After he was done preaching he told us he wanted to close in prayer. But just before closing our eyes he asked us if we wanted to be saved. Whoever wants to be saved was invited to come forward and “receive Jesus Christ.”
The first problem with that is the context. When they hear those words, they don’t think about repentance, humility, saving faith, committing their lives to Jesus Christ, taking up their cross, denying themselves, or having all their sinful desires exchanged for holiness. Those words at that time simply are another form of God-talk. Religious sounds with no significance.
The second problem with closing the service that way is far deeper because there was no preaching of Christ and Him crucified! He never told us that Christ died for sinners. He never told us that we were sinners. Instead his entire sermon was based on the assumption that all of us already were—in his words—children of God, children of light, and children of Goshen.
This is the standard way prosperity preachers deal their cards, they assume everyone already understands the rules. They take for granted that we are all God’s children, and then with a tricky spin, they ask for anyone who wants to be saved to come forward. By so doing, they think to deceive those of us who realize there are unbelievers present while at the same time preaching a thoroughly comfortable message which is what they really wanted to do all along.
Identifying Prosperity Preachers
Mark #1: They Do Not Stay Long in a Single Verse
Mark #2: They Are Intentionally Vague
Mark #3: They Consistently Disobey Explicit Scriptural Teaching About Tongues
Mark #4: They Prostitute the Old Testament
Mark #5: They Assume Their Listeners Are All Born Again
Mark #6: They Ignore the Great Themes of Scripture
Mark #7: They Have an Aversion to Humility
Mark #8: They Draw the Affections to Earth
