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Commericality & False Advertising
Carrying on from this theme of the ministry becoming an idol, we can see that these ministries operate more like commercial entities. The main aim being getting as many sheep in the door as possible and fleecing the sheep for as much as possible once they are there.
"Come and get drunk at the Holy Spirit bar", "come and get the anointing". "Come and receive your healing and your miracle". "Come and claim your wealth".
The marketing slogans to market the gospel to appeal to the masses that desire success and an entertaining experience seem to appeal to some. It’s all a compromise to get more people in and sitting in seats and putting money into the ministry. They are compromising God’s truths for cheap marketing tactics as if these are in some way superior to the Gospel and word of God. The gospel is appealing enough without having to compromise and add lies to make it more appealing to the world. There is no need for adding anything to the word of God to make it more appealing. The bible is the most popular book in the world selling more copies than any other book. The word of God has appeal naturally; there is no need for the lying compromises and cheap marketing tactics of man to make it successful and appealing.
Building a ministry of success (by worldly measures) where quantity and materialism is paramount. If these ministries were legally only recognised as purely commercial entities, they would not be able to operate. They would be sued with claims of false advertising as they cannot control the miracles of God nor the workings of the real Holy Spirit so how can they promise such miracles to people or tell them to come and get something they do not control?
They do equip themselves with an exclusion clause however just in case for disappointed attendees of which there must be many. Oops if you don't or didn't receive a miracle, healing or success then its your own fault, you don't have enough faith or you must have sin in your life. Would that stand up in a court of law as mitigating circumstances? Who knows?
So these people have found success, power and wealth, without taking any responsibility for their false claims. They claim to be building a ministry for God, could it be more likely they are try to build another tower of Babel of man. When man does things in his own strength and uses the worldly standards as a measure, the results are disastrous.
Another strange contemplation is when confronted about these issues many of these leaders caught up in this materialism and idolatry deny its existence. It is very sad but it says in scripture those who continue to worship and put their trust in idols, become like them, deaf, dumb and blind.
I still pray for them though at times that they repent. The funny thing is usually when these ministries fall apart it is because the leaders are caught in sin. Don't get me wrong I am not doing this in a self-righteous manner at all, noone is perfect and we all fall short but these leaders are leading mass congregations astray.
We can often see that the physical life equates to the spiritual life and parallels it, when people are sinning in their personal life it is often a reflection of where people are in their spiritual life with God. Which is why when as believers, when our communications and relationship with God are weak, so also is our physical obedience to his word.
Examples of this have been illustrated through these churches, where leaders have been caught publicly in various types of serious sin. One pastor for instance of a large Pentecostal church here in the UK that preached the prosperity message and name it and claim it healing message, was caught trying to seduce female members of his congregation. This man had a lovely wife and three children. It wouldn't have come to light but several of the women attempted to prosecute him for charges of a sexual harassment nature. To me this physical adultery he was committing and trying to commit reflects on where he is at spiritually committing adultery with his idol of the ministry and financial wealth, against the Lord. It was a horrific and tragic situation for the church, for his wife and children and last but not least for him.
Wealth often separates man from God in most instances, though not all. It is because man becomes so dependent and so seduced by the material wealth; he tends to put his trust into it and rely upon it, instead of the Lord.
Here is where Solomon’s words must be remembered however, as Solomon admitted in Ecclesiastes 2: 10,11 " Whatever my eyes desired; I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward for all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed it was all vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun."
Solomon, who had serious wealth and power, had been there and done it all, said it meant nothing. What is the point of building this big church for the Lord when you are worshipping and following the great ministry you have created instead of worshipping/following him. What is the point of creating a big ministry for God when the money and the power, that you have compromised God’s word to build this ministry with, is corrupting your very soul and the ministry is becoming your idol? What is the point of it all, as we know from Solomon; it is all meaningless, the power, the wealth that such ministries bring, is there any profit when it teaches false teaching and false doctrine.
God doesn’t need these leaders who compromise his truths, to build mammoth ministries to supposedly save souls, that become money making machines to survive through compromising his truths, he doesn’t need a tower of Babel built by man. He needs humble servants wishing to serve and honor him and not people who are so ego driven that when things go horribly wrong and ministries drift far from the truth and love of God, they cannot step down, confess and repent to their sheep or who are so humble and so obedient to God’s word they do not lead the sheep astray in the first place and compromise to get more sheep in the door and money in the coffers.
The sheep need to be lead into new fields safe and free of wolves and not to be devoured by those they regard as their shepherds.
Written by Jill Barraclough 2004
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