not chargeable with human error, and the counterfeit is often startling testimony to the existence of the genuine.[11]

Simpson did not take too kindly to counterfeiters, but he cautioned against going to the other extreme in rejecting the truth. This same fervor that Simpson used against other teachings that seemingly discredited the truth concerning divine healing, he also used against the metaphysical cults:

Divine healing is not metaphysical healing. It is not a system of rationalism which is taking on so many forms in the world today, like the chameleon, assuming the hue of the surrounding foliage, according to the class of people it comes in contact with.

What is commonly known as mind cure, or Christian Science, is one of the most familiar forms of metaphysical healing. It is not healing by remedies, but by mental force. It places knowledge and intellect, or the mind of man in the place of God. It is a system of false philosphy and a skeptical theology; a philsophy that is absurd and misleading, and a theology which is atheistic and infidel.

The basis of it is that the material world is not real. What seem to be facts are simply ideas. So the teachers of this error go on to say that there is no body. Disease, therefore, is not real because it has no basis to work on. [12]

Simpson goes on to say that the Christian Science philosphy denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Simpson states emphatically that Christian Science is definitely anti-Christian in its teachings and it is not divine healing. How could anyone have ever mistaken Kenyon as having embraced any of this system is beyond my reasonable understanding.

Kenyon never ever denied the deity of Jesus Christ. Kenyon never denied the atonement. Kenyon never denied the reality of this physical world. Kenyon, going against all metaphysical teaching emphatically stated that "God is. Satan is. Sin is. But God has dealt with the sin problem in His Son."[13] This does not sound like the statement of a man that embraced New Thought metaphysics.

Simpson goes on to explain why there was not enough warning from the church against this cult:

Some of us have despised it [Christian Science] so much that perhaps we have not guarded others against it as we should. We have felt it was so silly there could be no harm in it; but we forget how silly human nature is. The apostle tells us the wise in this world are fools with God. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (Job 5:13). How truly this has been fulfilled in the case of New England! That land of colleges, the seat of American intelligence and culture, has given birth to this monstrosity. It is the most fatal infidelity. It does away entirely with the atonement, for where there is no sin there can be no redemption. I would rather be sick all my life with every form of physical torment than be healed by such a lie.[14]

Truly it breaks my heart that Kenyon's accusers would associate him with this demonic system of teaching that Simpson has just described. Seeing how much Simpson despised the metaphysical system, would he have associated with Kenyon and invite him to speak at his church if Kenyon mixed his teachings with this travesty? Simpson was a man ground in the Word of God and was also a man very close to God. There is no way Simpson would have accepted any mixture of God's Word with metaphysics coming from Kenyon's writings.

Kenyon probably made the teaching of what is now known as positive confession popular within the Word-Faith church. Yet, this was not a new teaching and most certainly did not originate with the metaphysical cults. Simpson taught confession of the Word in relation to healing. Would it be fair to accuse Simpson of borrowing from these cults he despised so much?

We know that positive confession (I hate this term but it is the phrase that the critics use often so we say it. I prefer to call it "talking in line with God's Word.") did not originate with either Simpson or Kenyon. Positive confession teaching goes as far back as the Bible when Adam spoke God's Word over his wife after the fall (Gen. 3:20) and is taught throughout Jesus ministry and in other areas of the New Testament. However, it began to be renewed during John Wesley's time when God taught it to John Fletcher. Phoebe Palmer began to popularize this teaching during the Holiness movement. Later, Simpson and others applied it to divine healing.

We will cover the origins of "positive confession" more extensively in another essay. We only mention it now to show the reader that there has been a unity of beliefs in the writings and teachings of both Kenyon and Simpson.

E.W. Kenyon Contrasts His Teachings On Healing With Metaphysical Cults

Truly when one reads the writings of this true man of God one could not mistake him for someone who would embrace metaphysical practices. It is so terrible that people have made so many false accusations against him. On the contrary, we find in the writings of Kenyon a man who loved His Lord Jesus Christ and was devoted to His Lord and to the church.

Just like R.A. Torrey and A.B. Simpson (for some reason the ministers of this time used the first two initials of their names to identify themselves), Kenyon did not leave anyone to doubt his feelings toward the metaphyical cults. In his book on divine healing, Kenyon shows that he does NOT teach healing the way Christian Science and Unity does:

You must have seen as you have studied this book that healing is spiritual. It is not mental as Christian Science and Unity and other metaphysical teachers claim. Neither is it physical as the medical world teaches. When God heals, He heals through the spirit. When man heals, he must either do it through the mind that is governed by the physical Senses, or he does it through the physical body. You understand that man is a spirit being, and that life's greatest forces are spiritual.[15]

The differences between Kenyon's teaching and metaphysical teaching on healing has been made distinctly clear. Kenyon believes that God heals through the spirit of man. What orthodox teacher does not believe that? Even the cessatonists believe that the Bible teaches spiritual healing even if they believe that the miracles of healings are no longer for us today. Andrew Murray in his book on Divine Healing said that "Faith is possible only to him who lives in the spiritual world."[16]

The metaphysical cults believe that healing comes through the mind denying it's physical surroundings.

Kenyon goes on to explain how he ministers divine healing in his ministry:

In our own ministry where we have seen multitudes of people healed of many kinds of incurable diseases they have been healed invariably by the Word of God. Ps. 107:20, "He sent his word and healed them." Sin had brought the disease upon them, but the Word delivered them.[17]

Kenyon never taught people to DENY reality. Never will such teaching be found in the writings of this great man. On the contrary, Kenyon taught people to place their faith in God's Word. He was simply emulating Simpson who taught, "...be fully persuaded of the Word of God in this matter of divine healing. The Word is the only sure foundation of rational and Scriptural faith."[18] Andrew Murray said, "The Word of God meets as many difficulties in our days as then, and today's needs are equally pressing."[19]

E.W. Kenyon and Two Kinds Of Knowledge

In Kenyon's book, The Two Kinds Of Knowledge, the book that the critics use to make their claims that Kenyon is teaching Gnostic beliefs, Kenyon once again shows the difference between his teaching and that of the Metaphysical cults:

"...we have sense knowledge religions beginning in idolatry and ending in philosphy and metaphysics. They all, like Hagel, deny the personality of God. The reason is this: Their sense cannot register sensation of the spirit. They can register the beat of the heart, and they know that life is functioning because their heart beats register regularly. But they cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot feel God. They say God has no personality. They say that God is a great universal mind, without brains with which to function, for had He brains He would be a person. They call this impersonal Mind, "Love," "Goodness," "Perfection." You can see the absolute inability of Sense knowledge to find God by itself."[20]

Kenyon was saying here that our attempts to find God without a REVEALED knowledge (when God reveals Himself to us) will lead to error as it has done to the metaphysical and philosophical cults.

Conclusion

Kenyon's Gospel was not a metaphysical one. Like many of his predecessors, Kenyon taught Faith in God's Word. He did not teach people to deny the physical reality of their circumstances. He taught people to trust God's Word in spite of the circumstances. The Bible itself teaches this, therefore Kenyon and many of those before him simply taught what the Bible taught.

Far from sympathizing with the cults and embracing any part of their doctrine, Kenyon refuted their teachings and showed his listeners and readers what what the Scriptures themselves taught. Kenyon's books are soaked with Scriptural references. This was a man who was in love with the Word of God as well as the God of the Word.

We will continue in this study on the Faith movement in our continued efforts to show the reader that there is nothing metaphysical about it. It is grounded on God's Holy Word. In the meantime, we leave you with one last quote from Andrew Murray:

When I bring my sickness to the Lord, I do not depend on what I see, what I feel, or what I think, but on what He says.[21]

Peace.

Notes

Wimber, John Power Healing (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row Publishers, 1987), p. 6
A footnote in Dr. R.A. Torrey's book, The God of The Bible, gives us this summary of the teachings of the metaphysical cults: "Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866, denies the deity of Christ and teaches that sin, sickness, and death are illusions that can be done away with through mental efforts. New Thought teaches that through the power of the mind, one can achieve health and happiness. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, the mentor of Mary Baker Eddy, is considered the father of the New Thought movement. Theosophy came from a movement that originated in 1875 and follows primarily Buddhistic and Hindu theories, especially of pantheistic evolution and reincarnation. Unitarianism came to prominence in the eigteenth and nineteenth centuries. It denies the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ, and ascribes divinity to God the Father only." (Whitaker House Publishers, pages 12, 13). E.W. Kenyon had a hatred for the teachings of these cults and shows it in his writings.
I realize that there has been many extremes by many faith teachers which I personally do not agree with and will not deal with in this article. I will deal with the out of balance teachings in a seperate paper. If the Word-Faith critics had not spread this abominable lie in an attempt to connect the Faith Movement to the various cults they claim influenced our teachings, these papers would not be necessary. We could spend more time showing from the BIBLE itself that what we teach is Biblical and then seperate it from the "excesses" that often creep into the body in every move of God.
McIntyre, Joe E.W. Kenyon: The True Story (Orlando, FL: Creation House, 1997) McIntyre provides proof and documentation of Kenyon's admiration of Dr. Torrey and the fact that Kenyon fed upon the teachings of this great man.
Torrey, Reuben A God, The Bible, and You (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1999), pp. 33-34
Torrey, Reuben A The God of the Bible (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1999)
Kenyon, Essek W The Two Kinds of Faith (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, 1969), pp. 17, 18
Lie, Geir E.W. Kenyon: Cult Founder Or Evangelical Minister (from the internet. Click here for a link to his essay). Brother Lie notes in his essay, "One more of the faith-cure exponents, A. B.Simpson, is described by Kenyon as having 'done more than any living man to spread the knowledge of the believer's privileges in Christ.' Simpson even had Kenyon come and preach in his church, Gospel Tabernacle in New York City, during Kenyon's years in Spencer, Massachusetts."
Other wise known as "faith-healing" and "healing revival". Historical accounts state that George Fox of the Quakers is the first to bring the teaching of divine healing into America. However, a revival of divine healing spread through America under Alexander Dowie. A.J. Gordon, Charles Cullis, and A.B. Simpson brought the teachings that have made certain language "popular" such as "healing in the atonement," and "claiming one's healing". These expressions were used during the Faith-Cure movement of the nineteenth century. They were later adopted by the Pentecostal movement and are used today in Word-Faith and Charismatic circles. See the book All Things Are Possible (Bloomington and London; 1975) by David E. Harell Jr, Pentecostalism (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1966) by John Nichol Thomas, and A Healer In The House? A Historical Perspective On Healing In The Pentecostal/Charismatic Tradition (Published in the Asian Journal of Penetcostal Studies) by Vinson Synan.
Simpson, Albert B The Gospel of Healing (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1986), p. 44
Ibid., pp. 55-56
Simpson, Albert B The Fourfold Gospel (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1984), pp. 39, 40
Kenyon, Essek W Two Kinds Of Righteousness (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, 1965), p. 9
Simpson, Albert B The Fourfold Gospel (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1984), pp. 41, 42
Kenyon, E.W. Jesus The Healer (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, 1968), p. 90. Kenneth Hagin made a similar statement in his book, New Threshholds of Faith. (see Part One of this series). He has already been accused of plagiarism but I would not accuse him of that in this case since he only quoted part of this and this was while he was preaching. The sermon was later transcribed and placed as a chapter in his book.
Murray, Andrew Divine Healing (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1982), p. 15
Ibid., pp. 90, 91
Simpson, Albert B The Gospel of Healing (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1986), p. 57
Murray, Andrew Divine Healing (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1982), p. 77
Kenyon, E.W. The Two Kinds of Knowledge (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, 1966), p. 25
Murray, Andrew Divine Healing (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1982), p. 99

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