In this chronicle of mutations within the Pentecostal movement, we learn to distinguish among the Prosperity Gospel, Word of Faith, and New Apostolic Movements — and we learn why it matters.
One of the worse ‘mutations’ of Pentecostalism is the Prosperity Gospel –
Prosperity gospel
The prosperity gospel has had several names throughout its history, including the “health and wealth gospel” and the “word of faith”. The movement’s Pentecostal antecedents arise out of the healing movements of the 19th century. Early Pentecostals, believing in healing through their use of the foundational scriptures and the imminent return of Christ, laid on hands and prayed for healing.
These original teachings on healing were appropriated by many Pentecostal churches and evangelists, but for some the teachings of E. W. Kenyon on the word of faith, and an emphasis on “faith”, became more important emphases in ministries and churches. This emphasis on the power of faith asserted that Christ’s atonement for sins on the cross included healing — if faith was applied appropriately, whatever a believer prayed for that was in God’s will would occur.
In the late 1940s Kenneth Hagin, sometimes called the father of the Word of Faith Movement, focused in on principles of ”faith”, and the right of believers to be healed. Hagin, alongside evangelists like Oral Roberts, A.A, Allen and others, began to teach either about healing, or health and wealth, and how to appropriate these through the proper application of “The Word of Faith”.
Emphasis was placed on an almost fanatical belief in speaking and living the word of faith in line with scripture. These teachings became the foundational for many in the movement, including Hagin’s protégés Kenneth Copeland, Frederick K. C. Price, and John Osteen. Many mainline Pentecostals embraced these teachings and attended Copeland and Hagin meetings, which also attracted Charismatics in mainline denominations. These movements, now named prosperity gospel, garnered more participants and visibility in the 1990s, with the advent of larger non-denominational churches linked to these ministries, and the explosion of full gospel churches led by leaders like Paul Morton, who linked with other leaders with Pentecostal backgrounds like T.D. Jakes. (Read the rest here.)
The article goes on to discuss Sarah Palin’s New Apostolic Reformation (not that she started it). So, what do you think – what is a pentecostal?
