What in the World is wrong With Most Televangelists?

[Mark H. Stevens, Th.D]

Many who share perverted teachings from the Old Testament on the various offerings to God, making the false leap that you can make a corresponding offering to God by writing a check to their ministry Some are so good they can take ANY passage of Scripture and create a message that ends with you sitting down and writing them a check.
The most egregious examples are those who preach a prosperity message. I am not talking about the REAL prosperity message of being a child of God. I am talking about prosperity strictly from a dollars and cents standpoint. Without saying it, the implication of these messages is crystal clear. The more you give the more God will bless you financially. It is a Christian Lotto mentality that those who preach this perversion are more than happy to encourage.
Those who preach this type of message will normally use themselves as the examples of God's blessings. They will tell you how they were just like you, poor, struggling, making it from paycheck to paycheck. Then they will tell you that by trusting God and giving God everything ( what money they had ) God began to bless them. It is very misleading and a misrepresentation of God's blessings when they tell you that if you will give them everything you have, one day you will be prosperous like they are. It is like the no-money down real estate infomercial guys. They didn't get rich by selling real estate, but by selling YOU!

The glaring hole in these false and perverted messages that tie your blessings and prosperity to how much money you give, is that you have to give to the person delivering the message! They have set themselves up as God's trustee for your blessings and prosperity. I guess that means if you believe their message and choose to give your gift to some other work of God you won't receive the same blessings or be as prosperous.
The other glaring hole is what if you don't have anything to give? Does that mean you don't qualify for God's blessings? Does that mean you will never be prosperous? Does that mean you have no faith? I guess God doesn't love those who follow Jesus in India, or China, or Africa, or in most places on this planet where people have little if any material possessions. I guess that means a man or woman in Texas who loves Jesus and is serving Him each day but is living in a one-bedroom apartment and driving a 20-year-old car have no faith.

Here is the problem with these messages that are designed simply to raise money. They use some truth from God's Word but pervert that truth by tying it all to how much money you give. The Bible DOES teach us to have faith in all things, including our finances. The Bible DOES teach that God will bless us and prosper us as we are faithful, and that includes being faithful with our finances. The Bible also teaches us to be wise stewards of what God has entrusted to our care.

1 Thes 2:5 (Jer) ...Never at any time have our speeches been simply flattery or a cover for trying to get money.
2 Cor 2:17 (NEB) At least we do not go hawking the word of God about, as so many do...
2 Cor 2:17 (NIV) Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.
2 Cor 2:17 (LB) We are not like those hucksters--and there are many of them--whose idea in getting out the Gospel is to make a good living out of it.

1 Tim 6:5 (Phi) ...among men of warped minds who have lost their real hold on the truth but hope to make some profit out of the Christian religion.

1 Tim 6:5 (TEB) ...They think religion is a way to become rich.

1 Tim 6:5-9 (NIV) ...men, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

1 Tim 6:10-12 (NIV) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

The Nobility of Poverty?
James 1:9-11 (Jer) It is right for the poor brother to be proud of his high rank, and the rich one to be thankful that he has been humbled, because riches last no longer than the flowers in the grass; the scorching sun comes up, and the grass withers, the flower falls; what looked so beautiful now disappears. It is the same with the rich man: his business goes on; he himself perishes.
James 1:9-11 (Phi) The brother who is in need may be proud because God has raised him to the true riches. The rich may be proud that God has shown him his spiritual poverty... Just as surely will the rich man and his ways fall into the blight of decay.

The Risks Of Wealth...
Mark 4:18-19 (Phi) "Then there are the seeds which were sown among the thorn bushes. These are the people who hear the message, but the worries of this world and the false glamour of riches and all sorts of other ambitions creep in and choke the life out of what they have heard, and it produces no crop in their lives."
Luke 8:14 (Phi) "And the seed sown among the thorns represents the people who hear the message and go on their way, and with the worries and riches and pleasures of living, the life is choked out of them, and in the end they produce nothing."

Luke 9:25 (NIV) "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self?"
The Prosperity "Fat Cats" Bite The Dust...

Many of us have been fervently praying that God would turn the church upside down and vigorously shake it (Heb 12:25-29). When this happens, those who love money and have lost their grip on the truth will be the first to fall. This is why every few years you see a “SUPER MINISTER” falls by the wayside. God DOES shake us up. Many of these preachers start off sincere and really doing a work for God, but love of money overtakes them! In the book of Daniel we find this with Nebuchadnezzer, he was overtaken by his power and wealth and God had to humble him. He was out eating grass like a wild beast because he let his success go to his head! God still chastens us today. If a man or woman of God needs to be humbled God will do it because HE loves us!


1 Cor 4:8-21 (NIV) Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings--and that without us! How I wish you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!.. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless... Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children... I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with punishment, or in love and with a gentle spirit?

James 5:1-5 (TEB) And now, you rich people [see James 2:2-7], listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you, and eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days... Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter.

Jer 5:27-29 (NIV) ..."They have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek... they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?" declares the Lord.

God EXPECTS the rich to care for the poor! When they don’t it upsets God. When I see articles about the rich doing good deeds, it is expected in the sight of God. I don’t know whether Bill Gates is a believer or not, but he and his wife give away millions to charity. Now how much more should a rich Christian give away?

Advice on Security Investing
1 Tim 6:17-19 (Phi) Tell those who are rich in this present world not to be contemptuous of others, and not to rest the weight of their confidence on the transitory power of wealth but on the living God, who generously gives us everything for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in kindly actions, to be ready to give to others and to sympathize with those in distress. Their security should be invested in the life to come, so that they may be sure of holding a share in the life which is real and permanent.

Luke 12:29-34 (Phi) "You must not set your heart on what you eat or drink, nor must you live in a state of anxiety. The whole heathen world is busy about getting food and drink, and your Father knows well enough that you need such things. No, set your heart on his kingdom, and your food and drink will come as a matter of course... Sell your possessions and give the money away to those in need. Get yourselves purses that never grow old, inexhaustible treasure in Heaven, where no thief can ever reach it, or moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, you may be certain that your heart will be there too!"

1 Tim 6:8-10 (Phi) Surely then, as far as physical things are concerned, it is sufficient for us to keep our bodies fed and clothed. For men who set their hearts on being wealthy expose themselves to temptation. They fall into a trap and lay themselves open to all sorts of silly and wicked desires, which are quite capable of utterly ruining and destroying their souls. For loving money leads to all kinds of evil, and some men in the struggle to be rich have lost their faith and caused themselves untold agonies of mind.
Jer 9:23-24 (NAS) Thus says the Lord, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom... let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows Me... "
Now You Know...
1 Jn 3:16-18 (Phi) We know what love is because Christ laid down his life for us. We must in turn lay down our lives for our brothers. But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brother in want but shuts his heart against him, how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him? My Children, let us love not merely in theory or in words--let us love in sincerity and in practice! (2 Cor 8:9)

Luke 12:47-48 (NIV) "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

Prov 28:20 (NIV) The faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

Rev 3:17-19 (Phi) [Jesus] "While you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and there is nothing that I need,' you have no eyes to see that you are wretched, pitiable, poverty-stricken, blind and naked. My advice to you is to buy from me that gold which is refined in the furnace so that you may be rich, and white garments to wear so that you may hide the shame of your nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes to make you see. All those whom I love I correct and discipline. Therefore, shake off your complacency and repent."