Today’s question is, "What does the Bible say about the prosperity gospel?"
In this video I’ll answer that question from a biblical perspective.
Afterwards, as always, I’ll share some helpful resources, so stick around until the end.
In the prosperity gospel, also known as the “Word of Faith Movement,” the believer
is told to use God, whereas the truth of biblical Christianity is just the opposite—God uses
the believer.
Prosperity theology sees the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the
believer wills.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to do God's
will.
The prosperity gospel movement closely resembles some of the destructive greed sects that infiltrated
the early church.
Paul and the other apostles were not accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers
who propagated such heresy.
They identified them as dangerous false teachers and urged Christians to avoid them.
Paul warned Timothy about such men in 1 Timothy 6:5, 9-11.
These men of “corrupt mind” supposed godliness was a means of gain and their desire for riches
was a trap that brought them “into ruin and destruction” (v. 9).
The pursuit of wealth is a dangerous path for Christians and one which God warns about:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with
many griefs” (v. 10).
If riches were a reasonable goal for the godly, Jesus would have pursued it.
But He did not, preferring instead to have no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) and
teaching His disciples to do the same.
It should also be remembered that the only disciple concerned with wealth was Judas.
Paul said covetousness is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5) and instructed the Ephesians to avoid
anyone who brought a message of immorality or covetousness (Ephesians 5:6-7).
Prosperity teaching prohibits God from working on His own, meaning that God is not Lord of
all because He cannot work until we release Him to do so.
Faith, according to the Word of Faith doctrine, is not submissive trust in God; faith is a
formula by which we manipulate the spiritual laws that prosperity teachers believe govern
the universe.
As the name “Word of Faith” implies, this movement teaches that faith is a matter of
what we say more than whom we trust or what truths we embrace and affirm in our hearts.
A favorite term of prosperity gospel teachers is “positive confession.”
This refers to the teaching that words themselves have creative power.
What you say, prosperity teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you.
Your confessions, especially the favors you demand of God, must all be stated positively
and without wavering.
Then God is required to answer (as though man could require anything of God!).
Thus, God's ability to bless us supposedly hangs on our faith.
James 4:13-16 clearly contradicts this teaching: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow
we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life?
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Far from speaking things into existence in the future, we do not even know what tomorrow
will bring or even whether we will be alive.
Instead of stressing the importance of wealth, the Bible warns against pursuing it.
Believers, especially leaders in the church (1 Timothy 3:3), are to be free from the love
of money (Hebrews 13:5).
The love of money leads to all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).
Jesus warned, “Watch out!
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance
of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
In sharp contrast to the prosperity gospel emphasis on gaining money and possessions
in this life, Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).
The irreconcilable contradictions between prosperity teaching and the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ is best summed up in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot
serve both God and money.”
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