Hey, whats up, I'm blogging right now. You know what that means - yep, midterms and papers. Time to spend hours procrastinating setting up my fantasy football lineup, looking for a way to trade for Rasheed Wallace in my NBA league, checking out which bands are coming to Seattle in February, and, of course, to blog.
So I've been at SPU for over a month, and it's been a great start to sophmore year. First off, the new freshmen on my floor are legit - just a bunch of really fun, enthusiastic cats. Plus, it's kinda funny for me to pretend I'm way older than them (because it feels that way with an extra year of college experience under my belt) when half of them are actually older than me. A couple of the kiddies turned 19 a little bit ago leading me to reminisce about all the great times I had back in the day when I was 19 - which I'll turn in a month and half. What can I say? I'm just so unbelievably mature and good looking for my age. Plus, I have a great singing voice.
I'm finding being a sophmore is heckuva lot busier than being a freshman, but I think its mainly because I'm getting more involved. I'm writing an opinions column for our weekly student newspaper, The Falcon (which I may or may not post here on occasion, look below for one or two); tutoring some elementary school kids in an underprivileged, predominantly african-american neighborhood; incorrectly using semi-colons; leading a small group of freshmen with my ex-roommate Brennan; getting involved with some of the groups and clubs around campus like Young Democrats; and playing intramural football (which is amazing) and volleyball (which is 'aight).
On the spiritual side of things, God is doing something special on our floor. It's exciting. I've been hearing so many stories of people just really changing over the summer and just getting really excited to grow and mature in relationships with eachother toward God. It's hard to explain, but there's just a different feeling to the floor this year. Almost everyone's in a small group, almost everyone shows up for floor worship in our balcony lounge, and just a ton of awesome events are being organized. Last year was all swell and good, but there's something pretty awesome here as we all begin to grow together. Any pray for this to continue up here on Sixth West would be legit.
Anyways, back to work. I love you all, even James.
-Thirty Foot Cliff
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Jesus Didn't Advocate Wealth
Note: this is one of the articles I've written for our student newspaper at SPU, the Falcon. I'll prolly post one here from time to time.
Prosperity theology is a term given to the controversial doctrine that states that one’s prosperity and success, especially financially, is a result of God’s favor. This favor is often thought to be a reward for spiritual merit or prayer.
Prosperity theology is a growing issue in the North American church, with its roots found in the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. The debate has grown to such proportions that Time Magazine featured it on its cover in recent weeks, begging the questions “Does God Want Us to be Rich?”
In a poll showcased by Time’s article, 31 percent of Christians surveyed agreed that “if you give away your money to God, he will bless you with more money”. Likewise, the article highlighted several mega churches, who are strong advocates of prosperity theology, including the largest church in America: Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen. Osteen is also author of Your Best Life Now, a book premised on the worldly rewards God will grant us in this life.
One such Seattle-area church is The City Church, who, according to its website, averages over 4000 attendees at its three campuses in Kirkland, Belltown, and Issaquah. The City Church recently ran its annual conference, entitled “Prosperity with a Purpose”.
According to The City Church’s website, this year’s conference has the theme “Prosperity with Integrity” which “will be a life changing key to biblical financial success”.
Now, the last thing I want to do is question the faith of Joel Osteen or the legitimacy of any of these churches.
However, I disagree with their beliefs regarding earthly rewards granted by God, and I think Scripture supports me. While the Time article claims that scripture presents conflicting passages on the issue, I have found the Bible’s message on the issue to be very clear to me. Many are the passages promising persecution and suffering for the followers of Jesus, yet who would want to attend to church preaching that message? It's much more comforting to attend to hear the message of prosperity.
The passages those in the prosperity theology camp use to support their philosophy rely on an equivocation on terms such as wealth, blessing, abundance, and gifts, like the one found in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Now, from a worldly point of view, this passage could be construed as saying Jesus provides us with material and financial success and prosperity. But He’s not talking about that kind of abundance. The rewards that God gives aren’t the kind of success that our American culture values. An abundant or blessed life does not mean a financially prosperous one. The riches Jesus offers are not monetary ones.
One of the reasons that prosperity theology’s dogma fires me up is its similarities to social Darwinism. Social Darwinism applies Darwin’s idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to social stratification. In other words, according to social Darwinism, the ‘fittest’ and most worthy of society will be able to move up the social ladder and thrive in society, while the losers become the losers of society.
Prosperity theology is dangerously close to this theory. The concept of God’s favor suggests that those who have not been blessed with prosperity are bad Christians or in someway undeserving of God’s rewards. This is heresy.
There are millions of starving Christians around the globe who are much more ‘deserving’ of God’s favor than I am, yet I am privileged and ‘blessed’ in ways and quantities that are unimaginable to some of these people.
I believe in a totally depraved, fallen world. In fact, I believe that the world is so depraved, that I, through my own power and by myself, can do anything that is purely good and righteous. Instead, I believe that I am totally reliant on the Spirit to work through me to accomplish anything that is considering completely sinless and good.
Therefore, I believe that I deserve no rewards or prosperity from God. Any blessings I receive—worldly and carnal, or otherwise—are not because of anything I have done. Instead, it is solely from God’s pure grace.
Prosperity theology is a term given to the controversial doctrine that states that one’s prosperity and success, especially financially, is a result of God’s favor. This favor is often thought to be a reward for spiritual merit or prayer.
Prosperity theology is a growing issue in the North American church, with its roots found in the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. The debate has grown to such proportions that Time Magazine featured it on its cover in recent weeks, begging the questions “Does God Want Us to be Rich?”
In a poll showcased by Time’s article, 31 percent of Christians surveyed agreed that “if you give away your money to God, he will bless you with more money”. Likewise, the article highlighted several mega churches, who are strong advocates of prosperity theology, including the largest church in America: Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen. Osteen is also author of Your Best Life Now, a book premised on the worldly rewards God will grant us in this life.
One such Seattle-area church is The City Church, who, according to its website, averages over 4000 attendees at its three campuses in Kirkland, Belltown, and Issaquah. The City Church recently ran its annual conference, entitled “Prosperity with a Purpose”.
According to The City Church’s website, this year’s conference has the theme “Prosperity with Integrity” which “will be a life changing key to biblical financial success”.
Now, the last thing I want to do is question the faith of Joel Osteen or the legitimacy of any of these churches.
However, I disagree with their beliefs regarding earthly rewards granted by God, and I think Scripture supports me. While the Time article claims that scripture presents conflicting passages on the issue, I have found the Bible’s message on the issue to be very clear to me. Many are the passages promising persecution and suffering for the followers of Jesus, yet who would want to attend to church preaching that message? It's much more comforting to attend to hear the message of prosperity.
The passages those in the prosperity theology camp use to support their philosophy rely on an equivocation on terms such as wealth, blessing, abundance, and gifts, like the one found in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Now, from a worldly point of view, this passage could be construed as saying Jesus provides us with material and financial success and prosperity. But He’s not talking about that kind of abundance. The rewards that God gives aren’t the kind of success that our American culture values. An abundant or blessed life does not mean a financially prosperous one. The riches Jesus offers are not monetary ones.
One of the reasons that prosperity theology’s dogma fires me up is its similarities to social Darwinism. Social Darwinism applies Darwin’s idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to social stratification. In other words, according to social Darwinism, the ‘fittest’ and most worthy of society will be able to move up the social ladder and thrive in society, while the losers become the losers of society.
Prosperity theology is dangerously close to this theory. The concept of God’s favor suggests that those who have not been blessed with prosperity are bad Christians or in someway undeserving of God’s rewards. This is heresy.
There are millions of starving Christians around the globe who are much more ‘deserving’ of God’s favor than I am, yet I am privileged and ‘blessed’ in ways and quantities that are unimaginable to some of these people.
I believe in a totally depraved, fallen world. In fact, I believe that the world is so depraved, that I, through my own power and by myself, can do anything that is purely good and righteous. Instead, I believe that I am totally reliant on the Spirit to work through me to accomplish anything that is considering completely sinless and good.
Therefore, I believe that I deserve no rewards or prosperity from God. Any blessings I receive—worldly and carnal, or otherwise—are not because of anything I have done. Instead, it is solely from God’s pure grace.
Monday, October 02, 2006
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