Phil Cooke

I'm not charismatic in my theology. However, I can hope with charismatics that these events will provoke a kind of reformation akin to the Catholic and Protestant Reformations of the past. In other words, a holy reaction against something dark and negative that produces a refining of the movement. That's my hope.

Meltdown? White, Bynum and Paulk are the same ole Usual Suspects that have been behaving badly for a long, long time.

The real meltdown….is at Charisma magazine for not connecting the dots between their editorial page and their Ad Sales department. Pick up any Charisma edition and you'll see ads for at least one of these knuckleheads….just like TBN and Daystar….they keep using these misfits to host telethons and flagship shows.

Quit promoting them and put them in Spiritual "Time Out"…..then they'll get serious about correcting their behavior.

I don't minimize the error of these and other ministries that will fall in the days ahead, but I wonder.

If the economic crisis that appears to be coming in strong measure in the days ahead, begins to see small orthodox ministries fail in the days ahead will the reason be attributed to the disfavor of God or spirituality (or lack thereof) of the leaders and congregations?

What is it in our cultural and spiritual DNA that has to tie any form of perceived failure to sin, and the disfavor of GOd on a cause and effect basis?  Is it that we want to believe that if we do everything "right" that we'll never face failure, persecution or a foreclosure of ministry property?

The Church in the past has usually thrived under persecution, hard times and difficulties from a belief that God is with us through the valleys and not just on the mountain tops.  It might be interesting to see in the probably hard times ahead to see if the prosperity gospel has any staying power or if it's only power is when times are good.

Far to often these ministries are built on the leaders personality and not founded on the gospel. Like Oral Roberts, as mentioned on this site more than once. Yes they teach the truth, sometimes. In the case of the Whites, they taught some strange stuff at the end. But the people attending the church never called them on it. That is another danger of having such a large church, no accountablity. They get kinda get out of thouch with reality, and then drift from God's calling on their life. There are many large ministries out there who have not drifted from the truth. But they have some kind of controls in place to make sure that doesn't happen.

But this is an old story. Any student of church history can tell you it happens over and over. All great revivals are followed by a build up of churches. Then a period of stability, then a downfall of the ones not based on God's word. It's happened before and it will happen again. People, however, too often base their relationship with God on what these people tell them. So when there is a problem folks become disillusioned and bitter. Then there is talk of some great downfall or falling away. When in reality it is a person who forgot God, started taking glory for themselves and received a fate similar to Herod, without the death of course. But in today's world disgrace can be worse than death.

Duh…TB, do you mean Jim Bakker?  Phil has covered his little show in Branson on this blog.