Using Correct Terminology (Part 12) – Confession (Word of Faith Movement) (Part C)

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(This sermon contains a surprise near the end)

Refutation of the Word of Faith movement (Part 3)

The Positive Confession doctrine is nonsensical and contradictory.

1. The “positive confession” teaching is contrary to the rules of basic grammar.
   1. For a person who is in fact currently sick to say, “I am well,” or “I am healed” if he means, “I am going to be well,” or “I am going to be healed,” is an incorrect use of speech.
   2. Most first graders understand this.
2. The “positive confession” teaching makes either a liar or a lunatic out of those who practice it.
   1. If a man who is actually physically ill says, “I am well,” or “I am not sick,” there are only two possibilities.
      1. He knows that he is currently sick, and he is therefore lying.
      2. He doesn’t know that he is sick when he demonstrably is, and therefore he is a lunatic.
      3. In either case, this doctrine turns people into double-minded fools.
   2. Imagine such a sick man goes to the doctor after being “well” (in his own words) for a three months.
      1. The doctor asks, “What is ailing you?”, to which he responds, “I am not sick. I am well.”
      2. Confused, the doctor asks him why he is there, to which he responds that he is in need of healing.
      3. The doctor asks him what he needs healed of, to which he responds, “I am healed.”
      4. The doctor refers him to a psychiatrist.
   3. Consider another example of how “positive confession,” if applied consistently, would make a man a lunatic.
      1. Imagine a man who desires to be married.
      2. Rather than asking God to give him a wife if it is His will, he rather takes Kenneth Copeland’s advice and says, “I am not single. I am married.”
      3. When he goes on a Christian dating website, he is unable to signup because there is no option to select “married” for his status.
      4. When he goes on a first date with a woman he hopes to marry, and she asks him how long he has been single, he responds, “I am not single. I am married.” ― The date ends immediately.
      5. He goes to a therapist to get help because he is depressed due to not being able to find a wife.
      6. The therapist asks him how long he has been single, to which he replies, “I am not single; I am married.”
      7. The therapist diagnoses him with schizophrenia and commits him to a mental institution.
3. Christians are not God.
   1. Because God is omniscient and omnipotent, and therefore knows the future and can sovereignly control it, He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom 4:17).
   2. But for us to do so is proud and presumptuous.
   3. We know that ultimately in our new, resurrected bodies we will be healed of all our ailments (Rev 21:4).
   4. But we do not know if or when we will be healed of our sicknesses in this life.

Jesus and the apostles did not teach or practice the “Positive Confession” doctrine.

1. Jesus healed multitudes of people of blindness, deafness, dumbness, lameness, etc.
   1. He never once told any of them to declare, “I am not blind,” or “I am not deaf,” or “I am not dumb,” or “I am not lame.”
   2. He rather asked them if they had faith that He was able to heal them (Mat 9:28-30).
2. Paul told Timothy to drink wine to heal his stomach problems and his frequent sicknesses (1Ti 5:23).
   1. He didn’t tell Timothy to proclaim, “I am not sick.”
   2. He didn’t tell him to declare, “I have no stomach problems. I am healed in the name of Jesus.”
3. Paul had a thorn in the flesh which buffeted him (2Co 12:7).
   1. He besought the LORD three times to take it away (2Co 12:8).
      1. Besought – pa. t. and pple. of BESEECH.
      2. Beseech v. – 1. trans. To seek after, search for, try to get. (last usage in 1374). 2. To beg earnestly for, entreat (a thing). 3. To supplicate, entreat, implore (a person).
   2. Poor old Paul was so ignorant that he thought that asking God to take away his sickness was the right thing to do.
      1. He didn’t know enough to take the sage advice of Charles Capps and, “Turn loose of the problem and get hold of your confession. Quit praying the problem. And start saying the answer.“
      2. No wonder Paul wasn’t healed of the thorn in the flesh!
      3. He forgot that he was supposed to say, “I have no thorn in the flesh. I am not sick. I am healed in the name of Jesus.”
4. Peter healed a lame man (Act 3:2-8).
   1. He did not tell him to say, “I am not lame.”
   2. He did not tell him to proclaim, “I am healed in the name of Jesus” in order to be healed.
5. There are many more examples of the apostles healing people of sicknesses, and never once did they tell them to say, “I am not sick. I am healed in the name of Jesus.”

It is not unscriptural to tell God about your sicknesses or problems and ask for healing.

1. “Word of Faith” false teachers like Charles Capps tell people that they should not be saying their problems, but saying the solution: “Quit praying the problem. And start saying the answer“.
2. The saints in the Bible did not get the memo.
3. The Bible is full of instances of saints telling God their problems, such as the following:
   1. Hannah: “I . . . have poured out my soul before the LORD. 16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.” (1Sa 1:15-16)
      1. Eli replied to her: “Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.” (1Sa 1:17)
      2. Hannah did NOT say, “I am not barren. I am pregnant in the name of Jesus.”
   2. David: “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.” (Psa 6:2)
   3. David did not say, “I am not weak. I am strong.”
   4. David: “Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication. 2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;” (Psa 55:1-2)
   5. A Psalmist: Psa 102:1-11

What is “confession” in the Bible?

1. The term “confession” is NOT used in the Bible as the Word of Faith movement uses it.
2. Confession and profession are synonyms and are used as such in the Bible.
   1. Confession n. – I. The action of confessing. 1. a. The disclosing of something the knowledge of which by others is considered humiliating, or prejudicial to the person confessing; a making known or acknowledging of one’s fault, wrong, crime, weakness, etc. As a religious act: The acknowledgment of sin or sinfulness; esp. such acknowledgment made in set form in public worship.  3. Acknowledgment of a statement, claim, etc.; admission, concession. 4. The recognizing or acknowledging (of a person or thing) as having a certain character or certain claims; declaration of belief in or adhesion to; acknowledgment, profession, avowal when asked; spec. the testimony rendered by a Confessor (sense 2).
   2. Confess v. – 1. trans. To declare or disclose (something which one has kept or allowed to remain secret as being prejudicial or inconvenient to oneself); to acknowledge, own, or admit (a crime, charge, fault, weakness, or the like). 2. To acknowledge, concede, grant, admit for oneself (an assertion or claim, that might be challenged). To acknowledge one’s belief that, to avow formally, esp. as an article of faith. Tyndale John ix:22 That yf eny man dyd confesse that he was Christ, he shuld be excommunicat. 4. To acknowledge or formally recognize (a person or thing) as having a certain character or certain claims; to own, avow, declare belief in or adhesion to.
   3. Profession n. – The action or fact of professing; that which is professed. 1. a. The declaration, promise, or vow made by one entering a religious order; hence, the action of entering such an order; the fact of being professed in a religious order.  II. 4. a. The action of declaring, acknowledging, or avowing an opinion, belief, intention, practice, etc.; declaration, avowal. In latter use often with implied contrast to practice or fact: cf. PROFESS v. 3, PROFESSED 2.  5. spec. a. The profession of religion; the declaration of belief in and obedience to religion, or of acceptance of and conformity to the faith and principles of any religious community; hence, the faith or religion which one professes.
   4. Profess v. – 1. trans. a. Orig. in passive form, to be professed (cf. PROFESS a., PROFESSED ppl. a.), to have made one’s profession of religion; to make one’s profession, to take the vows of some religious order, esp. to become a monk or nun. II. 2. trans. To declare openly, announce, affirm; to avow, acknowledge, confess. 4. trans. To affirm or declare one’s faith in or allegiance to; to acknowledge or formally recognize as an object of faith or belief (a religion, principle, rule of action; God, Christ, a saint, etc.).
3. In the scriptures, to confess or profess pertains to the following things:
   1. To acknowledge, disclose, and admit one’s sins (Dan 9:20; Mat 3:6; Act 19:18-19; Rom 14:10-12; Jam 5:16; 1Jo 1:9).
   2. To declare one’s allegiance to Christ or His gospel before men (Mat 10:32-33; Rom 15:9; 2Co 9:13).
   3. To declare or disclose one’s faith in Christ (Joh 9:22; Joh 12:42; Rom 10:9-10; 1Ti 6:12; Heb 3:1; Heb 4:14; Heb 10:23; 1Jo 4:2-3; 1Jo 4:15; 2Jo 1:7).
   4. To declare one’s belief in something (Act 23:8; Act 24:14; 1Ti 2:10; 1Ti 6:21; Tit 1:16).
   5. To admit or declare the truth concerning something (Joh 1:20; Php 2:11; 1Ti 6:13; Mat 7:23).
   6. To declare something about oneself (Rom 1:22; Heb 11:13).
   7. To admit to knowing a person (Rev 3:5).
4. Every usage of the words confess, confession, profess, profession and all of their cognates in the entire New Testament are included in the verses above (parallel passages in the gospels were omitted).
5. Not in one single place are any of those words used in the way that the Word of Faith movement uses them.