In America today, we have lost sight of the true Gospel of Christ. We as a nation have either left God out of our lives or try to make God into our image. Paul wrote to Timothy about this in 2 Timothy 4:
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (These verses from Biblegateway.com)
Paul warns Timothy about what will be coming in verse 3. People will not endure sound doctrine. Why? Because it will be hard to accept, we don’t like feeling pain or guilt or displeasure, we want to feel good and not have to admit we are wrong. We want to hear things that make us feel good about ourselves.
I try not to judge even the pastors on TV, but as a follower of Christ we do have to call out those who are wrong – especially if they are doing it in Christ’s name or representing Christ. First if they are also a follower of Christ they should be corrected and set back on the right path, you will find Paul does this on a few occasions once even with Peter who walked with Jesus before Paul ever knew the truth. Secondly, if they are not of Christ we need to proclaim that they are not teaching the true gospel.
One example I have recently ran into was with seeing some of Joel Olsteens show. Not much, but what I did hear him say was true, but I never watched a whole program or sermon. One day I came across a video of him where he had a verse referenced on the screens for his church to read along with and the video was stating it wasn’t even correctly shown, so I even looked up the verse and found that it was re-written to support his sermon that “God helps those who help themselves.” My first thought was “did anyone there even notice or do they not open up a Bible???!!!”
Many mega-churches with TV broadcasting seem to have very similar teachings. They teach about wealth building, self-promotion, and a God who does not judge. How many people are going to church because it makes them feel good? Why do people even bother going if they don’t want to hear the truth? Those who can stand before thousands and proclaim their fables as God’s truth obviously do not believe in God. How could you believe in God who judges and purposely mis-quote His book? I challenge Joel to read the Bible and teach the truth.
