He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting
about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings,
evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of
the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. (1Timothy 6: 4, 5)
I will start this message with
the recent happenings in Paris, hoping that you will not take me for a sadist.
It saddens me that the doctrine most Christians practice is a faulty one, even
worse is that it is managed from hell.
But let us first deal with the
Paris massacre. I was shocked when the reports started streaming especially
from the place the worst carnage happened.
I was amazed to know that the
band performing was called Eagles (angels?) of Death. How do people go to be
entertained by people who are proud to be associated with death?
It got worse when videos were
released showing the song being performed when the slaughter began. They were
rocking to a song ‘Kiss the Devil’ with lyrics really worshipful to the evil
one.
How do you expect the devil not
to show up in such an environment? How do you cry out asking the devil to show
up yet complain when he does it? Why cry out when he shows up with his trade
mark? Do you determine the facet the
divine you worship displays? Of course not
This incident shows that what we
call ignorance is for the most part worship, worship that will invoke the
manifestation of the deity we are directing our worship. Yet in our ignorance
we will start crying for the protection of the God we think we worship. I am
sure most of the people in that concert hall had no idea that it was a worship
service they were attending when they were buying the tickets, a worship of the
father of lies whose best reward for his worshippers is stealing, killing and
destroying.
And for the most part this is
replicated in church again and again.
Someone innocently buys a T-shirt
with some strange art and wonders why all of a sudden he is unable to get rid
of nightmares. You buy an attractive necklace or bangle and wonder why you all
of a sudden start getting sick. I make friends with someone and wonder why it
starts being increasingly difficult to read the Bible or pray yet we do not
even stay near each other. You stick a beautiful piece of art on your car or
laptop and can’t understand why you start feeling as if your wife or husband should
be replaced by all these hotties you all of a sudden start noticing. You attend
a bash and wonder why it has always to end in risky sexual encounters.
And the lord commended the unjust steward,
because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their
generation wiser than the children of light.
(Luke 16:8)
Mention images and people accuse
you of spoiling their fun. Mention tattoos that are expressly forbidden by the
scriptures and you are treated as too ancient to understand popular trends.
Mention their music and they accuse you of being of the Stone Age.
The world understands the
spiritual connections certain things attract.
Take an example of a person who
commits suicide or murder because a soccer match was the other side of the globe
in a place whose connection he makes only by watching the matches. Is it just
football?
The game is a worship event. That
explains why people take leave to watch the world cup when there is a time zone
clash. Yet they may never take a week’s off to visit an ailing grandparent or
even parent.
The money flowing into it is just
a camouflage for the real thing.
What I will not shout loudly
about (though I will shout it in a whisper) is that the game is the
introduction to an interaction with the spirits running the show. Then they are
able to manipulate you in such a way that you will start enjoying wasting your
life running errands for them, and very joyfully so. No wonder the overnight
prayer must be passed over when a match is on.
I was also a football fan. And it
started long ago when we followed matches on radio. The TV just increased the
craving.
I was also a news addict. And it
was before I joined the media school and there were 24 hour TV stations. I followed
them on short wave radio, one of the most taxing and frustrating tasks for
those who have never experienced it. You are following a news item when a clash
of waves in the stratosphere dims the signal until you stop hearing it. You
then have to wait another hour hoping the same item will be repeated or you
look for other stations to see whether they have the same splash. From BBC to
VOA to Xinhua to Russia radio (don’t remember the name) and many others.
Until I returned to myself (the
closest in English is came to my spiritual senses). I discovered that I was
wasting too much time on something that was not only denying me time, sleep and
thoughts, but something I had 0% control over. You see my watching has no
effect or impact on the game. It is like spending the whole night watching a
river flow with a lot of concentration and concern.
Any addiction is managed from
hell. That is why all life apparently stops when the craving starts. Anything
you MUST do is an addiction. Otherwise explain to me why one can never be
addicted to godliness and holiness and must strive at all time because falling
back is all ever too easy. Tell me why reading the Bible or living holy is so
difficult for the bulk of the Christians.
You see a drunkard knows and
confesses that he needs rescuing. A drug addict confesses to his helplessness.
Yet this is all child’s play
compared with a faulty doctrine. This is because doctrine convinces me that I
am on the right path even when I am on the highway to destruction.
And no doctrine could be more
poisonous than that of equating material wealth to spirituality (supposing that gain is godliness).
Confusing the material with the
spiritual or associating them is bound to create immense confusion. Using the
material to judge the spiritual is as impractical as using a tape measure for
liquid quantity. Just because we call a river long does not mean that we use
the kilometre to measure the amount of water that makes that river.
That Abraham and Job were rich
and blessed is not in dispute. But was Abraham cursed all the time his wife was
barren? Was Job cursed when everything had been taken from him? I ask this
because in those instances the connections we are nowadays teaching were being
trashed.
Between the rich man and Lazarus
in the parable Jesus gave, who was blessed and who was cursed? Who had the
wealth and who had none? Who had God’s favor and who had none?
Even associating riches with
money and things is a very faulty doctrine. You see in my experience the
poorest people I know are people with loads of money and among the richest
people I know are those with very little material substance.
A rich man overflows his wealth while
a poor man must grasp it all as he reaches out to grab more.
Woe unto them that join house to house, that
lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in
the midst of the earth! (Isaiah
5:8)
Compare this with Job 31.
He coveteth greedily all the day long: but
the righteous giveth and spareth not. (Proverbs
21:26)
The greatest problem with the
present doctrine is that it concentrates on what we get and keep as opposed to
the kind of blessing God will make us. We will thus pride ourselves in being
the most suckful leeches instead of the most effective spreaders of God’s love.
And it gets worse because it
makes greed a virtue instead of the vice the Bible calls it. We celebrate the
stingy brat even as we lynch the faithful steward. We make Lazarus the
despicable one even as we sing praises to the rich because we have overlooked
the heavenly view.
It is no wonder that a very
minimal percentage of pulpits speak against sin for this simple reason.
Associating worldly wealth with God’s favor and blessing will never agree with
the Bible’s position on sin. Even the purpose of our redemption is clouded in
the haze of this faulty doctrine because it makes more sense that Christ died
to make us rich instead of saving us for our sins.
This explains why sin is rampant
in our churches as we speak of blessing and breakthrough. We define revival in
terms of the vehicles we own instead of sinners saved and lives transformed.
As a result we are leading a lot
more people to hell as we parade our faulty doctrine.
Yet God gives wealth. God gives.
James 1 says that every perfect gift is from Him.
But wealth is not the end of the
game as this doctrine seems to imply, even teach.
Lazarus could easily be
identified with the poorest of the poor yet found a place on Abraham’s bosom.
Many of God’s great servants died pitiable deaths and lived pitiable lives, and
not because they fell out of favor with God. Many of God’s prize servants died
in their prime, and not in judgment. Otherwise tell me why Hebrews 11 is in the
Bible.
Stephen and James had heaven’s
applause yet died very shameful, painful deaths. The only righteous person in
Jeroboam’s family died in his infancy.
Why was James killed whereas
Peter was released?
We just need to get the right perspective.
And we will get it when we spend adequate amounts of time with God through
reading His word and immersing ourselves in prayer. Listening to our favorite
preachers may give us enough energy to look for that wealth but could
eventually lead us to hell as only a right relationship with God can take us to
heaven.
But it is not only heaven that
can be missed by that doctrine. It is the present that can make one lose hope
in this life. What with all the focus on what God is supposed to do for and give
to us?
I have many times been confronted
by friends who ask me why or whether God lies. On enquiring I learn that a
preacher or preachers have given ‘revelations’ about things God was going to do
or give them with a deadline in sight especially after they give a prescribed
offering or seed.
The simple reason is that this
harvester of seed has taught this faulty doctrine consistently that the flock
is one tracked concerning God. To them God exists to fulfill their material
cravings. Blessing is therefore measured in that yardstick.
It is an insult to call it the
prosperity gospel because apart from the material, especially monetary
cravings, nothing of any spiritual value is taught. People are taught to derive
pleasure in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
and ascribe it to God.
But it gets worse because the
world does not have an unlimited supply for cravings. Second is that we cannot
all have the same thing. We must determine our boundaries when we talk of being
heads and not tails. Let me elaborate.
Suppose we have class with
Christian students. Surely not all of them will take the top position as they
were taught! And that is where they think that God has lied when one takes the
last position after the prophecy was given.
Many people’s faith is crushed
because their expectations are skewed by this doctrine. One will get depressed
because the blessing they have from God is outside the boundaries of the
doctrine. You see peace, good health, healthy family life are rate very low on
the value spectrum the doctrine draws. A person who is admitted in a high end
hospital is thought more blessed than the slum dweller enjoying excellent
health.
A song, secular as it is
epitomizes this doctrine. He sings that he would rather weep in a Range Rover
than rejoice on a bicycle. He would rather lose sleep in a huge house than
enjoy peace in a shanty.
I found a church that was
involved in sports ministry very interesting. They would recognize the young ‘ministers’,
but only when they won matches. I never heard any announcement when the team
lost that I wonder the kind of ministry they had. But that is the outcome of
this faulty doctrine. I would expect a sports minister to strategically lose
the matches to be able to be more effective as a victor is normally more
receptive than a wounded loser.
And it affects ministry in more
devastating ways. People are feted for attaining wealth instead of walking with
God. We take James’ admonition (James 2) to the extreme opposite.
I see that in pulpits all over. A
celebrity or tycoon can occupy any pulpit whereas someone whose consistency and
faithfulness to God and His call is never allowed anywhere near that pulpit. A
politician known for his foul language and morals is invited to greet the
congregation yet a longsuffering missionary is not even acknowledged.
I will repeat that God gives. But
He does not do so for us to parade ourselves. He gives to get the glory. He
gives for His purposes to be revealed. Redemption is the end result of his
giving.
Is the doctrine you hold
consistent with the complete and consistent revelation we get when we read the
Word of God? Otherwise you could be filling the pews for the few who are on the
narrow road to heaven, even cheering (jeering) them on.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in
me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
Is that promise from the captain
of our salvation making sense in our experience?
