Balaam: The Rebellion of Greed

So You Say We are Gods?

Doing a job on JOB

THE PROFITS OF GOT

Wealth

New Thought: God Guarantees Material Prosperity for His Saints.

"It's a matter of your faith. You got one dollar faith, and you ask for a ten thousand dollar item, it ain't gonna work. Jesus said, 'According to your faith,' not 'according to His will," says a quote by Frederick K.C. Price in the internet document entitled "How the Health and Wealth Gospel Twists Scripture."

To teachers like Mr. Price, you have a divine right to financial prosperity. God has to guarantee material wealth to His saints because of His "covenant" with Abraham; a covenant that became necessary for God because Adam surrendered his status as a little god and his dominion over the earth when he gave in to temptation in the Garden of Eden. Because of this act, Satan currently reigns supreme as the "god of this world," having asolute power and authority over its affairs. Meanwhile God (the real one) has been ren-dered powerless, with no "legal right" to intervene in the goings on of the Earth realm.1

According to the theology of Positive Confession teachers, God has to guarantee this material prosperity to his saints because of his covenant with Abraham. One New Thought teacher declared that God; "could not touch this earth till a man gave it back to Him."2 What this means is that God needed Abraham in order to operate in the earth realm. The trade off, or more aptly put, "pay off" is that Abraham got everything including the kit-chen sink in return. We, then, acquire the right to Abraham's riches by the force of faith. By becoming the children of Abraham by faith, we then become inheritors of this Abraha-mic Covenant, complete with all of its riches and prosperity. Once again, all we have to do is "claim" it.

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WEALTH

Biblical Christianity: Rich or Poor, Be Content in Whatever State.

The Bible, however, is pretty clear when it comes to the believers' attitude towards money. Hear what God's word has to say:

Proverbs 30:8-9 (NIV), "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." (emphasis mine)

Philippians 4:12-13 (NIV), "I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (emphasis mine)

1 Timothy 6:5-9 (NIV), ".....and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth, and who think that godliness is a means to fi-nancial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought no-thing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and cloth-ing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into tempta-tion and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction." (emphasis mine)

It is interesting that this last reference refers to those who see "godliness as a means of financial gain" as being of a "corrupt mind"; and having been "robbed of the truth"; a reality that is confirmed when one compares the teachings of the Faith teachers with what the biblical text REALLY has to say about ones attitude to wealth. Consider:

Solomon said: "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." (Eccl 5:10, NIV)

Jesus said: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Lk 12:15, NIV)

Paul said: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (I Tim 6:10, NIV)

It is interesting that Paul ends this chapter, which deals almost exclusively with the errors of prosperity seeking, by warning young Timothy to; "Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the truth." (verses 20, 21a, NIV -emphasis mine) The reference to "knowledge" in this text refers to the 1st century non-Christian cult identified as "Gnostics."

Gnostics were a mystical group whose origin has been traced back to Plato as well. They believed that they had a special kind of "knowledge" (gnosis) that came directly from the god source by which they could interpret spiritual realities apart from scripture. It is no coincidence that the modern Pofits of Got also claim this special kind of knowledge, (revelation knowledge), that, like their 1st century counterparts, justifies their greedy pursuit of wealth.3

2. ibid, p. 212.

3. We encourage the reader to examine Luke 12:13-34; and I Timothy 6 in it's entirety.