Bruce Wilkinson’s book “The Prayer of Jabez” hit the #1 best selling books in 2001 and captivated Christians everywhere. It was mass marketed in it’s success. Even years later, this little book is still being passed around and sold at church bookstores to a new generation that may have missed it’s exposure and the fad that hit the church starting years ago.
The author examines the ‘Prayer of Jabez’ from the Scriptures used in the book (1 Chronicles 4:9,10) and gives it’s proper meaning, in context, and shows the discrepancy in Wilkinson’s interpretation of scripture, citing from his book. Gilley observes; that the Church is now experiencing the beginning of the fallout that came with the ‘abandonment of truth’ and instead have had a preference for experiences and success stories, and he warns the Church to return to thorough bible study and proper means of interpretation and rightly dividing the word.
The author writes in his book; “In order to become successful, the church-growth gurus have convinced us that we must go easy on truth and heavy on things the consumer desires, such as self-fulfillment, entertainment, and prosperity. Yet God’s church is to be the Pillar and support of the truth (1Timothy 3:15), not the place where people are told what they want to hear. The conservative church is becoming increasingly hollowed out as it exchanges it’s biblical purpose for one that is market-suggested. Many local congregations still have the outward shell that allow them to resemble Christ’s church, but the substance is gone, and in time they will collapse spiritually.” (pg. 53) Gilley’s plea in this book is---a return to Scripture and reading and studying the bible. The book offers an excellent section on discernment, methods of interpretation, and how to study your Bible, giving several pages of examples which can be used in small group study. These helps were outstanding!
The author shows the lack of discernment on the part of the Christian, and gives the reasons why discernment is lacking. On pg 48): “The Prayer of Jabez is a thinly disguised version of the prosperity gospel. It is (perhaps unintentionally) designed to deceive those who may detect the folly of many false teachers, but do not have the biblical discernment to recognize the same untruths when it comes from a respected and unsuspected source.”
The knowledge gained from the reading of this book is not only beneficial in exposing the scriptural errors in ‘The Prayer of Jabez’ book but the lessons learned can also be applied to any best selling author or book of Today that needs to be examined and discerned biblically from the Bible.
Copyright © 2002
Publisher Xulon Press
ISBN-10: 1931232555