August 25, 2008

  • This fits well with Chris' message yesterday about choosing Christ; the Gift-giver rather than the gifts.

     

    August
    25

    Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly
    by John
    Piper

    When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my
    response is: "If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I wouldn't want in."
    In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you.

    Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. It's
    deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like:
    "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple"
    (Luke 14:33). And it's deadly because the desire to be rich plunges
    "people into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to
    preachers of the gospel.

    1. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that makes it harder for people to
    get into heaven.

    Jesus said, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the
    kingdom of God!" His disciples were astonished, as many in the "prosperity"
    movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even higher by
    saying, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
    rich person to enter the kingdom of God." They respond in disbelief: "Then who
    can be saved?" Jesus says, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all
    things are possible with God" (Mark 10:23-27).

    My question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a
    ministry focus that makes it harder for people to enter heaven?

    2. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that kindles suicidal desires in
    people.

    Paul said, "There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought
    nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we
    have food and clothing, with these we will be content." But then he warned
    against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against preachers
    who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid of it. He
    warned, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into
    many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
    For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this
    craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with
    many pangs" (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

    So my question for prosperity preachers is: Why would you want to develop a
    ministry that encourages people to pierce themselves with many pangs and plunge
    themselves into ruin and destruction?

    3. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that encourages vulnerability to
    moth and rust.

    Jesus warns against the effort to lay up treasures on earth. That is, he
    tells us to be givers, not keepers. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on
    earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay
    up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
    where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19).

    Yes, we all keep something. But given the built-in tendency toward greed in
    all of us, why would we take the focus off Jesus and turn it upside down?

    4. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that makes hard work a means of
    amassing wealth.

    Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own
    hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have.
    The purpose was "to have to give." "Let him labor, working with his
    hands, that he may have to give to him who is in need" (Ephesians
    4:28). This is not a justification for being rich in order to give
    more. It is a call to make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no
    reason why a person who makes $200,000 should live any differently from the way
    a person who makes $80,000 lives. Find a wartime lifestyle; cap your
    expenditures; then give the rest away.

    Why would you want to encourage people to think that they should possess
    wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to keep their lives
    more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that not add to their
    generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not possessions, is their
    treasure?

    5. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that promotes less faith in the
    promises of God to be for us what money can't be.

    The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we have
    is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says, "Keep
    your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has
    said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The
    Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" (Hebrews
    13:5-6).

    If the Bible tells us that being content with what we have honors the promise
    of God never to forsake us, why would we want to teach people to want to be
    rich?

    6. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that contributes to your people
    being choked to death.

    Jesus warns that the word of God, which is meant to give us life, can be
    choked off from any effectiveness by riches. He says it is like a seed that
    grows up among thorns that choke it to death: "They are those who hear, but as
    they go on their way they are choked by the . . . riches . . . of life, and
    their fruit does not mature" (Luke 8:14).

    Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that Jesus
    warns will choke us to death?

    7. Don't develop a philosophy of ministry that takes the seasoning out of the
    salt and puts the light under a basket.

    What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the
    light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit of
    wealth tastes and looks just like the world. It does not offer the world
    anything different from what it already believes in. The great tragedy of
    prosperity-preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awakened
    in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the name of
    Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this, the world
    simply sees a reflection of itself. And if it works, they will buy it.

    The context of Jesus' saying shows us what the salt and light are. They are
    the joyful willingness to suffering for Christ. Here is what Jesus said,
    "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of
    evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your
    reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before
    you. You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world"
    (Matthew 5:11-14).

    What will make the world taste (the salt) and see (the
    light) of Christ in us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather,
    it will be the willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through
    suffering, all the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus.
    This is inexplicable on human terms. This is supernatural. But to attract people
    with promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus.
    It is not what he died to achieve.