That’s what I’m talking about – bye-bye Magic Jesus

Phil Cooke rocked my world tonight with a great post: “Conversation #4 For 2009: The Prosperity Gospel Is Lost”

Two quotes that slam me:

“Some of the greatest men and women of God were poor and it had no impact on their right relationship with God. So rich or poor, we can all serve God and make an impact.”

“It’s raised a lot of money for sure, but at the same time has created a selfish generation of Christians.”

Flat out. I’ve tried “Magic Jesus” and it does not work. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. We cannot buy God’s favor, and if someone is telling you we can – they are lying.

The prosperity gospel plays off our greed and our selfish desires just like the subprime mortgage lending that now has America in crisis.

The commercialized church is a joke. It does far more harm than good! The commercialized church needs to change or die. My prayer is that in this troubled economy everyone will wake up to what really matters, and discover the real truth about God!

to quote once more from Phil’s post:

“Whatever you think from a theological point of view, it’s time to put prosperity teaching to bed.”

You cannot grow a giving heart when you are always focused on receiving. Bye-bye Magic Jesus. It’s time to pray for other people and not a new Mercedes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Carter Theis

Hey, I was watching the Inspiration Network the other day while we were in LA shooting more footage and doing ministry in Skid Row. Anyway, I love to go back and watch these guys try to raise money for their networks each quarter...What's amazes me is that they still pull all the same tricks...I could go on e forever, but here's two points that I want to make.
1) since God had me work for INSP, I know how it works internally and the "preacher guests/hype men" they bring on the shows get a percentage of the total amount raised, so ofcourse they have alternative motives.
2) they literally said at one point "if you want God to work in your life, you have to give him something first," referring to the $1000 donation or "seed" they wanted you to sow into their ministry...They even suggested that if you don't have $1000, to call the number, commit to the sum in 3 easy payments and then pray that God gives you that money...

Anyway, if you are ever bored, watch the INSP's and TBN's to test your Jesus and Bible knowledge,.
- carter theis
James

Well said! But people always like to believe in magic ... That's a belief that dies hard!