Christian rapper Shai Linne said he has never been against naming names.
He doesn’t want to be hasty, but it’s been a decade since he last rapped about the prosperity gospel — ample time to see the fruit of “false prophets.”
So on his latest single, “Fal$e Teacher$,” Linne calls out 12 preachers by name — Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and nine others — each followed by “is a false teacher.”
The song has lit up the Christian blogosphere and elicited responses from at least one of the preachers named in the list.
In a seven-minute video blog posted by Linne’s label, Lamp Mode Recordings, he said he wrote the song to warn “brothers and sisters” in Africa “who may not have access to the resources that we have here in America.”
Stadiums packed with 100,000 people in Africa who are “impoverished like crazy” are hearing the prosperity gospel preached and “buying into it, thinking this false theology is their way out of poverty. They figure, ‘Hey, it must work because it’s working for these guys in America,’” Linne told Wade-O Radio.
Before Linne wrote the song, he spent several days watching the teachers he named in the song.
“As I listened, I noticed a pattern,” he said in the video blog. “The preacher would maybe make a reference to the Bible, and then they would just go on and on about the good stuff that God wanted to do for people. It usually involved money or healing, and it was always centered on self as though God exists for us instead of the other way around.”
The preachers “work the crowd up into this emotional kind of frenzy” and then ask them to “sow a seed” financially, Linne said.
“Before you know it, people are rushing the stage to throw money at the preacher,” he said. “It’s just, it’s a straight-up scam. And these ministries are pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In the song, Linne accused them of “treating Jesus like a lottery ticket,” noting that those who use Jesus as “a means to an end” in order to live “your best life now” are “headed for hell.”
“Do you wanna know what all false teachers have in common? It’s called self-ism, the fastest growing religion. They just dress it up and call it Christian,” he raps in the song.
In the video blog, Linne challenged listeners to read Matthew 7:16 and 2 Peter 2:1–3 and use the Word of God to recognize false teachers.
“Study your Bible,” he urged. “Look at all the passages that deal with false teachers and just notice what they have in common and then compare it with what you see from prosperity preachers.”
Preachers named in the song were Osteen, Meyer, Hinn, Paula White, Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes, Fred Price, Kenneth Copeland, Robert Tilton, Eddie Long, Juanita Bynum and Paul Crouch.
The song elicited a quick response from Bradley Knight, Paula White’s son, defending Paula White Ministries and stating Linne’s claims are unfounded. He also chided Linne for publicly criticizing his mother’s work.
“I pray you re-evaluate your stance,” said the letter, the full text of which is available on wadeoradio.com. “As of now, you are not operating according to the guidance of Matthew 7:16. You are instead falling into the trap that Titus 3:10–11 and Romans 16:17 warns us against.”
But evangelical leaders stepped out to back Linne. Theologian and pastor John Piper tweeted, “My, my, Shai, this is good,” on April 7, referencing the song and linking to the video blog that explained the rapper’s conviction to speak boldly.
And Thabiti Anyabwile, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, wrote in a blog on thegospelcoalition.org that the evidence itself backed Linne publicly.
“Not one of the teachers listed in Shai’s song could be called ‘unknown’ or ‘low key’ or otherwise ‘anonymous,’” he wrote. “These are some of the most high-profile figures in the evangelical (I use the term loosely) world. Their collective public influence is massive.”
And their teaching is public record, Anyabwile wrote.
“They have not taught these things in a corner, and the proliferation of books, websites and other resources means that a very public alternative and response needs to be given. We need a higher profile opposition to these high profile errors,” he wrote. “I’m thankful to Shai for the part he has played in doing this.”
Christians need to “grow up a little and accept the public accountability that’s necessary to guarding the gospel and guarding God’s people,” Anyabwile wrote.
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