True-believer Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Hello all, I attended a conference this week at the biggest Pentecostal Church in Adelaide, South Australia. It went for 4 days, Monday--Thursday, and it had all the top Christian speakers worldwide like Pastor Marcus & Joni Lamb, John Bevere, Myles Munroe, Michael Rowan, Chris Hill, and the two senior pastors of Paradise Church where it was hosted: Pastors Ashley & Jane Evans. But........ The only thing I heard come through the meetings lately over these past 3 days/nights so far is the Prosperity Gospel and the infilling of the Holy Spirit--speaking (blubbing) in tongues as a whole Church. It is a packed out event. Almost 6000--7000 people have been attending each day/night. And tomorrow, especially in the night with Chris Hill, is expected to get at least about 8000 people. They are convincing people to give $500+ and a whole much greater amount. Quote Luke 4:19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Ben_White Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 The Prosperity Gospel is one of Satans best weapons to bring down Evangelical Christians IMO! Unsaved people walk into a meeting and are reguarly being preached the Prosperity Gospel rather than the actual Gospel, who knows how many people after an experience like this at church never again return to another church fellowship. The numbers of people that say they attend church in the Australian Census is less than 8%, yet I believe that many more people than that have attended a church and been put off by the Prosperity Gospel and walked out never to return again having formed an incorrect opinion of Christianity. Then there are the people that the Prosperity Gospel Preachers dont tell you about, those that lose their houses and cars through re-possession after the Prosperity doctrine falls flat. Years ago groups like the Assemblies of God church did attempt to keep a lid on this stuff so that when a Prosperity preacher - Blew In, Blew Up and Blew Out again that the congregation left behind didnt get caught into the excesses of it. These days it has gone so far that the sheep they are supposed to be shepherding are given straight to the wolves. The other thing that I have noticed is that the Prosperity Gospel Churches compete with one another for members and have no problem stealing sheep from another fellowship to bolster their own, many times as a member of the Salvation Army, Pentecostals would ask me which church I went to and when they found out I was a Salvationist would immediantly then attempt to get me to go to their church, showing absolutley no respect whatsoever for the church that I was a member of. Because these churches compete with one another, they have to constantly out do each other in respect to multi media presentations and paying people to participate in the music team and so on, someone has to pay for this and its always the congregation members that are abused so that the leadership can contine preaching false doctrine. At a Ford Dealership there was an incident recently of a Prosperity Gospel event going through the town, the following weekend the staff at the car dealership discovered a man laying on the bonnet of a new Ford, Praying in Tounges and "Claiming" the car...... Naturally the guy had no $$$ whatsoever, yet clearly had been taken in by it all. The Bible is clear that God does want to bless us, yet material blessing are not even remotley encouraged or garanteed by scripture irrespective of what the Prosperity Gospel or Word of Faith teachers tell you. We are in an age of "Post-Modernism", it is my hope that as part of this move to Postmodernism, Christians will realise how wrong it is to try and include materialism with Christianity and possible seek to look for a much more happier simple life as we are called to in the New Testament. Quote
Moderators John317 Posted January 22, 2009 Moderators Posted January 22, 2009 As a teen-ager I became very attracted to Buddhism. I wanted to learn all about Nirvana, Atman, and the Four Noble Truths. But during a meeting, following the chanting, I was disappointed to see that all the excitement centered on the material benefits of being a member of that particular sect. Everyone got up and told their "testimony" about their new-found wealth. They credited it to chanting. It made them all so blessed. Yet that was the very kind of crass materialism I was trying to get away from. Now I'm disappointed to see large segments of the Christian church apparently following the same materialistic path. Everyone wants a blessing; more money in the bank, a bigger home, another car-- "better than yours." I wouldn't want to see our church go that way. Quote John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Robert Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 They are convincing people to give $500+ and a whole much greater amount. Oh, that's how these preachers prosper? Let's see 8000 folks times $500 equals four million bucks. Hey, I'm in the wrong business! Quote
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