My cousin who is a cradle Catholic ( In my entire family we are all Catholic going back to 7-8 generations that we are aware of ) is under the influence of a group that follows "Word Affirmation "
He has always been a faithful Catholic so this has taken me by surprise . There is great emphasis on repeating certain verses hundreds of times . eg. Galatians 3:13 Phil 4:19
He and others around him still attend Mass but they try and influence my wife and me to stop praying the Rosary albeit subtly ( we ate infant food as infants but now lets eat solid food from the Word of God!) seeking intercession of Saints .
I cannot find any Catholic basis for the following views they promote ,
1) All diseases and sicknesses are spirits (Hence God will heal everyone of even fever and colds)
2) The enemy cannot understand when we pray in tongues ( so praying in tongues and practicing is encouraged , this is the second most important principle .
3) Certain parts of the Bible are the Word of God and certain parts are not eg. first 37 chapters of the Book of Job are not the Word of God .
4) Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death , so speak life into every situation , be very careful of things you say ( I have been made redundant due to the downturn and have often been told that I should have been more careful when expressing worry about my job situation and even now with things I say )
5) We do not need to "invent" prayer everything we need to say is given in the Word of God eg below
I was given this prayer to say
http://jcilministries.blogspot.ae/p/con ... needs.htmlThe words that immediately disturbed me were
"Jesus was made poor that I, through His
poverty, might have abundance. " 2 Cor 8:9 I am sure St. Paul did not intend it in this context .
Does anyone have more experience with countering this ? It seems like a mix of Prosperity Gospel and Pentecostalism to me .
Can anyone shed more light on the points I listed ? I cannot seem to find any Catholic basis .
God Bless