Hermenuetics

Comments

I know we are not supposed to judge, but my gut (which I believe is the Holy Spirit) has been telling me that this prosperity teaching has a hidden agenda in it that has little to do with leading people to Jesus. I think sometimes we reap what we sow when we make poor choices. And while I obviously don't know the White's situation and don't want to judge them, it appears that possibly some poor choices were made on their parts, thus producing the situation they are in now. But really that is ultimately between them and God. We as fellow brothers and sisters should be lifting them as well as their congregation up in prayer, and continute to pray for true wisdom and guidance in our own lives. We all are vulnerable to the same types of things the White's are facing and without the constant guidance and grace of our Lord we would all be in trouble. Let us not forget that and place ourselves above them in our own minds and hearts. Also let us all pray for wisdom to know truth - and not just what our itching ears want to hear.

Posted By: Mary | July 22, 2009 7:09 AM

I watched Paula on Monday night trying to sell the idea that if you would just sow a 200 dollar seed of faith, the Lord will bring it back a hundred times over. I can’t buy into that teaching. I watched my parents, who preached in the Nazarene church for over 50 years, sacrifice so the church would go forward. Our Lord has always met their needs. No they don't have an abundance of money in the bank; they are content and have enough because God has blessed them with his faithfulness, his love, and his care.

Posted By: Linda | July 22, 2009 8:34 AM

The so called "Prosperity Gospel" is in direct contrast to what Jesus taught about denying ourselves and to take up our cross daily. I feel it is a dangerous message and I've wondered how the leaders of it truly feel about themselves as they live in their mansions and fly in their private jets. Not to say God doesn't bless us materially because all good gifts come from Him. However, it seems to me that when material blessings are the central message and not the love of and worship of God, something is terribly wrong because that is not in sync with God's word. Paula's church needs a miracle alright; and I pray God grants them just the one they need.

Posted By: Sue | July 22, 2009 2:02 PM

Yes, I tend to agree that too much of everything is poison. The gospel should be lived with temperance, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control. Money is not bad but the love of money, as the bible puts it is the root of all evil. Jesus said you cannot serve both God and mammon. Who is mammon? Is it money? While the prosperity gospel may be tilted to the pursuit of money....which Solomon says is vanity of vanities.....chasing after the wind. There is the concept that we should be "above and not beneath" "the head and not the tail" as Christians wisdom is greatly needed because it is true that godliness with contentment is great gain and that it is "harder for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" What is Jesus saying here? Please note that absolute power corrupts...so money gives power and if this power corrupts such that you worship mammon(money?) more than the Almighty God who gives us all things to enjoy...then as Paul says we will have shipwrecked our faith. The bible says "guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the wellspring of life", another bible saying "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" Check your heart, are you driven by the love of money or are you seeking the blessings instead of the blesser. Test every spirit the bible says...my advice test every gospel. By their fruits you shall know them. In short not everything we see is what it seems....it must pass the test of the word of God and Gods word does not contradict itself

Posted By: Alexandra Mwaura | July 23, 2009 1:02 AM

How does Paula White square her plans to be Pastor of the church with Scripture which requires that church leaders,including bishops & deacons be the
"husband of one wife"? She is not now, nor can she ever be a "husband". Pursuant to this Bible principle, divorced men cannot fill these positions either. This disqualifies Randy White from the pastorate as well.

Posted By: Allyce | August 14, 2009 10:41 AM

such is the fruit of breaking from the church and going your own way. when you and your doctrine(s) are not accountable to anyone else on earth, you can preach anything at all (and they do).

Posted By: jt | August 25, 2009 2:23 AM

Let's just be honest. All of these prosperity gospel preachers ignore the "letter of the Law" as well as the "Spirit of the law". You CANNOT square up the words of Jesus with any of what they do. But, because their churches grow into the thousands, Christians everywhere view that as "blessings" from God when any critical evaluation will show you that religious organizations and churches that are outside of mainstream Evangelical cirlces also grow and prosper, meaning all that propserity teaching does is tap into the inherent "greed" factor of all of us. We all want to believe that being a Christian will bring a better life rather than one of suffering and sacrifice (who wants to go to church and hear that). I'm afraid many of us will have to answer to an Almighty God as to why we squandered our financial resources in providing luxury to these leaders rather than providing relief to the poor. The other day I was listening to prosperity teacher "bragging" about the 10% of income that went to missions (a whopping $4million). Sounds great but the reality is that the other $36million went to strictly running a church "machine", including cars, houses, vacations and clothing for the leaders. That, my friends is sad.

Posted By: GLS | September 2, 2009 10:12 AM

To GLS, agreed! and this sounds like much of the same noise i hear from the ultra right on health care reform. "if they can't afford to pay for health insurance, they should be allowed to see a doctor", they scream.

and Jesus would say what?

when we worship the dollar, our God can never be big enough

Posted By: jt | September 6, 2009 2:23 AM