REAL MIRACLES - SENSIBLY PRICED

Comedian Steve Martin starred in a movie called ‘Leap of Faith,’ a spoof on faith healers in which a promotional display advertises his faith healing service with the slogan, ‘Real Miracles – Sensibly Priced.” It could really be humorous if it were not so accurate. (from my new book, GOD IN THE OPEN,’ come these following remarks.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

Think Benny Hinn. During the past sixty years North American history is sated with personalities like Hinn, Oral Roberts, Peter Popoff, Jim Bakker, Jim Jones, Todd Bentley, Maurice Carullo, Paula White, Jack Hayford, Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes, Jimmy Swaggart, Reihnhard Bonnke, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Crefler Dollar Jr., everyone of whom has built a small affluent empire, exhibiting conspicuous consumption. Copeland has reportedly been able to brag that he is a billionaire because that was God’s assignment for him.  Whether or not those people whom I have mentioned qualify for censure is yours to decide, but I am suggesting that what Paul was saying to Colossians, about not being led away and led astray by charlatans, applies here. It's easy to become swayed by personality and zing and lose sight of the Saviour who deserves entire allegiance.

If spiritual distractions don’t come from Christian counselors as I have alluded, there is an inundation of other spiritual formation advisors today who are ready to pump their muddled new age philosophies, people like Wayne Dyer, Eckhard Tolle, Deepak Chopra.At the age of 27 I began pastoring in a small Ontario, Canada town with a population of 10,000 people. The town was home to several denominational churches, Presbyterian, Anglican, United, Pentecostal, Baptist and the Associated Gospel Church that I pastored. My youthful enthusiasm was inexhaustible with a constant flow of ideas as well as the energy to make the ideas come to life. Thinking that the local newspaper should have an evangelical news column I convinced the editor to let me write. After reading one of my sample pieces, he gave me the unheard of opportunity to write a weekly article with no limit on length. At the time, American faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman, with her long hair and ankle length dresses fluttering beatifically, was pushing miracle seekers on the forehead and saying, “take all you need.” They fell backward (under the power) into the waiting arms of her crew of catchers. Her base location was a church in Pittsburgh PA. Her reach was far beyond that, even to our small town far to the north. Her twice-daily radio program and her regular TV shows enjoyed an incredibly wide audience. Each week from our Eastern Ontario town, charter buses filled with people eager for healing, travelled to Pittsburgh. Someone offered to pay my way and I accepted, thinking that I needed to understand this phenomenon and believing that it could inform my newspaper writing. I returned to my home church convinced that God would rather have me lead my congregation to believe him for healing and miracles by speaking with him directly, rather than relying upon an intermediary. Another Ontario pastor named Benny Hinn, ten years younger than me, lived in Toronto and at the age of 21 he also attended a Kuhlman service. Unlike me, Hinn came home with a resolve to become a faith healer using some of the same techniques Kuhlman used. He has succeeded in gaining celebrity status with a worldwide audience, some bizarre theological ideas, such as God is a trinity and each person within the trinity is also a trinity, so there are nine persons in God (program on TN, 10/20/90). His organization gave gifts to Tsunami relief and New Orleans flood disaster relief and other similar needs to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars each, yet his organization receives a reported $100 million per year in donations from people yearning to receive something far greater than what they already have in Christ.

During the past sixty years North American history is sated with personalities like Hinn, Oral Roberts, Peter Popoff, Jim Bakker, Jim Jones, Todd Bentley, Maurice Carullo, Paula White, Jack Hayford, Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes, Jimmy Swaggart, Reihnhard Bonnke, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Crefler Dollar Jr., everyone of whom has built a small affluent empire, exhibiting conspicuous consumption. Copeland has reportedly been able to brag that he is a billionaire because that was God’s assignment for him.  Whether or not those people whom I have mentioned qualify for censure is yours to decide, but I am suggesting that what Paul was saying to Colossians, about not being led away and led astray by charlatans, applies here. It's easy to become swayed by personality and zing and lose sight of the Saviour who deserves entire allegiance.

If spiritual distractions don’t come from Christian counselors as I have alluded, there is an inundation of other spiritual formation advisors today who are ready to pump their muddled new age philosophies, people like Wayne Dyer, Eckhard Tolle, Deepak Chopra.