Death Of The Prosperity Gospel

Here’s an object lesson: Take an egg, hold it aloft, let go, and watch what happens.

Last year (2008) will go down in history as the year that our Humpty Dumpty economy fell. Now all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are trying to put it back together again. It will never be the economy that it once was.

For a lot of people, Humpty Dumpty was the focus of their life and their being. Their hopes and joys and self worth were in the fragile egg.

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With the fall of Humpty Dumpty, my feeling is that America is in the beginning stages of a journey back to a more agrarian-centered culture.

Some will laugh off that statement as absurd. But as the economy declines and, thus, standards of living decline, and oil-based energy resources decline, a more agrarian way of life is the only viable option. More people are going to be working in the earth, growing food, working to provide their needs with their own hands. That is not the industrial way. It is the agrarian way.

But I don’t suppose it will be an easy and painless transition. I suspect we are in for higher unemployment, economic deflation, inflation, depression, food shortages, civil unrest and maybe even the imposition of martial law in America before all is said and done. Maybe all of that will be the easy part.

I don’t pretend to know what will happen. But I know many things are fundamentally wrong. I know that the industrialized culture with it’s prideful, self-centered greed, and corporate pillaging of people, and communities, and the planet is wrong. And I know debt-based economic systems with fiat money schemes are wrong. I know strong centralized government, run by the moneyed interests, for their benefit is wrong. And I know that a nation that strays from God’s laws, to the point where it condones and proudly practices things like sodomy and the murder of unborn children, is wrong.

Because those things are wrong, they will prosper only for a season before they crash and burn, and justifiably so. I think their season maybe drawing to a close.

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And, justifiably so, we will also see the “prosperity gospel” that has been so prevalent in America suffer an ignominious death. You know, that heresy that proclaims that God wants you to be wealthy and have an abundance of possessions. Are Christians still believing this now that Humpty Dumpty has fallen?

One of the most powerful messages I have ever heard about the wickedness of the prosperity gospel is less than three minutes long and it is on YouTube. It is by John Piper. I have watched it probably thirty times now. It hits me in the gut every time. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. And take note of the words of John Piper’s prayer. It is being answered.

Less than three minutes....

John Piper on the Health, Wealth & Prosperity Gospel

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P.S. Last August I posted an essay titled A Missive on The Prosperity-Driven Life. You can Read it Here


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