confession

You know that post about Name It and Claim It and Health and Wealth? It used to be much, much longer, but I shortened it to avoid being to controversial. But considering our discussion last night at small group about deception within the church, I'm going to post the whole thing. Here it is:

I have had a lot of things running through my head in recent days. One of them has to do with "Health and Wealth" gospel and "Name It And Claim It" preaching. During my commute to work one morning I heard a preacher going to town on both lines of thought simultaneously. It had never even occurred to me that the two might be connected.

Since then I have wondered if it is common for the two to go hand-in-hand, and if so, why that might be. It made me realize that I have similar feelings toward both teachings. They both involve some Biblical truth, and if taught correctly they are powerful and necessary truths. However, many people take them WAY overboard, toss out context and crucial balancing passages of scripture, and make an entire doctrine out of only part of the Bible.

I also get the impression that sometimes they are too focused on man and not focused nearly enough on God. Name It and Claim It gives immense power to the human tongue, to the point that it sometimes negates God's sovereignty. Health and Wealth extremists insist that God wants everyone healthy and wealthy, despite the obvious fact that many great saints where often neither (Hebrews 11:36-40). Both groups seem to assume that they know what is best for themselves, their neighbors, and the body of Christ as a whole, despite the obvious non-omniscience of their minds. More seriously, I feel like a lot of them think that life is ultimately about their happiness and comfort. Sorry folks, but the sooner you realize that your life is not your life and it is not about you, the sooner you can step into the freedom that a life sacrificed to God offers. We talk about "giving" our life to Jesus, but too often we don't realize that giving something to someone else means that we no longer have it. We don't control it. We don't have rights to it. That's part of the deal.

We are fortunate to be able to give our lives to a God who loves us and wants what is best for us, who desires us to have good things and who has given us power and authority to do his work. But if we focus on what we have been given and what we want to have, we are entirely missing the point. It is like a soldier who is so enamored with his sword that he runs off killing foes with it and leaves the king without a shield-bearer, or a servant who spends so much time thinking about pay day that he misses all of the little opportunities to serve his master that would have made him a truly good servant.

I'm sorry if this post touches some nerves. As far as I know, it doesn't actually apply to anyone who will read it. As I said, much of what these doctrines teach is good and true. The Bible tells us to ask God to keep us healthy and expand our material blessings. It tells us again and again to take up the spiritual authority that we have been given and proclaim God's truth with power and faith in the face of a sinful and sometimes Satanic world. In many ways, these teachings do a great job of addressing gaps in mainstream American Christian teaching. But then I hear people on the radio or television spewing out man-centered teachings that lead thousands of people into a religously-flavored version of selfish, materialistic idolatry. Or saying that everyone who is suffering just needs to have more faith, and so piling guilt on top of pain. And that TICKS ME OFF.

I will now step off my soap box.