There was a city, not long ago, where all the people were affected by a certain kind of plague. It was a horrible, horrible, disease. The worst part of it was that the symptoms were tolerable till the end. But death was certain. Many people put off going to the doctor just because the symptoms, though annoying, were tolerable and died as a result.
There happened to be in that very city a physician by name John, who specialized in curing the same disease. He would take his time analyzing the symptoms and formulate the cure accordingly. The cure however only made the patients sicker and caused them agonizing pain, enough to cause them to despair of their life and it took time. But in the end everyone who came to him were completely cured and lived a healthy life afterwards.
Because of the nature of the cure many patients avoided him. After all why suffer when the symptoms are tolerable.
There was in that city another physician by name Joel. He saw that many people avoided John because the cure he prescribed was in effect very painful. So he came up with a plan to cure the annoying but tolerable symptoms instead, hoping that as long as they came to him they might someday want to try the cure itself. But he knew that if he prescribed the cure to his patients outright most of them would stop coming to him. Besides, the patients were happy as long as their symptoms disappeared. So in the end that’s all he did. His patients liked the results so much that were uplifted, content and happy. Joel became very popular and prosperous. People praised and honored him. He was now too afraid to tell them the truth so he continued as is.
John saw what was happening. That Joel was curing only their symptoms but not the disease. John out of love and concern for the lives of the people spoke up against Joel and what he was doing. But many people thought he was just jealous of Joel and would not listen to him anymore. Some rebuked him and asked him to shut up. How dare he put down his fellow physician! But John wouldnt stop. He knew that everyone who went to Joel had a death sentence and so he continued till the end warning the people. Most stopped going to John and started going to Joel instead. After all, if a person is famous it means that he must know what he is doing, right? And so this sad story continued till all of Joels patients eventually died.
The plague is sin. The wages of sin is death. The gospel, what Christ did for us on the cross is the only cure for this disease. The health, wealth and prosperity gospel is another gospel which is no gospel at all. Gal 1:6-10.
The reason for this post is to warn people of those who preach another gospel. Most of them use the same terminology. Might even use scripture to back what they say. But by their message we shall know them.
Joel Osteen is the first who comes to mind. I saw the comments for Joel Osteens new book at Amazon. and it saddens me that there are people who can call themselves christians and still say that christianity isnt about the cross. Whereas the bible says that it is all about the cross. These are the kind of people Joel attracts. People who want to come to God on their terms.
The sad part is that they never hear the true gospel. Only a very shallow and superficial version of it. And they deceive themselves into thinking they are christians when they arent. And Joel Osteen and his ilk are equally responsible for this deception because they dont tell them the truth in all its entirety.
0 comments:
Post a Comment