“And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Acts 17: 11
Friends, allow me to get down to the nitty gritty… where the rubber meets the road. You all know I have Muscular Dystrophy, not from lack of faith, and not from any hidden sins in my life. God is not mad at me. He is not picking on me. My physical healing is not dependant on anything I can do in my own pitiful strength. It will happen when God says it will happen, not when I decide I’ve had enough. God has a plan and a purpose for me having Muscular Dystrophy. But that’s contrary to what I heard today…
I know my Bible. I’ve spent much time searching God’s Word for answers as to why I have this illness. God has given me many clues as to why I am suffering, and I have devoured every word! You’ve all heard of the prosperity gospel. Most people can see right through that. I take that back. An alarming amount of people fall for it. It’s a gospel that claims God wants you to always be happy – never, never sad. Oh, and we all deserve to live in mansions, drive Bentleys, and never have a financial crisis. That’s not Jesus’ teaching! One thing that is creeping into the church, very subtly creeping… is the prosperity health gospel, which says God wants you healthy, He never wants you sick, He doesn’t want you on any medicine… all illness is from the devil – you need to rebuke it. God wants you to walk in divine health, and that’s how you’ll know you have God’s favor and blessing.
That’s heresy. Any heresy will always have a large amount of truth with it, so we cannot automatically accept a man’s teaching as correct because three quarters of what he says is right, especially if his major teaching is wrong. All I can say is thanks be to God for the gift of discernment! Today was an example of how people who don’t know the Word can fall into deceit, and become a mob mentality. And I’m afraid there are way too many in that category. There were actually people cheering this false teacher on! We, my husband and I, had to leave. We couldn’t listen to any more heresy.
Always compare what you hear with what the Bible says. As for the above scripture, God put that in the Bible for a reason. The people in Berea searched the Scriptures for themselves to verify the message they heard. We need to take that as an example. A preacher or teacher who gives God’s true message will never contradict or explain away anything that is found in God’s Word.
I’m really grieved over this. This may be okay for a mature discerning Christian, but it is irresponsible in a church gathering where some have no discerning skills and will swallow everything because they trust the leaders. The elders job is to protect the sheep, not feed them possible poison.