America's False Gospel

Introduction: Some Hesitation

Sorry for the long period in between posts. I have been really busy with school. But I have to get this post out there before I decide not to write it. I know there a lot of cynics out there and people who like to hate things just for the sake of hating something. Derek Webb put it very well in his song “This Too Shall be Made Right” on his masterful album, The Ringing Bell. The song begins with this lyric, “People love you the most for the things you hate, and hate you the most for the things you can’t keep straight. People judge you on a curve and tell you that you are getting what you deserve. And this too shall be made right.” I pray against any hatred in this post. I pray that God’s Word is at the center of all of this. And I affirm along with Derek Webb, “And this too shall be made right.”

Adding to this hesitation is the American mindset of tolerance and acceptance that surrounds me. So many in our culture are shouting, “Tolerate me!” But I wonder, in this age of tolerance and in this religion of political correctness, have we lost the two primary directives of the Bible: “Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind . . . [and] Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39). I am all for acceptance, but not at the cost of biblical truth and love. Our country has moved away from what is one of the most known biblical passages, both among believers and non-believers. We have sold out the Gospel for tolerance and comfort. The commandment to love God with all of yourself and to love your neighbor as yourself is just too hard and too uncomfortable for most in America today. Just read the Apostle Paul’s beautiful depiction of love in 1 Corinthians 13 that culminates in this statement: “And not these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). We must return to what the Bible is all about: love
It is in the fear (reverence) of God and the knowledge of my utter brokenness and inability to save myself that I continue this post. (I will say here that I had another post written about this and I never posted it because it was too harsh and cynical. Let us always remember as Christians, that we need to write in humility and love. I pray that I always remember this.) Ok, so on with the post . . .

America’s False Gospel

I saw a special on Joel Osteen Sunday night on 60 Minutes. Perhaps, you saw it? It was almost a balanced segment until it ended with Osteen bench-pressing 300 pounds and playing basketball with the interviewer. But with that said, the interviewer did ask some tough questions. For example, he asked about the claim that Osteen’s message of prosperity and Your Best Life Now is not biblical. Osteen’s answer went something like this: I am giving people hope. I do not know why people are so bothered by this. Hope is biblical. He was also asked, “How is your message different from Oprah or Dr. Phil’s philosophies?” His answer went something like this: much of what Oprah and Dr. Phil say is biblical and they do not even know it. So, in other words, he had no problem with his message being very similar or almost exactly like the self-help messages of Oprah and Dr. Phil.

The interviewer also asked Osteen about his new book: Become a Better You: Seven Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday. It came out to the general public on Monday, I believe. According to the interview, the book does not mention Jesus Christ. For him, this is no big deal. He is helping people become the best they can be. This is rewarding and satisfying to him. Essentially, even though he would never say this, he has removed Jesus Christ from his view of Christianity.
Now that I think about it: Who needs Jesus in America anyway? In this disheartening postmodern age of individualism, we no longer have a need for Jesus. We can do it on our own. We can take these seven easy steps to improve our lives on our own. If you are struggling in life, you are probably doing something wrong according to this type of thinking. Poverty is a result of poor choices. You hear this rhetoric of choice espoused from pulpits all over the country, and not just in the pulpits of prosperity churches. Osteen is just the tip of the iceberg.

The thing that amazes me about this prosperity gospel that Osteen and so many others espouse is that it is believable to so many people. Maybe I have misunderstood the human condition. But, wait that could not be right . . . my view of the human condition is the same view as the Apostle Paul. Read Romans 7 when you get a chance. I am not going to get into it here, but if you are reading this post, I highly suggest you dig into God’s word and figure this stuff out for yourself. But I will quote one of my favorite passages in the Bible, and I think the most relieving passage in the Bible: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). So, the human condition is biblical. We are living in a fallen world. We are affected and beaten down by sin. But, in the midst of this, we must live in the hope of the Resurrection. Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. (Check out the Nicene Creed, or is it the Apostles’ Creed when you get a chance.) So, the sinful human condition is biblical and only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are we saved.

I am not really sure how Osteen and the prosperity people could have missed so much of the Bible. I could point out scripture after scripture that seem to contradict even the titles of Osteen’s books. I am just not sure what is going on. Does this stuff just sound good to people? Is Osteen playing the tune that everyone wants to hear? Is it really true that we have lost any semblance of sacrificing our will for the will of God in America? The answer for many seems to be “yes.” (Here, I must admit that I suffer just as much with the human condition as the murderer or the sex offender. I have my days where my thoughts are despicable. I have days where I do terrible things. I have days where I do not yield my will over to God’s will for my life. But, I know this: on the days where I wake up and say to God: “your will be done today,” I have the best days of my life. God knows me better than I know myself and I want Him to be in control.)

Everything Hinges on the Cross

In Romans 5:1-5, Paul writes of joy in suffering: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Do you see in this verse how everything hinges on the Cross? Paul tells us that we are justified through faith, which we only have access to because of the grace given us through Jesus Christ. We now stand in grace, not condemnation, before God. Jesus Christ paid the price for us on the Cross and this is why we are saved through faith! So, we are to live in the hope of the glory of God: the Resurrection and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. But, Paul never fails to point us back to the Cross. Our growth as followers of Jesus begins with suffering. Our new life in Jesus Christ begins with the Cross. There is no way around this.

The false prosperity gospel has removed the Cross from its message. The Cross is not just the atoning sacrifice for humanity’s sin, it is also, the ultimate example of how we should sacrifice our will for the will of God. As Jesus says in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested and crucified, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). It is as if the prosperity message stopped at “everything is possible for you.” Yes, praise God, all things are possible with Him! But Jesus does not stop at this exciting proclamation. He goes to the Cross and sacrifices His will for the will of God. He allows himself to suffer unimaginable suffering for the sake of the will of the Father.

Preaching about hope and resurrection power without preaching about the Cross is false prophecy. It misleads people and gives them false hope. You cannot have true hope and prosperity without the Cross. Unfortunately, I must diagnose the success of the prosperity message as a case of giving people what they want, of giving them something that sounds really easy: just take these seven steps and be the best you can be! In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the prosperity message sells people “cheap grace.” (Go read Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship if you have not already.) Unfortunately, I must be harsh here. Osteen and proponents of the American prosperity message: you have taken the Bible and mutilated it for the pleasure and comfort of the masses.

Suffer for the Sake of Christ

In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” In Romans 8, Paul writes of sharing in the sufferings of Christ so that we may also share in His glory. In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul writes of the sufferings of Christ flowing over into our lives, so that our comfort may overflow as well. Later, in 2 Corinthians 11, he boasts about his suffering. In Ephesians 3, Paul writes not to be discouraged by his suffering because in Christ there is freedom and glory in the midst of suffering. In Philippians 3:10-11, he writes: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Just keep reading through the New Testament. The impassioned response to suffering continues. In Hebrews 2:10, the author states, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” We were brought to glory through suffering. Death was overcome through suffering. Salvation came through suffering. Both James and Peter also speak of patience in suffering, enduring suffering, bearing up under suffering, and rejoicing in participating in the suffering of Christ.

The Bible calls us to suffer for the sake of Christ. Be warned, you prosperity followers! Your gospel is a false gospel. You run after the god’s of wealth and comfort. You do not represent the Gospel I know, the Gospel that calls us to give up our will for the will of God. Giving up your will is uncomfortable and often painful. Jesus had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58), why should you expect to be comfortable or to not experience deep pain? You have to accept worldly failure and derision. Have you not realized that it is in pain and the suffering that we grow in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Conclusion

Fads fade easily and I pray that the church returns to biblical Christianity. I desperately hope that preachers see the necessity in having a command of the Scripture and preaching solid, biblical messages. Yes, all preachers will always fall short and will preach sermons that are not very good, but the question is: are they striving to preach biblical Truth? Do they understand the entirety of the biblical message?

I proclaim boldly that I am nothing without the Cross. There is no gospel without the Cross. There is no hope without the Cross. Our suffering, our pain, is meaningless without the Cross. In the age of tolerance, many will be angered by my attack of the false prosperity message. But, I am tired of a message that says the Cross means nothing. I am tired of a fake gospel. I am tired of people making light of the pain in the world by preaching an ethnocentric, Americanized, self-help false gospel. Step down from the pulpit and fall at the foot of the Cross! As you fall before the Cross and yield over your will to God, He will awaken the resurrection of new life in you. If you want to feel pure love and acceptance, yield human effort over to God and He will provide for you. All things are possible with God! Amen.