A while back I made a post titled The Prosperity and Word of Faith Movement are a Literal Joke!. Because as I mentioned in that post, the words Paul was inspired to recall regarding some hypocritical Jewish teachers are most fitting regarding what the Word of Faith and Prosperity false teachers have done.
Romans 2:24 (New American Standard Bible)
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In Christian terms, because of them, the name of the Lord is blasphemed among the unbelievers.
I want to show, that even BEFORE many of us went and fell for the false prosperity doctrine and the Lord pulled us out of it, some of us were laughing at it back in the 1970s. Because back then unbelievers such as Richard Pryor were exposing it on the big screen and the little screen. In my own shame I say I saw Pryor’s skits and still fell for the mess and the Lord had to deliver me from it. (For me that’s proof that Richard Pryor, comedy and laughter can’t save.) It’s a shame Richard Pryor noticed the prosperity doctrine is false, but he never seemed to find the true doctrine of the Lord Jesus himself.
I apologize for the profanity used in the first clip below. And while the person who rejects the pulpit pimp is actually (playing the role of) a Muslim, the clip dramatizes how unbelievers on the street can see through the lie of prosperity heresy better than some who actually do know Jesus is the Christ.
And the following clip is from Richard Pryor’s old TV show.
Now lets see how the real professional pulpit pimps do it and notice the obvious similarities.
The false teachers were pathetic 30 years ago and still are today. Avoid the false prosperity teachers, read your Bible and run from the fakes!
Related post: The Bastardization of the Gospel = The Prosperity Gospel!
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October 10th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hmmmmmm, “….a prayer in my heart and a donation in my pocket…”; yep, spoken like a true pulpit pimp. I don’t remember the movie and TV show first-hand, as I was only pre-school age when Richard Pryor came out with his variety show and Car Wash in the early ’70s. Yes, Pryor captured these shisters to the “T,” to the degree that I see the following parallels between the performances and the present-day pimps:
- luxury cars/houses
- greedy for abundant money gained through trickery
- flocking crowds gullible enough to believe the lies
- expensive clothes and jewelry
- manipulative music to prime crowds to give
- image-conscious
- exalting man rather than God
- twisting and making a mockery of God and His Word
- crude language
- chiding the audiences for not giving
The top piece: a call-in bank for “prayer/donations.” What makes it all funny in comparison is the sheer irony.
The world has been making a mockery of the church for decades, and is not likely to abate anytime soon. They recognize game when they see it, and will call it out as such, just as that “unbeliever” did in the Car Wash clip.
Too much of what Richard Pryor captured in these skits is true to form today. Sadly, he did not take his chance to repent of his sins and come to Christ while he was alive, whereas today, those claiming salvation in the pulpits while fleecing the flock still have a chance to reverse themselves. Hopefully, they will follow the correct path as set forth in Deuteronomy 30:19.
IndependentConservative reply on October 10th, 2008 at 6:45 pm :
I’m really glad someone noted that explicitly. Because it’s a BIG part of it, that many fail to recognize.
All the rest of your parallels are spot on as well.
ncatina reply on October 10th, 2008 at 6:50 pm :
IC, thanks. I should know about the music piece…I was once part of it.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Wow…does that take me back…’Car Wash’….and I even remember that particular scene and felt such embarrasement for the Body of Christ that Pryor’s portrayal is not far from the mark with some of these prosperity churches….very sad and accurate.
Btw…was that the Pointer Sisters singing in Car Wash?
I know they came out of the Church originally…
Dev
IndependentConservative reply on October 10th, 2008 at 8:27 pm :
Yes that was The Pointer Sisters, playing the role of song birds for the pimp.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Speaking of movies: Has anyone ever seen Elmer Gantry? It is a early ’60s academy-award winner based on the tent revivalist con-men of the earlier 20th century. A charismatic woman evangelist is seduced by the glib, Bible-spouting Elmer Gantry who had become the revival’s star attraction. There is a small, but crucial role given to a real Christian pastor who is disgusted by the money-hungry promoters who want the woman to come to their town. They are salivating over the money her revival will bring to their community. There is even a fake healing of deafness, ala Benny Hinn, (or name your favorite false faith healer) and some “slaying in the spirit” with shaking.
IndependentConservative reply on October 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm :
That looks like an interesting film. If we don’t call out the false teachers, they will.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Never have I seen a post where the verse of scripture “There is nothing new under the sun….” has been more appropriate. It’s the same old game just a new day and new set of victims. Thanks for posting this blast from the past! Ain’t nothing changed! What a shame that it is so easy to pick on the body of Christ because of the money changers and pimps in the temple. It’s time for them to get thrown out and the tables to get turned over again. I watched a video on the internet about healthy eating that was supposed to be empowering to the body of Christ and the guy was a Dr. of some sort and was telling the crowd how he was cured of heart disease and an assortment of other diseases by avoiding 10 foods, he got to about five which most of us already know. You know shellfish, pork, white sugar, aspartame, MSG, Hydrogenated oils, and then right in the middle of the whole business he pulls out a box of books. He says if you want to know the rest you have to buy his books, and purchase his whole system, he claims to be able to cure kids from ADHD and all sorts of stuff, I turned the video off for fear that my laptop would explode from his ego. All of the information he spouted off could be found in a library or on the internet and through the careful study of herbs. I myself have lost 60 lbs through fasting praying and exercising, avoiding the foods mentioned above and seeking Gods face on how I should eat. My plan was so successful, and cheap, I posted it on my website. This is how the body of Christ should function, we shouldn’t be out here to make a killing off of each other but help each other. The greatest of all the spiritual gifts is Charity… I guess Creflo and the gang missed that class in Cemetery, whoops I mean Seminary .
~Anointed
PS. If you don’t mind IC I have put in the address to the blog that I posted it’s called living on a skimpy budget the recipe’s are from the hillbilly housewife.com, I modified them for me and my daughter and for $130.00 I am able to feed my daughter and myself plus occasional company for two months! Also this plan is very healthy plus you make your own bread! Wherever it says white sugar, I used raw cane sugar and wherever white flour was called for I used raw unprocessed wheat flour. I know this is waaaay off subject but I figured with the economy looking like it is, why not give folks a break and it’s free, go print as many copies as your hearts delight! Unlike the pulpit pimp that tried to sell a similar diet, this is a way of life and it is freely given. I also advise anyone before embarking on any plan, to see your doctor, exercise, and pray to the chief physician which is God almighty. I also suggest you make yourself familiar with healing herbs. As far as pulpit pimpery goes, the wheat and tares are going to grow together until the end when God comes and does the separating, and on that day there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Only this time the money changers are going to be thrown into the fires of eternal damnation for their deliberate prostitution of God’s children. Their day will come, we can and must pray mercy for them because they will surely need it. Keep up the good work IC! God bless
~Anointed
Link…..http://anointedvessel.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/living-on-a-skimpy-budget/
If link doesn’t work just look under Godly living and go back to August 8th, 2008
October 13th, 2008 at 4:50 am
One thing that caught my attention is that this movie was from the mid 70’s and that Pryor comedy show was from about 78…
That is interesting to me as I became a Christian in 91 and soon learned about Copeland, Hagin, Capps and Price and others thinking that they were a more recent innovation…in the 80’s I thought…
This clip shows that this kind of sleazy preaching was in vogue long before I thought so…
Certainly there have been individual scoundrals in the church, but as a mass movement, I wasn’t quite aware that the word faith thinking started long before I thought so?
Take care
Dev
IndependentConservative reply on October 13th, 2008 at 10:19 am :
Well Albertadude, Jesus spoke against prosperity heresy (Matthew 13), God had Paul write against it and mention it was going on in his day (1 Timothy 6), Peter rebuked a man seeking to buy the gift of God with money (Acts 8), so it’s got a very lengthy history. In the 1970’s the big pulpit pimp was Rev. Ike. Basically all you’re seeing in modern times is a play off his method of doing it.
And as Rev. Ike says on his web site:
Even before the heresy called “The Secret”, there was Rev. Ike.
And just like the other pulpit pimps, Rev. Ike has had his share of sex scandals.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Creflo Dollar says “I did not come here to preach this message to see what I can get out of you…”, and thats a lie. It is just the usual reverse psychology that they use on people. It is all about the money, he just can never have enough of his god.
ncatina reply on October 13th, 2008 at 3:20 pm :
Those phrases are part of the pulpit pimp arsenal to get all of what they can get out of you. It is a matter of those in the audience not falling for such crap.
rascoe1 reply on October 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm :
It seem to be working and others.They have become very, very rich (smile). Same game, different players.
rascoe1 reply on October 13th, 2008 at 3:27 pm :
Sorry, ncatina, I meant to say, It seem to be working for him and others.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
i literally cringe when i think how i allowed myself for years to stay in the prosperity movement. as long as i gave i was popular but when my money stopped through loss of good job i was out as well.
ncatina reply on October 15th, 2008 at 8:45 pm :
sunkissd1223, I can certainly relate, and what you have described is par for the course. In too many of these “churches” today, you are only as good as what you contribute. Even then, there is no guarantee you will have “favor” with the cliques, “leadership” and others considered worthy of any humane treatment in those settings when you give more than you can afford.
As I shared with the wife of a very good friend of mine earlier this year, who left a church fellowship along with her husband, I told her that the “relationships” are only as good as the membership for the church we once attended. Hence, no membership, no friends. Since they struck out on their own to build their own ministry and fellowship, HARDLY ANY of the people that would once flock around them at the former church were seldom seen. If the relationship does not transcend the church walls, it was never a true fellowship. I learned this the hard way.
It is very sad these days, with so much isolation, disconnectedness and discontent among people in general, these feelings only get magnified in a setting many would come to expect genuine care without the price tag. Indeed, we are to have joy and look to Jesus for our comfort and strength. Yet, God Himself created people to have meaningful and productive relationships with with each other.
With your experience, please make sure not to isolate yourself. Doing so will allow satan to use those lonely moments to plant and reinforce feelings of worthlessness, self pity, guilt, anger, resentment and sadness gleened from what you experienced at your church. If you have a strong family unit, go to them for your comfort. If not, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to those that can help you be nutured and healed from your traumatic moments.