Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Examiner.com

Now writing for Examiner.com. Much more freedom to write on that website. First article is on David Koresh Syndrome.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Tuesday, October 27, 2009 0 comments

Friday, October 10, 2008

Word Faith Consequences

Good article on the consequences of Word Faith theology from Time Magazine: Maybe We Should Blame God For the Subprime Mess.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Friday, October 10, 2008 0 comments

Monday, July 07, 2008

Believer Bitter Over 'Prosperity' Preachings

A rarity - CNN reporting a story about someone hurt by the Word Faith Movement.

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.

And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.
Click Here for the rest of the story. Unfortunately, Brian McLaren is quoted.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Monday, July 07, 2008 0 comments

Friday, April 18, 2008

Noooo! He's Not Word of Faith!


Joel Osteen's message for today:


Something Out of Nothing

Today's Scripture

“The earth was formless and void…and God said, Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:2-3).

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Are you believing God for something today that seems impossible? We serve a great and mighty God. and He can create something out of nothing. He can make a way when there seems to be no way! Genesis tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But before He spoke the world into existence, it was formless and void. If God can make the world out of nothing, He can take the empty places in your life and create something beautiful, too! He can speak light into your darkest hour. He can take your formless dreams and give them shape. He can resurrect your dormant gifts and talents! He can make your crooked places straight! Remember, you are created in the image of almighty God. There’s power in your words, and there’s power when you’re in agreement with Him. Start saying what God says about your situation. Speak life to your broken dreams, today. Stay in an attitude of faith and expectancy. As you do, God will take you places that you’ve never dreamed, and you’ll live in victory all the days of your life!

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Friday, April 18, 2008 0 comments

Monday, March 17, 2008

Giving to Receive?

One of the mottos of the Word Faith movement is that you have to give to receive. Give God $100 and He will repay you a hundred-fold. By contrast, Oswald Bayer writes:

In his last will and testament Paul Gerhardt reminds his only son, still living after all his other children had died: "Do good to people, even if they cannot pay you back because...." The reader expects that the sentence will continue with: "God will repay you." However, Paul Gerhardt frustrates that expectation by continuing: "...because for what human beings cannot repay, the Creator of heaven and earth has already repaid long ago when he created you, when he gave you his only Son, and when he accepted and received you in holy baptism as his child and heir." (Oswald Bayer, "Justification as Basis and Boundary for Theology," Lutheran Quarterly 15 (Autumn 2001): 276, as quoted in "Handling the Word of Truth," John T. Pless)

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Monday, March 17, 2008 0 comments

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Bad, Bad Ronnie Badda!


From Uganda's "The New Vision" website. This is what happens when the Word-Faith movement gets a foothold in Africa:

Pastor in trouble over ‘sowed’ car

The Police have arrested Pastor Ronnie Badda and his wife Betty for allegedly conning a follower of her car and property worth millions of shillings. Badda and his wife were arrested from their church, Jesus Liberty Praising Centre International, in Biina-Luzira, a city suburb, on Sunday.

A witness said there was drama when the Police arrested the couple at around mid-day, leaving the believers confused.

The couple had eluded the Police, which first stormed the church last Thursday.

The Police interrogated the couple for five hours over claims that they used deceit to take Milly Akello’s car, two mobile phones, a fridge, a watch and other household items.

Badda and his wife were later released on Police bond. They reported at the station on Monday for further questioning.

The Kira Road Police Station crime chief, Grace Akullo, said Akello filed the case three weeks ago.

Akello, a resident of Luzira, claims that the couple lured her to ‘sow’ her car and property as a way to help salvage a relationship with her boyfriend in 2005.

“They told me that our relationship would recoup and end into a marriage, which never happened. “All of a sudden, they changed and started telling me that God had revealed to them that he was not the right man for me. They told me that they would get me another man and I refused,” narrated Akello.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Wednesday, August 29, 2007 0 comments

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

John Piper - Prosperity Preaching

Last month I posted an audio of John Piper blasting the prosperity gospel. His website has an article by him entitled "Prosperity Preaching: Deceitful and Deadly" in which he offers seven things to avoid regarding such teachings. Click link above for entire article. Excerpt:

When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is: “If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I wouldn’t want in.” In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you.

Luring people to Christ to get rich is both deceitful and deadly. It’s deceitful because when Jesus himself called us, he said things like: “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). And it’s deadly because the desire to be rich plunges “people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9). So here is my plea to preachers of the gospel.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Tuesday, August 21, 2007 0 comments

Monday, June 25, 2007

Why Isn't My Theology Working?


According to the Ugandan newspaper New Vision, June 16, 2007, Benny Hinn can't understand why God doesn't always heal. Typically, Word of Faith teachers maintain that if you aren't healed, it's due to lack of faith. However, according to the newspaper:

Benny Hinn revealed to a Times reporter in 2003 that he does wonder why God does not heal some people. For instance, Hinn is puzzled why God has not cured his heart condition. Hinn's mother has diabetes and his father died of cancer. "I told my daddy to believe but he died. Now I don't know why," Hinn said.

One would think it might occur to Benny that it might be wise to revise his theology to conform with Scripture.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Monday, June 25, 2007 1 comments

Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Word of Faith Movement


A few of you may have noticed that this blog tends to concentrate on false teachings within the Christian church. If you'd like to read more about 5 of the more popular Word of Faith teachers around today, you can read about them in an article I wrote in the Christian Research Journal titled "Christianity: Still in Crisis." You can subscribe at the link provided above.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Sunday, June 24, 2007 0 comments

Sunday, March 25, 2007

TBN Beams the Gospel?


The Tennessean reports that the Trinity Broadcasting Network is now beaming the gospel into much of the non-Christian world. Which gospel is another matter. Excerpt:

Trinity beams gospel shows into non-Christian worldNetwork wants gentle tone in messages
By ANITA WADHWANI
Staff writer

The world's largest religious broadcasting network just got a whole lot bigger, striking a deal to beam nonstop Christian television shows into a wide global slice of the most populated — and least Christian — places on earth.

Billions of viewers in largely Hindu India, Muslim Indonesia, Buddhist/Confucian/Taoist China and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific Rim can now turn on their TVs to find Trinity Broadcasting Network's Christian cartoons and talk shows, Christian extreme sports shows and sermons, Christian music videos and variety shows. Many of the music programs are taped in TBN's Hendersonville studios.

...Evangelical Christians have already criticized TBN's suggestions that shows tone down their anti-Muslim rhetoric for overseas viewers.

Other critics say the militantly Christian discourse of some of the network's most prominent on-air personalities — Pat Robertson, for example — risks inflaming public sentiment against the United States.

...TBN will broadcast programs via satellite into the "10-40 window" whose latitude and longitude designations encompass a number of Asian nations, including Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as parts of Eastern Europe. Many areas in the window are difficult for Western missionaries to enter.

...Day, the TBN spokesman, said the network "in certain cases … had to remind programmers of Trinity Broadcasting Network that we want to present an accessible, loving Christian message. We do not want to be harsh or critical of other people or faiths to make sure we fulfill our mission. That can sometimes be a delicate matter but it's one that is certainly manageable and well worth undertaking."

...Other TBN critics cite its constant calls for viewer contributions. In its on-air fundraising drives, viewers are preached a "prosperity gospel" with promises they will reap riches in return for their contributions. In 2003, the tax-exempt public charity took in more than $184.2 million, according to IRS records.


That's the bottom line right there. If the rest of the non-Christian world starts getting the North American version of Christianity they will become, at best, a carbon-copy of a brand of Christianity that doesn't know their Scriptures, doesn't know what they believe and why, knows nothing about Law and Gospel, and that would probably quickly abandon Christianity once persecution arose - and you can be sure that it would in those particular countries! At worst, they would see that the Prosperity Gospel does not work and their hearts could be closed forever to receiving the true Gospel.

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Sunday, March 25, 2007 0 comments

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Practicing What They Preach?


ABC News' 20/20 had a story on what happens to all that money donated to various "Christian" ministries. The focus was on the well-known usually-heretical Word of Faith teachers we're all familiar with who - as a matter of fact - DO practice what they preach - wealth. Excerpt:


Anyone watching televangelists on television will hear plenty of pitches for money. Jan and Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting say they need big bucks to keep their network on the air and to help the poor around the world.

Benny Hinn, of Benny Hinn Ministries, has made heartfelt pleas to help the people of Calcutta, while Rod Parsley of Breakthrough Ministries has asked for help to spread the gospel to the people of Nepal.

Christian ministries and charities promise to do all kinds of good things with your money, and that makes donors feel great about sending in their checks. The problem is, they can't always find out exactly how their donation is being spent.

...The popular Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries lives in a large mansion in Texas. He recently asked his audience to help him spread the gospel by giving him $20 million to buy a new jet. Copeland promised that the plane "will never, ever be used as long as it is in our care, for anything other than what is becoming to you, Lord Jesus."

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Saturday, March 24, 2007 0 comments