Ethan Hoover & Matthew Maher explore what the prosperity gospel is and it's origin, as well as how it conflicts with what the true Gospel says. Join them in their discussion and read more for the show notes and resources.
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Ethan Hoover & Matthew Maher explore what the prosperity gospel is and it's origin, as well as how it conflicts with what the true Gospel says. Join them in their discussion and read more for the show notes and resources.
What’s Covered in This Episode:
Other Resources:
Got questions?
Learn More:
To learn more about the podcast and your hosts, visit our website.
Looking to sponsor Rechurched? Apply to be a sponsor!
Follow Your Hosts:
Explore more from Coastal Christian in Ocean City, NJ, by visiting ccoceancity.com.
Follow us on Instagram!
Learn More:
To learn more about the podcast and your hosts, visit our website.
Looking to sponsor Rechurched? Apply to be a sponsor!
You are listening to re churched a podcast aimed at instigating Christians to be Christian. Hey guys, welcome to re church a podcast where we inspire conscience and instigate convictions. So people in today's church may truly know God and his word and show God to those around him. I'm joined by my co-hosts Matthew Mayer. What's up, dude. What is up guys? Um, so I figured a good way to start. This episode is an icebreaker to the ice. Um, you down for that, let's do it. All right. You've never seen you. Didn't look at the outline, right? So you didn't see the question, right? I did not see what's coming out. Just making sure Matthew Mayer is very, um, organized and very, any, any prepares, like none others. So I just have to be careful cuz sometimes I have to hide questions and documents. So he is not like over prepared. Um, but here is here's the, here's the question. All right. What are three apps on your phone that you can't live without? Wow. Yeah. It's not spiritual. It's well sort of, I mean it can, yeah, the, the just what am I trying to say? The enticement would be to say something spiritual my Bible app. Yeah. Right. I don't actually we prefer the Bible app. I use it. You like your Bible? I like my Bible. I like the tangible, physical feel of the Bible. I'll turn to a Bible app, especially if I'm in I'm about to preach. Yeah. And I need to look up verse up real quick. I'll go to the, my phone. So what's funny is people probably look at me at the back of the church, looking at my phone or look at this guy. He's looking at his phone. I'm like, I promise you. I'm looking at scripture. Anyway. This is a tough question, bro.<laugh> I know I'll go first. How about that? Go for it. All right. So I think the three apps on my phone that I can't live without safari. So it's not one that you download. It comes stock. I have an iPhone, um, safari, I Google everything. I'd echo that. The other two, I would say the Gmail app. I'd echo that communication. Um, and then third and you'll probably, you might echo this one as well, which is the calendar app. Mm. Cause that, that thing keeps me on schedule. And I, I would add a fourth one. I don't wanna steal your thunder, but I would add a fourth one, which is the reminder app. I use all those. Yeah. I use all those without even thinking of it. So you asked me the question top three apps and I instantly began to think of social media. Yeah, me too. Until I realized I spend a lot of time responding to emails. That's an app of sorts. Yeah. Yeah. Putting reminders in place, changing my calendar around and searching on the internet for whatever, uh, work I'm working on. I think closely related to all of those would be all of the apps connected to my home. Oh yeah. Right. My ring app <laugh> I have simply safe and anytime a notification pops up, it's usually because somebody went past a sensor. Yeah. So I'm constantly pulling up who just pulled up in my driveway. Yeah. Or who's in my kitchen anyway. Icebreaker finished. That was great. Good answers. Although I kind of answered that for you. You just echo it. You just echoed mine, but that's why you're here, but Um, this episode is gonna be dedicated to the prosperity gospel and we sort of teased out what the prosperity gospel is from like sort of a high level, I guess, overview in the last episode. Um, but this episode's really gonna get nitty gritty sort of kick off this topic of prosperity gospel. We talked about in the last episode, the American gospel documentary, if you haven't watched it, um, I would say it's a good watch. Um, I would recommend it. I recommend it. Yeah. So it, it gives a good look and a deep dive at some specific churches specific, uh, dare I say, pastors that are in this word of faith movement, this prosperity gospel teaching. Um, and so we talked a lot about that. I would check it out if you want. But, um, that kind of leads me to my, our first, uh, miles own in this talk of the prosperity gospel, which is really like the historical context. Like where does, where does a prosperity come from? Uh, prosperity gospel come from? And uh, we talked about this, we teased it out the founders and you know how it has led to where we're at now. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but can you give us like sort of an overview of what we started with on last episode and then maybe give us some new context of historically where it came from? Yes. So remember the false gospel is any gospel or message that either adds to the gospel of Jesus Christ or takes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Adding two would be considered work based things that you should do in order to be saved, taken from would be perhaps saying, God loves you no matter what. And you can abuse grace. And there's so many other derivatives and, and ways that the gospel can be contaminated or counterfeited. The prosperity gospel is a counterfeit gospel. Paul, and this is what we talked about in the previous episode. Paul said, no matter what type of message or messenger comes, if they tell you a different gospel than what we've previously told you, even an angel from heaven. I think he added that literal in as a dramatic effect. That messenger is a curse. That message is a cursed and the prosperity gospel would include that God has a desire to always make us happy, healthy, and wealthy that's God's heart. And really there's nothing wrong with being happy. There's nothing wrong with being healthy and there's nothing wrong with being wealthy. These are all good things. The Bible does has, has a lot to say about those categories and those areas. And usually the Bible I read, especially from the Genesis of the church and the early disciples and what they navigated and the world they lived in and the persecution that fell upon them for caring forth, the pure gospel was that they lost their lives and yes, they had the ability and the authority and the power to heal. But all of those miracles were simply confirmations that the gospel of saving the soul from sin was true. And there's arguments today. Ethan, let's just call it out that many believe, sir, certain gifts of the spirit have ceased while other theologies and movements are built upon the spiritual gifts, mainly the outworkings of the holy spirit, but I digress. And, and the only reason I say that is because the prosperity gospel kind of falls in line with certain theologies that would be consider ed charismatic or evangelical. And you find that the United States of America and the landscape of our land was probably the catalyst that gave birth to such a erroneous gospel. Now, why do I say that? Well for think about, think about the world previous from the Roman empire to the middle ages and the monarchs and the Kings. Um, think about Europe and the unfolding after let's just say world war I, world war II. Think about the world it's devastated. Yeah. And the United States of America was founded on the idea of life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the American dream. And of course you come here and you have the ability to pursue whatever you want, whatever you want. Yeah. And obviously that gave this mentality that to have, huh. And possess material is to be blessed. It's materialism oral Roberts Roberts. If you were to trace the line back, one of the first tele evangelists who was big on healing and financial prosperity, that is basically where you can see the roots of the prosperity gospel take off and imported and export a around the world as the American missions exploded. This is the message that was carried forth to the detriment. And of course at the expense of the recipients of this message, Do you think that oral Roberts had an like this desire to manipulate the gospel or so the Bible's clear it's either their either deceiving, knowingly. So I'm trying to deceive you. I know the truth, but I'm deceiving you to my advantage. So I'm taking advantage of you and appealing to your flesh. Of course you wanna be happy. Of course you wanna be healthy. Of course you wanna be wealthy. And of course God's desires to do that, but you must do these things. You must give to my ministry because if you so enough, God will reward you in return. So that's kind of, ultimately you're sick. You can find healing who doesn't wanna be healed when they're Ethan, right? So if I'm telling you, Hey, you, you do ABC and you will get D you're gonna do it cuz you're desperate or they are deceived. So you're either deceiving intentionally or it's out of their own being deceived. And there are many people who are deceived, who are now believing this message, huh? In my mind, I'm like, man, what happened in oral Robert's life to like as the catalyst in his life to money, I'll tell you what it is. It's the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, not money. The love of money. There are other verses that deal with covetness wanting more. Jesus says your life does not consist in the abundance of what you possess. And then he actually tells a parable that deals with a guy who says to a soul like kick back, relax. You've worked hard. You need bigger barns to store up your goods. And in a moment God's voice comes on the scene and says, fool, tonight, your soul is required of you. In other words, God's after the soul of man and without getting ahead in our track tonight, God will often allow things to happen in our lives to get our attention. And I always say it like this, Ethan, the prosperity gospel, the true prosperity gospel isn't that you prosper because of the gospel, right? It's that the gospel or truth prosperous inside of you. Yeah. And that's, that's what we talked about sort of in last episode about how God's economy is totally flip flopped, but the prosperity gospel. I was thinking about this earlier, the prosperity gospel is it, it seems like they, maybe they don't say this, but um, they believe at the, through their actions of what they believe. They believe that this earth is like the end game, because that's how they're acting that oh, sickness is gone, poverty is gone, right? Like all, like we have everything right now. And it's like, well, what's, what's the need for a new heaven and a new earth. What's the need for everything else, you know? Right. So I, I was like thinking about that and, and I actually did a little bit of research and not um, I found this quote, uh, they believe the atonement of Christ not only removes sin that's right, but also sickness and poverty. And so they use Isaiah 53. Yeah. As the reason behind God dealing with all of our authorities infirmities. And of course that would create this theology that if you're sick, it's not God's will. Hmm <affirmative> and we know God is sovereign. He heals, let's be very clear. He can heal. And he uses different mediums and mechanisms and, and medicines to heal. Right. We probably just don't get him credit for those miracles. But I know the Bible is very clear and it talks about we're in a broken fallen world. So this is part of the infrastructure of being in a fallen system. Yeah. And I think, and maybe I could get this like metaphor wrong, but like they're like they use faith as like a vehicle to get the things, whereas God uses those the, as a vehicle to get us, to get our faith, to get our faith. Yeah. To get our faith that's um, is that I love that. Is that a good matter? Yep. Faith that's created and it can't probably be expressed the prosperity gospel without in tandem expressing what is the word of faith movement, which is you name it, you claim it right? Because out of mouth you have the power to speak life and death. And that's true. Remember here's the point prosperity teachers dress their teachings in S scripturally, fine clothing to keep their followers. And those listening from detecting its faults because they're using scripture. That's the point they're quoting scripture. I have several verses. I would love to cover that deal with how they twist certain scriptures. We'll get to that and you'll listen to the scripture and go, wow, that sounds like God's intention is blank, but context is king. We say, yeah. Yep. And without reading the entire account or the chapter and understanding the all author's intention to that context, you can take one verse out of context, build an entire theology around it, make it sound cute, package it with cute platitudes. And again, I wanna say this it's appealing to our fallenness. It's appealing to our desperation and yes we are. King's kids. That's one of the things they say, you're a King's kid. So you should always be, you know, you're Royal and the King's gonna bless you abundantly. And I'm like, yeah. With every spiritual blessing in the heaven leagues, like cause of the Bible says, so we'll look at a lot of verses. Um, let me read outta Colosians because Colosians chapter three, begin with your raise with Christ, seek those things, which are above where Christ is. So it's setting an eternal perspective who sits at the right hand of God. That's Jesus set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, okay. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Now here's the verse, verse five, therefore put to death, your members, which are on the earth, fornication, cleanness, passion E desire, and covetness, which is idolatry. Covetness really is the sin of the prosperity gospel. Hmm. Yeah. That I want more and I'm not satisfied unless I have it. And that would include physical healing. And Ethan, you have no idea how many people I've either counseled or ministered to who in the midst of their sickness or their affliction or their infirmity were looking at me dead in the eyes and talking about how they experienced God through the suffering, through the ailment. And yeah, we pray that God would remove it. God would lift it. God would heal them. And by faith we trust, God can do that. It, but we don't control that. Right. God does. Yeah. And to see somebody's soul flourish in the midst of a sickness is eternal. Because guess what? Whether they have the sickness or the ailment and they're considered dying or terminal, we're all dying. We're all decaying. We're all terminal. Yeah. We're not gonna live on this earth forever. So God's after the soul. And there's Bible verse after Bible verse, that deals with what he's truly trying to accomplish in the soul of a man. And that is why we have to align our thoughts, our lifestyles, with the word of God. Again, I wanna say this up front, and then you can cut me off. There's nothing wrong with being happy, healthy, and wealthy in and of themselves. Those are great things. I wanna be happy. I wanna be healthy. And I wanna be wealthy. The sin is when those possessions become my ultimate pursuit and they possess me. And there are a lot of people who have been deceived to think that way. Hence, we want to re church those that have been in perhaps deceived or led down a path that is the opposite of the scriptures. Yeah. Their, their hope is the, the people that believe in the prosperity gospel and those who Herald that th their gospel is a hope of now, like fill yourself. Now, our, our hope in the true gospel is a hope that yes, Jesus did come and he died for us and he rose again and he paid for sin, but our hope is eternal. Our hope is coming with the second coming of Christ. So that's a, that's another difference there. And then just like you were saying about like priorities really and mentions of, um, of the heart behind those things, health, wealth, and happiness. Uh, man, I don't know when we talked about this offline, I forget but about having no, God doesn't want any other gods before him. That's right. Um, and I don't know if you were there. I forget. I forget who I had the conversation with, but it's not a priority list that that's not talking about a priority list. God's not like I want to be your number one. You know, it means like before you get perimeter, like, like no other God's before me in my presence, in my presence. Right. And what the prosperity gospel is doing is putting other things as, as God's in his presence. So there are verses that the prosperity gospel twists will look at a few of them. There's so many more, but again, like I said, cherry picking third, John, the epistle written by the apostle John at the latter part of his life. It's an introductory, Ethan, it's me telling you through text. Hey bro, hoping God blesses you with the project you're working on. Hey bro. Hoping you are well, it's simple. It's a simple salutation. And he begins by saying this beloved it. I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in a health just as your soul prospers. This is one of the verses that prosperity gospel teachers will pull and claim. See God wants to prosperous in all things. And that we would be in health. That's talking about physical health and I'm like, yeah, God bless you in every way. But I hope your soul's prospering is ultimately what he's getting at. And this is one of the verses that they twist. And again, it's just an introductory statement. And then you have verses like second Corinthians chapter eight, verse nine, which kind of is related to what you said earlier about Jesus's atonement for our, therefore not only is our sin paid for, but our physical health was paid for. And second Corinthians eight, nine, listen to the language for, you know, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sakes, he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich. So they take that verse and they say, see, God wants us to be rich materially physically in every way. And it's more or less dealing with spiritual richness. Jesus Christ emptied himself became like us died for us rose from the grave to accomplish what he said he would. And ultimately making us rich in his mercy. And again, I don't think I can say it enough. There's nothing wrong with having wealth. God in fact gives man ability to make wealth. Yeah. But it's what we do with it. Yeah. And it's how we choose it. It's the intentions of the heart behind it. And all of that is what God requires of us. Yeah. Again, there's nothing wrong with thinking about these things. I think when we expect them as mandatory outcomes for having faith in God, and again, I, the danger is when it doesn't work out, the, I thought the prayer wasn't answered the way I prayed it. The outcome didn't happen to my favor, the promotion, the raise, who do I turn against? I turn against God. Or I turn against the minister who then is able to tell me no, no it's because you don't have faith. And then I'm beating myself up. Cause they didn't find the healing. I wasn't granted the material blessing. And it's not about that. Here's another verse, Ethan. It's one verse outside of the context. This is what is said. You have not because you asked not right. When's the last time I asked so many times to bless you a hundred fold financially. <laugh> you have not. Cuz you asked not James. I, after one, verse six, let him ask in faith with no doubting. You doubted brother. If God didn't answer your prayer, you doubted for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Remember I said, context is king. Yeah. Yeah. Guess what it's talking about? It's asking God for wisdom and faith to navigate trials.<laugh> this is exactly how James' the brother of Jesus begins. My brothern counted all joy. When you fall into what various trials, trials, not bridges. <laugh> knowing that the testing of your fate produces patience, but let patients have its perfect work that you may be perfect. Okay. That means complete or mature, complete and lacking nothing. Here's where it says like I'm struggling, man. Try aisle are coming. They've hit my life. I don't know where God's at. I don't know how I can consider it joy. Really? The trial or the suffering is supposed to develop my faith. I'm not feeling that I'm struggling. Then it says, well, if you're lacking wisdom able and being able to see God work, ask of God, God will answer the, his prayer. Ask him to have eyes, to see how he's using your trial for your good and his glory. And then you can consider it joy cuz you see in a different way, why God allowed the adversity and he continues. Yeah. God who gives liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. God gives us liberally spiritual means or spiritual muscles to be able to navigate the trials of our life. Yeah. And then like Paul said, and I think we tackled this in the past episode, uh, it was talking about the tho his tho in his flesh and another reason why those, why his thorn wasn't removed, right? Why trials often, sometimes aren't removed is so that God's God can be glorified. His strength made perfect in our weakness. This is why the prosperity gospel goes the direction it goes, cuz everything you just said and everything I said,<laugh> wait, wait, you're talking about pain. Yikes. Here's the interesting thing though. We understand the point of pain in other areas of life that we gladly accept for working out <laugh> what do they tell you about working out? No pain, no pain, no gain, no gain. So we go into the gym knowing that I must endure through pain or discomfort or uncomfort working out a muscle or running on a track, passing through a threshold, which is painful. Yeah. Knowing right. That when I'm done, I'm satisfied. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. <laugh> that's physical. Hmm. So the same principle is true in the spiritual you're a hard worker, Ethan, that that's a form of pain being, being willing to push through a comfort zone, to get your job done, to get the work done. That's the same idea. Because when you get done the project, you look back and go, that was worth it. Yeah. Yeah. It takes work in a relationship there's pain there. And yet when it comes to this message, we don't wanna receive that. No, no, no. God does not wanna allow pain into our lives. And it's like, that is the greatest catalyst to passion and purpose and to know his peace. So that's good. Um, two more verses the sewing and reaping verse, Ethan, Galatians six is often used, you know, whatever man sews, he reaps. So they talk about sewing financially to reap financially. So many commercials. So many. But have you seen, have you seen the it's like magical water? It's like, oh my gosh. It's like things. It was like, what is it? It was like silver water or something. Yeah. So, so weird. It was like this miracle water people were buying it. No people were buying it and it's, and I'm not gonna name names, but the, the people, the guys that are on those commercials, I don't wanna say that they look like the devil, but they, they look evil. You know, I tell people to look at the eyes. Yeah. The eyes, which we say, even a nonbeliever says the eyes window to the soul. But there's something about the eyes that speak of, I would say the color of the message. Either light or darkness. So sewing and reaping in Galatians six deals with contextually, he sows of the flesh reaps core eruption. So it's like the flesh is not gonna yield anything. Fruitful. The flesh is failing. The flesh is falling. The flesh is dying. He who SOS to the spirit. Now we're entering into the spiritual realm, reaps eternal life, John 10, 10, Jesus talks about shepherd sheep relations. Uh, the, the higher laying is, that's why he doesn't have vested interest in protecting the sheep. And when a Wolf comes, he's the first to flee. That's the perfect way to say anyone who propagates this false message is a hiring. They don't really care about your soul. So they're willing to tell you something you want to hear, which is fine. We all wanna hear that, but at your own destruction and they're getting paid for it and they're getting paid for it and, and you are probably contributing to it or people do. Yeah. And then Jesus says, Hey, the, the enemy came to do some stuff. Right. Steal, kill, and destroy. But I've come, you know this verse, right? Yeah. <affirmative> I've come that you might have life and life abundant. Yep. And they take that one verse <laugh> and say, see, Jesus came to give us life and healing and abundance and they completely disconnect it from the context. Mm. So yes, we need to spend more time reading the word for ourselves is the only way to discern the lie that can be dressed in scripture. That can be expressed in a very clever, charismatic way. It sounds good. Yeah. And that is why we must know the truth so well, and, and what Jesus said, you know, the truth, the truth will set you free. That's what he was talking about. Free from worldliness free, from sinfulness free, from fearfulness. Like the truth is what grounds us. So those are the verses. They twist third John chapter one, verse two second Corinthians eight, nine James chapter one, the, the several verses in the beginning, Galatians six, seven John, 10, 10. And then, and guess what? You were to hear a minus a pastor, a preacher, and whether it's online or whether you're part of that flock and you were to push back and say, that message doesn't sound right. Or you said something even more forceful, like that was demonic. That was oppressive. That's a false gospel. Well, here's the verses they use against you touch, not the Lord's anointed. Uh, don't speak anything against a minister of God. This is the verse that comes outta their own mouth. And, and so they'll even actually use, it's reverse psychology. They'll say through the television screen and people would say that I'm preaching a false gospel <laugh> right. But what they don't understand is the Bible says touch, not the anointed of God and the ministers of God are gonna be persecuted and they're gonna slander you. And then he turn it against the actual truth. Yeah. It's crazy. And make it sound like they're just being slandered or opposed because they're ministers of God. And like, it's, it's true though. As a disciple, you're gonna get opposed and you're gonna get slandered, but not the way they're using it. I, I was doing a little bit more research. Um, the gospel coalition, um, if you've ever heard of it had a good, like five point breakdown of what makes the prosperity gospel a false gospel. Don't read it yet. I wanna be very clear as host of this podcast that if we quote someone yeah. Or make mention of a website or an article, and even if we include it in our, in our notes, that is not to endorse the entire organization or church or minister, I will quote people that I might not necessarily agree with theologically or endorse. Yep. But if what is being shared or read is in alignment with the word, then I would say, let's take it at the value that we're presenting it. Yeah. And I'm, I'm only saying that because I might personally not agree with a lot of the gospel coalitions resources, um, in the past two years. Yeah. That, well, that's totally fair. Um, I think this was published in 2017, I believe. Okay. Um, but regardless like Matt said, uh, whatever we quote or whatever, the platform we can pick up part, like we can agree with some of it and disagree with most of it and, and it's okay, it's good. Us too. Somebody will truth over trend or coastal Christian Church, which is what we represent. Yeah. Or this podcast and be like, oh, they're, you know, this or that. And I'm gonna, I get all that. Yeah. Last thing I wanna do is tear down anyone, unless I'm calling it for what it is and that's what we're gonna do. Right. But so yeah. Just wanna be clear. Cause we'll probably say that over and over. Yeah. Definitely in every episode, um, because there's so many resources out there and these are useful, what we're about to use. I just don't want anybody emailing me personally and saying, pastor Matthew, you know, this organization did this and I'm gonna go, thank you. Yes. I did not endorse them. Yeah. I'm endorsing the Bible, right? Yeah, exactly. Go along. Sorry. So they had some, uh, a good outline of five points here. I'll just read through 'em real quick. But number one, the Abrahamic covenant is a means to material entitlement. Excellent. Uh, number two, Jesus' atonement extends to the sin quote unquote, sin of material poverty, right. Which we covered three Christians give in order to gain material compensation from God. We covered that as well. Sure. Number four, faith is a self-generated spiritual force that leads to prosperity. Name it, claim it. Yep. And number five, prayer is a tool to force God to grant prosperity. So we covered all of these. I didn't know that, but yeah, but it's, uh, it it's a good like breakdown of like sort of everything we just like sounds like we track. Yeah. <laugh> thank you. Uh, gospel coalition. We might not agree with everything you do, but we'll take that one. The Bible is very clear. What is God? Ultimately, after in light of what we know as the prosperity gospel, what's the pure gospel. What's the true gospel. What is God after he's after the saving of the soul, which is dark before grace enlightens, it it's lost before mercy finds it. We are desperate and hopeless without the pure gospel Christ came. Yes. Healing. Yes. Teaching, he healed lepers. He touched the blind and gave them sight. And he gave hearing ability back to the, to the death. He gave speaking ability back to the mute. I mean, he raised people from the dead and, and those were byproducts that God was here because all the old Testament scriptures, they were pointing to this coming one, this Messiah. So Jesus comes, fulfills these old Testament prophecies. And these became the byproducts. Now why do I say that? Because if he came and didn't teach and if he came and didn't heal and still died on that cross, dad was enough for God. Cuz that's why he came. He came to die for the sins of humanity. That was the whole soul purpose of Christ coming and being a man who dwelt amongst us. That's the purpose? Why the healings? Why the teachings? Why the context of the parables. Cause he was, he was validating. It was like he was pulling the old Testament scripture saying, Hey, do you remember when the prophet said that? Yeah, that's me. Yeah. I was gonna say, Hey, do you remember when they said the, the Messiah would be able to heal lepers? Yeah, I'm doing that.<laugh> raising people from the dead was a shadow or a foreshadow of his resurrection. Everything was always pointing to the cross. Jesus came for the cross. So the prosperity gospel would say that the cross was the devil's idea. Right. And suffering and all those things that are the opposite of what we're saying, you know, that's that's, that's not God. And I'm going, the Bible actually tells that God was in all of that. Yeah. The only church used sermons to confirm that in acts chapter four in acts chapter five, you see their first sermons highlight the fact that this was God's purpose. Yeah. Who four knew it, who allowed it for the saving of the soul. So yeah. All these verses that deal with God wanting to process SRU us in any way or, or bless us or favor us or heal us always starts with the heart and may work. Its wealth may work itself out to the flesh or the physical man, but that's not a guarantee. Yeah. So what has the consequence, in your opinion, been from a great portion of the church, believing in the prosperity gospel for the past, you know, half a century or so what, what do you think the consequence now has been on the church because of that, the message that the American church has led with AKA the prosperity gospel is a message that the even a nonbeliever would want. So the church of Jesus Christ in the American context has completely lost its power. The message that saves the soul is the pure gospel, which calls out sin, which tells us, you are a sinner lost and you need a savior. And without that message being on the forefront of our mission, we've stayed in our giant Christian bubbles churches have been built, look like mega stadiums. And there's nothing wrong with having a worship experience. That seems like you're at a concert. I'm not saying all that. Yeah. I always say to people, listen to what's coming from that pulpit. If the word of God is not being preached, UN adult rated purely, then I would question what else is happening in that particular body? Yeah. So you see a church in this context that has lost its potency and then the culture around us realizes, okay, they're gonna do their thing. I'm not any, I'm not even in disagreeing with their mess. Cause it's, non-threatening like they might even agree. Like, yeah, I wanna be happy, healthy, and wealthy. I just don't want God to get those things, but okay. Have at it. So we've moved in the same direction, but we know that how this works darkness and imorality and sin when they're not checked, when they're not called out when the church is not in its rightful place, darkness eventually becomes the culture. Yeah. And oh yeah, by the way, you know, our churches are growing though. People are coming. It's like hear what? At the expense of their own soul of salvation. Yeah. So all these decades later here we sit and I don't need to add color commentary to the condition of the world we live in. And again, Bible says, that's how the world is gonna unfold. Yeah. I get that. But that does not shirk my responsibility of being a light. Yeah. And being salt. Yeah. And telling people the truth in love and not worrying about hurting feelings or being offensive. I told a story recently about something. So in prison, Ethan, which was saying good morning to inmates, simple but dangerous because nobody wants to know anything. Good about mourning in jail. Yeah. Yeah.<laugh> but the point wasn't saying, good morning, I told a story because the question for the Christian is are you willing to say something that might be Hmm, offensive? Hmm. When you know it's redemptive. Hmm. That that's the point that's so it's not about good morning. Yeah. Even though I would encourage every believer out there to make it your best practice, to smile more, be joyful in a dark world, say good morning to people. Good afternoon to people. God bless you. Go outta your way to be a light. Cuz not a lot of people are doing that and you'll stand out and that's what Jesus asks of us. But it's not about just those words. It's about being willing to say something that's redemptive, even if it's going to be received as offensive. Yeah. That's the point that's that's really well said. And I think that's a great way to kind of land the plane on this episode. Um, that was the episode of the prosperity gospel. Next episode, we're gonna be talking about the psychology gospel. What is that gonna be about? Like you might not be able to Google it. Hey, what's the psychology gospel. You might find other cause you coined it. I coined it. I just thought about psychology. We appeal to the self, self confidence, self righteousness, self, you know the list goes on. Yeah. Um, you might find the self-centered gospel and read up on, you know, the resources that are out there or the self-esteem gospel, but the psychology gospel and we'll get into this. So we hope you tune in. We hope you subscribe to all of our channels and you share this podcast. If you think it'll be, um, useful to instigate Christians to be Christian, but the psychology gospel ultimately appeals to me, making myself the hero of every story that it's always about me. It's always about. And again, there's, this is where they manipulate scripture. God doesn't want us to have low self-esteem. <laugh><laugh> he doesn't want us to think less of ourselves, but there's a lot of verses that deal with how do you manage self in the proper context of and positioning toward God? Is that what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Like cuz I don't wanna disqualify self and we'll, we'll talk about that. Like you are fearfully and wonderfully made. This is just taken outta context. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. However, however you're not, you should know you're positioning toward God, right? God is still of God. You are still young. That's good. All right. That's exactly what we have to land on. So we'll look at the psychology gospel. We'll talk about its origin. I think it goes way back to the beginning. We'll look at verses that completely contradict the psychology gospel and we'll talk about, and this makes us selfless, ultimately selfless in a world that is selfish, a selfie saturated everything's about me, me, me, we call it the unholy, Trinity, me, myself and I. And all of that gets in the way of Christ magnifying, faith. That's good. Well thank you for joining us guys. Uh, on this episode of the re church podcast, um, like Matthew said, uh, you can subscribe and for follow the podcast, make sure to turn notifications on. So that next episode, when it's live, you'll get a little notification little ding or something on your phone and you can join us, uh, for the psychology gospel episode, which will be really fun. Um, if you're wanting to learn more about us, this podcast, your hosts, or even would like to apply to be a sponsor of the you can visit re church podcast.com and there you'll be able to explore what our church coastal has to offer as well as training tools, sermons, ways to get connected and much more so that about wraps it up. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you in the next episode. God bless see you again, guys.