The following series is a long one! In the first part, I have two main purposes. One, to develop a worldview of the Evangelical Charismatic system. Two, to sort out the worldview of the Word Faith religion.

Then in the next main section, I evaluate the main parts of Word Faith: healing, faith, knowledge, prosperity and salvation. Along the way, I show a better way of thinking about these topics in the Evangelical Charismatic view.

Finally, I deal with foundational Bible passages that Word Faith preachers use.

I've really enjoyed digging into this, though some things are difficult to say to those who have become my friends. But, I'm also happy to report that while I must say that Word Faith theology has been infected with the disease known as New Age, for the vast majority of those whom I've come into contact with, the people who believe these things are genuine Christians with a deep commitment to God. They also tend to believe solid Evangelical truths at the same time. They just haven't thought through the implications of some of the things they're saying. That some things they believe may be contradictory. That some passages of the Bible don't say what they believe it is saying.

This happens for all of us, so I'm not about to damn anyone or call anyone heretics. We need to be much more careful throwing that kind of rhetoric around, knowing that we too were once ignorant of Christ, and indeed still ignorant of many things—compared to the infinite goodness and greatness of God.

My methodology will be to teach, and to ground that teaching in the Bible, and let you, the reader, decide for yourself which way of thinking you will follow.

I believe what we are about to engage in is spiritual warfare, since our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds—arguments and arrogant obstacles that set themselves up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to make it obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). (See What is spiritual warfare? How does it involve a clash of ideas?.)

It's a divine and spiritual battle because when our minds are captivated by alternatives to the truth, they lead us down the wrong path, and they lead us into depression, confusion, deceit and darkness. But when we are led to the truth, that will bring light, understanding, love and hope. So ideas matter. And ideas have deep consequences.

One of the really stark consequences of cosying up to New Age ideology is that long-term sufferers can become ostracised. They become untouchables because their existence threatens the idea that we can achieve full health in this life. The presence of anyone with less than full health, then, particularly if they've been prayed for multiple times over several years, threatens the core beliefs and practices of the Word Faith religion. Unfortunately, reality readily shows there's many of these people. (Some simply continue 'in faith' to deny they are sick, holding onto hope that healing has been done in the spiritual realm and will come soon. This is normally understood to be lying.)

Well, if you care about these people, and I know you all do, what this series will do for you is:

• show you how to distinguish between an idea stemming from the New Age worldview as opposed to a biblical worldview (as interpreted in an Evangelical Charismatic way);

• reveal just how deep the rabbit hole goes, in relation to thinking like a New Ager;

• develop a new, positive way forward on issues of healing (and sickness), prosperity (and poverty), faith, salvation and knowledge; and,

• unpack key Scriptural passages in detail to 'take captive every thought' and retake the strongholds of the enemy in our midst for the Gospel.

In hindsight, I love how God has created this space for me to do this. What he's sovereignly ordered is a space where deep spiritual concepts and questions are being explored, amongst mature Christians who hear from God the warnings of going too far. I don't have to delve deep into New Age teaching, which is often occult—and where I do it's only for the purpose of setting up clear barriers. These are a people who don't have anti-spiritual biases like those from a conservative background, so they get into completely different topics which the Bible actually spends considerable time on. It's good.

I believe this approach is called the dialectical method, where two different points of view are deliberately discussed in close proximity, but without debating elements such as emotional appeal, or negative rhetoric. To me, it's a calm, rational approach. I think you'll be blessed by it.