Televangelist Paula White Hawks Resurrection Life for $1144 "Seed"

Longtime televangelist and senior Pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, Paula White offered her followers an Easter Sunday deliverance from a spiritual death sentence for a $1,144 "resurrection seed" she says was set by God.

Preaching the story of Lazarus who Jesus resurrected from the dead in John 11:38-44, White promised believers in a video appeal that if they would sow the seed and have faith, she believed deliverance would come.

"I don't know what is dead. I don't know what the enemy sent a death to. I don't know what decision that caused death to come upon whatever the situation you're facing, but I do know that God has sent me to you to bring resurrection life. To tell you that I believe that as we put our faith together before Easter Sunday on March 27, there's gonna be resurrection life in your life," said White.

"The grave clothes are coming off," she continued. "Whatever residue of death. Whatever residue is holding you back, it is coming off."

White then revealed to her audience that she didn't normally request a specific amount in monetary donations but said God was very specific about the amount required for the so-called resurrection seed.

"There's someone that God is speaking to, to click on that donation button by minimizing the screen. And when you do to sow $1,144. It's not often I ask very specifically but God has instructed me and I want you to hear. This isn't for everyone but this is for someone. When you sow that $1,144 based on John 11:44 I believe for resurrection life," said White.

For those who couldn't afford her specific request for the resurrection seed, White encouraged them to give smaller donations.

"You say, Paula, I just don't have that, then sow $144. I don't have that. Sow $44 but stand on John Chapter 11:44," she asserted.

White then promised that in return for sowing the resurrection seed, donors would receive special prayer cloths that could possible cause special miracles, signs and wonders.

"And when you do, there are prayer cloths that we have anointed that we have prayed over, that are going to be a point of contact. In Acts 19, the Bible says, Paul prayed over these prayer cloths and they brought forth special miracles, signs and wonders. There have been times that I have taken prayer cloths that have been anointed as a point of contact. I put them in my loved ones sneakers, I put them under their bed. I put them on parts of my body that I believe God for healing," said White.

"And it was the most dire, distressed, absolutely devastating circumstance. I would stand in faith that that miracle was gonna come forth and I would watch God do it. God has never failed. I can sit here and say this. There is not anything in my life that I've prayed according to the word of God and I've not seen God answer," she continued.

White was quick to note, however, that donors who sow a resurrection seed should not expect God to respond like a "sugar daddy."

"Cause there are things I've prayed out of ignorance or asked out of my own desire and I said God, but your will be done. 'Cause I knew, His word is His will. See His will is for whatever is dead in your life to come back to life. How do I know? John 10:10. Jesus came to give you life and give you life more abundantly," she said. "So click on and minimize that screen and right now sow your miracle resurrection seed as we stand in faith together and I believe God for your miracle."

[metmom]Don't go moving the goalposts now. You asked for an example of Biblical Christianity, not a leader of Biblical Christianity.

My original question was to Gamecock: [SP]SO, this is a leader of the protestant version of Christianity?

Which you responded to me with: [metmom] SO, this is a leader of the protestant version of Christianity?

This is an example of where religion will land you.

What it's not an example of is true Biblical Christianity.

This person is not a Christ follower, which is clear for anyone famil8iar with Scripture.

Which one of us is moving goalposts?

What kind of gotcha are you after, BTW?

There's noooo gotcha. I'm trying to nail down what exactly you and people like you think is real "Christianity".

In all honesty, you and all that like you are totally baffling to me.

And I think I've figured it out. No snarkiness intended. Seriously. I'm typing this completely dead pan. Maybe an occasional "Mr. Spock eyebrow"...

All the people posting all these religious posts, believe in their own concept of Jesus. But not Jesus the person. They follow that concept, but not the real thing.

Christ followers do not follow men. Religious people follow men.

This is what I'm talking about. Jesus Himself commanded that those that follow Him were to follow His chosen leaders. Jesus has even laid down the law in Luke 13 and said it is for this very reason, not following his chosen servants that the vast majority of so called believers would be cast out at the last day.

Revelation 11 talks explicitly about two of His leaders. He showed these two to John because these would be killed in Jerusalem just before the second coming of Christ as a sign.

In Luke 13 Jesus states that He will show to all those "believers" that are being cast out all the prophets that they rejected. And it will be such a shock that they will weep and gnash teeth.

By your own words metmom, you won't follow any man. So where does that leave you at the last day?

Is this a better example of "making it personal" or being a "Biblical Christian"?

It's on RECORD that he approves of the following:

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses , vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

Jesus Himself commanded that those that follow Him were to follow His chosen leaders.

In conclusion let us summarize this grand key, these “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, for our salvation depends on them.

1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed—reject them and suffer.

I testify that these fourteen fundamentals in following the living prophet are true. If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain—how close do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living Prophet—President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency.

Ezra Taft Benson

(Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University) http://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/fourteen-fundamentals-in-following-the-prophet?lang=eng

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