IS THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL REALLY THE GOSPEL?

When they came to arrest Him in the Garden:

• Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, "Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour--when darkness reigns." (Luke 22:52-53)

It is also in the darkness that the cults reign. None of them encourage the light of reason. If anything, they discourage it lest their manipulations come to light, and lest it be seen that their teachings fail to match up with Scripture. Those who lead false revivals often have counseled that the use of the mind is at odds with the operation of the Spirit. One visitor to the Anaheim Vineyard church reported this admonition:

• “And above all, don't try to rationally evaluate the things you will see. God isn't trying to reach your mind; He wants to reach your heart. Analyzing spiritual phenomena through the grid of human logic or religious presuppositions is the quickest way to quench what the Spirit is doing. Subjecting the revival to doctrinal tests is the surest way to put out the fire. Don't try to find reasonable explanations for what is happening; just turn your heart loose and let the Spirit flow through your emotions. Only then can the Spirit have His way in your life.” http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil//articles/laugh.htm

According to this Vineyard church, our minds are worse than a hindrance; they are an insurmountable obstacle to God’s purposes! However, the false revivalists conveniently leave out a number of verses like the admonition to love the Lord with all of our minds (Mat. 22:37) and to exercise discernment – testing all things (1 Thes. 5:19-21).

The prosperity ministry – the name-it-claim-it preachers – would have us simply ignore or dismiss the truth. Joel Osteen had taught:

• “Our words are vital in bringing our dreams to pass. It’s not enough to simply see it by faith or in your imagination. You have to begin speaking words of faith over your life. Your words have enormous creative power. The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it.”  “Just look in the mirror and say ‘I am strong, I am healthy. I’m rising to new levels, I’m excited about my future.’ When you say that, it may not be true. You may not be very healthy today, or maybe you don’t have a lot of things to look forward to, but Scripture tells us in Romans we have to call the things that are not as if they already were.” (Christian Research Journal, Hunter)

Scripture never gives us the license to play fast-and-loose with the truth. All truth is God’s truth. It belongs to Him and we are not at liberty to tamper with it. He tells us that He requires truth in the depths of our being:

• Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6)

Our Lord wants us to reside in the light – in the embrace of wisdom. Using our tongues to distort the truth is simply not part of His program for us. Telling others that we don’t have cancer, when we do, is a refusal to walk in His light. It will also bring disrepute upon the church!

Instead, our tongues must be servants of the light – the truth of God. Therefore, they must always speak the truth, as James instructed:

• Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

When we use our tongues in a presumptuous manner by claiming that we will get rich through trading or that we will obtain a certain blessing that is not Scripturally guaranteed, we speak evil and “boast in arrogance.” Instead, what we say must always conform to the truth. According to James, we are a mere “vapor.” Therefore, we are in no position to make arrogant claims about the future!

Osteen claims that Romans 4 gives us the license to speak as if we have things that we really do not as yet have:

• …as it is written, “I have made you [Abraham] the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)

Indeed, God has the power to call things into existence by speaking. However, there is nothing in this verse to suggest that we are endowed with such power. Instead, James claims that we are not so endowed.

Prosperity preachers also resort to Proverbs 18:21 to prove that we have been given this power:

• The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

However, this verse falls far short of affirming that our tongues have supernatural power to call things into existence. Yes, the tongue does have “the power of life and death,” but this is a psychological or interpersonal power. Our words can build people up or tear them down. We can instruct others in the way of truth or the way of deceit.

Prosperity preachers also claim that the promises of Scripture give us a blank check to get whatever we want. This is not true. Instead, God grants our requests according to His will (or “Name”):

• And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

When I pray to be more Christ-like, I know that I will receive, because I am praying according to His will. However, if we pray for a fleet of Jaguars, Scripture informs us to not believe that we will receive:

• When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

What are wrong motives? Self-gratification! This is not to say that our God will not provide gratifying blessings. He will! But this should not be our focus. Instead, our focus must be His kingdom and righteousness. As a consequence, He’ll give us everything we truly need:

• “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

According to Jesus, receiving depends upon our intention to bear fruit for our Lord:

• You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

Instead, prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar defined the Gospel this way:

• “What’s the Gospel to those who are poor? Prosperity! What’s the Gospel to those who lack? Prosperity! And if you don’t preach it, then you won’t be able to do anything about it, then you won’t be able to do anything about the poverty situation.” (Hunter, CRJ, 24.)

However, the Gospel is not a matter of prosperity. The Book of Hebrews informs us that, often, the exemplars of faith fell far short of prosperity:

• They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. (Hebrews 11:37-38)

These were the cream-of-the-crop, but they hadn’t achieved prosperity and evidently didn’t seek it. Instead, according to Paul, the Gospel is about contentment:

• But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. (1 Tim. 6:6-9)

Contrary to the prosperity gospel, Paul wrote that the desire for prosperity is “harmful” and can “plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

The prosperity ministry also fails to recognize the need for suffering and brokenness. Paul wrote that:

• Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. (2 Cor. 4:16-18; NKJV)

According to the Gospel, trials are necessary for growth into Christ-liken-ness. Our “renewal” can only take place as we look in faith towards the heavenly and not the hope of earthly prosperity.

However, prosperity preachers insist that Jesus has given us a blank check to receive anything we ask for. However, they leave out the part that it has to be according to His will or “in My Name,” which amounts to the same thing:

• “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

What are the fruits of this gospel? The prosperity ministry is popular – it promises to give us everything we want – but will it deliver? Will it build up the body of Christ? Does it arm us with truth or a set of unrealistic expectations? J. Lee “Akinwale” Grady is a Christian and a frequent visitor to Africa. He has observed the destruction accompanying the “prosperity gospel”:

• Churches have been growing rapidly in many parts of Africa today, yet sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where poverty has increased in the past 25 years. So according to the statistics, the prosperity gospel is not bringing prosperity! It is a flawed message, but I believe God will use selfless, broken African leaders to correct it. https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/fire-in-my-bones/19113-5-ways-the-prosperity-gospel-is-hurting-africa

Why is this? Christ has exalted many nations. Why not Saharan Africa? Grady claims that the popular “Prosperity Gospel” has ravaged Africa and offers these reasons for it:

• “It is mixed with occultism.
• It fuels greed.
• It fuels pride.
• It works against the formation of Christian character.
• It actually keeps people in poverty.”

Ironically, it seems that as the “Prosperity Gospel” has grown, so has poverty. Conrad Mbewe has pastored in Lusaka, Zambia, since 1987. He explains the effects of this false “Gospel”:

• The Bible is primarily about salvation from sin and being sanctified into the image of Christ. We ought to be admiring those among us whose godliness shines like the sun in its noonday strength, but we are fast losing that view. Christians are instead admiring the few individuals with big houses, and flashy cars and clothes, even when such individuals are living in sin. Invariably this emphasis is resulting in churches being rocked with scandals once rare in evangelical circles…This teaching has become a religious pyramid scam, with the so-called “men of God” reaping a fortune while their blind followers are getting poorer. Every day we have to deal with disillusioned individuals who have woken up when it’s too late. This teaching is wreaking havoc in the lives of many Christians. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prosperity-teaching-has-replaced-true-gospel-in-africa/

How should these problems be addressed? Mbewe advises:

• It begins with a display of the true gospel and then exposes that which is false.

It is not enough to simply present the truth. The lie must also be exposed. Josephine Olatomi Soboyejo, Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary, Abeokuta, Nigeria, also has observed the destructive power of this false “gospel”:

• Before the advent of African priests, expatriate missionaries in Africa were noted for their detached and abstemious ways of life. They upheld what is known as “Vow of Poverty”, which was taken prior to sacerdotal ordination. They toiled selflessly for their flock without caring for personal material benefits. This orientation has been discarded for prosperity vocation in this 21st century. Priests now use luxurious cars, fly expensive private jets and are escorted by well-armed military/police officers. The social-economy context of prosperity theology has become a great attraction to impoverished people of Africa…Africa has many Churches; growing rapidly yet remains the only region that poverty has increased in the past two decades. So there is no impact of the prosperity message on the people. Most Africans live on less than $1 a day and many proactive youths are still unemployed. http://file.scirp.org/Html/71957_71957.htm

Soboyejo adds:

• the prosperity gospel is not bringing prosperity! It makes their followers poorer so it is a flawed message!...This gospel has been ascribed many names, such as the “name it and claim it gospel”, the “blab it and grab it gospel”, the “health and wealth gospel”, the “word of faith movement”, the “gospel of success,” the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession theology.”…Preachers of the prosperity gospel encourage their followers to demand of God everything from modes of transportation to homes, furniture, and large bank accounts. Prosperity gospel is bankrupt because it deviates from the “True gospel” and proclaim “false gospels”, which usually focus on the same basic fallacies by not matching up with Scripture. Any “gospel” which is inconsistent with or different from the clear teachings of the Bible is bankrupt-Gal. 1:6-10; 2 Cor. 11:3-4.

Where the “prosperity ministry” has gone, so has the corruption of the Gospel and even of society. Feumba Samen, an economics and statistics graduate of Université Marien N’Goubi in the Republic of Congo, has warned that in this ministry:

• Prophets, pastors, and gurus take the place of God. They do not preach according to the vision of Christ whose sole mission for the church is to seek the lost and make disciples, according to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20). They do not preach Christ crucified—instead they proclaim healing, miracles, and support for the tired and overworked as a priority of the church. These so-called men of God divert the theological foundations of the church, using all the means of propaganda for manipulating their followers looking for social rank, honor, and money by means of miracles and healings. https://world.wng.org/2014/11/the_prosperity_gospel_in_africa

This ministry has been found to preach a false gospel and a false Christ:

• But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)