Double faults and not aces: Margaret Court

By Spencer Gear [1]

The cover story in New Life Christian newspaper (Melbourne, Australia), "Tennis great aces crowd" (King & Woodall 2004, p. 1), should have come with a warning.  The headline should have read, "Tennis great also serves faults, even double faults, to the crowd."  It was stated that Margaret Court, former international tennis player, was "the only tennis player in the world, male or female, ever to win 64 major tournaments [grand slams] and [was] the founder of Victory Life Centre, a Western Australian [Perth] church with an average Sunday attendance of 1300 people" (p. 1).  No matter what the size of her congregation, I have grave concerns about the content of some of her theology.
Photo: Margaret Court
Based on this article, it is stated that Margaret Court gave a great testimony about her Christian life and ministry at the 21st Melbourne Prayer Breakfast, Melbourne Convention Centre, 7am 29 October 2004.  However, it was served up with some spiritual poison.  I am referring to these statements: "I have learned the power of words.  God created the world with words.  He framed it in words.  We need to teach our young ones to speak in a way that shapes their destiny" (King & Woodall 2004, p. 2, emphasis added).

I have spoken with Christians in the charismatic movement who have been devastated by this teaching.  They have sought prosperity in following this formula of visualisation and making positive affirmations, but it left them devastated – and still in poverty.  Others go around confessing their healing, but the sickness continues.  I find this to be cruel Christianity.  It promises much, but has a habit of not delivering all of the time.

This is known as positive confession, promoted by a segment of charismatic Christianity known as the Faith Movement.  The Watchman Fellowship (2000) defines positive confession as: "the belief that if a believer speaks 'spiritual' or 'faith-filled' words then he [or she] can have what he [or she] says."  Kenneth E. Hagin Sr. (who died in 2003 at the age of 86) advocated it with these kinds of statements [2] :

yellow button"Did you ever stop to think about having faith in your own faith?  Evidently God had faith in His faith, because He spoke words of faith and they
came to pass. . .  In other words, having faith in your words is having faith in your faith.  That's what you've got to learn to do to get things from God: Have faith in your faith" (Hagin 1980a, pp. 4-5, emphasis added). 
button Hebrews 4:14 states, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to
 the faith we profess" (NIV)  Hagin uses this verse to claim that "you are what you say" (Hagin 1974, pp. 86-87, emphasis added).
button  "Don't pray it; say it" (Hagin 1979b, p. 78, emphasis added).
button  "Your lips . . . can make you a victor or keep you a captive" (Hagin 1974, p. 91, emphasis added).
button  "What I confess, I possess" (Hagin  1974, p. 93, emphasis added).
button  Hagin uses Rom. 10:8 to justify his belief that "believing with the heart and saying it with the mouth . . . creates reality" (1974, p. 89, emphasis
added).
button  "If you are defeated, you are defeated with your own lips" (Hagin 1980b, p. 10, emphasis added).
button  If a believer states, "According to God's word 'I'm healed'" and then says, 'Yes, I've got heart symptoms," the latter confession will nullify the
result of the first confession (Hagin 1980c, pp. 90, 138, emphasis added).
button Hagin uses Prov. 6:2 to justify this statement: "The reason so many are defeated is that they have a negative confession" (1974, pp. 90-91,
emphasis added).
button "Every time you confess . . . your weakness and your disease, you are openly confessing that the Word of God is not true" (1974, p.
118, emphasis added).  Since he began following this procedure, Hagin claims that he has not had a headache since 1933 (Hagin 1979a, p. 6).

Margaret Court's teaching was stated by Hagin in this way, "The kind of faith that spoke the universe into existence is dealt to our hearts" (Hagin, 1980d, p. 74). It seems as though Hagin got his teaching from E. W. Kenyon who stated, "What I confess, I possess" (Kenyon 1970, p. 98; Hagin 1974,  p. 92; see McConnell 1988, for an assessment).

This kind of teaching is found in other leaders of the Faith Movement:

red button  Kenneth Copeland: "Confession brings possession.  It brings possession of everything God has promised us in His Word.  It brings salvation, healing, protection, prosperity and so on.  That's why, when we confess our faith, we're not simply affirming something positive we want in our lives.  We're staking our claim on what is already ours according to God's Word.  In light of that, our responsibility is to go to the Word, find scriptures that cover whatever we're believing God for, and then stand in faith on the truth of that Word" (Copeland 1999, p. 7; cited in Simpson 1999).

red button  Joyce Meyer: "We must realize and understand the power carried by our thoughts and words.  They are so powerful that they can bring either blessings or curses into our lives, depending on their nature.  Our thoughts and words are like the rudder of a ship -- they may seem small, but they affect the very direction of our lives" (2004).

red button  Charles Capps has written a book titled, The Tongue: A Creative Force (1976).

red button  Fred Price said, “When 1 first got saved they didn't tell me I could do anything. What they told me to do was that whenever I prayed I should always say, 'The will of the Lord be done.,' Now, doesn't that sound humble? It does. Sounds like humility, it's really stupidity. I mean, you know, really, we insult God. 1 mean, we really do insult our Heavenly Father. We do; we really insult Him without even realizing it. If you have to say, 'If it be thy will or' Thy will be done'-if you have to say that, then you're calling God a fool because he's the One that fold us to ask. . .  If God's gonna give me what He wants me to have, then it doesn't matter what I ask. I'm only gonna get what God wants me to have. So that's an insult to God's intelligence” (1990).   

I was alerted to the dangers of "name it and claim it" or "blab it and grab it" theology a number of years ago by a friend who became a Christian after many years as an occult practitioner.  Her question to me was: "Why are these Pentecostal Christians using the same kind of technique I used in witchcraft?"  Many teachers in the Faith Movement would justifiably deny any association with psychic and occult powers in their doctrines of prosperity and healing, but the origins of this technique are found in witchcraft.  Also read Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science.  She has a similar kind of false teaching..

I am concerned about this heretical teaching for these reasons: 

flashing   It is idolatry because it promotes faith in a god of metaphysics and not the Lord God of the universe, as revealed in the Christian Scriptures.

flashing button  God is sovereign and does not obey human laws.  Psalm 115:3 states, "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him" (NIV).  See also
 Dan. 4:34-35 and Eph. 1:11.

flashing  The Almighty God is a person and not a principle.  If we speak of the "force of faith" it sounds more like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars who
manipulated the "good side of the force" with mind control.

flashing  Exodus. 20:7 states, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
The force of faith seems to me to be taking the Lord's name in vain.

flashing  Human beings are creatures and not the Creator.  Who are we to create healing and prosperity through the words we speak?

flashing A. W. Tozer wrote that "what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . .  The gravest
question before the Church is always God Himself"  (1961, p.1).  Positive confession exalts human beings with the "creative powers" of the word of faith.  It's a poor view of the nature of God, claiming that we can manipulate God by the words we speak.  Back in 1988 when Dan McConnell wrote his critique of the Faith Movement he made a sound assessment: "Creation is from the Father; through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit.  Man is a creature and no creature in the Bible is ever accorded creative powers: no man, no angel, no devil, no animal" (McConnell 1988,  p. 145, emphasis in original).

flashing Faith theology in its positive confession twists the relationship between God's Word and His will.  The universe is not held together by spiritual
 laws, but by God Himself (see Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17).  The Word of God is not an independent force that manipulates God.

flashing Faith theology is based on an erroneous translation of Mark 11:22 by translating it as a subjective genitive: "Have the faith of God."  One New
Testament Greek scholar, C.E.B. Cranfield, has called this translation as a subjective genitive, "have the sort of faith God has," a "monstrosity of exegesis" (1959, p. 361).  "Have faith in God," an objective genitive, is the correct translation.  God is not granting godhood to us (have the faith of God) but we are exhorted to have faith in the person of God Himself.  Renowned Greek scholar, A. T. Robertson, agrees that the translation ought to be, "Have faith in God.."  He refers us to other examples such as Gal. 2:26; Rom. 3:22, 26 (Robertson 1930, p. 361). 

In speaking of the context of Mark 11:23, Kenneth E. Hagin stated, "You can have what you say" (1974, p. 117.  See also Hagin 1979a, p. 3; 1980a, pp. 3-4 ). 

flashing Faith theology reduces faith to an abstract human concept – positive mental attitude or positive confession. 

flashing  Dan McConnell affirms Charles Farah's charge that this is "charismatic humanism" (1988, p. 146).  This is revealed in Hagin's phrase, "having faith in your faith" (1980a, book title).

I have so much appreciated Margaret Court's feats on the tennis court and I don't find it a pleasant task having to expose this false teaching, but the Scriptures call upon us to "do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15, NIV). 

Some will not like the fact that I have mentioned names when exposing false doctrine, but that is exactly what Paul did to Peter in Galatians 2:11, "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong" (NIV)  Consider other examples of Paul's correction of people by naming them: I Tim. 1:20, "Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme" (NIV) and 2 Tim. 4:14, "Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done."  What did the apostle John do with somebody who publicly taught false doctrine?  "I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.  So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church" (3 John 9-10 NIV).  We have had these examples in writing for about 2000 years. 

These verses confirm F. F. Bruce's wise counsel: "Since the offence was public, the rebuke had also to be public" (1982, p. 132).

Positive confession is a spiritual cancer in the body of Christ and we dare not present it as an ace when it is a fault.

For further refutations of the positive confession false teaching, see:

References:

Bruce, F. F. 1982, New International Greek Testament Commentary on Galatians, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Capps, C. 1976, The Tongue: A Creative Force, Harrison House Publishers, Tulsa, OK..
Copeland, K 1999, 'Confession brings possession', Believer's Voice Of Victory, October.
Cranfield, C. E. B. 1958, The Gospel According to Saint Mark, Cambridge University Press, London.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1974, Bible Faith Study Course, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK. 
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1979a, Words, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1979b, What To Do When Faith Seems Weak and Victory Lost, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1980a, Having Faith in Your Faith, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1980b, You Can Have What You Say, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1980c, The Name of Jesus, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK.
Hagin Sr., K. E. 1980d, New Thresholds of Faith, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Tulsa, OK
Hanegraaff, H. 1993, Christianity in Crisis, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon.
Kenyon, 1970, The Hidden Man (5th edn.), Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, Lynwood, WA.
King, A. & Woodall, H. 2004, 'Tennis great aces crowd', New Life, 11 November 2004, pp. 1-2.
McConnell, D. R. 1988, A Different Gospel, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts.
Meyer, J. 2004, 'The mouth has a mind of its own', Available from: http://www.joycemeyer.org/cgi-bin/msoft/msoft.cgi [18 November 2004].
Price, F. 1990, 'Ever Increasing Faith' television programme on TBN November 16 ,1990, cited in ''I have what I think and say I have', Let Us Reason
 Ministries, Available from: http://www.letusreason.org/Wf8.htm [18 November 2004].
Robertson, A. T. 1930, Word Pictures in the New Testament, vol. 1, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.
Simpson, S. 1999, 'Don't believe what they say!  Rebuttal to the Believer's Voice of Victory, 'Q&A' section, October 1999, Available from:
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/vov.html [18 November 2004].
Tozer, A. W. 1961, The Knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco.
Warrington, K. 2000, 'Healing and Kenneth Hagin', Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 119-138, Available from:
 http://apts.edu/ajps/00-1/00-1-KWarrington.pdf [6 May 2007].  
The Watchman Fellowship 2000, 'Positive confession', The Watchman Expositor, vol. 10, no. 3, 1993, Available from:
 http://watchman.org/reltop/posconf.htm [18 November 2004].

Endnotes:

1.  I am an Australian family relationships' counselling manager, doctoral student in biblical studies, an active Christian apologist, and may be contacted at: P. O. Box 3107, Hervey Bay 4655, Australia.

2.  Most of these quotes were accessed through Warrington (2000) and McConnell (1988).  See especially McConnell's chapter, "The Doctrine of Faith" (1988, p. 134 ff).

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Copyright (c) 2007 Spencer D. Gear.  This document is free content.  You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the OpenContent License (OPL) version 1.0, or (at your option) any later version.  This document last updated at date:  6 May 2007.