Senator Gazelka: Prepare for End Times

Review by John King

“Marketplace Ministers are part of how the Lord will reach the peoples of the earth in these last days.”

Author Paul Gazelka wrote this astonishing sentence near the conclusion of his 2003 book, Marketplace Ministers, but it is a good place to start here because it so neatly encapsulates the message of the book which is that business people, by spreading the Gospel, are in a unique position to prepare us, for the end of the world.  

Gazelka, an insurance salesman in Baxter, Minnesota, devotes chapters one through four to the story of his religious calling and how he came to adopt the “marketplace” as his personal ministry.  He goes to some length, relying in part on the “Fivefold Path” from Ephesians to convince the reader that the marketplace is a legitimate pulpit to spread the Word.  The remainder of the book, using personal anecdotes and biblical passages, he explains how a marketplace ministry would function and what its usefulness would be in the larger picture.

The first hint that the larger picture for Gazelka is the “End Times” comes when he outlines the role marketplace ministers will play in the Great Commission, which, for an end times preacher, requires spreading the gospel and saving as many people as possible.  It comes from Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Gazelka frames this calling as a marketplace minister as an essential role for business people: 

“Influential business people who are first interested in proclaiming the gospel will be greatly used by the Lord in world outreach.”

Antichrist - detail from a fresco at Osgovo Monastery in the Republic of Macedonia
The inscription reads "All kings and nations bow before the Antichrist"
Wikipedia

Gazelka is quite at home in the murky subculture of end timers, going into detail in the chapter called “End Time strategies for the Harvest”.  If you are not an end timer and missed the allusions, translated the chapter heading means, “How Marketplace Ministers can prepare for the Rapture.” Revelations 14 describes how before the second coming, the Lord thrusts his sickle into the Earth and reaps the harvest, gathering to him the chosen who will ascend through the air to join Him in heaven.  

Gazelka, a big thinker, looks well into the future even beyond the end times when the dust is settled from seven years of tribulation, the Antichrist is slain, true believers have ascended in the rapture and the 1000 years reign of Jesus is upon us in what is known as the “Kingdom”:

 “Marketplace ministers have a part in the end time strategy for reaching the world with the gospel.  All Kingdom strategy comes from God, and He decides who is best equipped and ready to bring it (the Kingdom) forth.”  

Gazelka prepares for the “harvest” at home where strict biblical observance requires obedience. “In the family, the Lord gives authority to the husband.  The wife honors the Lord with submission to her husband.”  He places great importance on submitting to authority calling it “flowing under authority.”

Gazelka’s personal life is woven throughout his narrative and he frequently asks his God for advice.  Early in his marketplace ministry, he asked God to help him find creative ways to make money and He answered saying, “Build a business, invest in other companies and develop rental properties.” In another instance of divine intervention God caused the city of Baxter to build a road past one of his properties thus “quadrupling its value.”

Gazelka, without a hint of embarrassment in his chapter seven called “Wealth for Sowing and Growing”, shamelessly says, “God wants to bless us.  He wants to prosper us. God’s plan is not about having all of our needs met. It's about having more than enough.”

Joel Osteen, the pastor of America’s largest church, and current chief huckster for Prosperity Gospel is perhaps the wealthiest pastor in America. He recently said to Oprah, “Jesus died that we might live an abundant life.” Marketplace Ministers is drenched with the self-justifying message of Osteen’s Prosperity Gospel.  Here are some quotes from chapter seven:

“Jesus talked more about money than any other subject in the Bible.””

“God wants to bless us and that included finances.”

“God has chosen the use of money and wealth as a means to further His Kingdom.”

“Spending money for the glory of God is a form of worship.”

Televangelist Joel Osteen
Wikipedia

One would think that, given this divinely ordained abundance, charity would be high on Gazelka’s priority list. But the only act of charity the author details is his gift of a used car to a needy minister.  This act of charity is mentioned twice in the book, so it apparently looms large in his list of accomplishments.  Worshipful spending, according to Gazelka, is making regular contributions to his 401-k and sending his children to private religious school.  Gazelka’s ministry seem to begin and end with the apparently urgent need to spread the word of the Gospel.  One is reminded of Joel Osteen’s church opening its doors in Huston to displaced hurricane families only after being shamed into doing so by an avalanche of condemnation on social media.

Gazelka praises his humility throughout the book because of his submission to God.  But he is oblivious to the outrageous arrogance of thinking God talks to him, even advising him on the best ways of making money.  Either his arrogance is so inflated that he can make that claim without blushing or his diminished and diminutive God has nothing better to do than hang around and wait for him to ask if he should go hunting or stay home.  The God he writes about is a sidekick that he can to turn to for advice.  Like a good sidekick God is there to justify and validate his buddy’s motives.  So Gazelka’s faith amounts to devoting himself to his “sidekick”. Gazelka’s God has no mystery.  There are no shadows, no doubts, no uncertainties in his faith.  The God of the Old Testament has been reduced to the status of a financial advisor for middle class prosperity seekers.  

Real humility resides more in doubt, not in the dangerous certainties of a true believer.  To think otherwise puts the evangelical fundamentalist in league with other religious zealots who would forcefully impose their will. Or, in Gazelka’s case, as the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader, construct laws tainted with the certainties of his religious beliefs.  

The religious beliefs of legislators do have political consequences. Paul Djupe, associate professor at Denison University specializing in religion and politics, says that the ideas behind the prosperity theology—that an individual is responsible for their socioeconomic status, and that financial wellbeing is an indicator of goodness—have permeated Republican politics. “It can be found in the anemic support for welfare and the safety net, weak support for regulations on business, weak support for organized labor, and positive feelings toward the wealthy.”  Prosperity theology, he says, “leavers little room for compassion for the marginalized.”

Marketplace Ministers is an unnervingly candid look at one person’s extreme religious views.  Ignoring it would be a mistake since the author as an influential Minnesota legislator in a position to act on his beliefs. 

Marketplace Ministers

Awakening God’s People in the Workplace to Their Ultimate Purpose

Pub. 2003, 148 pages

Author Paul Gazelka

Note: Link to Huffington Post article referred to in the comments; https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/omarosa-big-brother-mike-pence-donald-trump_us_5a829f71e4b01467fcf0ebd0