Benny Hinn Said What? (II)

“Three Keys to Prepare You for the Coming Wealth Transfer!

Why is God causing me to focus so much on Proverbs 13:22 and the three keys that will prepare us for the coming wealth transfer?

I believe that we are going to see an anointing soon that will amaze believers. As we grasp what God wants to do through His children, this can literally sweep around the world.

And it is time to get ready right now!

I believe to the core of my being that 2012 is our year of answered prayer. God has directed me again and again to proclaim from His Word, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

What are those “great and mighty things”?
We have only seen a foretaste of what is to come!

God is about to pour extraordinary abundance into your hands, just as He did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Israel, and Solomon. And you are next!

God is looking for people He can trust with the wealth of the sinner!

I urge you to be part of this unprecedented anointing and outpouring.

Your Step of Faith
At the end of this message is a special reply box for you write what you believe God wants to do for you and through as the supernatural wealth transfer begins for you and your loved ones. I know this is a major step of faith, daring to type out what you believe God is revealing to you, but I want you to reply to me so I can agree in faith with you.

Every single wealth transfer in the Bible was preceded by giving.

It is up to you to plant the seed which determines the harvest. What a wonderful, eternal opportunity! In fact, Jesus described the measure of harvest that is in store for you when He said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).

Wrap your faith around your financial seed and sow it with excitement and expectation! Do not negotiate with the Lord, but obey Him today. Be faithful to God, and He will never let you down.

When a seed meets the right soil, it will produce abundantly. This ministry has proven again and again to be fertile soil for the spreading of the Gospel! And you are about to be overwhelmed by what takes place next.

Sow your seed. Prove your faithfulness to God, and watch what God will do with you in this glorious day as the great wealth transfer continues for the righteous!

For we know it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6)…

Preaching the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ,
teaching the unchanging Word of God, and
expecting the mighty and miraculous
power of the Holy Spirit,

Benny Hinn” - Benny Hinn, Three Keys to Prepare You for the Coming Wealth Transfer!, http://www.bennyhinn.org/emailletters/8648/three-keys-to-prepare-you-for-the-coming-wealth-transfer, (Accessed 25/02/2012.)

Joel Osteen Said What?

“Faith activates God – Fear activates the Enemy.” ― Joel Osteen

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“Don’t just accept whatever comes your way in life. You were born to win; you were born for greatness; you were created to be a champion in life.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“The secret is to enlarge your vision. Are you satisfied with that little house you’re in? You shouldn’t be. You should want the sort of mansion the Osteens live in (his example). You should expect people to go out of their way to help you—then they will.

You must also “discover the power of your thoughts and words.” If you beat yourself up all the time, if you don’t think yourself worthy of divine abundance, God won’t give it. God helps us, to be sure, but we must help ourselves first. You must “let go of the past.” Rather than being consumed with bitterness, you have to forgive and move on.

Finally, you must “choose to be happy.” You can’t put it off till tomorrow or till that next financial milestone is reached. You should smile a lot, and good things will come your way. You also must work hard, for God won’t bless someone who’s slothful. You have to be a person of excellence. Arrive at work early, leave late, respect your boss, don’t waste time on the job—then you’ll be promoted and then you’ll be happier.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You may be thinking, ‘this sounds too good to be true, Joel.’ I know it’s true! I saw the power of our thoughts and words turn an impossible situation in my own family into a modern-day medical miracle.” His mother was diagnosed with cancer and given only weeks to live. She overcame the disease by claiming victory over it, firing scripture verses at adversity and thumbing her nose at death. She is still living, decades later.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Start calling yourself healed, happy, whole, blessed, and prosperous. Stop talking to God about how big
your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is!” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You have to learn to follow your heart. You can’t let other people pressure you into being something that you’re not. If you want God’s favor in your life, you must be the person He made you to be, not the person your boss wants you to be, not even the person your parents or your husband wants you to be. You can’t let outside expectations keep you from following your own heart.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“When you are tempted to get discouraged, remind yourself that according to God’s word, your future is getting brighter; you are on your way to a new level of glory. You may think you’ve got a long way to go, but you need to look back at how far you’ve already come. You may not be everything you want to be but atleast you can thank God that you’re not what you used to be.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“God knows your value; He sees your potential. You may not understand everything you are going through right now. But hold your head up high, knowing that God is in control and he has a great plan and purpose for your life. Your dreams may not have turned out exactly as you’d hoped, but the bible says that God’s ways are better and higher than our ways, even when everybody else rejects you, remember, God stands before you with His arms open wide. He always accepts you. He always confirms your value. God sees your two good moves! You are His prized possession. No matter what you go through in life, no matter how many disappointments you suffer, your value in God’s eyes always remains the same. You will always be the apple of His eye. He will never give up on you, so don’t give up on yourself.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“To live your best life now, you must learn to trust God’s timing, you may not think He’s working, but you can be sure that right now, behind the scenes, God is arranging all the pieces to come together to work out His plan for your life.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Maybe you’ve invested a lot of time, effort, money, emotion, and energy in a relationship; you did your best to make it work out. But for some reason, things got off course. And now you feel as though you have been robbed. When we focus on or disappointments, we stop God from ringing fresh new blessing into our lives.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“It’s our faith that activates the power of God.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You can take pride in yourself without comparing yourself to anybody else. If you run your race and be the best that you can be, then you can feel good about yourself.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessing into old attitudes.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Many people are unhappy and are not experiencing life to its fullest because they’ve closed their hearts to compassion, they are motivated by only what they want and what they think they need. They rarely do anything for anybody else unless they have an ulterior goal in mind. They are self-involved and self-centered.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You may be sitting around waiting for God to change your circumstances. Then you’re going to be happy, then your’re going to have a good attitude, then you’re going to give God praise. But God is waiting on you to get up on the inside. When you do your part, He’ll begin to change things and work supernaturally in your life.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“God is a good God, and He gives good things to his children. No matter who has denigrated you or how much pain you’ve experienced in life, no matter how many setbacks you have suffered, you cannot allow yourself to accept that as the way life is supposed to be. No, God has better things in store for you. You must reprogram your mind with God’s word; change that negative, defeated self-image, and start seeing yourself as winning, coming out on top. Start seeing that marriage as restored. See your business as flourishing. See your children as enjoying the good things of God. You must see it through your eyes of faith, and then it will begin to happen.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Don’t simply settle for what your parents had. You can go further than that. You can do more, have more, be more.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You need to follow your own heart in light of God’s word and do what you feel is right and good for you.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“If you’re not seeing God move in your life right now, one of two possibilities must be considered. Either your requests are not God’s best and will probably not be answered the way you’d like or it must not be the right time. If God were to answer that prayer the way you are hoping, it could interfere with his ideal plan for you.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“The marriage partner is not really the problem. No other person can ultimately make you happy. You must learn how to be happy within yourself.” ― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“You need to take pride in what God has given you.” Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“What you keep before your eyes will affect you.” Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“What you receive is directly connected to what you believe.” Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Hold on to that new, enlarged vision of victory that God has given you. Start expecting things to change in your favor. Dare to boldly declare that you are standing strong against the forces of darkness.” Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

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“Don’t think small when you pray. God has a way to bring your dreams to pass if you’ll dare to be bold enough to ask.”
― Joel Osteen

Gary Lamb Said What?

“You know what my biggest regret in that church is? Is how I left that church. If I had it to do over again today this is how’d I’d a done it. I wish I’d have walked up into that church with a baseball bat, clocked that woman in her noggin, punched her husband in the face, took a baseball bat to those pews, burnt the organ up, set the piano on fire.” - Gary Lamb, Exponential Conference, 20/04/2009.

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“To the people who stole our trailer:

First let me say, God loves you. Second let me say we forgive you. We really don’t want to forgive you, but God says we should so we do. Third of all I want you to know that I think you are scum bags. I think you are lowlife degenerates who need a good butt kicking. Matter of fact I feel so strongly about the fact that you need a good butt kicking that I am volunteering to do it. I hope you believe in God because you should get on your knees and cry out to Him like never before because if we find you, I can promise we will kick the crap out of you. It won’t be pretty, it won’t be over quickly, and it will be very painful. I know that doesn’t sound very nice but I feel pretty strongly that is what you need.” - Gary Lamb, Trailer Stolen, http://www.garylamb.org/2008/07/03/trailer-stolen/, 03/07/2008.

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“Taught on an issue I am very passionate about which is the subject of forgiveness. I know from my own life that unforgiveness will eat away at you in ways you can never imagine. At the end of the service, the altar was full of people literally crying out to God. Powerful moment.” - Gary Lamb, Sunday Night Mind Dump…, http://www.garylamb.org, 18/12/2011.

Benny Hinn Said What?

“Ladies and gentleman, Jesus is shaking the world! Now something else is happening that is to me awesome! Absolutely awesome! The Lord is physically appearing in the Muslim world. I’m telling you! Paul [Crouch], I am hearing it now more and more and more. Since we preachers cannot go there, Jesus is, just going there Himself. Since we preachers are not permitted to go in, He is just showing up, Himself.

You know the Scriptures say clearly that the Lord did appear–did He not? Uh, for forty days–isn’t that right? And the, and the, and the Scriptures says He, He, He even, He even appeared to Paul. Now we are always thinking, well Jesus can’t really preach, preach the Gospel. Who told you that? He was the first one to preach the Gospel. In fact He is the one who came to Paul and said, ‘Paul, I am Jesus.’ He, He didn’t send no angel to do that job. He did it Himself. If Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, why not reveal Himself to a lot more than just Paul? And He’s doing it! The reason the Lord had to appear to Paul is because He knew Paul wouldn’t listen to nobody else. Now in the case of Cornelius, the angel said, ‘Send for Peter,’ ’cause, because Cornelius was, was ready, his heart was right, he’d been in prayer. But here’s Paul killing everybody–causing them to blaspheme. Jesus said this man won’t even listen to an angel, so I’ll go do the job Myself. So He went and knocked him right off his horse and preached the Gospel to him. He’s doing the same thing today in the Muslim world. He’s appearing.

Hear this! He is appearing to Muslims, saying ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth!’ And they’re coming to know the Lord! Why are those things happening? It’s the last days! Saints, this is why we need to give to the gospel now more than ever. You now naively say, ‘Well I gave last year.’ Forget it! Last year it’s gone! That cycle is over with! Seed time-harvest of last year is gone. Every season is a fresh season. We are in a fresh season…” - Benny Hinn, TBN’s Spring Praise-A-Thon, 02/04/2000.

Aurelius Augustinus Said What?

“Man’s maker was made man
That He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast
That the Bread might hunger
The Fountain thirst
The Light sleep
The Way be tired on its journey
That the Truth might be accused of false witness
The Teacher be beaten with whips
The Foundation be suspended on wood
That Strength might grow weak
That the Healer might be wounded
That Life might die” – Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis (Augustine of Hippo), Sermons 191.1, 4th Century.

John Lake Said What?

“The power of God, the Holy Ghost, is the Spirit of Dominion.  It makes one a god.” - John G. Lake, John G. Lake, His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith, 1995, pg. 13.

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“I want you to hear what Jesus said about himself.  God was in Christ, wasn’t He?  An incarnation.  God is in you, an incarnation, if you were born again.  You are incarnate…”  - John G. Lake, John G. Lake, His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith, 1995, pg. 196.

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“For God’s purpose through Jesus Christ is to deify the nature of men and thus forever make them like unto, … Thus he becomes the Son of god, a Savior and redeemer forever…” - John G. Lake, John G. Lake, His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith, 1995, pg. 304.

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“The thing that was forfeited in the garden was regained. God gave him [Adam] dominion over the works of His hand. God made him His understudy, His king to rule over everything that had life. Man was master, man lived in the realm of god. He lived on terms of equality with God. God was a faith God. All God had to do was to believe that the sun was, and the sun was. All God had to do was to believe that the planets would be, and they were. Man belonged to God’s class of being – a faith man, And he lived in the creative realm of God…” - John G. Lake, Kenneth Copeland Publications, Fort Worth, Texas 1994, pg. 66.

Samuel Schuldheisz Said What?

“Obviously, there are more than ten ways that the Gospel is abused, misused and confused.  Sadly, as long as the Church is militant, that is, in this life until Christ’s return, she will still remain under assault from the devil, the world and our sinful nature.  Therefore, we can expect nothing less than errors, heresies and conflict both from without and from within the visible Christian church, which are both lamentable and grievous.

Even so, and in spite of these villains, our Lord Jesus Christ has promised that His Word will remain (Isaiah 55:10-11), that He will never leave nor forsake His Bride, the Church (Matthew 28:20, Psalm 94:14, Ephesians 5) and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18).  Accordingly, our Lord warns us to beware of false teachers (Matthew 7:15; Matthew 24:11) who, by deceitful and errors of the Word of the Lord will try and deceive good Christian people in every place.   Therefore, as God’s holy people (1 Peter 2) we are encouraged by the prophets and apostles to likewise speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), declare the Good News (Luke 24:47), and teach the pattern of sound words (2 Timothy 2:13) so that we might speak of our common salvation and contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

With that in mind, we examine the top ten ways that the Gospel is abused, misused and confused.  The Gospel is abused, misused and confused:

10. …when it is presented as one of several possible ways to heaven.

9. …when, after delivering a sermon or Bible study on the forgiveness of sins purchased and won for us by Christ Crucified, the forgiven sinners are returned to the threats of the Law (also known as the Law-Gospel-Law Sandwich).

8. …when it is proclaimed that Christ only died for the elect and when God’s sovereignty is declared over and above His mercy.

7. …when people are told that their sins are forgiven in the Name of Jesus, if and when they make a decision to invite Him into their hearts (watch out for backsliders).

6. …when satisfaction, merit, worthiness, or any involvement of the human will are included or allowed as pre-conditions for receiving the free gift of salvation in Christ.

5. …when social statements, public declarations of churches, denominational rulings or other such statements of man contradict the clear teachings of Scripture and the Christian faith.

4. …when it is declared as positive thinking, purpose-driven living, prosperity and success, a personal self-esteem builder, and people who are in need of forgiveness are rather directed to their own struggle, wrestling, prayer and positive attitude for assurance of salvation.

3. …when hearers are directed inward to their thoughts and feelings to find hope, comfort, consolation and the promise of salvation.

2. …when it does not predominate in the study and preaching of God’s Word.

And the number one way that the Gospel is abused, misused and confused is…

1. …when the Gospel is left undefined, assumed and unspoken.
Perhaps you have heard similar statements to the ones just listed.  A list like this encourages us to think critically and Biblically about what we hear, read, watch and take to heart.

But it’s not all bad news.   Even though we cry out with disciples, “Lord, who then can be saved?”, our Lord says in return: “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible (Mark 10:26-27).”   By His water and word, body and blood, He turns sinners into saints, the dead into living and those condemned by the Law into those who are declared righteous in His sight through the free gift of salvation won for us in Christ on the Cross.   In His Gospel – Christ Crucified for our sins – we live and move and have our being, now and forevermore.” - Samuel Schuldheisz, Top Ten Ways that the Gospel is Abused, Misused and Confused, http://www.redeemer-lutheran.net/Mobile/default.aspx?article_id=1000058274, 2011. (Accessed 29/11/2011)

Creflo Dollar Said What?

“Now, you know, we’re under the Blood of Jesus - so we can’t shoot and stone people like we used to. All we have to do is repent and God will forgive us and take us where we need to be. But I tell you man, if it wasn’t for the blood, there’d be a whole lotta us being stoned and being in Hell right now over the tithe. But for the Blood of Jesus, we’d be doomed.

I mean, I thought about when we first built The Dome, I wanted to put some of those little moving bars and give everybody a little card. They’d stick it in a little computer slot. If they were tithing, beautiful music would go off – and, you know: [Creflo sings] “Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to the World Dome!”

But- if they were non-tithers, the bar would lock up, the red and blue lights would start going, the siren would go off, and a voice would go out throughout the entire dome, “Crook, crook, crook, crook!”

Security would go and apprehend them, and once we got them all together, we’d line them up in the front and pass out Uzis by the ushers and point our Uzis right at all those non-tithing members ’cause we want God to come to church. And at the count of three ‘Jesus’-es we’d shoot them all dead. And then we’d take them out the side door there, have a big hole, bury them, and then go ahead and have church and have the anointing.

Aren’t you glad we’re under the Blood of Jesus? Because if we were not under the Blood of Jesus, I would certainly try it.

Folks, this is a serious thing.” - Creflo Dollar, http://youtu.be/JM3BWAmlXis, Uploaded on 12/01/2010. (Accessed 16/11/2011)

Provided Documentation

Paul Washer Said What? (II)

“So you draw the net and get people to come forward. Now look at how they do this.

Music. It must play a role because they always make sure they got the right music. That must play a role. Some even dim the lights. Lighting’s important…

Tell me that doesn’t happen. It does. Everywhere.

That’s a cult. That’s manipulation. And I am going to call it exactly what it is. It’s wrong. It’s sin. It’s deceptive. And it has nothing to do with the ministry of Jesus Christ at all or the Apostles. ” – Paul Washer, The Danger of Altar Calls Paul Washer Legacy Conference 2010:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LTwfIuU9gw, (00:00-01:13), (Uploaded September 14, 2010), Accessed 10/2/11)

Albert Mohler Said What?

“One of the most amazing statements by the Apostle Paul is his indictment of the Galatian Christians for abandoning the Gospel. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel,” Paul declared. As he stated so emphatically, the Galatians had failed in the crucial test of discerning the authentic Gospel from its counterfeits.

His words could not be more clear: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed!” [Gal. 1:8-9]

This warning from the Apostle Paul, expressed in the language of the Apostle’s shock and grief, is addressed not only to the church in Galatia, but to every congregation in every age. In our own day — and in our own churches — we desperately need to hear and to heed this warning. In our own time, we face false gospels no less subversive and seductive than those encountered and embraced by the Galatians.

In our own context, one of the most seductive false gospels is moralism. This false gospel can take many forms and can emerge from any number of political and cultural impulses. Nevertheless, the basic structure of moralism comes down to this — the belief that the Gospel can be reduced to improvements in behavior.

Sadly, this false gospel is particularly attractive to those who believe themselves to be evangelicals motivated by a biblical impulse. Far too many believers and their churches succumb to the logic of moralism and reduce the Gospel to a message of moral improvement. In other words, we communicate to lost persons the message that what God desires for them and demands of them is to get their lives straight.

In one sense, we are born to be moralists. Created in God’s image, we have been given the moral capacity of conscience. From our earliest days our conscience cries out to us the knowledge of our guilt, shortcomings, and misbehaviors. In other words, our conscience communicates our sinfulness.

Add to this the fact that the process of parenting and child rearing tends to inculcate moralism from our earliest years. Very quickly we learn that our parents are concerned with our behavior. Well behaved children are rewarded with parental approval, while misbehavior brings parental sanction. This message is reinforced by other authorities in young lives and pervades the culture at large.

Writing about his own childhood in rural Georgia, the novelist Ferrol Sams described the deeply-ingrained tradition of being “raised right.” As he explained, the child who is “raised right” pleases his parents and other adults by adhering to moral conventions and social etiquette. A young person who is “raised right” emerges as an adult who obeys the laws, respects his neighbors, gives at least lip service to religious expectations, and stays away from scandal. The point is clear — this is what parents expect, the culture affirms, and many churches celebrate. But our communities are filled with people who have been “raised right” but are headed for hell.

The seduction of moralism is the essence of its power. We are so easily seduced into believing that we actually can gain all the approval we need by our behavior. Of course, in order to participate in this seduction, we must negotiate a moral code that defines acceptable behavior with innumerable loopholes. Most moralists would not claim to be without sin, but merely beyond scandal. That is considered sufficient.

Moralists can be categorized as both liberal and conservative. In each case, a specific set of moral concerns frames the moral expectation. As a generalization, it is often true that liberals focus on a set of moral expectations related to social ethics while conservatives tend to focus on personal ethics. The essence of moralism is apparent in both — the belief that we can achieve righteousness by means of proper behavior.

The theological temptation of moralism is one many Christians and churches find it difficult to resist. The danger is that the church will communicate by both direct and indirect means that what God expects of fallen humanity is moral improvement. In so doing, the church subverts the Gospel and communicates a false gospel to a fallen world.

Christ’s Church has no option but to teach the Word of God, and the Bible faithfully reveals the law of God and a comprehensive moral code. Christians understand that God has revealed Himself throughout creation in such a way that He has gifted all humanity with the restraining power of the law. Furthermore, He has spoken to us in His word with the gift of specific commands and comprehensive moral instruction. The faithful Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must contend for the righteousness of these commands and the grace given to us in the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. We also have a responsibility to bear witness of this knowledge of good and evil to our neighbors. The restraining power of the law is essential to human community and to civilization.

Just as parents rightly teach their children to obey moral instruction, the church also bears responsibility to teach its own the moral commands of God and to bear witness to the larger society of what God has declared to be right and good for His human creatures.

But these impulses, right and necessary as they are, are not the Gospel. Indeed, one of the most insidious false gospels is a moralism that promises the favor of God and the satisfaction of God’s righteousness to sinners if they will only behave and commit themselves to moral improvement.

The moralist impulse in the church reduces the Bible to a codebook for human behavior and substitutes moral instruction for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far too many evangelical pulpits are given over to moralistic messages rather than the preaching of the Gospel.

The corrective to moralism comes directly from the Apostle Paul when he insists that “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus.” Salvation comes to those who are “justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” [Gal. 2:16]

We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” [Gal. 4:4-5]

We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.

The Church must never evade, accommodate, revise, or hide the law of God. Indeed, it is the Law that shows us our sin and makes clear our inadequacy and our total lack of righteousness. The Law cannot impart life but, as Paul insists, it “has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” [Gal. 3:24]

The deadly danger of moralism has been a constant temptation to the church and an everconvenient substitute for the Gospel. Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.

Hell will be highly populated with those who were “raised right.” The citizens of heaven will be those who, by the sheer grace and mercy of God, are there solely because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Moralism is not the gospel.” - Albert Mohler, Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel — And Why So Many Christians Think It Is, http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_print.php?id=4388, 9/11/2009. (Accessed 13/11/2011)