if the prosperity gospel is true, why wasn’t Jesus rich?
[CNN]
The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor’s living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches. And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.
Only the blessings didn’t come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn’t strong enough.
“I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them,” she said. “I’m angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don’t watch anyone on TV hardly.”
Prosperity preachers say that it isn’t all about money — that God’s blessings extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others.
Read about it here.
[From me]
Would Jesus have traveled today in a Rolls-Royce? Would He be wearing designer clothes? Do these so called preachers not see the damage they are doing to the name of God? Sad…
What do you think?
I’m glad she is watching less of the TV preachers. At least 80% are fakes. For some reason the radio folks have more sound doctrine. And so many are transparently fake. They want you to “plant a seed” by giving them money, and their “proof” is that they got rich. But they are just doing your basic pyramid-type scam, only a very short one. You only get rich if you start asking for money like they do.
When I first became a Christian, I was a Benny Hinn fan for about six months. I hadn’t read my bible much yet, and hadn’t been trained by it to recognize that not everyone who claims to be a God sent teacher really is. I was spiritully naive, believing everyone that claimed to follow Christ was a follower of Christ, or claimed to be a teacher was a teacher.
Someone else shared with me that perhpas the preaching, the miracles, and the following wasn’t from God at all, and challenged me to take a closer look.
I thought the person sharing with me was bitter, and negative, but the bible verses he showed me burned in my heart.
I stopped watching Benny Hinn shortly thereafter, and started taking the bible alot more seriously.
I am very sorry that people are falling into the trap of the prosperity gospel… because that is the result… it makes people bitter - towards God, towards one another, and it makes the gospel seem ridiculous…
There are many gospels, and many teachers and preachers… and personally I think the prosperity gospel is an obviously false one… there are harder ones to spot…
What they see or do not see I do not know. While I am tempted to judge their thoughts & intentions … only One can do that. What they teach is already judged by the Word and is found to be lacking.
But I would like to contribute to this discussion by saying that we will never reach the nations (including our own) without embracing the inherent suffering found within the Story of Jesus. We are not exempt from life, but called to live it victoriously in spite of the sufferings that He allows for this time. We are called to “victorious suffering.” What they are proclaiming is a weak Gospel. Somehow we need material things to be considered successful in the Kingdom of God? The contrary is true. That is that we find rest and freedom from all things “in Him.” One of the most beautiful aspects of the Good News is that as we do life with our Teacher, we can live life to the fullest without enslavement to all of these “things.” The prosperity teachers sacrifice this portion of the Good News by teaching that He give us all these things. Explain that to our King who, while on this Earth taught us how to live by giving up all of His glory, taking the form of His own rebellious creation, wandering around among both rich AND poor as an itinerant Teacher, and then offered Himself up for execution. It seems the Apostles got it — 10 of the 11 remaining (not including Paul*) were executed as well. Their lives were all full of suffering! They are our models … they knew victorious suffering.
My statement to all word of faith teachers that I have met since serving among those who risk it all to follow King Jesus: Would you like to meet some of our brothers who truly suffer for the name of Jesus. The ones who, even today throughout the world, are tortured and refuse to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some face jeers and floggings, while still others are chained and put in prison. They are stoned; they are sawn in two; they are put to death by the sword. They go about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world is not worthy of them.
And to the rest of us, I say, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
And now, I will put my soapbox away. My apologies for the length.
May His grace sustain us all,
From the Middle East
*Although Paul was also well acquainted with suffering and did die a martyr’s death
But Jesus WAS rich! Or so I was told. I was raised on this garbage.
Judas was the treasurer of the disciples. You don’t need a treasurer unless you have a bunch of money. So, therefore, Jesus was rich. That was the line.
If governments wish to ban Scientology, why don’t they ban these vultures, as well?
My pastor said it best:
Jesus never resolved any issue with more money.
You did not see this in the Bible:
Leper: Please Lord, heal me!
Jesus: Hmm, you need to give more money and then you will be healed, Leper.
I am curious. I want to do a through study and wherever money (wealth, etc.) was mention during the New Testament. What was the issue and what was the solution?
The prosperity preaching is slowly and surely dying off. I hear about it less and less every day. Only the most desperate of pastors still preach that garbage.
I’m profoundly saddened that God’s healing power has been “marketed” in such a flamboyant and flagrant way.
I’m profoundly saddened that God’s prescribed methods of giving to His work have been hawked and cheapened by the likes of White, Meyer, and company.
I’m terribly saddened by this. God is watching, and He will judge this.
Phil Hoover says:
“I’m terribly saddened by this. God is watching, and He will judge this.”
I am not only saddened by this, I am frightened out of my head.
It takes but an ounce of discernment to know that prosperity gospel is an oxymoron at best and downright disobedience at worst (Exodus 20:7). Am I the only one who would be frightened by even thinking about preaching or teaching this? It is like these pastors are living in the now and they care not what God is going to do to them in the future. Surely they know that they will be judged in the end times.
[…] to Recovering Pharisee for tuning me in to this CNN article.) And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, […]
I doubt these “men of God” would be so in love with God if they weren’t getting their pockets padded.
Ray Stevens said, “Would Jesus wear a Rolex on his Television Show?”
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