This article is a huge departure from my normal, technical content. It marks the first time that I have written a formulaic exposé on any subject, let alone a popular and controversial religious personality. This article may look particularly strange to non-Christian readers who have long observed bickering amongst religious types and don’t get what the fuss is about, thinking something along the lines of, “why can’t we all just live in peace and harmony?”

The reason? Christians care very much for the truth.

For thousands of years, Christians have wrestled with one another to determine biblical truth. The interpretation of Scripture and minor subtleties of resulting doctrine can impart major consequences in the lives of congregational members. With noble or ignoble intent, this has resulted in a long history of schisms and great conflicts, which continues to this day and will until Christ returns.

Gently, I will lead you through the evolution of these megachurch cults and show you the esoteric roots of the doctrines they teach. I will bring to light the damnable heresies taught by Andrew Wommack and many other Word-of-Faith, NAR, and Neo-Charismatics of the present day. These false teachers and the false doctrines they promote endanger people’s souls and give them a false impression of the promise of the Gospel.

To my good friend to whom this exposition is directed - I hope that we can reconcile and I can return the favor you performed for me - with great pain - of delivering me from a path that I desperately wanted but ultimately was not right.

To everyone else - there is a lot of engaging historical knowledge, beautiful graphs, and explanatory power in the ideas I will introduce in this article. I hope you’ll stick along for the ride!

This is absolutely not a judgment upon those who attend or follow these popular ministries, but I do hope this and the work by the faithful teachers noted below brings these false teachers to genuine repentance, denouncing their teachings and correctly guiding their congregations toward good teachers and the true Gospel.

The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.

– Proverbs 18:17 NKJV

The Grace of God¶

I am not a pastor, teacher, or overseer. I am only an ordinary layman who cares for the truth, and I write this article as a warning.

The Father knows your weaknesses, your troubles, and your cares. He will set you among those you need to be around to grow and achieve His plans. There is no better provider, father, or teacher.

That said, we live in a fallen world. The strict, demanding, and rigorous protection of the meaning of the scriptures throughout history is only viewed with disdain by those who would work to mislead you and distort the message of the gospel. They qualify such discernment as needless religion and ritual. Promises of health and wealth - thinly veiled idolatry - may come at the cost of your salvation.

Please understand that I have written this article with love in my heart and hope that the conscience of my friend will be cleared. I pray his bound heart would be absolved of pain and self condemnation. By the grace of God, by my pen or the pen of another, may his heart be freed from the burdensome doctrine discussed in this article.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

A History Lesson¶

When encountering new information, it is critical to consider the source. Ideas do not stand alone - they are developed and adapted for a purpose, and often that purpose may not be clearly understood without looking to the author.

This first section contains a flyby of Christian history between creation and now, along with the history of the occult ideas that have entered the Christian mainstream over the past 200 years.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

– Philippians 1:9-11 NKJV

From Adam to the Reformation¶

Here is brief and low-resolution flowchart of historical milestones for the Christian faith from Adam until the Reformation. To record every split and heresy, I’d need many times the amount of room - but the point of this is diagram is only to convey the massive span of time and volume of effort that has been spent to rigorously defend and deeply comprehend the Christian faith over the last few thousand years.

flowchart TD
  A((Adam)) --> B
  B[Noah] --> C
  C[Abraham] --> MO
  MO[Moses] --> D
  D@{ shape: processes, label: "Old Testament Scriptures" } --> E
  MO-- "Esoteric/Hidden<p>Unwritten Torah</p>" -->LOM;
  D-..->LOM["<i>Commandments of Men</i><p>(Matthew 15:9)</p>"];
  LOM---->I;
  E[David] --> F
  F[Jesus Christ] --> G
  G@{ shape: diamond, label: "Accept Christ?" }
  G -- Yes --> H
  G -. "No, kill Him!" .-> I["Oral Hebraism<p>(Matthew 23)</p>"]
  I -- Second Temple Destroyed --> J
  J@{ shape: processes, label: "Babylonian Talmud AD 500"}
  J --> JEW[Rabbinic Judaism]
  JEW-- "Gematria<p>Wordplay</p>" --> JEW2@{ shape: processes, label: "Midrash 200-1200 AD <p>Talmudic Exegesis Methods</p>"}
  JEW2-- "Jewish Mysticism" --> ZOH@{ shape: processes, label: "Zohar 1300 AD"}
  ZOH --> KAB[Kabbalistic Judaism]
  KAB --> JEW3
  JEW2 --> JEW3(("Modern Judaism"))
  H@{ shape: processes, label: "New Testament Scriptures"}
  H --> EC
  EC["The Church"]
  EC -- Early heresies --> NY
  NY@{ shape: processes, label: "Nicene Creed AD 325" } --> M
  M@{ shape: diamond, label: "Accept Nestorianism? (Council of Ephesus AD 431)" }
  M -- No, Mary bore God --> C3
  M -- Yes, Mary bore Christ --> NN
  NN((Church of the East))

  C3["The Church (Chalcedonian Christianity)"] -->
  FIL@{ shape: diamond, label: "'The Great Schism' Filioque? AD 1054"}
  FIL -- Holy Spirit only from the Father --> EO
  FIL -- Holy Spirit also from the Son --> RC1
  EO((Eastern Orthodoxy))
  RC1((Roman Catholicism)) --> PR
  PR@{ shape: diamond, label: "Let's course correct? (Protestant
  Reformation AD 1517)" }
  PR -- Justificatia sola fide --> CCY[Protestantism]
  PR -- No --> CCN[Catholic Reformation AD 1545]
  CCY --> ANG
  CCN -- Henry VIII: 'I want my own church!' --> ANG
  ANG(("The Church <p>of England</p><p>(Reformed + Catholic)</p>"))
  CCN --> C4(("Modern Roman <p>Catholic Church</p>"))
  CCY --> REFM((" "))
  REFM -- Martin Luther --> AUG
  REFM -- Calvin + Zwingli --> REF((Reformed Churches))
  REF --> PRES((Presbyterians))
  AUG--> LUT;
  LUT((The Lutheran Church))
  AUG@{ shape: processes, label: "The Augsburg Confession" }


classDef truth fill:#FFEC58,stroke:#95871b;
class A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,EC,C3,FIL,RC1,M,NY,PR,CCY truth;
class REFM,LUT,AUG,END,MO truth;
classDef poison fill:#c4e191,stroke:#5a8214;
class I,J,JEW,JEW2,JEW3,ZOH,KAB,LOM poison;

From my own reading, the Lutherans seem to take the most reasonable path in the major conflicts, neither bowing to radicalism nor getting bogged down in tradition and superstition. After all, Martin Luther’s objective was not to split the catholic (universal) Church - he only wanted to see a course correction.

Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.

When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

“For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men – the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”–’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

– Mark 7:1-16 NKJV

Post Reformation Branches¶

From the Reformation, the branches of Protestantism get unbelievably nuanced, complex, and divided. I’ll put the image from Wikimedia Commons here for reference:

Notable denominations from the chart pictured above:

Anabaptists broke off during the reformation in a multitude of movements collectively known as the Radical Reformation eventually resulting in Amish and Mennonites. These groups are known for re-baptizing adults and taking a firm stance to divide the church and state.

Congregationalists (who would become the American Pilgrims) were independant-minded reformed churches who practice congregational government. Many early Congregationalists were Puritan separatists who, in seeking further reformation, fled from England to America to implement their own forms of church organization.

Baptists were also influenced by the radical reformation, but broke off from the Church of England, similarly choosing to observe believer’s baptism and reject traditions perceived to be Catholic, while keeping much more tradition than the Anabaptists they were influenced by.

Methodists were created when John Wesley attempted to revive the Church of England during the first great awakening, resulting in the first iteration of Wesleyan Theology (which has a nuanced and complex history) and Methodist churches.

The Holiness Movement was formed during the second great awakening, emerging in the 19th century from Methodism via the work of Phoebe Palmer¹ who began preaching the doctrine of the second work of grace (entire sanctification/sinless perfection) which emphasizes a personal responsibility to pursue holiness and overcome sin.

Pentecostals emerged when an independent Holiness evangelist and Bible teacher named William J. Seymour, who was trained by Charles Fox Parham, found himself at the center of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. Participants reported being moved and slain by the Spirit and speaking in tongues. This event is generally considered to be the beginning of Pentecostalism in America. On top of Methodist beliefs, Pentecostal theology teaches the third work of grace - baptism in the Holy Spirit - with believers then receiving the Apostolic gifts of healing, prophecy, and tongues.

Below is a more detailed chart which may better explain the lineage of the aforementioned denominations - I have highlighted the nodes I will be mentioning within this article in this yellow on the chart below.

The page where this diagram is hosted is an excellent summary of the visible church as defined by practice and tradition. Do take note that many of the black boxes which denote non-Christian cults have lineage extending from English dissenters and the resulting Methodist and Holiness movements.

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.

For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

– Romans 16:17-18 NKJV

Mesmerism and Animal Magnetism¶

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a physician and formed the theory of animal magnetism during his practice, which would form the basis for both mesmerism and interestingly hypnotism.

This is the theory all animals give off a magnetic field and by interacting with another persons field in the proper way, physical and mental illness can be cured.²

Mesmer was powerful and well known, a patron of the arts on friendly terms with composers Mozart and Hadyn.³

Mesmer is believed to have been a member of Philadelphia Lodge in Narbonne, France. Mesmer also created a society called Order of Universal Harmony which some writers have called “Mesmeric Freemasonry.”²

Unfortunately Mesmer was exiled after the results of an investigation into his work were released. The commission created in 1784 by Louis XVI found no evidence for the new type of fluid that Mesmer proposed.

James Braid (1795-1860), a surgeon and philosopher, was the father of modern hypnotism which is founded on the same phenomenon as mesmerism but is not a direct continuation of the work. Braid was a legitimate doctor responsible for a number of truly great medical innovations. He did not see hypnotism as a cure-all.

Braid, who was essentially open minded, and inspired with the truest scientific spirit, eagerly seized upon all fresh facts, and altered his theories in accordance with them. He not only invented the terminology we still use, but even, at a later date, rejected it as misleading.

Although Braid believed that hypnotic suggestion was a valuable remedy in functional nervous disorders, be did not regard it as a rival to other forms of treatment, nor wish in any way to separate its practice from that of medicine in general. He held that whoever talked of a “universal remedy” was either a fool or a knave: similar diseases often arose from opposite pathological conditions, and their treatment ought to be varied accordingly. He objected to being called a hypnotist; he was, he said, no more a “hypnotic” than a “castor-oil” doctor.⁴

The takeaway from the above information:

1. Mesmer suggested people could be healed without medicine with essentially hypnotic procedures. This led to at least two separate branches of thought.
2. First: Braid innovated on this while understanding its limited application and true psychological nature to form the modern field of hypnotism.
3. Second: American Mesmerists continued to practice according to Mesmer’s original hypotheses of animal magnetism.

These American Mesmerists like Phineas Quimby and downstream movements would in the future influence E.W. Kenyon, who formulated much of his doctrine from metaphysical cults as explored in the book “A Different Gospel – A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement”⁵

New Thought¶

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) is generally held to be the founder of the New Thought movement in 19th century America. For today’s purposes we will be addressing the narrow and specific scope of the revivalism burning through America and Quimby’s imported mesmerism. Quimby would influence both Mary Eddy and E.W. Kenyon, as explained by Dennis Waltemeyer:

Quimby employed hypnosis as a means of healing but discovered that he could also heal by suggestion. He held that all illness is basically a matter of the mind and that it results from the patient’s mistaken beliefs. Hence, cure lies in discovering the truth. Although not religious in the orthodox sense, he believed he had rediscovered the healing methods of Jesus.⁶

Phineas P. Quimby, a nineteenth century occult mind scientist, introduced into American discourse the thought that people create their own reality because they possess the attributes of God and need only to think their desires into existence. These concepts were picked up by a professing Christian pastor named E. W. Kenyon, who reformulated them into doctrines that sounded Christian and used biblical terminology, and he promulgated them by means of books, a radio broadcast, and in the pulpits of local churches. The [Word-Faith] Movement really came to life when a former Southern Baptist pastor turned Pentecostal named Kenneth E. Hagin began presenting Kenyon’s teaching as his own.⁷

Of course, this manifestation is only ever effective when accompanied with money, which is equally common within the aforementioned ministries. Waltemever continues to describe the application of this practice in the ministry of Oral Roberts:

Every [Word-Faith] teacher now preaches the seed-faith doctrine of accumulating wealth developed by Oral Roberts (Oral Roberts, The Miracle of Seed-Faith (Tulsa, OK: Oral Roberts’ Ministries, 1970)). This doctrine is a system of giving to get, and Faith teachers have used it to great effect to enrich themselves.⁷

Occultism is a giant rabbit hole - for the purposes of this article, we will screw the lid on tight at this point and continue. It is sufficient to understand that Spiritualism, manifestation, and other occult doctrines are not looked upon kindly by the Lord your God, and should be understood enough to be avoided and no more.

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.

– Deuteronomy 18:10-12 NKJV

Christian Scientists¶

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) founded The Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879 after publishing a book in 1875 titled “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” which can be read right here on the Christian Science website. She can be credited for popularizing aspects of mesmerism, spiritualism, and faith healing in the Christian zeitgeist.

“When praying about a specific situation, Christian Scientists mentally affirm relevant spiritual facts and deny the ultimate reality of anything that appears to contradict these facts.⁸

Notably, her second husband Dr. Daniel Patterson exchanged letters with the mesmerist Phineas Quimby. Daniel requested that Quimby cure Mary of her ailment in 1862. Mary saw religious significance in the healing work performed, and went all in on pursuing and integrating these healing techniques into her Congregationalist faith. Mary continued to seek these healings for her ailments, and after a subsequent fall claimed to receive immediate healing after opening her Bible and reading about Jesus’s healing miracles.

Quimby himself denounced Eddy as a quack.

From my reading, it seems that Mary Baker Eddy was a fairly insane woman. She has a very long and strange life story involving psychogenic illness, divorce, boarding with many families and being kicked out from many homes, involvement with spiritualists and receiving communications from her deceased brother⁹, and healing people with the power of mesmerism, heavily influenced by Quimby (she was his ‘disciple’⁶), who was in turn influenced by French animal magnetist Robert Hanham Collyer. Quimby held that disease was caused by false beliefs. This idea propagated in non-traditional congregations in the English-dissenter Methodist and Baptist families.

You may have seen a publication called the Christian Science Monitor on shelves in grocery and convenience stores. Interestingly, this magazine is directly associated with the Church of Christ, Scientist in that it was founded by Eddy herself in 1908.

The Word-Faith Movement¶

As Pentecostals emerged from Methodist and Holiness movements in the early 1900s, many other theologies were emerging in America - some more Christian, and some far less. Many of these were in the form of spiritual revivals which swept through churches at various points in history.

The most recent spiritual revivals in America also corresponded with the rise of New Age practices in America and the world.

As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily upon esoteric traditions such as the occultism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. More immediately, it arose from mid-twentieth century influences such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement.¹⁰

Word of Faith¹¹ - an encompassing term that includes all health-and-wealth prosperity gospel. All Word of Faith ministries are charismatic, but not all charismatics believe in Word of Faith doctrine.

Word of Faith is a movement within charismatic Christianity which teaches that Christians can get power and financial prosperity through prayer, and that those who believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection have the right to physical health. The movement was founded by the American Kenneth Hagin in the 1960s, and has its roots in the teachings of E. W. Kenyon.

Word of Faith is rejected as unbiblical and heretical by almost all Christian scholars and theologians across nearly every denomination. N. T. Wright, an Anglican bishop and theologian, referred to it as “myth” and a “pact with the Devil.”¹²

Though we may be getting slightly repetitive at this point, here are a few key figures in the creation and propagation of this false doctrine.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) - New Thought - whatever you think you will attract to yourself. Sickness and disease is the result of negative thinking and negative thoughts. He was a student of occultism and his theorizing formed the basis for the Christian Science cult founded by Mary Baker Eddy.¹³

John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) - Forefather of the American Pentecostal movement¹⁴ - taught that healing came through faith, and seeing a Doctor meant you had a lack of faith, which lead to many in his congregation dying. Dowie established the city of Zion, Illinois in 1901¹⁵, and personally owned all the town’s property. He formed the Zion bank and encouraged all his followers to deposit money there. Smoking, drinking, eating pork, and accepting modern healthcare were outlawed. He enriched himself and lived and traveled in utmost luxury as his congregation became very poor, rejecting medical treatments for their illnesses. He married his cousin Jane.

…notably, John Dowie claimed to be the prophet Elijah.

When Dowie passed, Charles Parham attempted to step in to control his empire, along with John G. Lake, though this following descended into chaos and apparent demon possession when Parham was accused of pedophilia and sodomy in 1907.

Many leaders in the Second Wave of Pentecostalism were either members of Dowie’s sect or were heavily influenced by it.¹⁶

Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929) along with William J. Seymour spread Pentecostalism. He is considered to be the father of American Pentecostalism, but was also a con artist and alleged homosexual (arrested for sodomy). In particular, Parham is responsible for the modern version of glossolalia - speaking in tongues in gibberish instead of a true language. Previous to this, for two thousand years, the widely accepted understanding of speaking in toungues was that it had to be a known and real human language that the speaker did not know.

…notably, Charles Parham claimed to be the prophet Elijah.

John G. Lake (1870-1935) became a member of Dowie’s sect in Zion¹⁷ to learn of divine healing and a became a Parhamite after Dowie’s death. Born in Canada, he spent his life evangelizing and healing - while also being a compulsive liar, fraud, and con man. He is known to have mentored Gordon Lindsay¹⁶ who was born in Zion city. John was a key figure in the spread of healing ministries in Africa.

…notably, John Lake claimed to be the prophet Elijah.

Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) - Held that God created by speaking faith-filled words - containers of a physical substance called faith - which formed the universe. Likewise, we can speak faith filled words to manipulate and manifest health and wealth in our reality.

“What I Confess, I Possess”¹⁸

Kenneth Erwin Hagin (1917-2003) - Followed Kenyon and propagated his teachings. Despite teaching that all Christians should live until 125, he passed at nearly 86 years old. Much of Hagin’s teaching was directly plagiarized from Kenyon.

A key belief of Christian Science and New Thought is the denial of sickness.¹³ This is especially prevalent within Wommack’s ministry, but is a feature common within all Word-of-Faith teachings.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

– Matthew 7:15-23 NKJV

An Occult Genealogy¶

It seems that a lack of discernment on the part of many people through history has allowed a set of occult and new-age teachings to seep into the church, destroying faith and causing despair.

Here’s how it happened:

flowchart TD;
    ESO[Kabbalah, Hermetics,<p>Occultism & Masonry</p>];
    MES[Mesmerism];
    CONG[Congregationalism];
    NT[New Thought];
    CS[Christian Science Cult];
    FHEAL[Faith Healing];
    HOL[Holiness];
    MET[Methodism];
    ANG["The Church <p>of England</p><p>(Catholic + Reformed)</p>"];
    POSC[Positive Confession];
    WF[Word-Faith & NAR];
    ESO ---> MES;
    MES ---> NT;
    ESO --> NT;
    NT-- "M.B. Eddy" --->CS;
    CONG-->CS;
    ANG--->CONG;
    ANG----->MET;
    CONG-->HOL;
    MET-- "Phoebe Palmer" -->HOL;
    CS-->FHEAL;
    NT-- "K.E. Hagin" -->POSC;
    POSC-..->WF;
    POSC-.->HOL;
    FHEAL-..->WF;
    MET -- "Neo-Charismatics" --->WF;
    HOL -->WF;
classDef truth fill:#FFEC58,stroke:#95871b;
class ANG truth;
classDef poison fill:#c4e191,stroke:#5a8214;
class HOL,ESO,MES,NT,CS,FHEAL,POSC,WF poison;

Furthermore, here is a map of people generally within the Charismatic movement who influenced one another. There are many more people who could be included in this chart, but they are too numerous to list without writing a masters’ thesis.

flowchart TD;
    FM["**Franz Anton Mesmer** 1734-1815"];
    PPQ["**Phineas P. Quimby** 1802-1866"];
    PP["**Phoebe Palmer** 1807-1874"];
    FWS["**Frank W. Sandford** 1862-1948"];
    MBE["**Mary Baker Eddy** 1821-1910"];
    EWK["**Essek W. Kenyon** 1867-1948"];
    JGL["**John G. Lake** 1870-1935"];

    subgraph A["Holiness Sects"]
    CFP["**Charles Fox Parham** 1873-1929"];
    ABS["**Albert B. Simpson** 1843-1919"];
    JAD["**John A. Dowie** 1847-1907"];
    end

    WJS["**William J. Seymour** 1870-1922"];
    WB["**William Branham** 1909-1965"];

    MBE-. "Faith Healing" ...->WB;

    subgraph B["Early Televangelists"]
    KEN["**Kenneth Hagin** 1917-2003"];
    ORAL["**G. 'Oral' Roberts** 1918-2009"];
    KK["**Kathryn Kuhlman** 1907-1976"];
    end

    WEB["**William E. Bordman** 1810-1886"];

    COPE["**Kenneth Copeland** 1936-present"];

    COPE-->BILL;

    subgraph D["Prosperity Gospelists"]
    AWM["**Andrew Wommack** 1949-present"];
    BILL["**Bill Bryant Johnson** 1951-present"];
    BENH["**T.B. 'Benny' Hinn** 1952-present"];
    end


    PP-.->A;
    B-.->D;
    A-.->B;

    subgraph E["Hyper Charismatics"]
    DDH["**David D. Hernandez** 1989-present"];
    ISV["**Isaiah Saldivar** <p>1989-present</p>"];
    AP["**Alexander Pagani** ~1976-present"];
    end

    D-..->E;

    BILL-- "NAR / Deliverance" -->AP;
    BENH-- "Successor" -->DDH;

    KEN-->BENH;
    PPQ------>EWK;
    WJS-- "Assemblies of God" -->KEN;
    PP-- "Holiness" -->WEB-->ABS-->KK;
    JAD-- "Zion" -->JGL;
    CFP-->JGL;
    FWS-->CFP;
    PPQ-- "Influenced" --->JAD;
    CFP-- "taught" -->WJS;
    FM-->PPQ;
    KK-->BENH;

    PPQ-->MBE;
    WB -- "led" --> ORAL;
    ORAL-->COPE;
    KEN-->COPE;
    COPE-- "Taught" ---->AWM;
    PP-- "Holiness" -->ORAL;
    PP-- "Holiness" -->FWS;
    JGL-- "Influenced" -->ORAL;
    EWK-- "Positive Confession" --> KEN;

Also to be included in the Hyper-Charismatic and Deliverance Ministries box are Vlad Savchuck, Mike Signorelli, Daniel Adams, Kathryn Krick, Greg Locke, and many others who now teach on YouTube and other short-form video platforms. Joseph Prince, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Joel Oesteen, Rick Warren, John Hagee, Jesse Duplantis, early healers like F.F. Bosworth, and so many more who teach ideas downstream from these revivalist pentecostal teachings could be included in this diagram. It is indisputable that John G. Lake influenced Kenneth Copeland, as you can buy his sermons on Copeland’s website , and Copeland has appeared to teach at Charis ( Faith Fundamentals ) where Wommack restates the heavy influence Copeland has had on his teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

– 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV

Historical Heresies¶

Beliefs that are incompatible with Christianity are known as heresies. They either redefine God or redefine the gospel. With this historic knowledge, we can better understand how to handle today’s heresies by looking to the solutions applied in the past by our forefathers.

This is not an exhaustive list, but with 2000 years of church history, a of debate and discussion over the specific meaning of the Word of God has been held. Some of these pivotal meetings have led to schisms, and even to great wars in Europe and beyond. Here is a brief flyby of some of the most important heresies since the day Jesus was nailed to the cross. Each of these has been thoroughly countered by Western Christology. Take a skim through this alphabetically organized list and see if you can notice anything familiar:

• Adoptionism - Jesus eventually became God, and was adopted as the Son of God at some point
• Apollinarianism - Jesus had a divine mind and not a human one, along with his human body and soul
• Arianism - Jesus isn’t God and did not exist before his birth - he was created by God the Father
• Docetism - Jesus’ body was absent or illusory (aka phantom Jesus)
• Donatist - If your pastor is a heretic their sacraments are invalid
• Feminist Theology - The Bible is wrong, it’s sexist, God is a woman
• Gnosticism - Salvation is achieved through ‘gnosis’ - esoteric knowledge - and a separate creator who is not God (or Valentinianism)
• Judaizing - You need to follow the Law to be Christian - be circumcized, follow food laws and perhaps even oral jewish tradition
• Kenoticism - Jesus became less divine when he became human
• Liberalism - Not taking scripture seriously - adopting culture
• Liberation Theology - The Gospel is about social justice
• Manifestation - You can speak things into existence, see Law of Attraction
• Marcionism - OT and NT gods are different. OT god bad, NT god good.
• Modalism - God is one being who manifests as three separate forms (rather than distinct persons)
• Monarchianism - F/S/HS are all the same being (Unitarianism/Oneness)
• Monophysitism - Jesus is a demigod with mixed human and divine nature
• Montanism - Rely on personal spiritual revelation over Scripture¹⁹
• Nestorianism - Jesus is two persons, with separate human and divine natures
• New Apostolic Reformation - There are new apostles around today
• Partialism - F/S/HS are each 1/3rd of God
• Pelagianism - We are born as blank slates, the fall did not taint human nature
• Process Theology - God changes and improves with time
• Prosperity Gospel - You will be wealthy and healthy if you have faith in Christ
• Subordinationism - Jesus is lower than and eternally submits to the Father
• Tritheism - F/S/HS are three beings within one godhead

Heresies never die, but constantly re-emerge in new forms as cultures grow and change. Eternal vigilance is required. Nothing is new under the sun, and a study of both scripture and historical interpretations of scripture is necessary to understand and dismantle new instances of old corruptions of God’s truth.

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.

– Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV

A Summary of the History¶

We can boil down this entire section into a fairly simple cause-and-effect chain involving many uninformed people writing new and bad doctrine, all resting on intentionally obscured occult foundations:

1. Mesmer. French esotericists spread the notion that our thoughts not only determine our reality, but can be leveraged to actively manipulate it.
2. Palmer. Forms the doctrine of entire sanctification and forms the Holiness movement within the Methodist church.
3. Dowie. Psychopathic American snake oil salesmen and insane women leverage these ideas to attract gullible people to their metaphysical cults that exist within the chaos of the evangelical church revivals.
4. Hagin. The ideas (faith healing, deliverance, word-faith, prosperity gospel) are propagated by many hands, knowingly or unknowingly, up to the present day through Revivalism and new Neo-Charismatic doctrines.

Church history is of vital importance! The Church didn’t start in the 1950s with Billy Graham, or in 1906 at Azusa Street. Great thinkers, teachers, writers, and pastors have already thought about every issue that we’re facing today. Doesn’t it make sense to look into the ideas that have already been expressed centuries ago?²⁰

– Steven Kozar

Andrew Wommack¶

Perhaps I don’t even need to continue writing: The case against Wommack is solid, and his ideological foundations are not. If he had been honest with himself, he would have understood at some point that the teachings he was propagating were truly heretical and far from God’s Word. Having read so much scripture over his lifetime, and with a full Bible commentary available with thousands of notes, he must have come to the realization that some of his teachings, descending from thinkers like Quimby and Kenyon, ran directly against God’s Word - and continued teaching anyways.

Andrew Wommack has a truly impressive knowledge of Scripture, its themes, and its topics - and this is what makes him an extremely dangerous false teacher. His ability to weave together narratives based on his own personal understanding of God’s Word, knowledge gained over decades of teaching the Bible, means it is tough for new believers to discern the many errors in his exegesis.

With a minimum of historical knowledge, the problems become easy to spot:

The Living Commentary electronic study Bible includes five decades of Andrew Wommack’s personal study notes. It’s called “living” because it is continually expanded as Andrew receives new revelation from the Lord. Currently, there are more than 26,000 notes on verses from Genesis through Revelation! (Only 120 $60 Use Coupon Code 3NZC for 50% off Living Commentary)²¹ – awmi.net/lc

Additionally, Andrew Wommack makes references to the original languages of the Bible, but clearly does not know biblical Greek or Hebrew,²² leading to frequent over-stretched interpretations of Scripture during word studies. These tortured scriptures will often morph into entire books and courses like The Power of Imagination.

Herein lies the purpose of this article - my conscience must be placated.

An inordinate amount of damage continues to be done to the body of Christ - young and naive believers in particular - while this man continues to spread the work of Copeland, Hagin, Kenyon, Seymour, Parham, Dowie, and Quimby. An exposé of his false teachings must be recorded to save me an argument or two down the road. In many circumstances, Wommack manages to produce the exact circumstances to maximize despair with his teachings. I have seen friends suffer greatly due to Wommack’s teachings on manifestation and healing.

It should be noted here that the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Word of Faith (WF/WoF) teachings that Wommack leverages are almost universally considered among Christian scholarship to be unbiblical at best and bordering on heretical.²³ Many of these teachings are brand new²⁴ in the grand scheme of things - originating from revivals in the 1940s and 1970s, as New Age occult teachings were picked up, polished off, baptized, and subversively weaseled into the Christian mainstream.

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

– James 3:1 NKJV

Faith Healing¶

First, I much state: Prayer for healing is good, and instructed, and righteous. As good Christians, we ought to pray for each other’s health and well-being.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

– James 5:13-20 NKJV

First, let’s review this excerpt from AWMI which states Wommack’s teaching in clear terms. The full page is linked as a footnote if you would like to assess further.

“This is what Peter said when he ministered to the lame man in Acts 3. Peter didn’t pray for this man. He didn’t say, ‘O God, we can do nothing without You. Please heal this man if it is Your will.’ It’s always God’s will to heal (3 John 2). We don’t ask and then wait and see. That’s not believing His Word. Instead of beggars, we need to become believers who, knowing God’s will, use our authority to heal.”²⁵

– Andrew Wommack, “God Wants You Well”

This is clearly Christian Science²⁶ which descended from the likes of Quimby, Eddy, Branham, Kenyon, Copeland, and now Wommack. It reveals fundamental misunderstandings about the atonement (why Jesus died) and what faith actually is. Let’s explore some scripture that stands against this false teaching.

Counterpoint 1 - God speaking directly to Moses, states that He is responsible for both sickness and health. God does allow sickness, though this does not mean it is from God.²⁷ Teaching anything else is to deny the ultimate sovereignty of the Lord.

So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

– Exodus 4:11 NKJV

Counterpoint 2 - Paul writing to the church in Galatia describes his physical ailments. Did Paul have a lack of faith?

Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.

You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.

– Galatians 4:12-15 NKJV

The primary reason why this teaching is so disgusting and despicable is that it places the burden of healing onto the shoulders of the sick, insisting that the reason they are not receiving healing is because they are not praying correctly. This is the only possible explanation, and Wommack and other faith healers can only sidestep this argument - answering it directly would reveal them as frauds.

“If you are reaping sickness, it’s because you’ve thought sickness.”

– Andrew Wommack, YouTube

The lesson that Andrew Wommack imparts upon his congregation twists this truth in a myriad of Pelagian²⁸ ways. The insistence that we can call upon these powers at will blurs the line between God and Man. An incorrect understanding of faith, treating it like the force from Star Wars, rather than a trust in God and an assurance of things hoped²⁹ for on God’s terms, means Wommack’s healing is functionally a spell or ritual, rather than an actual blessing from God.

“Everything within the WOF cult is predicated by their concept of faith, (21) which as we studied last month does not mean a believer’s simple reliance and trust in God, the object of our faith as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. To these people faith is a mystical force which when properly used according to set spiritual laws will create and change spiritual and physical reality, including physical health and healing. So the initial piece to the healing puzzle is that people receive healing by releasing the force of faith within them for healing.” ³⁰

The most damnable part of this is the logical next step, to realize:

1. If it is always God’s will to heal
2. and physical healing is promised in the atonement
3. and you are not healed
4. ∴ then you have not had your sins forgiven

In case there is any doubt that Wommack teaches this, look no further:

Healing is not in the atonement. Jesus Christ died for our sins - making us righteous before the Father. This teaching misinterprets the promise of salvation - eternal life, not worldly health and wealth.

On a walk through Charis, Justin Peters (who has cerebral palsy) was able to have a conversation with a student regarding both the aforementioned verses. The Charis student refused to acknowledge that the Bible would contain verses that contradicted the teachings at Charis. Thought-stopping techniques³² are used to ensure Charis students ignore verses that contradict what Andrew teaches.

“In our Bible schools and teaching seminars, we confidently instruct people not to “pray” for the sick, but to heal them. Jesus commanded us in Matthew 10:8 to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, [and] cast out devils.” There’s a huge difference between healing the sick and just praying for them!”

– Andrew Wommack, ‘A Better Way to Pray’³³

Unfortunately these directly delegated spiritual gifts have not been seen since the apostolic age - even within Scripture, the gifts dwindle during Acts. The theological argument Wommack is using here is continuationism, the idea that spiritual gifts continue to be present in our age. This stands in opposition to cessationism, the notion that the spiritual gifts have ceased to be granted.³⁴ Personally I hold to the ‘open but cautious’ position - though am extremely wary of the numerous frauds, full of empty promises, who promise to teach the application of these gifts. There are many schizophrenic weirdos who play make-believe and pretend, though it is easy to tell when they are faking miracles.

When you get down to the marrow, these teachings turn God into a faith-powered miracle vending machine and humans into little gods.

As explained by Rev. Liichow:

The problem with the WOF view of divine healing is that it is based on false premises, shoddy exegesis and is being propagated in many cases by wolves masquerading as genuine Christians. Their belief promises healing to all yet provides healing to none. The only ones who truly benefit from this deadly error are the so-called healing evangelists, all of whom have gotten extremely wealthy from presenting false hopes to the hopeless and desperate.³⁰

we are against any teaching which takes something God may graciously do for one of His children and turn that grace into a work wrought by man and thus available to anyone who knows how to work the work, which is essentially what the WOF cult has done.³⁰

The Deification of Man and Humanization of God¶

Sometimes known as the doctrine of “Little Gods”,³⁵ many of Andrew Wommack’s teachings emphasize that we ourselves, because we are divine and created in the image of God, we have the same divine properties and are given the same authority.

“The basic idea behind the controversy is that humans are actually divine, created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) not only in having a soul, having dominion over the earth, or living in relationship with others, but by being of the same “spiritual class” as God Himself. Biblical theologians decry this concept as misguided at best, and heretical and cultic at worst.” ³⁶

Wommack’s teachings put the listener at the nexus of God’s attention, and make God subservient to the will of man. This is the opposite of what Scripture teaches. ³⁷

The often cited verse justifying this claim is Psalm 82:6 which when taken entirely out of context does appear to teach this, but when read in context, is clearly God condemning great rulers who have been behaving as if they were God and handing down unfair judgments.³⁸

A Psalm of Asaph. God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.

How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah

Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.

They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.

But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.”

Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.

– Psalms 82:1-8 NKJV

It is highly narcissistic to believe that we, as His creation, can reach up and command God to fulfill our requests - or to suggest that we can wield the powers of God at our own fingertips with enough ‘faith’. By placing this power in the hands of man, we heretically blur the line between God and mankind, reducing God to the fuel that powers our magic spells.

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

– Isaiah 37:16 NKJV

Montanism¶

Montanus was an early Christian figure, living in the mid-to-late 2nd century, who was at the head of what is today known as Montanism³⁹. A self-proclaimed prophet, Montanus emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit and believed in new revelation, new prophetic figures, and that personal revelation received from the Holy Spirit superseded the authority of Scripture.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Many in charismatic circles profess to love Jesus - but how loving is refusing to drink deeply and understand why we as Christians believe the things we do? How loving is it to read the word and reject His actions with the phrase “that’s not my Jesus!”, or to read into scripture your own will and intentions?

Relying on a stream of ‘personal revelation from the Lord’ is absolute bottom of the barrel F-tier hermeneutics and a textbook example of eisegesis⁴⁰ - the heavy application of your own preferences and biases into scripture, rather than seeking the truth.

Additionally, this is a denial of the sufficiency of Scripture,⁴¹ promotes spiritualism and implies that a chosen few will be handed new revelation from God. If that were true, they would be writing scripture.

“The seriousness of the error of Montanism lies particularly in its attack upon the doctrine of Scripture. While the Montanists, like the modern-day Pentecostals, made the claim that they fully recognized Scripture as the Word of God and claimed orthodoxy regarding it, yet in fact they undermined Scripture, for they denied its sufficiency as the rule of faith and life. Montanism’s prophecy was an additional revelation above and beyond that taught in the Scriptures.” ⁴¹

Paul speaks regarding discernment:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

– Philippians 1:9-11 NKJV

In Deuteronomy, a warning to take care not to worship other gods:

Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do – to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him – then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

– Deuteronomy 11:16-25 NKJV

It is easy to be deceived by false teachings, especially when these false teachers promise exactly what the heart wants.

Eisegesis¶

Christian doctrine is built from Scripture, not from testimonies. Wommack uses eisegesis - subjective, contextless, non-analytical reading⁴⁰ - to weave his pseudo-biblical narratives while heavily relying on personal anecdotes. Running on instinct is great when it comes to playing football in the park, but not so much when it comes to biblical interpretation and the salvation of your massive congregation.

Biblical exegesis is the actual interpretation of the sacred book, the bringing out of its meaning; hermeneutics is the study and establishment of the principles by which it is to be interpreted.⁴⁰

Again and again, teachers like Wommack stumble into ancient heresies that are easy to avoid if you aren’t deceiving yourself when reading the Word of God. Rightly dividing the word of truth and a basic understanding of biblical hermeneutics⁴² will immediately steer you away from Wommack’s heresy-packed ‘sermons’.

In Telling Lies About the Bible: Andrew Wommack , Steven Kozar takes a single one-minute Wommack clip and points out a list of heresies that Wommack commits. Here Wommack mangles scriptures to put us on equal footing with God.

In the selected clip, Wommack is attempting to use a set of cherry-picked and out of context scriptures to explain how ‘we have the fullness of the Godhead dwelling within us’. Here is part of what Wommack spoke to his audience.

“You literally have the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in you bodily, Colossians 2:9,10. Of his fullness have all we received, John 1:16, … and on and on we could go - as Jesus is, so are we in this world, first John 4:17” – Andrew Wommack

Let’s take a look at all of these cited scriptures.

Wommack:

“You literally have the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in you bodily, Colossians 2:9,10” ⁴³

The verse:

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

– Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV

This verse is about Jesus, not man. Per Kozar - “this is straight up blasphemy.” Wommack fails to make a distinction between God and man, exclaiming that we have a property that in Scripture is clearly applied to Christ and not everybody.

Wommack:

“Of his fullness have all we received, John 1:16” ⁴³

The real scripture is, again, not aligned with Wommack’s teaching:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ " And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

– John 1:14-17 NKJV

Wommack:

”…and on and on we could go - as Jesus is, so are we in this world, first John 4:17” ⁴³

The full scripture is not about equivalence between us and Christ, but a statement that followers of Christ will embody his love in this world:

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

– 1 John 4:15-17 NKJV

None of these verses suggest we have the entirety of the Godhead dwelling in us fully as Wommack originally suggested. Almost all of Wommack’s presentations can be picked apart in this manner - the applied verses are often stretched and twisted to nearly a breaking point to support the point Wommack is attempting to make, rather than the truth.

Subverting the Authority of God¶

All of Andrew Wommack’s novel teachings revolve around the concept of personal responsibility for God’s action in your life - whether you are “blocking healing”⁴⁴ or “thinking poor”,⁴⁵ Wommack insists you just need to learn how to pray differently to change your health and wealth.

An extremely damaging false teaching.

God does not need your permission to work anything in your life. It is depraved and utterly heretical to suggest otherwise, as Wommack does directly in this AWMI article on the sovereignty of God , where he paints a straw man of the doctrine of Sovereignty. His hands are not tied, as taught by Wommack and Copeland, unable without your permission to unleash miracles and healing.

Sorry Andrew - God is sovereign.

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’

– Isaiah 45:6-7 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

– Ephesians 2:1-10 NKJV

A god that is restricted by us is not the God of the Bible. Nowhere in these passages is there any mention of God needing our permission to act in our lives. The mind of God is entirely beyond our comprehension, and attempting to bind the power of God like a spell is blasphemy of the highest order.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

– Romans 8:26-30 NKJV

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

– Daniel 4:35 NKJV

Prosperity Gospel¶

Andrew Wommack’s teaching on prosperity is the ultimate subversion of God’s authority and rejection of His sovereignty, which is why I have placed the sections on Montanism and Subverting the Authority of God before this one.

This idea, from the very instant I was introduced to it, was the most blatant and thinly concealed practice of occult manifestation (or Law of Attraction⁴⁶) I had ever seen. I was immediately disgusted by the charlatan that would stoop so low as to mock God and publish any material with a title like ‘The Power of Imagination’ in the context of His Word.

Wommack’s teaching of speaking life/speaking death - suggesting that words behave like magic spells and contort reality - stretches Proverbs 18:21 far past its practical meaning and into heresy. This is also known as positive confession.⁴⁷ Make no mistake, what you speak can cause tremendous change, but not in a metaphysical sense. God’s words create reality - ours do not.⁴⁸

To me, who was previously a vaguely spiritual dreamer and esoterically curious while being Christ-adjacent, the Bible is all about obedience to a masterful Father who has laid out a number of simple truths about reality - which when followed are likely to end in both a fulfilling life and eternal life thereafter. Under God’s Law, which was passed down to us in love and with our good in mind, it is clearly established that pursuing witchcraft and attempting to obtain hidden knowledge is sin and will inevitably wreck your life.

Prosperity Gospel is the ugly Christianized head of esoteric ritual magic that runs in a bright, red, glowing line all the way back to those who dance around fires, shake bones, pray to dark gods, and drink the blood of children. Prosperity doctrine is used by every get-rich-quick grifter on the internet - and every other medium back to the dawn of humanity. To say I was sickened was an understatement.

Perhaps all of this ministry rests primarily on this one scripture:

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

– Mark 11:24 NKJV

Read plainly - yes, this does appear to be a direct way to use God like a vending machine and manifest whatever you’d like. But it is not so. As Chris Rosebrough reminds us, “the three most important rules for sound biblical exegesis are 1. Context 2. Context and 3. Context.” ⁴⁹

“You can literally make that healing manifest in your body - even if your body may not feel like it - it has to come to pass.” – Andrew Wommack ⁵⁰

With full biblical context, we have clearer instruction on prayer - when it is to be used, how it works, and what we should expect afterwards.⁵¹

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

– James 4:3 NKJV

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

– John 15:7 NKJV

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

– 1 Peter 3:7 NKJV

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

– 1 John 5:14 NKJV

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

– James 1:7 NKJV

It is God, not the believer, who directs and fulfills prayer. Prayer must be aligned with God’s will - not your own. Like his teachings on faith healing, Andrew Wommack must necessarily conclude that if your prayers are not being answered, it is not God’s fault, but yours.

To further place Mark 11:24 into context: One of the primary purposes for Jesus to perform these miracles on earth was to provide convincing evidence that he was the Son of God. Undeniable miracles had to be performed by Jesus and the apostles to draw the lost towards Him and their salvation.⁵² In Mark 11, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to continue his work in performing miracles in his absence.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

– Mark 11:22-24 NKJV

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

– John 14:11 NKJV

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

– John 20:30-31 NKJV

While I believe in miracles, and that God still performs miracles today, the obvious evidence of my eyes is that there are no valid claimants to the apostolic gifts walking the earth today - and those who do are all frauds and charlatans.

In his article Financial Stewardship: The Practical Side , Wommack states:

“The first big step toward financial blessing is to recognize that God is your source. As long as you think it’s your ability and your talent that causes you to prosper, you will probably have difficulty being faithful in that which is least.” – A.W.

This statement makes the same narcissistic mistake of all other Word-Faith teachings, directing your anxieties for your lack of wealth towards a lack of correct faith - endangering both your faith and your wealth.

Wommack’s doctrine, upon critical inspection, seems to be to designed to instill inadequacy and fear to sell you books and courses. Luckily, there is a course where you can learn to grow your faith and be able to manifest the pleasures of your heart.

“Andrew Wommack states that you already have all the health and material prosperity that you need. Oh - you don’t? Perhaps another few thousand hours of lectures on CD will fix that. 59.99 please!” ⁵³

Wommack teaches that you can conjure up wealth and power because you are limiting God and with instruction and “faith” can control his unlimited power and “unlock what you have already been given”⁵⁴ - and if it doesn’t come it’s because you aren’t praying hard enough, or you are not imagining big enough.

Andrew Wommack’s Don’t Limit God is yet another example of an instance where flawed understanding of scripture and heavy reliance on the KJV translation has caused Wommack to endlessly repeat a false teaching. This notion of you having to work to unlock God’s power in your life saturates his teaching. For a detailed breakdown watch this - Andrew Wommack Claims God Can Be Limited by Your Imagination

Let’s take a look at one more heavily abused verse to hammer this point home.

Here’s a little more of the verse.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

– Ephesians 3:14-21 NKJV

To explain this I will defer to the Lutheran Study Bible footnotes:

3:20-21 The prayer and the first half of the Letter reach their high point in a doxology. ‘more abundantly’. God’s giving is not limited by our asking. “He is like an eternal, unfailing fountain. The more it pours forth and overflows, the more it continues to give. God desires nothing more seriously from us than that we ask Him for much and great things” (LC III 56). ‘power’. See notes, 1:19, 20. ‘glory in the church’. The only NT doxology to include this phrase (cm Rm 16:25-27; Jude 24-25), indicating the importance of the Church in this Letter. The phrase suggests public worship.

3:14-21 As Paul considers God’s wisdom, grace, and love, he breaks out in prayer and praise. Study of God’s Word naturally combines with prayer and praise in the Divine Service, where Christ’s gifts are given out, and we receive them with thanksgiving. ‘Lord, let these verses be my prayer for my church today. Amen.’

Please understand that my refutation is not against a loving God who wants great things for His children - it is against the underhanded and exploitative sales tactic of subtle misdirection Wommack plays to instill a sense of secret knowledge to encourage the purchase of his course. Unlock your ability to receive from God today!

Deliverance Ministry¶

The need for deliverance ministry vanishes if you believe the true teaching - that demons cannot coexist in a body alongside Holy Spirit. Jim Osman said on this topic - “There is not a single instance where the apostles cast out a demon when Holy Spirit is present. Show me just one.” ²⁴

False teachers like Andrew Wommack deliver people into the bondage they claim to save them from. You’ve got a demon in you if you have lust, if you drink, if you jerk off. It’s not your fault - it’s that pesky demon!

True deliverance comes with regeneration. Per Colossians 1, God has already delivered us from darkness. Read the scripture:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

– Colossians 1:13-14 NKJV

From this point, our progressive sanctification must include denying the body (not demons) with the help of the Spirit.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

– Romans 8:13 NKJV

Fundamentally these false teachings end up short-circuiting what the Bible prescribes for holiness and delivers them into bondage. If you are a Christian, and you have Holy Spirit dwelling within you, demons simply cannot exist within you.

What are the works of the flesh? Read the Word of our Lord:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

– Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV

It’s you. Blaming our failings on demons is inappropriate - we should be crying out to God, confessing our sins, and asking for help. Chris Rosebrough provided commentary on this passage ”…those are the works of the flesh, not of demons. If you were to take all the demons of hell and lock them back up in hell, and there were no demons roaming the earth, we would all still as Christians be struggling and fighting against our sinful flesh…”²⁴

Sanctification is done by the power of the Holy Spirit. What is there to sanctify if every personal failing is the fault of demons? C.S. Lewis made a point in one of his essays about reading old books - Augustine had a book called “On the Spirit and the Letter”⁵⁵ - God chooses to sanctify us through the work of the Holy Spirit so we are never conceited and could not boast of our own works.

Deliverance is not the means by which we mortify our mortal flesh.

No Respect for Church History¶

Wommack certainly isn’t alone regarding this issue amongst his peers in the non-denominational evangelical space. The genealogy of ideas is important, and understanding how and where the things we believe emerge (and from whom,) is an essential examination that must be performed by anybody who intends to stand on truth.

Orthodoxy is a framework and not a straitjacket. To discard our knowledge of history and forsake the lessons of the past is to stand in ignorance of thoroughly tested and accepted solutions to our modern problems.

As noted in this Crossway article , there is an old Russian proverb that provides a warning “He who dwells on the past loses an eye; but he who forgets the past loses both eyes.”⁵⁶ The ministry of many charismatics and word of

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

– Romans 15:4 NKJV

The Augsburg Confession was presented June 25, 1530, in German and Latin at the Diet of Augsburg to the emperor Charles V by seven Lutheran princes and two imperial free cities. The principal author was the reformer Philipp Melanchthon, who drew on earlier Lutheran statements of faith. ( Britannica )

Ultimately - to reject 2000 years of rigorous debate, academic conflict, and developments in hermeneutics is an extremely foolish and narcissistic action that opens a man up to committing an endless number of heresies. The additional contextual awareness, nuance, and profound depth of understanding imparted by studies at a theological seminary offer a distinct advantage over self-study, and especially self-study divorced from a study of history.

The Charis Bible Cult¶

Charis Bible College:

• Uses well known and highly aggressive sales tactics
• Meets many of the technical definitions of a cult (see below)
• Encourages the exclusive study of Charis teachings for at least three years
• Wommack has many for-profit shell companies - ‘Charis Food Services, LLC’, ‘Charis Enterprises, Inc.’, ‘Charis Theatrical Productions’, etc. - making it difficult to track his money. ⁵⁷

Per the testimony of Shawn Savage,⁵⁸ the leaders at Charis insist that you only listen to Charis teachers for a few years until you are well established in Charis teachings.

People may join cults when in a state of extreme vulnerability,⁵⁹ and I do believe that Charis preys on those who are highly insecure or unstable in the areas of health and finances - including those who have recently experienced a related traumatic event .

Checklist of Cult Characteristics: ⁶⁰

1. The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
2. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
3. The group is preoccupied with making money¹.
4. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
5. Members’ subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
6. Mind-numbing techniques³ (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
7. The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
8. The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
9. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
10. The group’s leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
11. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
12. The leadership induces guilt feelings² in members in order to control them.
13. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

Superscripts:

• 1 - Charis and Prosperity Gospelists merchandise God’s Grace and teach the false doctrine of Sowing Seeds⁶¹ - giving money with the promise that God will reward you with exponentially more.

• 2 - For AWMI, the instilled “guilt feelings” is the fear that you must continue to learn to grow your faith - as nobody who attends Charis is able to readily manifest health and wealth in their lives.

  • Also see: BITE Model of Authoritarian Control

• 3 - Loud ‘Worship & Praise’ music played at a high volume is highly emotionally manipulative, lowering your psychological guards and making you susceptible to whatever teaching is then presented.

  “It’s easy to mistake emotional manipulation for a movement of God, right?” journalist and author Kelsey McKinney said in the 2022 documentary Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed. “Are you crying because the Lord is staging some kind of intervention in your life, or are you crying because the chord structure is built to make you cry?” ⁶²

Subverting Discernment and Inviting Demonic Influence¶

Listening to every spirit opens yourself to induced paranoid schizophrenia as the demons around you play games with your life.⁶³ Shaking your head back and forth like a rabid dog and listening to every wayward voice that enters your head is a recipe for total spiritual wreckage in your life and will impact everybody around you.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

– 1 John 4:1-6 NKJV

Opening yourself in a hopeful state of mind to any voice that enters your head is a very dangerous practice, and in constantly attempting to train his followers on how to Montanistically¹⁹ attain personal spiritual revelation, Wommack makes his followers extremely vulnerable to spiritual attack. Luckily this also enables him to sell more courses on how to apply your authority as a believer.

Leveraging Poor Translations¶

This isn’t a problem with Andrew Wommack in particular, who uses the KJV translation and NIV⁶⁴ paraphrase, though in an overly reliant, error-prone, and eisegesical manner. Wommack has far greater problems. This is a larger problem with many other congregations in Word-Faith and New Apostolic Reformation circles, who choose to promote versions of the Bible that are very loosely paraphrased and full of NAR-ish interpretations of their favorite verses.

I’ll specifically focus on two particularly bad Bible translations entitled The Passion Translation (TPT) and The Message (MSG). Both of these are the work of a single man, both of them are paraphrased, and both of them make a large number of potentially faith-changing translations that are not healthy.

Here is Matthew 6:9-13 in the NKJV translation:

In this manner, therefore, pray:

  Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.   Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.   Give us this day our daily bread.   And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.   And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.   For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

– Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV

Here is the same verse in The Message:

“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best—     as above, so below.⁶⁵ Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty!     Yes. Yes. Yes.

– Matthew 6:9-13 MSG

Finally here is The Passion version:

Pray like this: ‘Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn. Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven. We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day. Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. For you are the King who rules with power and glory forever. Amen.’

– Matthew 6:9-13 TPT

Funny enough, after writing it and highlighting these two versions, I found an explanation⁶⁶ by Justin Peters discussing the exact same two translations.

“[The] NIV is as literal a paraphrase as you can get and it still be a paraphrase, but it is a paraphrase, it’s not word for word, more of a thought for thought. Then you would have the New Living, […] The Living Bible, but then, further off the end of that, you have things like The Message. […] It denigrates the deity of Christ, sometimes outright denies it. It strongly suggests that Jesus is not the only way to be saved.”⁶⁶

– Justin Peters, YouTube

No translation is without flaws, but the very paraphrased Message translation which is meant to take into account modern cultural sensibilities, should not be sold anywhere as a Bible. If it was marketed as a loose retelling, it would be a different story - but some use MSG or TPT as their primary translation to comprehend the Word, and I find this insufficient and potentially faith-endangering.

Here’s a little more info on the author of TPT:

“Brian Simmons is a NAR apostle and the author of The Passion Translation, which he asserts Jesus Christ personally commissioned him to translate from the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible into new scripture in 2009. He added that he had been transported to meet Jesus in an immense library in heaven. Pivec, who has co-authored three books on the NAR, writes that the translation has been endorsed by several NAR leaders, and many in the movement use it as their primary Bible. She adds that Simmons is the sole author of the translation and he has not disclosed the editors and scholars he says have reviewed his work. Pivec and her co-author, Geivett, assert the translation contains “completely reworded verses, making it appear that the Bible supports NAR teachings.” Bible scholars say the Simmons book does not meet the rigorous standards of a translation but rather functions as a paraphrase. BibleGateway, an evangelical Christian website providing access to 232 versions of the Bible in 74 languages, removed The Passion Translation from its site in February 2022.”⁶⁷

Signs of Insanity¶

Wommack’s teaching style is anecdotal, feminine, hyper-emotional, and extremely low on scripture explained in context. His writing style is maddening. Reading the collected works of Andrew Wommack seems to condition the mind to exclusively write in huge blocks of unbroken babbling text.

“Some of the things I’m saying are hard to put into words because I’m talking about things you can’t see. But this is the way I live! My ministry and my relationship with God would not be where they are today without putting these things into practice. There are a lot of goals that I’ve set that I believe are from the Lord. The only way that I know I’ll get there is if I imagine the things God has put on my heart and meditate on them. When I do, they’ll paint a picture on the inside of me that I’ll be able to see manifest through faith. They are going to come to pass. Sometimes it may not look like it, but you watch. Whether it’s finances or healing or whatever, I am going to have all that I need to accomplish everything that God has told me to accomplish.” ⁶⁸

– A.W., ‘The Power of Imagination’ (Order Now)

Subjectively, it is unreadable hyper-emotional continuous-thought drivel - I can’t make it through more than a page or two, and I challenge you to do the same. He starts a lot of sentences with ‘But’. This literary muck - with a highly repetitive structure, constantly attempting to reify the ideas with the reader, a grinding lack of tonal variation, and scatterbrained focus - will drive any sane person mad.

Here is an exemplary testimony from a staff member at Charis:

Look at any Neo-Charismatic congregation and you’ll see ‘messages’ delivered in a highly emotional and anecdotal manner after loud music is played to lower any inhibitions the congregation may have had. Opening your mind this wide to barely qualified teachers cannot be safe.

Expository preaching is not leveraged in Big Evangelical churches despite being fundamental Christian ministry. In some denominations, a lectionary will ensure that the entirety of the Bible is taught to the congregation over a three year period. Wommack and other NAR Charismatics allow themselves to be guided by “Holy Spirit”, which untested, I do believe is whatever demons show up in the room.

The Demonic Possession of Kenneth Copeland (Video)

Often, this hyper-emotional teaching style and indoctrination against trigger words leads to attacks against ‘religious teachings’ which often simply inoculates these congregations against good biblical exegesis and clear thinking.

Occasionally you’ll hear the words “Not My Jesus!” … Not ‘my’ Jesus? In that case - it probably isn’t Jesus at all.

Springs Church & Leon Fontaine¶

Leon, former senior pastor at Springs Church, died at age 59 of cancer despite his teachings on health and healing. A statement was posted by the Miracle Channel a few days after Leon’s death in hospital on Saturday, November 19, 2022.

To me, Leon was a truly inspiring man. Having spoken with Leon a handful of times, and feeling the genuine love he had for the people in his congregation, I feel that although Leon was propagating some of these Charismatic Word-Faith false teachings, he was not doing so with ill intent - it was what he was brought up in.

Springs Church and Leon Fontaine’s teachings were, in large part, a natural continuation of the teachings of his parents, who pastored a a Pentecostal church during his formative years, and a more Baptist church as he became an adult. My personal theory is that Leon, who had been raised with Charismatic roots, readily applied the practices and styles of American Evangelical personalities - megachurch pastors - who were grounded in similar revivalist ideas.

Cameron and Jacqueline were both pastors and led the Weldon Pentecostal Church for a time. In Cam Fontaine’s Obituary it is noted that Leon’s parents “pastored in Porcupine Plain until April 1969 when they moved to Weldon, SK to pastor the Weldon Pentecostal Church (now New Life Centre).”⁶⁹ Which may be nlcmj . Leon was 7. For another duration, they taught at New Life Community Church, which today appears to be Grace Baptist Church⁷⁰. Leon would have been 18 when they made the switch in 1980.

Given his upbringing and powerful charisma, I admit that I was quite captured by the strong presence and leadership of Leon and his church when I began attending in late 2021. Very glad to be part of a caring and energetic community, I began volunteering shortly after joining.

My personal history at Springs is as follows:

1. I began attending in late 2021
2. I attended a volunteering info session on October 20, 2021
3. I began volunteering in December 2021
4. I began teaching Sunday school in May 2022
5. I took the Biblical Studies I course for the full year of 2022
6. I began teaching youth in December 2023
7. I ended all volunteer activities December 2024

I am thankful for the growth as a Christian that I experienced at his church.

After Leon’s death in 2022, though its strong community rallied around its grieving leadership who took up the flag, the church has now been (in my opinion) headless for a time. Springs was Leon’s church, and since his departure most of the teaching staff have looked to the American televangelists that Leon also drew from.

Many condolences were posted on social media, including a Facebook post from the Canadian branch of Kenneth Copeland Ministries on Monday.

“One of our very own Generals of Faith, Leon Fontaine has transitioned to his forever home in Heaven. He was an incredible leader, communicator, and pastor who was a strong voice for the church in Canada,” stated the ministry. “He has served the Lord, his country and the church well, and we will miss him dearly. We rejoice with him as he has now entered into his eternal reward.”⁷¹

Springs does propagate a number of false teachings, increasingly so since Leon’s passing, which has caused the teachers at Springs to become far more reliant on far-removed American influences like Andrew Wommack.

In particular, the Biblical Studies course places heavy emphasis on dispensational exegesis, a consistently literal methodology that was originally developed by Christian Mystic Pierre Poiret and Isaac Watts, and then formalized by John Nelson Darby (Plymouth Bretheren). C.I. Schofield, bankrolled by Zionists, fully thrust this set of poisoned ideas into American Evangelicalism and the rest is history. Much of the teaching at Springs rests on the foundations of dispensationalism - the problems with this astro-turfed⁷² Judaizing doctrine are an issue for another long article.

In summary - “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.

Though Springs is full of wonderful, caring, and kind people, I believe that at this point in my faith journey it is a spiritually and intellectually misaligned institution. Subtle errors in doctrine can have cascading negative effects in the lives of congregational members. With correction and discernment I have full confidence that the institution can rise to become a good and Godly institution - but not until they ditch their poisoned false-doctrine influences like Andrew Wommack, Bethel Music, Copeland, Osteen, etc.

If you still need evidence of a connection to the esoteric roots I mentioned above, here are some photos from the Springs book store. You’ll recognize some of the authors - E.W. Keynon, Kenneth E. Hagin, Andrew Wommack, and many others in the flowcharts above. Note the entire shelf of Hagin books in the third image.

To the staff, mentors, and friends I have who still attend Springs - I only write this out of love, to try to help you understand the false teachings you have been living under. My love is for God’s Truth, and not the truths of men. I pray you can repent of your sins and come to a full and true understanding of what Jesus Christ actually accomplished here on Earth. May God’s blessings be with you all.

that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

– Ephesians 4:14 NKJV

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

– Galatians 1:6-10 NKJV

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

– 1 Timothy 4:1-5 NKJV

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

– 1 John 4:1-3 NKJV

Other False Teachers¶

All of these men and women are to be marked and avoided. They preach a different gospel that has been deceitfully slid into the Christian zeitgeist by bad actors seeking personal gain.

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.

For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

– Romans 16:17-18 NKJV

Big Dogs

• Alexander Pagani
• Isaiah Saldivar
• Kathryn Krick
• Vlad Savchuck
• David Diga Hernandez
• Joseph Prince
• Creflo Dollar
• Greg Locke
• Joyce Meyer
• Bible Davis

Others

• Greg Laurie
• Craig Groeschel
• Kat Kerr
• Steve Schultz

A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart.

– Proverbs 18:2 NKJV

A Sobering Truth¶

Having put many hours of research into Andrew Wommack, his student body, and his teachings, the major conclusion that I must come to not only condemns Wommack himself, but also those who enrich him, follow him, and listen to his teachings.

To suspend your disbelief to the point where Wommack’s make-believe is palatable requires a heart filled with greed and worldly covetousness. I believe that the honeyed words of Wommack’s teachings on wealth and healing are by design meant to entrap those with heavy burdens, but conversely, those who follow Wommack must know he is making promises beyond the gospel. Somewhere in their hearts, where God’s Law is inscribed, there is a discomfort that is ignored.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at* His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

– 2 Timothy 4:1-5 NKJV

Those who stay fooled by Wommack may ultimately deserve their fate. I pray those who follow him will recognize their error, repent of their hubris, burn their Wommack books, and pursue the full and righteous truths of God.

Conclusion¶

To summarize the section above in a single thought: Andrew Wommack is an especially dangerous false teacher because his teaching rests on deeply esoteric foundations and 50 years of biblical eisegesis. His outward appearance of humble wisdom and experience doubles this danger for new believers and those already indoctrinated into the word of faith cult. Mark and avoid this false teacher.

To manufacture fake signs and wonders,⁷³ to deceive people, to exploit the poor, sick, and desperate, and bring untold reproach upon the name of Christ as families are split and individuals join the Charis cult - this is the awful fruit of Andrew Wommack and his wayward ministry.

To my good friend,

You must now choose to engage in clear thinking and discernment. Your monumental arrogance in believing you have the keys to truth - only selecting pastors who agree with your vain personal interpretation of the Word of Truth, rather than the Word itself - is an astounding monument to your own towering pride, doubt, and fear. You must cease your propagation of occult magicks wrapped in Christianese to your shrinking circle of friends. You may choose to submit to real teachers, trained in proper biblical exegesis, and learn to interpret the Word in context. Christ’s atonement was not for worldly healing or wealth, and is entirely out of your control. Christ died for your sins on the cross - and promises eternal life.

Repent and believe the Gospel.

Yours in Christ,

Ryan

Resources¶

Included in this section are some religions definitions which may be new to a non-Christian, or a Christian who is new to high church and academic systems for interpreting the Bible. Also included are some occult terms, which I do not recommend looking into further to preserve the sanctity of your own mind.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

– 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

Definitions¶

”Exegesis, the critical interpretation of the biblical text to discover its intended meaning. Both Christians and Jews have used various exegetical methods throughout their history, and doctrinal and polemical intentions have often influenced interpretive results; a given text may yield a number of very different interpretations according to the exegetical presuppositions and techniques applied to it. The study of these methodological principles themselves constitutes the field of hermeneutics…” Brittanica

”Eisegesis, the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one’s own ideas” Merriam-Webster For the Gospel

”Hermeneutics, the study of the general principles of biblical interpretation. For both Christians and Jews throughout their histories, the primary purpose of hermeneutics, and of the exegetical methods employed in interpretation, has been to discover the truths and values expressed in the Bible. The term hermeneutics has also been used in connection with the interpretation of the sacred texts of other religious traditions, including the Quran.” Brittanica

"Occultism, a group of esoteric religious traditions emerging primarily from 19th-century Europe. In particular, the term occultism is associated with the ideas of the French Kabbalist and ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi as well as the various figures, both in France and abroad, who were strongly influenced by his writings. In the academic study of esotericism, the term is often used in a broader sense to characterize all esoteric traditions that have adapted to an increasingly secular, globalized, and scientific world, including Spiritualism, Spiritism, Wicca, and the New Age milieu." Brittanica

"Kabbala, esoteric Jewish mysticism as it appeared in the 12th and following centuries. Kabbala has always been essentially an oral tradition in that initiation into its doctrines and practices is conducted by a personal guide to avoid the dangers inherent in mystical experiences. Esoteric Kabbala is also “tradition” inasmuch as it lays claim to secret knowledge of the unwritten Torah (divine revelation) that was communicated by God to Moses and Adam. Though observance of the Law of Moses remained the basic tenet of Judaism, Kabbala provided a means of approaching God directly. It thus gave Judaism a religious dimension whose mystical approaches to God were viewed by some as dangerously pantheistic and heretical."

Further Reading¶

• Justin Peters

  • Pastor, Laurel Bible Church
  • M.Div, M.Th. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • My Visit to Charis Bible College
  • Andrew Wommack Exposed
  • Clouds Without Water (5 part series)
  • The Puppet Master of the Word-Faith Movement

• Chris Rosebrough

  • Pastor, Kongsvinger Lutheran Church ( AALC )
  • B.S. Religious Studies & Biblical Languages - Concordia University Irvine
  • M.Th. American Lutheran Theological Seminary (in progress)
  • F4F | Andrew Wommack Claims God Can Be Limited by Your Imagination

• Shaun Savage - “Freed from Charis”

  • This guy is clearly a narcissist - but had the good sense to leave Charis.
  • Part 1 - Shaun’s story
  • Part 2 - Missing?
  • Part 3 - Depression, murder-suicides, despair.
  • Instagram @shawnsavage (caution)

• Deborah McDermott

  • “Why I left Charis Bible College” Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3
  • Why we do NOT recommend Charis Bible College
  • No love for disabled students at Charis

• Steven Kozar

  • Of themessedupchurch.com
  • Playlist: Confronting Andrew Wommack
  • “You Haven’t Been Healed? It’s Your Fault!” Andrew Wommack and Kenneth Copeland
  • Article: “The Word of Faith Cornucopia of False Doctrine”
    • What’s Wrong with the Word of Faith Movement (Part One)
    • What’s Wrong with the Word of Faith Movement (Part Two)
    • Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA
    • Word-Faith Movement Profile by Watchman Fellowship
    • Physical Healing and the Atonement - Is it Always God’s Will to Heal Now?
    • That Time God Destroyed Oral Roberts’ Healing Tent, And He Made a Point
    • 4 Ways the Prosperity Gospel Twists Christianity
    • 10 Ways the Word of Faith Movement Went Wrong
    • Compilation of Word Faith articles from Deception in the Church

• Berean Research

  • Whitepaper: Word of Faith
  • New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)
  • Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation Worship Music

• William Branham: Historical Research

  • About John Collins and his escape from ‘The Message’ cult
  • Charles Fox Parham’s Arrest
  • John Alexander Dowie
  • Frank Sandford
  • John Robert Stevens and ‘The Walk’
  • Latter Rain

• Discernment Ministries International

  • The Demotion of Christ & Exaltation of Man
  • WOF Sacred Cow #1: Jesus Was Very Wealthy
  • WOF Sacred Cow #2: Jesus Ministered Only As a Man
  • WOF Sacred Cow #3: Jesus Died Spiritually
  • WOF Sacred Cow #4: The Laws of Faith & Confession
  • WOF Sacred Cow #5: It Is God’s Will To Always Heal

• Posts and Communities

  • reddit.com r/charisbiblecult
  • reddit r/reformed on Andrew Wommack
  • Essay: Wommack Stops Thought

• Misc

  • https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/pentecostalism
  • https://www.themessedupchurch.com/blog/the-parhamite-killings
  • https://online.ambrose.edu/alliancestudies/draper/l5_20c.html

The Three Universal Creeds¶

Formalized through history, creeds and confessions carefully summarize the plain truths of scripture in a format that can be remembered and rehearsed.⁷⁴

Some things to note:

1. “catholic” in these texts refers to the entire universal church
2. “us men” refers to mankind
3. “good” is to be understood in the Christian context⁷⁵ - see this note

The Apostles’ Creed¶

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Nicene Creed¶

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only‐begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Athanasian Creed¶

Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.

And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit: the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal, just as there are not three Uncreated or three Infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite. In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.

The Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone. The Son is neither made nor created, but begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. Thus, there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another; but the whole three persons are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped. Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity. But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity. Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ: one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead. At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good ⁷⁵ will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.

A Burden Lifted¶

To say this article took a long time to write would be an understatement. Only a few days of actual writing - but months upon months of slowly processing my departure from Springs church as I seek more wisdom and growth under seminary-educated teachers. I am now beginning adult education classes with a new church.

I suppose I have been healed through this process. It has been good to frame and understand what I felt so uncomfortable with for so long - though now that the article is finished, I will be glad to leave my computers alone in the evening for a few weeks.

I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered.

I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.” And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

– Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 NKJV