I love the opportunity to tell folks why I believe in God, The Bible and Christianity. Some say I have a bad habit of seeking out opportunities to share the reasons I believe what I do. I even prayed I would have the chance to share with someone this week because I am teaching others how to share their Christian faith also,, and here you are. TY again.

I would like to make you a deal but before I do let me say that this website is dedicated to exposing and refuting “religious magic” because it has nothing to do with orthodox Christianity. Let me explain. The Word of Faith Movement [WoF] (a heretical subset of Christianity as mostly represented by today’s “Christian TV”) has a distinctive doctrine called confessionism that is the same as witcraft or magic. This teaching says that words have literal creative power, faith is a force (instead of trust in God) and ‘faith filled words” have the power to create physical realities.

For instance, Proverbs 18:21a says “The tongue has the power of life and death”. Historically Christians have interpreted this verse to mean (as context shows) that words have influence (they can be used to build people up, or to tear them down) but they do not have the literal power of life and death. If words had the literal power of life and death, we would not have any need to make weapons to wage war, instead people would be literally killing each other with words. This false teaching (witchcraft veiled in Christian terms) has caused WoF teachers to teach things like if you say “My head is killing me” or “I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to die”,,, that your speaking death over yourself and causing your own demise through the power of words. It has also caused them to say absurd things like “God does not determine when you die, you do by the words you speak” (Jesse Duplantis) and “Speak to your wallet and say get fat you big old wallet” (Marilyn Hickey). This teaching is not Christian, it can be traced back to a baptist preacher (EW Kenyon) who studied the occultic Mind Sciences or the New Thought Movement at the Boston Oratory College and melded New Thought with Christianity about 70 years ago. I’m not sure how you define “religious magic”,, but if you are thinking about what I just explained,, then we have something in common because I don’t believe the WoF teachings and speak fervently against them.

OK, here is my deal.

***I will show you 8-10 good arguments, or proofs, for the existence of God if you first tell me a few arguments, or proofs, that atheism is true.***

And then I will enlighten you with about 10 extra-biblical historical sources for the historicity of Jesus Christ (of which there are about 50 sources that tell us about 150 things about the life of Jesus),, to show you why the evidence for Jesus existence is so strong that even the most famous atheist (like Hitchens, Hawkings and Dawkins) do not question that Jesus Christ was a real historical person.

I look forward to hearing your proofs that Atheism is true,,, and then giving you some proofs that Theism is true. Hope to hear from you soon.

Be Blessed,
Damon Whitsell

Whenever we accept something that questions who God is, however subtly we deny His word, His character and His love. WOF proponents declare that if we have not received healing, wealth etc then it is because we have not claimed it. However in order to do this, you have to deny a whole lot of Scriptures; things like I am the Lord, I wound and I heal…etc.

Obviously we accept the reasoning initially because like Job’s ‘comforters’ we want to believe that following the Lord means that we will be safe. However in doing that we forget that this is a temporal home and those who follow the Lord will suffer persecution.

I think we also question our own ability to reason, perhaps thinking that these men and women know more than us. However that denies the truth that the Holy Spirit promises to lead us into all truth. I have noticed too that these preachers quote Scriptures and say that it says ‘something’ and unless you check the context it can appear to be so.

However the same God, who said ‘Ask and it shall be given you’ also said ‘All things work together for our good. We cannot make a doctrine from one Scripture. Paul who was able to pray for a guy to come back to life, left Trophimas behind because he was sick.

The Psalms and Proverbs tell us over and over again that it is only in the presence of the Lord that we get understanding. Therefore it is only in His Word and in His presence that we will get deliverance from lies.

We are called to be a voice for the poor and the oppressed and it is right to declare that evil is monstrous, thereby making the perpetrators monsters.

I think that the church has got it’s teaching backward in that we often are far more gracious to the abusers than we are to the abused.

Your point is understandable but for some people, they have to actually hear that what happened to them happened because they were targeted by insensitive, unfeeling people who cared nothing for them. The deception continues ultimately because we just can’t believe that somebody could really hate us so much.

For how can a people of love understand the lies of an enemy so skilled at harming and hurting that he has been able to deceive the most precious of God’s children, the innocent ones.

I pray that the Lord will continue to highlight the lies that fill the churches and that we will begin to see a freedom come to the people of God and ultimately to the world around us. May our Lord’s kingdom and will truly be found in the earth today and may we know how much we are loved.

So I shall say no more. Jesus said so many times, he who has ears to hear let him hear……………eyes to see let him see……….we are called to listen and observe and not everyone is on the same page………the masses that welcomed Jesus that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem, some of them were in the crowd shouting for Barabas to be freed and calling, ‘crucify him’. The people in the pews are mostly sheep following the wrong shepherd, they are not encouraged to think, dont want to think, they want to run with the crowd and follow. Watched ‘the Book of Eli’ last night before all this errupted. How apt and how true of ‘the book’, and how men use it.
And i thanked Charles in the very first letter Damon. Sorry to have caused all the smoke, was getting exciting….we may have got to the answers beyond all the offense and personal attacks…………..had we the courage to keep on……but this is obviously not the place for iron sharpening. May God continue to use this blog to provide a voice and sense of family for those burned by this stupidity. Evil is stuff like pride, greed, violence, materialism and warmongering etc………….this WoF stuff is just plain stupid really…………and maybe the real monsters are ourselves for falling for it…..and letting decievers shepherd the flocks, giving them voice and power……….(why do so many of these people still have a following? in a nation/world thirsty for prophets and the ‘super spiritual’. I thought the questions about why , how can this happen were the really good ones……but we have to get a bit vulnerable to face those and that’s not a space everyone wants to go……………cheers. I will make it my ambition to live a quiet life and work with my hands….as Paul said.

Jesus said that many would come stating that they are the Christ and it it were possible they would deceive the elect. This can’t just mean cult leaders that set up in some desert, the church would not be fooled by them. It has to refer to those who come professing to be of Christ, spouting heretical lies and harming the children of God. The Bible calls these men and women Anti-Christs.

Jesus called the Pharisees, who were the church leaders of the day, snakes, vipers, hypocrites, white-washed sepulchres filled with dead men’s bones, children of their father the devil.

In Lamentations chapter 4, God Himself calls the daughter of Zion, which is the people of Israel worse than sea monsters and he blames the priests and shepherds who have shed the blood of the just.

It is not pleasant to hear blunt condemnation of evil because those of us who love the Lord can’t really fathom that such evil exists within our churches. We keep wanting to believe that these men and women are really deceived. We want to think that there is hope for them because we know our own propensity to get things wrong and we attribute to them our own desire for truth and justice.

However Jesus said by their fruits you will know them. If my life is not a life of love but a life of deceit; if I put my own desires before the desires of others; if I meddle with the Word of God to suit my own ends; if I lie and cheat not caring for those who the Lord has put in my path, then I am not of God. If I profess to be a minister of God and do these things then I am even more condemned than if I know no better. If I profess to be a prophet of the Lord and speak false words then I bring condemnation upon myself.

It may not be easy to hear men and women described as evil or monsters but if they are deceivers then that is what they are.

I also read the comment made on what I shared by you (or the “administration”). I did feel in my heart that if I suggested that the Charismatic and Pentecostal movement was also a cult, I would have objection. I was right. However, I have come to see that there is great control there, and that it is not Jesus that leads these organisations. When I say cult that is not a condemnation upon the people involved, since God judges as to who are really his. It is just saying that people are mixed up and being controlled by lies, and that its leadership is according to man and not God. I believe God has showed me many things that I don’t think people are in a place to hear necessarily. That doesn’t mean it is wrong to share a view. However, I found it really strange to say I call names, seeing that is exactly what is done in this site. You call names against Hagin, Copeland etc and expose them as frauds. So this is nonsensical to me.

I must make a correction. It wasn’t you that said I was generalizing, however, what’s much worse is that you said I sounded just like those I came out from! Your implied I was too condemnatory. However this is exactly what you were doing to me. All you have done is criticise me, and “lovingly” condemn me in a way. The Scripture says that he who condemns the righteous and he who justifies the wicked, both alike are an abomination to the Lord. Condemning the wicked is the righteous thing to do, and it doesn’t make me like them. It makes me free of them! It is necessary to be free of these people. One must turn the condemnation they dished out upon their own heads. So that is what I did (for my own sake) not to satisfy you palate. And what does “oil” supposed to mean? Is that very explanatory?

I just found your comment on my comment made yesterday. And Damon I will address you here also. I agree that my testimony if you might call it that was highly emotive. Yesterday when I wrote it I was feeling quite emotional. I think there is nothing wrong with that. But I felt it rude of you particularly Graham to say that it lacked sense or was not good writing. You were not even clear about what you meant by this, which lacks good writing and sense – to criticize without even pointing out the things you meant in any clear way. You hardly specified what was wrong with it, and yet say I was generalizing. That is generalizing itself. And it is quite senseless to say that my denouncing corrupt faith leaders as “evil” which seems to be what you are saying (although that was not worded clearly), is somehow wrong, since that is what comes across very strongly in this particular site. This whole site is strongly emotive. God is emotive. God is angry! He is angry at all of this rubbish in his name and people being harmed. And all I meant to express was that certain so-called faith leaders were evil. That was what I wanted to do which I did effectively. It was just a proclamation not intended to be an explanation. So if by lacking good writing and sense you meant that, then that is because you are judging it to a criteria no one asked me for. I don’t think therefore that my comment lacked any sense or writing ability. It is just not the kind of thing anyone here seemed really to want to hear. I only felt I had to publicly denounce them, because I listened to them at one point. That was all I meant to do. It wasn’t my intention to prove anything I was saying here, since there was a whole lot of proof provided here anyway. It was just meant to be an emotive comment.

I did not know anything was specifically required here Damon. So it is strange that my comment should be criticised. I wasn’t trying to write a splendid refutation. That would require a whole other site. I think this one has done some good already. If however, you would like me to share more specifically and give reasons, and give a testimony that is more specific, I am happy to do so. I will rewrite it to your specifications. May I therefore request that you remove my previous comment (if possible) that I made and I will redo it. (And I really want everyone to be happy with it, so please let me redo it.)

Richard Paulson.

I wanted to comment however on Richards testimony, and this in no way reflects on the things he said or his story. As you said in the foreword, it was emotive……and thats always funny eh, you cant talk about issues like abortion or other stuff that you feel deeply about and not get emotive…BUT what I heard so much in the tone of it was exactly the tone of the people from which Richard had escaped…….the shoulds, the extreme words like ‘evil’ and have to do this…………….I appreciate that the testimony is valid for sure and I hope God blesses Richard on his journey away from the thinking that effected his life and faith…………..I do however think that there is more emotion than good writing and sense………….and I say that lovingly……….the journey away from WOF ..well in my end of the world (new zealand) will generate more words of grace and insight into what was going on, and not labels…….its a very dare I say it american political sounding testimony like the war between conservatives and liberals. I was dissapointed that it was posted without editing or help to get the real oil out of it…it undermined things a bit for me……and maybe had me wondering about the thinking of the person behind the blog not protecting the tone and content a tad more……….it just sounded like what you were exposing………..and this is obvioulsy a personal opinion……………..and nothing against Richard or you Damion………..I support exposing this BS cloaked in The Saviours garb.

I’ve been a part of and influenced by the wof for nearly thirty years and needless to say my spiritual life and life in general has been a mess in so many ways.I know only the truth makes us free and it’s so refreshing to finally be hearing it;about the evils of the wof/charismatic heresies.I’ve been out of it for awhile but feel I still need healing/cleansing from all the guilt,shame and brainwashing.I plan to read alot here and have things to share.I thank the Lord so much for leading me to truth in spite of myself and praise God he still is.God Bless you my brothers and sisters!

We don’t often get comments saying that our work here matters, so your comment is real special and comes at a great time. I hope you will subscribe to this blog for as soon as I get my laptop out of the shop I am going to finish my video testimony as to why I hate the WoF and blog againts it. The “power of words”, “Confessionism” or “witchcraft vieled in Christian terms”,,, is what killed my freind. I hope you get to hear that testimony when I can get it out.

Here is a resource post on “what is faith”. It would probably help you still.

RECOURCE VIDEOS AND ARTICLES: (Faith in Faith/Faith is a Force) What is Faith?
http://thewordonthewordoffaithinfoblog.com/2010/07/17/recource-videos-and-articles-faith-in-faithfaith-is-a-force-what-is-faith/

We have articles on just about any WoF related topic you can think of. If you need anything specifically, just let me know!

THANKS so much again!!!
Damon Whitsell

Then one day I came face to face with the leader who had a private chat with me in his office. The event showed me the leader’s true colors. He bad mouthed people in the group who wouldn’t agree with him and he tried to brainwash me into to doing whatever he said. It was an awful experience and I left the ministry that day because I felt the Holy spirit warned me never to go back there again.

That was only a few months ago and I didn’t intend on being apart of word of faith in any form. The aftermath was terrible. My close friends in the group shunned me for months. I went into a state of shock and suffered post traumatic stress symptoms. Crying for Months, depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety attacks. I didn’t think I’d survive this. But thanks to your website I was able to began picking up the pieces of my life. Keep up the great work it’s saving people from despair