The Gospel Of Convenience

Of all the articles I have written lately, this article is the most troublesome and heavy on my heart and spirit, and will undoubtedly bring the most critical responses from Christians. It is in support of the thoughts expressed in "Warfare Theology and The Coming 4th Reich!" article here on this site, as the situations in this article define the apostasy that has taken the 21st century Church, and created the conditions explained in that Article.

The subject of this document is so unpleasing to the 21st century American Christian, I believe that by writing it I will step across a threshold of "Main stream evangelical Christian", to a "radical", a "dissenter", "out there" and even "lost" in the eyes of some folks who read these words. So be it.

(EXCERPT)...

THE LOVE OF MONEY...

I remember in 1974 when the PTL club was launched. It started out as a Christian program, much like the 700 club which at that time was focusing almost totally on the Christian experience, and the Christian life as described in the Bible, and it's various ministries around the globe (Operation Blessing, etc.). Later the 700 Club, after nearly 20 years had turned from "televangelism" to "Christian Broadcasting", where they report world events according to their interpretation of scripture. A very quick change took place on the PTL club however, that I remember caused me to stop watching the program. I can see today, that it didn't stop a lot of people from watching the program. The change was so subtle, I now realize a lot of Christians didn't notice it at the time other than a few outspoken leaders.

The change was this..

During the running of the 700 Club, the show featured short "testimonies" of people who had watched the show, and were blessed spiritually by the content and thus began a walk with God. These short segments were very effective ways of communicating the amazing event of the entrance of Jesus into the lives of people. The PTL club started out using this type of segment as well, after all Jim Baker started out his career in Christian Television working for Pat Robertson, so it made sense that he would do such a thing. That, along with the tremendous success of the 700 Club, I'm sure it seemed like the right thing to do. However, a short time into the airing of the PTL club, the focus of these "segments" began to change. They went from showing people who had been spiritually blessed by the program and had come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, and began to show people who had been financially blessed, by giving money to the PTL club. Over and over they would show segments where people who had given money to the PTL club had suddenly gotten big sums of money, and how their money had grown tremendously. They taught that it was because God was blessing them for giving to PTL's ministry. Jim and Tammy-Fay Baker gave many a heart felt sermon on the program citing...

Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

They interpreted that verse to mean that every person who gives to the ministry would be blessed "so that you won't have room to receive it". Program after program, they would show these spots. Christians all over the country and the world sent their hard earned dollars to the PTL Club, hoping that they too might receive these "blessings". As you can well imagine, even folks who were barely able to feed their families were sending money, hoping to be "Blessed". ( I speak from experience here). The show taught the masses that money and prosperity were the rewards that God would extend to people who gave to their ministry. They taught that "God wants you to be wealthy" and that money, houses, property, and possessions were the "blessings of God". I remember that a significant amount of respected leaders alive in the church at that time, including the ones at my own church in Salem NH, refuted that teaching and the concept that God blessed people in terms of possessions and money. Even though the PTL Club's ministry fell in disgrace in 1987 in the wake of the sexual scandal, the concept that God would bless you in dollars and cents if you gave to his work remained. It has been called by some. "The Prosperity Gospel."

Many new programs have sprung up teaching the same concept of God, only without the sexual scandals. One does not need to look very far today to find many extraordinarily wealthy television based ministers following in the footsteps of the Bakers - as I said, without the sexual scandals. Without the sexual scandals, these programs have furthered these concepts in the church to their current level of acceptedness. They have been expanded on as well. I have heard folks say that if you are not "blessed" (I.E. wealthy) that you are taken in sin, or that you are not right with God. A friend of mine was told by a fellow Christian, that a poor person "Can't make a good testimony for Christ." Yes, that's a direct quote friends, from a 21st century Christian. I know that not all Christians believe that kind of rubbish, but this person for instance is an active Christian, who is involved in their church, and truly believes that they are 100% right with God in their doctrine. I know this person to be truly sincere in their beliefs. And don't say that this "doctrine" is only preached on TV, most of you have heard this "God wants to bless you" sermon right there in your own churches.

This description of events surrounding the Church in the last 30 some odd years is a matter of fact friends, it is history. It happened. We were there and have seen it from beginning to its current state. What is it's current state? The current state of affairs in the evangelical church today, is that almost every single person you talk to in American Christianity believes that his money, his home, his possessions, his holdings in the stock market, his toys, such as motorcycles, cars, electronic equipment etc, are "the blessings of God." The American way of life; the constant pursuit of money, wealth and "happiness", have now been adopted by the church as the God ordained way that Christians should live. That we are meant to create for ourselves here in this life, a sort of "paradise" where we just live out our lives in expectation of our transferal to our mansion by the crystal sea, where we will continue to live in avarice forever is astounding! Of course all the while they say "I would give it all up in a second!" Since it is safe to say that most Christians believe that they aught to be thankful for and in fact "love" the "blessings" that God has given them, I believe it is therefore safe to say that under whatever covering we would like to place it, the current state of affairs in the church is that the "Love of Money" is very much alive, and that this state of affairs has taken Satan, (if it started in 1974 with PTL as we believe it did), some 30-40 years to foster and embed in church doctrine.

The concept of money as the "Blessings of God" will be addressed more attentively in the article: "The Blessings of God" here on this site. for now I name it as one of the contributing factors, creating the deceptions spoken of here.

See the remainder of this important Article here... "The Gospel Of Convenience"