Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich
The New York Times had the above article on Saturday.
Why can't the church speak out about this? I mean really.
One of our church Pastors said in a bible study recently "If you can't preach it everywhere, you probably shouldn't preach it anywhere." I wonder if Kennith Copeland would try to preach this message in Haiti, or Ethiopia?
Check out this excerpt -
Sitting in Section 316, eight rows up, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a Bible at lunch time, was a family who could explain the enduring loyalty the prosperity preachers inspire.
Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be “the overcoming year.” They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their credit line, Mrs. Biellier said.
They say the Copelands rescued them from financial failure 23 years ago, when they bought their first truck at 22 percent interest and had to rebuild the engine twice in a year.
Around that time, Mrs. Biellier first saw Mr. Copeland on television and began sending him 50 cents a week.
Others who bought trucks from the same dealer in Joplin that year went under, the Bielliers said, but they did not. “We would have failed if Copeland hadn’t been praying for us every day,” Mrs. Biellier said.
So, they are currently $102,000 in debt, after 23 years of sending the Copelands money, but they travel to Texas anyway, praying that this would be “the overcoming year.” They say they would have failed without Copeland's prayers.
Let's see, $100,000 in debt and no more credit line doesn't sound like success to me.
Then the article has this little gem.
The Bielliers are now among 386,000 people worldwide whom the Copelands call their “partners,” most of whom send regular contributions and merit special prayers from the Copelands.
If you send the Copelands money, then you merit special prayers?
In Matthew 10, Jesus, when sending out the disciples said this:
"As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep."
I know that it say's a worker is worth his keep, but he was talking about God taking care of them, not the people to whom they were preaching. We know this because of the statement "Freely you have received, freely give." Ken Copeland seems to think that sending him money gets you the privilege of being prayed for by him, or his ministry staff. The article continues.
The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a pitch for people to join an “Elite CX Team” to raise money to buy the ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs. Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, “You were born to support this man.”
She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team’s latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the ministry’s international broadcasts.
Mrs. Biellier said some friends and relatives would say the preacher just wanted their money. She explained that the Copelands did not need the money for themselves; it is for their ministry.
And besides, even “trashy people like Hugh Hefner” have private airplanes.
“I remember Copeland had to once fly halfway around the world to talk to one person,” she said. “Because we’re partners with Kenneth Copeland, for every soul that gets saved, we get credit for that in heaven.”
Just so we're clear about what we're talking about, the picture below is a Citation X (ten) airplane.
Mrs. Bielliers, again the wife of a truck driver (with probably a lower middle class income), gave $2000 for the plane, and $1,800 for better TV equipment. It's no wonder they are $100,000 in debt.
When asked about the Copeland ministry's finances (like an income of about $100 million annually and what they do with it)
"one of their daughters, Kellie Copeland Swisher, and her husband, Steve Swisher, who both work in the ministry said that the ministry gave away “a minimum of 10 percent of what comes in” to other charities. Her father’s current favorite, she said, is a Roman Catholic orphanage in Mexico."
The end of the article goes as follows:
At the convention, the preachers — who also included Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle — sprinkled their sermons with put-downs of the government, an overhaul of health care, public schools, the news media and other churches, many of which condemn prosperity preaching.
But mostly the preachers were working mightily to remind the crowd that they are God’s elect.
“While everybody else is having a famine,” said Mr. Savelle, a Texas televangelist, “his covenant people will be having the best of times.”
“Any time a worried thought about money pops up in your mind,” Mr. Savelle continued, “the next thing you do is sow”: drop money, like seeds, in “good ground” like the preachers’ ministries. “Stop worrying, start sowing,” he added, his voice rising. “That’s God’s stimulus package for you.”
At that, hundreds streamed down the aisles to the stage, laying envelopes, cash and coins on the carpeted steps.
Nowhere (that I can find) does the Bible say that Christians will "be having the best of times" while the world is "having a famine." At least not in any physical of monetary sense.
If I, as a Christian, am completely disgusted by this teaching, how do the many readers of the New York Times, who have no biblical understanding and have an already distorted view of Jesus view the church? If mainstream Christians and Pastors don't speak out about this, then we deserve the reputation that the prosperity teachers are earning for us.
This weekend I've done a lot of reading of the New Testament, and I've found a lot of references to money and giving, but it is always in relationship to helping the poor among usn not our recieving. Never does it say that we are to desire money. I will post a summary of what I have come up with in the next couple of days.
UPDATE - Aug 25th, 2009
Pastor Brandon Cox has posted an article regarding the prosperity doctrine titled The Prosperity Doctrine Stinks!
It is a nice short read, summarized with the following list of reasons it upsets him.
- Too many missionaries have sacrificed their wealth for the gospel.
- Jesus lived without a place to lay His head.
- The riches of this world aren’t worthy to be compared with the next.
- Martyrs. ‘Nuff said!
- Gross mis-applications of Holy Scripture.
- Gross mis-understanding of Jesus’ teachings.
- Focus on this life over the next.
- Poor people being sucked dry and driven to debt by wealthy “preachers.”
- Latter-day revelations and utter nonsense substituted for biblical revelation.
- Invitations to get healed or get rich, but not to get saved.
- Americanized, individualized, materialistic infiltration into biblical theology.
Good Stuff
