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I am the Way, the Truth and the Light |
Crucify Me on a Gilded Cross If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous
mammon, Return to the page directory There is so much coming from the pulpit that sounds like the worship of mammon, the glorification of worldly things in the name of Jesus. It goes by a variety of names. Some call it the "Prosperity Gospel." There are myriads of such "prosperity preachers." At the top of the list is the likes of Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar (very appropriate), Jesse Duplantis, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Myers, Rod Parsley and perhaps the best known of them all, Joel Osteen. Central to the message of these ministers of prosperity is the idea that our loving God wants all Christians to be lavishly successful in everything they do in this life, especially financially. It’s no longer a sin to lust after the world, it is the highest mark of a blessed believer. As a matter of fact, if a believer is not successful, something is very wrong. A closely related contemporary teaching is the "Word/Faith" movement with many of the same adherents. The Copelands may be included in that list along with such other notable "preachers" as Kenneth Hagin, Charles Capps, Oral Roberts, Jerry Savelle and Charles Nieman. Yes, some of the best known, and richest preachers in the entire country. According to these "Word/Faith" preachers, God wants Christians to have good health, have "healthy marriages and other relationships and materially prosperous lives. The distinction, if one can be made is that this group does not limit God’s generosity to just money. Put them together, and we get the "Health and Prosperity Gospel" or what Creflo Dollar teaches as "Total Life Prosperity. What could be more pleasing to the world’s ears? What else could possibly create more euphoria in the average person than the promise of making them wealthy? What could have more allure? It’s the sound of sweet, sweet music to our ears. One of the central premises of both theologies is if you give money to God, God will bless you with more money. Of course, it goes without saying that the main way to "give money to God" is by giving it to the "church." That’s what funds Pastor Dollar’s Rolls-Royces, private jets, million-dollar Atlanta home and $2.5 million Manhattan apartment. It supplies Joyce Meyers with a $10 million dollar Challenger jet, a $4 million dollar estate with five mansions for her and her 4 children. In addition, owns a private-quarters club at Lake of the Ozarks complete with all the trimmings. In 2001 John Hagee made a salary of $842,005 in and $414,485 in benefits. That same year, his wife earned $67,907 as vice president of GETV and $58,813 as the special events director for Cornerstone Church. T. D. Jakes lives in a $2.6 million dollar mansion in the White Rock Lake area of Dallas, owns a Bently and sports around in a Mercedes. He also has property in West Virginia consisting of two homes side by side sporting an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley. Oral Roberts, not to be outdone jets around in a $2 million dollar private plane, lives in a $250,000 house in Tulsa and has a million dollar home in Palm Springs. The list goes on. Tithing does pay dividends. All this aside, what are the Scriptural implications of what must be called "Gilded Cross Christianity." Do we now turn Christianity upside down and make worldliness the ultimate virtue? Rev. Jakes thinks so. He asks, "why else would Roman soldiers have gambled for his cloak as Jesus lay dying on the cross, if the cloak hadn't been unusually valuable?" The traditional answer is that it was a seamless robe woven by Jesus’ mother. Of, course, that wouldn’t suit Jakes fancy. He frequently states, "The myth of the poor Jesus needs to be destroyed, because it's holding people back," Is he and others of his ilk revealing old Biblical truths or a "new wave" of deceitful lies? Before answering, remember it’s working. These "pastors" are shepherds of very large flocks. Average church attendance at Joel Osteen’s is 47,000, 17,000 at T.D. Jakes, 15,000 go to hear Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn at 5,000, Rod Parsley preaches to 5,000 a Sunday. Not so long ago in the history of our faith, there were those like Dwight Moody and other 19th Century Evangelists during what has been described as our "First Gilded Age," denounced the prevalent and growing "mammon worship." William Jennings Bryan, summed it up best, "You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold." Today, we will say, "As for me and my house, we’ll take the Old Rugged Cross." For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine;
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He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Return to the page directory That’s the fascinating little question the Rev. Dr. John Piper, Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, asks in an article and a sermon of his by the same title. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary with a doctor of theology from the University of Munich. For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota and has served as pastor at Bethlehem since 1980. He is the author of more than 30 books on religious subjects. Dr. Piper does a yeoman’s job attempting to convince his readers with reason, logic and Scriptures that God is a narcissistic, conceited, self-centered, egomaniac quoting such verses as Isaiah 43:7, Jeremiah 13:11, Psalm 106:7-8, Ezekiel 20:14 and others. Based on these, he concludes, "From beginning to end, the driving impulse of God’s heart is to be praised for his glory … his ultimate allegiance is to himself. His unwavering purpose … is to exalt the honor of his name … ‘For my own sake, for my own sake I act.’" Rev. Dr. Piper concludes, "God is for us, and therefore has been, is now and always will be, first, for himself." He concludes, "God is more passionate about His glory than anything else." Hum, now let’s see, God doesn’t love us, any of us or anything, He just adores Himself. That a novel theological position. It isn’t that the Dr. Price is wrong in what he writes as much as the cheap sensationalist way he goes about selling his statements to those whom he must view in a very condescending way. After all, accusing God of being selfish, egocentric and suggesting that, "God loves himself more than he loves you" is sensationalistic bordering on tabloid journalism. We might even suggest his "tabloid sermonism," that radicalizes and sensationalizes the Truth is for his own fame, glory and profit. He asserts that God saying, "I am that I am" is the ultimate in egoism. It can also be described as the ultimate expression of self-confidence. However, if we were to take this last tack, of someone who is complete, He would not manifest symptoms of incompleteness. To suggest that God is lacking in something, deficient in some way, in need of anything, simply does not ring true any more than He wants desires or needs our adulation. To say as He does, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, in no way implies incompleteness or need by any stretch of the imagination. He is perfect as is His love for us – untainted by self-serving motives. A motive is something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act. What is it that God needs or desires especially of us? What impulse arising from personal temperament or external influences incites Him to action, entices or allures, spurs or goads the Lord God Almighty? According toDr. Price, it is egotistical self-centeredness. Or is it that he is using finite human attributes, maybe his own, to describe the infinitely divine? Perhaps he needs to more closely examine the nature of the God he worships. The Bible does state God’s concern about His honor and it in those same passages gives His reasons – that they may proclaim His glory to the world. And that not for His aggrandizement, but that they might come to know the True God and be saved. In the KJV, Isaiah 43:21 actually reads that, they shall shew forth my praise. Matthew Henry’s comments on this chapter of Isaiah speaks of God’s loving concern for His people, not His ego mania. The same is true for the other passages cited. Praising God, glorifying Him was that such would be as a light shining upon the idolatry that darkened the world. This was the story of Israel, that they were to be a manifestation of His true nature for the world to see. Why? That this adulterous world might be brought to salvation. Isn’t that the message Jesus so often conveyed – through our love others will know we are His disciples? If we revere our God in word, deed and praises the world can see something, a poor shadow of God’s true nature through us. To propose it was solely for His exaltation is preposterous. If God revealed Himself in Jesus as Christians believe, where do we see all that narcissism in His life and ministry? If, through Jesus we see God, then we see a self-effacing servant, not an ego maniac If we fully understood all God has given, all that it has cost Him, none greater than the gift of His Son, in order to justify us, we would be constantly and without ceasing praising Him with our mouths and deeds. As the old hymn says, we’d "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." That is the lesson of those passages referencing the glorification of God. Through our lives of worship, praise and loving one another, we prove that He is the one, the only, true and living God to a lost and unbelieving world – and glorify Him. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another . John 13:35
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Third Article It used to be Christians were noted for the supplicative
prayer petitions to God for anything and everything under the sun, "I want
this, I need this, help me with the other." At least in tone they seemed to
be entreaties, pleading for what the petitioner thought he needed often with
the distinction between needs and wants blurred to the point of
meaninglessness. Prayer time was often conducted like a bargaining session
between labor and management with the solicitor trying to bribe management
with promises. "Dear Lord, if you will answer my prayer, grant just this one
wish (for now) I promise to be a good person for the rest of my life" is a
simile of how so many, many prayers went. There weren’t patterns of what
type of prayer worked and those that didn’t, but most accepted the premise
that if one’s prayers weren’t granted it was the fault of the supplicator’s
faith, the nature of his request, timing or some other shortcoming on his
part. Critics poked fun at this kind of praying suggesting for
such Christians God was little more than a Santa Claus. There was some truth
to the analogy. Preachers did little to discourage this "Bid Daddy" view of
God because it worked to their benefit. When "Tithing" season rolled around,
preachers would roll out the "Loving Father," "Kind God," "Santa Claus"
Scriptures as threadbare as they became, to bait people into making their
"tithing pledges." "Would a loving God deny His children anything?" was a
frequent con along with the most popular line of all, "you can’t outspend
God!" How many parishioners left church on those Sunday’s with visions of
sugar plums dancing in their heads expecting a ten-fold return on their
investment. This might just be called the "Stock Broker God" stage." God is
a good investment. You get more of a return on your investment than in the
Market. There were those who preached that all prayers were answered. Some
with a "yes" or a "no," others with a "not now or go slow," but they were
all answered. After all, God knows what’s best for us. Maybe what we were
requesting would be harmful. This was to keep people from getting
discouraged and, just maybe, stop tithing. But, at least all of this type of
praying was done with some sense of humility however feigned it might really
be. And clearly, even in the most cynical, there was a sense, a conviction,
that God was in charge and whatever prayers he granted, was His decision –
His alone. The unrequited "prayerster" was left with little to do but
correct his mistakes and try harder to please God with his supplications the
next time – make them more sincere, be more humble and by tithing more, show
that they had grown in faith. Those were the "good ole days." Now, today, we are no longer supplicants before the
Throne of Grace. Instead, we own the place. As
sons (and daughters) of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, we don’t beg
and plead, we demand our share right now. Because of its focus on here and
now materialism, some have labeled this new "Christianity" the "gospel of
the almighty dollar." It’s a new reformation of Health and Wealth in which
the people are "persuaded to pray for wealth, while tithing what little
money they have to corrupt and swollen ministries." Others have called this
new phase "Prosperity Pimping" because of its seducing believers to support
the excesses of their ministers with false hopes. It proposes that our "best
life is now." What does that say for heaven? The watchword of Prosperity
Pimping is, "Live right, live well -- as people deepen their relationship to
Jesus they should also expect that they will become more affluent." That’s
the "I Wanna" part. In kinder terms, it’s know as the "Prosperity Gospel."
It’s simple theme is most appealing in that it denies the evils of this
world’s riches and hold’s out the pimps hand of world pleasures. The next modernist wave is the "what you say is what you
get" theology. Sometimes referred to as, "Positive Confession" because what
one "prays" for, or confesses produces positive results, is the belief that
if a believer speaks "spiritual" or "faith-filled" words then he can have
what he says. According to Kenneth Copeland’s Laws of Prosperity,
"Word-Faith claims that God operates by spiritual law and is obliged to obey
the commands of believers" (pp. 60-62). It gets better, Copeland goes on to
say, "as a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus.
Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent,
because it is His Word" (Our Covenant with God, p. 32).
He told a 2005 Fort Worth gathering, "You can draw on heaven like a
magnet. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to get God’s blessings.
Now’s when we need them." Extraordinary. "God, You Gotta!" Such devilish
arrogance. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you
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