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We don’t get many comments on SoulPreaching.Com. However this post on the prosperity Gospel has elicited a number of interesting ones that I didn’t want the readers to miss. The original article can be found here: http://shermancox.wpengine.com/prosperityfalse.
A Deeper Joy
Dr. Michael Williams wrote:
I totally agree with McMickle. Whereas, I do not think we should preach spiritual masochism, I take the Master as his word when he tells me that “in this life you will have some trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. In other words in this world, we will have urban violence, domestic abuse, unfaithfulness at all levels of society, terminal illness, etc. But for us to have a firm confidence that the crucified, buried and resurrected one has over come the power of all of the aforesaid. I remember one of these “teachers of the Word†went through a season of family illness which caused him to cease talking about if you have enough faith you will never get sick. Plus with the economy in the toilet, though we would never know, one can surmise that their “seed gifts†are few! So much for what I call the “profit/prophets.â€
Here Williams points to a “joy” that is deeper than simply money in the pocket or a new house or car. This joy, in the words of the tradition, “The world didn’t give and the world can’t take away.” I say amen to Dr. Williams who reminds us that we will have issues in this world, but these issues need not overcome or break us for Jesus has taken all the world can throw at humanity and overcome it.
Where Have All the Profits Gone?
Dr. Williams then notes in another comment
I think that with the economy in shambles, amongst themselves the the so-called “Word teachers” are asking themselves, “Where have all the PROFITS gone?”
Yes too many of us have been preaching about “PROFITS” rather than being the PROPHETS God called us to be. I am sure in this climate, people want to hear a word from a PROPHET and not a pseudo-word from purveyors of the false American materialistic gospel of “PROFITS.”
Is God Our Bell-Hop?
The next perceptive comment comes from D. Green who wrote:
The prosperity gospel is anything but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We who have been summonsized to the side of Jesus are called to be a part of a counter-cultural community; a community of faith. This inauthentic gospel that masks itself as the Gospel of the Lord’s Christ is heretical and dangerous. There is in it no preaching about the cross, suffering and sacrifice. It’s a ‘me’ emphasis gospel and definitely does not call for sacrifice and service to others. This so-called gospel in the words of Dallas Willard is guilty of the ‘Great Omission’. It’s emphasis makes Jesus a cosmic bellhop or talisman. Woe be unto us to fall for this that has its origin in the domicile of the devil.
Pastor Green you hit in on a point that deserves emphasis. This perverse Gospel is a “me-centered” one. What am I gonna get? And then to turn Jesus into our “cosmic bellhop.” Certainly the true God is the one who is sovereign, not our desires to keep up with the Joneses. Thanks for your comment.
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I just want to say that I agree with what is said about prosperity preaching. Though I don’t pastor a mega church so to speak, I pastor a congregation of baptized believers. It bothers me to see preachers get up in God’s pulpit and talk about nothing but money. I feel that giving and tithing and anything about giving ought to taught and not preached. I also feel that the congregation should have spiritual needs met first. If they can that God is their provider and if they maintain a constant relationship with God surely He will supply. I am a firm believer that the God we serve will never fail us. We will all have our season and even though seasons change our God don’t change. To all preachers of the Gospel keep preaching Christ crucified and Him only. May God bless you!