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| Inside Creflo Dollar's $70 million luxury jet |
So now it can be told: Several big time evangelists travel in private luxury jets for spiritual and safety reasons. At least that's what big-timers such as Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Jesse Duplantis claim.
Here's Duplantis explaining why he needs his own luxury jet in order to bring the good news of the prosperity gospel to the poor and downtrodden: "As I was going home (one day), the Lord, real quickly, he said, 'Jesse, do you like your (commercial) plane? I thought, 'That's an odd statement.' I said, 'Well, certainly, Lord.' He said, 'Do you really like it?' And I thought, 'Well, yes, Lord.' Then he said this: 'So that's it? You gonna let your faith stagnate?'"
Duplantis claims that God encouraged him to stop traveling on commercial jets and to get his own personal plane so the evangelist could talk to the Lord privately without being interrupted by his fellow travelers.
If you suspect that Duplantis is a prosperity preacher who spun that yarn in order to justify his material opulence, you're correct. Fellow prosperity guru Kenneth Copeland went Duplantis one step further with this: Now Oral [Roberts] used to fly airlines. But even back then it got to the place where it was agitating his spirit, people coming up to him; he had become famous, and they wanted him to pray for them and all that. You can't manage that today, this dope-filled world, and get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. It's deadly.
Copeland claims that he needs his own private luxury jet because he encounters demons on commercial flights. Yes, that's right; demonic spirits that encourage dope-heads to annoy him on airplanes and interrupt his quiet time with God.
You can believe that if you want. Obviously, a lot of people believe that because prosperity preachers such as Copeland, Dollar and Duplantis have cult-like followings that respond like Pavlov's canines to anything their heroes ask of them. Such as sending them the big coin in order to finance their lavish lifestyles.
The appropriately named Dollar came under intense criticism last year after he asked his followers to send in the coin so the globetrotting minister could purchase a new plane to replace his old used up plane. Nothing wrong with that except that the new plane was a Gulfstream G650 that came with a hefty $70 million price tag. But what's $70 million when you're trying to travel around a dope-filled world and avoid the demons?
Dollar's ministry circled the wagons by issuing a statement that claimed the board of directors of Creflo Dollar Ministries (CDM) approved of the Gulfstream purchase rather than the evangelist: While he is the spiritual leader and the public face of CDM around the world, he is also the CEO of a global, multinational ministry corporation and, as such, reports to this board like any other CEO. When Dr. Dollar steps forward to announce a ministry initiative, please make no mistake that it is actually an action of this Board.
Sure, and it snows in Miami. Without Creflo Dollar, there wouldn't be a Creflo Dollar Ministries. Celebrity evangelists often set up management boards simply to deflect the blame incurred by terrible decisions such as the decision to blow $70 million on a private luxury jet. When the manure hits the fan, the evangelists such as Dollar blame the management board.
A significant reason why Christianity has a serious credibility problem in the world today is because of folks such as Dollar, Copeland and Duplantis. Certainly, there are others--and plenty of them. The prosperity preachers are con artists who tell gullible folks what they want to hear in order to get into their wallets.
In fact, that's prophetic, and the apostle Paul revealed this: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Prosperity hucksters promise folks that they can become wealthy simply by using their faith to command God and His angels to bring them the cash. And they pervert the scriptures to justify such heresy. But pause and think about this: If the prosperity preachers claim they can teach you how to use faith to get rich, then why are they asking you to send them money?
Concerning greed, Paul wrote this: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
Maybe the above scripture is why Copeland, Dollar, Duplantis etc. don't want to fly commercial. Certainly it would be embarrassing if some poor, demon influenced person interrupted your conversation with God and quoted that scripture to your face. Indeed.
A significant reason why Christianity has a serious credibility problem in the world today is because of folks such as Dollar, Copeland and Duplantis. Certainly, there are others--and plenty of them. The prosperity preachers are con artists who tell gullible folks what they want to hear in order to get into their wallets.
In fact, that's prophetic, and the apostle Paul revealed this: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Prosperity hucksters promise folks that they can become wealthy simply by using their faith to command God and His angels to bring them the cash. And they pervert the scriptures to justify such heresy. But pause and think about this: If the prosperity preachers claim they can teach you how to use faith to get rich, then why are they asking you to send them money?
Concerning greed, Paul wrote this: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
Maybe the above scripture is why Copeland, Dollar, Duplantis etc. don't want to fly commercial. Certainly it would be embarrassing if some poor, demon influenced person interrupted your conversation with God and quoted that scripture to your face. Indeed.
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