These are a series of lessons adapted from Jonathan Fisk’s book, Broken. All are encouraged buy Broken to get the full content in the book.
Never follow a rule because it benefits you now
The 4th rule every Christian should break as often as possible is this: “You can find God in this world: the worship of mammon.”
The Other Child
Once Mysticism and Rationalism gave birth to Pragmatism, the doctors were surprised to see that grabbing at his ankle was a second child, smaller yet more beautiful. Named for the highest virtue both emotion and reason could imagine, even her brother and all his grand schemes can do little more than dote over her. Incestuously entwined around his arm whenever he is in public, he shows her off to everyone he meets, ever pointing out her companionship as proof of his passion and wit. She is Prosperity. She hides nothing of her attainments. She’s always ready to show off her chic as she struts the walkway, the future queen of Pragmatism’s impending reign.
Prosperity: The belief that you can know how God feels about you by how good your life is right now. Prosperity, then, is nothing more than worship of health, wealth, and wellness.
She has only one secret you may not know. It is her middle name. For who would ever be so foolish to fall in love with a girl whose middle name was “Mammon”?
Mammon: From a Greek word literally meaning “money” but in the New Testament embodying greed, unjust gain, and all manner of material gluttony. In the Middle Ages, the name Mammon was a symbol for all forms of idolatry, which is rooted in coveting of items of this world.
So they have hidden her secret and kept it well. Although Moralism, Mysticism, and Rationalism have wreaked their havoc, even on true Christian spirituality, they were never fully free within most churches. For every Christian scholar whom Rationalism convinced to mock the truth of Scripture or the historical integrity of the Bible, there were five or more good men who sat in the pews and scoffed at the scoffer. They refused to allow such rubbish to be preached from their pulpits. But today, it is no longer so. Pragmatism and his lusty sister have all but waltzed into the churches.
She asks all: “Have you received clear and present good living? Are you finding life in its fullest? Are you getting the best of all you wish, and are you getting it now? If not, then you have only one hope. You must ask my brother what you are doing wrong and obey his every word when he tells you what to do next.”
The promise is as outlandish as it is foolish. It flies in the face of everything mankind has ever experienced in the annals of history. It’s nearly the opposite of all the Christian Church has ever taught or believed about our present evil age.
Read Galatians 1:3-5
– For what reason did Christ die?
– What then does this say about a teaching whose intent is to have us focus on the materialism of this fallen world, which Paul called “the present, evil age”?
Matthew 16:24: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Luke 9:23: Then Jesus said to them all, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
But Prosperity’s beauty is stunning, next to which much cannot compare. Her allure is compelling, next to which much else in life seems bland. So today, many American churches are driven, not by sinful beggars in need, but by spiritually stuffed consumers looking for other ways to capitalize on their already prosperous lives by taking a lazy bite out of Christianity.
It is the devil’s same Lie, only spun with the dazzling allurements of Prosperity. If she came out and preached, “You can find God in the many material items of this world,” most people would look at her as if she were crazy. Of course, you can’t find God in the material objects of this world. Bald-faced lies never work as well as those that are half true. So Prosperity never blows her kisses and winks with open claims.
But if you’re listening carefully, even a well-camouflaged lie is still miles away from the truth. Bogus dollars might fool the teen with her mom’s credit card, but they’ll never fool a bank teller who handles the real deal all day long. So Prosperity doesn’t have to come out on TV and say something as impudent as: “Give Jesus a try for forty days. See if he doesn’t give you health, wealth, and purpose.” She needn’t say that to take the lead in American Christianity.
You can spot her rule even when she’s underplaying playing her hand and says nothing more than “Hey! Look at me. Don’t you want to be like me? Following Jesus is all about being like me.” It’s always the same promising, sultry tease. It says that even against all odds and contrary to all of human history, you can find total, unlimited, safe, health, wealth, and positive energy right here, right now. You can live your dreams. You can make it last. “That’s right. The Bible says so. You can do all things through God who strengthens you.”
Read Philippians 4:10-13
– What is Paul is facing?
– What then are all the “things” that Paul can do through Jesus Christ? (Note: Paul uses a plural form of “all” with nothing following it, such as “things.” The context provides the meaning.) Discuss.
Dancing with the Devil
Amos 6:4-6: How horrible it will be for those who sleep on ivory beds…. They improvise songs to the sound of the harp… They drink wine by the bowlful and anoint themselves with the finest oils but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
It shouldn’t surprise us when we see the unbaptized chasing after the wind, trying to grasp fleeting pleasures of this world. What other hope do the children of this age have? For if you’re as likely to die tomorrow as live, why not eat, drink, and be merry? If you’re to eat, drink, and be merry, why not eat and drink the best you possibly can?
But what should surprise us–what should upset us and vex us–is to see most American “Christian” churches preaching this same utopian pursuit. It’s as if getting wealth in this life was the central message of Jesus and His Scriptures. Even the world’s best PR agents couldn’t honestly spin that message out of the man who taught His disciples that friendship with the world is hostility toward God (James 4: 4).
Prosperity’s lie: You can find God in this world.
The lust for Prosperity changes people in unexpected ways, and churches are no different. Caught up in wanting to get closer to the good-looking girl on the dance floor, we imagine that once we get there, once people see us with her, then we’ll be even better at winning friends. “It’s all for Jesus and His mission,” we tell ourselves. But that’s not the way Prosperity’s dance goes. She doesn’t let you lead. Once you’re near her, you’ve got to match your saunter to her steps. If you grow tired and need a rest, she won’t be following you off the floor. There’s another sucker just as wide-eyed and eager as you to step into your place.
She’s the dancing queen, and this is her dance. You are, at best, just another brick in her pyramid, another cog in her scheme. For even to the best of us, this means that once we get a taste of being near her on the dance floor, we’ll do anything we can to stay on the floor as long as possible. If it means selling out an old conviction here or a cherished notion there, then so be it. With a few vague words about “the Spirit’s leading” and “having a heart for Jesus,” an entire congregation–heck, an entire church body–can wind up discarding many of their core belief? Why? It’s the hope of being the one Prosperity smiles on next. Infatuated with dreams of a better experience in this life now, we forget why we even at the party.
Read 2 Timothy 3:10-12 and Luke 6:24-26
– How does this Prosperity teaching line up Scripture?
The Law of Prosperity
How many times can a person try one more time to believe in Prosperity as the rule for measuring Christianity? How long will it take before it all starts looking like a giant sham, a pyramid scheme prospering the preacher but never the preached? Find an atheist who used to be a Christian and ask him how many times he tried to “feel” God before he gave up. Then ask yourself, “What was his faith in? Was it in the historical resurrection of Jesus or something else?” Who let him down? Was it God or the promises of Prosperity?
Prosperity is the worship of Mammon.
But what happens when the promises of Prosperity don’t come true? It was bad enough when being a Christian meant one had to be morally perfect, striving to self-justify through working hard at the Ten Commandments. But when the law of “love your neighbor as yourself” is replaced with the law of “find success, happiness, and a healthy physique,” Christians wind up trying to carry a burden no human being can bear.
If one wants to keep calling himself “Christian,” he has no choice but to begin down the road of lying to himself. Putting prosperity on credit, he can feel and look like the man the preacher says he’s supposed to be, but he only winds up in debt, just as American consumer culture planned all along. His wife must push and prod and pull and diet to stave off the perishing of her physical beauty. Yet, she’s also expected to hold down her own full-time, successful career while raising two (three at most) handsome, talented, college-bound, morally presentable (which mainly means successful) children. Her anorexic tendencies and the constant friction in the marriage may be what others are experiencing in America–but shudder the thought that people at church should ever know! Together, they pretend with all their might to be the Joneses. Yet, the Joneses are two steps from divorce, are self-medicating in their own hidden ways, just sprang bail for Johnny, and took the family vacation out of state to keep Julie’s need for an abortion quiet.
– How does “the Law of Prosperity” work to destroy faith?
There is no guilt like the guilt of failure. It is one thing to see the world around you constantly chasing a bigger, better tomorrow, filled with meat and drink and vacations in the sun. It is another thing altogether to believe the lie that this is Christianity. To be sure, Christianity does teach that God plans to give to every person in the world ultimate abundance in and through Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ was very, very clear about what that means.
John 18:36: Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
This world is filled with wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6), where moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19). The world is a place where charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting (Proverbs 31:30).
1 Timothy 6:9: Those who long to be rich keep falling into temptation. They are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into destruction and ruin.
– Discuss
God’s Measures
Read Matthew 13:3-8, 18-22
– What role does the lie of Prosperity play in this parable of Jesus?
Do you want to find God now? Do you want to know how He feels about you now? Do you want an answer untouched by the sands of time and undiminished by our greedy efforts to build heaven out of this halfway hell? Then believe His words:
- I baptize you (1 Peter 3:21).
- Take, eat. Take, drink. I am here (1 Corinthians 10:16).
- I am the Word made flesh (John 6:55).
- I am the source of living water (John 4:10).
- I am the bread from heaven (John 6:51).
- I am your root, your portal, your rebirth (John 15:1; 10:9; 11:25).
That is how God feels about you. Buried and raised with Jesus, where He has said you are buried and raised with Him, the Father sees you as He sees His Son, Jesus. Now, the world may rant and rave that right now you sure don’t look like God’s Son. After all, you are weak, flawed, mortal, and broken. But God your Father has taken all your flaws and lifted them on the cross of Jesus. On the cross, this world is inverted on its cursed, decaying head. There death is life. There weakness is strength. There affliction is prosperity.
“I thirst!” the Creator of water said (John 19:28), and with those words He mocked Prosperity. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” He laughed (Matthew 4:4). “I have food to eat that you do not know about” (John 4:32). A few weeks later He was relaxingly grilling fish on the shores of Galilee (John 21: 9). Shortly after that He ascended to the right hand of God, leaving His Apostles the commission, not to conquer the world, but to preach that He already had (1 John 2:14).
No matter how big you build your barns, you can only eat your bread today. The secret of Christian contentment is that tomorrow we do not eat here at all. Tomorrow, we dine in paradise.
