Welcome to our very first video-formatted podcast! Shoutout to Papa Bear Jerimiah for helping us get it looking so nice. Now you can watch our podcast on YouTube, or you can still listen to it on your favorite podcast app. 

We’ve talked about false gospels in the past (primarily the false messages given by Progressive Christianity), but one you may not be familiar of is the “health and wealth” gospel, sometimes called the “prosperity gospel.” Put simply, the message of this false gospel is that if you trust in God and believe in Him, He promises to keep you healthy and rich. We know from the Bible that this isn’t true (God is not our cosmic genie in a bottle), but this gospel has been made popular by preachers like Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, and Joyce Meyer.

Some of you may recognize Todd White from the film American Gospel: Christ Alone (now streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime), but some of you may have never heard of him (Amy hadn’t before we started researching for this podcast). For more than a decade, he preached the health and wealth gospel (not quite the prosperity gospel…he’s more into the healing aspect), but he recently had a season of pruning which helped him realize that the gospel was about more than just healing. It is about the knowledge that sin offends a holy God, and that due to sin, we are separated from Him. THAT is our main problem.  If you haven’t seen the video, “God’s Heart for Humanity,” take a moment to watch it here. In it, White says,

“I am not perfect, but I am strongly convicted! I feel like I just met Jesus again! There’s just this rekindled thing inside of me! This has been the hardest season of my life! I’m like, ‘Lord! What are you doing!?’ He said, ‘I’m pruning every branch that you have.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not okay! It hurts!’ And He said, ‘If you were dead, it wouldn’t hurt! There are parts of you that need to die, so I’m going to kill them.’”

In today’s podcast, Hillary and Amy talk about White’s conversion to the true gospel and how Christians should respond.

• Who is Todd White?
• A discussion about the sermon, “God’s Heart for Humanity”
• So how should we respond to White’s confession? We see reactions coming from all angles. Some positive, some negative.
• How can we talk with our kids about this?
  • Watch American Gospel: Christ Alone with your kids.
  • Listen to Todd White’s sermon and talk with your kids about it.
  • Ask, “How were Todd’s trials and tribulations able to bring him closer to God? How do you think this will impact his ministry in the future?”

How can trials and tribulations help refine our theology? Just ask @ToddWhiteLC! Share on X

Resources Mentioned:

• American Gospel: Christ Alone (2018 film)
• Todd White’s “God’s Heart for Humanity”
• Mama Bear Apologetics Bethel Church podcast, “Wake Up, Olive”
• Kenneth Copeland video (“Money Cometh to Me” chant)
• Natasha Crain’s blog “How Sunday Schools are Raising the Next Generation of Secular Humanists” (Prefer to listen? This blog is also available as an Audio Apologetics Blog-Cast here).

Quotable Quotes:

I saw a heart for people in (Todd White) that I didn’t necessarily see in other people (featured in American Gospel). … He didn’t seem like a prodigal sheep; he seemed like a confused sheep. – Hillary Share on X

Sometimes we’re so quick to want to point out false prophets that we forget that God can actually redeem false prophets. – Amy Share on X

“It’s 2020. Why shouldn’t Todd White have the best gospel message I’ve ever heard?” – Hillary

“Grace doesn’t matter until I realize what a big fat sinner I am.”

Hillary asks the Lord, “Humble me without publicly humiliating me.”

Questions or ideas? Send us an email at admin@mamabearapologetics.com.

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