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Philippians 3:10
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Philippians 3:10
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Unabashedly
unapologetic
for the following apologetic
Sadly, prosperity
teaching adherents rarely listen to the reasoning of those who oppose their
error.
Instead, they usually entrench themselves deeper in their doctrinal position,
considering doing so
a matter of staying strong in their faith so as not to miss out on all
that God has for them. They do
so at great risk, facing potential shipwreck of their faith. "Examine
yourselves," said Paul, "to see
whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." (2 Corinthians
13:5). The genuine can
be tested.
The Error of Balaam
Someone wrote to tell me he had recently visited Ma$e's church (May 2006) and said he witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit through Ma$e's preaching. My response:
Unfortunately, I cannot agree with the logic of your defense of Ma$on Betha's ministry. James 3:10-11 indicates that praise and cursing coming out of the same mouth cannot be, nor can a spring produce both fresh water and salt water (the whole chapter is kind of rough when you lay it alongside of Ma$e's ministry). Don't know if you've listened to Ma$e's recent material (done with G-Unit), but frankly such unholy material is totally out of bounds for someone claiming to be a messenger of a Holy God. If I apply the logic of your defense to Balaam (who spoke for God also), then that means I'd have to take his life as a positive example as well. I can't — and won't. Look at what happened to him and the condemnation he received (2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11). He was a prophet for profit, and we learn later in Numbers that he was instrumental in leading the Israelites into sexual immorality (Numbers 31:16). The dollar sign in Ma$e's name is purposely placed and an excellent indicator of what he's all about. Personally, I don't think Christ is all about the $$$ the way a lot of people today are.
The Biblical Concept of Prosperity vs. the Popular Present Day Concept
Watch your life and doctrine closely.
Persevere in them, because if you do,
you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1 Timothy 4:16 NIV
I firmly believe the Lord God materially blesses His children according to His will and good pleasure. It's true there are many financial principles found throughout Scripture that declare the blessings of God both materially and spiritually for the righteous and faithful. But some have commandeered those principles for their own benefit, usurping God's authority and robbing Him of His glory by turning Him into a "rub His belly the right way and get your wish" type of god (reminiscent of the fertility religions found in the Old Testament). He ain't gonna have that. Such teachers "mine" the Gospel message and Scripture for their own financial benefit. They spread their doctrine by appealing to the same materialistic greed in their followers.
The OT prophets brought some hard words from the LORD against Israel during a time of unprecedented prosperity — a prosperity which Israel wrongly mistook as an indicator of God's blessing and approval with their way of life. But if you read the OT prophets (like the book of Amos, for example), you find the LORD's got some serious beef with His covenant people.
Some may say, "Well, that was then, but this is now." I think they're wrong. The Old Testament prophets were given to us in this day as well. God has not changed and neither has human nature (apart from His intervention). (Romans 15:1-4)
It's a very risky thing to put one's faith in one's faith. My conviction is that we as saints cannot afford to neglect the whole counsel of Scripture in lieu of buttressing a faith system with the verses we've been taught to interpret with a specific agenda in mind. "Prosperity" teaching does seem to favor and bless "us" but seems to come up woefully short on our sacrificial response back to Him. That's how heresies and cults often get started — bad doctrine is often based on favoring some teachings while neglecting and excluding others.
You may think I am "anti-prosperity" in the Biblical sense, but I don't think I am. I firmly believe that the Lord takes excellent care of those who seek to be obedient to Him, and that His blessing comes in ways that aren't always measured by human standards. My concern is that the "prosperity" movement dangerously miscalculates both the holiness of God and the sinfulness of the human heart, putting One at the disposal of the other. God is God and we are not. It is He Who has made us and not we ourselves. Let's not get it twisted (as we are prone to do).
I don't expect my position to be well-received or listened to (even as most of Israel didn't listen or receive those that were sent to them), and will continue being attacked. While not considering myself as worthy of being in the same camp as Christ, I do find it actually refreshing to go against the majority thumbs-up opinion on "prosperity" teaching and side with the One Who found Himself shut out from the planet He made.
Jesus' Day is coming, but before it does there's gonna be a great falling away. When Jesus asked, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find the [this definite article is found in the Greek text but not all English translations] faith upon the earth?", the Greek text poses it is a rhetorical question that can only be answered in the negative. Faith will be around, for sure, but it will not be "the" faith — delivered once and for all to the saints (Jude 3). The object of one's faith is absolutely critical. We need to examine ourselves to see if we really are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:4-9).Question : "Is 'total life prosperity' teaching truly 'Christ in you'"? Put another way, "Is this the way He's chosen to operate in this present age?"
Fact: God is the only subject of the verb "to create" in Scripture.
"If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth to those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 9
I don't imagine the Lord Jesus is going to say on that last Great Day, "Nice effects..."
Seeking Christ's hand — rather than His heart?
Question: "How is Jesus' 'willingly laying aside His rights to Himself as God's Son for the express purpose of laying down His sinless life for His friends' the opposite of prosperity?"
Response: Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) means that we as believers are no longer our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), but now belong to the One who bought us with His own blood. Accordingly, as Christian believers, we are not here for our purposes, but for His — which involves us laying down our rights to ourselves (and our purposes) so He can accomplish what He wills through us. Prosperity teaching ("total life prosperity" its most recent moniker) asserts that believers are to declare boldly in faith and lay hold of all that's rightfully theirs (health, wealth, etc.) — all of which was provided through Christ's sacrifice. "Laying hold" of one's "rights" has a nice ring to it (especially in this age of grabbing what's "rightfully ours"), but it's quite the opposite of "laying down" our "rights" to ourselves (which Christ modeled for us and the Scripture commands us to pursue Philippians 2:5-11).
"But don't you believe it is God's will is that His children prosper?" Yes, I do believe it is His will that His children prosper, but certainly not in the way that American-enculturated, presumptuous, "total life prosperity" teaching prescribes it. The worldly prosperity of His children cannot be the final goal God has in mind for His children here on earth. It's too low a goal ... there's something far greater than that ! (See Romans 8:29)God's measure / standard of success (e.g., Christ-likeness, servanthood, faithfulness, obedience, Biblical (Christ-like) holiness, humility, evangelism (missions) and discipleship, child-likeness, etc.) is diametrically opposed to the world's measure / standard of success (fame, fortune, power, pleasure, etc.). In fact, the things that are highly esteemed among men are an abomination to God. (Jesus said, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight." (Luke 16:15 NIV). The Divine economy is not predicated upon the dollar (a.k.a. "US funds") of Creflo. We have been bought with a price — not Frederick's, but with the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). The way we've been called to cope in this land is not Kenneth's, but Christ's way (Luke 9:23). If we're rollin' in the "hay 'gain" the way Kenneth, Sr. prescribes, then get ready for it to burn — along with the wood and stubble around it (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). Spray the air with all the "cans" of celebrified Ma$e as you wish — they still can't make the thing smell right before the Lord (Isaiah 3:1-24 [rough!]).
When it comes to the matter of sound Biblical doctrine, "celebrified" does not make it justified. Celebrity adherence and endorsement doesn't mean a thing to the Lord. Christian celebrity is a dangerous thing, because its root and its appeal is to the flesh, not the Spirit. Jesus said "the Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing" (John 6:63).
According to Jesus, wealth is deceitful (Matthew 13:22, Mark 4:19), but not to worry, T.L.P.ers are evidently immune to its deleterious effects. This reveals a "too-low" view of God, revelation, sin and salvation and a "too-high" view of man (Romans 12:3).
How can "total life prosperity" adherents defend the notion that Christ in them is prompting them to claim "what's rightfully theirs" when that same Christ became "poor for our sakes that we might become rich through His poverty"? Does that mean that our total life prosperity wealth and richness is the end-game of what He did on Calvary? Doesn't it seem inconsistent that God wants His children siding with the rich in these last days, boastin' 'bout the divine bling He brings? I don't think so. (James 5:1ff)Is total life prosperity teaching the way He wants His children to use to sweep others into His kingdom ("bring 'em in with the bling")? How can the God Who is Spirit and Truth (John 4:24) honor a method that's based on appealing to the flesh with the deceitfulness of riches?
If we really understand what Christ did for us, we will seek to do the same — "deny yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). Just to seek to grab the best of the world's "goodies" that He's provided for us through His sacrifice on the cross flagrantly violates the spirit and intent of what Christ did for us in laying down His life for us.
All you have left with this system is a form of Christianity that seeks God's hand rather than His heart, and no one can tell me that His heart is solely focused on gettin' the "luxury flow" rollin' out to His children.Scripture does have a lot to say about prosperity, but it certainly does not promise us constant prosperity (American culture's taught us to expect that), nor does the experience of His people through the centuries support the notion.
"Total life prosperity" is a false teaching built on a true Biblical principle that got
twisted and unbalanced as the Biblical principle was absolutized (and we might as well say "deified" because TLP-ers believe they are able to speak things into existence that are not — a prerogative that [in my understanding] only God has the right to exercise) through the interconnected workings of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17).Prosperity absolutized is idolatry realized.
Total life prosperity teaching is a myopic, insidious, televangelistically-driven doctrine that was birthed within a materialistically-obsessed American culture, energized by the flesh but operating under a the guise of a "superior spirituality / revelation" that's been given its proponents.
No matter how many Biblical proof-texts one tries to summon to defend the notion that Christ died so His children could have it all here and now (and "never have to look a price tag again," and "have a yacht, a Lear and a house in an expensive zip"), there is just too much evidence indicating that Jesus believed that rich people were in big trouble. To deny that and morph the Biblical teaching on prosperity into an absolutized standard for His children is dangerous (and heretical) indeed.
Matthew 19:23-30
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Luke 12:15-40
Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.
But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Apply now !Personally, I am very wary of a theology that seeks to side with the rich (materialistic upward mobility as the sole soul's goal in life). In Scripture, more often than not, the rich are often portrayed as oppressors. Peter said to a paralytic in Acts, "Silver and gold have I none. But such as I have give I thee. In the Name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk." Dude got up and walked. Instead of material wealth, Peter possessed spiritual power. When the script gets flipped to where the church wants to say, "Silver and gold have I much..." then it risks losing its spiritual power.
One prosperity proponent wrote to say that Jesus had "bank" (was rich). But how does he account for 2 Corinthians 8:9? He also stated that Jesus chose wealthy people as disciples (successful fishermen, a tax collector, etc). But doesn't the Scripture quote Peter as saying, "We have left everything to follow You..."
Prosperity is a "proof-texted" system, maintained by those who can only see the verses that uphold their doctrine. Doctrine needs to be examined, weighed and evaluated. (2 Corinthians 13:6-7?). Acts 20:27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Prosperity teaching fundamentally rests upon a presumptive spirit – believing that God exists to give us what we want.
Prosperity teaching promotes a Christianity that finds its self-fulfillment and self-realization within material gain. That's not Biblical.
Consider the control issues involved in prosperity teaching - if I can speak wealth into existence, who am I emulating?
Prosperity teaching ignores the inherently wicked nature of the human heart - beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9?). Jesus (along with the rest of Scripture) diagnoses it as wicked and calls it (among other things) covetousness, greedy and idolatrous. Evidently Word-Faith adherents don't have hearts that have to deal with these issues.
Proverbs that prosperity proponents will have to find "work-arounds" for:
Proverbs 13:7 One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:16 He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich — both come to poverty.
Proverbs 23:4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.
Proverbs 11:4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Proverbs 13:7 There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
Proverbs 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Proverbs 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.
A church that runs wildly after the wealth of this world thinking it's laying up treasure for the next — how that must grieve the heart of God. No man can serve two masters. You can't have it both ways. You can't "faith-rub" God's belly to get Him to burp you out a blessing — that's blatantly blasphemous. And you can't presumptuously put yourself in the driver's seat of "creating" things that are not. Creatures were never intended to "create" things (be it wealth, art, technology, etc.). The only things that creatures can do is arrange the things that God created. Man's economy and God's economy are two diametrically opposed systems. We never do well when we try to use the world's system to try to wrestle blessings out of God. God's ways are different from our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/utmost/05/25/
Oswald Cambers' interesting insights from "My Utmost for His Highest"
May 25
The Good or The Best?
If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left — Genesis 13:9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.
Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.
Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, ". . . walk before Me . . ." ( Genesis 17:1 ).
The Christian faith has gone to seed,
infested by the "Word-Faith" weed.
Prosperity teaching promotes a utilitarian individualism ("get yours") rather than Christian community.
The world does not need to see how much we, as Christ's body (His church), can outdo them by their standards of measurement. They need to see that His kingdom has a different operating system and value system and that both hinge on God's call, not man's.
Prosperity position may assert that it's not about the money – but the subtext is, it's about how much. Faith and money are to increase commensurately.
"The Dollar" seems to be a religious version of the world's "The Donald."
Prosperity teaching seems to focus more on the benefits than the Benefactor, on the gifts rather than the Giver.
Prosperity teachers use a "hole-y" Bible – using their favorite selected prosperity texts that support the doctrine while ignoring those that refute it / balance. They fail to look at the whole counsel of Scripture.
Total
Life Prosperity Teaching is Untenable:
Historically,
Presently or Eschatologically
The more I read through the Scriptures (and not just the proof-texts for T.L.P. teaching), the more I am convinced that God's got a lot bigger program going on than just seeing that His children get theirs on this side of Glory.
I. Total Life Prosperity Teaching is Untenable Historically
Show me where the canonical OT prophets teach, preach or prophesy prosperity as it is taught and pursued today. They don't. Actually they're bringin' God's "Thus says the LORD..." against the message of the false (status quo) prophets who mistakenly believed that Israel's prosperity was a sign of His blessing. When Israel got off track from what God intended for them to be and became unfaithful to Him, God sent them His true prophets. But they were too hard to listen to, so the people chose to listen to the "status quo" prophets who only preached "positive" messages of peace and prosperity. The irony is that what seemed to be God's prospering of Israel was anything but — and God sent them away into captivity. They lost it all.Show me where Jesus teaches His disciples prosperity teaching — something other than the regular isolated proof-texts prosperity adherents love to quote. There is just too much scriptural evidence indicating that Jesus really believed that rich people were in big trouble. If anything, Jesus teaches His disciples to deny themselves, pick up their crosses and follow Him. That doesn't sound like the prosperity route to me. If anything, He seems to be taking the "downwardly mobile" route to Glory, and presumably is asking His disciples to do the same. If we measure the apostles' lives by the standards of today's prosperity teaching, then they must have really missed the boat. Does the Apostle Paul expound on prosperity doctrine? (Actually he warned about people using godliness as a money-maker — 1 Tim. 6:5 ff) Do any of the other NT (or even OT) writers (other than a proof-text here and there) teach on it? It's an unbalanced perspective that ignores teachings that don't fit its system. To me that's dangerous, and I get the sense that prosperity teaching will be the cause for many falling away from the faith when judgment starts to fall. For that reason, I'd rather take the harder-to-bear road with the harder-to-hear-and-apply texts and seek the Lord, letting Him work those elements out in my life — rather than go the apparently easier "prosperity doctrine" route. This ties in with my second point:
II. Total Life Prosperity Teaching is Untenable Presently
If it wasn't there in the church in ages past, then there's probably good reason to question why it is so suddenly a necessity now.Prosperity teaching operates from a state of discontent with one's present situation. Paul said, "I have learned whatever state I am in therewith to be content." Jesus taught the same thing. That doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to improve ours or others' situation, but when that becomes the basis for our faith there is something fundamentally wrong. How does seeking material solutions solve or satisfy spiritual issues? What is man? Is he purely a material being? No. That is naturalism's essential premise. Is man purely a spiritual being? No. That is pantheism's essential premise. Is he a material being with a spiritual nature? No. That is polytheism's (or spiritism's) essential premise. Man is fundamentally a spiritual being with a material nature. So how can material things ever truly satisfy man's essentially spiritual nature? Such a belief is not all that far from Muslims' believing that Allah has fleshly rewards like 70 or 72 virgins and lots of wine awaiting his "faithful martyrs" in paradise.
Where was "prosperity teaching" prior to Kenneth Hagin, Sr., Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price or Creflo A. Dollar's arrival? Were God's saints as focused on creating wealth as they obviously are today? We could also ask, "Is the church in a better state today (spiritually) than it was before prosperity teachers came onto the scene and into our hearts and lives through TV?"
There are too many texts in the New Testament that indicate that following Christ and entering His kingdom is essentially a call to be counter-cultural (and catch mad flak for being so) as we seek to live with God's Kingdom values in view. If the rest of the world is running hard after prosperity of some kind (in a secular sense), then what kind of message does the church communicate about God when it starts running after the same thing? The "prosperity-oriented" church has tagged God's name on its pursuit, claiming He sanctioned it because He wants to "lay up the wealth of the wicked for the righteous — and you better get yours, honey!" If all that wealth is going to be destroyed anyway when the new heavens and new earth arrive, isn't that kind of weird for God to sanction something that He's eventually gonna toss and burn?
I do not believe Christianity is to be a "grab-n-get yours" kind of faith — it's to be a "relinquish-your-right-to-yourself" kind of faith, and God will indeed give you more than you could ever imagine. And it won't always be money, houses, cars and land, etc. When you look at it from the eternal perspective, God's best blessings aren't measured in the temporal and material.
This leads me to this last point:III. Total Life Prosperity Teaching is Untenable Eschatologically
James had some serious warnings about those who heap up wealth during the last days (James 5:1 ff). It ain't pretty — it's actually kind of scary.
I'm sure my position and rhetoric concerning this doctrine may rankle its devoted adherents, but I've yet to have someone answer any of the above considerations with something other than statements like "Your faith is wrong..." or "Read these texts..." (isolated verses that apparently endorse prosper-speak), or "Watch his program for a week and you'll 'believe.'"
An email from someone who attended Ma$e's church when he announced his decision to return to the rap world:
"I took some youth to visit Pastor Betha's church and was very shocked to hear about his decision [to return to the rap game]. I don't want to be religious as he said those are the ones who will get upset, but it is confusing after so many of my students have followed his story and were impacted by his decision to turn down big money for Christ. I have literally pulled out of the whole Holy Hip Hop scene which is sad in a way because I believe it's an awesome way to reach the youth, but I am also feeling very responsible about who I introduce my youth to and whether they are sound." M. T.
1 Timothy 6:3-10 NIV
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Galatians 1:6-10
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Thoughts still percolating . . .
In order to sustain it's prosperity premise T.L.P. doctrine creates a "creaturely" co-dependency (the new "manifest destiny").
Prosperity teaching violates the spirit and intent of Christianity. "Not my will, but Thy will be done," prayed Jesus.
Bad doctrine breeds bad living. "Watch your life and doctrine closely..." 1 Timothy 4:16
The upshot of prosperity teaching is that Christians are follow hard after the same things that those in the world goes after: money and materialism.
It is "will worship" (see Colossians 2:23 KJV) - "self-imposed worship" (NIV) "self-made religion" (NASB).
Consider Esau rashly selling his birth right in order to procure a quick fix solution to a temporary problem. His decision revealed a lot about his character.
Consider the prodigal son who demanded his share of his father's inheritance prematurely (and then squandered it).
What kind of faith is it that measures spiritual faith by material rewards? If that's the case then there certainly have been many "failures" in the faith throughout church history. Even Jesus Himself, Who had no place to lay His head.
By the way, the religion of Islam promises fleshly, sensual delights in Paradise for the faithful Muslim. Does Allah use the standard earthly measures / standards of delight to reward his faithful ones?
Faith and humility go together like peas in a pod. You cannot have one without the other. A child that has the awareness that he / she can demand something from his / her father and then does so is not exercising childlikeness. Rather, it is a presumptuousness that implicitly says, "I know better — now give me mine." It's hard to imagine Father God endorsing such a faith. You never see Jesus exhibiting it.
I occasionally received copies of a "powerful" T.D. Jakes prayer about 20 or 30 times a year or so ago, and I frankly don't think it's Biblical at all. Using formulaic "prosperity speak," it subtly moves God out of the center and places man and his "total-life prosperity" command capabilities at the center of its construction (a.k.a. anthropocentrism). The Lord God (the Creator) is now at man the creature's disposal. The Lord of all is reduced to nothing more than being a cosmic Vending Machine which some have "learned" to manipulatively operate by dropping their coins of faith into His "Rhema-ringing" ear. I submit that those coins are counterfeit. Lucifer fell because he tried to grab something not his, and it appears he has succeeded in teaching humans to "grab" for what's rightfully theirs on the basis of being "God's inheritors."
Be careful what you ask for. You may get it.
The Creator is not beholden nor bound to the whims and hearts' desires of His creatures. "This is blessed ... that is blessed ..." Are we as creatures supposed to order Him around? Ancient Israel thought she had a lock on the LORD (His election of Israel, the Promised Land, the revelation of God, the Temple, the covenants, etc.). The status quo prophets were droppin' messages that Israel was ordained to "live large" (an Old Testament "bling-blingin'") while Biblical prophets were droppin' messages of impending judgment. PROSPERITY IS NOT ALWAYS A SIGN OF GOD'S PLEASURE WITH HIS PEOPLE. SOMETIMES IT IS A TEST! See Revelation 3:17-20 if you think it's all good all the time when God's people are living large. The old saying "Fattening pigs ain't in luck" still rings true. See James 5:1ff
Yet all the while the Lord was angry with them. He eventually sent them into exile because they refused to turn to Him. That is how He operated then and that is how He operates now. How is God glorified in this thing other than the fact that the pray-er gets blessed? Where's obedience in this prayer? Where's confession and adoration and thanksgiving?
It is a dangerous doctrine (I believe it's heresy) that is unfortunately doing (and going to do even more) serious damage to the church. Just because it's so wildly popular all throughout the land and the entire world today doesn't necessarily imply divine endorsement.
There's no question that Christ wants us to have an abundant life (John 10:10), but the real issue comes down to what is the quality of that abundant life He was talking about? If it's solely in the material realm, then He certainly didn't model that very well, did He? When He was crucified He didn't leave much behind except for some clothing items. If it's in the relational realm (and even in the spiritual realm), then you've got something. 2 Cor. 8:9 says "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." If we go with the understanding that Christ died just to bring us the "blingin' bangin'" kind of life (i.e., God wants His kids livin' the lifestyles of the rich 'n famous), then we're missing the point of this passage. The context indicates that His "becoming poor for our sakes" isn't just so we can get to hold the loot because of what He did for us, but to exercise the same kind of giving by sacrificially giving even as He did (see the verses following 8:9). Paul urges the Corinthians to "finish the work" — i.e., follow through on the example Christ gave by you being as generous as He was / is.
Generosity is the drain plug for greed.
Even though this next statement may sound blunt (and certainly contradicts the most popular [and I believe treacherous} teaching of our day), as far as all I've seen in regard to the doctrine, prosperity teaching is essentially a self-fulfillment theology that leverages God's promises for selfish gain. I believe that should the bottom of our economy (or the world's economy) ever drops out and we find ourselves in severe economic disaster, we'll sadly find out just how wrong this teaching is and see many fall away from the faith, because their faith was misplaced. The object of this faith system is faith itself, and not the Christ of Scripture.
Again, the main reason I cannot and will not support the total life prosperity message is this: Nowhere in Scripture do I see Jesus subscribing to or operating by that particular message. Instead we see Him laying everything down — all the way down to the cross where He lay down His very own life — and He has called us to do the same. The prosperity message is something that some of His followers have rather recently come up with (the latter part of the 20th century), and appears to be very "Laodicean" in nature (Revelation 3:14-22). Although it's wildly popular all around the world today (that must make it true then, right?), that does not mean it's something that God originated or even agrees with (Exodus 23:2). In my view, the doctrine is heretical, is doing great damage within His church and likely will be one of the major contributors to the great falling away from the Christian faith. It is anthropocentric (man-centered — making God the Creator answerable to man the creature's call) and is not Christocentric (Christ-centered).
Where's the concept of holiness in prosperity teaching? How does it fit in? How does prosperity teaching promote repentance, obedience, holiness, self-sacrifice and humility? The purpose and essence of the Christian life is to become more Christ-like (through emptying ourselves of self), which seems to contradict the essence of prosperity teaching (which says seek self-realization and self-fulfillment). To me, it is an immature faith that asks God to give me my inheritance NOW instead of waiting for Him to give it in His timing. It is pure prodigalism — entitlement thinking extended into the historic Christian faith — and is insidious indeed.
Shall God the Creator indeed palace Himself to be at the beck and call of His creatures' directives? Nay, rather we are to humble ourselves under His mighty hand that He may lift us up in due time. We are unprofitable servants — let's not get it twisted.
It is an imbalanced view of Scripture (favoring the "benefit" side of Christianity but ignoring the "cost" side).
With prosperity doctrine is made the main thrust of Christianity, the faith is reduced to a dualistic fertility religion not unlike the religion that was going on in Elijah's day. you cannot serve two masters. Elijah asked, "How ;long will you be like a little bird hopping between two branches?" ("How long halt ye between two opinions?")
Have we been given dominion over God through prosperity teaching?
Are we so bound to our interpretation that we can't see the greater grander purpose of God than just us having our heart's desires fulfilled?
Prosperity teaching is flat-out heresy — an aberrational counterfeit Christianity.
"The Barbershop Notebooks: I Bling Because I'm Happy" notes that "[t]here's a disconnect between the New Black Church and the hip-hop generation. Money, however, is the language preached from both sides." August 5, 2005 PopMatters.com column authored by Marc Lamont Hill.
"We show
how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather
than to Him."
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost
for His Highest, February 12
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