The Poverty of the Prosperity Gospel: Part 1 (Post #14)

The prosperity gospel has been gaining more and more popularity in our day and age, and has been drawing many Christians into its belief system. With its rapid growth and far reaching influence, we as believers in Jesus Christ must be discerning and ask this difficult question: Does God teach this in His Word or is this a damnable heresy that will ultimately lead people to Hell?

 I’m breaking this up into a 2 part series due to the length of the study. In part 1 we are going to cover: What the prosperity gospel is, differences between the Old and New Covenant, what the New Testament teaches about prosperity, and how the Bible tells us to spot false prophets and teachers. This is a hugely important topic that needs to be discussed and dealt with, so I encourage you to read this with an open mind and wrestle with what we are going to talk about and share it with others. The worst thing we can do with things like this is stay silent.

 

So lets begin by answering the question, what is the prosperity gospel? Simply put it’s a message that teaches that believers in God will be prosperous in their finances, health, relationships, and career paths. It teaches that if you have a strong enough faith, and are willing to declare it out loud and visualize it enough, that God will do these things for you, and if they aren’t happening then your faith must not be strong enough and you are not fully living in “victory”. It is a message that teaches believers in Jesus will essentially have a problem free life and will experience a very prosperous life on earth. I want to use the Word of God to expose this false teaching, and reveal the poverty of the prosperity gospel.

 

The message has a huge emphasis on financial gain, and uses cherry picked verses to support it. In all honesty, the prosperity gospel is nothing more than the law of attraction dressed up in a Christian costume. The law of attraction is the belief made popular through the book “the secret”, but its roots go back much farther than that, and it teaches that whatever you think, visualize, and speak, actually manifests itself and will be attracted to you through vibrations and an unseen magnetic law of the universe. In this system of belief you are your own divine decider of destiny.

We will address why the law of attraction is not biblical, but first lets deal with the prosperity preaching. There are many dangers that arise from the prosperity gospel. The first and foremost is that its not the true gospel, and has no call to repentance and faith in Christ. There is no talk of sin, or the need for sanctification in a believers life. The emphasis is all on material, physical, and social gain. Lets see what Paul had to say about “gospels” that stray from the truth.

 

Galatians 1:8,9 says “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”

Apparently this was something so important to Paul that he repeats the warning he gives about false gospels. The problem of false teaching is nothing new, in fact as the writer of Ecclesiastes says “there’s nothing new under the sun”, which is confirmed by the fact that 2000 years after Pauls letter to the church in Galatia, this is still a huge danger to the church. His concern was that they were being misled by a false gospel, which in his own words was no gospel at all. The language he uses here is drastic. If anyone including angels were to preach a different gospel message, then that person would be cursed! Paul was worried for the believers in Galatia that he had fathered. His fear was they would be deceived.

The importance of the actual gospel message in its fullness cannot be overstated, because according to Romans 1:16, it is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes”. So the danger of any false teaching is that it doesn’t have the power to save people, and can lead them away from Christ. So rather than just simply saying the prosperity gospel is “another gospel”, I want to go through some passages from scripture that I believe prove this point.

 

First off, before we get into any verses, I think its important to start off by saying this. The old testament is filled with verses that support the idea of prosperity being promised to Gods people. In fact it was deeply woven into the Old Covenant. You can find an endless amount of proof texts to support the prosperity gospel from the old testament, but the truth of the matter is every one of the Old Testament writers were living in the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was given to Abraham and further stated to Moses when the law was given. It was essentially a promise between God and the Israelites to bless them and their decendants, dependent on their obedience to Him. Instead of writing out all the blessings and curses listed in Deuteronomy 28 where the Old Covenant is clearly stated, I will simply give the two key verses.

 

Deuteronomy 28:1,2 says “If you indeed obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe ALL His commandments I am giving you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the Lord your God.” Then it goes on for the next 7 verses to list the blessings that are dependent on them keeping ALL the commandments.

 

Deuteronomy 28:15 says, “But if you ignore the Lord your God and are not careful to keep ALL His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force.” Then it goes on for the next 10 verses listing the curses that will come upon Israel if they are not perfectly obedient to ALL the commandments.

 

We all know what happens next in the story. The Israelites did not keep the law perfectly, and in fact strayed from the true God to false idols many times. God would graciously raise up a prophet or king to point the people back to the Lord, then they would fall back into their old sinful and disobedient ways. This went on over and over and over. So needless to say, the long list of blessings in Deuteronomy 28 did NOT apply anymore to them, and the long list of curses did. However God did not leave His people without hope. He had already instituted the animal sacrificial system to temporarily wipe away their sins, a system which imperfectly pointed towards the Messiah who would one day keep the law perfectly, go to the cross willingly, and take on Himself the sins of the world and the curse that has come upon all who cannot meet the Old Covenants perfect requirements.

 

To show Christ taking the curse on Himself, lets read Galatians 3:13-14 which says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith“.  Why did Christ redeem us from the curse of the law? So that we may receive the promise of the Spirit, all to the praise of His glorious grace! This is the purpose of the New Covenant.

 

To show Christ imputing His righteousness lets read Philippians 3:9, which says “And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Also 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” So we see in these 2 passages that Jesus offers us His righteousness in exchange for our sin, all for the price of faith. We are justified and declared righteous by grace through faith in Christ alone. This is the power and beauty of the New Covenant compared to the Old.

 

And lastly to show that we are no longer in the Old Covenant, lets read Hebrews 8:6 which says, “But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for He is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises“. So we read that Jesus has a superior ministry compared to the priests of the Old Covenant, and that He now mediates for us a better covenant (the New Covenant), which is established on better promises, namely, the promise of the Spirit and salvation through faith in Christ rather than our own obedience to the law. Also the beauty of the New Covenant is that it is not only for the Jews like the Old Covenant was but to anyone who accepts Christ as their savior.

 

So we can see a very huge difference between the Old and New Covenants. The Old Covenant was dependent on our own righteousness through the law, the New Covenant depends on Christ’s righteousness that we are given through faith. The Old Covenant was a “come and see” message of Gods goodness and mercy towards His specific chosen people the Israelites. The New Covenant is a “go and tell” message to all people of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and His righteousness given to us through faith that He obtained through perfect obedience to the law and Old Covenant. Many of the promises and blessings described in the Old Covenant are simply not found at all in the New Covenant, because Gods promise had changed and purpose for reaching the world with it. In the New Covenant, what leads someone to God is not how materially blessed an individual or nation is or can be in the worldly sense, but the good news of Jesus dying for our sins and offering us salvation through faith in Him.

 

Hopefully that clears up some covenant confusion, along with the multiple prosperity promising verses found in the Old Testament.

 

Now, moving on to the verses I believe are in direct conflict with the prosperity message. Although there are plenty of verses that speak against riches in the Old Testament, I am going to only focus on verses found in the New Testament, under the New Covenant.

 

Lets start with what I believe is the clearest objection to the prosperity gospel.

1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is NOT of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

So there is a lot going on in that passage so lets break it down. First off we are commanded not to love the world or the THINGS in the world. By doing so, the love of God will not be in our hearts. What are the “things” of the world you may ask? John answers that for us in verse 16, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. What exactly do those things mean? Well the lust of the flesh has to do with sensual desires for pleasure and things that are going to make you feel good, including sexual immorality, drugs, and excessive alcohol use. The lust of the eyes is what really delivers a blow to the prosperity gospel. The lust of the eyes is things we see and desire to have. This would absolutely include riches, along with cars and houses and toys and things like that.

These things in themselves are not evil, however if we love the world and the things in it, we will lust after these things and desire them which NOWHERE is instructed for us to do in the New Covenant. Lastly, the pride of life. The pride of life is the desire to be known, respected, famous, or important. The pride of life inflates our ego and is spoon fed to us through the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel says its okay to desire things that will bring pleasure, its okay to desire material wealth, and its okay to desire prideful jobs and social statuses. Why? Because we are all “destined for greatness”, and have “royal blood”, and “shouldn’t settle for what we have”. These are all teachings that go against biblical Christianity. That may be a bold statement, but lets continue to look at some other verses that will back it up.

 

Next lets turn to 1 Timothy 6:6-10 which says, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be CONTENT. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of ALL kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

 

Being content with becoming more godly is great gain. There is no emphasis on godly living in the prosperity gospel. No preaching on the destructiveness of sin which will inevitably lead unbelievers to hell. This passage says we should be content with having our needs met, like food and clothing and shelter. People who desire to be rich fall into temptation and many foolish and harmful lusts which cause destruction in their lives. The prosperity gospel not only allows for the desire for riches, but ENCOURAGES it as one of its main teachings. And lastly in the passage, we see that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and has caused people to stray from the faith in greed and led to many sorrows. Why would God want us to desire something that He says in His word has the likely possibility of leading us astray from Him? The answer is He wouldn’t do that. God doesn’t contradict Himself. He desires that we be content with growing in godliness and having our actual needs met, which is something I do believe is promised to us.

 

Next lets look at a couple verses where Jesus speaks about the dangers of financial prosperity.

Matthew 19:23-24 says, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God“.

Jesus says this to his disciples right after counseling the rich young ruler, and instructing him to sell all his possessions to follow Him. Jesus, the 2nd person of the trinity, the eternal God of creation, all wise and powerful, is telling his disciples with perfect clarity that “IT IS HARD FOR SOMEONE WHO IS RICH TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN“. He even goes as far as saying that its easier for a camel to go through a tiny needle eye than for a rich person to enter the kingdom. He is not saying it’s improbable, he is saying its impossible. That’s when His disciples ask “who then can be saved?” and Jesus answers “with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. This means that unless God intervenes and supernaturally changes a rich mans heart, it will be impossible for them to enter the kingdom. This is not a verse we should take lightly.

 

Here is another verse from Jesus addressing the dangers of storing up wealth, Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

The teaching here is simple. Do not make earthly things your treasure, but instead the heavenly things. Heavenly things are the promised realities we have in Christ, some of which are experienced now, some of which will be experienced later. Heavenly treasures cannot be taken away. The danger of earthly treasures is that our heart becomes attached to whatever we place the highest value on. So Jesus is saying beware of placing too much value on your money, job, family, hobbies, cars, and whatever else, because all these things can be taken away. If these are the things you treasure the most, then your heart and faith will be shattered if either one of these things happen: you don’t get those earthly treasures, or you get them but they are removed from your life.

 

Lets now look at another teaching from Jesus. In this passage, Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower, who sowed seed (the gospel) onto different types of soil(people), and the results of it. In this verse Jesus explains what the seed that fell by the thorns represents. Mark 4:18-19 says, “Now these are the ones sown among thorns, they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

 

This passage comes as a huge warning. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things choke out the word of God, and the believer becomes unfruitful. Wow. Once again, what does the prosperity gospel teach? Its okay to have cares for this world, to desire financial prosperity, and desire things other than godliness. The two gospels could not be any more different, and yet prosperity gospel preachers get away with deceiving people because they use just enough truth to make it believable.

 

Speaking of these false teachers, or wolves in sheeps clothing, lets look at some verses that describe how we can spot them.

Here is Paul warning Timothy who is overseeing a church what to look out for.                  2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

 

If this passage does not deliver the finishing blow to the prosperity gospel, and reveal the truth and heresy of it, than nothing will. It says people will get tired of orthodox, sound biblical doctrine. So to suit their own desires, they will seek after and gather teachers who are preaching whatever their itching ears want to hear. What do they want to hear? That they will be blessed financially, relationally, socially, and in their health. What do they not want to hear about? Their sin, their need for repentance, and their need to make Jesus Lord of their life. What is the result of this? They turn their ears AWAY FROM THE TRUTH and turn aside to myths and lies.

Another passage that Jesus addresses characteristics of false teachers is found in Luke 6:26, which says, “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

Once again, prosperity preachers fit this description perfectly. Everyone speaks well of them, even non believers. It is because they are false prophets who are not delivering the true convicting message of the gospel.

Here is the final passage about false teachers I will use, although there are many more. 2 Peter 2:1-3 says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disgrace. In their GREED these teachers will EXPLOIT you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”

 

How does someone “secretly introduce destructive heresies”? These wolves in sheep’s clothing feed people lies sprinkled with truth. That is the only way to “secretly” do it. If it wasn’t sneaky and deceptive, it wouldn’t work. What does the verse mean when it says they will deny the sovereign Lord who bought them? Well the fact Peter attaches the word  “sovereign” next to Lord implies they are denying His total control. To deny Gods control is to say there are things that we can make happen that may be out of His control. Denying Gods total control is blasphemy and creates a false God in your mind who doesn’t exist. And the last thing that’s very important to point out from this passage is that because of their greed, they will exploit the people who follow them.

What does this mean? It means these false teaching wolves will manipulate people for financial gain. Do prosperity preachers do this? Absolutely. They all encourage people to tithe to their churches, to send in financial support, and buy their books and CD’s, despite the fact that you are barely able to put food on the table. They twist scripture in their favor to guilt people into giving.  They even fly in their private jets to third world countries and preach this garbage to them, promising financial prosperity and health to dying and desperately poor people. People like that do not need false hope in prosperity, they need the true hope of the gospel. What happens to all these people in third world countries when they try to apply the principals of the prosperity message and law of attraction  and nothing happens as they continue to face tribulations? They turn away from God because the prosperity gospel simply does not prepare people for that. But what would happen if they preached repentance of sin and faith in Christ, along with picking up their cross to follow Him? I assume they would face their future struggles differently.

 

That’s all we’re going to cover in part 1. Part 2 will be posted shortly and we will be covering how the prosperity gospel fails to prepare people for suffering, the false teaching of the law of attraction, the problem with focusing only on positivity, and the conclusion to this whole study.

This may be too soon to say, but if you already feel convicted that you have been following after this false teaching and have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, I urge you to repent and turn to Him. He doesn’t promise you material prosperity, but He promises something far greater, spiritual prosperity and forgiveness of sins. Turn away from materialism and being the decider of your destiny and trust in the sovereign God of the universe who ALONE is in control and can save you!

Thanks for reading, I hope this has shined some light!