Page 64 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

Jesus said that those who are poor in spirit are blessed. The poor in spirit therefore
are blessed. The poor in the material sense, however, cannot be blessing. Someone
insists that Christians should endure the suffering, poverty, and sickness of this
world in order to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ. How foolish they are!
What kind of suffering did Jesus Christ receive? There is no record in the Bible
that Jesus suffered from poverty or physical ailment. 146

David Cho preached “the Gospel of full salvation,” meaning salvation from spiritual destruction,

physical sickness, and financial poverty. He preached that the blessings of salvation and the

baptism of the Holy Spirit are speaking in tongues, physical health, and financial prosperity. His

theology finds its support on an interpretation of 3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I pray that all may go

well with you and that you may be in health; I know that it is well with your soul.”

Clearly, this type of preaching appeals to the people’s needs of prosperity and “to the

shamanistic ideology of wish-fulfillment;” 147 yet, this type of preaching contains critical flaws.

First, it shares the same critical error of anthropocentricism with the aforementioned practical

life-situational preaching. Though this preaching mentions the cross and resurrection, it does so

only to meet the prosperity and comfort needs of human problems. By doing so, the human

becomes the center of preaching. 148 Secondly, the content of such sermons easily mixes with the

preacher’s thoughts wedded to secular ideology rather than biblical ideas.

Thirdly, this preaching is seriously dependent on the personal subjective experiences.

Success stories and spiritual experience plays a significant role in sermon contents. Moreover,

the authority of the sermon relies upon the experience of the preacher, miraculous healing

146
Yong Gi Cho, “Pastor and the Theology of Preaching,” in Church Growth I (Seoul:
Young San Publishing Co., 1981), 21.

147 Eun Kim, “Preaching of Transfiguration,” 69.

148
Joong-Pio Lee, Kyohoe Sungjang-kwa Kerygma Sulkyo (Church Growth and Kerygma
Preaching) (Seoul: Qumran Publishing Co., 1988), 133.