How The Osteenification Of American Christianity and the Prosperity Gospel Deceived The Church

Nowhere in scripture are we promised worldly ease in return for our pledge of faith. In fact, every single Apostle of Christ received a one-way ticket to prison and/or death by torture.

Rarely do I read anything in the mainstream media that I can actually concur with.  That an essay in the Huffington Posts ‘Religion’ section can put an exclamation point on a truth I have recently learned, is stunning to me.

I have long had a major issue with what can be referred to as the ‘Osteenification’ of the American Church; the lukewarm Laodecian self-help/Prosperity Gospel.  This doctrine is nothing but a mirror of a culture that has created an entirely new Jesus, crafted in an image of the wealth, prosperity and desires of American Christians.

For those who have done missionary work, or lived in third world slums and hellholes serving persecuted Christians, this essay may help bring to perfect clarity a truth you may have struggled to put into clear understanding.   Most of the world’s Christian brethren, live a daily life that will astound, depress and baffle American understanding.  The truth is that our own culture has tainted our view of the biblical Jesus Christ.

THIS essay brings to home probably one of the most important false Gospels the American church has crafted, and it is one the entire church in our culture needs to repent of.

 

The One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying

Scott Dannemiller

….I’ve noticed a trend among Christians, myself included, and it troubles me. Our rote response to material windfalls is to call ourselves blessed. Like the “amen” at the end of a prayer.

“This new car is such a blessing.”

“Finally closed on the house. Feeling blessed.”

“Just got back from a mission trip. Realizing how blessed we are here in this country.”

On the surface, the phrase seems harmless. Faithful even. Why wouldn’t I want to give God the glory for everything I have? Isn’t that the right thing to do?

No.

As I reflected on my “feeling blessed” comment, two thoughts came to mind. I realize I’m splitting hairs here, creating an argument over semantics. But bear with me, because I believe it is critically important. It’s one of those things we can’t see because it’s so culturally engrained that it has become normal.

But it has to stop. And here’s why.

First, when I say that my material fortune is the result of God’s blessing, it reduces The Almighty to some sort of sky-bound, wish-granting fairy who spends his days randomly bestowing cars and cash upon his followers. I can’t help but draw parallels to how I handed out M&M’s to my own kids when they followed my directions and chose to poop in the toilet rather than in their pants. Sure, God wants us to continually seek His will, and it’s for our own good. But positive reinforcement?

God is not a behavioral psychologist.

Second, and more importantly, calling myself blessed because of material good fortune is just plain wrong. For starters, it can be offensive to the hundreds of millions of Christians in the world who live on less than $10 per day. You read that right. Hundreds of millions who receive a single-digit dollar “blessing” per day.

During our year in Guatemala, Gabby and I witnessed first-hand the damage done by the theology of prosperity, where faithful people scraping by to feed their families were simply told they must not be faithful enough. If they were, God would pull them out of their nightmare. Just try harder, and God will show favor.

The problem? Nowhere in scripture are we promised worldly ease in return for our pledge of faith. In fact, the most devout saints from the Bible usually died penniless, receiving a one-way ticket to prison or death by torture.

I’ll take door number three, please.

If we’re looking for the definition of blessing, Jesus spells it out clearly (in Matthew 5: 1-12).

 

….we ignore it all when we hijack the word “blessed” to make it fit neatly into our modern American ideals, creating a cosmic lottery where every sincere prayer buys us another scratch-off ticket. In the process, we stand the risk of alienating those we are hoping to bring to the faith.

And we have to stop playing that game.

The truth is, I have no idea why I was born where I was or why I have the opportunity I have. It’s beyond comprehension. But I certainly don’t believe God has chosen me above others because of the veracity of my prayers or the depth of my faith. Still, if I take advantage of the opportunities set before me, a comfortable life may come my way. It’s not guaranteed. But if it does happen, I don’t believe Jesus will call me blessed.

He will call me “burdened.”

He will ask,

“What will you do with it?”

“Will you use it for yourself?”

“Will you use it to help?”

“Will you hold it close for comfort?”

“Will you share it?”

So many hard choices. So few easy answers.

So my prayer today is that I understand my true blessing. It’s not my house. Or my job. Or my standard of living.

No.

My blessing is this. I know a God who gives hope to the hopeless. I know a God who loves the unlovable. I know a God who comforts the sorrowful. And I know a God who has planted this same power within me. Within all of us.

And for this blessing, may our response always be,

“Use me.”

 

 

Lamentation For America

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. – Ecclesiastes 7:4

It may do us some good to consider the Word of God as it pertains to a nation of His people who have abandoned God. The health/wealth prosperity gospel has deceived so many in the Faith – Christianity in America is nothing  but become a lukewarm rag.  Christians by and large refuse to believe repentance is necessary, that God will always look the other way in their sin because they “accept Jesus”.

Consequences are coming for our individual and national sins.  God’s Judgment is at hand.  An evil and perverse generation now rules a people grown lukewarm.  America has been given over to a debased mind and the people delight in wickedness while the Righteous are hated and scorned.  It would do us good to read the book of Lamentations, and contemplate the scriptures applying directly to this nation – for such is our future and will become our lament for certain if this people and the Christian church does not repent and turn from it’s ways.

1 How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the nations has now become a slave.

2 Bitterly she weeps at night,tears are on her cheeks.  Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her.  All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

3 After affliction and harsh labor, Judah (America) has gone into exile.  She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion (the churches) mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals.  All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish.

5 Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.

6 All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion (America). Her princes (leaders) are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem (USA) remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fall into enemy hands, there is no one to help her. Her enemies look at her

and laugh at her destruction.

8 Jerusalem (America) has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away.

9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. “Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.”

10 The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw godless nations enter her sanctuary— those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.

11 All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. “Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lordbrought on me in the day of his fierce anger?

13“From on high he sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.

14“My sins have been bound into a yoke; by my hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord has rejected all the warriors in our midst; he has summoned an army against us to crush the young men.  In his winepress the Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah (America).

16 “This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion (America) stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

18 “The Lord is righteous, yet we rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples; look on our suffering. Our  young men and young women will go into exile.

19“I called to my allies but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.

20“See, Lord, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death.

21“People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my distress; they rejoice at what you have done.  May you bring the day you have announced so they may become like me.

22“Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins. My groans are many and my heart is faint.”

I do not listen to Glenn Beck, but I read a transcript of his from yesterday that someone sent me a link to.  There is truth in his words, and words we need to prayerfully consider of ourselves as a nation and people.

 He said:

” If you look at history through a biblical world view, the last step before a nation is completely destroyed is they drive the righteous from among them…..Americans know. And if they reject it this time, and if they’re so dead inside ‑‑ that’s a possibility. If they’re so dead inside that they can no longer see the difference between good and evil, we will be destroyed because we will be a remarkable evil on this planet. – Glenn Beck 11-6-2012

The Weak Jesus of Modern Churchianity

“Judge not, lest you be judged”;  “Compassion and tolerance”; “Meekness”; “love”; “Never a harsh word”.

Those are a sampling of the scriptures and sentiments used to render Christianity  in this country and the West – impotent and of no power.  Modern Christianity has constructed an entirely new Jesus for itself.  A Jesus whom would never utter an angry word of condemnation, would never fight or go to war, who does not condemn sin or expect His followers to overcome sin.  Churchianity has decided to make those tenets it’s primary doctrine rather than to transform the world by encouraging repentance.  That teaches instead that we are to be “tolerant” of the sinful world and not to “judge the world” by condemning sin. Because it is now said that to condemn the sin is to condemn the sinner, because the sin defines who the sinner truly is.  And they say, Jesus would not judge someone for who they are.

Christianity, once a bulwark to the oppressive unGodliness and tyranny of men, has become conformed to the world, in order to believe a deception that there is nothing in this world Jesus would fight or stand against.

This sentiment, plaguing the Christian church is one of the major reasons Christianity is being shoved out of the culture and into the closet by secular hedonists.  Christians are no longer standing, they are bowing down and surrendering the culture without a fight because they have been deceived into thinking being Christian means loving and accepting everything under the doctrine of tolerance.  Praying for our enemies now means we should accommodate and make exceptions for our enemies to oppress us.  Doing so is the highest form of Christian tolerance.

But Satan is NOT tolerant, and this secular culture that has replaced the Christian culture is the most INTOLERANT of any dissent, belief or practice outside of Islam itself.

The weak Jesus of modern Churchianity is being steamrolled and crushed by secularism, debauchery and  political apathy.  It is no wonder why Islam is conquering the globe while Secularists apologize for and are allied with them in their shared quest to rid the world of Christianity.

So who is the real Jesus?  The meek and lowly waif and figure of modern abandonment theology that only loves and forgives and pours out blessings?  Or is there something modern Christians are missing?

The Real Jesus

By Jim O’Brien

I don’t know exactly when it was that I looked at the picture behind the preacher on Sunday morning and said to myself “That picture is a fake!” but I do remember saying it in Sunday School class.  It didn’t earn any gold stars.
 
Maybe it was after reading Paul’s statement that “nature itself teaches you that long hair on a man is a disgrace” (1 Cor. 11:14 GNB) I couldn’t envision the Apostle Paul saying that if Jesus had sported long hair.
 
Nor was he handsome. In fact Isaiah’s description of the Messiah says “there was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him.” (Isaiah 53:2 GNB)
 
It could have been when I first realized that any man who had grown up working in construction during the 1st Century A.D. would of necessity be a brawny guy. The picture just didn’t look very tough.
 
The picture on the wall did not look like the Christ who will return to the earth to make war described in Revelation 19:11-16.
 
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns
 
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
 
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” 
 
The typical picture of Jesus often overlooks the account of Jesus throwing out the moneychangers from the temple. (Matt. 21:12) How many moneychangers where there?  The Bible doesn’t say.  But it was a large area so one could reasonably expect it to be several, maybe a score or more.  No wimpy man could physically throw out that many men and turn over their means of doing business.  That was my kind of guy.
 
There is the Jesus that painted a verbal picture of carnality and said  “for after all these things do the Gentiles seek.” (Matt. 6:32 KJV)  

Jesus was too strong to be confined by politically correct speech. As in the time when he called the political and religious leaders of his day a bunch of snakes the children of snakes and asked how they could escape hell. (Matt. 23:33) That’s the kind of statement that makes the heart of an Irishman beat strong.
 
It’s also the kind of statement that makes me think something has been lost from mainstream Christianity.
 
The other day some news analysts were discussing the recent revelation of the sins of Tiger Woods, the golf phenom. It’s hard to pass a check out counter at the super market without reading about his loss of income and speculation about an impending divorce. So someone asked if Tiger can make an emotional recovery from the sins of the past. Brit Hume replied:  

“The extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So, my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”
 
The reaction to Hume’s statement was predictable. A writer for the Washington Post demanded that Hume apologize because he had offended about half a billion Buddhists. Funny, there are over two billion Christians on the earth and multiple thousands being persecuted, some martyred almost on a daily basis around the world by Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims yet the American press seems strangely unconcerned about the offense caused to Christians.
 
Maybe the reason is that mainstream Christians resemble more the picture on the wall at the front of church than they do the man who stood alone against a mob intent on stoning a woman taken in adultery.
 
Maybe Christianity needs an infusion of the real Jesus, not the picture on the wall.