Why Prosperity Gospel is not Gospel

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1Timothy 6:9-12, ESV)

“And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” (Romans 8:28, AMP)

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33, AMP)

Live your best life now. God wants us to live a life of health and wealth. Speak it into existence. Pray your way to a better life. I’m sure you’ve heard some of these taglines before. 

Last week, we spoke about the importance of knowing your Bible, and knowing the full counsel of God’s word so you won’t be led astray by false gospels and teachers that peddle an inferior version of the Way, Truth, and Life. Now, the Lord has been weighing heavily on my heart for some time that we need to meet some of these false gospels head-on. Unfortunately, the American Church is full of “gospels” that lead people away from Christ in droves, and it’s not because they are outwardly evil or obviously false. They often preach things that people love to hear and subscribe to. 

And it’s not that these things are innately evil either. Money is not only wicked or corrupt. Health is not something that is unholy to desire for yourself or others. Hoping for a good life is not a sin. However, it’s when we take these things and assign our faith or God’s will to them, attributing our successes to faith and others lack thereof as a deficiency of faith. At its root, prosperity gospel– also closely tied to the word of faith movement– is a belief system that at its root says man can manipulate the will of God to bless us and that the will of God is to see us as successful on this side of eternity.

In reality, the Bible doesn’t support that at all. In truth, if we believe a prosperity gospel, we don’t believe that God is sufficient to meet our needs, regardless of our circumstance or our level of comfortability with the outcome. Jesus’ teachings can’t be more opposite from what prosperity gospel tries to sell us, and that fact is only supported by the apostles that came after Christ to plant and direct the new Church. We can see that in two of the verses above, where Paul writes to Timothy explaining that people who only desire riches and prosperity plunge themselves into many other harmful desires and ultimate destruction. Pursuit of those things will take you off the paths of righteousness that lead to eternal riches and life through Christ. He advises Timothy to flee those things and instead, pursue godliness, fighting the good fight of true, God given faith.

This is only further established when looking at Romans 8:28, which shows us that we can trust God in all things, because he uses all things to work together for His good and ultimate plan– even our traumas, pains, and struggles. For those who are chosen by and love God, we can stand assured in the fact that God is sovereign over all. He will always fit everything together for good, even if we don’t get to enjoy fame, success, wealth, or health. And that Gospel truth alone undermines prosperity gospel. 

Jesus never taught that God was guaranteed to pour out health, wealth, or personal success if we have enough faith. Did Jesus heal? Yes. Did he help others? Yes. But He never put those as more important than teaching holiness, godliness, and repentance from sin. He also never taught us to pursue righteousness as a means to become prosperous. You will not find anywhere in scripture that Jesus teaches us to pursue righteousness in order to be guaranteed blessings.

He does say that God takes care of His own. If a sparrow is taken care of– fed, sheltered, and protected– how much more will He take care of His people? Yes, God does provide for us as Jehovah Jireh, but there is a vast difference between provider and prosperer. Provider means that He supplies needs or makes adequate preparation, but to prosper means that you are financially or materialistically flourishing. God provided for the people of Israel in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. He gave them the food they needed for a single day. After that, the Israelites had to rely on God that He would provide again tomorrow.

God provided enough fish and bread for the five thousand, and there were still leftovers, but it’s not like the disciples turned around and tried to start a business or a get-rich-quick scheme to monopolize on these multiplying loaves and fish. There was a limit to the provision that fed the hungry with some provision left over to get Jesus and the disciples to their next stop. 

In Mark 10, Jesus meets a rich man who wants to know how he can inherit eternal life. Jesus answers the man to keep God’s commandments. The rich man says to Jesus that he’s done all those things since he was young, to which Jesus says there was still one more thing: sell off all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and come follow Jesus. At this, the man walks off dejectedly, because he was rich and didn’t want to give up the safety and comfortability of his prosperous life. What this man didn’t understand is that the salvation Jesus offers is far more precious and secure than any riches he already had. 

Because if we count all our earthly riches as lost– if we sacrifice them so we can rely on God, putting all our trust and assurance in Him– then we store up eternal riches in KNOWING CHRIST. Don’t misunderstand me: should the man have sold his house and property so he could gain heavenly riches and crowns and mansions? No. He should have done it to gain something more precious: a life lived in the presence of Jesus and an eternity enjoying the same.

In part, that is where the prosperity gospel misses the mark. It preaches, “follow Jesus because He blesses and will help you make it big.” These teachers of this false gospel are living examples of the success of investing in that belief system. They have huge churches with large congregations, private jets, sprawling mansions, fancy cars, and boastful careers that are financially well off.

What they don’t see is that yes, they’re making millions off congregations and people buying wanting the same success, but it’s all spiritually bankrupt. God isn’t really there in that ministry. Behind the scenes, it’s the devil trying to lead more and more people into actual darkness.

And that’s not the only area where prosperity gospel gets it wrong, but I know this installment is long already, so let’s save it until next week. Until then, pray with me that God will convict us of the areas of our belief systems that lead us away from Him and distract us from knowing Him fully. Let that conviction bring us back to a place of rooting ourselves in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.