"The prosperity gospel is Christianity's version of professional wrestling: You know it is fake, but it nonetheless has entertainment value." ( John MacArthur's Strange Fire )
Back in the day, before all the glitz and glamor, my grandfather was a wrestler. Although I was never a wrestling fan, I listened with curiosity to his theatrical stories that detailed all of the tricks of the trade performed during the matches.
Even when he retired and became a referee, he was still a major player in all of the drama, deception, and showmanship that took place inside of the ring. Dad remembers sitting in the old American Legion Auditorium watching the action as a small boy.
I don't think Granddaddy could live without being involved somehow. He said that after the matches everyone went out eating and drinking together, winners and losers. "We were all friends," he would laugh as he recounted his crazy life, sitting in a wheelchair where he lived out his last years at the VA Hospital.
The Prosperity Gospel/Faith Healers/New Apostolic Reformation/Seed-Faith/Word of Faith movements have so many tricks, scams, and bad theology up their sleeves it would be impossible to explain and counter them all in one single blog post.
I can't perform that trick, so I've decided to tackle one at a time throughout my blogging. We all have false beliefs that we must work through when we come to faith in Christ as a baby Christian, and we need to have grace for each other along this sanctification journey. But there is a strong and deep line that needs to be drawn between believers processing and learning biblical truth and false teachers and teaching corrupting God's Word and the Church.
The one thing that all of the above movements have in common is that they all take Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and his atoning work for the sins of the world, his beautiful sacrifice, and move our Lord from the center to the fringes. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will glorify me. ( John 14-16 )
Friends, let's think about that.
Jesus has been replaced with faith formulas, divine healing, prophecies, financial blessings, miracles, success, material possessions, transfers of wealth, power, your dreams, your will, your goals, your desires, you name it and claim it, in other words: Me!
Friends, if the true gospel of Jesus Christ isn't center, how can it be Christianity?
The spiritual abuse we and others have experienced in these "church" settings, whether it be the guilt and blame placed upon us for lack of faith, not receiving our healing or other prayer requests, or whether it be the unapproachableness and arrogance of the leaders or the admonishment for simply asking theological questions, can evoke many bad memories when the pain resurfaces.
It's counterfeit Christianity.
We are commanded to contend for the faith and to help snatch others out of the fire. ( Jude 1-25 ) Remember, someone prayed that we'd be snatched. God extended grace to us, now we are to help lead others.
How this is different from progressive Christianity, and what makes it tricker to uncover, is that where progressives have questioned the authority, errancy, and sufficiency of Scripture and the core doctrines of orthodox Christianity, the above mentioned faith/prosperity movements actually claim to hold to them. However, the Bible has been pulled out of context and distorted so out of proportion that it is hardly recognizable.
But always a bit of truth is mixed with the error. That's how they snag their prey.
We expect the enemy to attack the world. Satan is the god of this world, but we don't really expect him to infiltrate the church, and yet that's exactly what the writers of the New Testament warned us he would do.
"I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw the disciples after them." ( Acts 20:29 - 30 )
"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their deeds will correspond to their deeds." ( 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 )
Jesus warned and prepared his disciples in Matthew 10:16 "Behold I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."We never see Jesus or the Apostles telling anyone who needed a physical healing or deliverance to first make a seed-faith offering into their ministry so they could receive their miracle. Did they engage in such trickery?
Did they pray for people, warning them that if they didn't receive their healing, it would be their fault?
When their healing didn't manifest immediately did Jesus and the Apostles tell the sick person to just speak positive words over themselves, ignore the symptoms that persist, don't go to the doctor or take medicine because that exhibits a lack of faith?
And these charlatans don't even live by their own theology. It doesn't even "work" for them as they wear glasses, hearing aides, pacemakers, and eventually they die!
When Jesus and the Apostles reached out to touch sick people, did they ever exhibit force, pushing them to the floor against their will and off their crutches? Did they engage in the magicians trick of averting attention after knocking people over in their wheelchairs and then moving on to the next person when the poor man on the floor is left to be helped up by ushers and bodyguards, clearly absent of his healing.
Lord have mercy.
Did Jesus or the Apostles ever teach the people not to pray humbly but instead to demand and declare things from God? Did they ever instruct the people on how to fabricate a faith formula to get the Word and God to work for them because they believe they are little gods, when in fact they are not only entirely too big for their bitches but for the puny god they've created with their own warped imaginations?
Spitting in the face of God's sovereignty?
When they assert that they are just like Jesus, they are engaging in the same attitudes that caused satan to fall like a lightening bolt from heaven. There is nothing new under the sun. It's the same sin. These false teachers have fallen into the devil's snare by the very same temptation the serpent used on Eve.
Did Jesus and the Apostles ever preach sermons instructing the people to chase their dreams and follow their hearts or lay out steps on how to acquire wealth and success in this world?
Friends, the Bible is so much better than this. Jesus is so good. No matter what you've heard, He is and always will be the greatest show on earth!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Stay biblical!
Happy Tuesday!
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