You missed the point because you made it about you personally. My response was about prosperity theology. It wasn't about how you live out your life. The remarks about Africa, etc., are unnecessary. I never implied that everyone must be a missionary. I never even implied that I was a missionary.
Here's a summary of what I said:
Prosperity theology and the worship of material goods is a manifestation of modern Western culture.
People involved with this movement refuse to acknowledge that they are living out acculturation.
Historically, the church has NEVER interpreted the "prosperity verses" the way they are now being interpreted.
I align myself with the historic view of scripture.
The idea that people who criticize this theology are somehow doctrinally lacking is a false presumption. The characterization that we are ignorant of God's promises, or that we don't believe in God's promises, or that our faith is too weak to lean into God's promises is simply false.
We read the same verses. We get that we serve a big God. We don't presume that the bigness of God means that we deserve a Cadillac and a private jet. INSTEAD, we presume that the big promises of God are about the bigness of his love for all of creation. That the bigness of God means that we can fearlessly go into the world and live out the gospel. This, in fact, is how these verses have ALWAYS been read by the church.
The fact that we aren't bowing to some new, culturally influenced, and self-aggrandizing view of scripture doesn't mean we lack belief, we lack understanding, or that we're inferior Christians.
So if I preach that Deut. 28 is actually true does that make me an evil prosperity teacher?
Deuteronomy 28:1-13King James Version (KJV)
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
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2 [/SUP]And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
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3 [/SUP]Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
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4 [/SUP]Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
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5 [/SUP]Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
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6 [/SUP]Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
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7 [/SUP]The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
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8 [/SUP]The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
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9 [/SUP]The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
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10 [/SUP]And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.
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11 [/SUP]And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
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12 [/SUP]The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
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13 [/SUP]And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: