This week’s topic on the “prosperity gospel” has somewhat had me perplexed. Although, I do not agree with its teachings and claims, I do believe that there are good people who have been led astray by this new age notion that God has become our servant. Under normal circumstances, and in regular conversation I give my opinion on this subject rather bluntly, and that is what has been perplexing to me this week as I have thought on this. The struggle I have had is that I want everyone who reads this to understand that nowhere in the Bible is this way of thinking, living, teaching, or faith supported. Yet, I want to be sensitive to those who may have been lured in by this [false] gospel, because it is my place as a Christian to guide and help point out errors such as these but not in way that closes people off to hearing the real message of the gospel. That gospel is that Jesus Christ stepped out of eternity and took on flesh (John 1:14), lived a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22), died on a cross (John 19:30), was buried (John 19:38), rose again (1 Peter 1:3), and ascended to the Father (Acts 1:9). All that Christ did was for the purpose of our reconciliation,
Now for what the gospel of Jesus Christ is not. The gospel is not about “health, wealth, and happiness.” If you look at the ideals behind the “prosperity gospel” you will see that it is all based on physical/ material gain. Physically, this gospel claims that if a person’s faith is strong enough it can overcome illness, and the proponents of this gospel like to quote Isaiah 53:5 as their go to passage on this “with His wounds we are healed.”[1] The prosperity claimants teach that this verse is proof that Christ paid for all on the Cross, including physical healing. But how does this measure up in the reality of life? We know that Christians still get sick, believers are stricken with many diseases that they never recover from. How do we explain this type of teaching when healing never comes? This gospel proposes that our deliverance from such things is based on the amount of faith we have. The stronger the faith, the quicker and more powerful the healing, and vice-versa. As Ken Sarles put it in his article- A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel- “Obviously, those in the prosperity movement have a high view of human faith!”[2] Because more emphasis is placed on the amount of a person’s faith, instead of God.
That way of thinking is not limited to the physical health of those who follow this form of religion. It carries over into their desire for material prosperity, the belief is that if faith is strong enough money will come. If they feed into the storehouse of God, then whatever they invest will be multiplied back to them. This is truly spoken in Malachi 3:10, however, God spoke this in order to bring the nation of Israel back to Himself. God said that if they would honor Him, that He would honor them. Yet, their motives had to be pure, they didn’t put in what they had simply to gain more-the gain was a benefit-they put in because they wanted to love and honor God. But the teachers of this “prosperity gospel” call it “planting a seed” and teach that whatever you invest will be multiplied. That is the wrong motive, the believers motive for anything they do towards God should be because they are carrying out Matthew 22:37, “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and not because we are using God for our own gain. What the believer does should first be done with the intention of honoring and worshiping God, having an ulterior motive is simply trying to manipulate God.
There are many different aspects to this “prosperity gospel” and it not just confined to the examples above. Hopefully, by what has been said above one can see that this so-called gospel has very little- if anything- to do with God and His kingdom. This is a me-first gospel, it defines itself by teaching it followers how to depend on self instead of depending on God.
I encourage those who read this to closely examine the “prosperity gospel” in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also encourage you to study the Bible for yourself that way you will not be easily led astray. 1 Timothy 4:16 says, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
Blessings,
Pat
[1] All Scripture quotations taken from the ESV, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Sarles Ken L. 1986. “A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel.” Bibliotheca Sacra 143 (572): 329–52.