Pilgrim Soldier

On one of the blogs I read there are some videos exposing the financial affairs of Benny Hinn and his ministry. Now I purposefully don’t want to criticise people directly on this blog so I’ll keep my personal opinions of this man and others like him to myself. What is interesting to me though is the ease with which some Christians build their ministries into multi-million dollar corporate machines, and how easily many Christians seem to be willing to support these ministries.

It seems that people can’t seem to accept the pricelessness of God’s grace. It is probably the only thing that is truly priceless in this world. Why? Because Jesus has already bought it for anyone who is willing to accept the gift. The problem is that it seems that people truly believe that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”. We are always looking for the catch. In a world where money seems to be able to buy anything is it such a big leap that people think that it will also buy healing and salvation?

It strikes me as a very similar thing to that which Martin Luther fought against when he questioned the selling of indulgences by the Church.

The problem is probably of our own making. For centuries the Church’s structures have built a barrier between man and God in just the same way as the curtain in the Temple. These can be as big as doctrinal issues and as small as styles of worship or even the way we act. Is it any wonder that God’s grace seems to come at a price?