Objection: Word of Faith People Base Their Doctrines on Famous Preachers’ Visions and “Revelations,” Not on the Bible

Once again, we have an overgeneralization, because not ALL Word of Faith people make this mistake.  I would probably be considered a Word of Faith person by attack sites, but I don’t base anything I believe on a vision or revelation, whether mine or someone else’s.  I’m like the Bereans – I do my own studying of the Bible and go with that.  (That’s why it would be hard to peg me as a follower of a particular faith teacher, because I’ve got things in here that disagree with just about every well-known faith teacher’s material in one place or another!)

Having said that, the objector has noted something that is all too often true.  I’ve observed that faith people can be some of the least scholarly people around.  People are all too eager to accept something just because a famous person said it on TV.  That TV preacher might not have even checked out what he taught with a concordance before preaching it.  (Maybe he wouldn’t have preached it if he had!)  In some ways, modern faith people are little different from Dark Ages Catholics, who were supposed to believe everything because the priest said it.  In fact, in some circles you could be branded as a troublemaker for disagreeing with a doctrine that the pastor preached.  After all, aren’t you just supposed to accept what the anointed man of God said?  I have URGED everyone in our congregations to get into the Word and to NOT believe anything just because I said it.  I had no problem with any criticism of my preaching as long as it was sincere.  (There were people who would deliberately find something to nitpick about every week.  I’m not talking about their constant criticisms, which got old in a hurry.)  If you disagree with something I say because you think that the Word proves me wrong, I’ll respect you for that.  At least you made the effort to look things up, even if there might be some other verses you haven’t looked up yet that might change your mind.  If more faith people would stay in the Word, there would be fewer extreme and silly teachings blowing through their churches.  Many denominational churches are boring, but they are seldom weird.  But I’ve seen Spirit-filled nondenominational churches that were just plain weird.  I’ll say it again to you as the reader – if you can’t confirm what I say in the Bible, don’t believe me!  The Bible is the final authority on all matters of doctrine.  I’m not.

Don’t believe anything that you can’t see for yourself in Scripture!

I’m not going to go out of my way to call attention to it, but I actually have a section in here that totally contradicts something that a well-known faith preacher asserts that Jesus told him IN PERSON.  So I am not moved by the fact that someone says that JESUS appeared and said something to him, and neither should you.

On the other hand, the fact that a preacher had a vision of Jesus does NOT mean that his vision contained anything unscriptural!  The fact that someone claims something to be a “revelation” doesn’t mean that he’s wrong, as long as you can go to the Bible and confirm it.  I have never at this writing had a personal visitation from Jesus.  I won’t be unbiblical and ask for one (the people who had such experiences in the New Testament NEVER asked for such an experience), but I wouldn’t object to it.  However, I would follow the lead of a famous faith teacher on that when He told Jesus that He would have to show him what He was saying in the Word or he would not believe it, despite the fact that Jesus was standing in front of him!