The Bible says that we are judged by our fruits. I once went to one of these
aforementioned churches as a teenager with my mom. They claimed to have led
276 lives to the Lord through thier Friday nite door-to-door witnessing. But
only one family was added to the church in this time. What they did in truth
(at least in my imagination) was leave 275 spiritual babies in the dumpster.
This was thier fruit. They all had pictures of cadillacs on thier
refrigerators that they were claiming in the name of Jesus. They were
claiming health, peace, and properity. And they were claiming 276 souls
saved, 275 of which were in the dumpster. That is how you judge that.
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [RR] Compareitive religons merit- any value?
>Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 23:57:16 EDT
>
>In a message dated 6/15/2001 7:51:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>
> > Ask and ye shall receive does not mean “blab it and grab it” … ask
>in faith
> > believing. Ask and ye shall received did NOT mean God has magic buttons
> > that produce for us everything we want. God promised he would provide
>for
> > our needs and bless us. Some folks see blessings in different ways….
>But
> > those who do not ask in humility and faith believing are barking up the
> > wrong tree.
> >
> > It would not take too much research to find that the “prosperity
>gospel”
> > of the 80’s left many bankruptcies in its wake.
> >
>
>
>True, but the miracle healing we teach in the A/G has left some . The
>problem isn't necessarily the teaching - more likely (in my experience)
>it's
>the way we outside what is being taught interpret it and how we react to
>it.
>For example - growing up I as taught (in A/G churches) that Charismatics
>were
>sinful because they "taught" people how to speak in tongues. As I grew up
>I
>discovered a couple of things.
>
>1) Charismatics in general (nondenominationally tied "Spirit'-filled"
>churches) weren't all teaching people how to speak in tongues.
>
>2) There are prayer and alter services in A/G churches where an outside
>might
>interpret how we pray with someone seeking the infilling with the evidence
>of
>tongues as "teaching" them how.
>
>3) Many Charismatics were from other mainstream denominations who had no
>real
>knowledge of the power and actions of the Holy Spirit (or so we-A/G
>thought)
>4) We - A/G tended to overreact because Charismatics were intruding on what
>was traditionally "our" biggest difference with other churches - what set
>us
>apart.
>
>5) Instead of offering to help or gently correct we accused.
>
>6) We have since realized (I think) that the Holy Spirit acts however He
>wishes and that we-A/G don't have a lock on Him.
>
>The same sort of situation happened with "name it/claim it ...
>blab...grab".
>We hear one thing and take it out of context. How do you know they aren't
>naming and claiming in humility and faith? And how exactly do we judge
>that?
> Maybe their blab is with lots of faith. If it's not - what have we done
>to
>help correct in brotherly, Christian love? It seems like we've simply
>followed the media opinion - they are different - they aren't us (although
>many are) so they must not be right.
>
>At least that's how it appears to me.
>
>Michael
>
>PS Besides, the Bible does speak many times of being prosperous - and
>please
>don't try and tell me that it only means spiritually.
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