The Sweet Taste of Vomit

https://petehurst.com/wealth-is-not-the-problem/

I was sorry to see (but not terribly surprised) the confused publishers of The Aquila Report endorsed this article by republishing it.

Hurst is a former PCA pastor who still speaks in PCA/OPC circles. He retired from the ministry and decided to get into real estate and get rich. He justifies this by means of Kuyperian argument. He is unapologetic in his celebration of wealth and the 'good life'.

Calvinism has historically embraced a form of Prosperity Gospel and yet Hurst takes it to another level - a kind of tackiness that seems to emerge from American soil.

Wealth is not evil he says. Well, Christ says that you cannot serve God and mammon. As far as whether or not someone in congress is rich matters little to me. I think the argument is such that a person of great wealth is unlikely to be a good representative of their constituency.

On the other hand it could be argued that someone who is wealthy might be less prone to corruption. But the record demonstrates that this is not the case. When we look at figures like Darrell Issa, Jim Justice, Rick Scott, and Mark Warner, it's clear that wealth does not insulate from the influences of big money and corruption.

Contrary to Hurst, money is not neutral - all the more when we're talking vast quantities of wealth. Quantity can at a certain point change the very quality of the wealth. It corrupts, traps, poisons, and destroys faith. Has he read the New Testament?

In addition to the Proverbs, the apostle warns of vanity and the temptations of the flesh via lust and wantonness. Hurst is blind, utterly blind to the effects of investment and so-called wealth creation and what it does to his fellow man and how he builds his wealth by taking money out of the hands and mouths of others, and at the expense of families and communities. He's a parasite who makes his money by sleight-of-hand tricks, dodgy tactics, and a rejection of the call to treat others the way he would want to be treated.

Like the false teachers Peter warns about, Hurst promises liberty but instead pursues doctrines and ethics that result in bondage. There is a real danger for those who have escaped the world and yet return to it - such as Church leaders who abandon their office and calling in order to pursue mammon. It is in every sense like the dog returning to his vomit.

But Hurst has a message - the vomit tastes good.

He boasts in his 'success' even while his website offers a clear testimony of his reprehensible and corrupt life-path, his self-defeating and anti-Scriptural reasoning, and his bankrupt testimony.

His so called worldview is little more than placing Capitalist ethics over Scriptural teaching.

I'm reminded of the character 'Cypher' in The Matrix who after betraying his companions dines on steak with Agent Smith. He states, "You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss."

Hurst's thinking represents a prioritisation of this world, its delicacies and its vapour-promises of the 'good life' over eschatological reality - as well as a rejection of the pilgrim calling. He masks it all by weaving a theological mist, but the student of Scripture can see through it in an instant.

We're to believe that because his character is so sterling, he can handle the wealth. Perusing his website, that's not what I come away with.

Consider this filth:

https://petehurst.com/spend-money-to-grow/

It is filth because it masquerades as Christian even while it undermines and contradicts New Testament teaching. How is this advice any different from the man who said he would tear down his barns and build bigger ones? How is this not finding satisfaction and meaning in profit and wealth for wealth's sake? You can hide what you're doing by pretending that it's self-improvement or helping you 'grow' as a person. How does this help you grow? How does accumulating more money help you to know God better?

It doesn't, in fact the New Testament teaches the opposite, and so the criteria being employed is other than that of Scripture. Since this twisted ethic is given a theological cover by Hurst, we call it filth, the same vomit that appears in the other article.

How about something completely different? How about give no thought for the day? How about laying up your treasures in heaven? How about setting your mind on things above? Christ condemns the things the Gentiles seek and contrasts it with those who walk as citizens of the Kingdom. Hurst (and he's hardly alone) baptizes the worldliness of the Gentiles and re-defines the Kingdom in order to make it work.

This has larger implications. I think about this all the time as I observe the Anabaptist community which has grown quite wealthy. Money leads to spending and a growing consumerism. We're now seeing Amish and Mennonites everywhere, in stores they (at one time) never visited. Instead of the Friday 'going to town', they're now out every day of the week - spending and spending and ironically (I would testify) they're literally getting fatter.

Wealth ties one in with larger circles and before you know it you're worried about taxes and regulations, legalities, and competition. It changes your values. I'm not terribly surprised to see a Confessional Presbyterian fall into this trap. They've worshipped mammon from the beginning and it's deeply ingrained in their American tradition which they long baptised. But it's startling to see this at work among the Anabaptists. What strikes me most about Hurst is his bold and unapologetic celebration of wealth. I suppose in some respects this goes along with the politics and ethos of the present. I'm reminded of other false teachers such as David Bahnsen, Dave Ramsey and others who seem to be experiencing a wave of popularity. Hurst is cut from the same theologically diseased cloth.

No doubt many will embrace his message with great zeal and even joy. Why wouldn't they? It tickles ears and feeds the flesh - granting vindication to what is simply worldly impulse and ethics.

But in order to do so they have to persistently and deliberately ignore what the New Testament teaches about wealth and wealthy people and how this is tied in with power and the desire for more. And further, the New Testament reveals the typology of the Old Covenant and thus we understand the riches of men like Abraham and Solomon and how their wealth was typological and yet also failed - something less than the true wealth that is already hinted at in the wisdom and prophetic literature. The New Testament lays all of this bare and calls those who are of the Kingdom to a higher calling and thus (following Christ and the apostles) we must reject and repudiate the message brought by those such as Hurst.