Money Christian$

[AnthonyXM]

I was watching the televangelist “BH” exhort his congregation, when he uttered words to the effect that soon “the wealth of America is going to be redistributed” - to them.
The camera switched to the audience, who were jubilantly high fiving each other.
I knew at that moment the man was preaching false faith.

If you believe the Lord is going to make you rich all you will get is a mouth full of ashes.

Repent and turn away from this false faith if you are involved with it, or you will find yourself on the wrong side of the gulf at judgement, begging in vain for a wet finger on your parched tongue.

God bless you

 

[rpp]

This “Gospel of Prosperity” is contrary to what we find in the Bible. Christ Himself said that many of us will suffer.

What happens to us in life happens, in large part, to make us stronger, if we look at it from a spiritual perspective. It is not a matter of God “rewarding” us for somehow being Faithful to Him, that reward is to be in His presence forever in Heaven. If God were to enrich all those who followed Him, many of them would loose faith and just let their new found wealth corrupt them. Still others would decide to follow God’s Word out of pure avarice.

You were correct; this is a false teaching and quite self-destructive.

 

[Cathdefender]

** Whoever loves money will never have enough money,
Whoever loves wealth will not be satisfied with it.
This also is useless.

 The more wealth people have,

The more friends they have to help spend it.
So what do people really gain?
They gain nothing except to look at their riches.

 Those who work hard sleep in peace,

It is not important if they eat little or much.
But rich people worry about their wealth
And cannot sleep.

 People come into this world with nothing,

And when they die they leave with nothing.
In spite of all their hard work
They leave just as they came.----Ecclesiastes 5:10-12, 15

**

 

[strngrnrth]

Prosperity preaching is a lot of what turned me off about Protestantism. All those people competing to see who could memorize the most Bible verses and few them admitting the Bible said they wouldn’t get rich and shouldn’t care about getting rich. Glad I’m out of there.

 

[Cathdefender]

** Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father IS NOT IN YOU. These are the ways of the world: Wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world. The world and everything that people want in it are passing away, but the person who does what God wants lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17**

 

[Steadfast]

Prosperity preaching is a lot of what turned me off about Protestantism. All those people competing to see who could memorize the most Bible verses and few them admitting the Bible said they wouldn’t get rich and shouldn’t care about getting rich. Glad I’m out of there.

I’m sorry, this doesn’t make much sense. It would be like a former Catholic saying the reason he left the RCC is because of the practices of the these people.

 

[strngrnrth]

I’m sorry, this doesn’t make much sense. It would be like a former Catholic saying the reason he left the RCC is because of the practices of the these people.

It was almost all we ever saw on TBN, the message preached far too often int he biggest and most popular churches, and starting to seep into the little old-fashioned churches as well. When I tried to say I was turned off by excessive materialism, a pastor as well as others looked confused and warned me not to be afraid to let God bless me. I’m not. But I believe Him when He tells of blessings that others can’t see, and when He says we will have trouble in this world. It got to be frustrating to feel as if I must have imagined the Bible says those things and all these folks telling me they read it too and it says they will have whatever they want, and I know God does bless us materially sometimes, but it seemed conceding that much meant having to accept that we weren’t being spiritual enough if we didn’t get just what we wanted when we wanted it. We were often givent he clear idea that if we didn’t get rich it was because we hadn’t tithed properly.

 

[Steadfast]

So then it’s just the application of your own experience to ALL PROTESTANTS?

Where I come from we call that bigotry.

 

[rpp]

So then it’s just the application of your own experience to ALL PROTESTANTS?

Where I come from we call that bigotry.

I saw no bigotry in what she posted, only her relating her personal experience.

Please be charitable and avoid pejorative terms.

 

[NDfan]

I saw no bigotry in what she posted, only her relating her personal experience.

Please be charitable and avoid pejorative terms.

I disagree the comment was directed at Protestantism in general.

 

[rpp]

I disagree the comment was directed at Protestantism in general.

I have seen many posts from strngth. I do not recall seeing her make any sweeping bigoted comments about any group.

If there were any sweeping generalizations, it would be directed at the televangelist crowd. Contrast the personalities on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) them with the likes of Father Corapi, Archbishop Fulton Sheen or Father Mitch Pacwa and I think you can see what she was getting at.

 

[BlestOne]

It was almost all we ever saw on TBN, the message preached far too often int he biggest and most popular churches, and starting to seep into the little old-fashioned churches as well. When I tried to say I was turned off by excessive materialism, a pastor as well as others looked confused and warned me not to be afraid to let God bless me. I’m not. But I believe Him when He tells of blessings that others can’t see, and when He says we will have trouble in this world. It got to be frustrating to feel as if I must have imagined the Bible says those things and all these folks telling me they read it too and it says they will have whatever they want, and I know God does bless us materially sometimes, but it seemed conceding that much meant having to accept that we weren’t being spiritual enough if we didn’t get just what we wanted when we wanted it. We were often givent he clear idea that if we didn’t get rich it was because we hadn’t tithed properly.

I totally agree with what you said about TBN, it seems every time I flip past that station there is a name it and claim it or prosperity theologists speaking. It is really sad to see so many miss the mark so badly.

As a cradle Catholic I have a question about this… so if you belong to one of these groups and you pray and try very hard yet financial problems plague your life… is it because you aren’t saved, don’t believe hard enough or aren’t trying hard enough? It seems like this could be the only logical conclusion… I mean, I know my life has been hard financially, yet I feel totally blessed by God’s love in my life… I don’t think I was meant to be rich because I would probably loose perspective on what is important to me… my faith in God and the salvation of my family…

 

[strngrnrth]

There wa akind, modest, hardworking, no-prosperity-teaching pastor at my first church (Evangelical Friends) and we loved him. I think he’s still there. But the organization’s leadership was trying to get rid of him for failing to “grow the church”. I’m sure there are many like him. But they struggle agaisnt the flow from what i’ve seen.

 

[Steadfast]

I saw no bigotry in what she posted, only her relating her personal experience.

Please be charitable and avoid pejorative terms.

Actually, what she said was that her experience with a few Protestants (and clearly a segment most Protestants would not endorse) formed “a lot” of what turned her off to Protestantism (without qualification).

If I said that about black people (or, heaven forbid, Catholics) what kind of response do you think I would get?

And that was my point about the Penitentes. If my experience had been with them and said that it significantly informed my rejection of Catholicism as a whole, wouldn’t that be prejudice?

Intentionality has nothing to do with it.

Her post is there for anyone to read. It says what it says:

Prosperity preaching is a lot of what turned me off about Protestantism.

 

[Steadfast]

I’m bothered also that there appears to be a perception that I have been disrespectful to her.

It certainly was not my intent.

If anyone extrapolates a general posture toward a group because of the behavior or opinions of a part of it, they are being bigoted…

I would hope someone would point it out to me if I did it.