Wordworker, It seems as long as people's only focus is themselves, they miss the heart of the gospel, which is storms will come, the rain falls on the just and unjust, but believe in me and you will have eternal life. everything else is a fringe benefit, so to speak. Kind of off subject just a little, but about 6 months ago I picked up a lit. bible commentary by jerry falwell, I thought maybe this should be safe. All that I remembered of him was the movie with him and larry flynt. But when I first opened it I seen the name Oral Roberts, immediately I shook my head and the red flag came up. No wonder christian americans are getting a bad rap. Falwell believed in seperation of church and state, so why was he fighting in the courts. I mean how much more hypocritical can you be? the seperation between chuch and state is probably the easiest question there is. It is simply saying to god we don't trust your ways! We can make a better system. they will make excuse after excuse why it can't work. apparently people like falwell had a better system than the almighty god! It is so evident, these wof are filled with pride, most were probably on the right road, but along the way pride puffed them up. Kenneth copeland is a lunatic, But we can't get to frustrated, here is where understanding comes into play, Gos says if people want to believe a lie, he'll make the lie stronger. Now alot will look at that verse and say it's cruel. But it is love, The bigger the liar the person is, the more chance they get to see how evil they really are!
"The number of people who claim no religious affiliation, meanwhile, has doubled since 1990 to fifteen percent, its highest point in history. Non-believers now represent the third-highest group of Americans, after Catholics and Baptists."
This is a quote from the new article posted on this site's homepage ... I was just wondering ...
Could it be??? Is it possible??? Is it simply a coincidence??? ...
If I'm not mistaken, while there have always been "fringe lunatics" who believe that God is a vending machine: put in a quarter, yank the lever and pull out a candy-bar ... it was right around 1980 that the so-called Word of Faith movement really began to take off ... right?
That's when Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin and many others started gathering followers in record numbers. Shortly after that, old-time evangelists such as Oral Roberts saw the numbers and began shifting their message to copy the WoFers' ear-tickling style.
How long does someone stay with something that doesn't work before they begin to get discouraged and (in many cases) throw the baby out with the bathwater?
five years? ten?
So in 1980, Wof becomes a power ... by 1990 the Christian world has lost ... how many? I'm not saying the WoF is the only cause of the decline but I think it's ONE of the causes ... what do you think?
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"I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people." Jude 3 Joyce
