nuance

I have heard several pastors and leaders recently point out that there is really one identifiable heretical teaching within the pale of evangelicalism today: prosperity teaching. I tend to agree, with the caveat that even a heretical teaching can thrive in a truly Christian heart and community. That is, I believe that a lot of people that adhere to prosperity teaching are legit Christians. But that doesn’t excuse the teachers.

I remember being in church one Sunday, and in the sermon the pastor threw Joel Osteen’s book on the ground; and that was kind of over the top. I mean, critiquing Osteen’s theology is one thing - well and good. But throwing down the book while yelling, especially when the book is hardcover and features a lifesize picture of the writer’s head on it, is getting really close to an act of physical violence. And the pastor’s red-faced intensity provided a really weird contrast to Joel’s well made-up, glistening smile, and definitely made Osteen look like the nicer fella. Probably, the pastor should have made more of an effort to send a “love your enemies” message, rather than a “slam your enemy’s face onto the platform” message. IMHO.

So that’s not where I’m coming from.

But the point is, prosperity teaching is still daggum close to heresy.

It is not quite the same as most formal heresies, though. Formal heresies tend to attach themselves to basic and essential biblical truths - like the deity of Christ or the Triunity of the Godhead. But prosperity teaching is more subtle; it is a weed that grows right in the garden of otherwise orthodox evangelicalism. Yet in its full bloom it does show that it has an effect that is on the “level” of heresy - what it destroys, in the end, is in fact an essential, though less obvious, biblical truth. (But here I should interject - some prosperity teachers, like T.D. Jakes, also sport formal heresies like Oneness Pentecostal modalism.)

Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week because this week has really proven the wrongness of prosperity teaching for me. The basic premise - that if you adhere to certain principles of faith and life then God will bless you abundantly with material things - is quite frankly an out and out lie. It just is. And that is the tragedy of it; perhaps more than any other heresy it is particularly destructive in this life, preying upon those who are most in need economically, and leaving them more destitute than when they began. It is also tragic eternally - teachers turn themselves into predators, profiting from the gullibility of the weak, and masses give up on God and his church when the blessings the preacher promised don’t come.

And I want to be clear: there are some prosperity teachers who really do tighten the reigns and stop short of truly abusing people, even though their teaching regarding money is questionable - Jakes and Osteen would fit into this category, methinks. These guys are genuine-hearted, as far as I can tell. But there are also true charlatans out there, hypocrites of the highest order. I have a hard time not putting Benny Hinn in this category, especially after watching him threaten Y2K judgment upon anyone who didn’t put money in the coffer at a 1999 crusade.

But anyway, my week has shown that there is something else going on. This week, my wife and I moved. Our core decision to move was really based upon the notion that God was sending us into Burlington, to live in the city, in a poor section, so that we could serve Him better. In the process we had to sell our nice country condo for $11,000 less than what we bought it for, after all is settled. We had to borrow money to make the sale work. But it was a no-brainer, an easy sacrifice for the mission God is sending us on.

Then the boiler broke in the house. An expensive fix. Electrical issues, too - more money. Then a truly devastating twist - a week ago, my wife lost her job, leaving us without a key part of our income and the vital means of paying looming bills. And this week has yielded no hopeful results in her job search.

We have been living godly, making sacrifices, decreasing in our lifestyle, so why isn’t God blessing us? Is he mad? Is he trying to tell us that we made the wrong choice? Is it an attack of the enemy? Did we not DO enough or BELIEVE hard enough? Did we not SOW enough SEED into some dude’s TV ministry?

I think the enemy is involved, to be sure; and I don’t doubt God’s hand in this either, for he is always pruning us, always proving us, making us more like Jesus. But there is something more here - precisely that God is strong in our weakness, prosperous in our need, powerful in our want. There is a humbling of heart here, a sense that yes, we are following God on mission into a city in need, and yes, we will not find some kind of pot of gold to reward our obedience but rather a further experience of need so that we might depend even more on the God who loves us and sends us.

This is the Christian experience - not a legalistic game of give and get but a desire to give with no promise of return and satisfaction with whatever God chooses to give. If we are abased, let us be content. If we abound, let us not get too hyped up on it and just be content. We should glory in weakness! We should delight in suffering! Again, there is something fundamentally CHRISTIAN in that experience!

But let me tell you what I do believe, with all my heart - I do believe that my God will ever provide for me whatever I may need, for he loves me, O, how he loves me. My good father will not give me a stone for bread - he will feed my belly and house my family and clothe my body and I ought trust him without reservation.

I believe not in a God who grants massive financial wealth and success to those who do the right stuff and think the right stuff and pray the right stuff and give enough stuff to the right guy on TV - BUT I believe in a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and if he clothes the lilies of the field in such radiant glory will he not clothe me, the child whom he spilled blood to adopt, once and for all, into his family?

I believe in a God who makes money appear in bank accounts out of nowhere - as he did recently for some friends who hit a zero balance due to job loss. I believe in a God who sends family to give generously, even when they don’t have much, and a friend to slip a check into my hand at lunch, even though he probably doesn’t have the cash to spare.

I believe in a church that loves to give, lives to give, and doesn’t mind if its pockets are emptied in the process and never overflowing, ever. I believe it because I have seen it, and I know who Jesus really is because of it.

Tomorrow we close on that old country condo, and I can only pray:

God you are so good. What a faithful God have I.