Review: American Gospel, Christ Alone

The documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone (2 hours 19 minutes) produced by Brandon Kimber is a defense of the gospel from the perspective of the conservative evangelical movement. It features repeated interviews and clips from John Piper, Mark Dever, John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Paul Washer, and many more.

The documentary does not hold back on presenting the Prosperity Gospel movement as a false gospel worthy of being exposed and rejected. It names nearly every leader within the movement and exposes fraudulent behavior, false doctrine, excessive lifestyles and more. Extended time is given to Costi Hinn, nephew of Benny Hinn. Costi left the movement and pulls back the curtain on behavior behind the Benny Hinn ministry. The quotes from John Piper on the wickedness of the Prosperity Gospel are as direct, even harsh, as I have heard from any fundamentalist preacher ever.

This exposé does not just attack the Prosperity Gospel, it also takes on Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, and the Market Church movement, including many revealing video quotes from Joel Osteen and even some from Rick Warren.

It includes a straightforward definition of the gospel and clearly identifies the error of merit based gospel presentations or of ministries that downplay the gospel. It also attacks various doctrinal errors characteristic of the Prosperity Gospel movement. Here are a few.

• “Little god” theology. The idea that all believers are “little gods” based upon a false understanding of the image of God in man.
• “Jesus Only a Spirit-filled Man” theology. The idea that Jesus laid aside all of his deity at the incarnation and did everything as a Spirit-filled man only. They do a pretty good job of rejecting this as error and showing it as a foundation of the Prosperity Gospel movement.
• “God doesn’t want to be sick or poor” theology. Of course this is the foundation of the movement.
• “Ecumenism.” The do attack the idea of the false unity with preachers of a false gospel, most notably Roman Catholicism. Those who teach false gospels must be noted and rejected.

KImber presents a biblically balanced view of praying for miracles and understanding the will of God regarding suffering, accompanied by some truly moving personal testimonies. He gives Bryan Chapell a lot of time, with his philosophy of preaching Christ from every passage of scripture. I have always felt that an overemphasis of this philosophy can lead to inappropriate spiritualization. These are good intramural discussions among preachers. The main point made in the documentary is the self-centeredness of Prosperity Gospel preaching and that point is well-made.

For FBFI-types, this documentary does give insight into the heartbeat of today’s conservative evangelical movement. It is not from a fundamentalist perspective and does not reflect typical fundamentalist lifestyle and worship values. We should not expect it to do so.

May the Lord bless Kimber and his group for taking this stand. They are certainly willing to speak up about it, publish regarding it, and actively condemn the error. SBC publications routinely condemn the Prosperity Gospel movement, maybe not as much the market church movement. It does leave me wondering. If these men (and women) are this passionate about the gospel—and I have no doubt that they are—how can they tolerate remaining in movements and denominational structures that tolerate the false gospels they oppose? How can Rick Warren and Mark Dever be in the same fellowship? How can John Piper continue within a conference that considers Greg Boyd’s Open Theism within the bounds of the “evangelical spectrum”? How can they condemn the Prosperity Gospel and ecumenism as evil and not even mention Beth Moore and her promotion of Joyce Meyer and her calling Roman Catholicism and evangelical denomination? I am not asking rhetorical questions or making veiled attacks. I truly do not understand it.

To be fair, this documentary is taking on the false teachers themselves and not necessarily all who promote them. It is already nearly two and a half hours long after all. I am thankful for it and it is a tremendous help. Yes, promoting false teachers is also error that will eventually have to be addressed (2 John 11). The logical (and biblical) end of this exposing process has to be biblical separation, not only from false teachers but also from those who participate with or promote them.  Exposing and speaking up publicly is a step of separation in itself.

Questions aside, this is a documentary that would be of great help to most FBFI-type pastors and leaders–at least for private viewing and maybe in a teaching setting.