Rooted in Jesus Grace

Every generation of believers must guard the gospel against distortions that promise something “better,” “deeper,” or “more effective” than the means God has already provided. In recent decades, one such distortion has appeared under the name Theophostics . Created by Dr. Edward M. Smith, Theophostic Ministry claims to free people from emotional pain completely and permanently. Once freed from pain, its followers supposedly find release from sinful habits and live effortlessly in peace and victory. It sounds appealing. Who wouldn’t want to be free from emotional pain forever? But beneath the appealing language of healing lies a system that replaces the gospel with psychological mysticism. What Theophostics Teaches Dr. Smith teaches that most sin and emotional suffering comes from what he calls “lie-based thinking.” This supposedly begins when a person experiences an early, painful event—often in childhood—and interprets it wrongly. For example, if a child suffers abuse and believes “I...

  True Healing Through Christ — Recovering a Biblical View of Change Every counterfeit thrives by imitating something true.   Theophostic Prayer Ministry   (TPM) mimics Christianity’s promise of freedom and healing — but replaces the cross with psychology, and the Word with imagination. What began as a desire to help hurting believers ends up teaching them to search for Jesus in their memories instead of trusting Him by faith. The result is emotional experience without lasting transformation, therapy without theology. As Bob DeWaay observed after years of firsthand involvement in such ministries, “The people who were truly changed were those who were converted — not those who went through deliverance or inner-healing sessions.” That statement captures the heart of the issue: true healing comes not through mystical memory work, but through the gospel itself. Let’s look at what  biblical healing and transformation  actually mean — and how it differs radically from...

  How Theophostic Prayer Opens the Door to Subjectivism Every generation of Christians must guard against the same temptation: replacing the sure Word of God with personal experience. From the Garden of Eden, where Eve trusted the serpent’s words over God’s command, to the present, the human heart gravitates toward what   feels   true rather than what   is   true. Theophostic Prayer Ministry (TPM) is one of the clearest examples of that drift in today’s church. It invites believers to “go back” into painful memories, ask Jesus to “enter” the scene, and listen for whatever He might say or show. If a sense of peace follows, that experience is assumed to be divine truth. But as Bible teacher  Bob DeWaay  repeatedly warned, this method quietly transfers spiritual authority from the Scriptures to subjective experience. It trades the unshakable revelation of God’s Word for inner impressions, emotions, and mental imagery. Let’s unpack why that’s so spirituall...

  The Problem With “Lie-Based Woundedness” — Why Theophostic Prayer Ministry Misses the Gospel In recent decades,  Theophostic Prayer Ministry  (TPM) has gained popularity among Christians seeking emotional and spiritual healing. It promises deep freedom from inner pain through a process of identifying “lie-based woundedness” — false beliefs formed during traumatic memories — and asking Jesus to “replace the lie with truth.” It sounds compassionate and even Christ-centered. But beneath the language of “healing,” TPM rests on theological quicksand. It replaces biblical sanctification with a mystical psychology dressed in Christian vocabulary. The founder, Ed Smith, taught that people’s present emotional struggles are not caused primarily by sin, unbelief, or the flesh, but by  lies  they absorbed in painful memories. The goal of TPM is to recall those “first memory events,” ask Jesus to appear in the memory, and let Him speak truth to the wounded person’s heart. ...