New Age "Prosperity Gospel" Trumps Christ?

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. 2 Corinthians 11 v 13-15  (Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing)

“If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”  Matthew 19:21

“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16:25

“Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24

“ My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36

“ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

“Do not love the world or the things in the world If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Luke 9:23

“Enter ye into at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, bu inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Matthew 7 v 14-16b

Do they sound like the words of a God who wants you to gain the world, and lose your soul?  Yet so many "Christians"  today truly believe in the false teachings of these predatory prosperity gospel preachers, who twist the Word of God in order to gain profit and power for themselves. How do they do it?  It seems they play to that which is most narcissistic and corporeal in us. I mean, these evangelists do not even try to hide their great wealth.  Why should they? They're blessed, but certainly not by Jesus. So if not Jesus, by whom?

Moreover, considering the almost complete dominance of New Age "Christianity" in the mainstream media, not to mention the political realm, one must consider if there is an even more powerful agenda besides the greed of individual preachers.  Especially now that one of its followers has been elected president. That is the "longtime disciple of “the great Norman Vincent Peale”--Donald Trump.   This, of course,  should come as no surprise when the fastest growing segment of "Christianity" in recent years has been among churches who preach the anti-Christian "prosperity gospel", an oxymoron if there ever was one.




Prosperity Gospel and The New Age:"Word of Faith" and "Positive Confession"

“The fastest growing segment of professing Christianity in recent years has been among churches connected with the Positive Confession movement or Word-Faith movement (all part of the modern Charismatic movement). It has involved two distinct but closely related factions: the Norman Vincent Peale/Robert Schuller Positive-Possibility thinkers/Positive Mental Attitude, with their roots in New Thought; and the Kenneth Hagin/Kenneth Copeland Positive Confession and Word-Faith groups, which have their roots in E.W. Kenyon, William Branham, and the Manifest Sons of God/Latter Rain movement. Well-known names among its leaders are E.W. Kenyon, Charles Capps, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick K.C. Price, Robert Tilton, and David [Paul] Yonggi Cho [also: Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Paula White, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Ed Young, Benny Hinn, Michael Murdoch, etc.], . It does not yet constitute a new denomination, but it certainly represents innovative teachings outside of mainstream Christianity. The situation is so serious now because of the dominance over the so-called Christian media achieved by the teachers of Positive/Possibility Thinking and Positive Confession.

D.R. McConnell points out that "any new religious movement [within Protestantism] must bear the scrutiny of two criteria: biblical fidelity and historical orthodoxy." Regrettably, the Positive Confession movement fails on both counts. The historical roots of this movement (which Charles Farah has called "Faith Formula Theology") lie in the occult, and most recently, in New Thought and its off-shoot, the Mind Science cults. Its Biblical basis is found only in the peculiar interpretations of its own leaders, not in generally accepted Christian theology.

- As the name "Positive Confession"/"Word-Faith" implies, this movement teaches that faith is a matter of what we say more than whom we trust or what truths we embrace and affirm in our hearts. The term "positive confession" refers to the teaching that words have creative power. What you say, Word-Faith teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you. Your "confessions," that is, the things you say -- especially the favors you demand of God -- must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer. Word-Faith believers view their positive confessions as an incantation by which they can conjure up anything they desire: "Believe it in your heart; say it with your mouth. That is the principle of faith. You can have what you say" (Charismatic Chaos, pp. 281, 285).

This is at the heart of the Positive Confession movement today, also known as the "name-it-and-claim-it" gospel. The Positive Confession movement is nothing but a charismatic form of Christian Science. This can be substantiated by simply comparing the similarities in their common beliefs. Positive Confession is basically warmed-over New Thought dressed in evangelical/charismatic language. Positive Confession's basic beliefs can be summarized as follows:

1. Faith is a force that both God and man can use: "Faith is a force just like electricity or gravity" (Copeland), and it is the substance out of which God creates whatever is (Capps). God uses faith, and so may we in exactly the same way in order to produce the same results through obedience to the same "laws of faith" (Capps) that God applied in creation. "You have the same ability [as God has] dwelling or residing on the inside of you" (Capps). "We have all the capabilities of God. We have His faith" (Copeland).

2. Faith's force is released by speaking words: "Words are the most powerful thing in the universe" because they "are containers" that "carry faith or fear and they produce after their kind" (Capps). God operates by these very same laws. "God had faith in His own words ... God had faith in His faith, because He spoke words of faith and they came to pass. That faith force was transported by words ... the God-kind-of-faith ... is released by the words of your mouth" (Hagin). "Creative power was in God's mouth. It is in your mouth also" (Capps).

3. Man is a "little god" in God's class: "Man was designed or created by God to be the god of this world" (Tilton, Hagin, Capps). "Adam was the god of this world ... [but he] sold out to Satan, and Satan became the god of this world" (Hagin). "We were created to be gods over the earth, but remember to spell it with a little 'g'" (Tilton, Hagin, Capps). "Adam was created in God's class ... to rule as a god ... by speaking words" (Copeland). "Man was created in the God class ... We are a class of gods ... God himself spawned us from His innermost being ... We are in God; so that makes us part of God (2 Cor 5:17)" (Copeland).

4. Anyone -- occultist or Christian -- can use the faith force: Because man is a little god "in God's class: very capable of operating on the same level of faith as God" (Capps), and "because all men are spirit beings" (Hagin), therefore anyone, whether Christian or pagan, can release this "faith force" by speaking words if he only believes in his words as God believes in His (Hagin). "God is a faith God. God releases His faith in Words, [and we must do the same:] ... Everything you say [positive or negative] will come to pass" (Capps). "Spiritual things are created by WORDS. Even natural, physical things are created by WORDS" (Hagin).

5. You get what you confess: The vital key is confessing, or speaking aloud, and thereby, releasing the force of faith. "You get what you say" (Hagin, Hunter). "Only by mouth confession can faith power be released, allowing tremendous things to happen" (Cho). "Remember, the key to receiving the desires of your heart is to make the words of your mouth agree with what you want" (Copeland). "Whatever comes out of your mouth shall be produced in your life" (Tilton). "They're [his two children] 30-some years of age today, and I don't believe I prayed more than half a dozen times for both of them in all these years. Why? Because you can have what you say -- and I had already said it!" (Hagin).

6. Never make a negative confession: The tongue "can kill you, or it can release the life of God within you ... whether you believe right or wrong, it is still the law" (Capps). There is power in "the evil fourth dimension" (Cho). If you confess sickness you get it, if you confess health you get it; whatever you say you get" (Hagin). "Faith is as a seed ... you plant it by speaking it" (Capps). "The spoken word ... releases power -- power for good or power for evil" (Bashan). Therefore, it is very important never to speak anything negative but only to make a positive confession -- hence the name of the Positive Confession movement.

- Positive Confession leaders have a wrong view of faith: Instead of trust in God as its object, it is a metaphysical force they trust. They have a wrong view of God: He is not sufficient in Himself, but can only do what He does by using this universal faith-force in obedience to certain cosmic laws. They have a wrong view of man: He is a little god in God's class who has the same powers as God and can use the same force of faith by obedience to the same laws that God also must obey. They also have a wrong view of redemption and the cross of Christ.

- Word-Faith teachers owe their ancestry to groups like Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, Theosophy, Science of Mind, and New Thought -- not to classical Pentecostalism. It reveals that at their very core, Word-Faith teachings are corrupt. Their undeniable derivation is cultish, not Christian. The sad truth is that the gospel proclaimed by the Word-Faith movement is not the gospel of the New Testament. Word-Faith doctrine is a mongrel system, a blend of mysticism, dualism, and gnosticism that borrows generously from the teachings of the metaphysical cults. The Word-Faith movement may be the most dangerous false system that has grown out of the charismatic movement so far, because so many charismatics are unsure of the finality of Scripture (Charismatic Chaos, p. 290).

- Linked to the Positive Confession movement is the concept of Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). PMA has become the major link between sorcery and Christianity. It is the human potential movement that incorporates the age old Eastern mystique that all men can acquire godhood, that "we can achieve anything we conceive." But the Bible says: "With God all things are possible." PMA, however, declares: "With man all things are possible," which means either that we do not need God or that we are God. Paul said, "I can do all things through Him [Christ] who strengthens me." The New Age/PMA "Christ" is a state of consciousness rather than a historic Person. The Christian has a positive attitude not because he believes in the power of positive thinking, but because he is trusting in God. The PMA that is promoted in today's New Age, however, is based upon humanistic psychology's first article of faith: "Human potential is infinite!" The real Christian is happy and positive in all circumstances because he believes that God, who alone is infinite, loves and cares for him. These two concepts -- Christian and PMA -- are mutually contradictory, in spite of the sincere people who believe they are the same thing expressed in different language.

- Those directly responsible for bringing PMA into the professing church are Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, the originators or the PMA concept, talk about "God" in their books, but their "God" is a metaphysical "Divine Power" that can be tapped into through mind-power techniques (from visualization to positive self-talk and other forms of self-hypnosis and self-image psychology). Hill and Stone don't substitute PMA for faith, but promote an even more dangerous idea: that PMA and faith are one and the same, that believing in the power of the mind is somehow the same as believing in God; that the human mind is some kind of magic talisman that wields a metaphysical force with infinite potential because, somehow, it is part of what they call Infinite Intelligence. This is the "God" of the mind-science cults and of the New Age.

Note: There are many faithful believers who live modestly and will never have more than the basic necessities of life. Yet they are content to have what they have. The prosperity teachers ridicule such and say that they only have that little because they don't trust God for more; the fact of their contentment (which is highly regarded by God) is looked upon as a lack of faith. And they are chastised because they haven't got the faith to get more so they can give more. Ultimately, the giving is expected to go into the coffers of the prosperity teacher; they may give to others, but not apart from also giving to the prosperity teacher.

All the prosperity teachers use a particular fear tactic to establish their rule for giving -- if you don't give, God will curse you. Many also teach that if one wishes to use the prosperity gospel for selfish ends -- to acquire personal wealth without giving -- it isn't going to work. If, however, one uses the prosperity gospel with the intention of acquiring wealth for unselfish purposes (i.e., giving to the prosperity teacher, no doubt), God's promise is that He will shower abundant financial blessings upon him.

There is not a single prosperity teacher who can rightly divide the Word of Truth sufficiently to be qualified as a teacher in the Church. They are renegades who present their own theories as absolute, Biblical authority. They allegorize, theorize, and spiritualize the Word of God; the only time they approach it from a literal standpoint is if it fits in with something they just happen to be saying that's true. Bottom line, the fact is that to deny the reality and to attempt to alter reality with one's positive words and/or thoughts is witchcraft; it is not Biblical. (Source: Media Spotlight -- v.13, #1, 12/92.)

* The material in this report, unless otherwise noted, was excerpted and/or adapted from two books: Beyond Seduction (pp. 51-53) and The Seduction of Christianity (pp. 28, 217).

I will be the first to say that much of what these preachers say feels right, feels good, makes us feel secure, and much of what they say is right, and does make sense. Especially when they preach tolerance and love, preach against hate and violence and refuse to judge, etc. It doesn't seem that Jesus would have a problem with that, right? Wrong. Because at the same time they are undermining and twisting His word,  doing exactly what Jesus preached against: gaming not only gaining the world, teaching us that is what Jesus wants us to do. The material world is their kingdom...let them have it.

Links:

A Theological Analysis of the New Age Movement

General Word-Faith Articles

New World Order or Occult Secret Destiny?

Beware! the New Age Movement Is More Than Self-Indulgent Silliness

Saved From New World Religion

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America Shouldn't Rule Out a Third Bush Administration

Yep, it's true.  An unholy trinity of Bush Presidents is not only possible, it's probable, as the Bush dynasty family - George H.W. the father, George W. the brother, and George P. the son - is urging Jeb Bush to run for President. George P. Bush had the nerve to say said, "Make no mistake about it, I think a lot of people sorely miss and would relish some sort of return of that type of approach to leading our country."

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Poor Abe Had to Come Back and Do it All Over Again?

I don't think I want to believe in reincarnation. I mean, wasn't poor Abe punished enough the first time around?   Well, if JFK was Abe 2.0, at least his reflection was kinder and gentler the second time around.    Anyway, I thought some of the parallels were fascinating.

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Does Rating The Presidents Freeze the Debate?

Why are Abe Lincoln and George Washington the greatest Presidents? Why was Andrew Jackson, of all presidents, a "near great" president? Why are Ulysses S. Grant
and Warren G. Harding rated as the worst presidents? Why is Zachary Taylor always one of the worst presidents?

The first official rating of presidents was rather recent. In 1948. Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked two dozen of his colleagues to rate the Presidents from Washington to Roosevelt. That's it. Truman wasn’t assessed as he was sitting a President running for reelection. They selected the following:

Great: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,

Near Great: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson,

Poor or Failures: Warren G. Harding and Ulysses S. Grant

Some ratings seem somewhat obvious. George Washington ranks up there with the greatest because without him, we may not have had the rest. Abraham Lincoln is chosen for how he handled the Civil War, ending slavery and his overall humanity. However, that's my humble opinion, but that's how our presidents are "officially" ranked - by someone's "humble" opinion, possibly based on the version of history he happened to read. Or, as far as any of us know, they could have made their choices based on hair color, height, sense of humor...who knows?

In 1962, Arthur Schlesinger Jr repeated the same poll with the same results as his father. In 1996, Arthur Schlesinger Jr once again commissioned a poll including two elected democratic officials Mario Cuomo and Senator Paul Simon of IL. Only one participant identified as conservative. Could this be due to a lack of conservative historians? Yep, that must be it.

According to Alvin Felzenberg, Deputy and Senior Director of Communications for the 9-11 Public Discourse Project and author of "The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game", it's fairly easy to monitor the ideological bias of the graders and correct for bias. Just add a few more conservatives in the mix.

"Freezing the debate", Mr. Felzenberg's phrase, is more a manifestation of rating the presidents, than a flaw in the method. The experts have spoken! The experts may have spoken, however, without much to back it up, yet many will swear by the choices of these experts without question, therefore freezing the debate.

“Beware of the power of the expert. They’re not always disinterested and they’ll always put on over on you.” -- Calvin Coolidge

"Andrew Jackson" is the symbol of what's wrong with this whole process, as he represents the most blatant error in judgment based on a faulty "process" lacking any standards, rules, or tests on which the rater's judgment or decision should be based.

Take for example, Andrew Jackson's farewell speech. He stated he was proudest of the following three things:

• The destruction of the Bank of United States which at the time acted like the Fed Reserve Board… it expanded and controlled credit depending on what the business cycle was doing at the time. He thought the Bank of the United States was a bad idea because he hated the President of the bank, Nicholas Biddle. Why? Because Mr. Biddle contributed to Jackson’s political enemies. President Jackson said, "I will destroy the bank, I will cut its head off I will kill it." And he did. Jackson vetoed - the first President to use his presidential veto just because felt like it, not because it was unconstitutional - the Banks supporters attempt to use Congress to enact a new charter for the Bank. Although The Bank of the United States was far from perfect, he destroyed the bank knowing full well the financial panic that would ensue. He was responsible for the first presidentially induced depression.

• The Indian Removal Act 1832: 1828 was the last good year for the Cherokee nation. They had almost fully transformed itself into a "western" nation as President George Washington had planned from the beginning. Based on the example of the American republic, they adopted a political constitution by the tribe. It provides for an elected principal chief, a council consisting of two chambers, and a system of courts of law. They also publish the first American Indian newspaper.
  
  In 1829, Andrew Jackson begins his first term in the White House. Despite legal victories for the Cherokee Indians in the Supreme Court regarding their land, Andrew Jackson's response was “Five members of the Supreme Court issued a decree, let them enforce it. Go to Hell!”. With President Jackson's "consent" Georgia and Tennessee began a reign of terror using arrest, murder and arson against the Cherokee. Fifteen thousand Cherokees were driven at gunpoint out of their ancestral homes in Georgia and Tennessee to a distant land west of the Mississippi known as the Indian Territory. Four thousand Cherokees, more than one in four, died as a result of the internment and forced march which they called "the journey where they cried" or "The Trail of Tears."
• Standing down secession- OK, he gets to be proud of this one.

President Andrew Jackson sounds a little too much like President Bush.

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Phil Graham's House of Cards Economy and an Over Qualified John McCain.

The Complex Derivatives system, a huge shadowy segment of our financial markets system, that employs complicated sounding financial instruments such as Credit Default Swaps, OTC Derivatives, Mortgage Backed Securities... just fancy words for betting on whether something will profit or not, is the primarily reason our economy is falling apart.

The current sub-prime mortgage crisis is the most recent and obvious example of what can result from this unregulated segment of our financial system. Banks placed bets on whether sub-prime mortgages would pay off or not. The banks opted for pay off and lost causing the housing industry bubble to burst.

The derivatives market is twice the size of the more transparent market of stocks and bonds, since 2000, this "dark market" has ballooned from $900 billion to more than $45.5 trillion.

"Derivative financial instruments are, are those that gain or lose value as some underlying rate, price, or other economic variable changes. Derivatives traders can speculate on future trends in financial assets (such as stocks or currencies) or commodities (oil, metals, pork bellies) without actually owning the underlying items."

Former Texas Senator Phil Graham, chiefly responsible for getting Congress to pass the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA), a 262 page bill, added as a rider to the Omnibus appropriation bill, as congress was recessing for Christmas in 2000 - a popular time of year to sneak in corrupt legislation - completely deregulated these "hidden" markets not only at the federal level but at the state level as well, is also currently the chief economic advisor to John McCain.

Credit Default Swaps are insurance policies designed to cover losses banks and bondholders may incur due to the possibility that the value of the bets they made may decline, however the word insurance does not appear as the insurance industry is state regulated and the whole idea behind this "criminal" market is deregulation.

Should we have an economy based on whether people make good or bad bets - or should we have an economy where people build companies, create manufacturing interests, do inventions, advance the American society, make it more productive? This economy is based on people sitting at their computers making bets all day long... We are rewarding people for sitting at their computers and punching in bets. That's not the way this economy is going to be built. India and China, with their focus on science and industry and building real businesses, are going to eat our lunch unless the American public wakes up and puts an end to an economy that praises and makes heroes out of speculators. -- Michael Greenberger,

The federal government permitted these institutions to engage in this betting not through the banks themselves or hedgefunds but through, Structured Investment Vehicles,” which enabled the banks to exclude these transactions from their books. To this day, we still have no idea how far this problem goes because we don't know how much of this information was intentionally excluded. Not only that, the information the banks did include were listed as valuable assets and therefore must be unraveled to redetermine the accuracy of all of these financial institution's financial statements.

Until yesterday, I was undecided about Senator John McCain. Unlike President Bush, Senator McCain personally endured the evil, injury, and pain that are synonymous with war. Serving as combat pilot, he was shot down on a mission over North Vietnam. He spent many years in a Hanoi prison with untreated injuries and he suffered through torture without yielding. Even after his captors, learning that he was an admiral's son, offered to release him, McCain refused. He would not leave his fellow soldiers.

There is no doubt that John McCain is a man of integrity and has gained wisdom from what he has observed and encountered as a prisoner of war, however; in some ways, John McCain's "super-human" qualities...qualities that the average American does not have often times, may "over qualify" him to be President, if that's possible.

Yes, courage and integrity make for a great leader and God only knows we need one right now, but is John McCain that man? Can he really empathize with the average person? Can he put himself in the shoes of someone who may not be as strong as he is? (Keep in mind these questions come from a person who just might scream like a little girl at a snake convention at the first sign of dental instruments, if captured by the enemy.)

After listening to Michael Greeberger, Law School Professor and Director, Center for Health and Homeland Security, on Fresh Air (every citizen should listen)explain that the CFMA is nothing more than an amendment that removes all regulation from this market, and is therefore nothing more than an attempt to further enable this market's "criminal activity" basically making it lawful to destroy our economy, it became clear to me John McCain should not be President.

Although, John McCain admitted he did not know all that much about economics and his association with Phil Graham is probably ignorant of Mr. Graham's contribution to our current "house of cards" economy, a Presidential candidate cannot be afforded the luxury of economic ignorance, especially now.

John McCain's acceptance of Greenspanian economics clearly demonstrates that he does have trouble putting himself in the shoes of the average American who may not have the innate strength that he was obviously endowed, leading me to conclude the answers to the aforementioned questions are no and no.

Whereas President George W. Bush was unqualified and lacked the moral courage necessary to be elected President, John McCain's strong character and courageous outlook, not to mention his weakness, lack of economic insight, may paradoxically limit his vision and scope to include all segments of the melting pot we call America.

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I Really Like This John Edwards.

I wasn't overly impressed with John Edwards when he was running for Vice President in the last election. He exuded the charm of youthfulness with all the qualities associated with it, such as enthusiasm, energy and hope, but I found he lacked the depth that only reflection upon real life experience can bring. In a very short time, he has integrated his recent hardships; loss of the election; his wife's breast cancer, transforming himself into a person with a depth of understanding that can filter the inessential from the essential. He has learned in a few years what takes most of us a lifetime to learn, and I believe he has what it takes to lead our country.

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