"You will be blessed in your body! You will be blessed in your finances!"
It's annoying when your registrar's phone goes off in the middle of clinic, but I was intrigued by his ringtone. It was a snippit of a sermon by Nigerian 'apostle', a well-known proponent of prosperity gospel theology. The basic idea is that if you come to Jesus, you will be blessed - materially as well as spiritually. God wants to bless you - you should expect wealth, happiness, health as part of the normal Christian experience. Of course, you should then share that wealth with the one who preached to you...
This sort of teaching is pervasive in Malawi; I've heard the 'You will be blessed' ringtone on lots of other people's phones! It creeps into the teaching of many denominations - Catholic, Pentecostal, Presbyterian.
Even a passing glance at the teaching of Jesus (Luke 9:22-24) or the lives of his followers (2 Cor 11: 24-29) reveals the lie within prosperity teaching. But in a poor country, it is very attractive. It promises an instant end to the drudgery of poverty.
But at it's heart is an evil lie that robs Christians of their assurance, confuses them when they experience suffering and leads many to give their scanty resources to charlatans. And worse, it leads people to worship the gifts, not the giver. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s
Pray for ministers and preachers in Malawi that they will not 'distort the word of God' but 'On the contrary set forth the truth plainly' (2 Cor 4:2)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment