LETTER TO THE
EDITOR
FROM: RHEMA
“CHANNEL MAGAZINE” NOVEMBER 1983
Dear
Editor,
Thank you for your article Rich Christian/Poor Christian (Channel Sept. ’83), but I am
not convinced. I still think the ‘Prosperity cults’ are teaching a new doctrine
of how to be rich AND saved! Undoubtedly there ARE many good rich people who are good in spite of their riches,
but the new doctrine teaches that riches are a sign of God’s favour and poverty
a sign of God’s disfavour. This is not
acceptable and even some Pentecostal teachers are bitterly opposed to this ‘new
gospel’. So, I am sending you a cassette
of a recent prophetic message by Rev. David Wilkerson, famous and highly
respected for his CROSS AND SWITCHBLADE book.
For the sake of your readers of CHANNEL, I am sure you will welcome
another point of view to the one expressed in your last edition (Sept). So here
are some extracts from this David Wilkerson message delivered earlier this
year.
“The Church of Christ is victimised by those who
preach false doctrines ... perversions of truth, lying spirits have found a
voice in the church ... a spirit of covetousness and carnality. Many of the chosen are deceived. Satan is coming with a new gospel ...
disguised as an angel of light. Teachers
and ministers are transformed by a gospel of the flesh. They do many wonderful works: cast out
demons, heal the sick etc., but their message is not of God. They are blind ... tools of Satan. They may have God’s grace, but won’t see his
glory. Multitudes of God’s people are
flocking to conventions and meetings to hear this other gospel of self and
prosperity and success ... Wake up! This
new gospel of ‘gain is godliness’ is a message of compromise without godliness,
promises forgiveness without repentance ... the godlier you are the more gain
you will have.
But the gospel of Jesus says: Blessed are ye poor,
yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are
you that hunger, you shall be filled.
Blessed are you that weep now, you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you ... But woe
to you who seek to be rich, for you have received your consolations. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall
hunger. Woe to you when men speak well
of you for so did the fathers to the false prophets.”
The gospel of gain despises poverty, rejects and
despises the poor. St James says: “You
have despised the poor. You say to him
who is prosperous and dressed with gold rings: sit up here in the good place.
And the poor” sit in the lower place”.
This is a gospel of particularity to the prosperous and successful, an
indictment against the poor to whom Jesus administered. It exalts prosperity
and success.
“You preachers of the gospel who say Jesus became poor
so that we could become rich in houses and land – you don’t know your Bible! How blind!
Is this the gospel for a dying world?! ...that gain is godliness, faith
is for prosperity? Is abundant life
supposed to be worldly goods? One
billion people on this earth are near starvation, the Heart of Jesus is
breaking at the sight of weeping mothers and starving babies with bloated
stomachs. Millions are unemployed. Poor Christians are losing all they possess
and taking it joyfully!
And YOU tell me God is going to send a man of God to
tell ME I have a RIGHT to be rich!
How blind can we be?!
We got it all wrong! The rich man
went to hell, the poor man went to heaven!
“From such turn away!
These preachers offer blessings without sorrow ... They are accumulators
of this world’s goods. Amos, the
prophet, cried out: Woe to those ... who are not grieved for the afflicted ...”
Your article last week on Turin Shroud reminds me of
the words of Peter: “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that
you would follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21).
William Penn put it very forcefully in this form: “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no
gall ,no glory; no cross, no crown”.
