Prosperity Preaching

[Candi770]

No your not wrong.

[KarenJo5]

I have never donated money to these so called people of God and never will.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with having money...It's all how you use it.

How do these people sleep at night knowing that people who truely love the Lord and have little may be doing without supper or medicine to buy them gold watches and airplanes. They can't know God and still act this way IMO.

[Openly Curious]

I believe in giving as the word teaches us these principles in his word. I believe God loves a cheerful giver as well. I believe if you sow sparingly you'll reap sparingly and if you sow liberally you'll reap liberally.

But I have been disturbed by the prosperity teachers for many long years now for they misuse the principles of God for to get themselves wealth and it is on that well they are solely focused on and not the heart of God nor the love of God. But on the money the love of money.

I have no problem with wealthy people for it is the Lord's will that we prosper and be in good health to enjoy it.

But the apostle Paul told young Timothy to "Charge" those who are rich among you to not think of themselves more highly than they ought to and to humble themselves and give as the people thought that having great wealth was a sign that they were more righteous than others in the body and they were measuring themselves by what things that had among one another and what we possess materially does not measure ones righteousness in the eyes of God or people and never will. For it is the blood and only the blood that determines our righteousness in this life. all else is sinking sand.

Apostle Paul told Timothy that those that do this dot about knowing nothing and they was like a cankerous sore corrupt and rotten.

But it is when we make money an idol before God himself that is the big sin and I have listened to some of the things these prosperity preachers are preaching that Jesus actually did and it is almost blasphemous to me when I hear some of the things they contribute to Christ and his disciples saying they were all rich and wealthy in this life and lived it up. that is so contrary to holy scriptures as Jesus didn't even have a place many nights to lay his head. Jesus was a humble servant of God who's mind was not on material things so carnal but on doing the will of God so mankind could be made rich through his death on the cross with spiritual blessings in God.

these prosperity preachers teach people to use the principles of giving in God's word to obtain great wealth. While leaving the ministry of reconciliation out of their message unless of course you send a seed offering. The word or message of the true gospel isn't given or discussed except in light of giving money. These properity teachers leave their followers spiritually bankrupt while teaching them a materialistic gospel misusing the principles of giving in God's word in a wrong manner.

Sure if one gives they will be blessed by God for so doing for it is a principle layed out in scriptures. But you are an unbalanced Christian if you only practice that one principle in life and not the full gospel. Materialism will pass away and many are building their houses on this sinking sand instead of the Rock which is Jesus Christ a personal relationship with him a midst obtaining all that wealth.

Like I say I am not opposed to having great wealth. but one does not measure their righteousness by how much they have and do not have as apostle paul taught in Timothy.

OC

[undone]

I watch alot of Christian television and see many programs emphasizing a message that Christians should expect prosperity. Sometimes I see the point these preachers are making. At other times I wonder if they aren't simply trying to justify their own lust for money.

Some of the lifestyles some of these guys lives are agrediously excessive. I mean private jets, first class hotels and such. And their on the TV begging for donations so that they can jet around the world spreading the gospel. It doesn't always appear to me that they really need my money. Sure I want to see the gospel spread around the world, but why does it have to be these particular guys all the time?

Couldn't some of these funds be spent on feeding starving people in Africa?

I understand the need to support ministries and the fact pastors/evangelists need to support their families too.

Am I wrong?

No Undone I don't think your wrong at all. In fact I think you are absolutely spot on. I visited a website recently to see how much these people really earn and to be quite honest it made me feel Physically sick. How on earth they can justify these lifestyles is a total mystery to me. It's not only wrong it's obscene. Click on it yourself and see, but be prepared for a shock. Especially when you consider that this is what the faithfull are giving for.

But remember leave the judgment to God.

lifestyles

I clicked on the link and WOW, I figured some of these pulled in some decent salaries, but that's obscene!

[LadyRaven]

Am I wrong?

No.

Not really.

I have no problem with a ministry prospering, if it teaches good doctrine and does not use spiritual manipulation in order to fund itself. However.... unfortunately I see alot of spiritual manipulation and bad doctrine. many of these teachers (not all of them I hope, but many of them) are also, if you pay attention, heretical. It's something you need to keep your eyes open about.

Personally I'd rather support a parachurch ministry (like Compassion International), missionaries I trust, local interfaith ministries and my local church. I hardly even listen to Christian radio, very little on it that I find theologically sound, and don't watch Christian tv for the same reason.

[RustyAngeL]

I watch alot of Christian television and see many programs emphasizing a message that Christians should expect prosperity. Sometimes I see the point these preachers are making. At other times I wonder if they aren't simply trying to justify their own lust for money.

Some of the lifestyles some of these guys lives are agrediously excessive. I mean private jets, first class hotels and such. And their on the TV begging for donations so that they can jet around the world spreading the gospel. It doesn't always appear to me that they really need my money. Sure I want to see the gospel spread around the world, but why does it have to be these particular guys all the time?

Couldn't some of these funds be spent on feeding starving people in Africa?

I understand the need to support ministries and the fact pastors/evangelists need to support their families too.

Am I wrong?

No your not wrong at all. One name comes into my mind when I read this. His name is Mike Murdock. He's very pround of his $3000 suits, and Rolex watches. He strutted around day and talked about the brand new Corvet someone gave him. He tells people that God's blessings are directally tied into whether they give. He also has a motor home that is worth well over a million dollars. Nice work if you can get it. No your not wrong.

[Floatingaxe]

All one need do is actually listen to these thieves a few tiems and you will see that they continually lie on world wide television.

Their favorit passage to quote is about the "hundred fold return" from the parable of the sower. Unfortunately for the TBN crowd, not one word of it had anything to do with money. When you read Jesus' own interpretation, that is plain to any bloke who reads the passage.

List of people you should never listen to:

Rod Parsley

Creflo Dollar (or his wife)

Ken Copeland

Paul and Jan Crouch

Paula White

Fred Price

Benny Hinn

pretty much anyone else on TBN or INSP

Any Swaggart, I should know, was in his church for about 2 years and still have membership.

You know it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to see people point fingers and list names like the above post. Not all of those people are money-grubbing, thieving preachers! If you knew about faith and obedience, you would know that God entrusts much to those who handle it well and honour Him with it. Those who cannot be trusted don't get it. Some take, mind you, but it is a serious thing to slander. Sedition is a sin. If you disagree with a preacher, then stop watching and complaining...do your part to uplift those who are serving God with holiness!

[ayin jade]

You know it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to see people point fingers and list names like the above post. Not all of those people are money-grubbing, thieving preachers! If you knew about faith and obedience, you would know that God entrusts much to those who handle it well and honour Him with it. Those who cannot be trusted don't get it. Some take, mind you, but it is a serious thing to slander. Sedition is a sin. If you disagree with a preacher, then stop watching and complaining...do your part to uplift those who are serving God with holiness!

Paul pointed out those who taught false doctrine and urged people to avoid them.

[ayin jade]

Read their words and decide for yourself. Be Berean!

List of people you should never listen to:

Rod Parsley

"I just love to talk about your money. Let me be very clear -- I want your money. I deserve it. This church deserves it."

(An Empire of Souls, pg. 35)

"For you to sit in physical bondage is to deny the power of the gospel. Most people would have no trouble shouting whatsoever if I said, "To remain in the bondage of sin and death is to deny the power of the gospel." If I said the same thing about poverty and financial bondage, it would get as quiet as a tomb. If I said that for you to live from paycheck to paycheck is to deny the power of the gospel, many of you would get angry. In Luke 4:18, Notice there was an anointing to preach good news to the poor. A lot of people don't like to look at that because good news to a poor man is that he doesn't have to be poor anymore. We have multitudes saved, delivered and filled with the Holy Ghost, and many are healed, yet over 90% of the church of Jesus Christ are living in absolute financial bondage. All the while, Jesus is saying, "I've been anointed to preach the good news to the poor." You have held back the flow. You have denied the perpetual propulsion of power that could deliver you from not only sin and sickness but from the horrible stench of poverty."

(God's Answer to Insufficient Funds, 1992 pps 46-47)

Creflo Dollar (or his wife)

"I'm going to have to reproduce Myself. Like I'm God up here in heaven. I'm going to make Me a god and put Myself in the physical body so that he can guard the earth and keep out all intruders in the earth ... Now that gives us a little insight on why God wanted a god on the earth like He was God in heaven ... When God made Adam all He did was make an exact imprint of Himself. He duplicated Himself ... If you eat of this fruit, you will be like God. What's the problem? He's already like God. He was already like God."

(Our equality with God Through Righteousness January 21,2001)

"I'm telling you, Jesus wasn't poor, and He didn't wear no rags, either. Like we march in on these Easter little plays that we do at our church, with those raggedy sheets on. Jesus didn't have no rags on. He wore designer clothes, honey!"?

(Creflo Dollar Crusade, February 9, 1999)

"You operate by a spirit of poverty if you are critical of those who preach and teach prosperity. My God, man, I told you last night that Bible talks more about money than it does about heaven, and all we got to do is open the Bible up for ourselves and see it instead of sitting there being afraid to hear it."?

(Praise The Lord, TBN July 20, 1999)

Ken Copeland

"Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of hell"?

(Holy Bible: Kenneth Copeland Reference Edition, 1991, p.129)

"Jesus had to go through that same spiritual death in order to pay the price. Now it wasn't the physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin, because if it had of been any prophet of God that had died for the last couple of thousand years before that could have paid that price. It wasn't physical death anybody could do that."?

(What Satan Saw on the Day of Pentecost, audio tape #020022)

"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, 1987, p. 32)

"You don't have a god in you, you are one"

(The Force of Love, 1987, audiotape #02-0028, side 1)

"Now Peter said by exceeding great and precious promises you become partakers of the divine class. All right, are we gods? We are a class of gods!"?

(Praise The Lord, TBN February 5, 1986)

Paul and Jan Crouch

"if you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed to (the) station, you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven."

(Praise the Lord, TBN August 4, 1997)

"He [God] doesn't even draw a distinction between Himself and us. . . . You know what else that's settled, then, tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the Devil to try and bring dissension within the body of Christ that we are gods. I am a little god! . . . I have His name. I'm one with Him. I'm in covenant relation. I am a little god! Critics, be gone!"

(Praise the Lord, TBN? July 7, 1986)

Fred Price

"Yes! You are in control! So, if man has control, who no longer has it? God."

("Prayer: Do You Know What Prayer Is ... and How to Pray?" The Word Study Bible, 1990 p. 1178)

"The whole point is I'm trying to get you to see--to get you out of this malaise of thinking that Jesus and the disciples were poor and then relating that to you- thinking that you, as a child of God, have to follow Jesus. The Bible says that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. That's the reason why I drive a Rolls Royce. I'm following Jesus' steps."

(Ever Increasing Faith, TBN December 9, 1990)

"How can you glorify God in your body, when it doesn't function right? How can you glorify God? How can He get glory when your body doesn't even work? What makes you think the Holy Ghost wants to live inside a body where He can't see out through the windows and He can't hear with the ears? What makes you think the Holy Spirit wants to live inside of a physical body where the limbs and the organs and the cells do not function right?"

("Is God Glorified Through Sickness?" audiotape #FP605)

"What they told me to do was that whenever I prayed I should always say, 'The will of the Lord be done.' Now, doesn't that sound humble? It does. Sounds like humility, it's really stupidity. I mean, you know, really, we insult God. I mean, we really do insult our Heavenly Father. We do; we really insult Him without even realizing it. If you have to say, 'If it be thy will' or 'Thy will be done' -- if you have to say that, then you're calling God a fool because he's the One that told us to ask....that's an insult to God's intelligence."

(Ever Increasing Faith, TBN November 16, 1990)

Benny Hinn

...never, ever, ever go to the Lord and say, "If it be thy will..." Don't allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth. When you pray "if it be your will, Lord," faith will be destroyed. Doubt will billow up and flood your being. Be on guard against words like this which will rob you of your faith and drag you down in despair.

(Rise & Be Healed! p. 47-48)

"God came to earth and touched a piece of dust and turned it into a God."

(TBN, Dec 1, 1990)

"When you say, 'I am a Christian, you are saying, 'I am mashiach' in the Hebrew. I am a little messiah walking on earth, in other words That is a shocking revelation.... May I say it like this? You are a little god on earth running around."?

(Praise-a-thon TBN November 6, 1990)

"Man, I feel revelation knowledge already coming on me here. Life your hands. Something new is going to happen here today. I felt it just as I walked down here. Holy Spirit, take over in the name of Jesus...God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person; and he is a triune being by himself separate from the Son and the Holy Ghost. Say, what did you say? Here it, hear it, hear it. See, God the Father is a person, God the Son is a person, God the Holy Ghost is a person. But each one of them is a triune being by Himself. If I can shock you - and maybe I should - there's nine of them. Huh, what did you say? Let me explain: God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person with his own personal spirit, with his own personal soul, and his own personal spirit body. You say, Huh, I never heard that. Well, you think you're in this church to hear things you've heard for the last 50 years? You can't argue with the Word, can you? It's all in the Word".?

(Praise The Lord, TBN October 3, 1990)

(Benny Hinn broadcast, recorded 10/13/90 )

God sent Jesus as an example to see if we could retain and maintain the Holy Spirit in human flesh."

(TBN July 23, 1997)

The Spirit tells me -- Fidel Castro will die in the 90's. Oooh my! Some will try to kill him and they will not succeed. But there will come a change in his physical health, and he will not stay in power, and Cuba will be visited of God.

(Orlando Christian Center, Dec. 31st, 1989. )

[Rebmilc]

I watch alot of Christian television and see many programs emphasizing a message that Christians should expect prosperity. Sometimes I see the point these preachers are making. At other times I wonder if they aren't simply trying to justify their own lust for money.

Some of the lifestyles some of these guys lives are agrediously excessive. I mean private jets, first class hotels and such. And their on the TV begging for donations so that they can jet around the world spreading the gospel. It doesn't always appear to me that they really need my money. Sure I want to see the gospel spread around the world, but why does it have to be these particular guys all the time?

Couldn't some of these funds be spent on feeding starving people in Africa?

I understand the need to support ministries and the fact pastors/evangelists need to support their families too.

Am I wrong?

No Undone I don't think your wrong at all. In fact I think you are absolutely spot on. I visited a website recently to see how much these people really earn and to be quite honest it made me feel Physically sick. How on earth they can justify these lifestyles is a total mystery to me. It's not only wrong it's obscene. Click on it yourself and see, but be prepared for a shock. Especially when you consider that this is what the faithfull are giving for.

But remember leave the judgment to God.

lifestyles

I clicked on the link and WOW, I figured some of these pulled in some decent salaries, but that's obscene!

All one need do is actually listen to these thieves a few tiems and you will see that they continually lie on world wide television.

Their favorit passage to quote is about the "hundred fold return" from the parable of the sower. Unfortunately for the TBN crowd, not one word of it had anything to do with money. When you read Jesus' own interpretation, that is plain to any bloke who reads the passage.

List of people you should never listen to:

Rod Parsley

Creflo Dollar (or his wife)

Ken Copeland

Paul and Jan Crouch

Paula White

Fred Price

Benny Hinn

pretty much anyone else on TBN or INSP

Any Swaggart, I should know, was in his church for about 2 years and still have membership.

You know it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to see people point fingers and list names like the above post. Not all of those people are money-grubbing, thieving preachers! If you knew about faith and obedience, you would know that God entrusts much to those who handle it well and honour Him with it. Those who cannot be trusted don't get it. Some take, mind you, but it is a serious thing to slander. Sedition is a sin. If you disagree with a preacher, then stop watching and complaining...do your part to uplift those who are serving God with holiness!

Hi Undone. I see you clicked on the link. It quite an eyeopener isn't it?

I think that it would do all christians good to visit this site and learn about the obscene lifestyles of these people before defending them. This is a false gospel, a gospel of greed. Peter Popoff was reckoned as the bigest earner at $500,000 a year salary, untill he was exposed by James Randi, caught in the act of using a radio link from his wife and team who were talking to people in the audience, finding things out about them, and then relaying this information to popoff through a transmitter he wore in his ear whilst on stage. Popoff then used this information by saying that the Lord was giving him a word of knowledge about these people. The sad thing is that has all died down now and he is now back on air.

Floatingaxe I respect your viewpoint and you are entitled to your views, however with all respect this isn't slander. Slander is defined in the dictionary as "a malicious, false & defamatory statement or report". This sadly is the truth. Check it out for yourself and see.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Rebmilc