I am doing a little study into the world of men who teach metaphysical healing and prosperity and I am comparing it to the teachings of the Word of Faith (WoF) Movement. The above title for this thread is taking from the book of one Joseph Murphy. A book I remembered reading many years ago but have now realized that the doctrines in that book has little distinction from that which the WoF adherents teach, except it does not mention the name Jesus.

Does anyone know anything about these teaching?

Thanks

This is what I read on Joseph Murphy from Wikipedia

Joseph Murphy (May 20, 1898 - December 16, 1981) was an Irish born, naturalised American author and New Thought minister, ordained in Divine Science and Religious Science.

Murphy was born in Ireland, the son of a private boys' school headmaster and raised a Roman Catholic. He studied for the priesthood and joined the Jesuits. In his twenties, an experience with healing prayer led him to leave the Jesuits and move to the United States, where he became a pharmacist in New York (having a degree in chemistry by that time). Here he attended the Church of the Healing Christ (part of the Church of Divine Science), where Emmet Fox had become minister in 1931.[1]

In the mid-1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes, and was ordained into Religious Science by Holmes in 1946, thereafter teaching at Rochester, New York, and later at the Institute of Religious Science in Los Angeles. A meeting with Divine Science Association president Erwin Gregg led to him being reordained into Divine Science, and he became the minister of the Los Angeles Divine Science Church in 1949, which he built into one of the largest New Thought congregations in the country. In the next decade, Murphy married, earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California and started writing. After his first wife died in 1976, he remarried to a fellow Divine Science minister who was his longstanding secretary. He moved his ministry to Laguna Hills, Calif., where he died in 1981. His wife, Dr. Jean Murphy, continued in this ministry for some years afterwards.[1]

So Joseph Murphy is a New Thought teacher. What is New Thought? Again wikipedia:

New Thought, sometimes known as Higher Thought,[1][2] promotes the ideas that Infinite Intelligence, or God, is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things, true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect.[3][4]

Although New Thought is neither monolithic nor doctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought believe that "God" or "Infinite Intelligence" is "supreme, universal, and everlasting", that divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings, that "the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another", and that "our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living".[3][4]

The New Thought movement is a spiritually-focused or philosophical interpretation of New Thought beliefs. Started in the early 19th century, today the movement consists of a loosely allied group of religious denominations, secular membership organizations,[citation needed] authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerning metaphysics, positive thinking, the law of attraction, healing, life force, creative visualization, and personal power.[5] The three major religious denominations within the New Thought movement are Religious Science, Unity Church and the Church of Divine Science. There are many other smaller churches within the New Thought movement, as well as schools and umbrella organizations. As of now, Infinite Intelligence can not be scientifically proven to exist.

Note the bolded and ask how this is any different from the Word of Faith?

From wikipedia, this is an introduction to the Word of Faith

Word of Faith (also known as Word-Faith or simply Faith) is a worldwide Christian movement that teaches Christians can access the power of faith or fear through speech. Its distinctive teachings are found on the radio, internet, television, and in many Christian churches.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] It shares some similarities with Pentecostal and charismatic believers. The basic doctrine preached is that of wealth and health through the a positive confession.

The Word of Faith movement has many distinctive teachings including physical, emotional, financial, relational, and spiritual healing or prosperity for any who has the right belief filled confesson.[8] The movement emphasizes choosing to speak the promises and provisions that the speaker wants, as an act of faith and agreement with God's plans and purposes. They believe this is what Jesus meant in Mark 11:22-23[bible 1], when he said believers shall have whatsoever they say and pray with faith. The term word of faith itself is derived from the biblical passage Romans 10:8[bible 2] which speaks of "the word of faith that we preach.

Again, Wikipedia: this is some Critic of the Word of Faith movement

Additionally, many beliefs that the movement holds as essential are often criticised by some Christians as diverging from Christian orthodoxy. Christian author Robert M. Bowman, Jr. states that the word of faith movement is "neither soundly orthodox nor thoroughly heretical". One popular critic and opponent of The Word of Faith, D.R. McConnell of Oral Roberts University, [size=16pt]has charged in a thesis entitled Kenyon Connection, that Kenyon adopted the teachings of New Thought and relabeled them[/size]. Thus, the Word of Faith movement, in McConnell’s view, constitutes a "Trojan Horse". This argument was the primary conclusion reached by McConnell’s master’s thesis published as a book, A Different Gospel.

Similar criticisms were made by William DeArteaga and Robert Bowman. Formerly of the Christian Research Institute, DeArteaga concedes some new thought influence in Kenyon's teaching, but he argues that Kenyon's views helped the church rediscover some biblical truths. The primary work in defense of this theory is DeArteaga's Quenching The Spirit. Arguing similarly but in an opposite direction is Bowman, whose Word-Faith Controversy is more sympathetic to Kenyon's historical background yet more critical of his doctrine than DeArteaga.

Baptist evangelist Justin Peters, an outspoken critic of the Word of Faith movement who wrote his Master of Divinity thesis on Benny Hinn and has appeared frequently as an expert on Word of Faith pastors in documentaries and TV news stories, traces the movement's origins to the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Phineas Quimby's New Thought Movement, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science) in his seminar "A Call for Discernment". In contrast, Pastor Joe McIntyre, now head of Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society in Washington State, argues that the primary influences of Kenyon were A.B. Simpson and A.J. Gordon of the Faith Cure branch of the Evangelical Movement. McIntyre’s version is told in the authorized biography, E.W. Kenyon: The True Story.

One of the earliest critics of the teaching was Oral Roberts University professor Charles Farah, who published From the Pinnacle of the Temple in 1979. In the book, Farah expressed his disillusionment with the teachings, which he argued were more about presumption than faith.
That same year, Pentecostal scholar Gordon Fee wrote a series of articles denouncing both the health and the wealth gospels. In 1982, one of Farah's students, Daniel Ray McConnell, submitted a thesis to the faculty at Oral Roberts University arguing that Kenyon was the father of the teaching, that Hagin had plagiarized his doctrines from Kenyon, and that the unique doctrines of the Word of Faith were heretical. McConnell's thesis was published as the book A Different Gospel in 1988.

One of McConnell's classmates, Dale H. Simmons, published his own research in earning a doctorate at Drew University. Simmons argued that Kenyon was influenced by heterodox metaphysical movements and the Faith Cure movement of the nineteenth century. In 1990, The Agony of Deceit was published as a conglomeration of critiques of Word of Faith doctrines. One of the authors, Christian Research Institute founder Walter Martin, issued his personal judgment that Kenneth Copeland was a false prophet and that the movement as a whole was heretical.[citation needed]

In 1993, Hank Hanegraaff's Christianity in Crisis charged the Word of Faith movement with heresy and accused many of its churches of being "cults." He accused the Word of Faith teachers of "demoting" God and Jesus, and "deifying" man and Satan. Hanegraaff is derided within the Word of Faith community as a present-day "Christian Witch Hunter."[citation needed] Hanegraaff has focused a significant portion of his anti-heresy teaching since the 1990s on addressing and refuting Word of Faith teachings.

Other critics, such as Norman Geisler, Dave Hunt and Roger Oakland, have denounced Word of Faith theology as aberrant and contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Critics have also condemned the teachings on wealth, arguing that the Bible condemns the pursuit of riches.
The "health and wealth" teachings had been heavily criticized, with opponents arguing that Word of Faith teachers[who?] tend not to stress some scriptures warning against emphasis on material prosperity and telling of the importance of helping the poor.[citation needed]
John Piper points out that Christ warned the apostles that they would suffer great persecution[30] for the sake of his name (except John, all eleven, after Judas Iscariot, suffered martyrs' deaths). In a January 2006 sermon entitled "How our Suffering Advances the Gospel," Piper stated bluntly that "the prosperity gospel will not make anybody praise Jesus; it will make people praise prosperity."

If you found it difficult to read through the article above, you could read the bolded emphasis.

The owner of the website www.letusreason.org, states this in regards to Kenneth Hagins and E W Kenyon's belief in faith and healing and how both of them died in contrast to their beliefs. The article is titled Death by Faith:

It was E.W. Kenyon in his book the Hidden man on pg.99 wrote, “I know that I am healed because he said that I am healed and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body.” An example would be if they are coughing and you say you have a cough they respond by “no I don’t, I haven’t had a cough in years.” That’s called denial of reality at best, and lying at worst.

This is what was adopted by Kenneth Hagin who writes in his book “In the name of Jesus” on the topic of divine healing and health. “I have so often said, I haven’t had a headache in so many years (45 to be exact) ... Just a few months ago, as I left the office building and started home, suddenly my head started hurting, someone might say, “well, you had a headache. No, I didn’t have one! I don’t have headaches. I haven’t had a headache since August 1934. 45 years have come and gone. And I haven’t had a headache…but if I had a headache, I wouldn’t tell anybody. And if somebody asked me how I was feeling, I would say, I’m fine, thank you.” (In the Name of Jesus, p.44) Notice he says he wouldn't tell you how he really feels because his words override the pain. Is this honest? Is it true? Is this the way someone is to represent the Lord. Did Jesus teach this nonsense? Of course not.

E.W. Kenyon studied at the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston which was a hotbed at the time for the emerging New Age thought. They imagined they have discovered laws of faith, promoting a Christianized version of occultism.

Kenyon had divorced his wife even when he taught that what one speaks they will possess. E.W Kenyon who is certainly the Father of the Word of Faith Movement taught divine healing and that it was always God's will to heal. But he died in a coma, brought on by a malignant tumor. He died from disease.

Kenneth Hagin states: It is not God's will for any to be sick (Healing the fathers Provision, p.9 ) I believe that it is the plan of our father that no believer should be sick that every believer should live his life to full time and actually wear out if Jesus tarries then fall asleep in Jesus. I state boldly that it is not the will of God my father that we should suffer with cancer and other dread disease and reap pain and anguish. No its God's will that we should be healed.”

While Hagin says he has had no headaches, he had 4 major cardiovascular failures. But this is one of those incidents he's not telling you (Christianity in Crises, pp.237-238; a Different Gospel by D.L McConnell) Hagin suffered 4 separate episodes of heart-crisis in 1939, 1942, 1949, and 1973.

Hagin claims he was healed of numerous sicknesses a “deformed heart,” “paralysis,” and “incurable blood disease.” He also declared his “healing from the top of my head to the soles of my feet” on August 7, 1934, so that “every symptom of distress, deficiency and physical wrongness was driven out of my body,” perpetually. “I'm still healed after 49 years,” Hagin said. (Kenneth E. Hagin, Exceedingly Growing Faith, 2d rev. ed. [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1990, 48-49, 82-83.) His healing occurred on Tuesday of the “second week” of August 1934, or August 7, which was not the same date as the “second Tuesday” that month [August 14). Elsewhere Hagin gives various dates, such as “6 days before my 17th birthday [August 20, 1934,” which would be August 14, the “second Tuesday of August 1934”: (Kenneth E. Hagin, El Shaddai [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 19801, 24-25.) But see Kenneth E. Hagin, How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God (Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1978), 87 (healing on a “Thursday” in August 1934). In still another place Hagin claims his healing was on “August 8, 1934,” which was a Wednesday (Kenneth E. Hagin, Zoe: The God-Kind of Life [Tulsa, OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1981], 13.) Maybe Hagin needs his memory healed as well. (adopted from Christianity in Crises)

Kenneth Hagin died Sept. 23.2003 After eating breakfast his head fell to his chest. Charisma News Service reported that “An exact cause of death was not immediately known” Hagin had been hospitalized in a cardiac intensive care unit since Sept. 14, when he collapsed at home. (Charisma News Service September 23, 2003 edition People & Lifestyle) We later find out that was transported by an ambulance admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit and remained in the hospital until he died. This become an interesting point of contention because Hagin claimed he was healed of his heart problem supernaturally years before. He also held to the belief that one should actually wear out, not die this way.

Read the rest of the article in http://www.letusreason.org/Wf25.htm