The evening started a few minutes off schedule with a video featuring orphanages from Mexico and the Philippines for which Benny Hinn Ministries and their partners graciously provide with money and prayer support. The overarching theme of the video was that peoples’ money has gone to establishing orphanages and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Repeatedly the number 45,000 was given as the total number of orphans who are currently benefiting from the work of Benny Hinn Ministries.

After the video, a financial advisor turned financial redeemer, entered the stage to share the twofold gospel: Jesus’ person and his principles. “Why do men such as Bill Gates who are not Christians but extremely wealthy prosper like they do?” Todd contends that it is because they follow Jesus’ fixed principles of wealth of which anyone, Christian or otherwise, can take advantage. In essence, the god who emerges is not that different from his Son’s principles: know the principles, apply the principles, and reap the benefits of the principles automatically. It is turns out rather mechanistic and impersonal. God is the transcendent wish dispenser who will grant all your wildest dreams when you insert the coinage of faith as in a soda machine. As impersonal principles like gravity automatically respond so too does God. “Your faith decides divine timing” quickly became a popular maxim of the conference. Said plainly, you receive from the mechanistic god what you will when you insert what he wills: faith.

Moreover, characteristic of the god who emerges is not an interest in personal holiness and sanctification but an interest in providing wealth. Why then is that? “For you can’t preach the gospel without money.” The gospel cannot go out without money therefore God desires all to be wealthy so that the gospel can proceed. And we’re not talking metaphorically and symbolically of being wealthy in love for God and others; we’re talking cash. “I’m not going to be the one to tell you to be satisfied with what you have.” But God might.

Insights from God’s Word?

So, for a conference which promised to share insights from God’s Word, which passages were preached? That’s kind of a difficult question to answer because only short Scripture snippets were quoted randomly as opposed to a particular passage being worked through in an expository fashion. But, let me now try to remember which passages made the headlines. On an interesting note, before turning to the passages themselves, it is worth noting that all Scripture quotations and references were taken from what sounded like the King James Version. It would be interesting to find out if the speakers feel that this translation in particular adds additional emphasis to Scripture. In other words, if they feel it sounds more authoritative; how they most definitely would want to sound given that they’re encouraging the audience to hand their money over into their care. Now the verses.

The first that I can recall is “seedtime harvest shall always be on the earth” which was said to be from Genesis 8. Indeed it is Genesis 8, verse 22 to be exact, which in the English Standard Version reads: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” The context into which this passage was imported had to do with Jesus’ principle of sowing (inserting the coinage of faith) which I mentioned above. With this passage the speaker was corroborating his understanding that the principle(s) which God has fixed concerning wealth will always yield, not just generic wealth but especially that for which you specifically ask. I think this notion is known as Seedtime Theology. The biblical context of this passage will most likely be familiar to many: Noah’s ark and the flood. Indeed, God is speaking here of promise. In verse 21 he says “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.” The Lord’s promise here loudly bespeaks his gracious dealings with sinful humanity in that even though our intentions are evil from youth, he will allow time and space for us to repent. Further, he will never again curse the ground because of man, but will punish man because of man in the judgment. His promise is not only to man but also concerns the earth. What then is herein emphasized is not wealth from impersonal principles but the gracious of God juxtaposed to the radical depravity of man. In conclusion, we should be forced to our knees to beg for mercy from the Lord from this passage not led to demand material wealth. He is providing for us in allowing the earth to continue to do its thing (grow seeds, yield harvest, heat up and cool down, etc.) even while our sinfulness wrecks his creation. While most assuredly more is going on in this chapter of Genesis, what I have described shouldn’t be missed, and to leave the context behind is to reinforce unbiblical presuppositions of wealth gaining.

The second Scripture that I can recall is Luke 10:2 which says “And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” This was imported with the simple phrase “He is the Lord of the harvest,” here again meaning that to sow to him by sowing a “thousand dollar seed of faith” is to insure a harvest because he is the “Lord of the harvest.” The context of Luke 10 is vital to uprooting such extra-biblical thinking for here Christ is speaking of salvation and laboring to that end, not wealth or planting seeds of faith. Frightening (lack of) exegesis.

Fundraiser

It is for these reasons and more that I refer to Benny Hinn’s Fire Conference as Benny Hinn’s Raleigh fundraiser. Powerful insights from God’s Word were not shared. The audience was, in the main, exhorted to give, to sow a seed of faith while the preaching of the gospel was neglected.

Tip of the Ice Berg

Lamentably, more could be said: the undoubted morning-after crisis of faith by many givers, the ease with which the audience was duped, the shame of having a packed out auditorium and not exhorting sinners to turn to Christ in faith for the forgiveness of sins, poor theology proper presented (the mechanistic god), and more; but I shall draw to a close here.

The event’s free with pre-registration. I’m not sure what that makes the cost at the door (?), but I went ahead and pre-registered on his site for four people for the 7:00PM Friday session at the Progress Energy Center. That’s next Friday, August 29.

If other bloggers in the area read this and are planning on going, we should get a syncroblog going with after thoughts. Leave a comment showing your interest. If not, it’ll just be me!

[1] The evening was unlike any other Christian speaking event just simply by the presence of Psalter. These guys are really unique, powerful, moving, raw and quite fun to watch and listen to. Their music interspersed in Haw (co-author of Jesus for President) and Claiborne’s dramatic presentation gave the evening a less informal lecture with question and answer feel as I prior to imagined and a more choreographed, rehearsed, presentation or performance feel as I had unexpected, all of course which was fine and led to the evening becoming one massive build up to find an answer to the question “Who should I vote for (‘if at all’)?”

[2] What I reckon anyone can appreciate about the evening is that the speakers started with laying a (biblical) foundation from the ground up for their political views/positions instead of hitting the ground running with their views and leaving everyone without prior knowledge of the book’s contents in the dust. For instance, the presentation started from creation and progressed to roughly the time of Christ (I can’t remember exactly whither) in the first half and then really picked up speed and political charge in the second half by highlighting the church’s rise from 1st century Jewish sect to a 21st century commercial culture by way of Constantine. Each half was roughly an hour and a bit. This was helpful: seeing their case built from the ground up.

[3] The evening had a strong emphasis on what you might call pacificism or anti-war sentiment. (I want to be careful not to mischaracterize the position on war presented by pinning a label on it with which the proponents may not be comfortable; so, forgive me if what they were describing goes by another name. Nonetheless, I think pacificism communicates what I’m trying to describe and is helpful here. Anyways…) The sponsorship of the event by the Triangle Mennonite churches, a body reknowned in its kinship with pacifism, may have had an effect on this, or the present “war” (or, war) in Iraq may also likely be foregrounding the issue. This though is an issue on which I’m not yet willing to be dogmatic and for this reason found myself a bit uncomfortable with the strength of the speaker’s commitment to what I perceived as blanket, over-arching pacificism. I shy away from the extremes and over-simplication on issues like war and pacificism, though it should be noted that a position being an “extreme” or simplified does not necessarily falsify it. I am therefore willing to grant that pacifism may be in the end a biblically tenable position though I’ve not arrived at that conviction at this present hour. Moreover, I found it interesting that in the presentation of the human story from creation to fall to redemption, which had many stops along the way, especially in the OT narrative, (conveniently) by-passed the conquest, a decidedly divine-sanctioned war time in the Bible. A treatment of this material from the pacificistic position would have been, in my opinion, helpful to say the least and worthy of additional respect to the position at most. I had been anticipating a treatment of the conquest as soon as I recognized how the evening’s presentation was progressing through the biblical narrative. It just seems all too convenient to the position to skip it that’s all. I think that much can be admitted.

[4] The presentation of Jesus was interesting. To me, the presentation of him seemed lop-sided and simplistic. While much attention was paid to non-violent, passive Jesus in the Gospels, no mention was made of the returning Christ clothed in a rope dipped in blood with a sword in his mouth supplanting the powers of Satan. This too seemed all to convenient when I reckon the speaker’s thoughts on this topic would have been insightful. One could easily have left assuming God is never violent or forceful.

[5] Repeated “empire” rhetoric was tiring. America is lumped together with Babylon and Rome, all three of which are “the empire.” Unfortunately, I didn’t find this terminology helpful for careful thinking on politics from a Christian perspective. Nebulous.

[6] I was unsure how to think of being an American after the presentation. What I took away from the evening, however, was not to place my faith in a political party or candidate to enact the change which I as a Christian am bound to incarnate as one of YHWH’s people. My first allegiance, as foremost a Christian, is to God, not American. My faithfulness in modeling the life of Jesus will help bring the social change pursued incorrectly by political parties.

[7] At one point we were told to think of saints of the church. Is it telling and/or pitiful that my mind was first taken to Augustine of Hippo who did not find a home in the collage projected on the screen when Desmond Tutu and Dorothy Day did?

Overall, the evening was extremely helpful and I hope my seven afterthoughts above will not in any way disparage the speakers, Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne. Their message is provoking, insightful and fresh. Their emphases on community, radical love, unity, social justice, and radical living are much needed today. So much more could be said, this is just that which comes to mind at the moment.

Respond

Were you there? What did you think? Have you read anyone elses’ afterthoughts on the event? Have I mischaracterized or been unfair or lop-sided myself with mostly uncomfortable afterthoughts?

Jesus for President

Shane Claiborne’s Jesus for President book tour continues this Tuesday (July 22) with a stopover in Raleigh at the First Baptist Church Raleigh which is apparently sponsored by the Triangle Mennonite churches.

It starts at 7:00pm and is free to everyone. I’ll be there and if you’ll be there, wear a red shirt so I’ll know you read this. I hope to offer thoughts on the evening in the coming days. Not an event to be missed if for no other reason than to be challenged.

More info available at the JesusforPresident.org.