If you are not rich, is
it because of your lack of faith?
Question: "What does the Bible say about the prosperity
gospel?"
In the prosperity gospel, also known
as the “Word of Faith,” the believer is told to use God, whereas the truth of
biblical Christianity is just the opposite—God uses the believer. Word of Faith
or 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 in the Word of Faith movement is “positive
confession.” This refers to the teaching that words themselves have creative
power. What you say, Word of Faith 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 Word of
Faith 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.”
