#daviddevos #wilkinvandekamp #gebedsgenezing en de gevaarlijke kant daarvan #prosperitygospel #healing #ndnl #tomdewal https://www.nd.nl/lees/1189194

A post about my experience with the #ProsperityGospel that I suspect may get rather long. A thread in 2 parts.

I recently left a church that has slowly adopted ideas of prosperity, health, wealth and happiness as an entitlement for all believers. This has dangerous outworkings, which I will go into shortly.

I attended for 2 decades, and in the beginning, these teachings were not present, and the church was closely aligned with a network of churches which also did not epouse these ideas. I am always watchful of incorrect teaching in the church and like the Bereans, I eagerly check the scriptures to see if the teaching from the front is true (how they preach, how they pray, how they worship). My wife at this point usually reminds me that it is not only what is explicitly taught in a #church that shows their theology but how they interact too, and what inference we can take from certain comments and actions we see.

In the beginning, the church was quite small, however there was a healthy multiracial mix. As the church grew, most of the additions were recent African immigrants, who imported their own ideas of Christianity that took a large part from their own culture. This skewed the balance a bit, and you would hear certain comments in prayer meetings and small groups that weren't rooted Biblically. To add to this, there was the aspiration to imitate Hillsong, Bethel and other "western" churches which tend to package up prosperity-lite and motivational preaching, plus those who watch the God channel and devoured Joyce Meyer books. So we have a two-pronged influence of ideas.

So here we have a slow burn of ideas and cultural habits that is just sitting under the surface.

What sort of ideas, you ask?
There are many, but the key points:
1) the idea that as Christians we can call down heaven and are entitled to healing and health "healing is in the atonement" they will cry. (according to Joyce Meyer, healing is a right but it isn’t always fait accompli for the Christian. It’s something that’s been provided for believers, but they need to successfully claim it)
2) that your success rate in doing this is tied to your faith
3) that things declared "in faith" (usually this means raising your voice and marching up and down) will come to pass
4) abundant life is interpreted as material gain (usually with the added comment "for God's kingdom obviously"). But the inference is that God wants you rich.
5) The kingdom has come in its fullness so we can have perfect health now.
6) A fixation with the (material) blessings of Abraham
7) Cherry picking of scripture to suit a message
8) "Touch not my anointed" i.e. do not criticise the pastors or question anything. This can also manifest in almost deification of leaders by some of the congregation.
9) a rhetoric that uses the word miracles liberally and trivially, as if supernatural events that have no earthly explanation are happening in your life daily.
10) an increase in worship songs that declare "i'm walking in miracles", "i'm living my best life now", rather than truths of scripture

I'll deal with the problems resulting from some of these ideas in the next post in the thread

While these remained under the surface, my wife and I would ask the question "this isn't explicitly taught at the front (yet). At what point do we need to leave the church". The general consensus was that when it was taught blatantly or if blatant heresy was taught from the pulpit.

However, the next phase was that sometimes these ideas were taught from the pulpit, but at other times a contrary view was taught, so it left a lot open to how you chose to interpret those comments. It was subtle. We noticed it, but if challenged, then there was enough wiggle room to say "we didn't mean it like that".

Anyway, onto the dangerous outworkings of this theology. See next post. (1/2)

#christianity #faith #gospel #truth

“The Reserve Bank wants more unemployment”

It’s clear the rich aren’t yet rich enough #ProsperityGospel

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-25/the-rba-wants-more-unemployment-lets-applaud-it/102506500

Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed https://g.co/kgs/hakJfX Must see. #rape #infidelity #grifters #prosperitygospel

@gratefuldread
This guy hits on critical points. Amazing
#fascism #Trump #ChristoFascism #LesleyStahl #ProsperityGospel #60Minutes #MTG #AmericanGnosticGospel #Victimization #WhiteSupremacy #AshliBabbitt #GlobalFascism #Liberation

yH6sf31k

Some of those who conceived and implemented Robodebt, and excused the harms it inflicted, did so with particular fundamentalist religious beliefs in mind, such as the Prosperity Gospel with its undeserving poor, cursed of God.

Basic human decency, compassion, and a thirst for justice doesn't seem to be part of that belief system.

Therefore, it is now time for society at large to hold them accountable for the beliefs they espoused, promulgated, and enacted.

With religious freedom comes unavoidable social responsibility.

#robodebt #prosperitygospel #morrisongovernment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/opinions/outlook/worst-ideas/prosperity-gospel.html

The most toxic #religious #invention of all time is the doctrine of delayed #Reprisal.

It allows #evil to thrive in the here and now and mollifies reprisal against evil in real time. For example, #JoelOsteen is the devil incarnate swindling thousands in real time while preaching the #ProsperityGospel. He needs to be tarred, feathered, and put in stocks where people can throw putrice upon his head.

But, the “faithful” would respond, oh, he’ll get his at #judgment. Yeah, right. He’s getting his, while taking yours, right now.

The doctrine of delayed reprisal is a religious #con that insulates #corrupt #power from immediate #consequence.

also for subscribers I wrote a #villanelle taken from one of #JoelOsteen's #prosperitygospel
books.
#poetry #foundpoetry https://noahberlatsky.substack.com/p/joel-osteen-provides-secrets-to-godly

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Joi1WV2eV9w

#ProsperityGospel #ThusFarAndNoFurther #AntifaschistischerBlackMetal

The #LDS push to be accepted as mainstream #Christian has lead to a cultural embrace of some of the worst parts of the US #evangelical movement. I've railed on #ProsperityGospel before, and #ChristianNationalism is in the same vein. We can't be a "peculiar people" if we continue to bring apostate principles into our cultural mainstream for fear of being othered by adjacent co-religionists. #Mormon #ChurchOfJesusChristOfLatterDaySaints https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2023/02/15/taylor-petrey-lds-support/

You shouldn’t be surprised that Andrew Tate got picked up for #Humantrafficking, that we’re still so tempted by the #ProsperityGospel and thet women are rising up #Iran.
Also, everything Black women have been saying about work is true, there’s an environmental crisis as bad as #ClimateChange and #DeionSanders is leaving #JacksonState and so much more. Lots in this newsletter to check out yall! Click the link!

https://www.ktfpress.com/p/trafficking-in-andrew-tate-black

When are people going to wake up to this con? Billionaires won’t save us. #EffectiveAltruism is a con. So is #Libertarianism. #MegaChurches and the #ProsperityGospel are too. Stop hoping there is a benevolent billionaire who cares more about the planet or the people or democracy than they do their own massive earth-destroying wealth. I see smart people saying things like “where is the left’s Robert Mercer?” STOP. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-grift-brothers/

With so many #SiliconSlopes unicorns laying off people, in many cases without the required notice or severance provided by the WARN Act, it's pretty galling to see their de facto PR and lobbying firm attempt to whitewash the problem with a job fair. There's a lot of hay made about the #UtahWay and #Utah being different, but the big tech firms seem to not be all that different from Silicon Valley. Well, except they seem to be far more cruel in their actions to employees while putting on a much "kinder" face about it, but that's hardly an improvement. We should stop elevating a company that has cruel indifference in its actions and attempts to compensate with public prostration.

I honestly expect much better from them. Most of them are my co-religionists, #LDS members who went to BYU and should have higher ethical standards. Unfortunately, I see a lot of the blasphemous #ProsperityGospel in their words and deeds. Mixed with cutthroat #SiliconValley VC culture and it's a toxic brew.

I've ended up with a growing list of large Utah tech companies I don't want to do business with, much less work for, because of their gross culture and employee treatment. Entrata. Qualtrics. Domo. HireVue. Now also Podium and PluralSight.

PS Utah's tech scene needs an association for the small guys and individual practitioners. We need to make a clean break from the celebrity CEO worship, bowing to F500 members, and big IPOs. Just the people that get stuff done.

@andrew #ProsperityGospel at work.

Rich people are virtuous because they worked hard or are super smart, they've been rewarded by God. Poor people are wicked and hated by God or they wouldn't be poor.

Musk and Trump are not smart. They inherited blood soaked fortunes SO LARGE that they couldn't Brewster's Millions their way to failure.

So no. Don't trust them. See them for who they are.

@punkonbus1701 And the warning never made it through the comfortin wall of cash.
#prosperitygospel

Vaughn also claims to be Italian and is not only spewing prosperity gospel shit, he’s STRAIGHT UP telling MAGAts that Fucko will GIVE THEM STUFF. I hope people know that the Nazis distributed and sold the property of deported “undesirables”. #cult45 #magats #christiandominonism #fundies #prosperitygospel

This is more background on the I AM #cult that #MikeFlynn pushes and it’s history going back to 1918 and leading up to the 30’s. A lot of historical echos with grifters and #spiritualism #ProsperityGospel #Theosophy etc. https://youtu.be/jsKt4edO98w

It frustrates me that #UK #Left do not do the intellectual work to understand the intersection of spirituality, wellness, politics, conspiracy theories, class, race, gender etc

They have no good strategy for dealing with politicians like #Sunak #Badenoch and other #Tory ministers who occupy exactly that intersection, one very dependent on #US models.

Unless you understand e.g. #prosperitygospel then you cannot understand or challenge #small_stateism.

@weijia_sophia_cheng @quirkypastor difficult to know how the rest of the church can 'own this problem' differently from how it 'owns' other problems present within toxic entities feeding off other church reputations, e.g. the #ProsperityGospel #heresy , other than by calling it out as the deception it represents. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-errors-of-the-prosperity-gospel/