Nuggets from Occult Invasion—Kenneth Hagin and “Positive Confession”

Among charismatics, the largest churches and the most popular ministers on radio and TV tend to be those associated with what is known as “Positive Confession,” or the “Faith movement.” Positive Confession is simply Peale’s Positive Thinking carried one step further: expressing the thoughts aloud. Kenneth Hagin is generally credited with founding this latter movement, and his teachings have an authority among his followers almost equal to that of Mary Baker eddy among hers.

Frederick K. C. Price says: “Kenneth Hagin has had the greatest influence upon my life of any living man…his books…revolutionized and changed my life.” Charles Capps gives a similar testimony: “Brother Hagin was the greatest influence of my life.” Kenneth Copeland credits Hagin’s tapes with having revolutionized his ministry.

Kenneth Hagin’s gospel can be traced back to the writings of E. W. Kenyon, who first taught “the positive confession of the Word of God” and must be recognized as the real founder of today’s Positive Confession movement. Kenyon studied at the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, a hotbed of the emerging New Thought philosophy. Kenyon’s teaching about “the power of words” and is warnings never to make a “negative confession” deeply influenced Hagin and many others who are recognized today as leaders of this movement. Kenyon also taught that man is a little god “in God’s class” and therefore can use the same faith-force that God does. We allegedly create our own reality with the words of our mouths: “What I confess, I possess.”

Hagin, as quoted at the beginning of the chapter, complains that people often think he is teaching Christian Science. He claims he is not, yet he teaches that the power of God works according to laws. Science is based upon laws. Thus, if what Hagin teaches about God’s power being governed by laws is indeed “Christian,” then it must be “Christian Science.”

“Positive Confession” means to verbalize positive thought and speak it aloud—precisely what shamans have believed and practiced for thousands of years in all cultures. The connection with the Positive/Possibility Thinking taught by Peale and Schuller is acknowledged by Kenneth Hagin, Jr.:

“Somebody will argue, ‘You’re talking about positive thinking!’

“That’s right! I am acquainted with the greatest Positive Thinker who ever was: God…!

“The two most prominent teachers of positive thinking [Peale and Schuller] are ministers.”

The entire “Faith movement” rests upon the occult belief that “faith is a force just like electricity or gravity” which obeys laws, and thus even non-Christians can use it. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church, located in Seoul, Korea, declares: “Think positively and prosper.” Cho’s brand of Christian Science is based upon “the law of the fourth dimension,” a law which both Christians and non-Christians can follow in order to create miracles. He says, “Sokagakkai [a Buddhist sect] has applied the law of the fourth dimension and has performed miracles….” The Sokagakkai are occultists.

The Wall Street Journal observed that Cho’s Christianity has elements of Korean shamanism in it. Kenneth Hagin also acknowledges that his variety of Christian science (as must be the case with any science) likewise allowed non-Christians to obtain miracles by scientifically applying its laws. Hagin writes:

“It used to bother me when I’d see unsaved people getting results [miracles], but my church members not getting results. Then it dawned on me what the sinners were doing: They were cooperating with this law of God—the law of faith.”