How Can he Give Advice on Success?

I’ve said a lot of critical things about Steve Munsey, the prosperity preacher who influenced my former church so heavily. He teaches doctrine he made up from thin air. He claims the ancient Jews did well because they gave huge money offerings to the Temple three times a year. This nonsense is not mentioned in the Bible. Munsey tries to string together unrelated scriptures to support it, but Jews will tell you it’s a fantasy.

Munsey is a very close friend of the pastor at my former church.

I don’t want God to chastise and humiliate me the way he has chosen to chastise and humiliate Munsey, so I prayed before deciding to mention this publicly. It’s not like I’m revealing a secret; it’s a news story several months old. But I don’t want to promote stories like this without asking God carefully, in advance, if it’s his will.

Here it is: Steve Munsey’s church in foreclosure.

The foreclosure action was filed in 2011. The church has paid $8,000,000 in interest. It has accumulated less than $200,000 in equity. The principal has been increased, so Munsey is actually farther in debt than he was the day he signed the papers.

This is not prosperity.

The big problem with hardheaded prosperity preachers is that they believe that when they are faced with financial failure, the answer is to beg, not to reform. This is why prosperity preachers tend to fail upward. They blow tons of money. They go to their flocks and say the devil took it. They say the flocks have to give more. The drain is endless. It’s like giving an ATM card to a meth addict. These ministers are cursed, so it’s impossible for their churches to succeed. The more you give them, the more will be lost.

This is the nature of the universe. Some people are under blessings, so if you give them things, they profit by them. Some are under curses, so whatever you give them disappears and ends up hurting them. Until you get out from under your curses, the things you do to create success will pan out pretty badly. And if you convince other people to finance your efforts, you end up attaching the curse to them.

This is what happens with addicts. Say you’re a compulsive gambler. You lose money. First thing you know, someone is threatening to break your arms. You go to your parents, who have saved for retirement. You tell them about the threat. They pay off. Now you know that whenever you get behind, they’ll save you. So you go on gambling. You lose and lose and lose. Your parents try to bless you, but instead, your curse becomes their curse. You get your arms broken in spite of your efforts, and your parents lose their house. Instead of one person suffering that which he deserves, three people suffer.

What matters in life is not where you are, but which way you’re headed. A person who will not repent will end up defeated and desperate, even if he has a billion dollars today. A person who listens to God and prays and reforms will eventually be blessed, even if he’s in the gutter outside a homeless shelter at the moment. Once you repent, you should consider yourself blessed, even if you don’t have all the things you need. You should realize they’re on the way. If you won’t repent, as Jesus said, you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, even if you can’t see it. God sees you in terms of your destination, not your location.

I don’t know what Munsey has done since his problems were revealed, but it would not be a big surprise if he had gone to his flock and begged for more cash. I know he blamed Satan, as I suggested above. That’s in the news story to which I linked. He said, “The devil wanted to take us out.” A cynical person might say the worst thing the devil did was putting Munsey in charge. But I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe he has a genuine calling, and he’s just way off course.

I’m tired of Munsey, and of the cabal that runs my old church. I keep asking God to get them out. Just get them out. Help them change, sure, but get them out. They know what they’re doing wrong. They abuse those who point it out. They need to go. They are hurting too many people, and time is too short.

Last night, to kill time while I was hanging out with Marv, I was flipping channels, and I ended up watching a little bit of Interview With the Vampire. Probably not the greatest choice for a Christian, but I don’t think I’m in any danger of coming to admire people who drink blood. Anyway, I kept noticing that the commercials were disgusting. They were all about homosexuality. One promoted a show hosted by a notorious pervert named Rupaul. Another promoted a gay resort in Key West. I also saw promotions for a series of shows with a sin theme. They actually used the word “sin,” and they said the first show was about greed. I wondered what was going on. Finally, I realized I was watching a gay channel. I’m not sure why they show vampire movies, but there it is.

It reminded me how insane America has become. We’re not just under attack. We’ve lost. We’re in supernatural foreclosure. Society has ruled in favor of pride and perversion. We are now seen as vicious bigots, not upholders of the faith. You can sit in your own home now and mind your own business, and the cable box will bring you homosexual programming and shows proudly and expressly promoting sin.

I don’t think we have time to let kooky, greedy preachers work out their issues. They need to be expelled and replaced before they destroy the rest of us. They can get secular jobs while they figure things out. If you’re draining 5,000 people financially and preventing them from getting to know the Holy Spirit, it’s not a bad thing if God forces you out so you have to become a car salesman.

We need to become strong in the Spirit and pray as a body. Otherwise, we can kiss America goodbye. There is no place left to run, so once Satan receives the title to America, we will have to hide in the crevices until Jesus returns.

The pastors at my church never said a word when Steve Munsey’s church failed. They went right on teaching his garbage. Amazing. How can they explain that?

Pray in tongues. Read the word and try to live it. Fast occasionally. Try to hear the Spirit and obey him. Examine yourself and repent of sin and iniquity. These things will bring you power. The other stuff is worse than dung.