Oct 22 2006
Was Jesus rich?
Christians gather around the world each Christmas to sing about “poor baby Jesus” asleep in the manger with no crib for his bed. But the Rev. Creflo Dollar looks inside that manger, and he doesn’t see a poor baby at all.
He sees a baby born into wealth because the kings visiting him gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh. He sees a messiah with so much money that he needed an accountant to track it. He sees a savior who wore clothes so expensive that the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for them. Dollar is part of a growing number of preachers who say that the traditional image of Jesus as a poor, itinerant preacher who “had no place to lay his head” is wrong.
Dollar sees a rich Jesus. Read the story here.
Where did these “preachers” do their studying? Wall Street? Sure Jesus is rich, but He gave up His riches to come to earth and die for our sins. He didn’t die for our portfolio, stocks or bank account. It sounds to me like the one’s getting rich are the pastors teaching this false doctrine–actually it is heresy!
What do you think?
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21 responses so far
This is perilously close to the logic that if you are poor or suffering, why you must be a sinner because God rewards his faithful with wealth. Thus conveniantly relieving the rich of any responsibility towards helping the less fortunate. It’s at best turning Jesus’s teachings on their head.
JMO
Doug
This is the type of doctrine we should stand against. It is more damaging to the gospel than any doctrine I know.
When I lived in Atlanta, a friend and I decided to check out Ebeneezer, Bishop Long, and Creflo.
Towards the end of the service, Creflo had two brand new Lexus cars rolled down to the front of the sanctuary. He told the crowd that God had just blessed his family with these vehicles and that God will bless you richly as well. The crowd went nuts.
After the service, I’m sure many took MARTA home, not a car, and surely not a Lexus.
Gimmicks like that are sad.
I have yet to see a Brink’s Truck in a funeral procession.
Faithful preaches get to go see the results of their work, and enjoy it forever. Others have to leave all theirs behind.
I get tickled about a lot of things, but my ears aren’t ticklish. Thanks be to God for that.
You would think Creflo would be more interested in being one of the wise men who gave to Jesus rather than one who wanted others to give to him. WWYG–What Would You Give– to Make Me More Like Jesus!
I understand that some of our pictures of Jesus are not accurate, but I think Creflo makes it worse.
Purrsuing Answers to Questions of Faith & Life,
Kelly Reed
No disrepect intended, but this thread suddenly made me wonder: WWJD. What would Jesus drive? And somehow I can’t imagine him in a Lexus, more like a VW van. There is a supernatural being who I think would look quite stylin in a Black Lexus, but we won’t got here.
I’ve also noticed (in my own observations at least) that people’s greed seems to be directly proportional to their wealth. The poor person is far more likely to give you his/her last dollar in your time of need than most rich folks. I think this argues against wealth as being a path to salvation.
JMO
Doug
I was waiting for someone at the bus station last Thursday when a poorly dressed woman, likely in her 60’s or 70’s approached me and handed me a piece of paper. I thought she was looking for a handout, but the paper was red, heart-shaped, and had “Jesus Loves Me” and a scripture verse written on it with a black Sharpie. On the back, she’d written a description of how to ask Jesus to save you.
She walked around and gave one to the 20 or 25 people standing here and there, and left.
Her clothes were Goodwill specials, and she had some missing teeth. But she had class that NONE of the TV promotionists can even dream of.
I was so thunderstruck, I couldn’t do any of the dozen things that I wish, now, that I’d done.
Kevin,
Do you remember that story about Creflo that guy as Starbucks told us? The guy that owned a jewlery store where Mr. Dollar dropped 10k on two watches!?!
Sound like the bling shall inherit the earth@!
Stuart,
yes I do remember. I think it was actually 25K per.
Clarification
pictures of Jesus in the Christmas narratives. i.e.–the stable picture, the 3 Kings, etc.
Kelly
It is pretty easy for Creflo, and other neo-ministers like him, to talk about prosperity, since they gain their riches out of the collection plate. Their tongue earns their pay for them. I wonder how long they would last if they actually had to spend a day or two serving people the way most pastors and church staff do every day. They’d never make it.
BTW, has anyone seen the Paula White program on Christian TV where she brings on Donald Trump and Rich Dad Guy to teach Christians how to get rich. Donald Trump!!!
Anonymous, I saw that today. Unbelievable!
This article literally made me sick. I’ve not been this angry in a long time. Dollar’s insinuation that impoverished believers worldwide are such because of their lack of ability to “rightly divide” scripture just hacks me off.
I would invite Dollar to come to West Africa with me at any time and I’ll gladly show him authentic faith.
Kevin
I believe they went to the Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland school of apostacy.
Sorry, that should be the school of apostasy.
Yes, I “were” a student in Arkansas. :0)
Go Hogs!
Hi All
I have studied the subject of $ specifically related to the Bible for 7 yrs now and I will confess that I still feel ingnorant. There is a debate regarding Jesus’ Earthly wealth and it is not validated in the Bible however if you trace back the three Kings you will discover that more was given than the traditional Nativity Scene would suggest. I have heard #’s in the range of $650 million in todays dollars. This can be loosely validated in the Bible when in Luke it discribes the Knigs traveling through towns and being asked to leave due to fear of the shear power they brought with them. So if this is true, what did he do with the $. There is no specific explaination however my study has lead me to believe that he gave all or atleast most of it away. The widows mite, the parable of the rich man who built bigger barns, etc. There are many places that validate that Jesus did not put his trust in Earthly wealth, rater he trusted his father to provide. In Matt 17 he needed to pay taxes and if he had $ he would not have needed to send Peter fishing. In short my thesis is that God does in fact want us wealthy, not for our benefit but to spread the $ and provide economic justice. The prosperity doctorine is faulty in that it just says name it and claim it. Jesus lived this way but the first part that is left out of most of the doctorine now adays is that he also lived out of purpose and a purpose that was not about him. If you first find that, just watch how the how issue becomes clear.
In summary, Jesus never had a resource challenge in his ministry and nor should we if in fact we are in the ministry we have been called to. And abundance was the word often used to describe the resources provided by God.
The problem with Jesus being rich or his parents because of what the kings brought falls flat on its face with the purification offering of Mary in Luke 2:21-24. According to Leviticus 12:8 if you were rich you offered an yearling lamb and if you were pour a two doves or two pigeons. Mary made the pour offering.
Mary knew that this was God’s son and I am sure if she were rich she would have made the proper offering for him.
Great point Chris and hense the debate! See there is one detail that also might and I stress MIGHT deflate that point. And that is the time line of when the wise men or kings arrived. It is believed that the three men came from Persia, Arabia, and Babylon. There is a separate debate on this but lets keep it simple and assume that they came from one or all of these places. All of these places are farther than a weeks journey, the 7 days that is custom before presentation to the preist. To loosely validate this it says in Matt 2:11 that they arrived at the house that Jesus, mary and Joesph were at, not a stable. This suggests to me that after the cencus was finished the crowds left to go home and thus there were now rooms avalible. After presenting Jesus to the priest they stayed in that home for an unspecified period of time (possibly until Mary was able to travel being she just gave birth). It is “plausible” that the wise men arrived at this time and not prior to Jesus being presented to the priest. Thus at the time of the circumcision they were still poor.
Another weak argument would be that when kings met they traded large sums of money as gifts and it was concidered rude to be stingy. It says in Matt 2:11they bowed down and worshipped and opened their treasures. I find it tough to believe that they flipped him a shinny new nickle.
To be sure, I am not the person to say that Jesus was in FACT rich, I am merely suggesting that it is plausible. The amount of that wealth, again is undetermined but in reality it does not matter. For if it was an important fact that we needed to know for salvation than it would have been disclosed.
One final thought is the instruction that Jesus gave his diciples. Three of the twelve were asked to leave everyting behind, why not the other nine. There are two parables that I think explain; 1. the parable of the rich young man who asked Kesus what he needed to do to have an eternal life. Jesus response was keep the laws and the young man said he has. Jesus then said sell everything and follow me. Most teachers stop here and use this to validate that we should not have anything. But if you read farther you see why Jesus asked him to sell everything, The man went away sad and down cast because he had great wealth. Why would he be sad if he truely understood Gods provisions. He was promised eternal life and he choose money. This tells me where his heart was. The second parable is the one of the blessed farmer who had an abundace of crops this year. Again if you look at the mans response to the blessing you find the flaw. I will build bigger barns to store up my treasure so I can eat drink and be comfortable (or something to this affect)He put his comfort in his wealth not in God and our God is a jellous God. Money just magnifies who we are. If we are good at heart than abundance flows through us to fullfill Gods needs. Conversely if our heart is bad than money becomes about us and enough will never be enough.
Anyway, I am not an expert and to be honest this is nothing more than rants from a fool so please do not take what I say a gospel. It is just my opinion.
Blessing be to all
When I first became a Christian (more than a few years ago), my first church I attended was a name-it-and-claim-it “faith” church run by a wealthy local tele-evangelist. My husband and I had been having quite a few financial problems … not a good thing at a church like that, let me tell you. Ugh. Anyway, we made a HUGE mistake when one of our cars broke down … instead of finding a way to come up with the money to repair it, we went deeply into debt and leased a brand new car. Well, let me tell, you when we drove into the parking lot at church in our brand new car, we were flocked by the “faithful” who congratualed us on finally having enough faith for God to bless us. Oh, my. Long story short, that mis-step (for mis-step it was!) with the leased car, became the first step down a horrible road to debt and financial ruin. We actually ended up in Bankruptcy Court, filing for a personal reorganization … which meant five+ years of scrimping every penny so that we could rightfully pay back our creditors what we owed to them. So much for our new car being a sign of God’s “blessing” … it was a sign of our own stupidity! We even had to turn the car back in for the bankruptcy repayment plan … so we started driving a HORRIBLE car we bought for $100 (complete with ripped upholstery, dog scratches throughout, broken windows, etc.). It was humbling, to say the least. Sorry about the comment here going on and on … I guess I just had to rant a bit, myself. I’ve seen the “fruit” of these ministries firsthand. P.U.! Honestly, I think their fruit has rotted on the vine.
PS: I think the beat up car with the ripped upholstery was actually God’s blessing, not the new car. We learned valuable lessons in humility, perseverance, faithfulness, etc., through that horrid car. We even learned to work on cars ourselves, which was a huge blessing! The other car — the new car that our “faith” filled friends insisted was God’s blessing on our family — just taught us, “Here’s the easy way out! Go into debt! Flashy outsides count for more than holy insides!” So in our case, we were actually blessed by adversity, rather than through riches.
TV Pastor John Hagee (Cornerstone Church) is also a prosperity teacher. You can read about his emerging money scandal here:
http://open-letter-for-pastor-hagee.org/
…Bernie