At my core—and in my deepest hopes—I am a Charismatic Christian. I long to walk alongside fellow followers of Jesus who wholeheartedly celebrate that God is still present and active in our lives today, still healing and saving. My desire is for a faith that touches both my mind and my heart. One of the gifts of the Word of Faith movement is its encouragement to trust God boldly, to believe that God cares about every aspect of our lives—health, relationships, and even our daily needs. I have witnessed genuine joy and a beautiful simplicity of belief in many of these communities, and it would take an unhealthy dosage of skepticism to maintain that none of the claimed results in these circles is genuine. I cannot dismiss the real and meaningful experiences that so many have shared. With care and respect, however, I feel compelled to thoughtfully examine some of the movement’s core theological beliefs, as I believe they deserve a closer examination and an honest conversation.
Core Word of Faith Beliefs
The Word of Faith movement is defined by certain core beliefs that are true for the various strands under the umbrella. The selected ones to be discussed here are the movement’s anthropology and soteriology.
Word of Faith Anthropology
The movement believes that a human is tripartite, consisting of a spirit, a soul, and a body. Indeed, people in these circles believe that a human is a spirit being with a soul who lives in a body. This idea emphasizes the human spirit as the most important. Typically, they also go to the extent of saying that the spirit is the real person and that the soul and the body are merely enabling tools for the spirit to function on earth. Here are a few texts used in support of the idea:
1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIVUK
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This text is taken to have spelled out the three components of a human.
Hebrews 4:12 NIVUK
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
While it is true that the Bible often uses “soul” to refer to the whole person, this text implies that the soul and the spirit are distinct components of the human being.
Proverbs 20:27 ESV
The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts.
This text appears to suggest that God communicates with the spirit aspect of the human. This makes sense since God is himself a spirit, as John says in 4:24.
Word of Faith Soteriology
The anthropology briefly explained above has its most powerful application in the movement’s theory of salvation. When the first humans sinned, humanity fell from grace, and the human spirit died. As a result, humans were unable to please God. The pivotal result of Jesus’ salvific work is that the spirit of a believing human can now be born anew, even “born of God.” This is possible because Jesus imparts a Godlike kind of life, zoe, to the believer. This is unlike the original human spirit, which always was corruptible. This zoe life is immortal because it is a God-kind of life. It is, indeed, eternal life. Below are just a few texts used to support this position:
John 3:16 NRSVUE
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 10:10 NRSVUE
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The “life” in these texts are the zoe sort. As some translations of John 10:10 put it, the zoe life is life to the fullest.
The recipient of this new life is not a rehabilitated or improved human. Recall that the human spirit, according to this school of thought, died when Adam sinned. So, when a person receives “eternal life,” she is born anew; she never existed prior. This is what it means to be born again, born anew, or born of God. Among other things, she is a new creation:
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
She also is more than what used to inhabit her body:
2 Peter 1:4 NIVUK
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
The believer now partakes in the divine nature, something the mortal human could not do. This again stresses the eternal nature of the new life the believer enjoys. The new life results in a new spirit replacing the old, dead human spirit but is enveloped by the same soul and body as before. However, the soul and body can benefit from the eternal life radiating from this new spirit. In the end, God will replace the mortal body with an immortal one.
There is probably more that can be said, but I hope I have presented a fair version of Word of Faith core beliefs for critical engagement.
Engaging with Word of Faith Anthropology
Scholars and Christians remain divided about what anthropology the Bible teaches. Word of Faith anthropology advocates a tripartite position, but many believers present a bipartite view. In this latter view, “spirit” and “soul” are taken to be different words for the same entity. For our purposes in this entry, we need not settle this issue, for the point of contention lies elsewhere.
I do not think it is quite correct to say, as many in the Word of Faith circles assert, that the spirit is the real human. In other words, I reject the idea that humans are spirits with souls who live in bodies. On the contrary, I think the human is presented in the Bible as a composite whole, and she is not equal to any constituent part. There is probably a sense in which the spirit is more privileged than the other component(s), but I maintain that it is incorrect to claim that the spirit is the real person. Take, for example, the imagery of the creation of the human in Genesis. The adam was not equal to the body of mud formed from the earth or the breath of life proceeding from God. The Bible does not teach that Adam pre-existed in God, and God then later blew him into the suit of mud; the human did not exist as a part of or in God. On the contrary, the adam is equal to the mud suit plus the breath of life. Break up that equation, and there is no Adam. In other words, the human of Genesis 2 is an embodied entity.
This position, of course, requires us to re-examine many passages often taken to teach the primacy of the human spirit. None of the passages quoted above suggests that the human spirit is the real person. Proverbs 20:27, often read in Word of Faith circles as saying the human spirit is the part God communes with, still falls short of saying the spirit is the real person. Presumably, God can commune with a human spirit precisely because it is embodied. In Sheol, it is doubtful that God communicates with anyone.
Indeed, we should pursue the matter of existence in Sheol further: Do humans cease to exist when they die—that is, when the spirit separates from the body? This is a remarkably complex question that we cannot do justice to in this context. However, we will make a few key points. First, the answer is both Yes and No. When people die, they obviously cease to exist in the way others knew them to be. Indeed, death seems to be the precise word we use to describe the cessation of the life of a person as we knew it. But it is also true that the ancients in the Bible thought that a dead person continues to exist in another form:
Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
This text, made famous by its frequent use at Services of Songs for the deceased, suggests a reversal of the creation of the human in Genesis: the breath of life returns to God, and the body dissolves into the earth. This may lead one to think the dead continue to exist with God in a spiritual form. But as we shall soon see, this existence consists of almost nothing.
Some texts suggest that the dead go to the realm of the dead, a realm characterized by inactivity:
Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
It seems arguably that the two ideas above from Ecclesiastes are saying the same thing. When people die, they enter into a realm of inactivity. Yes, they continue to exist, but only in a state of deep sleep.
Furthermore, Word of Faith brethren often take a few texts from Paul to support the view that the human spirit is the real person:
Philippians 1:22-23 ESV
[22] If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. [23] I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Very clearly, Paul is here talking about his imminent death. He says if “I am to live in the body,” implying that the “I” is distinct from the body. Indeed, the “I” lived in a body. This “I” is usually understood as referring to Paul’s spirit. Paul says the process of death would let him – or rather, the “I” part of him – “be with Christ, for that is far better.” However, whatever Paul means here cannot correspond to what is usually imagined. Paul is not here saying his spirit would be with Christ picking heavenly apples or participating in a heavenly church service. Here is what Paul says elsewhere and in more detail about existence after death:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 16-17 ESV
[13] But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. [14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
[16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Paul says that “the Lord himself will descend from heaven.” First, notice that Jesus does not descend with an army of believers who had already gone to be with him. Second, the passage says “the dead in Christ will rise first.” The “dead in Christ” are, of course, believers who have died. The fact that they are rising first on the last day implies that they had not risen before this time. The means by which God will bring those who have fallen asleep with Christ is by resurrection. In other words, just as Ecclesiastes says, the dead were in a state of inactivity. They were deeply asleep. In short, they were dead. So, whenever Paul finally died and went to be with Christ, he would be among the dead rising first on the last day. In the meantime, he is sleeping in the Lord. There are now no humans walking on the streets of heaven with Jesus.
One more point is worth making. It is rather quite remarkable that on the last day, both the righteous and the unrighteous will be raised and re-embodied before being judged:
Acts 24:14-15 ESV
[14] But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, [15] having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
Revelation 20:12-13 ESV
[12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13] And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Biblical resurrection is a bodily exercise. These texts say that even the unrighteous will be raised to be judged. But if the human spirit is the real person, why would God reconstitute the spirit plus the body before judgment? The answer seems simple. Just as we have on page one of the Bible, humans are a composite whole. Hence, the whole person, righteous or unrighteous, must face judgment “according to what they had done.” Besides, it is worth mentioning that the righteous will not live a disembodied life in the age to come. On the contrary, they will be reclothed in glorified bodies. It is essential to emphasize that these new bodies will be the same bodies the righteous possess in the present age, but recreated and perfected. So, at no time in the entire span of life covering the present and the future ages do humans live a disembodied life, except in Sheol. And existence in Sheol, as Ecclesiastes tells us, is no life at all.
Engaging with Word of Faith Soteriology
When I was a new Christian being instructed in Charismatic Word of Faith circles, I was told that the believer in Jesus has eternal life. This new life is eternal precisely because it is a God-type of life, zoe. I was taught that Jesus gave up this zoe life so that a believer might have it. As I shall now show, I think many of us might have had a different idea of what this term was intended to convey in the Bible.
The Greek word “zoe” does not mean “God’s kind of life.” It just means “life.” Of course, in Christian theology God is the author of life. So, in that sense, one could say God authors “zoe,” but this is a world apart from the usual claim that “zoe” is God’s kind of life. Let us begin with a few elucidating texts:
Luke 12:13-15 ESV
[13] Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” [14] But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” [15] And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
I include the surrounding context to show that the person asking the question was not a Christian. The Holy Spirit had not been given. Yet, the “life” in verse 15 is “zoe.” In this case, the word just means life in the sense of material things humans want or need to live off.
Here is another text:
Luke 16:25 NASB2020
[25] But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
Again, “life” here is zoe but does not describe a God-kind of life. Below is another text:
1 Corinthians 15:19 NASB2020
[19] If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.
The word for life is again zoe, yet the life described is not “God’s kind of life.”
Acts 8:33 ESV
In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
This is a quotation from Isaiah 53, and the “life” here obviously is biological. Yet, the word used here is “zoe.” Isaiah 53 is a well-known passage that describes the suffering servant, and it is being applied here to Jesus. Should someone be tempted to use this as a proof-text for the idea that Jesus’ life was a zoe kind, here is another text:
Matthew 2:20 ESV
[20] saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
Now, this is interesting. The child in this text is Jesus. But “life” here is psuche, soul, not “zoe.” Yet, it is clear that this text refers to the child’s biological life. So, Jesus’ life is not uniquely described as zoe.
There are several other examples we could use, but I think the point is sufficiently made. Zoe, whatever it is, does not uniquely refer to a God-kind of life.
Next, let us discuss the qualifier “eternal,” often appended to “life” in English translations. First, “eternal” means something that continues indefinitely or forever. I suspect this is where people got the impression that “eternal life” is God’s kind of life, since it is a life that continues forever. But, strictly speaking, even this move would be incorrect. The life that God has is eternal in both directions; it continues forever and has no beginning, making it infinite. This is not true of any human. Even if a human life were to continue from now forever, that would still not equal God’s kind of life. There would be a beginning to human eternal life. Humans are contingent beings, whereas God is a necessary being. The idea that humans can have a God-kind of life is simply a category mistake.
In any case, these ideas are not quite what the Bible envisages. The Greek word often rendered “eternal” is “aionio.” It is the word from which we derive the English word “aeon” (also spelled “eon”). It just means “a long period of time,” an age or era. These Greek and English words aim to convey a Hebrew concept of dividing time into two ages: the present age and the age to come. The “age to come” is a messianic era that broke into the present age over 2,000 years ago with the events surrounding Jesus, but it is not yet fully here. When that “age to come” fully arrives, the whole cosmos will be reordered. Sorrow, pain, and death will be no more. Yes, people will live forever, but not because they have a God-kind of life. They will live forever because death will be taken out of the way. Life in that world is what the Bible calls age-to-come life, or “eternal life.”
Moreover, it is worth briefly mentioning that John’s Gospel says what Jesus offered humanity was not zoe, but his body:
John 6:51 NRSVUE
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
So, Jesus gave his body, not his supposed zoe, for the life of the world. It is no accident that believers are corporately called the body, not zoe, of Christ.
Is the Believer Now a New Creation?
One of the central texts used in Word of Faith theology is 2 Corinthians 5:17. Word of Faith believers really push this text. They claim that the believer is a new, never-existing being in Jesus. Yes, the person may outwardly look the same, but their “inner man” or spirit has been entirely made new. The old person who inhabited the body is dead, and a new spirit now lives in the same body. The believer has received zoe, the God-kind of life, and has been recreated.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
I recall the first time I encountered this text as a young Christian. I wondered why Paul said “new creation” as opposed to “new creature,” if he was referring to “anyone in Christ.” There are several issues with the Word of Faith interpretation of this text. The chief problem is that their view is severed from the Hebraic understanding of salvation. When Joseph made his people swear that they would exhume his bones whenever they left Egypt (Genesis 50:25, Hebrews 11:22), it was because he knew that it was the same bone and flesh that would be perfected at the eschaton. When Jesus rose, he did not get a new body. He got the same body perfected. At the core of the Judeo-Christian concept of resurrection is the idea of physical continuity.
The other problem is translation. If the widespread translation represented by the ESV above were correct, it would be difficult to discern what else Paul could be communicating. But scholars have always questioned this interpretive translation. In the Greek text, this is what Paul says: “if anyone in Christ, new creation.” Translations like the NKJV italicize the added words. It is like an incomplete sentence that translators do their best to fill in. Here is how another translation puts it:
2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSVUE
[17] So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!
I do not think the popular interpretive rendition is necessarily wrong, but it can be misleading when used for purposes not intended. Word of Faith theology is pressing the text too hard, even if in the right direction.
On the evidence of what Paul says elsewhere in his writings, we can reasonably make a few points. First, the “new creation” here is not restricted to humanity. Second, this new creation is not fully here yet – contrary to the point Word of Faith theology asserts. The new creation, a new Genesis, has begun, for sure. However, it has not yet been fully realized. This is the point Paul fleshes out in more detail elsewhere:
Romans 8:18-23 ESV
[18] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. [22] For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. [23] And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Notice the standard Hebraic division of time into “present time” and the age “to be revealed to us.” Not everything has been realized yet. For instance, the “adoption as sons” has not happened yet, though it is part of the package. (“Adoption as sons” here is arguably a borrowed Roman legal inheritance term.) Even creation will experience a beautiful harmony and freedom when the process of human adoption as sons is complete. Therefore, the “new creation” of 2 Corinthians 5 has not yet been fully realized. So, no, the believer is not (completely) new yet. There is a verifiable continuity between his life before and after his encounter with Jesus. But the believer will be perfected in the fullness of the age to come, and the giving now of the Holy Spirit guarantees that outcome.
The Holy Spirit is the bearer of “age to come” realities, and the believer may access these realities because the Spirit dwells in her. In other words, a believer can access “new creation” realities now, not because she has a new, never-existed human spirit. On the contrary, she can do so because the Holy Spirit has taken hold of and is recreating the human spirit. Moreover, the standard Word of Faith soteriological idea that a believer receives a new zoe-spirit at salvation makes a mockery of a Hebraic understanding of salvation upon a close examination, as demonstrated below.
Suppose U= P + s + b (Equation 1)
Where U is an unbeliever; P is his unsaved human spirit, which, in Word of Faith theology, is the real person, the actual human; s is his soul, and b is his body.
When U gets saved, s and b are (initially) untouched, though they can later benefit. The only thing that is immediately affected is P, as it gets replaced. Let’s call the replacement Q, and the new reality V.
Hence, supposedly, V = Q + s + b. (Equation 2)
The obvious point is that these equations are not equal to each other. That is, we do not have the same person in both cases—a conclusion that Word of Faith theology affirms.
Here is the problem: if the two persons are different, there is no sense in which U was saved. Actually, U was obliterated, not rescued. The only way U can be saved is if, in fact, Q is essentially equal to P, a point Word of Faith theology denies. Therefore, the Word of Faith concept does not amount to salvation at all. Salvation means a rescue. Salvation requires continuity. If we dissolve the continuity, we also dissolve salvation.
Jesus as the Model New Human
So, what exactly happens to a person when she accepts Jesus? As we have already seen, Word of Faith theology claims that the spirit of the person is replaced with a brand-new, never-existed, zoe-bearing spirit. Here is another text of Scripture often used to make the point:
Ephesians 4:24 NRSVUE
[24] and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Word of Faith adherents point out that there is a new self created according to the likeness of God. They see in this text a support of the view that the believer has a God-like kind of life. But is this a fair reading? Not quite.
First, we should note that Ephesians was written to people who already believed in Jesus:
Ephesians 1:1 NRSVUE
[1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
So, according to Word of Faith theology, the recipients of this letter should already have a new, zoe-giving spirit since they are “saints who are…faithful in Christ Jesus.” Yet, Paul writes to encourage them, using a clothing metaphor, to put on the new self. This implies that they were not sporting the new self already. Actually, it is a bit worse:
Ephesians 4:21-24 NRSVUE
[21] For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, [22] to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
The saints in Ephesus yet had on their “corrupt and deluded” old selves.” Paul had to remind and encourage them to upgrade their wardrobe, to go for the available designer clothing line because therein lies “true righteousness and holiness.” In other words, this text does not teach what Word of Faith brethren assert. The “new self” was not something the Ephesian Christians had apprehended.
Indeed, in the twin letter to the Colossians, Paul makes a similar point:
Colossians 3:9-10 NRSVUE
[9] Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices [10] and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
The Colossians seemed to be doing much better than the Ephesians because they had already stripped off the corrupt and deluded old self and had already donned the new self. But this new self is still “being renewed in knowledge.” Hence, the “new self” the Colossians have discovered cannot be a God-kind of life, since it is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. The “new self” is a copy of an original, an image of the creator.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes explicit the referent of the idea informing his clothing metaphor:
Romans 13:13-14 NRSVUE
[13] let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. [14] Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Once again, the saints in Rome, like the ones in Ephesus, yet had their old selves on as they were getting drunk and participating in illicit sex and licentiousness. But rather than asking them to put on their new selves, Paul tells them to put on “the Lord Jesus Christ.” So, the “new self” is a copy of the risen Lord himself. Jesus is the new model of humanity whose image is the standard after which believers are being formed. But this process is not completed yet. It will not be completed until humans are glorified upon Jesus’ return.
Now, the fact that the new creation process is yet ongoing does not mean believers cannot now access new creation realities. They can. We read about the exploits of believers in the New Testament. They are no more saved than believers are today. But it is critical to stress that the reason believers in Jesus can now access New Creation realities is not because they have a brand new, never-existing, zoe-bearing human spirits. On the contrary, they can access the realities of the age to come because they have the Holy Spirit within them now. The Holy Spirit is the zoe-giving agent.
