January 20, 2008

This is not the first time you've heard me rant and rave against the heresy known as the Prosperity Gospel, but I can't believe how many Christians are suckered into this! It makes me realize, however, that heresies of old like Marcionism (Old Testament is irrelevant) and Arianism (God plays favorites) may sound like theological stupidity today, but in those days, it probably suckered many just as easily as the Prosperity Gospel does today.

Let me define what the heresy is. The Prosperity Gospel teaches that God loves us, and as a loving Father in heaven, He will bless us with material wealth, health, and success if we have faith. The only part of the heresy that's correct is "God loves us". The followers of this heresy are numerous, and it should not surprise us that most of its ardent followers are from wealthy countries.

The prophets of this heretical gospel include famous names like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyers. There are even whole churches that espouse this heresy! One of them is the notorious Hillsong Church, from whence many of our favorite praise songs come from. Evil! They silently poison our thoughts and fill our minds with spiritual marijuana!

Such people always claim that the material wealth and blessing is used for evangelism. That is a bunch of trash-talk. Show me your fruits, I would dare say, and let your fruits do the talking. The fruits they show are merely apples with worms eating it from the inside-out, making those who eat it sick with disgust. Don't believe it? Check CNN.com every now and then and hear of people who donate gobs of money to these "ministries", only to see themselves worm their way into needless poverty. My heart saddens to see innocent people tricked into evil, and my heart burns with anger at the "pastors" who lured them into this. If they do not repent of their evil, they should not expect to see God in His dwelling place!

Some theological hoo-ha's love using statistics (incorrectly) to justify the prosperity gospel. First of all, theology does NOT depend on statistical consistency. Second of all, if faith is measurable by wealth, then the United States must be the most faithful nation in the world, followed by maybe Great Britain. Japan and Taiwan would be poorer than Kenya since there are more Christians in Kenya than either (sad, isn't it?). Poor Saudi Arabia would be hopeless. Now, any sensible person would say, "Bulls#$*!" and I would agree-- statistics don't match! How dare they use statistics to bolster their heresy!

Believers of the prosperity gospel need to hear of Dr. Robert Gallagher's sermon series on the attributes of God we don't like to talk about. God is love, gracious, and kind, but do we dare forget of his righteous justice and burning anger at what is wrong? The teachers of this prosperity gospel must heed Jesus' warning, that those who teach what's wrong would be better off drowning themselves with a millstone tied to their feet than experience God's wrath.

What is, then, the correct view of God? What does the Gospel say? Simple (easier said than done, of course). The Gospel tells us that humanity is flawed at its core, but God gave His Son Jesus to liberate us from this core, allowing us to fellowship with Him. That's the unfairly summarized version. Note, though, that it says nothing about blessing. God does bless us for our faith... but this blessing is the blessing of Himself, is it not? When we come to faith, we are blessed because God draws near to us, just as we draw near to Him! Material blessings, health blessings, or whatever are just given to you because God entrusts you to use those resources (yes, our lives are resources too) for His glory. He entrusts you to use those resources to help others see the lovingkindness of Christ. He entrusts you to use those resources to liberate people from poverty, forced prostitution, etc.

I do not like to use the word "hate" flippantly, since "hate" is very, very strong. To be nice, I'd say that I would celebrate with songs of praise when this heresy dies out, for no more innocent people will be suckered by it anymore. In the meantime, I do not wish to support any of these "ministries". I promised never to sing any Hillsongs "praise songs" knowingly, and I've kept my promise so far. Unless you want me to play hooky on your praise set, you would not let me know which songs are Hillsong. I'd rather have anybody write a praise song and we'll use it instead!

Speaking of which, I better look at my praise set to "de-Hillsong" it.