Positive Confession : Apologetics research resources

What do you need? Start creating it. Start speaking about it. Start speaking it into being. Speak to your billfold. Say, 'You big, thick billfold full of money." Speak to your checkbook. Say, 'You checkbook, you. You've never been so prosperous since I owned you. You're just jammed full of money.

It should be noted that Marilyn Hickey does not follow her own advice. After all, if her teaching were true, she would never have to ask her supporters for another dime. Instead, she could fund her entire 'ministry' by just speaking money into existence.

To get around this fatal flaw in their logic, Word-of-Faith teachers misuse Scripture to come up with a concept they refer to as 'seed-faith' giving. They claim that in order for you to receive anything at all from God, you must first donate money (preferably to them). That money is known as a seed-faith offering.

Ms. Hickey puts it like this:

You can be assured that the seed you sow is appreciated--and effective! As you sow into the "good ground" of this ministry, many lives will be blessed as a result. In turn, we believe God will...

"Open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won't have room enough to take it in" (Malachi 3:10 TLB)

Thank you for your gift--and for making a difference in the Kingdom of God!

Thing is, if the seed-faith offering worked in the way claimed by Hickey and other Word-Faith teachers, shouldn't they demonstrate this teaching by giving money away? Many of these teachers claim that the Bible promises a 100-fold return on seed-faith gifts. Just imagine, they would never have to ask for money again...

Another problem with positive confession as taught by the Word-Faith teachers is that you have to lie. For example, if you have a headache, you should - according to this teaching - be able to 'positive confess' it away. But if, after having tried that, you still have a headache, you can't admit that to yourself or to others. That would be a 'negative confession' which, well, would cancel out any positive comment you have made. Speaking healing into existence and then claiming that you have not yet received it is a form of doubt. And doubting would not only be sinful, but since words have power, negative confessions can not only cause by also exacerbate the headache. (By the way: according to Word-Faith teachers, should you not make a negative confession, and still have headache, then the problem might be caused sin in your life, which prevents God from acting on your words).

An incorrect Bible hermeneutic (rules for Bible interpretation) combined with a desire for complete perfection have led many in the faith camp to deny the reality of sickness and disease.

For example, Kenneth Hagin, in The Name of Jesus, says,

"In teaching on divine healing and health, I have often said, `I haven't had a headache in so-many years.' (At this writing it has been 45 years.) I guess the devil got tired of hearing me say it. Just a few months ago, as I left the office building and started home, suddenly my head started hurting. Someone might say, `Well, you had a headache.' No, I didn't have one! I don't have headaches. I haven't had a headache since August 1934.

"Forty-five years have come and gone, and I haven't had a headache. Not one. The last headache I can actually remember having was in August 1933. I haven't had a headache, and I'm not expecting to have one. But if I had a headache, I wouldn't tell anybody. And if somebody asked me how I was feeling, I would say, "I'm fine, thank you." (p. 44, parenthesis in original).

It is obvious from the above statements that Hagin doesn't consider having a headache to be real. That's because to him and other Faith movement teachers, symptoms are not real indications of sickness or disease, but distractions by the devil tempting him or her into making a negative confession.

Apologetics Index

Positive Confession

A Word-Faith doctrine

Need Money?

No More Headaches