Sermon Central
-
Demoting God Series
Contributed by Eddie Snipes on Apr 11, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: False teachers attempt to lower God to their stature so that they can elevate themselves to a higher stature.
Demoting God
There are many examples where the Word-Faith doctrine demotes God. I will try to get a
cross section so we can get a clear overview of how this movement views God.
Understanding who God is may be the most essential part of the Christian doctrine. A
weak god is no god at all. The entire Bible declares God’s power, majesty and
incomprehensible wonder. However, we will see that this is not the god of the Word-
Faith movement. In this section, we will look at four areas where God is demoted by false
teachers and we will compare this doctrine to scripture. We will examine God’s power,
Dominion, His will and the failure of God according to Word-Faith teachers. Let’s begin
with a look at God’s power.
False Teaching About God’s Power
Faith is God’s sources of power. God cannot work for you apart from your faith. -
Kenneth Copeland
Charles Capps
Some think that God made the earth out of nothing, but He didn’t. He made it out
of something. The substance God used was faith. He used His words as a carrier
of that faith.
Faith-filled words brought the universe into being and faith-filled words are ruling
the universe today. - E. W. Kenyon
According to these leaders in the Word-Faith movement, God is powerless; only faith has
the power. The Word-Faith doctrine is simple, but erroneous. Faith is the force - or the
power behind everything and fear is the destructive power against that force. Words are
containers. We fill our words with the power of the force we choose. We can fill our
words with faith and spur God into action or we can fill them with fear and spur the devil
into action. Either way, we are the ones in command of both God and the devil.
It is the Christian’s responsibility to recognize the discrepancies between these teachers
and scripture. It is also our responsibility to hold up the word of God so others can see
and understand the truth. We have seen the Word-Faith doctrine about God’s power; now
let’s examine the scriptures to see if these things are so.
11 God has spoken once, Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God.
13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your
power.
Could this possibly be any clearer? God does not harvest power. God does not use the
power of faith. It is God’s own strength and all power belongs to God. In fact, the Bible
makes it clear that no one has the power by their own doing. It is God who determines
who will be used and how His power will be used. If God says something is done, no
power in the universe can prevent Him - with faith or without faith, and if God says no,
the answer is no. All the faith in the world cannot over rule God. Jeremiah 27 says:
5 ’I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My
great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed
proper to Me.
This is echoed in Psalm 68
35 O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is
He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!
Not only does God declare that He is the source of all power and gives power to those to
whom He chooses, He also warned us against the very thing the Word-Faith teachers are
doing. Look at Jeremiah 5:
30 " An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and
My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
This describes the doctrine of these teachers perfectly. They claim falsely that they are
the masters of their own destiny. They claim to create with their own power by using
faith. God asks a redundant question: ’But what will you do in the end?’ Is it worth it?
The Bible says that the end is better than the beginning. The beginning is temporal, but
the end is eternal. We already know the end. The Bible says that He will exalt the humble
and cast down the proud. In the end, the only praise will belong to God.
Revelation 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in
heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the
Lord our God!
Understanding Dominion
The major area of confusion is in the area of dominion. The Word-Faith doctrine teaches
that Adam was given dominion and he was tricked into giving that dominion over to
