John Avanzini

Time Magazine asks the question if the Prosperity “gospel” has turned most of its adherents into victims of the current financial crisis:

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That’s what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of Pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.” The results, he says, “were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.” (more…)

Albert Mohler also weighed in on the issue with Are We Promised Prosperity?, with these sobering words:

Perhaps we all need a refresher course in Christian economics and Christian theology. Niall Ferguson argues from the record of history in looking to the current crisis. Perhaps we should remember our own history lesson — that far more believers in Christ have been and are now among the poor, rather than among the wealthy. We should hear Jesus warn against materialism and Paul remind us that we are to be content when we have plenty and when we have little. We should know that the Christian virtue of thrift is incompatible with the lies of those who push consumer credit.

Oh, and by the way, I learned that the senior pastor of a mega-church in Singapore preached this morning about having to tithe (and give to the building fund) so that your debts will be canceled because God is a “debt-canceling God” and we can chase off the “spirit of debt”.

God sure can cancel debt — our sin the heaviest debt when you repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ, but to say that God will cancel your debt if only you will tithe and give to the building fund… that’s preposterous! Stop feeding these feel-good, engage-the-marketplace, build-a-house-for-God pastors who offer choice passages from the Bible to substantiate their false claims.

The key to overcoming debt which is a result of materialism and greed is not giving more to a church building fund or tithing. Pray God that you will abide in Christ, and He will give you a new heart to focus on His kingdom and not the things of this world which moths and rust can, and will, destroy. In my opinion, that should have been preached, but then again, I never did expect much Biblical sense from a pastor who calls John Avanzini “friend”.

Photo by swamysk.

The word “disappointment” cannot even begin to describe what I felt after reading Ingrid’s report (you can also listen to the podcast here) of the Word of Faith conference that Ray Comfort decided to speak at.

With all due respect, Ray Comfort, Sir, I must say that I am not in agreement with what you did at the conference. More to the point, I was disappointed that you did not do the right thing.

No, not the right thing that we who disagree with you think to be right, but we are specifically instructed in God’s Word to call out false teachers and expose their false teachings.

I’ll be careful to say that I fully believe that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:6), but this is a different crowd. While there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who do need to hear the Gospel, I believe that most there believe they have heard the Gospel and believed. They can’t be more wrong because they have been misled onto a broad road to destruction by these false teachers and their false teachings.

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