THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS

Even the completely Christian christian in our little group of retail employees agreed that Oral Roberts was a conman.  There’s no arguing that particular point, it is an unbiased fact.  This guy could not leave it at that, however.  He felt it was necessary to point out that Roberts was responsible for getting the word of god out to millions of people.  God still used him in spite of his greed and excesses.

I almost started to argue that it was pathetic to think god wanted his word spread by false teachers.

Then I remembered this passage from the bible:  “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  But what does it matter?  The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.  And because of this I rejoice.”  (Philippians 1:  15 – 18)  That’s the apostle Paul while he was in prison.  (Emphasis mine)

As long as Christ is preached it doesn’t matter what the preacher’s motives are.  The ends justify the means.  It is the word of god.  So my fellow employee was correct in his assessment of Roberts, he was a conman but he spread the word to millions so what does it matter.

I still think that’s pathetic but there I go again thinking I’m more moral than god.

I don’t suppose it would do any good to point out that the gospel Roberts preached was the “healing and prosperity” gospel which is not the same thing as the “salvation” gospel (entire denominations won’t have anything to do with each other over those differences.)  I don’t suppose that pointing out the bible also says not to have anything to do with false teachers or anyone who brings some other gospel.  If you let them in your house you share in their evil work.  Seems like a blatantly huge contradiction to me.

I would have thought god had higher standards than that.

This entry was posted on 18. December 2009 at 13:00 and is filed under interpretation, communication, listen, hearing, emotion, education, religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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