Hey! Thanks for clicking on this post and for being interested in this topic, because its one that is of great importance! This is part 2 of a study we have been doing on the Prosperity Gospel. We have been making a biblical case against this false teaching, and will continue doing so here in part 2. If you have not read the first post, you can access it here The Poverty of the Prosperity Gospel: Part 1 (Post #14)
Today we are going to 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 of this whole study!
But before I do, I want to make something very clear. I do NOT believe God wants Christians to live in poverty. Also I don’t think it is evil for someone to have wealth. The rich young rulers problem was that his wealth was an idol, which is very common for people who become rich. With that being said, I do believe the Bible teaches that seeking after riches, desiring them, and “speaking them into existence” is all wicked and condemned in scripture.
If God blesses someone financially who is disciplined, mature, and wise with their money in ways that allow them to use their money for the kingdom of God and reach more people, then that is something totally different. The problem is the prosperity gospel does not make that distinction. It teaches that prosperity is for everyone, but God warns in His Word that it is indeed NOT for everyone, because of the temptation with greed, pride, and idolatry that follow. I believe God in His sovereignty selects very few people to carry the burden of financial prosperity without it being sin, but we should never assume we are the exception unless we have truly searched our heart. That being said, lets begin.
A huge problem with the prosperity gospel is that it does not prepare people for the realities that Christians will face and the suffering they will experience after giving their lives to Jesus. If someone builds their theology on prosperity preaching, then I believe they are “building their house on the sand”, and when the storms of life come crashing in they will fall. The disciples, along with the early church, knew the cost of following Jesus. They knew what they may have to sacrifice and go through for their faith. They knew what it meant to “take up their cross” to follow their Lord. Lets turn to that passage to see what Jesus has to say about becoming His follower.
Matthew 10:38-39 says, “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
You will never hear this verse preached from prosperity preachers because this verse clashes too much with their belief system. Lets examine what Jesus is saying here. What does it mean to take up our cross to follow Him? Well undoubtedly the disciples had a very vivid image of what Jesus meant when He talked about the cross, because they were familiar with how the Romans tortured and executed people on them. For Jesus to use the cross as a symbol for His followers was an invitation to come and die with Him. The cross was a symbol of pain, suffering, burden, and humiliation. Jesus knew what He needed to say to prepare them. He was not setting up an earthly kingdom like the Jews believed the Messiah would when He came. He was setting up the spiritual kingdom available to all who believe in Him after he went to the cross. The physical kingdom would come at His second coming.
So back to the verse. Jesus was preparing them for the trials and tribulations that were soon to come. He goes on to say that whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will find it. In other words, whoever chooses to follow their own path in life will in the end lose it, but whoever forsakes their own path and desires to follow Jesus and whatever plan and purpose He has for them, will in the end find it eternally. Very powerful words from our Lord and Savior, words that should be believed and applied to our lives by Gods grace. Lets look at another verse about suffering.
Romans 5:3-4 says, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope.”
What does it mean to glory in suffering? Well glory means honor,magnificence, and great beauty. We glory in this way, because the suffering is producing perseverance, character, and hope in our lives. When we face tribulations of any kind, having this biblical perspective allows us to trust God to produce these beautiful qualities in our lives. The ability to endure, the building up of our character and integrity, and the blessing of hope all are byproducts of suffering. To buy into the prosperity gospel, this verse must be ignored and thrown out because it doesn’t line up with its teaching.
This is dangerous because if you believe the reason you are experiencing a hard time is because your faith isn’t strong enough, you will lose out on the joy of God actually using it to grow your faith and trust in Him. Or worse yet, you may even abandon the faith altogether and believe the lie from Satan that God has forsaken you. Throughout the entire New Testament and early church trials and tribulations were welcomed as a privilege.
Lets read 1 Peter 2:21 which says, “For to this you were CALLED, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.”
Peter, who would go on to give his life as a martyr for his faith, is actually saying we have been called to suffer like Jesus. In fact Jesus left behind the example for us to follow in His steps. Obviously this doesn’t mean we will all have to be physically crucified, but it does mean we will be crucified in many other ways. Our ultimate aim as Christians is to glorify God by getting closer to Jesus and becoming more like Him. How are we going to become more like Jesus if we do not suffer? Better yet, how are we going to become more Christ like if we don’t EMBRACE suffering as an honorable thing that God can use in our life? The answer is we will NOT become more Christ like if we are not carrying our cross in His footsteps.
In this passage we see how the world will treat believers, Matthew 10:22 which says, “You will be hated by ALL because of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
When I read this passage, prosperity preachers do not come to mind. In fact, they are very well liked by everyone, including the secular world of non believers. You even will see them on popular television shows. Why? Because they are not preaching the gospel. They preach motivation and prosperity, so even nonbelievers are attracted to it. They compromise on biblical truths to avoid offending certain audiences. If they were to speak out against sin in Jesus name, they would lose popularity, which would in turn cause them to lose followers and people buying their books, which would in turn cause them to lose finances. They simply do not want this to happen, so they continue to preach watered down motivational cherry picked Bible verses to avoid confrontation or offense.
I now want to address the heresy within the prosperity gospel that teaches we can manipulate God and the universe by simply thinking different thoughts, visualizing, declaring it, and having a “strong enough faith”. Like I stated earlier, this is simply another form of the law of attraction. The law of attraction is found no where in the Bible, and in fact leads people to self centered reliance on their own ability to secure what they want in life.
Of course we attract people to us who are similar and like minded, so there are small grains of truth in it. But we have no destiny changing power. We have no creative power similar to Gods. We are Gods creatures, created to reflect His image and glory, not be exactly like Him. The lie that Satan used in the garden of Eden is the same lie being told through the prosperity gospel, that we can become “like God”. We have HUGE limits as finite beings, and all ultimate power and authority is Gods alone. Lets take a look at some verses that highlight Gods sovereignty in all matters.
Psalm 136:6 says, “Whatever the LORD pleases, HE does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.”
Psalm 115:3 says, “But our God is in the heavens; HE does whatever HE pleases.”
Isaiah 46:10 says, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘MY purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all MY good pleasure“.
Job 42:2 says, “I know that YOU can do all things, and that no purpose of YOURS can be thwarted.”
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
Ephesians 1:11,12 says, “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works ALL things according to the counsel of HIS will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”
Romans 4:17 says, “in whom Abraham believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist“.
Every one of these verses, along with the narrative of the Bible as a whole, points us to the fact that God alone is in control and able to work things according to His will. God alone can call things into existence that did not exist before. God alone can establish our steps even when we try to do things our own way. The prosperity gospel deceives people into believing that they are the masters of their own destiny. They are led to believe that they can speak things into existence and simply manifest their thoughts into reality. This belief system is so extremely close to New Age Occult beliefs and pagan religions like Buddism and Hinduism its scary.
Obviously there is a connection between our thoughts and actions, but there is a huge limit to how powerful they are. The prosperity gospel paints the picture of God as our divine puppet. We are led to believe that through our thoughts and words we have the power to move His strings. God is not some impersonal cosmic force waiting for us to move Him into action. He is not a magic genie that will come out of His heavenly lamp once we rub it with declaration prayers. This is BLASPHEMY! As we read earlier in the verses about Gods sovereignty, He declares the end from the beginning and works His will according to His good pleasure. He is the Holy One who alone is all knowing and powerful.
We should obediently submit to His will for our lives in total awe, even if that will for some people means living a life of poverty while serving as a missionary in a third world country. Where does this fit into prosperity theology? How could they possibly make sense of God calling someone like that? I could keep going on that tangent but I think you get the point. Back to getting things you desire from God. Yes God answers prayers, and of course He wants us having faith in His ability to answer them, but there are parameters our prayers must fall into, namely that they are in accordance to Gods will as Jesus said in the gospel of John. God forbid a world in which every desire we prayed for “in faith” we received. Satan would have a field day.
Moving on I also understand prosperity teachers can help people be more positive, but positive thinking isn’t the aim of biblical preaching. In fact, being misled into believing that we can alter our own destinies and bring things into existence is not what the Bible says will bring more happiness into our life. In Galatians 5 we read that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. If and only if we have repented of our sins and placed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior will we begin to experience the lasting fruit bearing power of the Holy Spirit.
The positivity the prosperity gospel offers is artificial and short lasting. The joy of the Holy Spirit is authentic and never ending. If we want to experience greater levels of “positivity”, then the answer is not found by simply forcing yourself into changing your thoughts. The answer is to seek deeper relationship with Jesus and the Spirit will naturally produce the beautiful fruit of joy in your life.
In conclusion, I want to give some final thoughts about the prosperity gospel. I cannot end without saying that I was once encouraged during a season of my life by a prosperity teacher. In fact I was so drawn into the teaching that I listened to every sermon by the preacher I could find online. I was very motivated, and it helped me get through a transitional stage in my spiritual life. However, through the guidance and counsel of different theologians and verses in the Bible I came to see the error in the prosperity message. As encouraging, uplifting, and positive as it is, it is not a message that saves people from sin. Nor is it a message that was encouraging me to grow in holiness or my relationship with Christ. If preaching isn’t accomplishing those things in the life of a believer then my question is what’s it’s purpose?
In fact it seems as though the purpose is for people to focus on what they can get out of this life, instead of what Christ can get from them. I want to be as bold and blunt as possible and admit that I believe this false gospel is borderline Satanic. In the prosperity “name it and claim it” movement, The Satanic Churches creed of “do as thou wilt” is slightly changed to “desire and declare what thy wilt”. The end result of both creeds is the same. Keep feeding into your fleshly desires and see how much you can get out of this world. The only difference is the prosperity gospel tries to justify these desires by saying that God wants us to have all these things so it’s okay.
I would not have as much of a problem with it if these teachers did not claim to be Christian preachers. I would leave them alone if they stayed in the lane of “motivational speaking”. However when they cross over into the lane of Christian preaching and are representing the church, that’s when I have a problem with it. They are misrepresenting the truth of the Bible, the truth about who God is, and the truth of the gospel message. If you are someone who has been blessed and encouraged by prosperity preaching, I honestly praise God for that and so should you.
But I urge you to refrain from its ear itching teaching and from building theology from it. Build your theology from the Bible. Build theology around the fact that God ALONE is in control and able to work things according to His will. Build theology around the good news of the gospel, which simply stated calls for us to repent of the sins we have committed against our Creator that have left us deserving of wrath and punishment, and to place our faith in Christ’s perfect righteousness and sacrifice to be saved by grace.
And as we abide in Him, the Spirit will bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control in our lives (Galatians 5). This fruit along with the desire to please God and grow in holiness is evidence of our salvation. The needs that God deems worthy will be provided for. Our main focus in life should be to keep our eyes on Jesus and strive to be more like Him as we run our race towards eternity. We should be striving to share the good news of His redemption with the world. We must serve the Lord with the humble attitude of letting God use us, not us using God. I will end with the challenging words of Jesus. Words that cut straight to the core of what it means to be a Christian. Words that are in complete opposition to the prosperity gospel. “If anyone desires to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me.” I pray God will give you the power to do this. Amen.
I hope this study has shined some light!
Shine the Light and Write 