From: Gary Collins (gwcollins@algol.co.uk)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2003 - 03:29:18 EDT
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 02:02:39 -0400
From: "Sondra Brasile" <sbrasile@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (From Concordist...)--prosperity--some experiences
I've been following this thread with unrest, although I cannot put me finger
on why, exactly.
I am personally leery of the "prosperity" teachings out there. If God wants
a person to have money, they'll have it and if he means for a person to live
one day at a time, not knowing "how" their needs will be supplied for this
day, but trusting that it will happen, this is how they will live.
If God meant for every Christian to be materially prosperous people would be
beating down the doors of the church to "cash in", it seems.
[.....]
Anyway, that's my "story" and I don't feel right when people say that we
should be "prosperous". I cannot think of anyone that is "rich" that seems
to "deserve" it better than any "poor" person that I know. I think an
appropriate verse would be "God causes the sun to shine on the just and the
unjust and the rain to fall on the evil and the good" or something like
that.
Sincerely,
Sondra Brasile
Thank you for a very touching testiomony. Especially the 'without complaining,'
something I am often guilty of, I must confess!
I, too, have grave misgivings about the prosperity teachings. From my
observations, it would seem, at least as a generalization, that in the OT
God showed his favour by material blessings - cf the promises in Deuteronomy,
etc - but in the NT we 'have been blessed with every _spiritual_ blessing, eg
Ephesians 1: a change of emphasis from the material to the spiritual. God has
promised to supply our needs, not our wants (or cravings!). Some have more
than others but all that we do have comes from God and we should be grateful
for what he has given us.
I think it was Hank Hanegraaf (sp?) who pointed out that observations
of the car parks of the faith churches reveal that only a few (generally
the leaders) have the really expensive cars; most of the congregation
just have 'ordinary' cars, which suggests that the teachings do not 'work' -
or at least, that they work only for a select few. This should speak volumes.
As far as healing is concerned, I very much believe
that Jesus does still heal people today, but also that this is not a guaranteed
right. The faith teachers I think tend to give the impresion that if someone is
prayed for and not healed, the only reason is the person's lack of faith, thus
kind of putting the blame for the lack of healing back onto the person being
prayed for. It seems to me that they forget, for example, that Timothy was not
told by Paul to claim his healing by faith, but to take a little wine for his
stomach and his frequent illnesses.
I have found the contenders website to be a useful resource.
http://www.geocities.com/Bob_Hunter/tbn.htm
Of course, the critics will not always be right in all that they say, and in any
case, no-one is perfect - except for the Lord - but they do help at least to
bring a counterbalance.
/Gary
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