half truths in our contemporary world ...

Firstly, I will like to apologise to Charles as I had to make a decision to put his post on the prosperity gospel offline for awhile as I feel that it might just confuse some of the younger readers we have who have been faithfully following our blog.

I do not have anything personal with my brother in Christ and as I have explained and apologised to him that I took it offline for a few reasons. But not to worry, we have made up over coffee and cheesecake. Not saying that food helps but I believe that our God is a God of reconcilation and He will love to see His children loving one another with His love that He so graciously gave to us. Thank you Charles for forgiving me. :)

Charles has good intentions to inform our readers of what's happening in our Christian world nowadays. Some of you may have heard this term 'prosperity and wealth' gospel but not sure what it is about. So for the benefit of those who are not in the know, this is my humble response.

Back to this issue about prosperity gospel. I think you will see in the video about a pastor preaching strongly against this gospel that is prevalent in our world nowadays. Allow me to share some light on this issue. I will be sharing from various part of Paul's letter to his protege Timothy.

Half truths’ in our contemporary world
In our contemporary world, we should be aware that just like what the church in Ephesus had to struggle with, we in this present age are not spared either. In recent years, we begin to see and hear a new gospel – a gospel that promises health and wealth to Christians. This new gospel introduces making faith statements like “Name it and Claim it”, ‘Positive Confessions’, and teaches things that encourage people to give what they have not for the expansion of God’s Kingdom but so that God will bless them even more through health and wealth.

This new gospel is far from the one which teaches that God gave his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins… From a gospel which sees God taking the initiative to save us from our sins, we see another which says God wants to bless us abundantly with health and prosperity if only we take the initiative to know how to get him to do it.

In Chapter 6 verse 5 (1 Tim 6:5), Paul highlights to Timothy a group of men “who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” Paul goes on to add in verses 9 and 10 which says, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Do we see a similarity of the struggles in Paul’s time and now? When we begin to view our relationship with God as one where we offer our money so that we can expect God to bless us even more, then we are no different from those who worship pagan gods. In human religions, pagan gods were worshipped so that they can serve man. In the prosperity and health gospel, Christian truth has been twisted to become a system where God can be coerced, controlled, manipulated and exploited by Christians. Through the work of the devil, false teachers aim firstly to Confuse, then Captivate and finally Condemn our unwary souls to hell.

From a God whom we respond to in love and gratitude to what He has done for us in Jesus Christ to a God who is made to respond to our every beck and calling instead, this has been something those false teachers seek to make us believe. The deceptions become obvious when there is a need to devise human means towards our salvation.

What then should we do? And it is here we return again to Paul’s letter to Timothy.

Standing Firm in God’s Truth (1Timothy 4:6-7)
“If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.”

The truth of the matter - Godly truths and good teachings
Paul continues his letter in giving his affirmation to Timothy that he will be a good minister of Christ if he warns and educate his flock on these things about false doctrines. In his upbringing, Timothy had strong spiritual foundations that were laid down in his Christian life by teachings from his grandmother, Lois and mother Eunice, and also from his many journeys with Paul. Here, Paul reminded Timothy to teach his church members with the foundation of God’s truth and good teachings which he has learned and followed.

As we can see, Paul’s way of dealing with the false teachings was not to concentrate on those errors or how we are to deal with them. Instead he focused on how we can build ourselves up through God’s Word. Building our spiritual lives on God’s Word will mean that we can withstand any kind of error when it comes and that includes godless myths and old wives tales.

In these verses, we also learn the importance of teaching Godly truths both in our church and at home. In order to do that, Christian parents have a responsibility to know God’s word well so that they can teach their children what is right and wrong, what is true and what is false.

In the church, all of us being in this community of God, have a common responsibility to learn God’s word, not to boast our knowledge but to serve one another. As Paul mentioned in his 2Timothy 3:16-17 which says, “All scripture is God breathed and us useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that every man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” As each of us grow in God’s Word, we learn to also pass on what is true to the next generation of believers in the church.

Just like a 4x 100m race where a baton is passed on from the first runner to the last one, this baton of God’s truth needs to be faithfully and carefully handed to each runner so that when the final runner completes the race, the whole team wins. It will be a tragic loss if along the race, someone in the team switches the baton to a carrot, resulting in the team losing the race. It is important to start well in a race but it is also equally important for us to finish well by passing down spiritual truths that we have learnt.

The way to defeat false doctrines is not only by denouncing and refuting it, but also by positively teaching and living God’s truth. In the next verse, Paul explains why physical training is good but training in Godliness is better!

Physical Training is good! Training in Godliness is better! (1Timothy 4:8)
Text: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

I like this verse, in fact I love this verse as it makes a perfect excuse not to exercise when Ian, Hsien Kwang or Joseph persuades me to go running with them. Not to mention my wife who keeps reminding me to go lose weight.

In both the Roman and Greek cultures, competitive sports and activities were the order of the day. And thus we see Paul frequently using illustrations about athletes in his letters always making comparisons between physical training and training in godliness.

And here again we see Paul reminding Timothy that he is to train himself in godliness with all the discipline that a sportsman does to get himself in top physical condition. It was to be Timothy’s constant pursuit. Godliness can be explained as having a right attitude and response towards our Creator God and a heart that seeks after Him. Godliness is the heart and soul of Christian character and the aim of Christian living.

The key to godly living is spiritual self-discipline. We often hear our parents, Sunday School teachers and pastors reminding us of the importance of reading God’s Word, spending time with God in prayer, etc. All these things require us to be disciplined to set aside time to study God’s Word and in prayer so that God can nourish us with His truth and promises. Although physical training has good values in our present life, training in godliness holds promise for both now and the life to come.

This statement has so much truth in it that Paul calls it a trustworthy statement and persuades Timothy to keep labouring and striving towards godliness in verse 9 and 10.

Do not compromise your faith (1Timothy 4:9-10)
Text: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul warns Timothy of the things to come. In Chapter 3:1-5, Paul says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

And in 2Timothy 4:2-5, Paul gave Timothy this charge:
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

Paul’s pastoral letter to his protégé has a lot for us to learn today in our context as well. In the world we live in, where the attitude of people especially the youths, is slowly changing to one of ‘whatever’ and ‘anything’. We must learn to discipline ourselves to build up our Christian faith on God’s word. We must not lose our faith by letting false doctrines get to us. We must avoid embracing ‘whatever’ and ‘anything’ that comes our way. When it comes to God’s truth and promises, there is no compromise; there is no ‘whatever’ or ‘anything’ because God’s truth is everything.

We must keep our head in all situations and endure hardship. This will be our constant struggle and we can’t do it by our own strength. And so, all the more we must put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

I may not be so extreme as to shout and scream as I preach but I hope my simple and humble sharing from God's Word can encourage all of us to study His Word each day faithfully and apply it to our lives. Amen.

As you watch the videos, may you have a better light of why some pastors are so against 'prosperity' and 'wealth' gospels!


Donnie Swaggart's sermons


Part I



Part II: "It is amazing......they said 'give give give' and Jesus said 'gave'......you dun get it? They are telling you to give, and Jesus already gave. The modern day greed gospel is nothing more than a ponzi scheme......"

What is a ponzi scheme? Read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

"When a preacher say Jesus is a Billionarie wearing designer clothes, it is a lie!"

I must say quite interesting, even though I do not believe in Pentacostalism.


Part III