There also have been people who came forward to "out" Mr. Perry as being gay. He has denied this but at the same time admitted that "Monogamy may not be for me." Hardly the Christian message.
Jakes is just another in a long line of prosperity preachers who are slowly poisoning the Body of Christ. All one has to do is look at the guest speakers at megafest this year to see that the associations you keep reveal who you are. Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar highlighted the 2013 Megafest. But all we really have to look at is the nature of the giving that Perry tells us was occurring when God told him to hand over the million bucks. This is the seed-harvest nonsense that is such a staple of all of the prosperity heretics. That God can't bless you unless you sow a seed into their ministry. That you can essentially buy God's favor. Jakes himself has said that God wants to "heal our money" and that those that give would receive more money than they give. But Megafest required something special because Jakes wanted to build a youth center. So he abuses Scripture to claim that Psalm 113 somehow contains a magic potion in it that if people would just sow $113, then they would receive some huge blessing. Here is Psalm 113:
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust a nd lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord. - Psalm 113 (NIV)
There is no magic potion in this Psalm. This is also a past tense Psalm. The Psalmist is writing praise for all God has already done and who He is by nature. The only verse that comes close to dealing with money is "he raises the poor from the dust." To take that one verse, or this one Psalm and try and convince people they need to give you $113 is disgusting and despicable. It is also unfortunately the norm in prosperity preaching. I am going to show you how the scam works. Here is a Psalm that fits a lot closer to a message of God's provision:
May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your r equests. Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. Lord, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call! - Psalm 20 (NIV)
Answer in distress! Send help from the sanctuary! May he give you the desires of your heart! May all your plans succeed! May the Lord grant all your requests! The Lord gives victory to his anointed! Answer us when we call! WOW - if there was a Psalm that prosperity hucksters could misuse, this seems to be the one. Not Psalm 113. Of course you see the problem right? It is not about the words of God it is about the number of the Psalm because remember, this is about sowing a seed and who wants a $20 seed? It is so transparent it is silly. There are only 150 Psalms and you don't want to appear too greedy. No, 113 is a nice number. Odd enough to throw most people off. This seed-harvest nonsense is on all the hot Christian television shows. Jakes lives in a 10,000 square foot mansion while driving a Bentley. He defends his lifestyle by saying that it is all from book sales but who do you think is buying the books? Now listen, I have seen many great teachings from TD Jakes. Sometimes people think false teachers have to say everything falsely. There are no false teachers who are going to try and convince you that Jesus was really from Bermuda and had seven apostles until his pet goat betrayed Him. It is never going to be that easy. Even the low hanging fruit like Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen still deceive hundreds of thousands of people. Why? Because they mix enough truth to make it appear righteous and fill in the blanks with everything that tickles our ears and massages our flesh. I have heard the other Christian argument of eating the meat while spitting out the bones. To that I simply ask you one question. If you know the bone is rotten why in the world would you trust the meat?
Now I know some of my haters (sorry couldn't resist) will say that this is simply jealousy because I do not have a million dollars to give. Let us start with some basics. Tyler Perry is worth 400 million dollars and earns 100 million dollars per year. While the offer was a generous amount, please realize we are not talking about the widows mite here. I saw some Christians actually comment that people shouldn't complain when a million dollars is given to the kingdom. Realize of course that this money is going to TD Jakes' kingdom, not the Kingdom of God. I know some will balk and tell stories of people they know who were saved through the efforts of the Jakes ministry. Just like there are definitely people saved through the Osteen ministry. Of course Jakes and Osteen have precious little to do with it. God will save people wherever He can. The heart that is truly seeking God can find Him in the back alley or in a pew at the Potter's House. Realize of course that these people are saved in spite of TD Jakes, not because of him. But for every one of those, how many think they are saved and are actually going to hell? How many left the church and God when the blessing never came through and they had given the money for the light bill to the Psalm 113 blessing? I believe there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting in pews across America today that have been told by some huckster that they are saved and on the last day they will stand before Christ and here "I never knew you." The Bible has warned us specifically about this!
You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us. - 2Corinthians 2: 17 (NLT)
