The
religious world is filled with charlatans and con artists.
Robert Tilton is a
covetous, money-hungry, lying, false prophet who teaches damnable heresies.
He touts about prosperity, health, and wealth; but Tilton's message is
totally contradictory from the Word of God. Tilton quotes 3rd John
1-2, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth."
What Tilton fails to mention
is that John the Apostle, who spoke those words about prosperity, was
shortly thereafter exiled in punishment to the island of Patmos (Revelation
1:9). Of the 12 Apostles, 11 were martyred. Jesus Himself was
crucified! Listen to the words of warning from Jesus, in sharp
contrast to the lying words of Robert Tilton ... "If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
Lazarus was poor, and he ate of the rich man's garbage. Paul said, "I
know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all
things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to suffer need." Paul penned most of the New
Testament books, and yet we find him having to make tents for a living (Acts
18:3).
The Apostle Paul was stoned, shipwrecked, and
suffered greatly as a Christian ... "Are they ministers of Christ? (I
speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five
times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I
have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in
perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness"
(2nd Corinthians 11:23-27).
Tilton would lead us to believe that
financial prosperity and health are guaranteed to anyone who meditates upon
certain Scriptures in the Bible. Tragically, Tilton never tells his
viewers on TV how to actually become a Christian. He never mentions
sin, condemnation, or judgment. Tilton is another false prophet who
exploits Christianity for his own personal gain. Tilton is in league
with Balaam, a false
prophet in the Old Testament who corrupted God's people for his own personal
gain.
Tilton Teaches Blasphemy!
Tilton misinterprets the promise by God to
bless Abraham's descendants. Tilton quotes Genesis 22:8, "And in
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast
obeyed my voice." According to Tilton's perverted interpretation
of this Scripture, there will be worldwide financial prosperity.
Tilton claims proof of this fulfilled prophecy by pointing out that
America's number of millionaires went from 3,600,000 millionaires in 1991 to
over 7,000,000 in 2001. According to Tilton, the 10,000,000
millionaires in America today are a fulfillment of Genesis 22:8.
Unfortunately, nearly all of those 10,000,000 millionaires are unbelievers,
lost sinners bound for Hell when they die without Christ. God never
promised anything to unbelievers except eternal death in Hell. You can
mediate upon all the Biblical principles you want and still go to Hell.
Is that prospering?
I would rather have NOTHING in this world, but go
to Heaven one day; then to have paradise on earth, and go to Hell someday.
You can keep this sin-cursed world, just give me Jesus! The promise of
God to Abraham in Genesis 22:8 refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the
Word of God, which was given to the world through the nation of Israel.
It is blasphemy to teach that God intended for the world to become
FINANCIALLY rich. If that's the case, then why does 3,000,000,000 of
the earth's population live on less than $2 a day? Well Mr. Tilton?
The prosperity preaching of the Charismatic Movement Satanic!!! The
Word of God warns us in 1st Timothy 6:9, "But they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdition."
Tilton's Twisted Concept of
Prosperity
Robert Tilton is deceitful, and leads the
unsaved to believe that they can be blessed of God while rejecting Christ as
Savior. Tilton leads Christians to believe that they have a right to
financial prosperity, health, and success. Yet, we read in the Bible
about Jacob's sorrow when Rachel died while giving birth to Benjamin
(Genesis 35:18). We read about Timothy's "often infirmities" (health
problems) in 1st Timothy 5:23. Paul had been given "a thorn in the
flesh" by God to keep him humble (2nd Corinthians 12:7). Listen to
what Paul considered prosperity... "Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses
for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2nd
Corinthians 12:10).You'll never hear Robert Tilton say any such
thing. Paul said he took "pleasure" in his problems and sufferings.
Listen to what the Apostle Peter said in 1st Peter 1:7, "That the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ." Rejoice in the trial of your
faith? Take pleasure in infirmities? What a sharp contrast from
the garbage that Robert Tilton teaches!
Tilton has authored such demonic books as "How
To Be Rich &
Have Everything You Ever Wanted" (2004), and "The Power To Create
Wealth" (1988). We are warned in 2nd Timothy 4:3 about these
perilous times ... "For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears." America is a covetous and selfish
nation. We pat ourselves on the back and boast of our generosity; BUT,
we give peanuts compared to what we keep for ourselves. It is a shame
that you can't get people to listen to preaching anymore unless you tell
them how to get rich and prosper.
I was sickened as I watched Robert Tilton's
Success-N-Life show, which uses pictures of yachts and tropical beaches
to entice his victims. What happened to the "cross"
that Jesus commanded us to bare as His followers, "And he said to them
all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Tilton would lead you to
believe that the Lord promised us a Rolls Royce instead. Jesus clearly
taught in John 15:20 that the servant is NOT greater than his Lord, and that
we would suffer as He did ... "Remember the word that I said unto you,
The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours
also."
Robert Tilton Doesn't Care About
Lost Sinners
Tragically, Robert Tilton is silent concerning
how to be saved. He never mentions being born-again; yet, he speaks of
prosperity. Jesus warned in Matthew 16:26, "For what is a man
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The whole world is
headed for Hell-fire; BUT, Robert Tilton is interested in selling you his
books. It is evil that any so-called man of God would continually
preach about getting wealthy and becoming financially successful.
False prophet Joel Osteen draws in thousands of people to hear his liberal,
watered-down, substance-lacking, sermonettes.
He never warns anyone
about Hell-fire, or the judgment of God to come upon lost sinners.
What a sharp contrast compared to Jonathan Edward's
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. Robert Tilton is in the same
boat as Joel Osteen, and Balaam--all greedy of gain. Ninety-nine
percent of the people in this world have never been born-again by the Spirit
of God, and are walking in darkness without Jesus Christ. How tragic
that so many professed "men of God" are only interested in making more
money. Even some of America's most faithful preachers have fallen into
the trap of covetousness and greed. In so doing they have compromised
their beliefs, trimmed their sermons, and become silent concerning sin.
Of course, they are in denial.
Scandal
The following information is provided by
WIKIPEDIA.com ...
A
1991
ABC News
investigation, spearheaded by
Trinity Foundation
president
Ole Anthony
and broadcast on ABC's
Primetime Live
on
November 21,
1991,
found that Tilton's ministry threw away
prayer
requests without reading them, keeping only any money or
valuables sent to them by viewers, to the tune of more
than $80 million (U.S.) a year.
Anthony, a Dallas-based minister
whose Trinity Foundation church works with the homeless
and the poor on the East side of Dallas, had taken an
interest in Tilton's ministry after some of the
down-on-their-luck people coming to the Trinity
Foundation for help told him they had lost all of their
money making donations to some of the higher-profile
televangelists, especially fellow east Dallas minister
Robert Tilton. Curious about the pervasiveness of the
problem, the Trinity Foundation got on the mailing lists
of several televangelists, including Tilton, and started
keeping records of the many types of come-ons they'd
receive almost daily from big-media ministries. When
former Coca-Cola executive
Harry Guetzlaff
came to the Trinity Foundation for help and told Anthony
that Guetzlaff had been turned away from Tilton's church
when he found himself on hard times following a
divorce--even though he'd been a long-time high-dollar
donor, giving up his last $5,000 as a "vow of faith"
just weeks earlier--Anthony, a former intelligence
officer in the
United States Air Force
and licensed private investigator, started working on
gathering details on Tilton's operation.[16]
When
ABC producers, who had started working on their own
investigation into a number of televangelists in early
1991, contacted the Trinity Foundation for information
on Tilton, the two groups pooled their efforts. Anthony
agreed to portray himself--a Dallas-based minister with
a small church looking into how big-media ministries
were able to grow so quickly--in a hidden camera
operation to get behind the scenes at
Response Media,
the group handling Tilton's mass mailings. The director
of Response Media told Anthony and the hidden cameras
everything they needed to know, including the major
revelation that the prayer requests not only were never
read by Tilton, but that they were never even intended
to be read by him; they were mere advertising gimmicks
to get the donor to respond to the plea for fundraising
and were forwarded unopened to the many banks the
ministry used in
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Trinity Foundation members, acting
on this information, started digging through garbage
dumpsters outside Tilton's banks and the office of
Tilton's lawyer,
J.C. Joyce,
and found tens of thousands of discarded prayer
requests, bank statements, computer printouts containing
the coding for how Tilton's "personalized" letters were
generated, and more, all of which were shown in detail
on the Primetime Live documentary.[17]
In a follow-up broadcast on
November 28,
1991,
Primetime Live host
Diane Sawyer
said that the Trinity Foundation and Primetime Live
assistants found prayer requests in bank dumpsters on 14
separate occasions in a 30-day period.[18]
Tilton vehemently denied the allegations and took to the
airwaves on
November 22,
1991
on a special episode of Success-N-Life entitled
"Primetime Lies" to air his side of the story, which
included an affirmation that not only had he never
thrown prayer requests away, but had in fact lain atop
them in prayer for so long that "the chemicals [from the
ink in the prayer requests] actually got into my
bloodstream, and[...]I had two small strokes in my
brain."[19]
Tilton also asserted that the prayer requests found in
garbage bags shown on the Primetime Live
investigation were stolen from the ministry and placed
in the dumpster for a sensational camera shot. Tilton
also had an unusual explanation for a plastic surgery
operation revealed by Primetime Live: apparently,
the chemicals from the prayer requests also got into his
eyes and created bags under them, which only plastic
surgery could remove.[20]
Primetime Live's investigation included interviews
with several former Tilton employees. One of Tilton's
former prayer hotline operators claimed that the
ministry cared little for desperate followers who called
for prayer, saying that Tilton had a computer installed
in
July 1989
to make sure the phone operators were off the line by
seven minutes. In follow-up segments, Primetime Live
interviewed Tilton's former maid, who claimed that
prayer requests were sent to Tilton's house and were
routinely ignored until he told her to move them out of
the house and into the garage; according to the maid,
"they stacked up and stacked up" in Tilton's garage
until he had them thrown away. In the same interview,
Tilton's former secretary came forward and claimed that
Tilton used excerpts from "get-rich-quick" books and
used them in his sermons, and that she never saw him
perform pastoral duties such as visiting with the sick
and praying with members.[21]
Despite Tilton's repeated denials of misconduct, the
state of
Texas
and the Federal government got involved in subsequent
investigations, finding more causes for concern about
Tilton's financial status with each new revelation.
According to an October
1993
memorandum to Tilton's lawyer,
J.C. Joyce,
from Rev.
James Eugene Ewing,
Ewing used a computer demographics program that
identifies and isolates some of America's poorest
sub-ZIP codes to identify targets for Ewing's "St.
Matthew's Churches" group clients--Tilton among them--to
send mailings soliciting for new seed-faith "vows". The
memo noted, among other details, that "[t]he size of
each special area is about two to four city blocks[...][a]nd
thank God there are tens of thousands of them across the
nation."[22]
As each revelation became increasingly more damaging,
viewership and donations declined dramatically,
prompting Tilton to stop paying for television airtime
for Success-N-Life in
1993,
and the last episode aired nationally on
October 30,
1993.
In
1992,
Tilton sued ABC for libel because of its investigation
and report, but the case was dismissed. Several donors
to Tilton's television ministry sued Tilton himself in
1992
and
1993
charging various forms of fraud. One of the parties
suing won $1.5M (US) in
1994
when it was discovered that a "family crisis center" for
which they had made donations (and recorded an
endorsement testimonial) was never built nor was ever
intended to be built.[23]
The judgment was later reversed on appeal.[24]
The
decline of Success-N-Life also led to the end of
Tilton's 25-year marriage to wife Marte, who had served
as the administrative head of the Word of Faith Family
Church and World Outreach Center, in
1993.
Conclusion
The Word of God warned about these false
prophets who would come to us in sheep's clothing, "Beware of false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves" (Matthew 7:15). We are warned in 2nd Peter 2:1, "But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies..."
Robert Tilton is a false prophet and the Word of God exposes him as such,
"Woe unto them! for they have gone in
the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward..."
(Jude 1:11). Again, the Word of God warns us in 1st Timothy 6:9, "But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."
I think Jesus said it best in Luke 12:15 ...
"Take heed, and
beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth."