Too Good to Be True 2-28-10
In the early 1920’s, Charles Ponzi made famous a particularly bad type of “get-rich-quick” scheme: the Ponzi scheme. His scheme bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars (in the 1920s) by promising a 50% return on their investment in 45 days, and a 100% return in 90 days. He claimed that he was investing their money in international reply coupons: a postage stamp that was priced at the postage rate in one country and worth the postage rate in whatever country it was used; essentially, he claimed to be buying them cheaply in Italy and redeeming them in the US with a 400% markup. In reality, he was using new money to pay old, meaning that the money invested by today’s investors would be used not to invest, but to pay the money owed to yesterday’s investors. Of course, eventually there were not enough new investors to cover the obligations to the old, and so the entire house of cards collapsed. Ponzi went to prison and many people came to realize that they had foolishly given their life’s savings to a conman.
People are not so different today as they were in the 1920’s. Remember Bernie Madoff’s $64 Billion Ponzi scheme? He fooled Wall Street experts and SEC regulators for years. People get fooled by these schemes because they forget their common sense: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And the sad part is that there are many great opportunities out there, but most people do not notice them because they are disguised as hard work and disciplined behavior. Americans have been raised to think they are being “risk-adverse,” when in reality they are “effort-adverse.” Many immigrants come to this country with very little money and no ability to speak English, and in a few short years wind up owning successful businesses. But they did not throw their money away on gimmicks, but rather put it to work carefully and intelligently (and put themselves to work, as well).
Modern American evangelism, sadly, has more to do with “get-rich-quick” schemes than with hard work and disciplined behavior. How many churches build their followings around novelties and gimmicks? Consider the discipling movement, in which one member exercises control over another member (made famous in the Boston-movement). How many churches try to reach people through a consumer model? The “emerging church” movement, emphasizing the “here and now” in a very postmodern way and thereby de-emphasizing questions of eternal salvation is a good example of reaching through repackaging the message (such as salvation through recitation of the believer’s prayer). How many churches are arranged around a cult of personality, and are centered on one dynamic speaker or celebrity? There are many churches that face this dangerous road – the Calvary Chapel churches form themselves around the “Moses model” (as they call it), in which a pastor acts as the executive and is advised by a board of elders.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:1-7 NIV)
The sad part is that there is a perfect plan waiting for us. But our “get-rich-quick” mentality will not let us see it; we want something that costs us nothing or that substitutes for other activities such as entertainment. But nothing but death can free you from your sins! Yes, that is right: you cannot escape the fact that you will die for your sins. But because of Jesus, you can now choose: die to your sins through the waters of baptism, or die in your sins when you achieve room temperature (physical death). The choice is yours: the con or the Bible. Choose wisely, but choose quickly. In the words of the infomercials: act now, before it’s too late!