Editors’
note:
Previously
in this series: “Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA” (Russell
Woodbridge). The following is an edited version of an article that originally
appeared in the 9Marks Journal on the prosperity gospel.
More than a
century ago, speaking to the then-largest congregation in all Christendom,
Charles Spurgeon said, “I believe that it is anti-Christian and unholy for any
Christian to live with the object of accumulating wealth. You will say,
‘Are we not to strive all we can to get all the money we can?’ You may do
so. I cannot doubt but what, in so doing, you may do service to the cause of
God. But what I said was that to live with the object of
accumulating wealth is anti-Christian.”
Over the
years, however, the message being preached in some of the largest churches in
the world has changed—indeed, a new gospel is being taught to many
congregations today. This message has been ascribed many name, such as the
“name it and claim it” gospel, the “blab it and grab it” gospel, the “health
and wealth” gospel, the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession
theology.”
No matter
what name is used, the essence of this message is the same. Simply put, this
“prosperity gospel” teaches that God wants believers to be physically healthy, materially
wealthy, and personally happy. Listen to the words of Robert Tilton, one of
its best-known spokesmen: “I believe that it is the will of God for all to
prosper because I see it in the Word, not because it has worked mightily for
someone else. I do not put my eyes on men, but on God who gives me the power to
get wealth.” Teachers of the prosperity gospel encourage their followers
to pray for and even demand material flourishing from God.
Five Theological Errors
Russell
Woodbridge and I wrote a book titled Health, Wealth, and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel
Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? (Kregel, 2010) to
examine the claims of prosperity gospel advocates. While the book is too
wide-ranging to summarize here, in this article I’d like to review five
doctrines we cover in it—doctrines on which prosperity gospel advocates err. By
discerning these errors regarding key doctrines, I hope you will plainly see
the dangers of the prosperity gospel.
1. The
Abrahamic covenant is a means to material entitlement.
The
Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12, 15, 17, 22) is
one of the theological bases of the prosperity gospel. It’s good that
prosperity theologians recognize much of Scripture is the record of the
fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, but it’s bad that they don’t maintain an
orthodox view of this covenant. They incorrectly view the inception of the
covenant; more significantly, they erroneously view the application of the
covenant.
In his
book Spreading the Flame (Zondervan, 1992), Edward
Pousson stated the prosperity view on the application of the Abrahamic
covenant: “Christians are Abraham’s spiritual children and heirs to the
blessings of faith. . . . This Abrahamic inheritance is unpacked primarily
in terms of material entitlements.” In other words, the prosperity
gospel teaches that the primary purpose of the Abrahamic covenant was for God
to bless Abraham materially. Since believers are now Abraham’s spiritual
children, we have inherited these financial blessings. As
Kenneth Copeland wrote in his 1974 book The Laws of Prosperity,
“Since God’s covenant has been established and prosperity is a provision of
this covenant, you need to realize that prosperity belongs to you now!”
To support
this claim, prosperity teachers appeal to Galatians 3:14, which refers to “the blessings
of Abraham [that] come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus.” It’s interesting,
however, that in their appeals to Galatians 3:14 these teachers ignore the
second half of the verse: “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.” Paul is clearly reminding the Galatians of the spiritual
blessing of salvation, not the material blessing of wealth.
2. Jesus’s atonement
extends to the “sin” of material poverty.
In
his Bibliotheca Sacra article “A Theological Evaluation of the
Prosperity Gospel,” theologian Ken Sarles observes how the prosperity
gospel claims that “both physical healing and financial prosperity have
been provided for in the atonement.” This seems to be an accurate
observation in light of Copeland’s statement that “the basic principle of the
Christian life is to know that God put our sin, sickness, disease, sorrow,
grief, and poverty on Jesus at Calvary.” This
misunderstanding of the scope of the atonement stems from two errors prosperity
gospel proponents make.
First, many
who espouse prosperity theology have a fundamental misconception of the
life of Jesus. For example, teacher John Avanzini proclaimed on a TBN program,
Jesus had “a nice house,” “a big house,” “Jesus was handling big
money,” and he even “wore designer clothes.” It’s easy to see how such a
warped view of the life of Christ could lead to an equally warped misconception
of the death of Christ.
A second
error that leads to a faulty view of the atonement is misinterpreting 2 Corinthians 8:9, which reads, “For you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.” While a
shallow reading of this verse may lead one to believe Paul was teaching about
an increase in material wealth, a contextual reading reveals he was
actually teaching the exact opposite principle. Indeed, Paul was teaching the
Corinthians that since Christ accomplished so much for them through the
atonement, they should empty themselves of their riches in service of the
Savior. This is why just five short verses later Paul would urge the
Corinthians to give their wealth away to their needy brothers, writing “that
now at this time your abundance may supply their lack” (2 Cor. 8:14).
3. Christians
give in order to gain material compensation from God.
One of the
most striking characteristics of the prosperity theologians is their seeming
fixation on the act of giving. We are urged to give generously and are
confronted with pious statements like, “True prosperity is the ability to use
God’s power to meet the needs of mankind in any realm of life” and, “We
have been called to finance the gospel to the world.” While such
statements may appear praiseworthy, this emphasis on giving is built on
motives that are anything but philanthropic. The driving force behind this
teaching on giving is what prosperity teacher Robert Tilton referred to as the
“Law of Compensation.” According to this law—purportedly based on Mark 10:30—Christians should give
generously to others because when they do, God gives back more in return. This,
in turn, leads to a cycle of ever-increasing prosperity.
As Gloria
Copeland put it in her 2012 book, God’s Will is Prosperity, “Give
$10 and receive $1,000; give $1,000 and receive $100,000. . . . In short, Mark 10:30 is a very good
deal.” It’s evident, then, that the prosperity gospel’s doctrine of
giving is built on faulty motives. Whereas Jesus taught his disciples to “give,
hoping for nothing in return” (Luke 6:35), prosperity theologians teach their
disciples to give because they will get a great return.
4. Faith
is a self-generated spiritual force that leads to prosperity.
Whereas
orthodox Christianity understands faith to be trust in the person of Jesus
Christ, prosperity teachers espouse something quite different. “Faith is a
spiritual force, a spiritual energy, a spiritual power. It is this force of
faith which makes the laws of the spirit world function,” Copeland writes
in The Laws of Prosperity. “There are certain laws governing
prosperity revealed in God’s Word. Faith causes them to function.” This is
obviously a faulty, perhaps even heretical, understanding of faith.
According
to prosperity theology, faith is not a God-granted, God-centered act of the
will. Rather, it is a humanly wrought spiritual force, directed at
God. Indeed, any theology that views faith chiefly as a means to material
gain rather than justification before God must be judged inadequate at best.
5. Prayer
is a tool to force God to grant prosperity.
Prosperity
gospel preachers often note we “have not because we ask not” (James 4:2).
They encourage us to pray for personal success in all areas of life. As Creflo Dollar writes, “When we pray, believing
that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to
make our prayers come to pass. . . . It is a key to getting results as a
Christian.”
Prayers for
personal blessing aren’t inherently wrong, of course, but the prosperity
gospel’s overemphasis on man turns prayer into a tool believers can use to
force God to grant their desires. Within prosperity theology, man—not
God—becomes the focal point of prayer. Curiously, prosperity preachers often
ignore the second half of James’s teaching on prayer: “You ask and do not
receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James. 4:3). God does not answer selfish
requests that do not honor his name.
Certainly
all our requests should be made known to God (e.g., Phil. 4:6), but the prosperity gospel focuses
so much on man’s desires that it may lead people to pray selfish, shallow,
superficial prayers that don’t bring God glory. Further, when coupled with the
prosperity doctrine of faith, this teaching may lead people to attempt to
manipulate God to get what they want—a futile task. This is far removed from
praying “Your will be done.”
False Gospel
In light of
Scripture, the prosperity gospel is fundamentally flawed. At bottom, it is
a false gospel because of its faulty view of the relationship between God and
man. Simply put, if the prosperity gospel is true, grace is obsolete, God is
irrelevant, and man is the measure of all things. Whether they’re talking about
the Abrahamic covenant, the atonement, giving, faith, or prayer, prosperity
teachers turn the relationship between God and man into a quid pro
quo transaction. As James Goff noted in a 1990 Christianity
Today article, God is “reduced to a kind of ‘cosmic bellhop’ attending
to the needs and desires of his creation.”
This is a
wholly inadequate and unbiblical view of the relationship between God and man.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-errors-of-the-prosperity-gospel/
