Wednesday nights, I teach a class at my home church with another brother in our fellowship working through key Christian doctrines.
Currently, I’m up to bat, tackling the issue of spiritual gifts. With many of my class coming from a Pentecostal/Charismatic background, I’ve used the class as an opportunity to equip them with the tools to answer the inevitable questions that follow when folks figure out you’re not exactly on the same page as them.
Part of that has been a walkthrough of Pentecostal/Charismatic history and in last night’s class, we came to the Word of Faith movement. We walked through the theological tenets of the movement, aided by video clips of the major voices in the movement spelling them out in no uncertain terms.
At the end of my class, I played this clip of Dr Myles Munroe of Bahamas Faith Ministries:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb5oE5VQLdo&w=560&h=315]
Yes, he just said, “People ain’t worried about no blood on no cross!” It’s a horrific thing for any Christian preacher to hear, let alone open your mouth and speak. How does a man who professes to be a preacher of the Gospel so radically redefine the Gospel message that to any who truly know it, it is barely recognizable?
Well before you say this, “Awww, this is proof right here that the Word of Faith is bankrupt…” (and it is), you may wish to check a little closer to home. How many seeker-sensitive preachers seem to agree in principle with this when they don’t preach the message of the Cross either?
When a pastor allows his church to open their worship service with Pharrell’s Happy or begin their Resurrection Sunday service with AC/DC’s Highway to Hell– and yet you will never hear a solid articulation of the Gospel message or of the great doctrines of the Word of God – is it really any different than a preacher saying that the Gospel really isn’t about Jesus? Can we at least applaud Munroe for being consistent when professing evangelicals say one thing yet do another?
The Bible is clear:
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. – 1 Corinthians 2:2
But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. – Galatians 6:14
Now I’m not wiser or more spiritual than the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures – the Cross is meant to be the center and it is an ugly thing when that center is replaced with nonsense – be it “Kingdom” nonsense, much like Dr Monroe’s material or “felt need” nonsense like the Elevations or Newsprings of this world.
