A Good Question

With all these flamboyant prosperity preachers running around, on channels like TBN, including Kenneth & Gloria Copeland, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Paul & Jan Crouch, etc., Ray Stevens asks a good question: "Would He wear a pinky ring, would He drive a fancy car would His wife wear furs and diamonds, would His dressing room have a star? If He came back tomorrow there's something I'd like to know: would Jesus wear a rolex on His television show?"

John MacArthur on the "Unholy Trinity"

In this piece, John MacArthur addresses the false teaching of the so-called "Word of Faith" teachings that are prevalent amongst the televangelists like T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth & Gloria Copeland, and Kenneth Hagin.

Friday, December 11, 2009
John MacArthur

"I don't watch much television, and when I do I generally avoid the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). For many years TBN has been dominated by faith-healers, full-time fund-raisers, and self-proclaimed prophets spewing heresy. I wrote about the false gospel they proclaim and the phony miracles they pretend to do almost two decades ago in Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. See especially chapter 12). I had my fill of charismatic televangelism while researching that book, and I can hardly bear to watch it any more.

Recently, however, while recovering from knee-replacement surgery, I decided to sample some of the current fare on TBN. From a therapeutic point of view it seemed a good choice: something more excruciating than the pain in my leg might distract me from the physical suffering of post-surgical trauma. And I suppose on that basis the strategy was effective.

But it left me outraged and frustrated—and eager to challenge the misperceptions in the minds of millions of unbelievers who see these false teachers masquerading as ministers of Christ on TBN.

I'm outraged at the brazen way so many false teachers twist the message of Scripture in Jesus' name. And I'm frustrated because I'm certain that if these charlatans were not receiving a large proportion of their financial support from sincere believers (and silent acquiescence from Christian leaders who surely know better), they would have no platform for their shenanigans. They would soon lose their core constituency and fade from the scene."

Read more here at John MacArthur's blog.

John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

In this video, John Piper shares his thoughts on the prosperity "gospel." I'm reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 16:26: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"

Examples of Prosperity Preachers & a Message from Paul Washer

In the first video, we see such preachers like Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, and others.



Now, Paul Washer makes a valid point, at least in the case of these prosperity preachers like the Copelands, the Hagins, Joel Osteen, and others: that they can be the judgment of God on people who don't want God.

Now, I've posted this verse up here before, but since Paul Washer's going through this verse, I'll put it up again: "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." (2nd Timothy 4:1-4)