When Moody Press published `The Agony of Deceit: What Some TV Preachers Are Really Teaching', back in 1990, the book, which was `an in-depth, carefully documented analysis of television evangelism,' was widely heralded by a cross section of evangelical leaders as `a book whose time had come.' Edited by Michael Horton, president of the California-based ministry, Christians United for Reformation, the book featured fourteen essays by twelve evangelical scholars who took certain televangelists to task for their heretical teachings and for their shameless corruption of the biblical gospel.

"We have sought out those in question. We have asked them, `Did we get this right?' We have asked them to reconsider their positions in the light of Scripture and have repeatedly attempted to settle the confusion behind closed doors. All attempts have failed, so we've put this book in your hands,'' Horton explained at the time.

"Judging their motives is beyond our competence. Judging glaring distortions of biblical teaching is not.'' Noted theologian, J.I. Packer, in praising the book's authors for publicly exposing the shameful state of televangelism, had this to say: "Sadly, this is a book that had to be written. To call some televangelists to account for their heretical teachings, their spiritual unreality, their shameless personality-cult and the spurious dramatics of their fund-raising is unpleasant but necessary, for pastoral reasons. In demonstrating the lethal quality of some things that are taught on television in the name of Christianity, the authors of this book render us a good service. With sorrow, anger and zeal, these chapters review the damning facts and point to a better way.'' Regrettably, since the release of `The Agony of Deceit' a decade ago, not much has changed. The proliferation of neo-Gnosticism and new revelations, gullibility and a lack of discernment, shallow theology and novel biblical interpretations, exaggerated claims of healings and manifestations and the use of manipulative tactics and gimmicks to separate the faithful from their money have all signaled a continuing downward trend in televangelism.

One of the most glaring distortions of the Christian faith, being perpetrated today through the medium of televangelism, is the health and wealth or prosperity gospel. Dr. Gordon Fee, Pentecostal scholar and professor of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, explains the mind-set behind this new gospelin his book The Disease of the Health & Wealth Gospels.

"American Christianity is rapidly being infected by an insidious disease, the so-called wealth and health Gospel - although it has very little of the character of Gospel in it. In its more brazen forms it simply says, `Serve God and get rich'. In its more respectable, but more pernicious forms, it builds 15-million dollar crystal cathedrals to the glory of affluent suburban Christianity. Or it says `God wills your prosperity.' The message goes like this: `It's in the Bible. God says it. So think God's thoughts. Claim it. And it's yours!' Indeed, the theology of this new gospelseems far more to fit the American dream than it does the teaching of Him who had nowhere to lay his head.'' In dealing with 3 John 2, the basic proof text used by prosperity preachers to justify their God-given right to material wealth and riches which reads: "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers,'' the Greek word translated `prosper' means to go well with someone.'' Fee explains: "This combination of wishing for `things to go well' and for the recipient's `good health' was the standard form of greeting in a personal letter in antiquity. To extend John's wish for Gaius to refer to financial and material prosperity for all Christians of all times is totally foreign to the text.... to argue from the text that God wills our financial prosperity is to abuse the text, not use it.'' Quentin Schultze, Calvin College communications professor, examines this characteristically, American phenomenon in his book Televangelism and American Culture.

"Probably no version of televangelism is more clearly American than the name-it-and-claim-it, health-and-wealth, or `faith' gospel. During the last twenty years this version of Christianity has blossomed on national television, representing over half of the highest-rated religious programmes,'' he writes. "In fact, the airways and religious publishing houses are so filled with it that this unorthodox message now appears normal and even orthodox to many believers. To put it more strongly, the faith of some televangelists is more American than Christian, more popular than historic, more personal than collective, and more experiential than biblical.

As a result, the faith they preach is highly affluent, selfish and individualistic.'' I've watched incredulously as young and old at a church in Atlanta rushed forward to throw money at the feet of two prosperity preachers, who then began running up and down on the pile of dollar bills commanding God to let the "anointing that was upon them'' flow onto the money in order that those who had "planted a seed'' into their ministries might prosper financially. I've also watched in utter amazement as another of these popular televangelists boldly proclaimed to the congregation in another church "God says as you run the money is coming to you!'' The shameful face of television evangelism People began running wildly around the auditorium, claiming the riches as they literally fell over one another in hot pursuit of unlimited financial blessings! I've also seen video tapes of thousands of people at another church, with arms outstretched, like they were pulling on the lever of a slot machine in a gambling casino, shouting `moneeeey coming to me now, in Jesus' name' in response to the exhortations from the prosperity preacher. And to make matters worse, I've seen and handled a number of dollar bills here on the island, where the names of Christians have been written, along with the above expression `money coming to me now' to understand, firsthand, the pervasive influence of televangelism.

What has been the net effect of this nonsense on the unbelieving world? Tal Brooke, in his book When The World Will Be As One, explains. `The world turns on the TV set and looks on as mass rallies claim prosperity. They think God will give them mansions and pink Cadillacs with rhinestones if they pray with enough fervency. There they are on TV: gobbling away, hands outstretched, eyes closed and asking God for goodies. The non-Christian skeptic looks on as these people confirm his suspicion about their powers of judgment...The non-Christian observes to the Christian, `If you have been so undiscerning and naive as to believe in that ranting idiot on the TV, then this Jesus of yours is to be equally doubted. By default, that Saviour you believe in is no better than the vulgar idiot manipulating money out of you on the TV. You have shown blind judgement about the one on TV; why should I consider the one you have never seen - this Jesus of yours? Neither you nor your Saviour is to be taken seriously.'' It is guilt by association. "The money changers have done their job well'', Brooke asserts. "They have not attracted the world to Christ; they have made him a point of derision. Not only that, but they have given all Christians a bad name.'' Michael Horton agrees. "The world sees televangelists as the spokesmen for the evangelical movement,'' he explains. "It does not distinguish between those who preach the gospel `once for all given to the saints' and those who preach a fraudulent gospel. So when the world examines televangelism...and concludes from looking at some, but not all...that televangelism is materialistic, exploitative, power-hungry, and success-and-numbers oriented, it condemns the whole evangelical movement - and Christianity - not just fraudulent televangelists.'' I shudder to think what Jesus Christ would have done had he suddenly made an unscheduled appearance at one of the above televised services, supposedly being carried on in his name! I believe he would have reacted no differently than what is recorded in the gospels, when he overturned the tables of the money changers and drove them from the temple proclaiming, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves''. (Matthew 21:12-16) And those today that claim to be his disciples should also be willing to take an uncompromising stand against this perversion of the Christian gospel, irrespective of the cost involved! In Jude 3, Christians are exhorted "to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints'' and in Philippians 1:27, the apostle Paul encouraged the believers at Philippi to "stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.'' In Acts 17:11, the Bereans were commended for "searching the Scriptures daily to see whether the things that Paul had said to them were true''. If the Bereans put the apostle Paul's teachings to the test, and he had received the gospel message that he preached directly from Jesus Christ himself (Galatians 1:12), how, then, can any televangelist or minister of the gospel today claim immunity from having his teachings closely scrutinized by those to whom he ministers? The apostle John warned the believers of his day in 1 John 4:1 "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world''. Christians are called to be discerning and not misled `by every wind of doctrine'.

Moreover, the threat that is often used to silence honest inquiry into someone's teachings, "touch not the Lord's anointed'' has nothing at all to do with testing the teachings of a televangelist or a preacher. When David made that statement, he was saying that he would not raise his hand physically to harm king Saul, although the king was trying to kill him. Since kings were one of three anointed offices among the people of Israel, along with the prophets and priests, David refused to kill king Saul, out of respect for his office. Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all three of these offices in his person and his work. Christians by virtue of being joined to Christ even now begin to imitate him in each of these roles, though in a subordinate way, and have all been anointed (1 John 2:20,27), and, therefore, there are no longer any specially anointed classes of men, over and above the rest of the body of Christ, who can lay claim to special revelations.

Yet, to discerning Christians, none of the perversions of the gospel that they are currently witnessing on Christian television should really come as a surprise. The apostle Paul warned Timothy that in the last days "men would be lovers of money''. In 1 Timothy 6:5, 9 he wrote, `men who teach that godliness is a means to financial gain have corrupt minds and are destitute of the truth'. (NIV) He further exhorted Timothy, `to withdraw himself from such men'. And in Titus 1:11, he speaks of false teachers who are "teaching for the sake of dishonest gain things they ought not to teach''.

Furthermore, contrary to how certain televangelists create a picture of Paul and the rest of the apostles as `rich men', Paul, himself, says something entirely different. For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena...To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands...Up to this moment we are become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.(1 Corinthians 4:9-13) Why didn't he simply `claim the amount he needed, tell the devil to take his hands off his money and then command the angels to go and get it' for him as has been taught on the Trinity Broadcasting Network? Where did Jesus or any of the apostles ever teach such foolishness? Instead, Paul had learned to live free of anxiety by trusting in the Lord's provision to supply his every need.

(Philippians 4:11-13) The apostle Peter is even more explicit in his condemnation of false teachers when he writes that they `are experts in greed, will bring the way of truth into disrepute' and `in their greed will exploit you with stories they have made up'. (2 Peter 2:3,14 NIV).

And Jude tells us that these teachers `have rushed for profit into Balaam's error...flattering others for their own advantage'. (Jude 11,16) Moreover, one of the qualifications of a man who desires a leadership role in the church is that he should `not be a lover of money'. (I Timothy 3: 3) Why is this so? Because Jesus Christ, himself, the head of the Church, says in Matthew 6:24 `No one can serve two masters.... You cannot serve both God and Money'. (NIV) Jesus also warned his disciples in Mark 4:19 that `the deceitfulness of riches' can choke the Word out of the believers' life and they subsequently become unfruitful.

Sue Waller, in her helpful little book `Let No Man Deceive You', presents this stinging indictment of televangelists who are enriching themselves at the expense of the vulnerable Christian public.

"Prophets for profit are condemned together with Balaam, who went astray because he `loved the wages of unrighteousness','' she writes.

"To seek after wealth and prosperity, exploiting the sheep in the process by over-emphasizing certain Scriptures and neglecting others is nothing short of the love of money, and is a mark of a false prophet.'' And J. Lee Grady, editorial director of Charisma magazine, in his book `What Happened To The Fire?' in a chapter entitled `Merchandizing The Anointing' makes these poignant observations. "The prosperity gospel is not so much a theological problem as it is a heart problem. Those who twist Scripture to say that Jesus was rich, that His disciples had a condominium in Capernaum...are simply trying to justify their own covetousness. When the deceitfulness of riches grips a person's heart, it prevents him or her from caring for others or expressing genuine compassion. This is why the Bible says that a church leader who loves money is disqualified from serving the people of God. His heart cannot possibly be a channel of God's love.'' In fact, the apostle Paul, demonstrating the heart of a true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, told the Ephesian elders upon his departure for Rome: `I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'.' (Acts 20:33-35 NIV) One final note. Any gospel that cannot `sell' equally as well among believers in China, Egypt, Pakistan and the Sudan, where Christians are suffering tremendous depravation, persecution and even death for their faith, as in suburban America and other western countries, is simply not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With October 31, 2000 marking the 483rd anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, when Augustinian monk, Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in opposition to the Roman Catholic church's practice of using religion to raise money, probably now is a fitting time for Protestant churches to effect a second reformation and purge themselves of this similar corruption of the Christian gospel.

LORIN SMITH RELIGION REL