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Many Christians are on the wide road to destruction and don’t even know it. They follow flim-flam arists, false teachers and self-proclaimed prophets who promise them health, wealth and happiness — all in God’s name.
Recently I watched a lot of late night TV (wasn’t pleasent, believe me). Hoo-boy, what a load of garbage. I don’t mean the Hollywood stuff, but the snake-oil salesmen claiming to be prophets of Christ!
Some of these were paid ads on cable: one man was offering free “spiritual holy water”, another was offering free “blood of Christ,” another was offering free “prayer cloths,” and two more were offering prayers of power if you just sent in some money. All of them guaranteed — guaranteed!! — to unleash God’s power into your life by drinking their water or sprinkling their blood or sending them $1,000 **immediately**. And what would this great cash register/vending machine in the sky do? Why, he would heal their tumors, give them money, pay their debts, buy them cars and new houses!
Oh, joy!
And, oh, the parade of people came forward to claim their heaven-sent booty in the name of God!
Tumors healed! Bills paid! Houses bought! Cars driven! Diabetes gone!
I watched all of this with a mixture of sadness and outrage.
NOT ONCE was Christ preached. NOT ONCE was forgiveness of sins discussed. NOT ONCE was the peace that surpasses all human understanding given even a nodding pass. NOT ONCE was the cross used except as a prop. It was all gimme, gimme, gimme, and if you don’t have faith or my holy water/holy blood/holy cloth/prayer system (or—ahem—send us $$$) the Lord won’t do squat for you.
That’s why this stuff is bad news — and not the Good News.
I am a sinner, and God knows my sins. I pray that someone reaches these people who are on the wide road to destruction.
Written by Truman
Sue Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 1:26 pmVisit Sue
I suppose the ultimate question is, whose bills were paid and whose houses were bought?
It is hard to fathom that people are taken in by con artists such as this but I have a question for you Truman, if you don’t mind.
Do you not think there are also legitimate churches who do the same only attempt to garner funds in the name of Christ? In other words, when a priest, minister, pastor or others demand that all parishoners give x dollars toward a new whatever and there are those who do not have that amount, do you not think that drives them, perhaps in embarrassment away from the church? Would it not be better to accept whatever one can afford than to force guilt upon those who have come to worship?
Large congregations are one thing, people can fade into obscurity, but a small parish, or one which posts the contributions of its members could easily, I think drive someone to follow a less than Christian path.
I hope I made myself and my question clear. It is just that I have seen first hand clergy who are money hungry and I find it not to be pretty, just like those flim flam artists you describe in your article.
Thanks for a very thoughtful piece.
~J~ Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pmVisit ~J~
I’m not Truman and I’d be interested in his answer, but I have never, ever seen the amount a person or family gives to a church. I’ve been a member of small, medium and big churches and it is never done. In our newsletter it posts the offering and attendance for the previous two weeks since it comes out every two weeks now.
We get a quarterly statement of how much we have given and how much is left on our pledge for the new Youth Center, but that was a three year commitment and we gave what we felt we could afford to give over and above our tithe.
Almost half our tithe is designated for missions because I have a strong affection for missions. In fact, starting tonight we are going to be “ganged up” on by missionaries from all over to tell us their stories. We’ll still give the same amount to missions as before. It’s a sizable sum and I don’t feel guilty about it.
One thing that got under my skin is the pastor has been here for 20 years and they are asking for donations to give him a gift. I don’t know if it’s a gift of money or something else, but we won’t be giving and I won’t feel guilty about it. He gets a good salary and benefits package and no one gave me a big gift when I reached 20 years of service at the company where I worked.
Truman Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 2:41 pmVisit Truman
I’ve never seen giving/tithing amounts posted either.
Sometimes churches asking for money turns people off. Legitimate giving is sometimes hard to separate from the “give give give” mentality that some churches take on. For example, my wife is a little upset that our church has a budgetary shortfall yet has pursued a few things that don’t seem to be financially sound. we admittedly aren’t the best at tithing, and we certainly could do more personally.
When a small or large church mounts a capital campaign for some improvement, it can drive some people away, but it can bring in more people. It just depends on the congregation, I guess. And also where the money is going to depends on what support it gets. But if people are constantly hit up for money, they tend to stop giving at all.
Churches, or I should say, congregations are called upon to be mindful of the resources they’re given, and of course it’s perfectly gfine to take up collections for others when the need arises, as Paul writes about being done for the church in Jerusalem. But churches should definitely be careful when asking for $$$.
That goes for legitimate churches.
As for the possible “phonies”…Well, only God knows their true hearts, and that is the real meaning of the passage “Judge not, least you be judged”:
When I saw all of those fancy-suited “preachers” handing out “miracles” to obviously poor people, I got angry. (You could tell from the way they dressed. There were no Madison Avenue fashions in some of those audiences.) People who are poor or desperate for answers or whatever will take it when they get it. Take a tube of water, slap “God” on the label and start hawking it with a sliver tongue and you can make a fortune.
Sue Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 3:10 pmVisit Sue
Thanks to you both!
Shirley Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 7:05 pmVisit Shirley
Truman:
I agree with your post. What passes for Christian TV is mostly garbage. The only one I’ve seen preaching the message of Christ Crucified is Jimmy Swaggart. It’s kind of ironic that the one most despised is the one preaching and teaching the true message of the Bible…then again maybe it isn’t ironic at all…if you know what I mean…
God bless