Last year, I preached a
verse-by-verse series through the epistles of Peter. In my study of 2nd
Peter, I was surprised that an entire third of the book—a whole chapter—is devoted
to identifying the tactics of false teachers. In fact, if you do a survey of that chapter,
you’ll find that Peter lists 22 attributes of these wolves-in-sheep’s clothing.
It’s as if he is holding up a Most Wanted Poster saying, “This is what these
guys look like, so watch out for them!”
The other day I was
scrolling through my news feed when I saw a headline about one of these
nefarious characters that Peter warned us about. The headline read, “Louisiana Televangelist
Seeks Donations for $54M Private Jet.” Here is what the article reported:
“Jesse Duplantis, 68, a
Christian minister based in Destrehan, about 25 miles east of New Orleans, says
his ministry has paid cash for three private jets. “You know I’ve owned three
different jets in my life and used them and used them and just burning them up
for the Lord,” Duplantis says in a video posted to his ministries’ website. Duplantis
is now reportedly seeking the funds for a Dassault Falcon 7X, worth $54
million. “I really believe that if Jesus
was physically on the earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey,”
Duplantis says in the video, “He’d be in
an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.” Duplantis’ video
comes after another televangelist, Kenneth Copeland in Texas, purchased the
Gulfstream V jet for $36 million. Both televangelists defended their use of
private jets during a joint appearance on Copeland’s program, saying that
commercial airlines are filled with “a bunch of demons” that get in the way of
their busy schedules.”[i]
I was simply at a loss for
words. But, soon after reading this garbage my mind went back to what Peter said
about the greedy desires of false teachers. In 2 Peter 2:3 he wrote, “3 And in
their greed they will exploit you with false words.” He added a little later in
2:14-16, “They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking
the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the
son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own
transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the
prophet's madness.”
Look into the eyes of a
false teacher and you will see dollar signs. To sharpen his point, Peter draws
an example from the OT “Hall of Shame”—Balaam. We meet Balaam in Numbers 22-24
where he is commissioned by one of Israel’s ancient enemies, Balak the Moabite
king, to curse God’s people as they wandered in the wilderness. Balaam had made
a reputation for himself as a prophet for hire and Balak thought for the right
price he could pay Balaam to cast a spell on Israel. Balaam took the king’s
money, but God prevented him from cursing Israel by speaking through his donkey
and rebuking the prophet.
While Balaam couldn’t
curse Israel, what he did instead was tell Balak how to corrupt the Israelites
by getting the Moabite women to seduce and intermarry with the Hebrews. This
tactic worked for the Moabites because along with their seductions their women
introduced their false gods, idolatry and pagan practices to the Israelites. In
the end, God judged Israel for their sin and Balaam was struck down by the sword
when Israel defeated the Midianites.
Sadly, the spirit of
Balaam is still alive today in many of the modern false prophets whose
ministries are nothing more than elaborate facades for their money-making
machines.
The prosperity Gospel is a
sickening virus that has reached pandemic levels in the church. It’s has
infected the body of Christ and mutated the Gospel into a monstrosity. It has
turned God the Father into a cosmic Santa Claus, Jesus into a genie who died to
make our dreams come true and the Holy Spirit into the Jedi’s force. It is the
greatest scourge of the modern church and those who give their money to these
snake-oil salesmen have less sense than Balaam’s donkey.
Friends, this is why we
need discernment, so we can sniff out these false prophets. We also need the courage
to stand up for the truth of God’s Word and call out those who exist only to damage
the Gospel and prey on the body of Christ. -DM
[i]
Bradford Betz, “Louisiana Televangelist Seeks Donations for $54M Private Jet,” Fox News, 29 May 2018 <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/29/louisiana-televangelist-seeks-donations-for-54m-private-jet-report.html>
No comments:
Post a Comment