76% of American Christians are now the very antithesis of disciples of Jesus

Relevant Magazine, August 23, 2023, here:

76 percent of Christians now believe God wants them to prosper financially. That number rises among younger generations, with 81 percent of churchgoers between the ages of 18 to 34 and 85 percent of churchgoers 35-49 holding onto that belief.

Luke 14:33 :

So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own. 

      

Tara Isabella Burton traces the origin of this prosperity gospel heresy to a new England faith healer named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby who influenced Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.   

Dubbed "the mind cure" and "New Thought" historically, it mushroomed into a diverse number of iterations over time both religious and secular beyond this humble beginning, not the least of which was in Norman Vincent Peale. Today it broadly goes by the term "manifesting, the art and quasi-spiritual science of willing things into existence".

The latter succinctly encapsulates what faith-healing, prosperity Pentecostalists like Kenneth Hagin and Ken Copeland styled "calling those things which be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17). They believe the Christian's tongue has the power to create something out of nothing, just like God.

Burton aptly describes it as

  the instinct to conflate spiritual forces, political and economic outcomes and our own personal desires.

Here, for The New York Times.

I am no counterfeit

Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit:

to die is to be a counterfeit;

for he is but the counterfeit of a man,

who hath not the life of a man.

-- Falstaff in William Shakespeare's
King Henry IV Part 1, Act 5, Scene 4

Imaginary appearances

 

 

Imaginary appearances offer themselves

to our impatient minds,

which entertain these counterfeits,

without the least suspicion of their cozenage.

-- Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680)

At Least Two Thirds Of American Christianity Is Counterfeit

στενὴ ἡ πύλη καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because two thirds of American Christians are convinced God wants them to be economically prosperous, as discussed here:

As the size and number of their congregations, TV ministries, and bestselling books confirm, the contemporary footprint of the American Prosperity Gospel is large, indeed. This buttresses Bowler's larger argument that the Prosperity movement is no religious sideshow. Citing studies, Bowler shows that 17 percent of all American Christians openly identify with the movement; that every Sunday, over a million people attend Prosperity-oriented megachurches—43 percent of which boast multiethnic or multicultural congregations; and that two-thirds of all Christian believers are convinced that God, ultimately, wants them to prosper. In effect, she argues that if a substantial number of people identify with the Prosperity Gospel and accept its common teachings, then it must be closer to the mainstream than one might imagine.

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Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." -- Matthew 19:21ff.

Sin and Crime, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"[D]o you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."

-- 1 Cor. 6:9f.

TOTAL US ARRESTS IN 2009 = 13,687,241

Sex-related arrests = 378,086

(rape 21,407; prostitution 71,355; sex offenses 77,326; offenses against family and children 114,564; runaways 93,434).

 

Sodomy has been decriminalized in America since 2003, affecting approximately 2% of the population, or 6.3 million gays and lesbians, not counting heterosexual sodomizers. Before 1962 sodomy was a felony in every state. Those born of fornication, that is live births to unmarried women, in 2010 numbered approximately 1,633,471, almost 41% of all births. As for adulterers, there were provisionally 840,000 divorces in 2009, the rate of divorce provisionally averaging 3.6% of the adult population annually over the last seven years, an unknown number of which divorced for cause. The number of marriages has averaged 2.1 million annually over the same period, the number of which committed adultery by doing so also being unknown. Approximately 15 billion condoms were produced worldwide in 2005, 0.9 billion in the USA, for an estimated 530 million total users that year, or 28 each.

Theft-related arrests = 2,544,771

(robbery 126,725; burglary 299,351; larceny-theft 1,334,933; car theft 81,797; forgery-counterfeiting 85,844; fraud 210,255; embezzlement 17,920; buying or receiving stolen property 105,303; arson 12,204; vandalism 270,439).

Alcohol-related arrests = 5,069,927

(DUI 1,440,409; liquor law violations 570,333; drunkenness 594,300; drug abuse 1,663,582; disorderly conduct 655,322; vagrancy 33,388; curfew/loitering 112,593).

Assault arrests = 1,740,673

Murder arrests = 12,418

Weapon violation arrests = 166,334

All other arrests = 3,777,007