The Faith theology according to Hagin is a mixture of Scriptural and unscriptural doctrines, and because there is this mixture, it is possible to find both good and bad within the teachings. Now and then the Faith teachings have actually been criticised for something that is quite Scriptural. You may well hear the Gospel of Christ and the grace of God preached in the faith circles. However, people who take the theology seriously are inevitably influenced by the unscriptural doctrines. Some of these doctrines have correctly been labelled heresy, and they permeate the whole theological system. I have emphasised the errors in order to clarify where the system is unscriptural.
The Faith theology has practically obliterated the difference between man and Almighty God. Jesus is not portrayed as The Unique One as He is shown to be in the Bible because they say that, just like the man Jesus was born of the Spirit and baptised with the Spirit, so also are we. In this way they try to make us equal with Jesus Christ. We are told to live victoriously, not by simply depending on Him, but, rather, because of our so called identification with Him. In this way, we are encouraged to take His place. Ultimately, it leads to us making ourselves out to be gods.
We are supposed to have unlimited abilities and powers deposited in our innermost being, which they call our spirit. This divine spirit of ours is said to be a separate being. According to this, my spirit is the real me and is without sin; so, consequently, I am without sin. Sin is, therefore, supposed to reside only in our souls or bodies. When you make this kind of division, it takes away our responsibility for our sin. In fact, they tell us that we must get rid of any consciousness of sin. Apart from this unrealistic view of man, the teaching is an invitation to attempt to “get into the spirit” in a way that leads to exploring the occult spiritual realm.
The effect of thinking that we have been given all power in heaven and on earth is that trying to live by this faith becomes a power struggle entirely between us and Satan. Jesus Himself is on the sideline watching us wrestle with Satan, and rather than praying to Jesus and asking Him for help, we are told to command things into existence. Faith teachers even say that we should command Satan to give us things, instead of asking God.
In reality, these various methods are the laws of magic instead of prayer. These laws themselves are actually said to be ruling the universe and, therefore, the power of the spoken word (rather than God Himself) is supposed to be the greatest power in the universe. Jesus is made out to depend on these laws just like we do. Jesus Christ is, therefore, not a sovereign God, and neither is the Father or the Holy Spirit. Instead, according to this belief, it is another god who is depending on a system of laws and methods who is actually ruling the universe. And according to this system, Jesus Christ becomes a god under this other god. It is the other god we actually serve if we take the unscriptural doctrines of the Faith theology to their logical conclusion.
I think this is sufficient to explain the terrible state some people are in when they have listened to this type of teachings. They may have taken these false doctrines seriously and failed to conquer Satan by their own power, and then they understood that they can expect no help from Jesus because they have failed to practise the right methods themselves. It is not surprising that some of these people’s understanding of God becomes a caricature of the Bible’s description.
