Thursday, May 28, 2009

Prosperity Gospel Lies


Kyle and I just recently watched this DVD together and it was awesome! Shocking, embarrassingly entertaining, and eye-opening. Several times, we looked at each other and said: Did he really just say that?
And what is so crushing about these health & wealth preachers is the thousands who flock to hear their twisted theology. Benny Hinn, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Joyce Meyer, and Joel Osteen are currently the most well-known prosperity preachers. And they do know a little bit of Bible. But they throw in enough garbage to polute the whole message.
Take this, for example:


I strongly recommend this DVD. Your eyes will be opened to all the subtle deceptions taught by these false teachers.

22 comments:

Kyle said...

So strong and so true. That dvd is eye opening. Keep'em comin G.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a really good dvd. For now, I'll be sharing the YouTube clip around my friends. Thanks for this!

MommaofMany said...

My children noted right off how very many people were in his audience. Very sad...

Kelly said...

This video seems to twist the truth as well. A lot of those scriptures are talking to non believers not to those you have become new creatures under the blood of Jesus. 2 Cor 5:17-21. WE have been RECONCILED with Christ!!! Reconciliation is the process by which God and man are brought together again. This is made possible through the blood of Jesus which demonstrates the power and the model for reconciliation.We were once estranged from Him but have been restored. Rom 5:10,Col 1:21,22,
Isaiah 53:5 says," And by His stripes we ARE healed."

GT said...

There is enough truth in these messages to confuse so many. The enemy loves to take truth and deviate just enough to make it a lie.

God does indeed promise us victory... only thing is, that victory comes through death burial and resurrection...these preachers fail to preach the painful process that God allows. They focus on the glorious resurrection part but forget the death and burial.

Ginger said...

By His stripes, we are healed of our sin. Please read the verse in context. Prosperity preachers take it completely out of context to mean that it is always God's will to heal. God strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Kyle said...

Kelly
2 Corinthians was written to the church in Corinth. To believers. Read 2 Cor 1:1. Paul's wrote the letter because the church in Corinth had been invaded by false prophets who were trying to undermine the true Gospel.
Also, I do believe that God can heal but the whole entire reason Jesus was crucified was for our sin alone. What greater miracle/healing is there than for God to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Ezek 36:26.

Ginger said...

Re: Romans 5:10, look at the verse right before it
"Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood (only believers have been justified), much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
We have been justified, not healed of all our sicknesses, not cured of all our bad habits, not made wealthy, etc. Christ died so that we could be justified, made righteous in him.

And again in Colossians 1:21-22:
"you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds (in other words, believers) he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

Kelly said...

You can't just add (of our sin) to the end of a verse. The Greek word used there is raphah which means to mend, to cure, to cause to heal, physician, repair, thoroughly, make whole.
That's a big word with a lot of physical meaning to JUST mean (of our sins.)
Jesus commands us to go and be like Him. What did he do? Healed the sick, cast out demons, made the blind see, and the lame walk. Why? To show God's glory.
If sickness glorifies God, Jesus robbed God of glory and the Holy Spirit continued to rob God of glory too.

Ginger said...

Isaiah was written in Hebrew, not Greek.
Isaiah 53:5
"But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed."

Look at the whole verse in context.

To say that sickness can't bring God glory is to assume that you know the thoughts of God.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9

Healing brings God glory as does depending on Him in our weakness.

Kelly said...

That's the great thing we don't have to assume the thoughts of God we have his thoughts written down for us in the Bible.
God's will is for us to be healed, if not than why was Jesus going around healing people?
Matt 10:7,8 Jesus said,"Heal the sick, cleanse the leapers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."
That to me sounds like he wants the sick healed.

Kyle said...

Seems like the original intent of this post is not being addressed.
Osteen preaches that it's God's will for all Christians to be healed. That's just not biblical. I can't find anything that says that Job was ever physically healed. His fortunes were restored. Also, Paul had something going on also (2 Cor 12:7).
Can God heal? Of course He can. Does God always heal? It's just not in the bible. Can God be glorified through someone who is sick? Yes, that's biblical.

Phillip said...

Paul had his "thorn in the flesh," which was a physical ailment. He was not healed. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10.) Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first." (Galatians 4:13) Now, if healing is in the atonement, it is part of the gospel. How could Paul be believed if healing is provided by faith as part of the atonement while he remained yet unhealed? Paul did not tell Timothy to have faith, he told him to take wine for his stomach. (1 Timothy 5:23.) It seems that God is more interested in our spiritual well-being than He is our physical well-being.

Stacy - midlifearmywife.com said...

Talk about twisting the word of God! Joel "quoting" Eph 1:4 is so messed up. The MSG version is as close as I could find to the "Joel Version", and it says:

"Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!"

Free of WHAT??? Free of the penalties we deserve for OUR MISDEEDS (that means our sins!). That's what we are promised to be free of.....free from the wrath and punishment we deserve. Not free from debt or pain or a hard life. I grow closer to God in the hard times, and I know He uses physical pain for His glory as I've seen it in my life. Honestly, I wouldn't want to be free from that as it would only make me further from Him!

MommaofMany said...

"So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? [Have] not I, the LORD?" Ex. 4:11

Also note Paul's suffering of the thorn in the flesh (which Kyle and Phillip have mentioned), the martyrdom of the early Christians, etc etc. throughout the Scripture.

The Lord is glorified through pain, suffering and disabilities. He is also glorified ~at times~ by healing those issues.

"And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." John 9:2-3

You can never argue from Scripture that illness/pain/martyrdom and suffering on this earth does not glorify God. What a slap in the face to the suffering church around the world for anyone to dare say they are not living in God's will.

Andrea Hill said...

Wow Ginger, your posts are always amazing. You don't hold anything back. What is even more funny is that everything you write about is exactly how I feel. Rather it be about our president, Joel Oesteen, and most and foremost abortion. Thanks and Thanks for your blog. I have followed your blog for a long time on and off but each time I return there is something so good and I wonder what took me so long to return. I'll just have to put you on my favs so I don't miss anymore of your posts. You preach it sister!!!

Mary Frances said...

Hey Ginger,
I came across your blog on Graceful threads. I really like reading about your family and the adoptions. I am very involved with African children and even had one of the girls live with me for a while till her mom came from Liberia. See the pics of your kids and hearing their stories really touched my heart and reminded me of my own. I thought I would leave you with some links to stories I have written about them. (You might have to copy/paste the link into your browser!)

Holding His Hand: http://maryfranceswriting.blogspot.com/2008/10/story-behing-this-story-at-end-of-may.html

Tears:
http://maryfranceswriting.blogspot.com/2008/11/tears.html

Mary Frances said...

Also,
How could I get a lay out for my blog like yours that allows gadgets on both sides of the blog posts?

Ginger said...

Andrea,

Oh my!! I can live on that compliment for a good week! Thanks for the encouragement.

Mary Frances,

Google: How to get a 3 column blog template. I don't remember exactly what site I used, but it boils down to editing html code. I felt like a computer genius after I did it. LOL

Anonymous said...

wack blog

Ginger said...

I don't normally publish anonymous comments, but that one really cracked me up. Rhetoric is a lost art.
LOL!

Stacy - midlifearmywife.com said...

Here is a great video of Mark Driscoll commenting on that Joel Osteen video. Love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IuiUOapK1w