Well, if you have no idea what I am talking about, allow me to help you catch up.

James MacDonald, founding pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, has invited T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House and charismatic superstar, as a guest for the second round of his Elephant Room round-table discussions.

The response has been either supportive (as of James MacDonald’s set of responses), “let’s wait for it to happen” (as per Mark Driscoll) or “this is bad” (like Carl Trueman of Ref21).

Now I’ll tell you upfront – this is in the “this is real” category. I am shocked that James MacDonald, a man I once thoroughly respected and even featured on my blog in its early days, has opened the door to a man who, in my rather frank assessment, should have the door slammed firmly in his face. Harsh assessment? Observe the following:

Yeah, that’s his game – ripping people off for their God-given, hard-earned money in the name of God – and yet he’s going to be on the show, come the 25th of January.

Enough ink has been spilled on Jakes’ vagueness on the Trinity – although this has inspired to do a Reformation II Radio show on the Trinity at some point in the next month. I want to consider the following comment MacDonald in this blog post regarding his invite of Jakes:

I am also excited to hear him state his views on money, which may be closer to Scripture than the monasticism currently touring reformed world.

This comment epitomizes an ignorance in the prosperity gospel which is actually more widespread than most would care to realize. For the record, I think MacDonald’s comment is ignorant and devoid of any Biblical basis. Jakes’ view of money is firmly rooted in the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel hinges on a number of factors:

1. A warped view of God

In their world, God is so good to His children, He’ll never allow them to be sick, allow them to be poor or allow them to suffer. God always blesses, provided you follow the right formula and ‘live right’. Essentially God turns into a sugar daddy. Further, God is a being who has faith – the kind of faith we ought to had. He created the world using His faith and when we become believers, He gives us the same kind of faith so we can create things (more on this later).

My Bible tells me that God has need of no-one. Read passages like Isaiah 40-55, where the Almighty basically says, “I’m God – all pretenders fall back and know your place”. Faith is dependent on something bigger than itself – if God has faith, He’s no longer God. Further, God does indeed makes “all things [to] work together for good” (Romans 8:28), but making all things work together for good and making you wildly rich, wildly healthy and super-influential are two different things. It’s not even realistic – the only ones who get rich off that scheme are the ones who teach it.

2. A warped view of salvation

Now follow me here because this can get a little confusing. To understand the prosperity Gospel – much like the Biblical Gospel – requires a proper understanding of the beginning of salvation history. In their view, God, in creating Adam, didn’t just create an image-bearer but He created a miniature of himself – a little god. This little god had all the dominion and then he gave it all to the Devil. In salvation, the born-again man regains his dominion and all its accrued benefits, including access to the blessing of Abraham, which is interpreted to mean all the blessings promised in the Old Covenant including freedom from poverty, health and unlimited blessing. By the way, he is now a little god, capable of speaking things into existence like his Father.

Again the Bible nowhere teaches that God created Adam as a little god, that Abraham’s blessing equals financial blessing in this life (if anything the Bible teaches the blessing of Abraham is salvation from sin through Christ – Galatians 3:13-14 for proof). This is foreign to the NT – and Jakes has been caught teaching this stuff over and over.

No idea lives in blissful isolation, including one’s idea of money. I’m sorry, Pastor MacDonald, but Jakes’ view is nowhere near close to Scripture – it is a view borne out of a sub-Christian reading of the Bible. Further, it is the outgrowth of a system which doesn’t have in Biblical Christianity, but out of New Thought and metaphysics.

I’m amazed that MacDonald could make just such a statement as though no-one has done the spadework to show that, in actuality, the prosperity gospel view of money is in fact a different Gospel. Then again, what does that tell you about the attachment to money and pleasure in many evangelical hearts? God help us (literally) for Christ’s sake!

Related articles

• MacDonald, Jakes & the Elephant in the Room (challies.com)
• The Elephant Room, T.D. Jakes, and our reaction (theexpositor.wordpress.com)
• The Elephant Room and T.D. Jakes (theexpositor.wordpress.com)
• Pyromaniacs: Playing nice with heretics (theexpositor.wordpress.com)

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