Needed: Polemics vs Prosperity Preachers

I found out about David Wilkerson when I was a teenager from the book, Run Baby Run. It was the true story of Nicky Cruz, and Wilkerson was the bold country preacher in it. The Cross and the Switchblade tells Wilkerson's story. Both books were bestsellers. Both these testimonies intensely touched me. While Cruz's account confronted me with the life-transforming power of the Gospel, Wilkerson's was one that challenged me to take the Gospel to the people in the street. And Wilkerson was a courageous servant of God, and we see this in his polemics too.

So recently, I listened to an excerpt from one of Wilkerson's sermons. Please listen to it yourself by using the embedded YouTube video below. It is a call to repent from the 'Another Gospel' which is the prosperity message.

The prosperity message is not what the Lord Jesus delivered to us. The apostles did not preach it. And thank God for the Word of God that He has given to us by which He uses to correct us.

Wilkerson himself is gone now. Yet, we need more preachers who preach like him in the church today. We need faithful preachers and teachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. O that I might be one among them! 

One does not, necessarily, agree with everything that Wilkerson did or said, but I do agree with him on this one. The church in Asia needs this type of polemic just as the church in the West needs it too. The prosperity message has been used in the West by so-called ministers of the Gospel to hijack many lives. It has also been causing a lot of havoc in the East and the South.

On believing the prosperity message, I was knee-deep in it. I was not only accepting it, but there were a few sermons and studies that I gave in the past that I am ashamed of now. I also need to repent from promoting it in private discussions as well. Although I was not in a position to receive the benefits of the prosperity message, I was almost a victim of it.

I was a giver! But thank God that I did not give to those big and so-called ministries. I gave money to my local church, which is a good idea and I do continue to do so; but from a very different perspective now. I thought that if God was going to prosper me, then He can do so even if I did not give money to those international or national ministries. Moreover, as a student, in school and college, I did not have enough money to give. And whatever I earned from my part-time jobs, I would tithe and give to my church. My understanding was: God will look upon my local church giving, which would then open up blessings for me. Then, only, will I give to the bigger ones. How naive was I?!

Thank God for his providence. Praise God for his mercy. I got a seminary training and had the chance to ask critical questions about my beliefs. My life has since changed.

My prayers are for my brothers and sisters in the ministry. I pray that if they have been miss-led by the prosperity message, that they will discover the heart of God over these matters. O that we will be faithful and bold to preach and defend the Gospel of Jesus! There should be corrections where it is needed. I pray that they would repent. I also pray that we be willing to perform restitution when it is required. May God grant us grace and mercy.