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The Osteen\u2019s have been in the news lately, but the problem of prosperity teaching has been an issue for a long time. I confronted it in the first church I pastored, where I began referring to these teachers as the \u201cname-it-claim-it, call-it-haul-it, blab-it-grab-it, profess-it-possess-it\u201d crew. I continue to be surprised by the people who get captivated by it. It is a rampant problem in many developing countries which I have seen in discussions with pastors while visiting their countries.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, I was struck by the following comment by Augustine in his mammoth work, City of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cwho is so absurd, and blinded by contentious opinionativeness, as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state, God\u2019s people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain\u2014the fact being that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Augustine does not have in mind prosperity teachers, but rather is asserting what he assumes anyone except the absurd and blind would see. He is stating a rhetorical question to which he expects us to answer, \u201cNo one.\u201d Sadly, today we have names with which to answer and names of people who claim to be Christian teachers. We would do better to listen to this ancient teacher of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Osteen\u2019s have been in the news lately, but the problem of prosperity teaching has been an issue for a long time. I confronted it in the first church I pastored, where I began referring to these teachers as the \u201cname-it-claim-it, call-it-haul-it, blab-it-grab-it, profess-it-possess-it\u201d crew. I continue to be surprised by the people who get …<\/p>\n