The Prosperity Gospel
Before I talk about the theology of the prosperity gospel, I must define it to be clear. Prosperity theology is the belief that God provides material prosperity for those whom He favours. To be put it simply, adherents believe that they have a divine right to wealth and health and they can obtain such blessings via positive confessions of faith and regular tithes and offerings.
Note that I am not focusing on any one church (to be fair I only attended one service of one such accused church, and such a theology was not preached at that time).
Adherents quote certain passages from the Bible such as John 10:10 ([Jesus says,] "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.") or 3 John 1:2 (Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.) to support the case for the prospersity gospel.
But let's take things into context. Some parts of the Bible are open to interpretation, but some interpretations are just incorrect. In John 10, Jesus was taking about the eternal life he was to give his followers (by dying for the sins of mankind on the cross), and in 3 John 1, the Apostle John was begining a letter with a greeting.
But let's look deeper.
What the prosperity gospel gets right
Despite how mainstream Christianity often criticises it, the prosperity gospel does get some things right. God may choose to bless certain people materially speaking. For instance, in Job in the Bible was blessed in such by God (a fact that Satan points out in Job 1: 9-11) and he was a faithful man.
From my personal experiences, I tend to limit God to certain blessings and excludes Him for others. And the porsperity gosepl is often a good reminder for me that God may chose to bless us in such.
What the prosperity gospel gets wrong
Despite its good intentions, the prosperity gospel gets many things wrong, and I want to look into a few of them.
1) The prosperity gospel misses the point of the God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
John 3:16-- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Let's be clear off the bat. I said it before, and I said it again. Jesus came to die for the sins of mankind. Not for us to be rich, healthy or adopt a certain political ideology. All these are secondary compared to our reconcilation with God.
As one of my good friends said, "If God wanted all Christians to be rich, God would have been a business plan, and Jesus, a bussiness man."
2) God is not a vending machine
One often chracteristics of prayer is asking for God for stuff. However God has every right to deny our requests. It does not mean if you pray eight times a day, God would heal your chronic lower back pain, or grant you a bank loan. If faith and blessings were always correlated, then either i) Jesus had very little faith or ii) dying on the cross was not painful for Him.
Furthermore, requests in prayers are only an aspect of prayer. We should also pray for (see the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6: 9-13) thanksgiving and praise, sharing and of course, forgiveness.
3) The object of faith
And one of my biggest concerns is this, why are we Christians? Is it because God will bless us for being faithful (as prosperity theology presents)? Or rather that a man called Jesus died for our sins?
If one is a Christian only because he/she gets material wealth and health in following God, then what happens when one become ill and poor, despite this well-meaning person's best intentions? Will he walk away? What happens if the object of the person's faith is God's blessings and not Jesus?
Yes, the prosperity gospel is not totally unChristian. But it is only a small part, and should never be made the emphasis of Christian faith.
A criticism on the attitudes from my mainstream Christian friends
Most of the time, my Christian friends would quickly divorce themselves away from the prosperity gospel. But the fact remains-- they are still our brothers- and sisters-in-Christ, and we are all guilty by association.
We are their keepers (Genesis 4:9), and we should continue to pray and look out for them.
Note: I do not agree with everything said in the video, but I agree mostly.
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