1 Prosperity Gospel: God wants the best for me. And so, He will give me the best according to the standards of this world (pleasure, long life, wealth, high social status, good fortune, etc).
Correct: God wants the best for us but He defines it, not us. His thoughts of “best” are not the same with the world’s.
2 Law of Attraction: If I pray to God and change my mindset from negative to positive, He will make my problems go away.
Correct: We need to anchor our peace and hope on God and His promises. We ask Him for wisdom and guidance to enable us to face our problems courageously and righteously. Our situation may improve, stay the same or it may even worsen but no matter what happens, the peace of Christ will secure our hearts and minds from anxiety and fear. Peace is not the absence of problems but being right with God.
3 Justified by Good Works: I don’t need Jesus Christ to go to heaven because I am a good person.
Correct: We all have fallen short. No one has a clean record. Aside from the fact that we have trivialized sin and made it normal, there are times we have harbored evil in our hearts which is detestable to God and is unworthy of His goodness. Thus, all of us deserve the wages of sin: death.
But God loved us so much, He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us. Jesus paid for our sins.
“For He (Father God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5: 21).
We cannot justify ourselves. No amount of charity nor good works can make us worthy. We are only made right with God if we repent and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
4 Hypocrite: I can still go on sinning and I will still go to heaven because I have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.
Correct: A person who thinks like this is a hypocrite and he is only using Christ as a license to continue doing evil. If we truly accept Him as Lord and Savior, we will follow His example and teachings. With all our hearts, we will pursue to be Christ-like and to honor God in everything we do.
We may be sidetracked sometimes but we humble ourselves and make every effort to be right with God. And a genuine believer would not dare fool Him. He can see our hearts and know our motives. Nothing is hidden from Him.
