The Insidious Nature of the Prosperity Gospel

I believe most solid evangelicals can recognize the full-blown prosperity Gospel when they see it. "Send me a seed gift of $100 and God will multiply it 10 fold!" "We've got to have a prosperity mentality, not a poverty mentality." "God wants you to be wealthy!" etc. The common thread in this philosophy is that God's blessing will be given in the form of financial gains to those who are faithful. Therefore, if you are a "have not" you do not have faith. While the Hinny Benns, Oel Josteens, Dreflo A. Collars (the names have been changed to expose the guilty and protect the innocent) are easy to spot, there are subtle yet just as wrong-headed ways of communicating the same message, that most Christians don't detect.

Here is what I'm not saying:
1. God does not give financial blessing.
2. God does not give financial blessing in response to your giving (or other faithfulness).
3. It is wrong to attribute God with the credit for receiving financial (or physically sustaining) blessings.
4. It is wrong to give "in faith" that God will supply your needs.

I hear people say all the time "You can't out give God." or "God has always been faithful in supplying our needs." or "God came through with provision for a need while I was on my way to pay the bill!" All of this is fine, and I believe God does all of those things. We just must be careful not to equate God's faithfulness with the satisfaction of our physical needs. If God is obligated to fulfill our physical needs if we are faithful to Him, then there would be no such thing as a Christian starving to death. There would be no such thing as a Christian dying from a disease. No Christians would ever suffocate (because God will always provide oxygen). There would be no such thing as a Christian being late on a bill. God has certainly promised blessings to us if we remain faithful to Him, and those blessings may include physical sustenance, but He is never obligated to give us all that we need to live. Sometimes we sell God short on the type of blessings that we expect from Him. If we equate God's blessing with merely physical blessings, we may be missing out on God's greatest blessing- Himself.

Through pain, suffering, sickness, lack, and even death God has designs for the suffering of His people. He meets them in their worst suffering, and gives them Himself. IN: tribulation (catastrophe), distress (abandonment and fear), persecution (people physically or psychologically harming you), famine (no food), nakedness (no clothes), danger (risk to your life), or sword (death by slaying). Paul says "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul does not say instead of all these things, as though Christians will escape physical harm. Neither does Paul equate the love of God with physical sustenance, but with Jesus Christ. If your faith in God is based on the fact that you have always had your physical needs satisfied and all of the sudden you don't anymore, you are at risk of abandoning your faith. Of course if your faith is in a cosmic genie who always provides for your physical needs, I hope he lets you down so that you can trust in the real God of the universe. He will not let you down, He will always give you everything you need, even at the moment that the guillotine slices your head off, or when the tumor on your lung prevents you from breathing and causes you to suffocate, or when your children are taken from you by an oppressive government, or when you lose your job, or when you are thrown from your vehicle and never regain consciousness.

Question: If you have never been without food and water, can you deduce that God has blessed you?

Answer: Maybe. There are many rich pagans who have never been without who have gone to their grave treasuring their full bellies more than God. Was their bounty a blessing from God? I would say it was judgment, or at least the fact that they did not give God glory for their bounty increased their condemnation. Christians who love God more than His gifts who have always had enough to eat, never suffered physical illness, never lost a child or a close friend early in life, always had enough money to pay the bills, who die in their sleep when they are 97 all the while treasuring Christ more than all of these physical blessings are certainly blessed by God.

Question: If you have had a life of suffering in which you have constantly been in poverty, sickness, a broken financial situation, can you deduce that God has cursed you?

Answer: Not necessarily. One of the main problems with prosperity theology is that God's blessing is equated with ease, abundance, and lack of suffering. If we have faith, we are promised that we will have these things. Therefore the presence of stress, lack, and pain means that we don't have enough faith. Some of the greatest Christians in the history of Christianity endured the most suffering- John Bunyan, Richard Wurmbrand, Charles Simeon, Adoniram Judson, John Paton, David Brainerd, David Livingston, and many others. Did these men suffer because they didn't have enough faith? Was God punishing them for not believing as they ought? Did they lack a "prosperity mindset"? No, God works all things together for good to those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.

Question: Should you give tithes and offerings with the idea that God is obligated to bless you with physical blessing?

Answer: No. God may indeed bless you financially, but He is not obligated to. You should give money joyfully and sacrificially. The system of tithes and offerings is not some kind of money making scheme that you can exploit by giving. Again, we have a tendency to sell God short on His blessings by equating them with physical blessing when He wants to give us Himself.

Question: What if you cannot afford tithing should you anyway?

Answer: You should give joyfully, sacrificially and regularly. If you cannot afford to give much, give what you can and make intentional sacrifices in order to give. While the New Testament doesn't explicitly teach tithing I believe it is a good place to start, or a good goal for people to set. For most of us in America tithing is a way to rob God. I assure you that most of us can give far more than we do, and that we make decisions everyday that keep us from giving what we ought. The problem is that we see it as an obligation- "I've given my 10% now I can buy my toys!" All this does is show where our true treasure lies. If we ultimately see our income as a way for God to bless us we have a wrong view of God's priorities. Our incomes are a way that God blesses us with the things we need, but I find it hard to believe that He is honored when we spend our money on boats and 4-wheelers while people starve around the world, are killed for their faith in Christ, and die without hearing about Christ even though there are missionaries ready to go, but lack the funds.

Stewart versus Cramer

Jim Cramer just went on The Daily Show with John Stewart. John Stewart is super sharp, Cramer is not a complete idiot. You may be wondering why I care about this, but it has a lot to do with what I do vocationally, and I believe that what Jim Cramer and his ilk does is very harmful to investors. Before I hear the commentators I wanted to give my perception of this match up.

In short, I thought John Stewart absolutely destroyed Jim Cramer. If people react like they ought, he will be fired from CNBC, and nobody will listen to him anymore. John Stewart nailed Cramer to the wall. I would have done it a little differently, but he brought out very clearly the main point that all of this hype and "stock picking" does not help individual investors, but hurts them and pads the pockets of the people who benefit from all the trading.

I think Cramer knew that he had to come on Stewart's show and defend himself. He was also trying to minimize the damage. Stewart would have none of that. Cramer wanted to get in and out without a big scene, but Stewart brought him down. His voice was shaking and the interview was very uncomfortable. He spanked him and talked to him like a child. That was one of the most humiliating things I have ever seen, and it couldn't have happened to someone who deserved it more. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the media and in specific for CNBC.

Green and "Green"

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are a great product. You can recharge them approximately 1000 times without losing capacity, and they work very well.

Right now Amazon has 4 Sony AA NiMH batteries on sale for $8.98. That is a little over $2 per battery, but when you think that 1 NiMH battery replaces literally hundreds of non-rechargeable batteries.

Having a good stock of these will save you a lot of money. Especially Wii owners!

10 Ways to Build Wealth

I had a question submitted about ways to build wealth. These are 10 simple things you can do to save money and build wealth.

1. Never Buy a New Car- New cars depreciate the most they will ever appreciate the first year. The second biggest year of depreciation is the second year. The third biggest year of depreciation is the third year, and so on. My general rule is, buy a car that you can pay cash for or that you can pay off within a year. Buy the oldest car you can stand taking into consideration use, and necessity of reliability. I have done extensive research in this area and buying good used cars rather than new cars every three years can save you millions of dollars in a lifetime.

2. Don't Buy Drinks At Restaurants- This may sound petty, but depending on how much you eat out this could add up to thousands and thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Considering that at Pizza Hut a carbonated drink costs $1.99 plus tax. This could be up to 30% of your bill. Water will work just fine. You Lufkin folks are excluded from this rule because the water is horrible there!

3. Shop Rates On Insurance and Other Monthly Recurring Expenses- Including ways to cut your cable bill, phone service (consider going "cell only") etc. This is important, you need to shop rates and find ways to reduce monthly recurring fees. If you can reduce your insurance bill by $20 a month, that is $240 a year, which is almost like putting $2400 in your pocket.

4. Live Below Your Means- This may sound outdated and boring, but if you don't have the money to buy something, don't buy it.


5. Save 10-15% of your income. This is a good goal to make for saving for retirement. Especially for people below age 35. Social Security will not exist in it's current state (unless we make some serious cuts in other places, which is unlikely). My generation cannot count on Social Security being sufficient to have any kind of standard of living. Bottom line, you need to plan on providing for your own retirement. To go along with this, take advantage of any company retirement plan offered at your place of employment, especially if they offer any kind of matching on money you invest.

6. Watch Your Taxes- Take advantage of tax credits, and deductions. This can save you big money.

7. Watch Your Investment Advisor, not just your investments. You cannot consistently and without great risk pick winning stocks, and neither can I (and neither can anybody else.) You cannot consistently time the market just right on when to get in and out. You should never ever pay an investment salesman a commission to invest your money. You should find a "Fee-only" financial planner with the CFP(R) designation to advise you and take care of your financial planning needs. CFP(R) Professionals have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, meaning they have taken on a standard of care enforcing them to put the interests of the client before their own. They are held to the highest ethical standards in dealing with their clients, which has been and will be very important going forward.



Disclaimer: I don't agree with everything Jon Stewart says but I love it when he rips on CNBC.

8. Do a Budget- Know where your money is going. Be in control of it, this is half the battle.

9. Don't Buy Toys- I don't just mean for kids (let relatives get toys, buy them books), but also big toys like boats, or Jet Skis, or 4-wheelers. If you borrow money you lose interest, depreciation, and you will have to put insurance on these types of items. All of these costs add up to major bucks. The resale value on these things is very low as well. Borrow or rent, if you don't use these things consistently or if you don't have the cash to pay for them.

10. Buy in bulk if possible. If you can save 10% on something that you consume over a six month period by buying in bulk this is tantamount to a 20% return! What kind of investment do you know of that would give you that kind of guaranteed return. For that matter, realize the power of time value of money. This is one of the most important laws of finance that if everyone knew, they would act drastically different than they do. For instance if you thought about that $2 dollar Coke actually costing you $70 in 50 years you may think twice about buying it today.

There are any number of other things that I could put in this post, but this ought to be enough food for thought for the time being.

Girl's Night Planned To Remember Jill

From the Wyatt Baptist Church Website:

Attention young ladies (13-40ish). Were you impacted by Jill's life? Would you like a way to celebrate her devotion to Christ with other girls who knew Jill? On Friday night, March 20, you are invited to gather with other girls from Jill's life for a "Girl's Night" at Wyatt. The evening will begin at 7pm in the choir and include guest speaker Marian Jordan. Marian is the head of Redeemed Girl Ministries and was a childhood friend of Jill's. The night will also include special gifts for everyone attending and a dedication of the new girl's resource section of the Wyatt bookstore in memory of Jill. Please come and remember Jill while honoring Christ. Facebook users, click here.

Separation of Church and State

This subject makes me nervous. I'm a pretty opinionated person (for those of you who have never read any of my blogs) but this subject seems to be a very controversial issue. There are Facebook groups about putting God, Christ, and prayer back in schools, and a call for us to return to our Christian roots as a nation. There is a notion that because prayer came out of school, it precipitated our great moral decline. That somehow the ten commandments being prominently displayed on the walls of our public places will transform our culture.

All of these sentiments come from people who love their country and love their Savior. They put some energy into these types of efforts, but we must be careful not to waste our precious time on things that, while full of good intentions, are not transformative in nature.

Separation of Church and State is a very controversial topic, and one that is not simple. I disagree with the rank secularists who want to put "faith" in a category completely separate from reality. Some extreme secularists want to say that your "faith" should not inform your ideas about public policy and legislation, and therefore anyone whose faith informs those things, is automatically excluded from participating in those processes. This issue gets into matters of public education and in particular the teaching of evolution and or intelligent design. The issue of public education is another issue altogether, as are the other issues that separation of church and state influences.

I also disagree with some in the religious community who see no value in the separation of church and state, or at least claim that it is harmful. While the ideas of some of the rank secularists mentioned above are harmful to liberty and religious freedom in general, the separation of church and state as instituted by our founders was not at all. Think about the circumstances under which our country was born. We were escaping religious oppression when our forefathers came to this land. In their minds it was not a good thing for the state to decide what you believe or where or when you go to church.

The Founders of our country had the idea that while the church and the state should not mix, we should also be free to allow our religious views to affect our stance on matters of public policy.

I think separation of church and state (as stated by our country's founders, and as practiced and defended by early Baptists like Roger Williams in Providence Road Island) is an excellent idea. I believe the government has a role to defend it's people and protect us against outside threats, and to provide a system of justice so that criminals can be prosecuted in a fair way. The government's job is to protect our freedom and therefore I think government should strive to allow the maximal amount of freedom to it's constituents without those freedoms impinging on others. Freedom is what our country was founded on. That includes religious, economic, and individual freedom.

The government has a responsibility and so does the church. The church's responsibility is to be the prophetic voice in the culture. The church's role in a society like ours is not to try to force our views on others, but to proclaim, persuade, and plead with those around us to turn from their sin and trust in Christ. Trying to force them to participate in our religious practices will not transform, but alienate. One of the fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity is that a Muslim can win converts at the tip of the sword, at the barrel of a gun, or at the proclamation of the state. A Christian cannot win converts at the tip of a sword, at the barrel of a gun, nor at the proclamation of the state.

The church is most effective not when we have the government in our pocket but when individual believers and churches take a stand in the public square and prophetically call other individuals to faith in Christ, and live lives that display that radical change that comes only through a vital relationship with Him.

I realize this is controversial, so if you have an opinion please feel free to share it, but try to be civil and gracious.

What say you?

When I Don't Desire God

I had someone email me the question about how to persevere through times of spiritual lethargy. To some degree we will all struggle with this daily. Until we are perfected we will have to deal with our laziness. The person who has been most helpful to me in this area has been John Piper. He writes often about it and even wrote a book called "When I Don't Desire God." You can read this online here.

Here is a little list of things you can do to fight for joy in God from Piper.

How Shall We Fight for Joy?

By John Piper January 1, 1995


1. Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

2. Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.

3. Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.

4. Learn the secret of gutsy guilt - how to fight like a justified sinner.

5. Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.

6. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.

7. Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

8. Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

9. Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

10. Be patient in the night of God's seeming absence.

11. Get the rest and exercise proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

12. Make a proper use of God's revelation in nature.

13. Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

14. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).

15. Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.

Love, Sex & Mammon

"We are not, we pray, on the verge of another Great Depression. Still, we see signs of economic failure all around us. Stores in the strip malls we drive past every day advertise “going out of business” sales. Those of us who are pastors know church members who have lost jobs, and we weekly see the faces of others who fear that the next pink slip belongs to them.

Some Christians, on the Left and on the Right, would tell us that economic matters are of paramount concern right now. They would assert that we’ve no time for the “luxury” of “culture war” discussions about “abstinence” or divorce or “gender roles” or other such matters. Instead, they tell us, we should concentrate on tax cuts or economic stimulus projects or Wall Street bailouts or home ownership.

They’re wrong."


In this article Dr. Moore (one of my teachers in seminary) talks about priorities for families. For the rest of this great article click here.