What has happened to the Body of Christ!

[Minister Danny Carson]

Why does the Body of Christ Has Pulpit Pimps, Ministry Whores and has members Prostitute there Gifts.

Ezekiel 16:33 Says (Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.)

[Tarik Al-Hadi Hodge]

Spiritual Adultry! The [spirit of fear] has invaded the Church in oh so subtle ways; that we hardly even recognize the fact that we have erred from the Truth of the Gospel! God has not given us the spirit of fear; it has seaped in through the cracks of our willingness to conform to this world that we have not stood on the same standard that once transformed a world into the image of Christ! look at our music; we have moved from our own distinct sound and nature to adapting this "hip hop" nature! our preaching has become entertainment so much so that if we don't get an amen; we must not have preached we have replaced prayer lines for offering lines, this is a shame before God and it greeves the Holy Spirit of God! We have become so fearful that the people will leave; that we sound moe like politicians instead of true prophets of God!

Fear will do this. We have degraded our ways to the level of the devil and now we stand for nothing and laydown for anything! this is why the Bible says there will come a time when men will not adhere to sound doctrine! such a time has come - The Church allows homesexuals to grace the pulpit, pastor churches, and serve the Holy Communion, the Church allows fornicators and adulterers to occuy its ranks of leadership and we lay silent; this is why we are looked at as prostitutes! our minds change with the dollar that flows! it is so sad; but the day is coming where you wll have make your calling and election sure! they day is coming where the preacher will preach the gospel to conviction and deliverence to them that are bound that they might be free! There will come a time and the time is yet at hand, where the preacher will have to take a stand and declare the truth of the Gospel!

The pimp, the prostitute, the whore, the taker of bribes for justice and the pursecutor of them that call you out; your day is yet at hand! Repent now before men or face the judgment of the rightouse judge! where the 100.00 line won't buy you mercy and the fifty dollar line can't buy you love - behold your silver and your gold will be here when you go! Let us continue to pray and do well, that we don't fall into the pit of our brothers.

[newview]

Someone said:

Many churches today are willing to fill their pulpits with any man
without a question to their calling and/or even their eternal condition.

People are in the pulpit that arent even saved and the churches dont care - they just want this guy to be entertaining enough to fill the pews.

[Tarik Al-Hadi Hodge]

Amen! the sad truth is; that we often confused emotion with the anointing of the holy ghost! We allow unsaved musicians play in our churches abd some how disconnect the principle of spiritual contmination from that action. This why it's difficult to fill churches these days. The Church must re-gain and maintain spiritual integrity and adopt uniform Biblical standards that address social issues today. An unsaved person should not be able to leave pulpit and go into another without first repenting and reclaiming the Gospel for himself!

[Minister Danny Carson]

What must i do to be saved need to be the question Two thousand years ago a very frightened man asked a very simple question: "What must I do to be saved?" The original answer was as short and simple as the question: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Leave it to us theologians to twist this into a monumental debate that divides Christians. Nevertheless, it remains the crucial question of life, and it must be settled before we tell one more person about Christ.

[Minister Danny Carson]

The prosperity gospel has some explaining to do. We are in an economic downturn and countless faithful moms and dads and brothers and sisters are unemployed, suffering, and going to bed worrying if there will be food on the table for the family. Countless Christians are anxious about their finances. You can see it on their faces and you can hear it in their voices and you can read it on their blogs. The problem that must be explained by proponents of the prosperity gospel is that these folks are faithful, they are trusting God, and they are still get sacked and suffering.
The prosperity gospel (or the health and wealth gospel) teaches that God desires the material, spiritual, and physical prosperity of his people. To become prosperous, all one has to do is believe, receive, and act upon God's promises. The prosperity gospel is a half-truth, perhaps less.
The Problem for the Prosperity Gospel: The Bible

The problems here are the Bible and the Christian tradition and the stories of millions, if not billions, of Christians. I will focus on the Bible but the Church has never taught the prosperity gospel and billions of Christians have lives to prove that the prosperity gospel is less than a half truth. Billions have scratched by and suffered their entire lives but lived lives of utter fidelity to God.

That the Bible teaches that God blesses us is unquestioned – from the great blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12 to Deuteronomy 28's famous list of blessings and promises to Jesus' beatitudes to James' famous one liner that God's blessing means the "crown of life" there is a theme in the Bible that God blesses. Indeed, God is good; God's goodness means he blesses us and will continue to bless us.

But, the Bible doesn't permit a prosperity gospel reading. Let's be totally honest with ourselves as we read the Bible. Abraham waited and waited for the son of promise. Joseph experienced being sold into slavery by his God-elected brothers. Moses' call to ransom captive Israel led to years of privation and testing. Israel only crossed the Jordan River after 40 years in the wilderness (and Moses never crossed the Jordan). David was the prototype of the Messiah-King but suffered years of waiting, family struggles, and a son who fell away from faithfulness. Jeremiah spent most of his days in tears. Daniel was a devoted Israelite who had anything but a cushy life. And what about Job? What do we do with this paradigm of fidelity? His faithfulness seems to have gotten him into the crosshairs of the Adversary.

[Tarik Al-Hadi Hodge]

Dear Minister Carson,

I understand the question and the fustration behind the question; indeed the Bible is full of stories of men and women who suffered; however you seemed to leave out some basic facts in arguing your point. i.e. Job 3:27 Identified himself of being in "Great Fear " of the things that came upon him; The spirit of fear had been with him for along time, in fact it governed his prayer life...he did not know, but he was already in the hands of the advesary...for the most part the advesary did'nt even know that he was in his hands...the other point concerning Job is as he went through his ordeal by maintaining his integrity in "Not cursing God" he received from God 10 times more than he lost; and needless to say he no longer had the [spirit of fear] concerning his finances...Moses rejected the wealth of Pharo however he through the mighty power of God took on moses and won Pharo had ten gods Moses had The One God and won 600,000 Isrealites were free because of him...the only reason he could not cross over is that he struck the (Rock) well the problem with that was you see Jesus was the Rock and the he would endure the stricking of the Cross, you can't punish Jesus twice for the same crime...however when the devil tried to dispute with the body of Moses he had Michael the Archangel to deal with...when you mention the Deut. 28 talking the blessings and the cursings - remember blessed in the field and the city - that one verse lets you know that they were in business for themselves - they grew crops in the fields and sold them in the market place - we think that the Church is not supposed to own business - that some how God is supposed to open up heaven and we are supposed to go outside and collect gold in the streets falling down like rain??? really even when mana fell from Heaven work had to be done to go pick it up!
the Blessings of Abraham - cam to pass - however Abraham got in the way of his blessing by trying to move according to the will of his wife (who acted in doubt) instead of the will of God! but God blessed him anyway...

The Bible teaches prosperity we are supposed to possess the land - the problem is we don't know what that means we think it means work overtime at the plant - no it means that as a Christian people we aught to be spending our Billions of Dollars more wisley! instead of buying the cadillacs - we need to buy the cadillac maker! instead of getting the loan at the local bank - the Church should buy up the local banks - Become a lender not a borrower! the problem is we have allowed to the advesary define prosperity and it has adulterated the reality of Gods Plan! The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof! the devil has no business with it! when the Church gets past this unfortunate idea that we are to go find jobs instead of creating jobs that God can really speak to us and give us the wisdom to get wealth! Im sorry giving me 100.00 dollars is not going to do it! buying my hankerchief that I paid 5.00 for is not going to do it! ask God to give you an idea and invention something that will sell and watch God do it! peace bro!

[newview]

"...as a Christian people we aught to be spending our Billions of Dollars more wisley! instead of buying the cadillacs - we need to buy the cadillac maker! instead of getting the loan at the local bank - the Church should buy up the local banks..."

No, nope, no...

As American Christians we have been blessed with abundance like no other group of Christians ever before and anywhere...Is it from God? - you betcha!
But we have not been good stewards of the blessings God has bestowed upon us.
We should not be buying banks and auto plants.
When we had it (actually we still do - relatively speaking) we should have been pooring our money on the little desperately poor pastors and their churches who live in abject poverty and yet they risk their life and limb spreading the gospel in dangerous lands among murderous people.
These pastors families have very little food to eat and some nights no food at all - yet they keep spreading the gospel among hostile country men.

We ought to be ashamed - and we had better change our way of looking at things.
We didnt have to get houses with $2000 mortgages - but we were taught that if we were blessed with it -then with God's blessings - do indeed spend it on ourselves.

How much do we as good stewards with the Lord's money send it to those that are in desperate need and who happen to be praying to the same God that blessed you with such abundance?

But many times the people dont know thats what they are to do with their money because they are not taught it. Preachers ought to look out.

The scarey thing is judgment begins at the House Of God.
And the merciful thing is - He may allow us to 'go with out' in the same way that most of the saints go without around two thirds of the globe - just to teach us that He loves us just as much as He loves our poor brethren that receive no help from their rich American brethren and sisters.
See since the pastors have not been teaching these things to the flock - God must and will show us up close and in a personal way - because a child that is not disciplined is a bastard.
We are not bastards we are children of the King and He loves us.

[Tarik Al-Hadi Hodge]

ok my father once told me that if you take the half of what a man said and base a whole thought on that which you have taken, then that is like taking half of the man and using that to describe the whole of that man.

As I understand your previouse point; it was that the "Prosperity Preachers" had a lot to answer for because the people who are listening are not getting the results and in essence are not going to get results because the teaching is flawed. You used people and their experiences in the Bible to back up your idea. I pointed out to you (using those same figures) that the Bible does work and that God does bless and has blessed his people, both materialy, spiritually and in opportunity.

(when I speak of the local church - I am speaking on a "Micro" level when I speak of the Church at Large, I am speaking on a "Macro" level -while the two are dealing with the same body they do speak in different context)

My point is this; its nobody's falt but ours "The Church" because we fail to have the vision to utilized God's blessing. Now frankly we don't really have to go far to find Pastors with no money and great vision - building Churches in hostile environments - you're talking to one, so if you want to just poor out money over here, I certainly won't be mad at you!

I think in order to further our discussion it will be imparitive that we both speak on the same issue at the same time...It is my understanding that there are to distinct and separate functions that operate symotainiously within in the Church- there is the Business Side of the Church and there is the Social or Missionary function of the Church.

Now what you just described was the Social or Mission side of the Church and I don't disagree with you - We the Church from a Macro perspective should have and we do have a missions function that deals with Churches in other lands across the world- we are a world wide organization. I would argue that on the business side of the Church we should operate in a fashion that allows the Church and its people on a micro level to meet its needs independant of areas or componants outside of the Kingdom of God in a manner that us congruant to the Scriptures regadless of geographic or geoplitical bounderies.

You must have never had a church member in need of a job and you can't help him because in your town "nobodies hiring" praying for that man and giving him a hand out does very little. You do that on a regular basis tell me that that is not the most helpless feeling in the world? then when he finally get's a job, it just happens to be at the same time the Church has service...so now he's not getting the teaching he needs to fortfy himsel spiritually; that leads to other problems and yet this is the microcosm that churches experience every day.

God's people should not depend on the Government, factories, bank or anyone else for that matter for their survival - yet because we the Church are so divided and so blind and deaf to one another that we only function on one end of the spectrum or the other. The Church needs money to function - God is not sitting on a giant stool up in the sky with a big bucket of cash pooring it out on those that stand in the middle of time square - yet that is the type of fantacy that we have been led to believe "that's stupid" if God did not want his people in business than Malachi would never exist - Bring ye all the tithes into mine house that there may be meet (ability) in my house! well a tithe is based on increase, the last time I checked 0x0=0 if members (micro level) have no jobs; they can volunteer at the church all day long, they can sweep the floors all day long eventually if they don't pay for the floor they won't have one to sweep!

If we as preachers and teachers can't grasp that simple concept on the ground level at the local church than we can forget about truly experiencing God's best for us on the Macro level! and No I don't believe for a second that God is punishing the Church economically, the reasons I stated earlier is the basis for our suffering as a whole.

Bottom line is that it really does not have to be an "either or" we can do both- if we choose to. The body is both natural and spiritual.

[Minister Danny Carson]

Question: "What does the Bible say about the prosperity gospel?"

Answer: In the prosperity gospel, also known as the “Word of Faith,” the believer is told to use God, whereas the truth of biblical Christianity is just the opposite—God uses the believer. Word of Faith or prosperity theology sees the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to do God's will. The prosperity gospel movement closely resembles some of the destructive greed sects that infiltrated the early church. Paul and the other apostles were not accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers who propagated such heresy. They identified them as dangerous false teachers and urged Christians to avoid them.

Paul warned Timothy about such men in 1 Timothy 6:5, 9-11. These men of “corrupt mind” supposed godliness was a means of gain and their desire for riches was a trap that brought them “into ruin and destruction” (v. 9). The pursuit of wealth is a dangerous path for Christians and one which God warns about: “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 with many griefs” (v. 10). If riches were a reasonable goal for the godly, Jesus would have pursued it. But He did not, preferring instead to have no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) and teaching His disciples to do the same. It should also be remembered that the only disciple concerned with wealth was Judas.

Paul said covetousness is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5) and instructed the Ephesians to avoid anyone who brought a message of immorality or covetousness (Ephesians 5:6-7). Prosperity teaching prohibits God from working on His own, meaning that God is not Lord of all because He cannot work until we release Him to do so. Faith, according to the Word of Faith doctrine, is not submissive trust in God; faith is a formula by which we manipulate the spiritual laws that prosperity teachers believe govern the universe. As the name “Word of Faith” implies, this movement teaches that faith is a matter of what we say more than whom we trust or what truths we embrace and affirm in our hearts.

A favorite term in the Word of Faith movement is “positive confession.” This refers to the teaching that words themselves have creative power. What you say, Word of Faith teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you. Your confessions, especially the favors you demand of God, must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer (as though man could require anything of God!). Thus, God's ability to bless us supposedly hangs on our faith. James 4:13-16 clearly contradicts this teaching: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Far from speaking things into existence in the future, we do not even know what tomorrow will bring or even whether we will be alive.

Instead of stressing the importance of wealth, the Bible warns against pursuing it. Believers, especially leaders in the church (1 Timothy 3:3), are to be free from the love of money (Hebrews 13:5). The love of money leads to all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). In sharp contrast to the Word of Faith emphasis on gaining money and possessions in this life, Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). The irreconcilable contradictions between prosperity teaching and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is best summed up in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve both God and money.”

[Tarik Al-Hadi Hodge]

You have just made my point!

I am at my church now...I am sitting at my computer (that was purchased with money) typing a response to your reply using electricity that was paid for (with Money) and I am going to go pick my wife up from work (they pay her with money) using a car that was purchased (with money) that needs gas [paid for with (money) to drop her and my son off at home (paid for with money) and I myself am going back to work (they pay me in money) and then to church for bible study...hopefully they will put money in the offering plate (if they put a goat or a lamb in the plate - I really woud'nt know what to do with it...maybe, I'll ship it to you...on a plane that oops cost money...

by the way Jesus stated a fact not a preferrence - Since I don't prefer to be homeless, or naked, and its too cold to walk and I do get hungry every once in a while, I guess I am not Holy enough to have this conversation anymore - Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[newview]

"...My point is this; its nobody's falt but ours "The Church" because we fail to have the vision to utilized God's blessing. Now frankly we don't really have to go far to find Pastors with no money and great vision - building Churches in hostile environments - you're talking to one, so if you want to just poor out money over here, I certainly won't be mad at you!..."

Hahahaha!
I know thats right!!!!

[newview]

You are correct in saying we dont have to go far to see needs within the Body...but there is a reason I brought up the DESPERATELY poor brethren who are tryng to spread the gospel.

If we - here - have enough money to buy an auto manufacturing company - what in the world were we doing SAVING UP/KEEPING BACK that kind of money when many in the Body of Christ in the local church are in need and there are brethren farther away on the BRINK of Death in the present.

My point of view about what the church should be doing with money is not so popular - neither will it seem reasonable. But I hope I helped in some kind of way.

Peace :-)