The Prosperity Gospel, as held up by so many mega-churches, is an awful thing. Hate me for saying it if you want to, but the Prosperity Gospel is not good for Christians. It's especially not good for people young in the faith. The mega-church has latched firmly on to the Prosperity Gospel, which is a falsehood of gospel teaching. It teaches that material gain is a desire that God has for his people. If that were true, why would God, in the form of Jesus, the Son of God, say "Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19:23)
The fact is, the Prosperity Gospel does not offer the wealth that God would have us seek, which is spiritual. Instead, it offers the very outcome that fallen man seeks, which is material gain. The biblical account of the wealthy man that owned a vineyard details how that man did well, gaining more and more material wealth, to the point that he said he would pull down the barns and storehouses he had and build greater ones and he would tell himself that he had done well. And according to the secular point of view, things couldn't have been better. God has obviously blessed the man by giving him so much wealth, right? Well, that story ends with the line "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." (Luke 12:16-20)
Our culture, our world, as settled upon material gain as the signs of blessing from God, so this Gospel has been created to justify that exercise. But the Bible tells us that, where our treasure is, there will our heart be. If our treasure is laid up on Earth, in material wealth and in the size of our bank accounts, then our heart is here as well, and we've wandered from God. The god (note the lowercase "g") of this world has blinded the eyes of people. Material wealth has been touted as the measure of God's blessing; as something worthy to be desired. One of the commandments relates that man should not covet his neighbor's wife, his neighbor's possessions...but a New Testament writer said we should "covet earnestly" the best gifts of God, meaning spiritual blessing. These worldly things...you're not taking them with you. Ever seen a body laying in a coffin in a funeral home, and someone puts a box of golf balls in the casket, since the guy loved golf? Those golf balls aren't going to Heaven or Hell. Our material possessions will be left here, and, as Peter wrote in his second epistle, those possessions will burn and melt with a fervent heat.
So people are led to believe that material riches, these things shunned by the prophets, denied by the apostles, and preached against by the Lord himself, are nothing but the greatest blessings God desires to pour out on us. Guess what? Satan himself is capable of looking desirable. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says Satan is transformed into an angel of light. He can make himself, and the things of the world, look so tempting and desirable. And he'll twist the scripture within the mind of man to justify whatever means man wants.
The Gospel of Prosperity is, simply put, an invention of the world to twist the doctrine of God to justify their worldly desires. It is the embodiment of Philippians 3:18-19, saying: "(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)" These followers of the Prosperity Gospel have found their God in their belly, lusting after worldly things, heaping unto themselves teachers who will spout off the doctrines that tickle their ears instead of telling them the truths of the Gospel.
So why do I say that it is bad for those young in the faith? Because it absolutely leads people away from God. It is a theology that allows people to seek the carnal desires of the flesh, to hold up their hand as a member of a prestigious church, and to never once have to deal with God. They can avoid the hardships of being a Christian. The Bible pretty explicitly tells us that a Christian life will not be easy. We're going to be beset by fiery trials, by tribulations. They're taught these things by people who are not really Christian in anything other than name.
Sadly, many of them have been led astray by pastors who embrace Prosperity teachings while shunning the necessity of true gospel teaching and preaching, which involves reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all long-suffering to bring people into the righteous will of God. They sit unknowingly in spiritually dry places, where the "gospel" is artificially sweetened with nothing more than spiritual milk. They never move beyond the simplest issues of doctrine. They never move to the place of taking in spiritual meat, or heavier things, and seeking the deeper mysteries of God. Why should they? Their church teaches them that so long as they give their weekly tithe and offer their first fruits offering then God will bless them however many fold.
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| I can't even begin to describe how horrifying this image is... |
They are tricked into tithing by instigators of the Prosperity Gospel who purposefully twist the scripture of Malachi 3. This chapter reveals how God told the Israelites to bring FOOD unto the storehouses of the house of God. This was a time when the Levites still maintained the House of God. When the tribes of Israel entered the promised land, only one tribe was not granted land: Levi. The Levites were set aside, ordained to watch the House of God. So the remaining tribes paid a tithe to the Levities in order to keep them up. Whenever those overseers broke the rules of God, such as the sons of Eli (Hophni and Phinehas) taking more than they should have taken, bad things happened to Israel (see the beginning of I Samuel). Why do these so-called preachers think that taking more from the people will not result in bad things now? After all, God is the same today, yesterday, and forever more. He even said in the scripture, in the same chapter that these tithe-teachers willfully twist, that "I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
Well, today there are no Levites overseeing the churches. Frankly, I don't see a necessity in tithing. God has given me all I have, and he can take it back at any moment. Or he could give me more. Or he could teach me that I really don't need all that I have. I could latch on to the Prosperity Gospel, but the truth is, that would drag me away from God and plant me fully in the service of Mammon, and set me on a course of desiring nothing more than worldly gain.
The outflow of the Prosperity Gospel is a change in church function that is rippling across all denominations. Since we've decided within ourselves that worldly gain is more important, then we no longer need the Holy Spirit in our worship services. If the spirit is not required, then man dictates how the service within the church should be carried out.
The early church, those meetings that took place in the first century, were small. Basically, they were a couple of families and some friends meeting in the home-place of one of the elder members and having worship. Now, though, in this era of mega-churches and what has lovingly been called "McWorship," the sincerity is gone out of the church for the sake of timed meetings. We have an 9:00am service and an 11:00am service. Boy, I sure hope God doesn't start moving in the 9am service, otherwise we won't have time to clean up and get everything in order for the 11am service.
Man has begun placing restrictions on God like during no other time in our history. But wait, God is God, he cannot be restricted by man...he'd bigger than us. Yes, God is much bigger than us. His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are so much higher than our ways. That said, the Bible explicitly tells us not to "quench the Spirit." What does that mean? It means we can stop the movement of God within the church. God uses the members of a church to exercise his will in the church, and if a member moves against the will of God, then the movement of the Spirit can be stopped dead in its tracks.
To create a false limitation on the possible dealings of the Spirit of God by placing arbitrary stop-times on your services is an absolute disservice to not only God, but to the people who come into your church, and may need to hear the unadulterated word of God.
And at every step this false practice of so-called Christianity is doing nothing but harming the young believer by leading them away from God and it is a false front to the lost, those still seeking the Lord. It teaches the lost that God's blessing is carnal, and not spiritual. Because one thing you rarely, if ever, hear from teachers of the Prosperity Gospel is the necessity of the blood of Christ to cover the sin of fallen man. The preaching of Christ crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the throne of God is shifted to the wayside in order to teach that God will show his mercy by expanding your wallet. The Prosperity Gospel is leading people down the wide way that leads unto destruction, and these "teachers" and "preachers" will boast about how much they preach love, to the point of not performing the necessities of the Gospel, reproving, rebuking, and frankly calling out sin for what it is and teaching people that the only way to find forgiveness and salvation is through Christ Jesus.
There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end of that way is death. The Spirit is what gives life. There is no promise in the Bible of great earthly wealth coming from following Christ. In fact, a follower of the Lord should constantly be looking unto Heaven, where your treasure should be laid up. If you have set up your treasure in Heaven, then you are already rich beyond imagination. Earthly wealth can be gone before tomorrow. Consider the wealthy man building up his barns. Then consider the story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. When death visited both men, the rich man lifted his eyes in Hell. Lazarus, though, was borne of the angels into Abraham's bosom, Paradise.
Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6) and "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44). Christ told a young rich man that he had to sell his possession and give unto the poor. The rich man went away sorrowful, because he did not want to part with his wealth. The Prosperity Gospel is nothing more than a means of promoting a lavish lifestyle that God's word tells us to avoid, while masquerading as the very word of God that it so willfully distorts.
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