There are numerous false doctrines in Faith Theology concerning salvation as it relates to the biblical facts of justification salvation.

In Faith Theology, faith is given by God to a person, not to believe, but to possess, which is a God-like faith, a substance containing creative power, that the person then exercises on his or her own behalf to create reality in their own lives to produce whatever result they desire. Faith becomes a tool which empowers the one thinking or speaking words in faith to create reality. Belief in Christ is irrelevant because anyone, believers and unbelievers, can have the faith used to exercise the pagan Law of Attraction which Faith Theology calls Positive Confession.

According to Faith Theology, God exercised His faith when He created the world; He had to believe His own words in order for them to come to pass. We have the same faith today and can exercise it by means of words spoken in faith with the same power God exercises. However, God does not need faith; God is the object of faith. God is the “I AM” (Ex. 3:14), the self-existent One—omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent—who needs no one and no thing outside of Himself. He does not need to believe in anything He does; people need to believe in Him and what He did. Faith Theology is not describing the God of the Bible; it is describing the god of the Faith Movement who is no god at all.

On the cross, Christ paid the penalty in full for man’s sin debt. Because Faith Theology is focused on the temporal, they have to expand what He did on the cross to include temporal circumstances. Various Faith teachers have different lists of Christ’s accomplishments on the cross—because the theology is extrabiblical, it is internally contradictory and reliant on the whims of its theologians—but they are expanded to include temporal issues. These include not only spiritual matters, but physical health, mental/emotional health, social issues, and material well-being, i.e., temporal life in total.

The Lord’s focus was on spiritual matters. He asked, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). He told people to focus on the Bread of Life that comes from heaven rather than focusing on the bread that satisfies one’s hunger for a few hours (John 6:26-40). The Lord illustrated this truth with the example of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). Lazarus lived a horrendously awful temporal life, but, because he was a believer, he went to Paradise at his death. According to Faith theology, Lazarus was an unfaithful man because he was sick, poor, and hungry. The rich man lived the kind of temporal life that Faith teachers claim all believers are entitled to live, and he went to Hades in unbelief. Which life is more important—temporal life or eternal life? Faith teachers are concerned with the temporal and not the spiritual, making their priorities the opposite of the Lord’s priorities. Free Grace adherents are concerned with living a temporal life that prepares the believer for eternal service, glorifies the Lord in the here and now, and results in eternal rewards.

Faith teachers preach a gospel of faith plus works that requires individual repentance for the commission of personal sins and a commitment to refrain from committing personal sins in the future. By living a sinless life, the saved person is demonstrating that they were truly saved. This is a Lordship salvation position.

Some Faith teachers link the Gospel with the Messianic Kingdom that they believe exists now. Their reasoning is that Jesus is Lord; therefore, one must live in the Kingdom according to the King’s Kingdom dictates. They must acknowledge Christ as King, and once they do that, they are saved and become citizens of the Kingdom (Harold R. Eberle, Systematic Theology for the New Apostolic Reformation: An Exposition in Father-Son Theology, 2nd ed.,Yakima, WA: Worldcast Publishing, 5350. The problem with that thought is that the Kingdom was ratified at the cross but not inaugurated. That awaits the Second Coming when the New Covenant will be completely fulfilled with Israel and with Judah.

Faith Theology is very deceptive in the area of Soteriology. Many Faith ministries have at least somewhat solid doctrinal statements concerning justification salvation, but they defeat whatever truth they contain by means of preaching additional, false doctrine which alters the grace alone message. Many heretical faith systems of theology are quite correct in much of what they teach, but the areas in which they mislead people are deadly to the imputation of saving faith. That is not an accident. Satan always cloaks deception with a significant mantle of truth. The primary problem is that the false christ of Faith Theology cannot save anyone.

This article is written by:

Dennis Waltemeyer, Phd
Fredericksburg Bible Church
Fredericksburg, TX.