That's what you do if you're a "prosperity" preacher. You take the Bible, you find a few verses with words like "prosper", or "riches", or "wealth", and you just kinda YANK it out, and slap it across people's heads, taking it so far out of context as to be unrecognizable, then command them to never question anything you teach. You brainwash them into repeating phrases like "Touch not mine anointed", or "Do my prophet no harm", or "Do not put your mouth on the man/woman of God." That way, when someone shows them where you are wrong, they can just belch out one of those responses without actually having to study the Bible, and what it means.
Oh, and make sure you have plenty of funny stories to keep them amused during your little speech. And, once in a while, use at least some part of a verse in between your stories. And yell a lot. See, that way, your followers won't realize that you're telling them that certain parts of the Bible--you know, the parts about God wanting them to be rich and healthy--apply to them today, while there are other parts that don't apply today--little things, unimportant things like women not being allowed to preach, laying up treasures in heaven instead of on earth, life being more than the abundance of goods, etc. That way, you can increase your numbers among women, creating more subsidiaries, more avenues of marketing, and--most importantly--MO' MONEY, MO' MONEY, MO' MONEY!!!
But the most important thing you need to do is teach your people how to exalt themselves to the position of being able to throw God's word in His face, and demand the He GIVE them EVERYTHING they ask for, while bringing God Himself down to the position of being nothing more than a Divine Bellboy. That's EMPOWERMENT, baby!
If you notice, there are no "sarcasm" tags in this post. That's because this post does not contain any sarcasm. This post accurately sums up the teachings of the "prosperity" preachers. I have never met a follower of this heresy that has been able to back up what their preacher told them. But they do get agitated!
I was over at Independent Conservative the other day. IndyCon, GaryV and myself were trying to reason with a woman about why the "prosperity gospel" was wrong, and all she could come back with was her " 'sperrince". Even after IC asked her to turn off her CAPS button she kept "yelling" and he had to ban her. This was not an exception, that is how these people are.
And while the financial aspect is bad enough, the fact that these "preachers" paint a false picture of God, and distort His word and bring shame to the name of Christ is even worse. They are teaching people of a false God, and are leading them to perdition and destruction.
You want to call me a "heresy hunter", go right ahead. That is a badge I will gladly wear.
