One Way The Prosperity Gospel is Dangerous

Today in our series on Tough Questions we asked “Is the prosperity gospel dangerous?”

Here is one way that it is dangerous: it messes up our view of pain and suffering.

--

If you are not familiar with the prosperity “gospel” turn on your television and watch TBN for about 15 minutes.  There you will be exposed to the damnable teaching that what the gospel is really about is securing our health, wealth, and happiness and our best life now.  Consider these words of Kenneth Copeland concerning Paul’s thorn in the flesh:

Paul's thorn in the flesh is a tradition that Satan has used to deceive and rob many people. Using it as an excuse, tradition says that God gets glory from sickness because the world sees how marvelously the Christian bears pain and agony. Tradition never adds up to the right answer - anyone knows that the world has all the pain and agony it can stand. The world wants a way out of sickness, not another way into it.

The typical mantra of these shiny watch-wearing, jet-flying, shysters is that God is in the business of blessing people.  If you want to see someone who is living in the favor of God you will not find it in a poor widow, a sickly orphan, or in a downcast soul.  You will find it in a first-class flyin’ preacher that spends his time helpin’ poor folk get their blessings by sowing their seed into his tailor-made suit pocket. 

Because of this belief Paul’s teaching on the thorn in the flesh is completely reversed.  Rather than Paul saying that he is glorying in an unremoved thorn and that the Lord’s grace is sufficient in the midst of hardship these prosperity teachers do a ton of gymnastics to get around what the text clearly says. 

Paul’s thorn

According to Copeland the thorn is an “evil angel”.  This isn’t any of God’s doing it’s all of the devil.  Pain, suffering, sickness, all of those things must not have anything to do with the work of God.  And according to Copeland “this evil angel was assigned to Paul for one reason—to stop the Word from being preached”.  Forget that Paul said it was “given me in the flesh” for the purpose of “keeping me from being too elated”. 

You see within the framework of the prosperity gospel God is not glorified in  our weakness.  God is glorified in our strength.  Or to put that another way the way that God receives glory is when my past is conquered and I live in victory.  If I am not living my best life now then I’m not giving God the glory that He deserves. 

Copeland even has the gall to say that Paul erred in pleading with God to take away the thorn.  As he says, “If you want results, do not ask God to deal with the devil for you…He instructs you to drive out the demons or evil spirits.”  Had Paul not pleaded with the Lord to remove it then he would have gotten the results that he desired. 

While you have a thorn in your flesh you aren’t able to glorify God as you ought because you are living in the devils defeat and not the Lord’s victory.  Therefore, you believe on what you want.  You unleash your faith on removing this thorn and you believe God for it.  You let go of it and you start believing God for victory. 

But what happens when “victory” doesn’t come?…

The Effect on Pain

The problem with this false teaching is that it tries to wipe away ever tear from our eye before we are living in the Redeemed Eden.  That sounds nice and some of these false teachers may very well have good intentions and believe every word of the garbage spewing out of their mouth.  Problem is, they sound more like Job’s miserable counselors than the counsel of the Lord.

What they are subtly communicating—and sadly I think many within the church have bought into this—is that God cannot use me until I have this thorn conquered.  I am a little less than acceptable until I get a grip on this depression.  Certainly people will rally around me and help me remove this thorn—that’s what Job’s friends did.  But what if this thorn is never going to be removed?  Am I supposed to hide this part of me?  Should I shoe my thorn?  Dare I walk with a limp? 

You see I’m becoming increasingly convinced that faith doesn’t look like a man living in success and victory in the Christian life, where everyday is better than the next.  I’m convinced that a better picture of faith is when a man is almost totally overcome by doubt, fear, anxiety but he still keeps a white-knuckled grip on the promise of future redemption.  I’m convinced that a better disciple is one who fixates his eyes on “things that are above” instead of trying to live his best life now. 

Of course we all want mountain moving faith but the faith as tiny as a mustard seed is just as miraculous.  So, why don’t we rejoice in feeble faith? Why don’t we celebrate those souls that are shamed and yet trusting, like Jesus does?  Can we celebrate a wound that isn’t yet healed?  Why do we have to wait for victory?  Why can we not dance with a limp? 

Maybe because we’ve bought into the lie that people with thorns are a little less than what it means to be a disciple.  And maybe we’ve made thorn removal the goal instead of dancing in grace. 

-

Originally posted here.

Jointly Enduring Struggles With Our Children

Today’s guest post comes from Jeremy Parks. Jeremy is a Texas native with North Carolina roots, works for IMB in South America. His wife and children tolerate his obsession with cooking, woodturning, and new ways to start campfires.  He blogs at SBC Voices.

One of the more difficult-to-teach attributes of Christian living is personal forgiveness. Divine forgiveness of human sin is fairly straightforward: God is gracious, loving, kind, etc, and uses those characteristics to set aside the guilt of our sin. Interpersonal forgiveness is a bit harder to see.

I’ve had times in my life when I was not the most gracious, forgiving person. I’ve worked at it quite deliberately, keeping in mind His graciousness towards me, keeping in mind that my offenders have also been manufactured in the image of God. Those more angst-filled years of my life serve as excellent discipleship fodder for my children, allowing me to draw on some pretty relevant material as I raise my children. In addition, I’ve been able to talk to my kids about how they can forgive others, mainly their siblings. I get to relate my struggles to theirs, and then to the Bible as we seek a solution for others’ bad behavior.

Recently, though, we’ve entered some new territory. For the first time, my kid and I are both angry about the same thing.

There’s been some bad behavior towards my son by a specific group; their identity is irrelevant. My son is pretty angry about having to tolerate this sort of thing, and gets pretty upset when we discuss it. I’m just as indignant, though my outrage is directed more towards the authority figure responsible for this group, the one who should be controlling and monitoring this group’s behavior.

My temptation has been to help my son deal with his emotions, then to address my own need for forgiveness privately. To this point, I’ve done exactly that. However, I think an aspect of raising my child properly is to walk through the forgiveness process together. In general, I try to be pretty open and transparent about the struggles we face as Christian, so why not go through the prayers for graciousness together? Why not learned together how to forgive and move on?

When he gets home from school today, we’ll start. Pray for us as we labor in this; the feelings run deep and will be hard to set aside in the absence of any sort of apology or statement of regret by those responsible.

And consider what struggles you could jointly endure with your kids. It might prepare them for the realities of life a little better.

Love in the Trinity

Today’s guest post comes from the pen of Jim Pemberton. Jim, his wife, Lois, and three children are members of Western Avenue Baptist Church in Statesville, NC, where they are active in the music ministry, foreign missions and local evangelism. Jim has a passion for strengthening the Body of Christ through sound Bible teaching and discipleship.

There’s a common teaching from the Bible that that God is love (1 John 4:8) and I suspect most of us are familiar with it. However, perhaps you’ve said or heard someone ask the question, “How could a loving God…?” This typically calls into question something about what the Bible teaches about God. What is often not taught is what love is according to the Bible and how it is exactly that God is love. So let’s look at that now.

Definitive and Descriptive Statements

There are two kinds of static statements that give us information on any subject. Descriptive statements give us information that may at least partially define the subject. Definitive statements may be descriptive in nature, but serve the purpose of identifying something uniquely. So if I told you that my car was red, that would narrow down which car is mine to some degree, but there are plenty of red cars in the world. If I gave you the VIN, that would narrow it down to only one car in the world.

When you are looking for how an author defines a word in the Bible, you look for definitive and descriptive statements in contexts that are appropriate for such things.

Love Never Ends

I usually stay away from loose translations of the Bible, but sometimes different translations can result in noticing something that can trigger a fruitful study. Recently, I was with a group who was reading 1 Corinthians 13 from the Good News Translation and we came to verse 8. Most translations render the Greek accurately to read “Love never ends,” in English. The translators of the GNT rendered it, “Love is eternal.” This is a descriptive statement, but the information we gain here is very useful for understanding love.

As I followed along in the reading, I realized that the rest of the chapter followed from this. The Greek doesn’t say “eternal”, but that’s essentially what it means. Every other gift of God falls away, but not love. When we stand before God, even faith and hope are mitigated by their fulfillment. Our faith is complete and our hope is complete because we are present with our Lord.

Love is Sacrificial and Submissive

Paul wrote a definitive statement for his use of love in Ephesians 5. The context is mutual submission (verse 21) as an expression of love among believers in general (verse 2) and in the covenant of marriage in particular (verses 22ff). In verse 25 he wrote the following:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

Although it’s cloaked in the context, the definitive statement is that love is sacrificial. In the context love is submissive in that it seeks to meet another’s needs above meeting one’s own needs.

Paul is hardly the only apostle to write extensively about love. John agreed with Paul in a definitive statement that falls in the context of a teaching conversation Jesus had with his inner core of disciples that goes into detail about what Paul seems to casually touch on in 1 Corinthians 13:8. In John 15:13, he writes:

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

This simple sentence identifies love as that which is sacrificial on a scale at which the uppermost measure is the giving of one’s own life in the course of meeting another’s need.

Love Is the Basis for the Relationship Between Members of the Trinity

If we look at what John says about love in the conversation recorded in John chapters 14-17 we see how it is that love operates in an eternal context:
In 14:1-14, Jesus describes his relationship with the father as each being in the other. His role with the father is one of submission to the Father (verses 10, 11). In verse 12 Jesus indicates that this relationship is available to the disciples through faith and the obedience of submission. In verse 15, Jesus indicates that this practice is love. He also brings in the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who he calls the “Helper” and the “Spirit of Truth”. The conversation that follows clarifies that each member of the Trinity is in each other on the basis of love (15:9, 10).

…And the Basis for Our Relationship with God

The amazing thing I notice is that this is intended to encourage and exhort the disciples to follow in this pattern of love. In so doing, Jesus indicates that as his followers, his disciples share in that divine, eternal love. Now that’s not to say that we will become God, but rather that we have an unbreakable relationship with God the same way that the members of the trinity have with each other. This gives us boldness in the face of the darkness of this world. If anything, this is John’s Great Commission discourse.

If you love God, go with the knowledge that you are in him and you have him in you with power and authority to accomplish what he has for you to accomplish in his name. So, when we face hardships the question is not how a loving God could allow such things. Rather our response should joy in the fact that we have him with us to face the worst situations.

5 Ways to Deal With Difficult People

Today’s guest post comes from the pen of Dave Jenkins. Dave is a Christian, husband to Sarah, freelance writer, avid golfer, and the Director of Servants of Grace Ministries. You can follow him on twitter at @DaveJJenkins or read more at http://servantsofgrace.org

Dealing with difficult people in a Christ-like manner maybe one of the most difficult ways to live out the gospel. Difficult, because this requires patience, something I struggle to display.

It has been said that if you pray for patience, God will indulge you with opportunities to develop it. And so, for this reason, God puts in our path, difficult people. They are the sandpaper we need to polish off our rough and sinful edges.

I’ve found five observations about dealing with difficult people:

1. Dealing with difficult people provides fresh opportunities to display humility.  When John Calvin was asked to define the Christian life he said three times (following Augustine) that the Christian life was humility, humility, humility. The Bible teaches that God exalts the humble. Proverbs 3:34, “Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.” James 4:6, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  1st Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” When you love someone who annoys you, you are lowering your own estimation of yourself and exalting a brother or sister in the Lord.
2. Difficult people expose our latent pride:  Following Christ involves submission to the authority, inspiration, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture. 2ndTimothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Difficult people test this theory and often expose our own idolatry of self. The feelings we have for those we don’t like reveal our selfishness and pride.  So in every relationship struggle, we have to ask ourselves: will we exalt ourselves as ultimate, as gods, or will we come under the authority of the Word and thus, reach out in love to those we may not like?
3. Difficult people force us to our knees in prayer. Here is something I’ve tried to employ when I’m forced to engage with a person who may be difficult:  First, I need to make sure my heart is right before God. This will eliminate most potential conflicts. Second, I have found it wise to get some wise counsel from a godly friend or mentor (Proverbs 11:14). Third, pray for the person. Fourth, sandwich your truth-telling in love. Fifth, be quick to listen to the person’s response and slow to interact with their response.
4. Be willing to hear criticism without defensiveness. James 1:19 is really applicable in relationships: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” Proud people are quick to speak but slow to listen. Humble people endeavor to listen well. This demonstrates love and shows you care about their thought. It also provides a platform for you to speak into that person’s life.
5. Dealing with difficult people point out weak areas in our lives. When criticized don’t respond negatively but instead thank the person for sharing their perspective. Humility isn’t being a know-it-all. Humility is a lifelong process of admitting what one doesn’t know and growing in God’s grace.

Missions and Absentee Fatherhood

Today’s guest post comes from the pen of Jeremy Parks. Jeremy is a Texas native with North Carolina roots, works for IMB in South America. His wife and children tolerate his obsession with cooking, woodturning, and new ways to start campfires.  He blogs at SBC Voices.

I suffer from a bit of a phobia.  A phobia, of course, is not simply a fear of something; it is instead an irrational fear.  I will freely admit to having a level of worry and fear that exceeds what is proper for the situation.

I work in international missions and happen to be responsible for a specific people group, roughly 72,000 strong, scattered across a country the size of Colorado.  I have some local partners here and there, but by and large I work alone.  I could probably travel 3 out of 4 weekends in search of people who need the gospel.  This leads to my phobia: absentee fatherhood.

Sociologists, psychologists, and counselors routinely advertise the risks of absentee fathers.  Inaccessible, missing, disconnected fathers often seem to lie at the root of a whole list of identifiable emotional and behavioral problems in teens and adults.  My drive to avoid causing problems in my kids has a pronounced effect on how I approach work-related travel.  Oddly enough, I tend to equate weekends with entire weeks.  That is, if I am gone 3 out of 4 weekends, I somehow convince myself that I've been gone 75% of the time. 

Yes, I know, it is odd; like I said, it's a phobia.

However, a few weeks ago I went out of town for an extended weekend and the family did great.  It was more than fine - it was wonderful.  My wife told me about all the benefits that came from my being temporarily out of pocket.  That's a subject for a different post.  At any rate, I shared the pleasant news with a buddy as we were fishing, a guy who has been a pastor, missionary, leader, and counselor.  His take:
"Dude - I've had years in which I've traveled not at all followed by years in which I was gone 190 days.  I've seen families fall apart when Dad was gone and families grow stronger as Dad traveled more.  I've learned that a father can be inaccessible even if he is in town, so travel isn't the culprit.  The reason travel gets such a bad rap is that the stresses brought on by a traveling father often bring to light other issues.  Those issues are the things that crush a family, not the actual travel."

Hmm...."the stresses brought on by a traveling father often bring to light other issues.  Those are the things that crush a family...."

His comments caused me to evaluate my family and the way in which I am there for them (or not there, as the case may be).  Am I passive?  Overbearing?  Can I listen without interrupting?  Do I respect the choices my wife makes while I am present and while I am absent? 

I think we're doing ok, and I'm probably going to loosen the reins on my travel schedule.  I'll be paying close attention to issues that come along.  The real challenge will be making sure I don't blame travel for some real issue, something festering.  It takes a certain amount of bravery to look past the surface issue (Daddy travels) and see the real problem that travel has brought to light.

Bravery, my friends.  Pray for bravery.