Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

3 August, 2005   comments: (0) Today's Pragmatism   Positive and Prosperous, It's The New Lakewood Nearly two hundred years ago, Horatius Bonar declared: "For we know that the unrenewed will is set against the Gospel; it is enmity to God and His truth. ~ It is the Gospel that the unbeliever hates; and the more clearly it is set before him, the more he hates it." Perhaps no other church in America provides so great a contrast to Bonar's "old truth" Christianity, as America's largest. In the last few weeks, Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church moved into it's new home, a renovated basketball stadium in Houston. If Bonar is right, and 1 Corinthians 2:14 would suggest that he is, then it would seem that the Gospel is not being preached clearly at Lakewood. Bonar's evidence for this would be all of the unbelievers that simply love what's being preached there, and keep coming back for more. Case in point, a few weeks ago I had a conversation with an unbelieving relative of mine, who is obsessed with "getting ahead in life". According to Horatius Bonar's brand of Christianity, my relative ought to hate the true Gospel which calls for self-denial and total surrender to Christ. The reality however, is that my relative raves about Lakewood's preaching on TV, because he says it's "always so positive and uplifting". So what's so bad about being positive? Dont all Christian's have enough to be positive about? True enough. But what happens to the integrity of the Gospel message when a positive spin has to be put on everything. Jesus mentioned Hell more than he did Heaven. Do biblical truths like Hell and man's depravity, simply not get talked about then, because they are not "positive"? Osteen's positive-only prosperity Gospel, as outlined in his new best selling book, was the subject of a recent article in ChristianityToday, entitled: "Thou Shalt Not Be Negative - Overly positive thinking and prosperity teaching undermine Joel Osteen's bestseller." Here's one example of biblical distortion mentioned in the article: "Osteen takes his emphasis on being positive so far as to shoehorn the concept into biblical passages. Thus Moses' charge to the Israelites becomes, 'I have set before you life and death, blessings, and curses, positive and negative; therefore God says choose life' (a subtle spin on Deut. 30:15-19). Similarly, he writes that the Israelites 'lack of faith and their lack of self-esteem robbed them of the fruitful future God had in store for them'." Seeker-centered churches like Lakewood need to return to a primary focus on man's need to be saved from sin, for this is the true Gospel. Those who respond with faith in Christ by God's Grace will be saved. As Horatius Bonar said, the rest will hate the Gospel. If there is to be any talk of prosperity, it should be with the clear distinction that Hebrews 10:34 makes: "you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one." As for earthly financial prosperity, which is often (directly or indirectly) emphasized in Lakewood's sermons, how does it compare with the bible, as well as this old truth from Martin Luther: "Riches are the least worthy of gifts which God can give a man. What are they to God's word, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and health, or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, wisdom! Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore God commonly gives riches to foolish people, to whom he gives nothing else." Read my article on the 'power within' mantra in Joel Osteen's message Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries wrote the article: Smile When You Lie Watch the 'Church Growth Movie' (short flash presentation) Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.30   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism