Jesus warned us sternly that no man can serve two masters–God and money. That ultimately a man would choose to love one and hate the other. And as Christians we can easily fool ourselves into thinking we are keeping money in its correct biblical perspective.
There are Word Faith televangelists racking up millions of dollars by preaching that God “wants to bless your socks off” with health and wealth. Some Christians buy into the teaching and adamantly follow these people, just believing if they “have enough faith” God will grant us wealth we cannot imagine.
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Others see these televangelists as nothing more than masters of pyramid marketing–where the few at the top get wealthy, while thousands walk away disillusioned and poorer than when they began.
One thing cannot be denied–some of America’s most well known prosperity preachers are doing quite well for themselves with multi-million dollar mansions, fleets of luxury cars and private jets. This morning on SUFTT, we discuss the “prosperity gospel movement” sweeping the world. We are also joined in our first segment by Christian economist Doug Wakefield with Best Minds Inc. for his assessment on the Stock Market shaking of the past week. Is this volatility the new normal?
Serving God or Money:
Can’t this do with working a job that is against Christ? Let’s name some obvious ‘sinful’ occupations that give money: prostitutes, abortionists, what about some of what the Nazis did, etc. So who did they serve? Can we hide behind “Its just a job?” when we work for money?
I can say with all confidence, God does provide for His own. Always. If He in his wisdom makes one wealthy, one must be very careful how one handles that wealth.
And once again here it is… the Word of God to the rescue, and who knew it was there the whole time:
1 Timothy 6; 5-11
"Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that GAIN IS GODLINESS: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness."
So godliness does not imply wealth, but usually the opposite even.
This is telling: ask anyone who they are or what they do, in America, and they will somehow provide an answer tied to their work/career. Americans value work and self-fulfillment through such over God; therefore, when a church lines up with this thinking, they not only can appreciate it, but support it.
Yes! And we are taught since childhood to go out and make a name for ourselves, to be prosperous, go to college, become a millionaire, we are taught to be self sufficient, self reliant and proud. It begins as a noble effort by parents to make sure their kids do better than them, but a balance must be reached, tempering material gain with biblical principals, that starts at home when children still are trainable. I know and deal with many very wealthy people, a good percentage of the kids, mostly teenagers, have no respect for money, they think it grows on trees and have no clue how hard their parents had to work to get it, this is bad parenting . Work is good, the bible says man will earn their living by the sweat of their brow, today many have made tremendous fortunes by the wink of an eye, from Wall Street to D.C., greed knows no bounds, but what do we expect from a fallen society that worships mammon? Even communism fell to mammon worship, China and Russia are probably more capitalist than the U.S. Ironic isn't it?
The ignorant equate wealth with prosperity, God says the soul is worth more than gold. The prosperity wolves are nothing more than slick con men and women preying on the simple minded and those that are too lazy to read their bibles, they use the word of God for financial gain at the cost of people's lives and souls, these are headed to a greater judgement. You cannot worship God and money, ultimately the wealth one has will be measured against what one does with God's blessing, all one needs to do is read your bible, how did the apostles live? Caves, the desert, from house to house, no luxuries…….. I'm not saying money is bad nor luxuries, chasing after them, being consumed by them is. Jesus Christ was a humble carpenter, He could have been living in a palace, but yet He was lowly and humble and gave His life for people that didn't want Him, those that never met Him and He owns everything. Benny Hinn and his ilk, if they're alive when the antichrist rises, will follow him gladly, who knows maybe the money preachers will convince their followers to do the same.