So, my brother had sent this article to me yesterday. This isn't meant to bash Trump, but really more a thread on prosperity gospel.
Evangelicals should be deeply troubled by Donald Trump's attempt to mainstream heresy
I was also amazed that Paula White, and I'm assuming most prosperity gospel peddlers, rejects the Nicene Creed. I had known that this prosperity gospel nonsense was heretical, but as I read more about it I was astonished as to how heretical it is.
As I said, this is not meant to be a political discussion about Trump. My views would be the same regardless of who held the power, especially if they believed these teachings. This is a thread on the prosperity gospel.
Evangelicals should be deeply troubled by Donald Trump's attempt to mainstream heresy
Quote:
The prosperity gospel the idea that God dispenses material wealth and health based on what we "decree" is not just fluff. It's also not just another branch of Pentecostalism, a tradition that emphasizes the continuation of the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues. It's another religion.
Quote:
In terms of religion, this inauguration exhibits the confluence of two major currents of indigenous American spirituality.
One stream is represented by Norman Vincent Peale's longtime bestseller "The Power of Positive Thinking" (1952). The famous Manhattan pastor is Trump's tenuous connection to Christianity, having heard the preacher frequently in his youth. For Peale and his protege, the late Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral fame, the gospel of Christ's death for human sin and resurrection for justification and everlasting life was transformed into a "feel-good" therapy. Self-esteem was the true salvation.
Another stream is represented by the most famous TV preachers, especially those associated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, T. D. Jakes, Joel Osteen and Paula White are the stars of this movement, known as Word of Faith.
The headwater for both streams is New Thought, formulated especially by Phineas Quimby, a late 19th-century mesmerist whose mind-cures attracted Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science. The basic idea of his "gnostic medicine" was that we're sick only because we think bad thoughts. Illness and death are an illusion.
Quote:
Kenneth Hagin, revered as "granddaddy" in Word of Faith circles, gave the faith-healing movement its theological core. It included odd teachings about us all being "little gods." Those who are born again, Hagin said, "are as much the incarnation [of God] as Jesus of Nazareth." "You don't have a God living in you," says Hagin's student Kenneth Copeland. "You are one." Creflo Dollar adds, "[The] only human part of you is the flesh you're wearing."
Quote:
In the 1950s, American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr described Peale's message as a false gospel: "The basic sin of this cult is its egocentricity," he said. "It puts 'self' instead of the cross at the center of the picture."
Quote:
Like her mentor, T. D. Jakes, White adheres closely to the Word of Faith teachings. Besides throwing out doctrines like the Trinity and confusing ourselves with God, the movement teaches that Jesus went to the cross not to bring forgiveness of our sins but to get us out of financial debt, not to reconcile us to God but to give us the power to claim our prosperity, not to remove the curse of death, injustice and bondage to ourselves but to give us our best life now. White says emphatically that Jesus is "not the only begotten Son of God," just the first. We're all divine and have the power to speak worlds into existence.
So if you're still a wreck, that's your fault. Negative thinking. You're the creator, so why not be a successful one? White puts it this way in a television TBN program: "There is creative power in your mouth right now. God spoke and created the universe; you have creative power to speak life and death! If you believe God, you can create anything in your life."
Where I can see this being especially dangerous is by having someone who subscribes to these views and holds the power that the POTUS will hold. When righteousness is determined by material success and winning, then all things become permissible if they lead to success and winning, because they are being done for righteousness' sake.Quote:
"Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan," White told a television TBN audience in 2007. Oops. It was Jesus who said "anyone who would come after me" must "deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
I was also amazed that Paula White, and I'm assuming most prosperity gospel peddlers, rejects the Nicene Creed. I had known that this prosperity gospel nonsense was heretical, but as I read more about it I was astonished as to how heretical it is.
As I said, this is not meant to be a political discussion about Trump. My views would be the same regardless of who held the power, especially if they believed these teachings. This is a thread on the prosperity gospel.
