For decades, the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea has been considered the biggest mega-church in the world. In 2014 however, the pastor Yong Gi Cho was convicted of embezzling 12 million dollars from the church. He was given a suspended sentence and has since retired. According to an MSN article by Matthew Bell, PRI's The world, church membership has been declining ever since. This is not an isolated example because Christians all over the world, are leaving churches, but not their faith in Christ. The false doctrine of the prosperity gospel is one major reason.
The prosperity gospel at work
In the early day, Christianity was about believing that Christ was raised from the dead, and would one day return for those who believed in Him. Today, in many churches Christianity is about obtaining material wealth. The doctrine of prosperity teaches that when you "sow seeds" (giving additional money to your pastor above and beyond his salary, God will reward you financially). So today in many churches a different gospel is being preached.
After 20 plus years of this message going strong, people are beginning to see the light. They realize they are giving the prosperity to their spiritual leaders, but God is not giving it back to them in the way that was promised.
They are also seeing that preachers like Yong Gi Cho are becoming greedy. Increasingly prosperity teachers are being investigated by the IRS, arrested for embezzlement, or losing members when people catch on to the scam.
Why some will not speak out against prosperity doctrine
The teaching that you do not put your tongue against a preacher because he is God's anointed, causes many to turn a blind eye to the lies of the prosperity gospel.
Being told that you will be out of Gods will If you leave a church causes some to stay out of fear. Mature believers in Christ, who read the bible for themselves, recognize false doctrine for what it is. They also are seeing through the scare tactics and are boldly walking away from organized religion to maintain a life of prayer and bible reading on their own.
Unfortunately, those who speak out are accused of 'sowing seeds of discord.' This is why they are walking away. And when they do, they are often shunned by those who once fellowshipped with them. Its very sad that people who are barely making it themselves, are giving their hard earned money away and giving rich pastors additional prosperity. The good news is, that what is decreasing membership in the largest church in the world, at the same time the message is empowering believers everywhere, to stop funding a lavish lifestyle for shyster pastors.
