This Must Be Read: Beware of the False ‘Gospel’
I am writing today with a heavy heart as there is a heresy that is finding its way around the world and it is the prosperity ‘gospel’. I am saddened to find out that someone who has been very important to my own theology is being mixed up with the doctrine of demons, which we are warned in many parts of Paul’s writings to stamp out whenever we see it.
You may have been exposed to such people as Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, TD Jaques, Larry Lea, Trimble, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Trinity Broadcasting Network and this bunch of greedy TV evangelists who I would be bold enough to say are a satanic group. The Bible says out of a good tree comes good fruit and out of a bad tree comes bad fruit.
If you check the origin and the root of this you will find it goes back to a man called Robert Schuller, who is connected with the author of The Power of Positive Thinking. Such men as Kenneth Hagin took their original teaching from a man called Kemp. A famous book that I have on my bookshelf The Invisible Man was where Kenneth Hagin was influenced with the whole faith movement.
I was mixed up with this movement for several years and at one time I idolised and followed a man who taught these erroneous doctrines, not the Man Christ Jesus. By the way, these faith teachers say that when Jesus was born on the earth He was just a man and when He was in the River Jordan He was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is blasphemy, as if Jesus was not very man and very God He could not have died for us. He had to be the spotless Lamb of God.
Over the Christmas period and New Year the Holy Spirit has challenged me. He even took me to a book that I have always had problems with written by Rick Warren and is used by most megachurches around the world. To say the body of Christ in the west is in trouble would be an understatement, as many of our leaders are barricaded behind their church doors or are part of this insidious megachurch movement. Jesus said very clearly we can only serve one master, God or mammon. I hope like me you choose God. I have also been looking at the scripture recently Matthew 7: 13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” I am disturbed when I hear people preaching that the wide road is just another road and that it is up to you which road you want to go through, when scripture is clear: God’s way is the tough way. John Bunyan knew this and many of the reformers in Great Britain centuries ago.
I am glad that even though I rose to great heights and fell to the ground financially, I will never accept this garbage as it is another gospel, and as it tells us in Galatians 1: 8, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” Also 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.”
The Bible says in the last days (Matthew 24: 24) “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” I am just ashamed that for many years I believed this rubbish, but now the Lord has opened my eyes and has shown me there is only one way – His way – to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Rev Ross Rennie
Ross well spoken my friend you are not the only one who has moved
on to find this truth. it just shows how focused we need to be and discern
things for ourselves in Christian circles.
What you are saying has already been picked upon by Jimmy Swaggart
and his fellow ministers where they are all of the same mind and one
accord and are spreading the message across the world (all be it slowly)
through his tv ministry.
Ross has we both know Myers writes a lot of things on your behalf when
you ask him to translate over the phone. Did this come from you or Myers?
Editor’s note:
The content of this post was dictated by Rev Ross and a few minor adjustments to style and grammar were made by Myers.
My question to you who believe that you should not prosper is ;
how do you intend to publish the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ if you do not believe that we serve a RICH God and Almighty KING .. That indeed ALL ‘things’ belong to HIM including the cattle on a thousand hills???
What does the following Scriptures mean to you Mr Rennie?
I wish above ALL ‘things’ that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. 3 John 1.2
Now Abraham was extremely RICH in livestock, silver and gold Genesis 13.2
And God said to Noah and his sons ‘BE fruitful and multiply and fill the earth Gen 9.1
Do you not KNOW (have intimate knowledge of) that the GOD of the whole earth is RICH in every resource?? Are you so short sighted that you would preach anything but a WONderful RICH and PRECIOUS SAVIOUR who died our death to give us HIS Life???
The WORD of GOD is resplendent with HIS Riches .. You have not asked the Precious Holy Spirit to open your understanding to reveal His TRUTH concerning your mindset and your heart …. Dear dear dear Mr Ross .. Do you not understand this is just what the devil wants for Christians to be arguing over whether their FATHER in heaven wants them prosperous or not!!! Go one step further count how many people were prosperous in the Bible … David, Solomon, Joseph, Abraham (and I am the seed of Abraham) and the beautiful names go on and on …
Do you KNOW how big GOD is…. Do you? Do you know HIM at all?????? Do you Know they played dice for Jesus’ clothes … (Do they play dice for rags or riches)?
Gravity, Electricity Time are Laws .. We cannot see them, but we see the effects of them ..
The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death .. The curse Adam brought on the earth was reversed at the cross because of our Wonderful Saviour and King JESUS CHRIST and HE said ‘it is finished’!
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I am come that they MAY have Life and have it in ABUNDANCE John 10.10
God bless you abundantly as you consider these words In Jesus Name Amen
I thank Angela Van Heerden for contributing to the debate.
Ms Van Heerden begins her comment with the words ‘My question to you who believe that you should not prosper…’. I should like to make it clear that it is not my belief that I should not prosper. My article was criticising the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’, not denying that God is able and willing to cause His people to prosper.
Ms Van Heerden asks me what three scriptures mean to me.
3 John 1: 2 – Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
This scripture encourages me to pray for the prospering, wellbeing, and ‘shalom’ of those whom I love, just as John prayed for the beloved elder Gaius, to whom this letter is addressed. It does not justify my praying for myself selfishly or avariciously.
Genesis 13: 2 – Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.
This is a statement of fact. The Lord blessed Abraham materially as well as spiritually. Again, I do not take this verse as an instruction to ‘name and claim’ livestock (which my neighbours might object to), silver or gold for myself.
Genesis 9: 1 – And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
This scripture is a sign to me of God’s grace in providing for the repopulation of the earth following the destruction of the flood. It says nothing about material wealth.
Ms Van Heerden encourages me to ‘count how many people were prosperous in the Bible … David, Solomon, Joseph, Abraham.’ David prospered through military conquest and enslavement; Solomon acquired wealth through tribute paid by the nations his father had conquered. Their wealth did not prevent David from committing adultery, arranging the death of one of his loyal ‘mighty men’ and mismanaging his dysfunctional family, or Solomon from letting his heart be turned away from the Lord by his many foreign wives. Joseph’s prosperity came after a period of extended, acute suffering. Abraham accumulated flocks and herds as a result of God’s blessing, but nowhere do we read that his motivation in believing God was to get rich. Yes, we can pick out a few rich people in the Old Testament, but there are countless more who are not identified as being wealthy.
In the New Testament, riches are seen much more as a hindrance and a snare. Jesus (who had nowhere to lay His head, whose only possessions – His clothes – were stripped from Him at the cross, and whose body was laid in a borrowed tomb) identified a young man’s wealth as an obstacle to discipleship. Paul warned that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. James had harsh words of warning for the rich who oppressed their workers and led a life of wanton pleasure.
What is important is not whether we prosper or not, which is up to God, but our attitude to wealth and possessions, and this is what angers me about the prosperity teachers. They seem to be pandering to people’s greed and dissatisfaction, and by their own lifestyles they set an example of making luxury an idol. Why does a preacher need an executive jet when he could just as easily use a scheduled flight? Is living in a multi-million dollar mansion a help or a hindrance to preaching the gospel to the poor?
My other criticism of some of the prosperity teachers is of their theology, for example the ‘little gods’ doctrine, which I along with the vast majority of respected theologians consider to be heresy. As Hank Hanegraaff has written, this demotes God and Jesus and elevates, even deifies, man and Satan.
Also these teachers speak much of ‘sowing seeds’, in other words giving them money, in order to (possibly) receive money back from their ‘fruit-machine god’. If a person gives with a pure, generous heart without any thought of personal gain, and God chooses to bless him or her with more money, then I reckon that kind of person is going to give that money back to God, and so the cycle continues. That is my interpretation of 2 Corinthians 9. As Chuck Feeney said, “I want my last cheque to bounce.” If our motivation in giving is to get something back, then I suggest there is something wrong in our heart as well as in the heart of the person who is twisting our arm to give in this manner.
I keep coming back to the person and teaching of Jesus. If Jesus had delayed His first coming for 2000 years, can you really imagine Him flying in in His executive jet, appearing on television asking you for money, and then going back to His mansion to hobnob with politicians and businessmen? That is not my Jesus.
How about you? What do you think? Leave a comment and join this important debate.
Pingback: Write the Vision and Make It Plain – Grace Missions UK