Word of Faith Part 2

The second major error of the WOF movement is a dualist tendency. A strict dualist would differentiate consciousness including subjective experience and the physical world. He or she would claim that consciousness is a metaphysical concept and does not belong to the merely physical.

Word of Faith dualism is the idea that there are two great forces struggling in opposition to each other and all the world hangs in the balance. On the side of good is God and the force of faith. On the side of evil is Satan and his tricks and demons. God and Satan are engaged in a universal struggle for the world, and we stand in the middle as empowered beings who can sway the balance. This is obviously the seductive part. I am powerful. I hold the key. I. I. I. Me. Me.

The WOF scenario goes something like this:

God created the world with certain rules. He gave the world to Adam. He gave Adam dominion over the earth, and Adam bowed his knee to the serpent thereby giving legal title of the earth to Satan. God connived a way to get it back though. He brought forth Jesus who never sinned. Now Satan was allowed to kill anyone who sinned because the wages of sin is death. Jesus never sinned yet Satan still killed him and violated the rules. Christ took back the deed or title (or keys) over the earth and presented it to us. So, once again, we are in control. We need to learn to use these laws of faith in order to effectively battle the works of darkness.

The first problem with this WOF doctrine is that when God gave Adam dominion over the earth he didn’t give him an irrefutable title or ownership which could supersede God’s powerfully irrevocable claim to the world.

Gen 1:26
(26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

I am the Operations Manager at MAISCO. In practicality Dan, the owner, allows me dominion over the daily operations of the business. However, I’m not free to give the business away or to supersede Dan as the owner. The Bible repeatedly asserts the Lord God’s absolute ownership and control over the earth.

Psa 24:1
(1) The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

This verse is after the fall of mankind through Adam, but before Christ’s redemptive work, and the WOF doctrine falls flat before it. The truth is that God knew Adam would fall.


Rev 13:8
(8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

God has a chosen people who He has redeemed by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Satan is not a combative force that resists the will of God. He can do only what God allows and in fact ordains. It must be so. The story of Job is evidence of this, and the fact that Satan’s very existence is completely dependant upon God’s active will.

Speaking of Christ:

Heb 1:3
(3) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

I’ll finish by stating that the Bible never once says that Satan killed Christ. There was no deception. Isaiah states very clearly that it wasn’t Satan who killed Christ.

Isa 53:10
(10) Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

What was Christ’s work? It was to assuage God’s anger toward man for their sinfulness. It wasn’t to trick Satan into making an illegal move.

So here is the difference. WOF is about tricks and technicalities resulting in a teeter-totter effect with us swaying the balance between good and evil. The truth is that God created, owns and rules everything.

Jesus loves you.
He died for your sins.
God has a wonderful plan for your life.

I was disappointed to hear this lame and rather overused jargon again today. If good theology is the meat of the Word of God and if some are only able to drink milk because of a lack of maturity, then this is the marshmallow of the Bible. Not any marshmallow, mind you. This is the marshmallow that as a kid I shoved onto the end of a stick and held over a fire. I’d invariably hold the mallow right in the flame and I would be rewarded with a huge fireball on the end of my stick. Ten seconds later it was over and I had a huge, puffy, blackened gob that was crusty, then gooey, then raw. The mallow would then end up as a sticky mess all over my hands, shirt and especially my face… That’s the marshmallow I’m talking about here.

I guess I have a couple of questions. Does John 3:16 say that God loved everyone in the whole world equally, or does it tell how God showed his love to those whom he had chosen?

If Jesus actually died for the sins of every single person, why won’t every person go to heaven…or will they? Was Jesus death only able to bring about the possibility of the remission of sin or did it actually complete that remission?

Is God the great planner in the sky whose wishes are constantly thwarted at every turn by people who can arbitrarily decide their own destiny? Wow. We really are powerful then. It is we who stand in the balance. I have this vision of God. He’s pacing. He’s wringing his hands. He’s visibly concerned. He’s muttering as he paces. “Why did I spend all that energy making all these plans?” “Why can’t people just go along with what I’ve planned for them?” “I wish they’d just do what I want?” “It’s just so frustrating.” I guess the real question is if God is all powerful and if every molecule is upheld by the word of his power what difference would there be between God’s plan for us or God’s will and reality?

Another thing that I heard today was that the devil had conquered, or supposedly conquered, Christ for the short term, but Christ won when he was resurrected from the dead foiling Satan’s plan. Hmmm. I guess Isaiah’s writing that it pleased the Lord to smite him wasn’t really true. I guess God’s releasing his wrath toward sin on His son isn’t really how we are made righteous.

Anyway. Whatever.

Picture is of a wagon way back in a field over by Mendon, MI.