The Conflicting Nature of Christianity, Part #2

Earl Gillespie

The Conflicting Nature of Christianity

"A Multi-Level-Marketing scheme"

Part #2 of 6

 Matthew 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

It is my intend to make this a six part study and it is my intend to pose more questions than answers.  Many of the questions I pose, I hope you will supply the answers.  Little can be gained in any study if questions are not allowed to form, develop and answers sought after. This is done to prepare the mind; if the mind is not prepared then answers cannot be forthcoming.  The Holy Scripture is not hard or complicated if we would just stop and think about what we are reading.  Too many Christians are content with listening to someone else read the Bible as they look for that moment to shout “Amen”.  When we attempt to segments and spiritualize the Word of God to make it say what we want it to say, it is then we end up with a convoluted and polluted gospel.  If you believe simply because some two-legged person said, “God said it”, you are cheating yourself out of a true experience with God.   Recall a song from the past that stated that there are more questions than answers, and the more I find out, the less I know.   

Beginning with The Doctrine of Prosperity, it is an elaborate ruse, it places an enormous emphasis on blessing your pastor in order to receive a blessing from God.   It is a multi-level-marketing scheme that is purported to be scriptural, but is it really scripture or is it a misreading of the Holy Scriptures.   The prosperity gospel requires that members pay the church first even before paying their own bills. It also numbs the common sense of the members and convinces them that it’s perfectly ok for the pastor to receive all of his wealth from donations made to the church.  The members glory in their Golden Calf, my pastor is Bishop so-and-so and he drive a big car.   Glen W. Turner the grandfather of motivational and inspirational seminars built a hundred-million-dollar business empire by turning a gift for evangelism into a ministry of greed. He would jump, shout and scream, but his plan was not based upon God giving.  He just asked for the money and promised to show you how to make money.  You bought the right to sell his product to others, you started on the bottom and worked your way up. 

Prosperity preachers wrongly use the Bible to sell false hope to poor people that they will be rich if they will support their ministry by giving their hard earned money.  If multiplying their money was so easy, why do prosperity preachers have to ask poor people for their money, instead of just going to the rich for donations or spending the money to and from one another.  How much common sense does it require to realize if this was true, Christians would be rich and sinners would be poor.  Instead, we are encouraged to come to church on Sunday pay out our hard earn cash as we beg God for that blessing, while some fellow wave and scream, "your blessing is coming" and the church says "amen". We should read the Bible more and then we would not be fooled by these prosperity preachers.  Jesus did not come into the world to make us financially rich.  For emphasis I will repeat, Jesus did not come into the world to make us financially rich.  He came that we might be saved from sin and have everlasting life in the glory of God’s heavenly kingdom.  These false teachers do great damage to Gods people. First, by falsely claiming that God works like some kind of cosmic slot machine. But the real damage is in the fact that believers are robbed of the true meaning of Christ teaching.

Obedience is better than sacrifice is a phrase that is often heard within the church when the members are asked to do things that they normally would hesitate to do.  This is the scripture  that a segment is surgically removed and quoted. 1 Samuel 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD, as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.   It seems as if Samuel was reprimanding Saul for not follow the orders given to him by God.  He was suppose to kill everything, this was his excuse.  1 Samuel 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.  There is a message and a lesson in this, but it has nothing to do with a person who is asking you for money.   

The surgically dissecting the Bible into sound bites and sculptured statement do not in no way reflect the true thoughts and intent of the writer.  This type of interpretation is articulated by politician and perfected by the media; it can be used to make a person’s words say whatever the speaker wants it to say.   It is equivalent to changing the word of God.  Sound bites are what they imply, sound bites, they are not representative of a thought process, nor are they representative of the intended message.  How often have you heard Mark 16:15 and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.   This segment of scripture is used to indicate that Jesus is talking to the masses or to the church and it is his directive for the church to go  out into the world and proclaim the Gospel.   There may be nothing wrong with this assessment of the scripture, but if we apply the rule of who is talking and who is being addressed, reading the entire paragraph will give us a different view of the conversation.  Mark 16:14-18 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Through the Word of God, we are often privy to conversations between Jesus and his disciples, the same as we are privy to conversations between God and Moses or other great leaders. In our struggle to, “live by every word of God”, we change the application and spiritualize much of the Bible, but by using that technique we are still left with the unexplainable. Many of us have problems with seeing the fruition of the explicit promises made by Jesus when he said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; (Do we have a problem casting out devils today? When Jesus cast out devils, they departed immediately. The next question would be, do we believe in devil possession? ) …They shall speak with new tongues; (Is this the incoherent mumbling that is often referred to as unknown tongues or was this the disciples' ability to speak so that all of the different tribes could understand them?) They shall take up serpents; (Mainstream Christians have denounced snake handlers as deviants and cultists. But they base their practice on the same passage that faith healer and those that speak in unknown tongues use to justify their faith. Most Biblical scholars believe the verses are a late addition to Mark. But to snake handlers, the words are as meaningful as any others in the Bible. Some churches practice this as a part of their worship service, to them it is a test of faith, other groups claim that it is being taken out of context or they spiritualize it.) and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; (Churches as a rule, refrain from this practice, but Jim Jones and his church really took it to another level) … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (The laying on of hands is an abused practice. This was one of the first attributes of God that was exploited on live Television.)

How often have we struggled in darkness seeking to manifest our belief in God.. We pray for the healing power of God to manifest itself, only to lose our loved ones to the darkness of death? Is it because we do not believe in the power of prayer or is it because of a lack faith? How many times those with serious afflictions have stood in pray lines praying for the healing power of God to flow, only to see those with headaches and backaches testify of their healing, while those with serious diseases simply die. The common knowledge of humanity tells us that if believing in God and prayer was the answer as many proclaim, many problems we are facing today would have been resolved long ago.  

Next

Part #3

When Is A Miracle a Miracle?