I want more and more every single day to believe that surely the lies & deceptions of the prosperity gospel are going to be fully exposed and realized for what they really are: lies. I pray all the time that those who are being deceived into its sway will be set free to the liberty of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - to discover that only in "losing my life will I find true life". The battle rages on. And at the end of the day, we are not surprised. Remember what Paul told his young disciple, Timothy:
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."
Friends, the prosperity gospel - the idea that Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we could be financially blessed - the thought that the God of the Universe wants to shower us with abundance just because we deserve it - is a lie from the pit of hell. And it's the lie that false teachers like Creflo Dollar keep on preaching:
As you may know, Creflo really stirred things up last year when he made a big fuss about the possibility of losing his $50,000,000 jet. (No, I didn't add too many zeros.) Well, today I watched an exchange between Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis that certainly rivals Creflo's scripture-twisted, materialistic, self-centered, unbiblical theology. Watch for yourself:
I don't even know where to begin.
"The world is in such shape... We've got to have this."
You can't be famous and "get in a looong tube filled with demons. It's deadly!"
Hey! All you African & Indian preachers who walk barefooted for days to get to a village so you can preach the Gospel to the lost: STOP! God doesn't want you to walk. He'll send a Cessna your way to pick you up. Just light up the strip where you want it to land.
Hey! All you humble preachers and evangelists flying in coach with the demons: Are you crazy? We're here to preach to stadiums and arenas full of people who want God to give them money and comfort, not to the lost, broken, and hopeless who simply want to know that Christ died for them and has reconciled them back from death to life.
Rather than going on and on with sarcastic anecdotes, let's just address this biblically. And let's address it from the very angle that "Reverend" Duplantis was attempting to corner. During the video you hear him begin to mention Amos 6, which he's going to go on to pitch that, "Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure..." is God's warning to any of us who begin to "let our faith stagnate" is a word he received from the Lord. He was letting his faith "stagnate" because he had started believing that this really nice jet was all he was going to settle for. As if the Lord was inquiring of him: "Is this the best you think I can do? You don't think I can get you a better airplane?"
Friends, Amos 6 is written to the Israelites who were drowning in the pleasures of life rather than mourning and grieving their own sin. They were immersed in wealth. They had no moderation or restraint. They accepted nothing but extravagance for themselves while ignoring the needs of others. Jesse Duplantis even breathing this scripture reference in the same sentence of defending his need for a jet - defending the need to get as far away as possible from those "demons" who might be flying on a commercial airliner - is one of the most self-indicting things I've seen in a long time. I would challenge him to go on reading in Amos 6 about the enemy that God himself raised up to come against Israel and rid them of their pagan, materialistic, self-centered lives.
Some may listen to Creflo and Joel and Kenneth and Jesse and their counterparts and call it serious audacity. I call it heresy. I don't know if it's intentional scripture twisting or the greatest level of ignorance possible. Either way, it is NOT the Gospel.
How long, Lord, will you put up with this?
