Rison I was reading an article in The
Atlantic Monthly Magazine that bore the
rather startling title did Christianity
cause the crash I know a lot of people
the secular media want to blame
Christianity for almost everything but I
thought this was a little bit much it
soon became clear though the culprit in
the mind of the author was the so-called
prosperity gospel the view is propagated
by a lot of people today that if you
follow God's will follow God's command
great things will happen to you in the
material sense of the term and the
argument was that a lot of Christians
who believe this gospel we're making bad
and risky investments and this led to
the collapse of the of the housing
market and the collapse the economy and
so on and so forth now I don't know how
seriously I take that particular
argument but I must say my interest was
piqued in this phenomenon of the
prosperity gospel the roots of it at
least in America probably go back to
Oral Roberts the famous so evangelist
who just died Oral Roberts said to his
many listeners expect a miracle trust in
God and great things will happen at the
material level of your life probably the
most prominent of prosperity gospel er
today is Joel Osteen Joel Osteen who is
the pastor of the biggest Church in
America who has millions of readers and
listeners of books and radio broadcasts
he also was a former student at Oral
Roberts University where he probably
picked up this this theology but Joel
Osteen pretty much announces the same
gospel don't settle for a mediocre life
trust in God's promises follow God's
will and you can expect more money a
better house a family you can be proud
of all kinds of material benefits now to
give the prosperity gospel errs there do
there is a biblical warrant for this
point of view look in the book of
Deuteronomy you'll find over and over
again this promise you follow God's
commands you will prosper you don't
follow God's commands you will
and you find that again reiterated often
in the book of Deuteronomy you look in
the Psalms you find similar things of
trusting in the Lord then expecting
great benefits Jesus himself says seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness and the rest
meaning presumably of wealth and
clothing and food and the things you
need the rest will be given unto you and
he speaks even of the the birds of the
air that neither reap or so but but God
cares for them and certainly throughout
the Bible Old Testament and new we hear
the command to trust in God's great
providence okay but we have to be
careful at this point I think because
the Bible itself nuances and specifies
this claim of the book of Deuteronomy
the great counterweight the counterpoise
to the book of Deuteronomy is the book
of Job and what we hear in the book of
Job we hear about a man who is perfectly
righteous who follows the commands of
the Lord who follows the commands of the
book of Deuteronomy who does what God
wants and yet massively suffers in one
fell swoop job losses everyone and
everything he holds dear loses his
family loses his livelihood loses all
his wealth loses even his health his
friends come and they commiserate with
him and they sit in silence for seven
days and that was pretty good move but
then they open their mouths and what
comes out is it kind of a typical
standard Deuteronomy reading of things
job you must have done something wrong
to be suffering in this way you must
have offended God in some way but Jobe
knows he's righteous and we know he's
righteous we're reading the book and so
Joel protests against this what do we
hear in God's great speech read it in
the 38th 39th and 40th chapters of the
book of Job we hear not a standard
Deuteronomy reading of like yes job you
did offend me in some ways rather job
suffering is placed in the context of
God's unfathomed
Boal permissive will there isn't a
strict correspondence between job
suffering and job's virtue or lack
thereof there's a a cautioning I think
of the deuteronomistic point of view
well how do we solve this problem this
dilemma may be within the Bible itself I
think we solve it by looking at
prosperity not from our perspective but
from God's it is true I would say that
following God's will leads to prosperity
but not necessarily in a worldly sense
following God's will rightly orders the
soul it rightly orders me toward my
proper end and makes my life in the
spiritual sense joyful that is the
prosperity I can infallibly expect from
following God's commands not necessarily
prosperity in this world in many ways
the book of Job is meant to caution us
lest we move in that direction
I'll give you a good example of this st.
Thomas More one of my heroes Thomas More
was a very prominent figure important
political player in the court of Henry
the eighth a very wealthy man socially
prominent man he followed his conscience
in a key moment he followed God's
command what happened he lost everything
he lost his family lost his home lost
his status lost his political position
lost his wealth and in the end lost his
life yet Thomas More was in the only
relevant sense a prosperous man meaning
he had the great joy that comes he had
that ordered soul that comes from
following God's commands he had if you
want treasure in heaven
here's another perspective on it from
another hero of mine Saint Thomas
Aquinas Aquinas wrestles with that
problem that we all do how come
wicked people seem to prosper in the
world and good people seem to suffer
what gives it seems as though God has
not just - said be careful look at it
not from our narrow perspective but from
God that wicked person who receives all
kinds of material benefits a client
said he might be being easily being
punished how come because those material
things that he gets are taking him away
perhaps from the spiritual good that
really matters how about the good person
who receives no great material advantage
he perhaps Aquinas said is being
rewarded because it's the very absence
of material distractions that allows him
to be spiritually upright in other words
be careful how you read prosperity
what prosperity means and so is the
prosperity gospel right yeah I would say
in that sense that you follow God's
commands you follow the will of God you
will prosper but don't expect primarily
treasure on earth expect treasure in
heaven