one for the weekend
Mike Abendroth
Unholy Trinity
Friday, Dec 11, 2009
(By John
MacArthur)
I don't watch much television, and when I do I generally avoid the Trinity
Broadcasting Network (TBN). For many years TBN has been dominated by
faith-healers, full-time fund-raisers, and self-proclaimed prophets spewing
heresy. I wrote about the false gospel they proclaim and the phony miracles
they pretend to do almost two decades ago in Charismatic
Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. See especially chapter
12). I had my fill of charismatic televangelism while researching that
book, and I can hardly bear to watch it any more.
Recently, however, while recovering from knee-replacement surgery, I decided to
sample some of the current fare on TBN. From a therapeutic point of view it
seemed a good choice: something more excruciating than the pain in my leg might
distract me from the physical suffering of post-surgical trauma. And I suppose
on that basis the strategy was effective.
But it left me outraged and frustrated—and eager to challenge the
misperceptions in the minds of millions of unbelievers who see these false teachers
masquerading as ministers of Christ on TBN.
I'm outraged at the brazen way so
many false teachers twist the message of Scripture in Jesus' name. And I'm frustrated because I'm certain that if
these charlatans were not receiving a large proportion of their financial
support from sincere believers (and silent acquiescence from Christian leaders
who surely know better), they would have no platform for their shenanigans.
They would soon lose their core constituency and fade from the scene.
Instead, religious quacks are actually multiplying at a frightening pace. One
thing I discovered to my immense displeasure is that TBN is by no means the
only religious network broadcasting poisonous false doctrine around the clock.
The channel lineup I receive includes at least seven other channels whose
schedules are filled with false teachers and charlatans. There's The Church
Channel, Daystar, GodTV, World Harvest Television (LeSEA), Total Christian
Television, and several others. Some of them feature blocs of family television
programing and a few fairly sound teachers who provide moments of escape from
the prosperity preachers. But all of them give prominence to enormous amounts
of heresy and religious claptrap—enough to make them positively
dangerous. And TBN is singularly responsible for kicking that door open so
wide.
The continued growth and influence of TBN is baffling for a number of reasons,
not the least of which is the thick aura of lust, greed, and other kinds of
moral impropriety that surrounds the whole enterprise. A long string of
scandals involving notable charismatic televangelists between 1988 and 1992
should have been sufficient reason for even the most credulous viewers to
scrutinize the entire industry with skepticism. First came the international spectacle
of Jim and Tammy
Faye Bakker's moral, marital, and financial collapse. That was followed
closely by the revelation of Jimmy
Swaggart's repeated dalliances with prostitutes. Shortly afterward, an
episode of ABC's Primetime Live
exposed clear examples of deliberate fraud on the part of three more leading
charismatic televangelists. Those incidents were punctuated by a
score of lesser scandals over several years' time. It is clear (or should
be)—based on empirical evidence alone—that preachers promising
miracles in exchange for money are not to be trusted. And for anyone who simply
bothers to compare Jesus' teaching with the health-and-wealth message, it is
clear that the message that currently dominates religious television is "a
different gospel; which is really not another" (Galatians 1:6-7), but a
damnable lie.
TBN
is by far the leading perpetrator of that lie worldwide. Virtually
all the network's main celebrities tell listeners that God will give them
healing, wealth, and other material blessings in return for their money. On
program after program people are urged to "plant a seed" by sending
"the largest bill you have or the biggest check you can write" with
the promise that God will miraculously make them rich in return. That same
message dominates all of TBN's major fundraising drives. It's known as the "seed faith" plan,
so-called by Oral Roberts, who set the pattern for most of the charismatic
televangelists who have followed the trail he blazed. Paul Crouch, founder,
chairman, and commander-in-chief of TBN, is one of the doctrine's staunchest
defenders.
The only people who actually get rich by this scheme, of course, are the
televangelists. Their people who send money get little in return but phony
promises—and as a result, many of them turn
away from the truth completely.
If the scheme seems reminiscent of Tetzel, that's because it is precisely the
same doctrine. (Tetzel was a medieval monk whose high-pressure selling of
indulgences—phony promises of forgiveness—outraged Martin Luther
and touched off the Protestant Reformation.)
Like Tetzel, TBN preys on the poor and plies them with false promises. Yet what
is happening daily on TBN is many times worse
than the abuses that Luther decried because it is more widespread and more
flagrant. The medium is more high-tech and the amounts bilked out of viewers'
pockets are astronomically higher. (By most estimates, TBN is worth more than a
billion dollars and rakes in $200 million annually. Those are direct
contributions to the network, not counting millions more in donations sent
directly to TBN broadcasters.) Like Tetzel on steroids, the Crouches and
virtually all the key broadcasters on TBN live in garish opulence, while
constantly begging their needy viewers for more money. Elderly, poor, and
working-class viewers constitute TBN's primary demographic. And TBN's
fundraisers all know that. The
most desperate people—"unemployed," "even though I'm in
between jobs," "trying to make it; trying to survive,"
"broke"—are baited with false promises to give what they do not
even have. Jan Crouch addresses viewers as "you little people,"
and suggests that they
send their grocery money to TBN "to assure God's blessing."
Thus TBN devours the poor while making the charlatans rich. God cursed false
prophets in the Old Testament for that very thing (Jeremiah 6:13-15). It's also
one of the main reasons the Pharisees incurred Jesus' condemnation (Luke
20:46-47). It's hard to think of any sin more evil. It not only hurts people
materially; it deludes them with groundless hope, deceives them with a false
gospel, and thereby places their souls in eternal peril. And yet those who do
it pretend they are doing the work of God.
That's not all. Almost no false prophecy, erroneous doctrine, rank
superstition, or silly claim is too outlandish to receive airtime on TBN. Jan
Crouch tearfully gives a fanciful account of how her pet chicken was
miraculously raised from the dead. Benny Hinn trumps that claim with a bizarre prophecy that
if TBN viewers will put their dead loved ones' caskets in front of television
set and touch the dead person's hand to the screen, people will "be raised
from the dead . . . by the thousands."
Ironically, one doesn't even need to be an orthodox Trinitarian in order to
broadcast on the Trinity network. Bishop T. D. Jakes, well known for his
rejection of the Nicene creed in favor of oneness Pentecostalism, is a staple on TBN. Benny
Hinn has
repeatedly attempted to revise the doctrine of the Trinity in novel ways,
notoriously teaching at one point that there are nine persons in
the godhead.
And
yet evangelical church leaders typically show a kind of benign tolerance toward
the whole enterprise. Most would never endorse it,
of course. They may joke about the gaudiness of the big hair and tawdry set
decorations on TBN. Ask them, and they will most likely acknowledge that the
prosperity gospel is no gospel at all. Press the issue, and you will probably
get them to admit that it is a dangerous form of false doctrine, totally
unbiblical, and essentially anti-Christian.
Why, then, is there no large-scale effort among Bible-believing evangelicals to
expose, denounce, refute, and silence these false teachers? After all, that is
what Scripture commands church leaders to do when we encounter purveyors of
soul-destroying substitutes for the true gospel:
The overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain (Titus 1:7-11).
Those who
remain silent in the face of such grotesque lies may in fact be partly
responsible for turning people away from the truth. Consider the
testimony of William Lobdell, religion reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who once considered
himself a devout evangelical Christian, but after doing a series of
investigative reports on the moral and doctrinal cesspool at TBN; then
"finding that his investigative stories about faith healer Benny Hinn and
televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch appear to make no difference on the reach of
these ministries or the lives of their followers, he [gave] up on the beat and
on religion generally."
All those who truly love Christ and care about the truth have a solemn duty to
defend the truth by exposing and opposing these lies that masquerade as truth.
If we fail in that duty because of indifference, apathy, or a craving for the
approval of men, we are no less guilty than those who actively spread the lies.
Thanks.
HBTN
For the King’s honor,
Charis,
Mike Abendroth
Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a|
2 Tim 1:2b "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
Thomas Watson, "[Jesus] alone is the Prince of Preachers. He alone is the best of expositors."