Poor Christians are deluded by 'grab it' gospel

[Kira]

THOUSANDS of Christians in Britain are being deluded by a new style of preaching that promises untold wealth to the believer whose faith is strong enough, according to a report. Followers of the so-called prosperity gospel — known by its critics as the “blab it and grab it gospel” — are encouraged to believe that it is acceptable to pray for material wealth.

An authoritative report by the Evangelical Alliance, an umbrella organisation for Britain’s evangelical Churches, raises concerns about teachings that if the believer gives a sum of money to the preacher, God will multiply it by a hundred times or more in favour of the giver. Preachers use mailshots, television and churches to persuade Christians that, by giving them money, believers will not only get out of debt, they will also become rich. Churches have traditionally repudiated wealth in favour of a modest lifestyle. The prosperity gospel plays on an equivalent belief that traditional religion will ensure fertility, abundance and longevity.

It is proving attractive to wealthy Christians in the West, particularly in America, because it assuages their consciences. Some preachers teach that material blessings, along with physical health, are confirmation from God of a righteous and holy lifestyle. Some of the poorest churchgoers are said to be deluded into believing that, if they give what spare cash they have to a particular preacher, they will receive the money back “one hundredfold”. But it is then the minister who becomes rich, often flaunting his wealthy lifestyle as proof of how well the prosperity gospel works. (see below for Loopholes)

The report says that prosperous, charismatic preachers can replace Christ as the object of adulation and admiration. The prosperity gospel developed in America after the Second World War, its proponents teaching that health and wealth are not only good and godly but the inalienable right of every believer. Preachers did not merely ignore the examples of St Francis and Mother Teresa, they condemned them, teaching that poverty was the work of Satan. “

Lacking the traditional British embarrassment about money, Americans are more likely to see wealth as something to be invested and exploited,” the report says. “The movement has been an unabashed advocate of material prosperity and this has naturally invited the charge that it promotes a lifestyle and ethos fundamentally at odds with the values of the kingdom of God. Analyses of the movement abound with anecdotes about luxury cars and Rolex watches.

The emphasis on debt reduction in prosperity teaching is clearly a response to a serious and widespread social problem.”The prosperity gospel became a cause of concern among the evangelical movement in the 1990s because of the activities of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, which had offices in this country and was affiliated to the Evangelical Alliance.

Members of the Evangelical Alliance council were alarmed by his fundraising methods, particularly when he allegedly linked the level of donors’ contributions to his own ministry with the extent of God’s blessing on the donors’ lives. The concern was about “the suggestion of so automatic an equation between material offering and divine favour”.

Under pressure from the council, Mr Cerullo resigned from the Alliance in 1996. The report was commissioned by the Alliance partly as a response to this, but also out of concern that the huge expansion of the prosperity message in America was about to be paralleled in Britain. Already, rapidly expanding black Pentecostal Churches in Britain are being strongly influenced by preachers from Nigeria, where believers have proved particularly susceptible to prosperity teaching. In addition, preachers often use Christian channels on cable and satellite television to raise money for themselves by preaching that what the believer donates to him and his wife, God will magnify a hundredfold. The prosperity gospel shares the conviction held by many pentecostals and fundamentalists that the world is in the final days before the Second Coming and the “rapture”, when the faithful are lifted directly to heaven.

The report notes similarities with pagan superstition that “what you say is what you get”. Preachers teach that believers must convince themselves that God has already made them a millionaire, preferably by giving money to the preacher himself. If the person fails then to become rich, it is because their faith was not strong enough.

The study Faith, Health and Prosperity was carried out by the Evangelical Alliance Commission on Unity and Truth among Evangelicals. Andrew Perriman, the editor, left Jamaica at the age of eight with his mother and two of his sisters to live in Kentish Town, North London, and went on to become a pastor within the New Testament Church of God, one of Britain’s fast-growing black Pentecostal Churches. He said that the prosperity gospel was reaching people as much through satellite and cable television and other direct means as through the churches.

Bible loopholes

The founding Bible text for the prosperity gospel is Mark xi, 23, where Jesus says: “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.”

St Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians xiii, 9 is taken literally: “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

Texts such as Proverbs vi, 2, “You are snared by the utterance of your lips”, are used to teach that ill-health and poverty are the believer’s own fault and that a Christian who prays for wealth and gives all their spare cash to the minister and who then remains poor has been ensared by Satan.

Where gospel texts appear to contradict the message of the prosperity gospel, such as in Mark x, where Jesus told a rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor, a grammatical loophole in the text is used to argue that Jesus did not in fact tell him to give all the proceeds of the sale to the poor, but was simply telling him to turn his solid assets into liquid assets and give some away.

Source: The Times..

Now I'm not putting this on to cause any kind of inflamed religious arguement, it just shows another example of how the bible's words can be twisted to suit.

[Kismit]

Your right Celti it's not a religious debate but a legal/moral one . One where the people that will lose most to something like this , are generally more in need than most others.

[Bizarro]

there is a little book that goes along with this theory. its kind of "en vogue" with the local christians and ive even seen it on the news here before. i might even have a copy- not that i believe this in the slightest but my father-in-law is a preacher and gave one to my wife.

i never pray for material things.

my favorite bible verse on why i never want to be rich:

Matthew 19

24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

[Delacorr]

Good point there DSchwartz hehe

[Aslan]

"There's few good rich men, but countries full of worthy poor men." - W. Tyler.

What happened to that whole 'It's harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven' stuff? Did that just all disappear when I wasn't paying attention?

[Delacorr]

I dont know...but camels are fun!

[VikingEd]

I think that people who preach this sort of gospel are actually very evil. Money-grabbing charletans only interested in increasing the size of their own bank accounts. They don't give a damn about the people they preach to. They only want their money. Christianity is about love and compassion, two qualities that I doubt any of these so called ' preachers ' possess.

(By the way, Hi folks, it's my first posting. Hooray!)

[Magikman]

Welcome aboard, VikingEd, glad to have you with us. Like your avatar, by the way.

[bigsteff]

all i've got to say to the people who fall for this SCAM is

i mean if you really believe in the bible/god/christ and all that,,then you should know that giving money to get money,is a no no

lets be honest..your prayers are supposed to be for other people....not your own wellbeing..after all christ gave his life for humanity....and he never asked for money.....

oh and a bit of SIMPLE KNOWLEDGE...

show me the goods and i'll show the cash

[Bizarro]

well, i have strange beliefs about giving money away. i have found that the more i give away, the more i get back. its always been this way for me, so i am a very giving person.

i will intentionally give my money to a good cause and then usually within weeks, something unexpected happens that gives it back. life is strange like that. i believe that God intends for us to give our money away, and then let him take care of our problems. luckily for me, he has taken care of a lot of mine.

[Sageghost]

There are two aspects to this which leave me wondering how the human race has gotten as far as it has in the first place:

1.) These 'so called' preachers are no more righteous than a serpent. They have turned a religious belief into a business, and are making suckers out of the many people who are led to believe that they will benefit from this.

2.) The people themselves....all I can say is 'wake up and smell the coffee'. The gullibility of some people (I call it the sheep syndrome) never ceases to amaze me. It's unfortunate that these charlatans exists in the first place, but come on - you should be able spot this con from a mile away.

This leads me to thinking...are some people so scared of death and what may lie beyond it that they are willing to believe anyone who happens to give them the answers they want to hear?

[PurpleStuart]

DS/bizarro - you are very right about that there does seem to be a karmic thing about giving, for me it usualy manifests in alcohol and cigarettes and guest lists

Celti - all around where i live there are these kind of 'churches' which promise prayers to get out of debt and prayers to be more successful. I find this most upsetting as this preys on those most vulnerable.

[fireflyxl5]

Matthew 19

24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Hi Folks

I have spoken to some of these prosperity people and you will be pleased to know that they have a way around this verse

The eye of the needle is actually a gate on the ancient city, a small one at the side, which means that the camel has to stoop down to get in. Rich people just have to praise God for their money and they'll be fine

There is also the verse Paul said 'though poor making many rich'. This apparently doesnt apply to money

[DrStrangelove]

That makes me sick.

[cutycub]

Ok.... Can sum1 please translate this for me? Its too hard and long to read!!! Translate it really simply plz.

[Naveed]

Finally, the media is beginning to catch on to those charlatans! I stopped attending a chruch months ago that was just like that. God, they bug the heck out of me.

"I gave to the offering and the next day when I was in need of gas money, I found a 20 dollar bill in my car." ~That church's pastor.

People like that make me sick. I've even noticed the big timers like thee folks on TBN and traveling evanglists do the same bloody thing. It makes me sick. As a matter of fact my list of things that makes me sick goes like this:

1. Pastors and Churches conning people out of money

2. Faith Healers

3. Rich scum bags like Donald Trump who only car about their own personal wealth.

4. Reality TV shows.

5. All of the above combined, which if that happens this line is bumped up to number one, and I have to start a whole new list.

Anyways, I'm off to start my church of people who will worship something that I will call the "force", and we will have swords of light. It will be GRAND!

Edited September 15, 2004 by Naveed