Government vs. God, Part I
Friday, August 22, 2008 at 01:07AM 
photograph by Edmondo DantesHave today's generation of prosperity gospel preachers stopped to think that the pretty things and pockets of cash they parade as proof of God's approval may actually be what's destroying the credibility of the church as representative of our Savior? I'm not suggesting that monetary success should be shunned. But focusing on lucre as evidence of God's love, no matter how often one disclaims that posture, ultimately frames the Creator of the Universe as a one-trick carnival act.
Christ and His original band of followers did not need wealth or flashy clothes or political power to turn the world upside down. In fact the more Peter and Paul and the rest of Christianity's early generations suffered persecution, the more spiritual and moral authority they gained.
photograph by David LatLately, both the "left" and "right" bastions of America seem to expect government to regulate the prominence of Christ's church in society by either gagging her or amplifying her voice to the exclusion of everyone else. If the church needs government to promote it, the church is nothing. If the church can be defeated by government positions, again the church is nothing.
Christians often bemoan the secular state of the world. News flash: "the world" is secular, has always been secular, will be secular until the end. Doesn't the word "secular" mean "worldly"?
The secular problem is not with the world doing what the world does. The problem is with a church that thinks it makes sense to follow the world while hoping the world will follow Jesus.
Reader Comments (7)
This post is right on. There are many "Christians" who think they can have one foot in the world and the other foot in the church. Didn't Jesus say that we are either for or against him...no middle ground. And the "prosperity' preachers are just fooling themselves, and fooling the people who listen to them. Jesus was a Man of SORROWS ~ He learned obedience from it. It makes me wonder if these prosperity "Christians" even read their Bibles. ???
But ya know what, Jesus foretold all this.
Yes, dead on!! Thanks, I learned a lot!
I'd love to swap links with you!
I have nothing against the prosperity gospel since I believe that the source of all riches and good things are from God. The only thing wrong about it is that we are being taught to focus on God as a Giver only and not as a God worthy of all praise and reverence. We were taught to seek God's hand not God's eyes and heart. This focus distorts the importance of seeing God as a God who also needs our love, praise and worship.
My knee jerk reaction to the prosperity gospel is to gag. (To mix metaphors in an odd way there.) But Bingkee got me thinking. The problem is not that God gives. But that we confuse prosperity with physical and emotional comfort.
He never promised that.
Mark,
Absolutely, I agree. I thank God for everything I have and I certainly look to Him as my provider in all areas of my life and needs. But too many churches today are teaching that there is a correlation between godliness and prosperity, which implies that Christians who happen to live in a prosperous nation like the United States are somehow closer to God than the millions of faithful Christians in say, Africa, or other overwhelmingly impoverished areas of the world. The "prosperity gospel" also encourages vulnerable or lazy folk to focus on getting material things from God rather than focusing on the point of the gospel of Jesus which is to draw closer to Him in order to find the strength to submit to His will and to work out the salvation of one's soul.
I agree with you post, very well said. I also agree with what Mark says. While I am not against the prosperity gospel, I find that it lacks balance. Correct teaching of saving money, being responsible with your debts is often overlooked.
I agree with you totally here. Prosperity has least to do with money. Prosperity has to do with the well-being of the "whole you". When your entire being is at the center of Abba's will. This is prosperity.
Isn't it amazing that Jesus didn't say 'You either serve God or you serve girls" or something else. But His words were "You can't serve two masters. You either serve God or you serve mammon"
Mammon is a word referring to the spirit behind money. If mammon controls you, then you are no longer serving God. The root of all sin is the love of money.
Abba, deliver the Church from the power of mammon!