If I believe that the word I confess in faith with my mouth has power, what’s wrong with it?
First of all, positive confession does not stick necessarily with Christianity, since other cults and religions consider positive confessions as an important area in their doctrinal statements.
But more important than that, this error, just like any other error found in church, becomes a danger when is taken beyond its limits. If I start fooling around saying that I am a doctor, probably only my reputation will suffer; but if I start giving medical advice to people unaware that I am not a real doctor, then it becomes a serious issue.
That is exactly what has happened! There are countless cases where people, taught to believe in their own faith and confessing health with their mouths, stop taking their medicines, refuse to go the doctor or choose to disregard any bad diagnostic, resulting in disastrous consequences.
Hank Hanegraaff tells the case of Larry and Lucky Parker:
“Their tragic tale was courageously published in 1980 by Harvest House. Their book “We Let Our Son Die1” recounts the tragic details of a misguided trip of faith. In painful and painstaking detail, Larry and his wife paint the picture of how they withheld insulin from their diabetic son. Predictably, Wesley lapsed into a diabetic coma. The Parkers, warned about the impropriety of making a “negative confession”, continued to “positively confess” Wesley’s healing until the time of his death. Even after Wesley’s demise, the Parkers, undaunted in their “faith” conducted a resurrection service rather than a funeral. In fact, for more than a year following his death, they refused to abandon their firmly held faith that Wesley, like Jesus, would rise from the dead. Eventually, both Larry and Lucky were tried and convicted of manslaughter and child abuse”2
And this is not an isolated case, and certainly it does not encircle health issues; the same can be said of relationships, debts, bad purchases, etc. But it is evident that exercising this dangerous practice can be fatal when it comes to sickness. Well known is the case of Hobart Freeman, a pastor from Claypool, Indiana who believed that medicine was the extension of ancient witchcraft and black magic, therefore, at least ninety members of his church died as result of ailments that would have been easily treatable; or the case of Ruth Carter Stapleton (Jimmy Carter’s sister) who died because she refused cancer treatment in 19833.
However, this is just one side of the coin; the other side, no less important than the first one, has to do with the image of God. If the Word of Faith really works, then we command God through our faith, making a puppet out of Him; we just need to know the words and there…! God has to do what we ask because of our faith.
But this is not the God we find in the Scriptures. Certainly this is the god Copeland preaches about when he says that “God cannot do anything for you apart or separate from faith”, because “faith is God’s source of power”4. Even worse, the god Myles Munroe preaches about is one who needs our permission to work on earth5.
I encourage you to go to the link “Questions for Charismatics” where you will find more information about this in form of questions and with biblical evidence.
Huri Cañas
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