The Bible is filled with people who followed God's will, only to be put in fiery furnaces, beheaded, stoned, or crucified. Naturally, many white Christians interpret this to mean that if they put their faith in God, they will be rewarded with health and wealth all of their days.
And not just health and a comfortable living, mind you, but anything your heart desires! Ferrari? Beach house? Season six of the Office on DVD? Just "name it and claim it" and God has to give it to you - it's in the Bible... somewhere. Limited numbers of Word-Faith type church members have had sports cars magically appear in their driveways, but it's an entirely different story for the pastors of these churches.
Prosperity theology is quite the deal for charismatic pastors like Joel Osteen and Jim Baker. As long as the congregation believes that a winning lottery ticket is only a bigger tithe away, at least the pastor will be living his best life now.
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7 comments:
This was the best post yet! Your opening paragraph says it all.
Theology that God is a good luck charm.
Ugh. This guy is such a joke.
that post was absolutely scathing...and I loved it!
The cruel backstroke of prospeity doctrine is that is you have troubles in your life, suffer lack and need, are stricken with illness, suffer painful loss, or have any other less that lovely thing happen to you, it is because you are not a good Christian, or even a real Christian at all, are living with hidden and unconfessed sins......ad nauseum.
Folks...this whole prosperity stuff is just a Protestant version of 'a coin in the coffers rings / a soul from Purgatory springs'. Seriously, they preach tithing because they RECEIVE the tithe. That benefits them.
I think you have missed the point, we are blessed regardless of the things we have or don't have. I think Joel Osteen is preaching what God's word tells us.I don't God cares about the "stuff" as long as the "stuff" doesn't control us. Hopefully we are giving and living a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
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