But they’re reaching people. They’re reaching people who wouldn’t be reached otherwise.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that I could get Creflo the 70 million dollar jet he’s been wanting. I could ride in better style than Ed Young’s Ferrari. I could release my bowels in more luxury than Joyce Meyer on her gold and marble commode. You get the point…I’m told “they’re reaching people” a lot.
The conversation goes like this:
Me: Joel Osteen holds to Word-of-Faith theology and is perhaps America’s most famous advocate of the prosperity gospel. He balks at the exclusivity of Christ. He says that he’s “not called” to preach about sin or repentance. I’ve never heard him preaching anything remotely close to the Gospel.
Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism: But he reaches tons of people. He reaches people that otherwise wouldn’t be reached.
Or maybe…
Me: Joyce Meyer holds to little-god doctrine and teaches self-help deism. Furthermore, she shouldn’t be a pastor and shouldn’t be preaching because the Bible forbids that. And, Joyce has been the mentor to virtually all the recent Mystichicks leaders that are currently plaguing the church.
Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism: But she reaches tons of people. She reaches peope that otherwise wouldn’t be reached.
Or maybe…
Me: The Passion conference is pretty much a hotbed of steaming spiritual garbage. The speakers are often nefarious doctrinal ne’er-do-wells. It’s a mix of mysticism, charismania and highly enthusiastic doctrinal ignorance. It is like heterodoxy parade with worship music.
Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism: Yeah, but watch this and see how many people they reach.
Sorry. Wrong video. Let me try this again.
Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism: Yeah, but watch this and see how many people they reach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI4_w15TIns&app=desktop
Well, Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism is right. They’re reaching a lot of people. The question for Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism is reaching them with what?
It’s possible to sit under the teaching of Osteen and Meyer for twenty years and never hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And no – that’s not an overstatement. It’s possible to sit exclusively under the teaching of Christine Caine and hear nothing but a mystical counterfeit gospel sprinkled with positive affirmation and self-improvement. It’s possible to sit under the teachings of many evangelical leaders who polemicists and discernment ministers warn others about incessantly and although one may hear fragments of the gospel, are almost guaranteed to never grow beyond what is essentially being spiritually stillborn.
But they’re reaching people. They’re reaching lots and lots of people. Thankfully, Jesus addressed Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism on this topic.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
The Pharisees were popular with the people. They were really, really popular with the people. They knew how to work the crowds. They were about the business of reaching people. And they crossed land and see to make a convert. And their converts were twice the sons of hell.
The danger of putting forward false teachers in front of crowds (or on your social media page) is that we’re told students become like their teachers (Luke 6:40). People cannot grow beyond the doctrine that they are taught. And that, my friends, is the real danger.
Mr. and Mrs. Pragmatism: But they’re reaching a lot of people.
Me: Yes, we know. That’s the problem.
[Contributed by JD Hall]
