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June 4, 2016

The Passing of a Legend in False Teaching -- Jan Crouch

By Anthony Wade

What is our responsibility as ministers when someone passes away who routinely scattered people away from Christ? The truth does not change.

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"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but every diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. -- Matthew 7: 15-20 (ESV)

This is not an easy topic for most of us. When someone passes away we are prone to feel compassion, as we should. We tend to even distort the realities in favor of being sympathetic. There is the old Christian adage of living a life that does not force your pastor to have to lie about you at your funeral. Most of this is because we always value the wrong life. It is the eternal life that we ought to value above this temporal existence. As such, when someone passes there is nothing left to be done regarding that person. There is no need to pray for them. There is no easing their suffering, if that is their eternal reality. We are given this life to accept or deny Christ. Once this life is over, the die is cast.

Then there is the prevalent Christian thought that we are not to judge who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. While I am not entirely convinced this is entirely biblical I think it causes us to avoid any rational discussion of the life that was led in favor of being politically correct. For example, the truth is while we may never know if avowed atheist Christopher Hitchens sought forgiveness and trust in Christ on his deathbed, like the thief on the cross, we can certainly evaluate his life as not serving the cause of Christ. I think it is theologically responsible to do the same when it comes to leaders within modern Christianity because it seems while everyone shudders that the thought of assigning them to hell they have little problem with pretending they are in heaven. While the truth is we do not know either way, the life still remains for consideration. So that the unsaved can see a frank discussion about the realities of this life and this death but also those under false teachings might realize their own path before it is too late. This brings us to the passing this week of Jan Crouch.

Let us start with what should be obvious. We should pray for peace for her family in this time of loss. No matter of the consequences of one's life there is no denying that their loved ones will be hurting. Secondly, we ought to take no joy in the death of anyone.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? -- Ezekiel 18: 23 (ESV)

Nothing makes me sadder than seeing Christians taking joy when someone in the world who was famous, even in their anti-Christian stance, passes away. We should be always hoping for the thief on the cross who sought Christ, not the one who mocked Him. Saying RIP is a prayer of hope that even the wicked with their last breath called out to Christ. Christ had no more vocal opponent here on earth than the aforementioned Hitchens yet I pray he repented when he saw his end was near. Why? Because that is the heart of God.

This same concept applies to false teachers. As difficult as it may be, we should be hopeful that they repented at the end. We should not wish that any spend an eternity in suffering. So this is not an exercise in being happy that Jan Crouch has passed away but rather an honest assessment of her life as someone who claimed the mantle of Christian leadership. This is necessary because there is no doubt that Jan Crouch was a purveyor and distributor of some of the most egregious false doctrines in the past several decades. It was interesting to see comments after articles written about her passing and how absolutely clueless people are who consider themselves Christians. First of all, let's dispel the martyr nonsense. The empire Crouch built was worth over 50 million dollars. If you think this too harsh, just listen to this 40 second clip from Crouch as she instructs poor people to "give God their grocery money to ensure blessings."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRirh4zTwig

So a woman sitting on a 50 million dollar fortune is shilling false promises and blessings from God and instructing poor people to send her money instead of feeding their families. This clip is not an anomaly either. This was the business model for TBN and remains so to this day. Jan Crouch was not some missionary working in the jungles of Peru. There was also a prevailing sentiment that she "spread the Gospel around the world." In order to do that, she actually needs to believe in the Gospel and it is apparent by whom she supported and promoted that she did not. At least not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sure, she supported the prosperity gospel. She supported the word faith gospel. She supported the greasy grace gospel. She supported the false signs and lying wonders gospel. But the actual Gospel? It is not found on TBN.

Steven Furtick

Joyce Meyer

Joel Osteen

Joseph Prince

Creflo Dollar

John Hagee

Kenneth Copeland

Kerry Shook

James Robison

Pat Robertson

Sid Roth

TD Jakes

Perry Stone

Frederick Price

This reads like a who's who of false teachers. Millions of people will be led to hell by the people on this list. Is this the list of preachers who have appeared on TBN over the years? False teachers who have participated in their beg-a-thons? No. This is the programming lineup for today. In one 24-hour block of time. Keep in mind this is only today. TBN has been in the false doctrine business for decades beloved. Benny Hinn, Peter Popoff, Mike Murdock and countless other charlatans have been mainstays on this network that routinely scammed people out of money; selling holy water, prayer cloths and even fake manna. Even after Popoff was busted as a scam artist by faking revelations TBN still welcomed him back. There was nothing too shameless for this network, which was operated by Paul and Jan Crouch. It was Paul, who passed away a couple of years ago, who once famously quipped that he would "let God sort out all of this doctrinal doo-doo" when he was attacking people who were correctly calling him a false teacher. God has sorted it out beloved and it is found in the Bible. As for bringing these heresies into countries that previously were shielded from them, TBN remains guilty as charged. This is not new. Jesus passed judgment on the Pharisees for the same exact thing:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across the sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. -- Matthew 23: 15 (ESV)

One of the worst acts American Christianity has perpetrated over the past few decades is insisting on spreading their heresies across the globe. Where Africa and South America use to have much purer doctrine, they are now polluted. Africa boasts five of the richest prosperity preachers in the world even though it remains one of the poorest continents. A great deal of the blame is laid at the feet of Paul and Jan Crouch. Not only did they prop up and support some of the worst heretics of the past forty years but they themselves participated in fleecing the flock regularly through the prosperity gospel and seed faith theology. I understand there are some who want to split the bill so to speak. They want to try and say there was some good along with some bad. To them I point to the key verses to dispel such false talking points.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but every diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. -- Matthew 7: 15-20 (ESV)

We often hear people reference the notion of judging good and bad fruit but it is often misapplied. We hear this in relation to ordinary people. Maybe someone we are considering marrying, or going into business with. The true context is above and it shows that Jesus was talking about false teachers. Beloved, the world sells us on shades of grey. That everything is not black and white. The truth is everything is black and white. We may not like the truth. It may brush up against our secret sins but it does not change. Look at the definitive nature of what Jesus is teaching here. Every healthy tree bears good fruit. Every single one of them. Every diseased tree bears bad fruit. Every single one of them. There is simply no way that a healthy tree can bear bad fruit and there is no plausible way for a diseased tree to bear good fruit. Since the context is false teachers the good fruit must be the preaching of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the bad fruit must be those that deviate from it. This is not open for debate beloved. Jesus left no wiggle room at all. There are no healthy trees bearing bad fruit. A true teacher of the Gospel simply would not traffic in what is false.

The next important point is that we thus recognize what is false by the teaching itself. This may seem obvious but the first line of defense from people who support false teachers is their sincerity. Or their compassion. Or their works in this world. Nearly every disagreement I have had with those who defend false teachers usually contains the defense that I do not know their heart. Oh but I do. Jeremiah assures me their heart is as wickedly deceptive above everything else in this world; just like mine. That is why we do not rely upon our heart. I do not rely upon my heart or my intentions because I know my heart will lie to me to get what it wants. That is why we rely upon the Bible as our plumb line. Along the same line, our intentions do not mean anything to God. It does not matter if Joel Osteen has convinced himself that he is really doing the Lord's work. He is not. It does not matter if Jan Crouch believed she was doing what God wanted. She was not. We can tell that by the fruit, or the teaching, of the people she promoted. We can tell by the butchering of the Word of God she trafficked in while taking money from the sheep of God.

If it is not their hearts or intentions, it is usually the litany of earthly works they engage in. Sure it is nice that they give something back considering how much they steal but that misses the overall point. Sure it is nice to build a playground for orphans in a third world country but that does not balance out the countless souls you have led away from Christ. Remember as Jesus Himself taught, there are only two choices for us:

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Matthew 12: 30 (ESV)

So it is great that you provide free backpacks to kids in the neighborhood of your church but it has no relevance to the doctrine you preach. We ought to be found doing good works in addition to preaching correctly. So often we get it wrong. We think that the buying of the backpacks or the building of the playground are the good fruit. No beloved. Those are certainly good works, which should be a result of being saved but they are not fruit in the context of the key verses. Good fruit is that the teaching lines up with Scripture. Why? Because the Bible teaches us that only the real Gospel has the power of God to save man. Thus if you preach the real Gospel you are gathering unto Him but if you do not -- you are scattering. Jan Crouch's fruit makes it abundantly clear. She lived a life scattering people away from Jesus Christ by perpetrating false gospels for money.

The last takeaway from the key verses is not pleasant beloved. It is not seeker friendly or purpose driven. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The Bible says that those who are in teaching and preaching ministries will be judged by a higher standard. This is that standard beloved. It is why this must be written, no matter how uncomfortable we all might be in dealing with it. To claim to represent the Gospel and then not represent it is a terrible folly. It is like you have the keys to the kingdom of heaven and you refuse to give them to people. It is like being a doctor who discovers cancer in their patients and tells them to just think happy thoughts. It is cruel. It is negligent. We will be held to account.

Please understand that this gives me no pleasure. I pray that Jan Crouch realized her folly at the end by truly repenting and calling out to the Christ she had scattered from for so many decades. His forgiveness would be even that gracious. But there is a responsibility we have as ministers of the true Gospel to speak the truth even if it makes us uncomfortable. There are still millions of people who tune into TBN every single day and are bombarded with one heretic after another. Millions strolling down the broad path that leads to destruction and it is Jan Crouch who helped pave that path. Do we pray for her family? Absolutely. Do we pray that she rests in peace through true repentance in her final hours? Absolutely. Do we tell the truth though about her life so that others might realize the truth before it is too late for them? Absolutely. I understand if that makes you uneasy. I am sure you can regale me with tales of her heart and her intentions or point me to many temporal good deeds she had done in her life. None of that matters compared to decades of scattering people away from Christ by supporting some of the most despicable and damnable heresies this world has ever known. For Jan Crouch, the die is cast. For her victims however there is still time to gather them back to Jesus Christ through the only thing that can save them. The true Gospel.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- June 3, 2016



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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