Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent book
Review: A Different Gospel examines the Word of Faith doctrines which have become increasingly popular within Pentecostalism. I would stress however that Word of Faith is a stream within Pentecostalism and although Word of Faith people tend to be Pentecostal, not all Pentecostals would be Word of Faith. McConnell looks at the origins of the Word of Faith and in particular the Father figure of the movement, E.W. Kenyon.McConnell examines Word of Faith teachings and shows from scripture that there is some error. McConnell is a Pentecostal so he is writing objectively. I have to admire how gracious he is throughout the book to the people he is writing about. If you want to know about the Word of Faith movement, I would strongly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Doctrinally Good But Historically Questionable
Review: As a note to anyone who cites Joe McIntyre's attempted reply to this book - it's called "E.W. Kenyon: The True Story" - I have already reviewed that book. This one is far better but has its own shortcomings.
In 1982, D.R. McConnell wrote a Master's thesis at Oral Roberts University. This book is the expansion of that thesis with new information and additional citation of what occurred post graduation.
McConnell takes on five different teachings of the Word of Faith movement - faith in faith, healing, prosperity, the born again Jesus, and the little gods teaching. The tone is somewhat dry and comes across as more of what it is - a thesis - than the sensationalistic but less accurate presentations of Dave Hunt and Hank Hannegraaff. He shows these teachings to be in contradiction with the Word of God and - as a consequence - entitles his tome "A Different Gospel."
There is much good in the pages. He devastates the false doctrines of the Faith movement with historical and biblical arguments. And unlike most critics of the Faith movement, McConnell himself is a practicing charismatic - so the usual irrelevant argument about him not believing in spiritual gifts simply doesn't apply.
There are TWO valuable services performed by this book. The first is the expose of Kenneth Hagin as a complete copycat and plagiarist. McConnell PROVES that Hagin's claimed 'revelations' from God are nothing more than intellectual property theft. And that discovery leads to another fundamental truth: E.W. Kenyon, whom Hagin plagiarized extensively, is the actual father of the Faith movement.
But it is here that the argument McConnell constructs collapses into uncertainty.
McConnell demonstrates that Kenyon attended an East Coast college called Emerson School of Oratory. He further demonstrates that Kenyon used some of the same terms used by New Thought metaphysics. But it is a stretch to argue - as McConnell does - that since Kenyon attended the school and the school is a hotbed of metaphysical thought, the Faith movement is therefore a cult. If Kenyon's defenders go too far in exonorating him, it is equally true that McConnell - additional evidence would be necessary to prove his charge - has gone too far in indicting Kenyon.
In one sense, McConnell has done the Faith movement a major favor. Since the link of Kenyon to New Thought is superficial at best, it allows Faith members to slam McConnell as 'inaccurate' and thus never deal with the core problem with their movement. McConnell may be reaching and wrong in his history of the Kenyon movement - but he is dead on accurate in how wrong the major doctrines that Kenyon's followers espouse truly are.
The book has one other weakness, namely, the title. It is taken from Galatians 1:6. But the problem is that if the Faith disciples believe a different gospel, it is fair to conclude they are not saved. Yet McConnell even concedes they are - and concedes that Kenyon's heresies are born of pure motives as opposed to antagonism towards Christ.
The first two chapters and the last five are very good. The middle is lacking.
Rating: 
Summary: ORU Graduate Says AMEN To McConnell
Review: I am an M.Div graduate from Oral Roberts University. Many of my friends and I were deceived by the Word of Faith Movement. This has caused us much pain and grief. A Different Gospel has proved liberating for me. Please don't hesitate to purchase this book. Life is not a game that we play by finding the right formulas for getting God to move. As one who has been trained in scholarship, I respect the time and research that has gone into this work. The author is careful to document all of his sources and backs up his assertions with proven documented facts. A professor of mine came close to losing his job when he required one of his classes to read the book. It seems that politics, not truth is the key motivator in the Word of Faith Movement. This book is for truth seekers.
Rating: 
Summary: I have a question!!
Review: If your child was sick and expected to only live for another year, who would you rather have to pray for your child?: a "Word-of-faith", Charismatic Christian who believes in divine health and hasn't been sick in 38 years?!
OR
a "Fundamentalist" who believes that miraculous healings have "ceased" and have been "done away" with?! Give that one some thought...
Rating:
Summary: McConnell's work now stands thoroughly debunked...
Review: It has been 13 years since McConnell's work came to light. The thesis which earned him his Master's degree has been used by scholar and critic alike to separate the faith message from the main of Christian teaching, painting it as "cultic" and a "heresy" by a very weak line of reasoning which is even now weaker from the emergence of further light and data. After his book was printed, Dale Simmons --a Kenyon researcher-- approached McConnell with further facts that had come to light about Kenyon but McConnell refused to listen. What's more, Joe McIntyre in his book "E.W. Kenyon and His Message of Faith -- The True Story," demonstrates with factual historical research and data that Kenyon not only was in the realm of orthodoxy but was associated with the faith-cure movement rather than any supposed "cultic" or "Metaphysical" systems prevalent in his day. Finally, McConnell makes many theological assertions in part two of his book which when examined in light of Scripture fails miserably. In fact, his statement that "God is faithful to His Word but He is not bound by it," borders on blasphemy if not heresy. The WHOLE basis for faith in God is the fact that He cannot lie and that once His Word has gone forth out of His mouth, IT CANNOT RETURN VOID OR BE ALTERED. McConnell would have us believe that God is faithful but could break a promise if He "sovereignly" chose to. RUBBISH! The book will stand as an example of phariseeism and biased historical research. The fact that many of this book's major underpinnings have been destroyed by further historical facts and research may not change the closed mind of the WoF critic, but for those who believe that God is a God of His Word and are involved in the so-called "faith movement," you have nothing to worry about. We march on in spite of a well-meaning but flawed polemic.
Rating:
Summary: I have a question!!
Review: It hurts me to see such acidic remarks about men of God. I know more about Kenneth E. Hagin than the other "Word of Faithers". His most important attribute is his love walk. He doesn't go around naming people and pointing at them. The fruit of Kenneth Hagin's ministry is good. People are saved, healed, delivered, encouraged, and blessed. JESUS is pleased. Jesus said that we were to do the same works that He did. Kenneth Hagin simply believes that and teaches it. LOVE believes the best of everybody (I Cor 13.) Please be spiritual enough to believe the best. If it bears good fruit I say God Bless it!
Rating:
Summary: Investigation Takes Humility
Review: Many Pentecostals and Evangelicals are so unwilling to bend their pride and allow a book, a teacher, or even the Bible itself to teach them God's truth. Like the Pharisees of old, many are so stuck in their traditions and idealogy that they refuse to read any other books unless they agree with it. Surely many have fallen captive to Mark 7:1-13.
That is the case with many reviews I have read on Dr. McConnell's well researched and well written work on the Word-Faith Movement. In this case, Dr. McConnell has shown how key Word-Faith doctrines derived themselves in the teachings of E.W. Kenyon and then to Kenneth Hagin. He does a great job of showing how similar Kenyon and Hagin are on various topics and leaves the reader little doubt of who copied who.
I was raised Pentecostal. I currently work in a Pentecostal church however I read many different opinions from non-charismatics to charismatics from Reformed to Baptist to Arminian. However, I hold the Bible to be the sole authority for faith and practice (1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 3:16-4:3) and I test all things by Scripture (1 Thess. 5:21). It's time for the Church to return to a true love for the Word of God and not for emotional, experiential, health and wealth teachings found in the minds of Word-Faith teachers and not in Scripture. May we once again preach the Word!
Rating:
Summary: Demas, Hymenaeus, Philetus, Alexander, Cephas, Barnabus
Review: My summary above is a brief review of people named and judged, in writing, by the Apostle Paul for one reason or another. Why didn't Paul just read his Bible and not judge anyone else? "A Different Gospel" is one of the most important treatments of the Faith Movement, as it is written by a charismatic graduate of Oral Roberts University. One reviewer attacks Hanegraaff, who only wrote the forward to this edition of McConnell's book. McConnell wrote this book in the 80s before Hanegraaff was known. The single most damaging fact shown by this book is that the "Father of the Faith Movement," namely self-proclaimed prophet Kenneth Hagin, plagiarized the writings of no less than three ministers (including E. W. Kenyon) throughout his own ministry. When he was caught and confronted, Hagin blamed God for it. Since Hagin and others were long ago confronted individually and by groups, it is certainly proper to go and "Tell it to the church." For Hagin fans, I'll make it simple: plagiarism is theft; saying that God made you do it unwittingly is lying. This is the root of the fruit. Speaking of the fruit, if healings validate the spirit behind a ministry, then those in the Faith Movement should feel well at home in a Christian Science reading room. This is a fitting observation, because McConnell discovered that Kenyon has direct educational, doctrinal, and testimonial links to the metaphysical cults (Christian Science, New Thought, etc.). Thus, Hagin has plagiarized and popularized, via Kenyon, key Christian Science ideas unknowingly. These ideas have become so entrenched in modern charismatic thought (although they are not inherently charismatic in nature), it is difficult to get adherents to see the forest through the trees. Other people, including but not limited to Gordon Fee, Walter Martin, Michael Horton, Curtis Crenshaw, Richard Abanes, James White, Chuck Smith, Michael Moriarty, John MacArthur, Joni Eareckson Tada, Ron Rhodes, and Elliot Miller have written and spoken against the spiritual dangers of the Faith Movement and its teachers. Rest assured, the Apostle Paul would be proud. But I'm also sure that the followers of Philetus viewed the Apostle Paul with the same measure of contempt that most of the one-star reviewers feel toward the brave people listed above.
Rating:
Summary: Last Thing You Need Is This Book
Review: This book is a good study tool and how doubters think. I've studied the faith movement, and I found that God initiated it with creation. So, I doubt that you will find that this book will be able to succeed against God and His faith movement. I know that there are vessel out there with "Big names", but can God not make them big, when they teach his Word? Even John was made "Big" by saying "I must decrease, so that He can increase". No, the movment that is really criticized here by McConnell is the Doubt Movement, which was initiated, not by God, as McConnell would so subtly and ignorantly suggest, but by Lucifier.
Rating:
Summary: Response to the critics
Review: This book should be read by all believers who are interested in the dangers and unbiblicalness of the Word of Faith movement. McConnell has done a great service for the Kingdom of God by writing this book and exposing the serious errors of a movement that has caught many professing Christians into its trap. Those who criticize the critics of the Word of Faith movement obviously hasn't done much study of Scripture (at least, good exegetical studying of Scripture). McConnell's analysis is trustworthy since he has first-hand experience of what goes on in churches who expouse this heresy. What pro-Word of Faith people don't understand is that the Christian life isn't a free and easy ride to the gates of heaven on a bed of roses. Paul says that the Christian life is difficult (Acts 14:22), and Peter assured his readers that they would go through troubles for their faith (1 Peter 4:12-19). Jesus didn't promise people that if they say a "simple prayer" they will get big mansions, nice sports cars, or a constant cashflow. Jesus told his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Another abominable aspect of this movement is how it divides Christians into two camps: the winners and losers. The "winning" Christians are those who get all these goodies from God; while the "losing" Christians are those who have little. Also, this teaching bases ones own assurance of their salvation on how healthy and wealthy they are. This leads to the pharisaic attitude of assurance where success and good health are signs as being more favoured by God. However, the Reformers have taught us that faith in Christ is what cultivates assurance in believers. This book is a needed book for our times. Don't follow into that "Prayer of Jabez" slop (which lacks good exegesis of the passage). This is not an attack against traditional Pentecostals, but those who have taken Pentecostalism into its unhealthy extremes. Either you believe the message of the modern-day televangelists (or wolves in sheep's clothing) or the Word of God.
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