Word of Faith / Prosperity Theology 20th – 21st century · health-and-wealth gospel · positive confession · little-gods theology · discernment
Word of Faith — also called the prosperity gospel, the health-and-wealth gospel, or "name it and claim it" theology — is the twentieth-century American Christian movement that teaches that God's will for every Christian is physical health, material wealth, and worldly success, and that the believer accesses these blessings through faith-filled "positive confession" (speaking the desired outcomes into existence by faith), financial "seed-giving" (giving money to prosperity ministries with the expectation of multiplied return), and the application of supposed spiritual laws. The movement traces its origins to E. W. Kenyon (1867 – 1948), an American pastor who integrated elements of nineteenth-century New Thought metaphysical religion with Pentecostal-Holiness theology; Kenneth Hagin (1917 – 2003), who popularised Kenyon's teaching in the postwar Pentecostal-charismatic context and founded the Rhema Bible Training Center (1974); Kenneth Copeland (b. 1936), Hagin's student and the most prominent contemporary Word of Faith teacher; and the broader prosperity teaching tradition including Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, T. D. Jakes (in his prosperity-leaning teaching), Paula White, and many others. The principal Word of Faith doctrines: positive confession, the "little gods" theology (humans share in divine nature and can speak reality into existence), health-and-wealth as God's universal will for Christians, misuse of the atonement (Christ's death secured freedom from poverty and sickness for every believer), faith as a force operating by spiritual law, and seed-faith giving as a guaranteed path to financial return. The Reformed-and-broader-evangelical response — Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis (1993; rev. 2009), D. R. McConnell's A Different Gospel (1988), Costi Hinn's God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (2019), John Piper's work, John MacArthur's engagement, Michael Horton's treatment, and the broader Reformed evangelical engagement — articulates the Reformed-evangelical gospel of grace against the Word of Faith distortion. The movement continues to shape portions of global Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, American televangelism, and the African and Latin American neo-Pentecostal context. The Reformed Christian engages Word of Faith as one of the most serious contemporary gospel-distortions, with pastoral, theological, and apologetic concern.
WHY THIS PAGE EXISTS — Word of Faith / Prosperity Theology is referenced across the Sola Fide pillars — the Heresies through Church History survey, the Discernment pillar, the Soteriology pillar. None of those gives the focused treatment a serious enquirer needs. This page does that work: (1) the timeline of the movement; (2) Kenyon, Hagin, Copeland, and the principal figures; (3) what Word of Faith teachers actually teach; (4) the Reformed-evangelical response; (5) the doctrinal core; (6) the movement's institutional structures and global reach; (7) the theological stakes; (8) the hard places — the real pastoral suffering caused by the movement, the complexity of engaging Pentecostal-charismatic communities, the difference between Word of Faith and broader Pentecostalism; (9) the influence on subsequent Christianity; (10) modern parallels — therapeutic Christianity, success-gospel evangelicalism, the broader self-help spirituality. The tone is doctrinally clear, pastorally serious, and careful not to conflate Word of Faith with the broader Pentecostal-charismatic tradition (much of which is orthodox in its theology, however the Reformed tradition may disagree on continuationist and charismatic questions). Word of Faith is one of the most significant contemporary distortions of the gospel and warrants careful Reformed pastoral and apologetic engagement.
Read Word of Faith as a gospel distortion, not merely as an excess. The Reformed engagement with Word of Faith recognises that the movement is not merely an exuberant excess within otherwise sound Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity; it is a distortion of the Christian gospel that touches every central Christian doctrine — God, Christ, atonement, salvation, the Christian life, eschatology. Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis (1993; revised 2009) titled the movement's theological substance "a different gospel" with justification. The distortion deserves Reformed pastoral and apologetic engagement.
Distinguish Word of Faith from the broader Pentecostal-charismatic tradition carefully. The Reformed engagement with Word of Faith must carefully distinguish the Word of Faith teaching from the broader Pentecostal-charismatic Christian tradition. The broader Pentecostal tradition — emerging from the Azusa Street revival (1906), articulated by classical Pentecostal denominations (Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Foursquare, International Pentecostal Holiness Church, and others), and continued through the charismatic movement (1960s onwards) and the Third Wave (1980s onwards) — is orthodox on the central Christian doctrines (Trinity, Christology, atonement, salvation by grace). The Reformed tradition disagrees with classical Pentecostalism on continuationist questions about the gifts of the Spirit and on certain aspects of sanctification, but these are intra-evangelical disagreements within shared gospel commitments. Word of Faith is a distortion that substantially compromises the central gospel; the Reformed engagement should not conflate the two. Vinson Synan's The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (Eerdmans, 1997) and Allan Anderson's An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge, 2nd ed. 2014) distinguish the traditions.
Read the movement's metaphysical-religion origins. The Word of Faith teaching traces its theological-historical roots to the nineteenth-century American New Thought metaphysical religion (Phineas P. Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, the broader mind-cure tradition) as integrated by E. W. Kenyon into Pentecostal-Holiness theology in the early twentieth century. D. R. McConnell's A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Hendrickson, 1988) is the scholarly demonstration of these origins. The metaphysical-religion roots help explain the Word of Faith doctrines (positive confession as a spiritual law, faith as a force, the "little gods" theology) that distinguish the movement from orthodox Christianity.
Read the pastoral cost honestly. The Word of Faith movement has caused pastoral and personal suffering — believers giving financial sums to prosperity ministries on the promise of return; believers refusing medical treatment in confidence of healing by positive confession; believers experiencing spiritual crisis when promised health, wealth, and success do not materialise; believers exiting Christianity altogether when the Word of Faith promises fail. Costi Hinn's God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (Zondervan, 2019) — written by the nephew of Benny Hinn from inside the Word of Faith world — is the pastoral witness to the human cost. The Reformed engagement with Word of Faith should be doctrinally clear and pastorally serious about the human cost.
1. Timeline and historical overview
(Quimby, Eddy)
(classical Pentecostalism begins)
integrates New Thought + Pentecostal
from Kenyon's writings
broader Pentecostalism
(Hagin)
A Different Gospel
Christianity in Crisis
neo-Pentecostal prosperity
God, Greed
Principal resources: D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Hendrickson, 1988; revised 1995); Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis (Harvest House, 1993; rev. Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century, Thomas Nelson, 2009); Costi W. Hinn, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel: How the Prosperity Gospel Has Destroyed Lives and How to Get Out (Zondervan, 2019); Costi W. Hinn and Anthony G. Wood, Defining Deception (SCS Press, 2018); Michael Horton, ed., The Agony of Deceit (Moody, 1990); Michael Horton, Christless Christianity (Baker, 2008); John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Zondervan, 1992), and Strange Fire (Thomas Nelson, 2013); Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford, 2013) — the major scholarly history; Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (Eerdmans, 1997); Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge, 2nd ed. 2014).
2. Kenyon, Hagin, Copeland — the principal figures
E. W. Kenyon
Essek William Kenyon — pastor and writer, founder of Bethel Bible Institute (Massachusetts), author of popular Christian books — is the theological founder of the Word of Faith movement. Kenyon's integration of elements from the nineteenth-century New Thought metaphysical religion (Quimby's mind-cure, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, the broader American mind-cure tradition) with Pentecostal-Holiness theology produced the theological framework that Hagin and Copeland would later popularise. Key Kenyon teachings: positive confession as a spiritual law ( echoing New Thought's "law of attraction"); the "Jesus died spiritually" doctrine ( that Christ took on Satan's nature in his death and was tortured in hell before being "born again" at the resurrection); the dualistic "two kinds of knowledge" (sense knowledge vs. revelation knowledge); the claim that Christians can access health and prosperity through faith. McConnell's A Different Gospel documents Kenyon's dependence on New Thought sources.
Kenneth E. Hagin
Kenneth Hagin — substantially the popular founder of the modern Word of Faith movement — developed and popularised Kenyon's teaching in the postwar American Pentecostal-charismatic context. Hagin's autobiography reports visions of Jesus that supposedly confirmed his teaching; scholarly engagement (McConnell) has demonstrated that Hagin's teaching is substantially drawn (often verbatim and without attribution) from Kenyon's writings. Hagin founded the Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1974), which trained thousands of Word of Faith pastors and teachers across the subsequent decades. His books — The Believer's Authority, How to Write Your Own Ticket with God, Right and Wrong Thinking for Right and Wrong Believing, and many others — substantially shaped the movement's theological substance through to the present.
Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland — student of Hagin and the most prominent contemporary Word of Faith teacher — continues the Hagin tradition in the contemporary American televangelist context. Copeland's wealth (his multi-million-dollar private jets, mansions, and personal holdings) substantially illustrates the personal financial outcome of the movement's seed-faith teaching. Copeland's teaching includes prominent versions of the "little gods" doctrine ( that Christians share in divine nature in an ontological sense), positive confession, seed-faith giving with promised return, and misuse of the atonement.
The broader prosperity-teaching ecosystem
The broader prosperity-teaching ecosystem includes: Oral Roberts (1918 – 2009), the pioneer of "seed-faith" giving and American televangelism; Joel Osteen (b. 1963), the softer prosperity teacher with his Lakewood megachurch in Houston; Creflo Dollar (b. 1962), prominent African American Word of Faith teacher; Joyce Meyer (b. 1943), prosperity teacher with broader appeal; Benny Hinn (b. 1952), faith-healer with prosperity teaching (the subject of his nephew Costi Hinn's God, Greed); Paula White (b. 1966); T. D. Jakes (b. 1957), prosperity-leaning teaching alongside Oneness-Pentecostal modalist trinitarian framework. The broader television and conference and book-publishing infrastructure shapes American and global Christian media.
3. What Word of Faith teachers actually teach
The "little gods" theology
The"little gods" doctrine teaches that human beings share in divine nature in an ontological sense — that Christians are "little gods" in the sense that they share in the divine essence and can speak reality into existence as God does. Kenneth Copeland's teaching has included prominent versions of this doctrine. The Reformed conviction confesses the creator-creature distinction — God is God and human beings are creatures, made in the image of God but not sharing in the divine essence ( against any pantheistic or panentheistic or "little gods" framework). See Systematic Theology.
Positive confession ("name it and claim it")
The positive confession doctrine teaches that Christians can speak desired outcomes (healing, financial prosperity, success) into existence by faith-filled confession — that words have creative power when spoken in faith. The doctrine misreads various biblical texts (Mark 11:23 – 24, Romans 4:17, Hebrews 11) outside their context and imports the New Thought "law of attraction" framework into the Christian gospel. The Reformed conviction confesses that prayer is the humble petition of creatures to the sovereign God who answers according to his will (Matt 6:9 – 13; 1 John 5:14 – 15), not the magical-spiritual technique that Word of Faith teaches.
Health and wealth as God's universal will
The Word of Faith doctrine teaches that God's will for every Christian is physical health and material wealth in the present life. Sickness, poverty, and material struggle are presented as lack of faith, failure of positive confession, or demonic oppression — not as the reality of Christian life in the fallen world. The Reformed conviction confesses that God's providential blessing varies across the Christian life, that suffering is part of Christian existence (Rom 5:3 – 5, James 1:2 – 4, 1 Peter 4:12 – 19), and that ultimate Christian hope is bodily resurrection and the new creation, not present-life prosperity. See Soteriology.
Misuse of the atonement
The Word of Faith atonement teaching misuses the biblical doctrine of the atonement in two ways. First, Christ's death presented as having secured freedom from poverty and sickness for every believer in the present life — reading "by his stripes you are healed" (Isa 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24) as universal guarantee of physical healing rather than spiritual healing through Christ's penal substitution. Second, Kenyon's"Jesus died spiritually" doctrine teaches that Christ took on Satan's nature in his death and was tortured in hell before being "born again" at the resurrection — a teaching without biblical warrant that distorts the Reformed doctrine of the atonement. The Reformed conviction confesses the penal-substitutionary atonement as the saving act of Christ for our salvation (Rom 3:21 – 26, 2 Cor 5:21); the secondary application to physical healing is eschatological — fully realised in the resurrection of the body and the new creation, not guaranteed in the present life. See Soteriology.
Faith as a force / spiritual law
The Word of Faith doctrine presents faith not as trust in the sovereign God but as an impersonal force that operates by spiritual law — echoing the New Thought metaphysical framework. The Reformed conviction confesses faith as personal trust in the person and work of Christ (Heb 11; Rom 4), not as an impersonal force.
Seed-faith giving
The seed-faith doctrine teaches that financial giving to prosperity ministries — presented as planting a "seed" — produces multiplied financial return for the giver. The doctrine functions as a financial mechanism for prosperity ministries while exploiting vulnerable believers. The Reformed conviction confesses generous Christian giving as joyful response to God's grace (2 Cor 8 – 9), not as a transactional spiritual technique for personal financial return.
4. The Reformed and broader evangelical response
D. R. McConnell's A Different Gospel (1988)
D. R. McConnell's A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Hendrickson, 1988; revised 1995) — produced from McConnell's master's thesis at Oral Roberts University — demonstrated Kenyon's dependence on New Thought metaphysical religion and Hagin's dependence on Kenyon's writings. The scholarly demonstration grounded subsequent Reformed-evangelical engagement.
Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis (1993)
Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis (1993; revised 2009 as Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century) brought the theological case against Word of Faith to a broader American evangelical audience. The argument: Word of Faith teaches a different gospel that distorts the central Christian doctrines (the F-L-A-W-S acronym: Faith in faith, Little gods, Atonement misuse, Wealth and health, Sickness and suffering re-interpreted).
Costi Hinn's God, Greed (2019)
Costi Hinn's God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (Zondervan, 2019) — written by the nephew of Benny Hinn from inside the Word of Faith world — combines autobiographical witness with biblical-theological critique. The pastoral substance is among the most accessible Reformed-evangelical resources for engaging Word of Faith communities.
The broader Reformed-evangelical engagement
Michael Horton's work (The Agony of Deceit, ed., 1990; Christless Christianity, 2008), John MacArthur's Charismatic Chaos (1992) and Strange Fire (2013), John Piper's body of work on Christian Hedonism as the alternative to prosperity teaching, and the broader Reformed evangelical engagement addresses the Word of Faith distortion from the Reformed orthodox foundation.
5. The doctrinal core
Word of Faith vs Reformed gospel — summary contrast
God: Word of Faith — divine essence shared with believers ("little gods"). Reformed — creator-creature distinction. Christ's atonement: WoF — secured present health and wealth for believers. Reformed — penal substitution for sin, with eschatological completion. Faith: WoF — force operating by spiritual law. Reformed — personal trust in Christ. Prosperity: WoF — God's universal will for every believer in this life. Reformed — providential variation; ultimate hope in the new creation. Christian giving: WoF — seed-faith transaction for financial return. Reformed — joyful response to grace. Suffering: WoF — lack of faith or demonic oppression. Reformed — part of Christian life, often means of sanctification.
6. Institutional structures and global reach
American televangelism and Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN, founded 1973 by Paul and Jan Crouch), Daystar Television Network, and the broader American Christian television infrastructure provided the media platform for Word of Faith teaching across the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Global Pentecostal-charismatic expansion
The Word of Faith teaching spread globally through the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries — substantially shaping portions of African neo-Pentecostal Christianity (Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan, South African prosperity churches), Latin American neo-Pentecostal Christianity (Brazilian, Guatemalan, and others), South Korean prosperity teaching (Yoido Full Gospel Church under Paul Yonggi Cho), and portions of the global Pentecostal-charismatic movement. Kate Bowler's Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford, 2013) and Philip Jenkins's broader work on global Christianity engage these global dimensions.
Megachurch infrastructure
The megachurch infrastructure — Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church (Houston), Creflo Dollar's World Changers (Atlanta), Kenneth Copeland Ministries (Texas), Joyce Meyer Ministries, T. D. Jakes's Potter's House (Dallas), and the global megachurch network — provides the institutional base of the contemporary Word of Faith movement.
7. The theological stakes
The gospel of grace versus the prosperity gospel
The theological stake is the gospel of grace itself. Word of Faith replaces the Reformed gospel (salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone) with a transactional spirituality ( blessings purchased through faith techniques and financial giving). The Reformed gospel offers Christ; Word of Faith offers Christ-plus-prosperity, which is a different gospel altogether. See Soteriology.
The creator-creature distinction
The"little gods" doctrine compromises the creator-creature distinction that is foundational to Christian theology. See Systematic Theology.
The doctrine of suffering and the Christian life
The Reformed doctrine of suffering and the Christian life — participation in Christ's sufferings (Phil 3:10), sanctification through trial (James 1:2 – 4), eschatological hope (Rom 8:18 – 25) — contradicts the Word of Faith framework. The Reformed pastoral engagement addresses this.
The doctrine of prayer and providence
The Reformed doctrine of prayer as humble petition to the sovereign God contradicts the Word of Faith doctrine of positive confession as a spiritual technique. The Reformed doctrine of providence confesses God's sovereign care across all the conditions of Christian life, not guaranteed prosperity for the faithful.
The doctrine of money and stewardship
The Reformed doctrine of money and Christian stewardship — grateful generosity in response to grace, trust in God's provision, concern for the poor and Christian community — contradicts the Word of Faith seed-faith giving framework.
The doctrine of the atonement
The Reformed doctrine of the penal-substitutionary atonement contradicts both aspects of the Word of Faith atonement misuse —"Jesus died spiritually" and the prosperity-misreading of Isa 53:5.
8. The hard places — read honestly
The pastoral cost
The pastoral and personal cost of the Word of Faith movement is. Believers have given financial sums to prosperity ministries on the promise of financial return; believers have refused medical treatment in confidence of healing by positive confession; believers have experienced spiritual crisis when promised outcomes fail to materialise; believers have exited Christianity altogether when the Word of Faith promises fail. The Reformed engagement names this cost honestly.
Engaging Pentecostal-charismatic believers carefully
The Reformed engagement with Word of Faith must carefully distinguish the Word of Faith teaching from the broader Pentecostal-charismatic Christian tradition. Many Pentecostal-charismatic believers are orthodox on the central Christian doctrines and share Reformed-evangelical gospel commitments while differing on continuationist questions. The Reformed engagement should not conflate the broader tradition with the Word of Faith distortion.
Race, class, and the complexity of engagement
The Word of Faith movement has been substantially shaped by African American religious traditions and appeals to communities experiencing economic hardship. The Reformed engagement must engage carefully, recognising the real economic and pastoral concerns that prosperity teaching addresses (while rejecting the theological distortion). Anthony Bradley's work and the broader Reformed African American engagement addresses these dimensions.
The global South dimension
The global expansion of prosperity teaching substantially shapes portions of contemporary global Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity. The Reformed engagement works substantially with global Reformed evangelical partners (Reformed evangelical churches in Africa, Latin America, Asia) to address the teaching in local contexts.
The sociological appeal
The sociological appeal of prosperity teaching — addressing real economic anxiety, offering hope and dignity to marginalised communities, providing agency to powerless believers — explains the appeal even where the theological substance is distortive. The Reformed engagement recognises these sociological dimensions.
The complexity of celebrity-pastor critique
The Reformed critique of Word of Faith celebrity pastors requires care — critiquing the teaching and the financial structures while avoiding personal-attack patterns that Christian discipleship forbids. The Costi Hinn book models careful engagement on both theological and pastoral grounds.
9. Influence on later Christianity
G lobal Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity
Word of Faith teaching substantially shapes portions of global Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity through the American televangelism export and global megachurch networks.
The Reformed-charismatic dialogue
The Reformed engagement with Word of Faith has shaped the broader Reformed-charismatic theological conversation, including Reformed continuationist engagements (Wayne Grudem, Sam Storms) and the cessationist Reformed responses.
The Reformed evangelical doctrine of suffering and prosperity
The contemporary Reformed evangelical doctrine of suffering and prosperity — articulated through John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, and others — addresses the Word of Faith framework with Reformed orthodox theology of Christian suffering and joy in Christ.
R eformed media engagement
The Reformed media engagement — through the Christian Research Institute (Hanegraaff), Ligonier Ministries, Desiring God, the Gospel Coalition, the broader Reformed evangelical media ecosystem — substantially addresses the Word of Faith teaching.
10. Modern parallels and the recurring temptation
Therapeutic Christianity and moralistic therapeutic deism
The broader American "moralistic therapeutic deism" (Christian Smith's analysis) shares elements with the prosperity framework — reducing Christianity to therapeutic wellbeing. See Pelagianism and Discernment.
"Your best life now" success-gospel evangelicalism
S ofter prosperity-leaning evangelicalism — Joel Osteen's "Your best life now" framework being the popular example — presents Christianity as the path to personal flourishing. The Reformed pastoral correction returns to the gospel of grace and the Christian life as sanctified discipleship under sovereign providence.
N ew Age and self-help spirituality
The contemporary New Age and self-help spirituality (the Rhonda Byrne's "Secret" and the law-of-attraction industry) shares elements with the prosperity framework. The Reformed apologetic engagement addresses this broader religious-cultural landscape.
Internet "Christian" prosperity influencers
The contemporary social-media Christian prosperity influencer ecosystem substantially extends the Word of Faith framework into digital channels.
The Reformed evangelical engagement with Christian celebrity culture
The contemporary Reformed engagement with the broader Christian celebrity culture — Carl Trueman, Michael Horton, and others — addresses the broader cultural framework in which prosperity teaching substantially flourishes.
Reformed pastoral engagement with prosperity-influenced believers
The Reformed pastoral engagement with believers shaped by prosperity teaching requires pastoral care — listening, teaching, patient gospel proclamation.
11. Where to start reading about Word of Faith
A four-step reading path for beginners
- Start with Costi W. Hinn, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (Zondervan, 2019). The accessible pastoral witness from inside the movement.
- Then Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century (Thomas Nelson, 2009). The popular Reformed-evangelical engagement.
- Then D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel (Hendrickson, 1988; rev. 1995). The scholarly demonstration of the New Thought origins.
- Then Michael Horton, Christless Christianity (Baker, 2008). The broader Reformed engagement with American gospel-distortion.
Going deeper
- D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel (Hendrickson, 1988; rev. 1995).
- Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis (Harvest House, 1993; rev. 2009).
- Costi W. Hinn, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (Zondervan, 2019); Defining Deception with Anthony G. Wood (SCS Press, 2018).
- Michael Horton, ed., The Agony of Deceit (Moody, 1990); Christless Christianity (Baker, 2008).
- John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Zondervan, 1992); Strange Fire (Thomas Nelson, 2013).
- Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford, 2013). The major scholarly history.
- John Piper, Desiring God and the broader Piper corpus on Christian Hedonism.
- Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (Eerdmans, 1997).
- Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge, 2nd ed. 2014).
12. Conclusion: a different gospel that the Reformed church must continue to confront
Word of Faith / Prosperity Theology is the twentieth-century American Christian movement that teaches a different gospel from the Reformed evangelical gospel — a gospel of present-life health, wealth, and success accessed through positive confession, seed-faith giving, and the application of supposed spiritual laws. The Reformed-and-broader-evangelical response — McConnell, Hanegraaff, Hinn, Horton, MacArthur, Piper, and the broader Reformed evangelical engagement — articulates the Reformed gospel of grace against the Word of Faith distortion. The movement continues to shape portions of global Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, American televangelism, and the contemporary global South neo-Pentecostal context, causing pastoral and human cost while distorting the gospel of grace.
The Reformed posture toward Word of Faith is doctrinally clear, pastorally serious, and carefully discerning. Doctrinally clear, because the Reformed gospel of grace stands against the prosperity distortion. Pastorally serious, because the pastoral and human cost of the movement requires Reformed pastoral engagement. Carefully discerning, because the Reformed engagement must distinguish Word of Faith from the broader Pentecostal-charismatic tradition and must engage prosperity-influenced believers with pastoral wisdom. The gospel of grace — Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone, glory to God alone — proclaimed against every distortion that would substitute prosperity for Christ, technique for trust, worldly success for eschatological hope — the Reformed confession against Word of Faith is the gospel the Reformed church continues to preach.