Lasting Foundations

August 26, 2009

Wresting the Scriptures

I’ve struggled with the notion of an eternal hell. The finality of it troubles me and offends my sensibilities. It horrifies me that the vast majority of the human race is heading straight into unending torment.

And yet, Scripture forces me to recognize that hell is a reality. Regardless of my personal hesitations or misgivings, the overwhelming weight of the Book points to every man, woman and child walking toward one of two wildly divergent eternal destinies.

German theologian Jurgen Moltmann has a similar struggle with the idea. For those unfamiliar with Moltmann, he serves as the Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus in the Protestant Faculty of the University of Tübingen, Germany. Starting September 9, he’ll be the “dialogue partner” for the 2009 Emergent Theological Conversation. The event website calls him “one of the premier theologians of the 20th century.”

I watched an interview with Moltmann last night. This interview focused primarily on Moltmann’s eschatology, and the interviewer posed this rather direct question:

“In the traditional view of the final judgment, some are saved and some are damned. Does that fit in your theological understanding?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Moltmann replied, “No, not at all.” He went on to recognize that many Scriptures seem to indicate the existence of a place of eternal damnation, but side-stepped this problem by saying that he didn’t believe all of the Bible was the Word of God. He said he believes that the words of God are in the Bible, they just don’t comprise the whole thing.

Moltmann holds a convenient position. If only portions of Scripture are the “words of God,” then we can eliminate anything that troubles us. That bit about women not teaching men? That was probably just Paul’s chauvinism. God surely wouldn’t say such a thing, so let’s just pitch that part out. Those pesky passages about sexual purity? Those probably just reflected the apostles antiquated cultural mores. Certainly God wouldn’t command such a narrow-minded approach to sexuality. More pages in the dust bin.

Hell? “No, not at all.” Riiiipppp.

I struggle with the Gospel. It offends my flesh. But unlike Moltmann, I don’t believe that I get to change it to suit my every whim. I can’t alter it to be more palatable to the masses. I can’t do that because the entirety of the Bible is The Word of God. Over 400 times in the course of Scripture, we run across the phrases “The word of the Lord” or “Thus saith the Lord.” Every one of the Old Testament prophets had this seal on their testimonies. Those books are not their words.

Christ had the same seal. He was the Word made flesh. And he made it clear that he would speak through his apostles, for “He that heareth you heareth me...” (Luke 10:16)

And Peter, arguably the preeminent of the twelve, equated all of Paul’s writing with Scripture when he said, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (II Peter 3:15-16)

Over and over, Scripture (yes, all of it) claims to be the Word of the Lord. As such, it is not open for negotiation. When we read that there will be those who rise to eternal life and those who will be cast into eternal torment, then we must accept that as the truth, regardless of our personal feelings about it.

Moltmann doesn’t believe in hell because he doesn’t really believe that we can know what God has said. His nebulous belief that “God has spoken” is rendered meaningless by his lack of faith in the words that God himself claims are his. It allows Moltmann to create another gospel that better suits his fleshly sensibilities.

It’s no wonder the emergents like this guy. With such a theology of Scripture, they will never have to yield to an objective standard.

It sounds nice now. I just hope these “unstable” folks come to their senses before they stand before the throne they believe doesn’t exist.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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August 23, 2009

Expectations

As I look back, I’m not really sure what I expected to find in Kenya. I know that I didn’t expect to find warm showers and relatively comfortable beds. I didn’t expect to find a Western-style coffee shop with wireless Internet access. I definitely didn’t expect to find multiple movie theaters playing every movie that I wanted to see in the course of the summer.

I think I expected to find simple faith. I had hoped that these Christians, spared the self-sufficient excess we have in America, would truly have joy in the Gospel and in their King.

What I found was not so encouraging.

For four months, I was surrounded by people who seemed more obsessed with material things that anyone I’d previously known. By and large, their religious system is little more than an attempt to conjure enough faith that God will be forced to reward all of the seeds they have planted with unimaginable earthly riches.

It was tragic. To go to Uganda and see Benny Hinn and Company steal roughly $800,000 from the poorest people in the world made me furious, and still does. Even more heartbreaking was how ready these people were to give their money under the lie that God would return to them a hundred times what they had given.

On one scale or another, this was the most frequent form of religion that we encountered.

But it was not all we saw.

We saw men like Charles Ambaka, whom God had awakened to the reality of the situation of the faith in his corner of the world. Charles now travels all over Africa, preaching the Gospel and eschewing anything that smacks of the materialistic prosperity madness that has ensnared so many of those that had been his colleagues. He now disciples men like Simon who have found freedom in Christ and who desire to see others experience that same freedom.

We met girls like Ivy, who was saved when she placed her faith in Christ after hearing Gregg preach. She wasn’t taken in by the promise of riches. She hasn’t subscribed to some spiritual Ponzi scheme. She has found joy and life in a King that gave his life to save her from her sins.

I don’t know exactly what I expected to find. But what I did find was that the Gospel was simpler than I had ever previously understood. Man sinned, God required blood, Christ gave his. Believe and you shall be saved and freed. What I found is that this Gospel and the affect that it has on those who obey it is exactly the same whether I’m in Fort Collins, Colorado, or in Machakos, Kenya. I found that no matter where you are, the way is narrow, and few are those that find it.

But oh, the joy and fellowship experienced by those few.

In the years to come, I’m sure my recollection of the trip will begin to fade. Already, it seems almost dream-like. But as the days spent on the other side of the planet melt into a nebulous memory, what will stick out and remain potent will be the stories of people like Charles and Simon and Ivy. It will be the truth that Christ is our Savior, and the Father’s arm is not so short that it cannot save.

No matter who you are.

No matter where you are.

No matter what sins you’ve committed.

When all is said and done, the Gospel remains. It remains true, and it remains powerful.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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August 22, 2009

They like Jesus but not the Gospel

I just read the cover story from the July edition of Next Wave, an emergent e-zine that explores the evolving church in the light of the postmodern culture.

The article, written by authors Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, is provocatively titled, “A Jesus Manifesto,” and it aspires to help institutional Christianity rediscover the heart of its own message.

As you may guess from the article’s title, they contend the heart of the matter comes down to Christ, and Christ alone.

It may surprise you to learn that I disagreed with very little in the article. While I always try to retain an open mind going into an article, regardless of the source, experience has taught me that I will end up disagreeing with most of what the emergents have to say. Granted, there were a few small things in the article that bothered me, but I agreed with the overall gist. Here’s the crux:

“It's possible to confuse “the cause” of Christ with the person of Christ. When the early church said “Jesus is Lord,” they did not mean “Jesus is my core value.” Jesus isn't a cause; he is a real and living person who can be known, loved, experienced, enthroned and embodied. Focusing on his cause or mission doesn't equate focusing on or following him. It's all too possible to serve “the god” of serving Jesus as opposed to serving him out of an enraptured heart that's been captivated by his irresistible beauty and unfathomable love. Jesus led us to think of God differently, as relationship, as the God of all relationship.”

I don’t disagree with a single thing said above. In fact, I agree enthusiastically. Far too many people do “serve ‘the god’ of serving Jesus” rather than actually obeying the Gospel and believing in Christ. It’s a crucial distinction, and I’m glad that Sweet and Viola have addressed it.

If all that the emergents were saying is that we’ve forgotten that the source of life is a Person rather than our doctrines, I’d happily throw in my lot with them. But they don’t stop there. The emergent insistence on repackaging and repainting Christianity in a postmodern context has resulted in a proverbial “pitching of the baby with the bath water.” They recognized that mere intellectual assent to a few pat doctrines was destroying the church, creating a dead body of those who knew about Christ, but who didn’t know Christ. Their solution, however, was to throw out all definitive doctrine, to insist that Christianity can only be understood as a “narrative,” and to reimagine the faith as a conversation about Christ completely removed from any objective standard and rooted “firmly” in the realm of personal experience.

Articles like “A Jesus Manifesto” represent the fall-out of this philosophy. I know I said I didn’t disagree with much in the article, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still problems present. Central to the Christian faith is the understanding that mankind is sinful, that we have transgressed the objective standard of God’s law and stand guilty before him. The beauty of the cross (indeed, the whole reason it was necessary in the first place) shines forth in its reconciliation of us sinful beings to God through Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

This “manifesto” talks about Christ. It talks about his death and resurrection. But no where do Sweet and Viola talk about sin. No where do they discuss the reason that Christ had to die. For all of their talk about Christ and his love, the Gospel remains suspiciously absent. While I agreed with much of what they said about Christ, they still missed the real heart of the matter.

And that’s a serious thing to miss.

Herein lies the problem with the emergents. They like Jesus, but not the Gospel. They love the idea of God coming down to earth and helping the poor. They love the “social justice Jesus.” They can’t get enough of sayings like “Judge not...” and “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” Stick to these areas, and you’ll get along with the emergents just fine.

But they simply cannot abide the objective standard, or even a claim that there is an objective standard. Strangely enough, they love the idea that Christ allowed himself to be killed out of love for the world, but they refuse to acknowledge the reason that such a death was necessary in the first place. Christ had to die because it was the only way that God could save those who had gone against his objective standard.

The end result has been a rewriting of the Gospel. The good news is that we who were sinners can now have the righteousness of Christ through his atoning sacrifice! But the emergents can’t allow for the existence of an objective standard. Therefore, they have had to create new “good news”. That’s why the emergent gospel so often focuses on social justice and environmental reconstruction. The message Christ brought us of the kingdom of God “within you” has been rejected in favor an attempt to build the kingdom of God around us.

Sweet and Viola rightly identified a problem. I only wish their solution actually included the Gospel.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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August 4, 2009

The Weight of Eternity

The other day, Gregg told me of a person he once encountered that said he would keep right on sinning for his entire life and repent just before he died.

“I hope you get it out in time,” Gregg told him.

“Me too. Otherwise, I know right where I’m going.” At this, the man pointed jokingly toward the earth.

I couldn’t believe it. Sadly, this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard such a story. How many of us have heard of those who say, “I want to go to hell. That’s where the party’s at!” Or perhaps, “I don’t care if I go to hell. All my friends will be there.”

How can someone be so flippant with the concept of eternal damnation? Does “the lake of fire” sound like a party? Are people who are weeping and gnashing their teeth really going to make for friendly company for the space of eternity?

I think about that lake quite a bit. I try to imagine what it would be like to die in sin and to be brought before the throne of the King on the day of judgment...

The Alpha and the Omega tells me, “Depart...” Unimaginable terror grips my heart as I try to beg forgiveness, knowing in the depth of my soul that it is already too late. All too soon I am brought to the edge of the Lake. I can feel the heat rising from the abyss. My blood curdles at the screams of the untold billions that are already there. I am cast in, and my own scream begins only to be choked out by the searing flame destroying me, but never consuming me. The enormity of eternity closes in around my mind like a vice. I claw at the edges of the cliff in desperation, but it’s to no avail. There is no escape. I will never get out. This is my fate, my eternal destiny. Tomorrow I will still be here. Next week. Next year... A hundred trillion years from now I will still be burning alive in this waking terror, another hundred trillion years waiting with open maw. After that, another hundred trillion. And another. And another...

Penn Jillette, the tall, talking half of the famous duo Penn and Teller, recently asked the question, “If you believe in an eternal hell, how much do you have to hate someone not to proselytize?” Jillette is a dyed-in-the-wool atheist.

Another atheist once wrote to evangelist Ray Comfort: “How can you sleep at night? When you speak with me, you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation, into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain which your 'loving' god created. Yet you stand by and do nothing.”

Famed preacher Leonard Ravenhill once told the story of England’s worst criminal. Caught and convicted to die, the man had three weeks in prison to contemplate his fate. He was unrepentant. In his last days, a priest came and emotionlessly read to him of hell. The man erupted, “If I believed what you Christians believe about hell, I would crawl across the whole earth on broken glass to save one person from it!”

The atheists often have a better grasp on the situation than we do. We nonchalantly throw around words like “eternal damnation,” unbothered by the reality they represent because we believe that it doesn’t apply to us.

But it most certainly does. I have personally known at least one person who is currently experiencing that reality. I know many more who are walking straight toward it. I want to grab them, cry at them, scream at them, plead with them to recognize this reality and turn to Christ. But I can’t. I can’t because Christ told me not to cast my pearls before swine, and most of the people I know walking toward a dark eternity want nothing to do with the light. If I were to speak to them of such things in their current state, it would only serve to harden them further against the truth.

But there are others.

There are those in the world whom the Holy Spirit has already been drawing. He has been tugging on their hearts and bringing them to a place where they will be ready to hear the Gospel. They’ve grown tired of the darkness, and, though they may not realize it, they’re looking for the light! Often times, we may not even recognize that a person has reached this place. Therefore, we must be ready at all times to tell people why we have the hope that we do. When the opportunity to speak of Christ presents itself, we must do so boldly, without hesitation or regard for what those around us might think. Many may scoff, and most will reject.

But there may be one who has been primed for that moment. And your testimony may be the straw the Holy Spirit uses to break her heart and bring her to her knees.

Last night, I heard the story of Bernard. He heard the message and refused to believe. And his life ended sooner than he expected. His story is tragic.

But in the past two weeks, I’ve also heard story after story of people who have been saved, ransomed from the pit by the love and grace of Jesus. Their stories are thrilling.

Such is the eternal dichotomy. Sorrow or joy. Death or life.

While we cannot escape the reality that “broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat,” we do have the promise that there will be a few that find the narrow path.

For these we labor, that one more soul might escape the wrath that is to come and enter in to the joy of our Lord.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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August 3, 2009

Time's Up

I’ve always been a bit of a “Never-do-today-what-you-can-put-off-until-tomorrow” kind of guy. But to every rule there are exceptions.

Tonight, I heard the story of a man named Bernard. He was at a crusade Gregg preached at this past week. Those who were present commented that the message of the Gospel came through with remarkable clarity.

But Bernard wasn’t interested in this message. Bernard had come to beg for money to feed his alcoholic habit.

After the crusade, Bernard’s cousin Martin spoke to him about the Gospel. Again, the clear message was preached and heard. Again, the message was rejected. “I don’t want people to say I converted just because you wanted me to,” he told his cousin. “I’ll convert after you leave.” Martin was scheduled to leave in a little over a week.

The next night, just twenty-four hours ago as I write this note, Bernard got drunk. As he wandered in his stupor, he fell down a hole and died. For twenty-four hours now, Bernard has had to face the horrifying reality of the eternity to which he has condemned himself.

It didn’t have to be this way. For our Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal life. He called for Bernard. In the forty-eight hours before he died, God called for Bernard using the voices of Gregg and Martin and who knows who else.

Today is the day of salvation. None of us are promised tomorrow. As cliched as these things may sound, I promise you they no longer sound cliched to Bernard. Is there anything he wouldn’t give for just one more day, just one more chance to obey the Gospel and believe?

If you’re reading this, then you still have time. I beg you, don’t waste it.

If you’ve never heard the Gospel, or if you just want to hear it again, please go here.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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July 21, 2009

This marvelous healing can be yours for the low cost of...

I recently met a very friendly woman named Priscilla. She and her family hosted us in their home during our weekend ministry at Sacho High School. After awhile, our conversation turned to the prosperity gospel (at no prodding from us, by the way).

Turns out Priscilla has had a very personal encounter with the prosperity lie. A few years back, she was in an automobile accident. During her fairly long recuperation, she was watching one of the Christian programs when a man named Morris Cerullo came on.

When she mentioned his name I knew that I recognized it from somewhere, but I couldn't place it. A quick Wikipedia search revealed that Mr. Cerullo and his family are the owners and proprietors of INSP, TBN's equally deception-prone twin. His son is the CEO and the chairman of the board of directors for the network. in his personal "ministry," Mr. Cerullo looks like a carbon copy of Benny Hinn. He travels around the world conducting "Schools of Ministry" where he frequently holds one-day crusades where "healings" take place and he encourages the ministers present to spread the same message throughout their country.

He also lives in a 12,000 sq. ft. mansion. Talk about suffering for the cause.

Priscilla's story illustrates precisely how Mr. Cerullo can afford to live in such style. Being in a fairly desperate state, Priscilla took Mr. Cerullo's promise of healing to heart. She sent him a letter asking for prayer for healing.

What she received back infuriates me. Morris Cerullo World Evangelism sent her a response that read something to the effect of, "To receive your miracle of complete healing, please sow a seed of faith of $200."

At the time she sent the letter, Priscilla was earning roughly 100 KSH ($1.25) a day. MCWE wanted five months of her wages before they would "heal" her. It really shouldn't be surprising coming from a man who equates running to the phone to buy his $100 Bible Commentary with exercising one's faith in God (he actually said that on Benny Hinn's program, This Is Your Day). But surprising or not, such action represents a tragic perversion of the Gospel.

When Christ sent out his disciples, he instructed them to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils. He then gave them a very specific command:

"Freely you have received; freely give."

With such a precedent set by Christ himself, I can't imagine how men like Morris Cerullo and Benny Hinn justify having people pay for the promise of healing. That's not even taking into account the low likelihood that their promises will actually result in someone being healed. Even if they could promise healing, they would have a biblical mandate to "freely give," to travel the globe, or at the very least their hometown, healing everyone that wants to be healed. There is not a single biblical precedent of an apostle requiring a "financial seed" for healing. All a person had to do was believe that God would heal them.

It was enough for Christ, and it was enough for his apostles. So why isn't it enough for these charlatans? Is a 12,000 sq.ft. mansion more important to them than helping a poor Kenyan woman seeking hope in the midst of her pain? I can't tell you what lies in Mr. Cerullo's heart, but his actions declare that his lifestyle matters more to him than all of the pain in the world. Rather than glorifying Christ, such action blasphemes His name and His sacrifice.

Truth be known, I don't hate men like Cerullo or Hinn. I fear for them. One day they will have to stand before the throne of Christ and give an account for how they used His name. I pray that God brings them to repentance before that day.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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July 18, 2009

What Did His Death Accomplish?

While I was at the Benny Hinn conference in Kampala I had a number of deeply fascinating conversations. In a previous post, I mentioned one such conversation where a senior member of the BHM staff told me he didn’t believe all of the miracles were genuine.

But the conversation from which I learned the most didn’t include anyone involved with BHM. In between the morning and evening sessions on the conference’s second day, I was sitting in my chair and counting the seconds as they slowly ticked off the clock. A gentleman sat down next to me, and I decided to ask him what he thought of the conference up to that point.

My conversation with him was somewhat limited by the language barrier. But the questions I asked about the biblical accuracy of the prosperity claims made by Todd Coonts (see my post Blessings by Bribery for more on this character) got the attention of a man sitting behind us, and he started defending all of the claims Coonts had made.

I’ll not drag you through the entire conversation, partly because by now I’ve forgotten most of it. However, this fellow made one comment I will never forget. I asked if the message of prosperity was the central thing on which preachers of the Gospel should focus.

“It’s one of the central things,” he said. “Christ came to save us from three things: from sin, from sickness and from poverty.”

That comment revolutionized my thinking about the prosperity gospel. Until that point, I believed that this prosperity nonsense was just a perverted doctrine. This man and his nodding fellows taught me that this prosperity nonsense actually goes far deeper. It represents a total perversion, not of just one doctrine, but of the Gospel itself.

I wish I had more time with that gentleman. I would have loved to ask him what Scriptural evidence he had for such a claim. He mentioned Isaiah 53, and that by Christ’s stripes we would be healed. But context makes it clear what is being taught here:

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6

This passage makes it painfully clear why Christ came and died. He didn’t die to make us prosperous. Men throughout history have become prosperous without Christ, so if Christ died for such an end, he died needlessly. Men throughout history have been healed from disease through medicine, and God miraculously healed people in the Old Testament. So, if Christ died for such an end, he died needlessly.

But Isaiah 53:5-6 says without equivocation that Christ was wounded for our transgressions and our iniquities. A Roman cross may have snuffed his physical life, but our sin killed Christ. My sin killed him.

It was from this horrible, inescapable reality that God could not save his people without the death of his son. Prosperity and health he gave the Israelites when they obeyed. No death was required to save people from poverty and sickness. But all that could be done without Christ was to cover the people’s sin. It was still there, still rising as a stench before God needing to be covered over by the “pleasing aroma” of an innocent’s death.

It blows me away to think of the cross in such a manner. Later on in Isaiah 53, the prophet by inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the please of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” v.10

The cross of Christ, in all of its horror and humiliation, was a more pleasing aroma to God than all of the Old Testament sacrifices combined. God never wanted animal sacrifices. He states quite plainly that he does not desire them but rather the obedience of his people. When the innocent Christ took our punishment, all who believe were freed and empowered by God’s grace and Spirit to obey. When Christ descended to hell, he took with him the power of sin that there it should remain for eternity.

For this reason did Christ die. The entirety of Scripture revolves around this central point. Will we one day be freed from sickness and poverty? Certainly, but these are byproducts of Christ’s work to be experienced at a later time. The primary thing Christ sought to accomplish was our present redemption and freedom from sin.

It makes Christ’s sacrifice worthless, saying that he would die for such fleeting treasures. His death purchased a treasure of eternal import, the grandeur of which we cannot yet begin to imagine.

I rejoice in my salvation. These men rejoice in their health and wealth, and coveting thereafter, they have erred from the faith. Let us forsake these worthless pursuits and instead fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of the eternal life to which we have been called.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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July 16, 2009

A New Kind of Christian (the kind the atheists like!)

Most of what I’ve written on this blog has surrounded my encounters with the prosperity gospel. Today, I’m going to deviate from that trend and spend some time talking about the emergent church, also known as emergence Christianity.

For those of you who have never heard of the emergent church or any of its many figureheads, rest assured, you’re going to start hearing a whole lot about them in the very near future. Folks like Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Adele Sakler, Phyllis Tickle, Peter Walker, Donald Miller and others have been hard at work reshaping the foundations of the Christian faith in an image that better suits their postmodern appetites.

I recently listened to a fascinating atheistic podcast featuring Adele Sakler and Peter Walker. These two are rising stars in the “emergent conversation.” Adele is a lesbian “Christ-follower” and authors the blogs Existential Punk and Queermergent (which was proudly announced by gay-friendly, emergent founding father, Tony Jones). Peter’s an M.Div. student and a freelance writer (Relevant magazine has published some of his stuff), and he authors the blog Emerging Christian.

For those of you still wondering what emergent is all about, Peter offers this explanation:

“The emergent conversation is a deconstruction of modernist thinking about Christianity and a reapproach of faith conversation outside the context of rationalism.”

If you spend any time at all exploring the “emergent conversation,” you’ll find that they love big words. I guess they think if they sound really smart then people won’t actually recognize the garbage they’re peddling as theology. But the emergents really like deconstructing, so I’ll take a moment to deconstruct his deconstruction:

“The emergent conversation is a removal of all objective standard from Christian theology that will allow us to get away from the pesky demands of logic upon our belief system.”

If you think my deconstruction unfair, then read the last five words of his explanation again:

“...outside the context of rationalism.”

Rationalism can be simply defined as any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge. It would not be unfair to state therefore that the emergents seek to approach the “faith conversation” outside the context of reason.

And this they do with relish. I’ll give you a few examples. When asked about his take on homosexuality, Peter said, “For me, that's not an issue that I have any right or place to be judging on because I don't deal with that. I think Brad Pitt's an attractive man, but if you're going to get into somebody making a judgment call about a stance on homosexuality, I have no business there.”

Really? Let’s follow that thinking through to its logical conclusion. I don’t feel any desire to have sex with a child. Therefore since I can’t understand that compulsion, I have no business telling anyone else not to have sex with children. Offensive as such a suggestion is, the emergent worldview leaves no room for condemnation of anything.

Peter admits this when he says he needs to allow his friends to “...work out their existential experiences on their own. In a postmodern setting, everybody has their own experience, and I have a really hard time judging somebody else's experience as right or wrong.”

More big words. Existentialism, a hallmark of emergent philosophy, was developed in part by Nietzsche (“God is dead”). It denies the existence of objective values, instead stressing the reality and significance of human experience.

On the surface, it actually sounds kind of nice. We’ll all just have our own truths, and we’ll all be tolerant and sit in coffee shops oohing and aahing over each other’s “realities.” But look underneath the hood. If their existential philosophy denies the existence of objective values, then they have to reject the Christ they claim to follow.

But we’ll come back to that. Later on, the host of the podcast asked Adele and Peter if it would “harm or destroy” either of their faiths if it were proved true that Jesus never lived and Scripture was simply mythology. This was Adele’s response:

“I don’t think it would. I think I would keep going. Because the Jesus that I read about in the Gospels is...such an example. If I found out, like Peter said, that they had found his bones and that he didn’t die and rise again, I don’t think that would be a deal-breaker for me.”

Jesus is an example? Jesus said things like, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Sounds like an objective value to me. If Adele is really going to follow Christ as her “example,” isn’t she going to have to hold to his same objective values? If she refuses to even hold to his values, then the honest person would have to admit she’s not really following him at all.

I wish I was making this stuff up. Peter’s response to whether or not his faith would be affected if the Bible was proven false was that he had a “personal experience that transcends that.” For the emergents, true or false is immaterial. Their experience is all that matters. It’s higher than Christ. It’s higher than God.

It’s not Christian. It’s actually anti-Christ. As Gregg puts it, they can call themselves emergent, but they should just drop the “Christian” part.

I could go on. I could write for hours about how they wrote off Genesis and Jonah as oral traditions meant to teach values rather than history. I could talk about how Adele doesn’t think Scripture’s commands regarding sexuality apply to her and her wife because they were for a particular “historical and cultural context.” I could tell you more about how the veracity of Scripture doesn’t matter to Adele and Peter one iota. But I think the point has already been made.

What you need to know now is that these people are the leaders of the next generation of American Christianity. Look around. Yesterday’s leaders are dying. D. James Kennedy is gone. Jerry Falwell has passed. Dr. James Dobson is getting up there in years, and his organization is already making plans for how to continue after he dies. Regardless of whatever other flaws they may have had, these men at least held with all their might to God’s Word as their solid rock. In their stead are rising men and women who have no regard for Scripture. They believe much of it to be nothing more than a collection of fairy tales from which we can all learn some good morals.

These are the people writing some of the best-selling books in Christendom today. Men and women my age are leaving the churches of their parents by the millions for emergent churches.

I understand the appeal. The emergent belief threatens no one. The most controversial thing they’ll ever say is that it’s wrong not to love. They welcome all just as they are, and their theology allows everyone to stay just as they are. Without condemnation. Without anyone ever daring to say, “Um, I think Scripture says you’re wrong.”

The most revealing part of the entire podcast is what one of the atheistic hosts wrote on his blog afterwards.

“The more I discourse with moderate Christians, the less I think of the arguments of the ‘New Atheists’ against moderate Christianity. We need more Christians like these two, not less.”

The atheists like this brand of Christianity. What’s not to like? The emergents are tolerant, amoral and sexually permissive! They look positively angelic!

So does Satan. We’d do well to remember that the best lies look great on the surface.

When you hear these people in the future, listen carefully to what they have to say. Test their words against the Word of God, and see if they hold any water at all. Use the rational intellect God saw fit to give you. Don’t stop at their pretty words and brilliant rhetoric. Take every thought captive. If we don’t, we risk becoming just like them.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 30, 2009

Represent!

If you’ve been following the “News” section, then you already know that we spent last week in Mombasa. As with most places in Kenya, hawkers and beggars walk the beach seeking clients and handouts. While mildly irritating when trying to enjoy a quiet stroll on the beach, these encounters offered up a number of interesting conversations we won’t soon forget.

One in particular stands out for me. A couple of young Muslim boys came up to Gregg and started talking with him. This has happened several times here in Africa. The kids here are just fascinated by a white father out with his children.

After a few minutes of joking back and forth at Gregg’s inability to pronounce one of their names, it came out that Gregg was going to spend the following day in church. One of the kids piped up:

“I’m a Muslim. I’ll pray for you!”

“Thank you,” Gregg replied.

“I’ll pray to Allah that he will make you rich!” At this, the boys all laughed as though they were making fun of Gregg’s faith.

Gregg was slightly taken aback. “What?”

“I’ll pray that he’ll make you rich!” the boy repeated. They followed this with the same laughter.

These young boys, the oldest of whom was maybe thirteen, already see Christians as people who are out to get riches from God, and they find the idea laughable. I can hardly blame them. I’d find it laughable myself were it not so tragic.

The world is supposed to find Christianity ridiculous. It was to the Jews blasphemy and the Greeks foolishness. From the beginning, God designed his plan of redemption so only the humble would come, having lost all faith in themselves. The haughty were always supposed to mock the folly of Calvary, until the wrecks they made of their own lives brought them broken and contrite to the very foot of the cross.

But we should never give them reason to mock based on our flawed representation of our King. For, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us…” II Corinthians 5:20a

These boys mocked not out of their own pride, but because the inherently selfish form of Christianity they had been presented deserved to be ridiculed.

People will remember what they see in us. If someone met Christ for the first time, how would they be inclined to respond based on their encounters with us? Would they mock him openly to his face? Or would they, having seen his life in his followers, fall on their knees and worship the King?

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 25, 2009

In Jesus' Name

What do the following phrases have in common?

Please.

Abra cadabra.

Bippity-boppity-boo.

If you answered, “They’re all magic words,” then you have my congratulations. You’re also clearly familiar with classic Disney films.

From parental instruction, to traditional illusionism, magic words have been part of our common lexicon for quite some time. And it seems a new phrase has joined this lineup of enchanted linguistics.

“In Jesus’ name…” I wish I had an audio recording so you could hear exactly how I’ve heard it said in multiple conferences and church services. “In JE-SUS name!” “I am a leader, in JE-SUS name!” “Tomorrow at this time, I’ll have my miracle, in JE-SUS name!” Whether you’re asking for divine healing or a new car, the prevailing theory on how to obtain your heart’s desire seems to be uttering those “magic” words.

I understand why.

Everyone has their proof texts, and the prosperity folks are no different. In John 14:13-14, Christ says, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

On the surface, it seems pretty cut and dried. Ask something in Christ’s name, and it shall be done. The question would then become why everything that has been asked in Jesus’ name hasn’t come to pass. Those from the prosperity camp would say the requester must not have enough faith. But Christ actually gave us another condition, placed directly within these verses.

“…that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

There it is. Christ will do anything asked in his name that will serve to glorify the Father in himself. This could not include making someone rich, for the person gaining wealth would, in the vast majority of cases, be the one glorified.

“I have a plane, custom ties, tailored suits, a collection of Rolexes and ostrich-skin shoes.” As Todd Coonts stood on the stage at Benny Hinn’s Fire Conference and basked in his earthly wealth, who was receiving the glory?

Since coming to Africa, I have heard Jesus’ name invoked more often out of a desire for health, wealth or some other kind for fleshly boon, than I have heard it proclaimed as the source of our salvation from sin and death. Indeed, this practice of tacking on Jesus’ name to statements of personal gain has more in common with traditional witchcraft than any established New Testament practice.

Christ’s name is the only one under heaven by which man may be saved. By his name only are we freed from the stranglehold of sin, and it should never be cheapened by this kind of vain, selfish repetition.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 24, 2009

Deja Vu

Everywhere we went during our time in Mombasa we came across signs advertising an Empowerment Summit with Bishop David Oyedepo. Big signs, little signs, tall signs, small signs…Dr. Seuss would have been proud.

These signs piqued our curiosity, so we decided to find out more about this Bishop Oyedepo. I had never heard of him prior to this, but he’s actually a big deal. He runs an international ministry with church branches all over the world, including four or five in America.

And all signs pointed to him being a prosperity guru (he has his own Gulfstream jet, after all). After a brief discussion, we decided to go see what he had to say. So, as the rest of the gang headed back to Nairobi yesterday, I stayed in Mombasa to check it out.

It was like déjà vu, all over again.

The bishop never made it. I guess having your own jet doesn’t make you immune to travel delays. Even so, the rest of the summit leaders seemed to carry on just fine in his stead. After a riotous session of singing, a fellow got up, misused Galatians 6 (clearly a favorite “harvest” passage for prosperity proponents), and they raked in the cash. Then, a fellow they had flown in from London to cover for Bishop Oyedepo spoke for three hours insisting that, by covenant and by prophecy, everyone there was a leader. I lost track of the time of times he shouted, “I am a leader!” Everyone responded with riotous applause.

Just like the Hinn conference, everything was geared to raise the emotional level. No one noticed that every Scripture the speaker quoted that morning was taken woefully out of context.

They use the same Scriptures and the same tactics. The prosperity lies are all the same, and they are blatantly transparent to those that have heard the truth.

And therein lies the problem. So many of these people have not heard the truth. All they have ever heard is prosperity, prosperity, prosperity. From TBN and every pulpit they’ve ever seen, the prosperity gospel is the only “gospel” to which many of the African people have been exposed. The pure, simple, powerful Gospel of Jesus Christ hasn’t yet reached their yearning ears.

The Gospel saves! We “…that were sometime alienated and enemies in [our minds] by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight,” and this gives us life and peace and joy. Nothing else will do.

Gregg just wrote a post about the poverty, and the physical need here is certainly overwhelming. But the spiritual poverty plaguing this “Christian” nation is just as pervasive and even more destructive.

The Gospel must be preached, and to this end we labor. Pray that God will send more laborers into the field. The real harvest is waiting.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 17, 2009

Hoodwinking 101

I can now say with complete confidence that the ‘healings’ going on at Toufik Benedictus (Benny) Hinn’s crusades are not genuine.

Over the years, both secular and Christian media have investigated Benny Hinn Ministries, and to date, not one iota of concrete evidence has been provided to aid in the validation of these ‘miracles.’

During the Fire Conference I attended in Kampala, many people were ‘healed,’ but in every case something invisible was supposedly cured. Bad circulation, or stomach cancer, or some nebulous pain only cap the list of visually unverifiable ‘miracles.’

A senior staff member with BHM even told me directly, “I don’t believe all of the miracles.”

I could write for hours on this one point, on the scam of it, on how Benny Hinn and all those associated with him will have to answer to God regarding those whose money they have stolen. That’s not to mention answering for those poor souls who died due to lack of medical treatment after Benny told them they were cured.

But these things have been written on at length, and a simple Google search will bring up ample reading material. Instead, I want to examine the machinery used to get people to believe this fraud is genuine.

The closest thing to which I can compare Benny’s conference is a rock concert. It starts with some lesser-known opening act (in this case a local choir), which is used to warm up the crowd. After roughly an hour of people singing and jumping, the main act takes center stage. Never in my life have I heard a concert crowd applaud and cheer as loudly as the Miracle Center Cathedral folks did for Benny Hinn.

Summertime in Kampala gets hot. I think it was only about 90 degrees that day, but the humidity was pushing 90%. Ten thousand people, all dressed in their Sunday best (I was in a full suit and tie) are then crammed into an auditorium with no air conditioning. Bottom line, the heat is stifling.

The doors to the event were opened many hours in advance, and in a country where people are typically late nearly, everyone had arrived at least two hours before the event started. With the exception of those lucky few in the front row, there was no water available. No one at all had food. So, by the time Benny actually took the stage, the entire crowd had been without access to food or water for roughly three to four hours.

The African people do not yet have the same skepticism most Americans do when it comes to televangelists. That skepticism is beginning to spread among the younger generation here, but as many pastors have told us, if someone from America says it on TV, it’s still taken as gospel by most people here. Benny Hinn is widely known from his This is Your Day program on TBN, and most of the people at that convention know only what they’ve seen on that program. They don’t know about the controversy. They don’t know that he has been investigated by a number of different organizations. They don’t know there’s no real evidence for his ‘miracles.’

They just believe.

There’s the scene. A larger-than-life figure purporting to bring a ‘healing anointing’ with him walks into a sauna-like room filled with tired, hungry, thirsty, desperate souls. Then he says the magic words…

“Oh my, I came here tonight intending to teach, but there’s just a tremendous spirit of healing here tonight.”

Pandemonium erupts.

Some people think that Benny’s organization plants all of the people that get ‘healed.’ I don’t believe that’s the case. They may plant some, but I don’t think they need to plant all of them. In medicine, there’s a phenomenon known as the Placebo Effect. In studies with patients who have terrible pain, they have given sugar pills to these patients telling them it’s a form of morphine. An overwhelming percentage of them report feeling a marked decrease in their pain. They believed the pill would make them feel better, so they felt better.

The vast majority of the ‘miracles’ that took place in Kampala can be explained by the Placebo Effect. You get a huge, hysterical crowd together, get them tired, hungry and thirsty so their mental acuity is somewhat dimmed, and tell them that, “Someone over to my left is feeling electricity going up and down their left leg. A circulation problem has just been healed.” Electricity is so vague a term that any number of people might feel it under those circumstances, and a ‘spirit of healing’ would have nothing to do with it.

This went on for well over an hour. When the crowd would get tired of standing, Benny would get animated and tell everyone to lift their hands to heaven in thanksgiving. Suddenly everyone would rise again. If someone tried to sit down, Benny would call to them directly and implore them to rise. In this manner was the hysteria prolonged.

But even this must be controlled. Benny carries with him some massive bodyguards, and these fellows, with earphones tucked into their collars, control the crowd of people trying to approach the stage to give a testimony of their ‘healing.’ My front row seat gave me a clear view of the largest fellow getting frustrated with lower-level bouncers for bringing the wrong person forward at the wrong time. The cameras never capture this.

I am also not surprised in the least that people fall backwards when Benny touches their chins. Everyone believes something will happen, so the Placebo Effect takes over. This ‘slaying in the Spirit’ is nothing more than exhausted people overcome with emotion. In more than one instance I observed the fellows who were supposed to ‘catch’ the falling people actually gently pull them down when they weren’t falling of their own accord.

The whole thing sickened me. I spent the entire weekend awestruck that these people could allow themselves to be so deceived. I was even more amazed at how comfortable everyone involved was at using the crowd’s belief and emotional fervor against them.

In the course of the weekend, that fervor combined with polluted teaching (see my post Blessings by Bribery for more on this) saw BHM leave town at least $800,000 richer than they arrived.

And in their wake, they leave boys like the one that approached me as I was trying to leave on Saturday night. Being the only white guy there in a suit not with BHM, I was approached by several people over the course of the weekend who thought I was a pastor with the conference.

This boy pulled me over to his friend. This friend was laying on the ground, covered in a blanket, a cripple. The boy implored me to help his friend. I was on the verge of tears as I tried to explain to this kid that I wasn’t with the ministry, and there was nothing that I could do.

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matt. 7:15

If Christ wasn’t talking about men like Benny, then I can’t imagine who would fit that bill.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 16, 2009

Blessings by Bribery

“Listen to me! Today is the poorest day of the rest of your life!”

Thus Todd Coonts launched into his 2.5-hour discourse on how God wants you to be filthy rich.

If you’re unfamiliar with Todd, he’s a very successful businessman who now runs a financial “ministry.” I’ll be addressing this organization more in the coming days.

About a year ago, Benny Hinn invited Todd to travel with him and speak at his conferences (I encountered Todd at one such Fire Conference). Benny has therefore given his complete endorsement of Todd and his message.

The entire morning was engineered to excite the crowd. From Todd’s pithy one-liners, to his spontaneous “tongue-speaking,” to his insistence that his plane, his Rolexes, his custom ties, his tailored suits and his ostrich-skin shoes (no joke) were attainable by all, every moment was crafted to stir the gathering into an emotional fervor.

He did occasionally mention Scripture. His first verse was Genesis 8:22:

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Todd told the crowd that this illustrated the immutable, divine principle of seedtime/harvest. He said that it is a concrete guarantee that when you plant a seed, you will get a harvest.

For hours he went on and on about the harvest. He went on to Galatians 6 where he read verses 7 and 9:

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap…And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Here’s verse 8, which he conveniently skipped over:

“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Rolexes? Planes? Ostrich-skin shoes? To what does it seem this man is sowing?

I would have very little to say if people just got up and gave to BHM because they sincerely believed in what they were doing. I’d suggest a little more discernment, but at least their motives would be pure.

But that’s not what I saw. I saw a man get up on stage for two and half hours, parade around boasting of his own wealth and insisting that this was how every believer should live. He promised the crowd, and even “entered into covenant with them,” that if they “sowed a seed” of $1,000, within one year they would reap a hundred-fold harvest. Yup, he promised them $100,000.

Satan once told Christ to throw himself off of a temple so God would be compelled to bear him up. Christ quoted Scripture saying, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” But tempt Him these people did, and not just a few. Over eighty people got up to give $1,000. More got up to sow a $100 seed and even more a $50 seed. These people gave not out of a pure heart of love for God and gratitude for how he had blessed them, but so he would have no choice but to give them even more.

Sadly, these folks will probably get it. These people were leaders, many of them pastors. They sowed their seeds, then no doubt went home and told their congregations about the message and instructed them to do likewise. The pastors will likely reap a harvest. When the people (who have no one beneath them in this spiritual pyramid scheme) fail to reap a financial harvest, all the pastors have to say is, “We did! You must not have enough faith,” and they’re off the hook.

In this manner are the world’s poorest pillaged and plundered. With thunderous applause and joyous exultation, these people with nothing give what little they have based on the unfounded promise that God will bless them financially.

But do not be deceived, for God is not mocked. What a man sows he shall reap. And when a man sows to the flesh, he will of the flesh reap corruption. For these poor, ignorant people, their destitution will become even more destitute. For these pastors, who rob from the flocks that have been placed in their care, they may reap riches now. But God is not mocked. In my last post I talked about I Timothy 6. Here are verses 9-10:

“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (emphasis mine)

These have their reward. They are practical thieves, and I Corinthians 6 makes it clear that such have no part in the Kingdom of God.

For those who truly long after a God-given blessing, Paul does not leave us without guidance, for:

“…godliness with contentment is great gain.” (again, emphasis mine)

And this from the man who was shipwrecked, a day and a night in the deep, destitute, stoned, whipped, bloodied, bruised, working all the time so as not to be a burden to anyone. If he could be content in such circumstances, then surely we can find such contentment as well.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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June 13, 2009

For richer or poorer...

This past weekend, I attended a Fire Conference with Benny Hinn in Kampala, Uganda. For years, I’ve seen him in the headlines and on TV, but for all of the publicity, I knew very little about what he believed and what he preached. It was with this in mind that Gregg decided it’d be a good idea for me to go.

In the coming days, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the experience, but first I wanted to take another look at the prosperity gospel preached by Hinn and others of the same cloth.

In a phenomenal article entitle, “The Ponzi Prosperity Gospel,” the anonymous author peels back the attractive veneer of the movement to reveal its rotten underside.

This writer begins by stating the obvious regarding how furious we get when we hear of scam artists like Bernie Madoff ripping off their helpless clients. He then points out that many in Christendom are getting away scot-free with similar scams among their own congregations.

Bernie Madoff was not a stupid man. The bloke is disturbingly brilliant, and the perpetrators of this spiritual scam are no less so. In conversations we’ve had here in Kenya, it has become clear that a younger, more educated populace is far less likely to fall for such lies.

But these men aren’t targeting the more educated folks.

A Pew Foundation poll conducted last year found that the proponents of the prosperity gospel are preaching to the poorest, least educated churches in America. It’s no surprise then that they have found eager audiences in Africa, a destitute continent.

These poor people, representing the bottom of the economic and educational barrels both in America and here in Africa, have been fed the lie that God wants to make them rich. These “preachers” take verses like Galatians 6:7-9 drastically out of context to promise that if their congregations “sow a seed” that God will be compelled to bless them with an abundant financial harvest.

In beginning my post-event research this past Sunday, I stumbled upon this passage in I Timothy 6. Please read it carefully, as I’ll be returning to it over and over in the coming days:

“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 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. But godliness with contentment is great gain (italics and emphasis mine).” I Tim. 6:3-6

When Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount that after seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness “all these things” would be added unto us, context shows that “all these things” are food and clothing. When pastors promise a “hundred-fold” return on a $1,000 seed sown, they are promising what is not in their power to give.

I had the privilege the other day to watch a friend of mine instructing his son. His son had said, as many children do, that he wanted a particular item in a store. This friend sat down with his son and taught him about Paul. He told this young boy what Paul had said about being thankful to God in all circumstances, whether having much or having little. He told his son how blessed they were to have the sodas they were drinking, how they should thank God for them, and how, should there come a day where they could not afford such treats, they should thank God for the shirts on their backs.

This should always be our attitude to our Father. Gratitude. What great salvation we have been given! What a gift we’ve been given in the simple fact of our existence! Godliness with contentment is great gain. May such ever be the harvest we pursue.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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May 27, 2009

The Un-gospel

The greatest threat to new believers is not persecution. Even the baby Christian who has genuinely experienced the rebirth and new life of Christ can stand when things get rough. The greatest threat is not other religions. That same baby Christian would not trade his new life for an old death.

No, the greatest threat facing new or immature believers is the “other gospel.”

This threat is insidious. It masquerades as the “new life.” It uses all of the right jargon. Words like “Christ,” “love,” “life,” “restoration,” etc., get thrown around like candy from a parade float. And they’re often thrown by what seem like the nicest, most genuine, kind-hearted people in the world.

In America, a movement called Emergence Christianity holds the position of the most popular other gospel. Each year, millions of people (often teenagers or college students) join the ever-swelling ranks of these that still use Christ’s name, but hold no regard for His Word. They have determined that while we might be able to trust it, we cannot be trusted to understand it. Therefore, no one can claim to know what he really wants from us. All we can do is join in the Great Conversation. Gay or lesbian? Please, join in, they say. There’s room for all on the broad path. Their gospel is one of social reconciliation, an establishment of God’s kingdom on the earth now through peace, understanding and tolerance.

Africa has not yet seen the influx of “emergence” that America has. I have no doubt that it’s coming, for such lies know no borders, but for now, it remains confined to America and Europe. Africa faces a different scourge, and the enemy has tailored it precisely for these circumstances.

Here, the prosperity gospel is the order of the day. Proponents of this gospel prey on the difficult circumstances faced by these people, many of who live in the slums with open sewage flowing down Main Street. They twist stories in the Bible to say that just as God healed this person or allowed that person to prosper, he will do the same for them. If only they’ll first “plant a seed” (i.e., give me your money now so God will be forced to bless you later).

I witnessed this first hand a few weeks back. The pastor of one of the larger churches in Nairobi used the story in II Kings 6-7, where Syria had come against Israel. In the first verse of chapter 7, God promises that “tomorrow about this time” all shall again be well.

The promise was made for that people at that time in that situation. It was not made for all people for all time. Yet this pastor stood in front of over a thousand people and told them to pray and believe to “claim that this time tomorrow I will have my miracle, in Jesus name.”

This same pastor actually said that he doesn’t like to preach the cross. He instead wants to preach “beyond the cross.” I don’t understand this. What is there beyond the cross? What have we but our hope in what Christ purchased for us?

This prosperity gospel resides not “beyond the cross,” but completely and totally separated from the cross. The two are not even related. It is a different gospel, and such is the most prominently preached form of “Christianity” in Kenya. It has seeped into the churches, and it parades on TV. From the “TBN Africa” pulpit, Benny Hinn and Rod Parsley line their own pockets by preying on the fears and hopes of an ignorant audience.

Christ, and him crucified, is the only Gospel preached in the New Testament. Paul had harsh words for anyone preaching anything else:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Gal. 1.6-8

The grace of Christ, which has purchased our freedom from sin, is the only Gospel. If anyone preaches anything else, he is to be accursed. It may sound harsh, but this is not my judgment. It is the judgment of the Word of God.

We must stand firm on Christ, our only foundation, and strongly proclaim the truth so young Christians will not be led astray by such lies.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog please email Jeremy at  jeremy@lastingfoundations.com.

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