The Prosperity Gospel

I have been studying 1 Peter 2 today. Peter makes the point loud and clear that being a true follower of Christ is marked by suffering not prosperity. There are many popular preachers in America today (such as Joel Osteen) who are preaching a "health and wealth gospel." Peter says that God is glorified when we really follow Christ through the agony of suffering and continue to praise him. The "Prosperity Gospel" misrepresents what the gospel really is all about. John Piper gives a stirring rebuke of the "Prosperity Gospel" in the video above.

Will You Follow the Evidence?

For centuries people believed that Aristotle was correct when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he was not wrong.

Anyone could have easily taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height and see if the heavier object landed first. But no one conducted this experiment until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle’s death.
In 1589, Galileo summoned the most educated professors to the base of the Tower of Pisa. From the top of the tower, Galileo pushed off a 10 pound and a 1 pound weight. Both of the objects landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their own eyesight. They continued to say that Aristotle was right.
In matters of your personal faith, do you follow the evidence of Scripture or do you blindly accept what you have always been taught? Do you simply follow the religious traditions of what the church has always done? Do you blindly accept what preachers and church leaders of the past proclaimed? Or are you willing to examine the evidence and go wherever it takes you? As Christians, we must be willing to reexamine our beliefs and make sure they pass the test of Scriptural evidence. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5).

Strong Feelings About a Lie

Jealous over the favoritism that their father showed toward Joseph, his brothers first conspired to murder him. Reuben, however, convinced the blood-thirsty brothers to throw their little brother in a pit. Judah then persuaded them to sell the boy to a band of traveling traders bound for Egypt (Genesis 37:28). These heartless brothers then devised a plan to cover up their sinfulness by taking Joseph's coat, dipping it in blood, and presenting it to their father (37:31-32). When their father saw the bloody coat, he jumped to the next conclusion, "It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!" (37:33). As a result Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and began a period of intense mourning for his son whom he believed to be dead (37:34). Jacob's grief was so intense, his emotions so ravaged, he refused any comfort that his family would offer (37:35).

A clear application from this story is that we can feel very strongly about a lie. In fact, we can feel just as strong about a lie as we can the truth. In truth Joseph was not dead, no matter how much it felt like it. Emotions are an important part of being human and should not be quickly dismissed. God does not want us to have a completely intellectual faith devoid of emotion. Jacob was certainly not wrong for feeling the way he did.

But the application that we can draw from this story is that truth is not based upon emotions. Truth is truth. Too many in the religious world today base their convictions and beliefs upon what "feels" right. Thankfully, what Jacob "felt" eventually was proved to be wrong--his son was really alive and well in Egypt. However, if we base our faith upon emotions we may find that we have been wrong all along--and at Judgment we may not find such a happy ending (cf. John 12:48). Biblical truth is based upon hearing God's word, not listening to the language of our emotions (Rom. 10:17). We may feel strongly about something, but if it is not based upon actual truth, we may find we have had strong feelings about a lie.

Oprah's False Teaching

God by inspiring the Apostle Paul warned Christians that the day would come when people would no longer be satisfied to listen to the simple message of the gospel. There would come a time when people no longer would desire to hear "sound doctrine" but wishing to have their ears tickled would gather teachers that would tell them what they desired to hear (2 Timothy 4:2-3). Among the new generation of people pushing dangerous false teaching is the pop-culture icon Oprah Winfrey. It is time that Christians everywhere awake out of our slumber and stand for truth in the age in which we live. Click above to watch this disturbing video. (YouTube Link:http://youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA).