Quimby and Beyond...

Enter Quimby…

The New Thought movement of the late nineteenth century had a profound influence on a number of American leaders in the Divine Healing movement in the first half of the twentieth century who went on to become the fathers of the Positive Confession, or Faith-Formula theology of Pentecostalism. New Thought was a movement that began after the death of Phineas P. Quimby (1802-66) when a number of his students came together to preserve his teaching. Quimby had developed an alternative system of healing through parapsychology after beginning a career as a mesmerist. Quimby taught that bodily sickness was caused when the mind believed false notions about health and could be healed by correcting these beliefs in the mind. The movement that sprang from his protégé emphasized not only health and healing, but also abundance, prosperity, wealth and happiness. The basic presuppositions of New Thought’s system of divine healing are, firstly, God is all reality and in God is no sickness; secondly, man is a part of God and therefore man’s sickness is not a reality; thirdly, healing occurs automatically when men believe the truth about reality. 

Quimby labeled his system the ‘science’ of Christ. From Quimby came M. B. Eddy who developed Christian Science as a movement separately from New Thought and founded the Church of Christ, Scientist. From Quimby also came a new generation of faith-healers in the Divine Healing movement, such as E. W. Kenyon, John G. Lake and William M. Branham, who carried the emphasis of Quimby and New Thought into their own Pentecostal healing ministries. You have to understand that Phineas Quimby was NOT a man of God but he was into transcendentalism (an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living).

New Thought holds that “Infinite Intelligence” or God is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things,true human self-hood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect. Although New Thought is  neither monolithic nor doctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought share some core beliefs:

1. God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting"

2. Divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings

3. The highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another

4. Our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living

Enter Kenyon…

Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) pastored several churches in New England and founded what was later known as Providence Bible Institute. Kenyon was a student of Emerson College of Oratory which was a breeding ground for New Thought philosophical ideas. He was heavily influenced by the system of Phineas Quimby but adapted the ideas of the New Thought movement as he merged them together with the teachings of Divine Healing that came out of the “Holiness movement”. Like Quimby, who taught that beliefs in the mind cause bodily conditions, E. W. Kenyon emphasized the combined power of belief and the tongue. He taught that the words of our mouths betray faith or fear in our minds, and the combined effect of positive or negative belief and words cause the positive or negative realities that come into existence. Kenyon’s focus on the “positive confession of the Word of God” earned the doctrine that sprang from his ministry the title, Positive Confession theology. Similar to E. O. Allen and A. B. Simpson before him, Kenyon taught prosperity as a “divine right.” Reminiscent of the laws formulated by C. G. Finney for spiritual success, Kenyon formulated laws of prosperity for daily rehearsal and recital to cultivate a mind of faith that would result in a life of complete health and material wealth.

Enter Word of Faith Movement…

E. W. Kenyon’s theology and the doctrines espoused by J. G. Lake and W. M. Branham inspired the Word of Faith movement of the latter part of the twentieth century. Also known as the Faith movement or Word movement, it began within American Pentecostalism by emphasizing divine prosperity and health through the power of the spoken word. The essential elements of this system are, firstly, that Christ won victory over sin, sickness and poverty; secondly, that believers therefore have a right to health and wealth; and thirdly, that divine health and prosperity are obtained by the positive confession of faith in the Word of God. 

Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Frederick Price, Kenneth Copeland, Don Gossett, Charles Capps and other leading proponents in this movement all directly inherited their theology from Kenyon and his contemporaries. This new generation of televangelists have enjoyed the ability to propagate the Prosperity message by means of extensive and expensive media ministries, fully funded by the giving of their movement in response to their message, thus self-perpetuating the influx of funds. 

The Truth about These Word of Faith Preachers…

E.W. Kenyon – Died from a Tumor

Kenneth Hagin (A) – Died from Cardiovascular Disease

Kenneth Hagin (B) – Hagin’s wife had to go to the hospital for an operation even though Jesus "appeared" to Hagin and gave him a special anointing to heal the sick (Read: I Believe in Visions).  If people believe Hagin is anointed then they will be healed then could it be that his own family members doubt his healing powers?

Paul Crouch – Died from Degenerative Heart Disease

Jan Crouch – Died from Stroke

Jamie Buckingham – Died of Cancer

John Wimber – Author of "Power Healing" –Died from Cancer

Christian Wimber – Died from Cancer

R.W. Shambach – Died from Heart Attack – “All You Need is Faith in God”

Hobart Freeman – Word of Faith Teacher & Pastor of Faith Assembly – Over 90 people died in his church following his teaching and then Hobart died due to a medically treatable disease. Hobart & his misguided followers actually took the teachings of the WOF movement to their logical conclusion. They stood on the "promises" alone and believed in their doctrine enough to face painful deaths instead of refusing to deny what they believed. Hobart Freeman is the most chilling testimony of the complete bankruptcy of the WOF errors. If WOF teachings were true they would have certainly worked for Hobart and the 90+ people who died in "faith believing"

Joyce Meyer – Joyce is a fast rising Word of Faith female pastor (?) and teacher.  On Aug. 31, 1998 on her morning broadcast admitted that she had breast cancer and was medically treated (not healed by faith Joyce?)

Prophet Keith Grayton – Died from Complications of AIDS). He spoke at a Church in Detroit, and declared he was totally healed. He died a year or so later.

Robert Tilton –God's “Prophet” or is it “profit” admitted he had to get special face-lifting surgery because of the danger of getting ink poisoning from laying on all the prayer requests he received so why didn't he command healing .like he does for countless others over the airwaves?

Katherine Kuhlman – A Divine Healer – Died from Heart Disease

 

A.A. Allen – Divine Healer & Exorcist – Died from Alcohol & Drug Abuse

Aimee McPherson – Divine Healer - Died of a Barbiturate Overdose

Jack Coe – Divine Healer – Died from Polio

 

John G. Lake – Held up as a great healer/ miracle worker – Died from Stroke

Gordon Lindsey – “Voice of Healing” – Died Unexpectedly in 1973 – Though no cause of death was listed (which is very interesting) many think that due to the sudden death that overcame Lindsey that it was probably a stroke or a heart attack, however no “actually” cause of death has been found.

These people teach that it is God’s will to heal His children every time they come to Him in "faith." They also teach that we can "have what we say." Yet when they get sick what do they do? They go to the doctor just like the rest of us and none of the about received a divine healing or miracle as they claim they can do for others. Many have other issues like sight and say its normal, but they will not explain this verse in Deuteronomy 34:7 “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated”.

John Osteen – His wife Dodie got liver cancer and through the mercy of God and medical attention survived (she went to a Doctor)

Frederick K. Price – Word of Faith mega-church pastor in Los Angeles - his wife, Betty got cancer and was medically treated (chemo-therapy) and by the mercy of God was patched up. Price says this "If you need a crutch upon or something to help you get along, then praise God, hobble along until you get your faith moving to the point that you don’t need a crutch." (How Faith Works pp. 92-92) and then he runs to a Doctor when his wife gets sick. Maybe after all the years of sitting under "anointed" faith teaching by one of the movements leading faith teachers was not enough for Fred’s wife and she needed a doctor after all.

Charles Capps – Word of Faith teacher that teaches power of our words to create reality - his wife got cancer and was medically treated.

Finally; the Crème de la crème…

Norman Vincent Peale – Peale was a pastor and Author of the book “The Power of Positive Thinking” that all Charismatic Churches in the 1970’s SWOONED over. Peale was raised as a Methodist and ordained as a Methodist minister in 1922, but changed his religious affiliation to the Reformed Church in America in 1932 and began his 52 year tenure as pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. But Guess What?

Peale was a FREEMASON…

How Do I Know?

I know because Peale’s portrait hangs in the Shriners' Hall of Fame…

Peale also stated on the Phil Donahue show he was actually into Shinotism…

Yea the Church SWOONED OVER his teachers of POSTIVE THINKING…

This is why we are told to…

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)

And not “read to show ourselves approved”