Prosperity Gospel

Preface

False Apostles

2 Corinthians 11: 13-15
“Those men are not true apostles—they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ. Well, no wonder! Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end, they will get exactly what their actions deserve.”

Ephesians 5: 6-7
“Do not let anyone deceive you with foolish words; it is because of these very things that God’s anger will come upon those who do not obey him. So have nothing at all to do with such people.”

Introduction

The “Prosperity Gospel,” which was created by the “Word of Faith” theology, embraces the belief that the Holy Spirit blesses “the believer” with their wants and desires without any genuine regard to seeking God’s will and direction.  The prosperity gospel corrupts and traps a person in pursuing a dangerous corruptible path to obtain personal wealth, which draws a person to seek the will and desires for oneself rather than Christ Jesus.   The scriptures warned us of such imposters in the Word of God.  The scriptures refer to them as false apostles and not ministers of the word of God.  Being false apostles, they draw people away from the light of Christ Jesus into the darkness of this world.

The Prosperity Gospel deception is founded by merging the old and new covenants and misinterpreting a few new covenant scriptures.  Below are scriptures that will help you understand better the Old and New Covenants.  In addition, this essay includes New Covenant scripture teachings on true wealth that will rebuke the “Word of Faith” theology that the false apostles are promoting.

The Old Covenant

Physical Blessings

The Mosaic Covenant, which was later called The Old Covenant, is a conditional covenant initially written in stone and made to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai.  The agreement from God to the Jews is the promise of “earthly blessings”  for being obedient to God’s law.

Deuteronomy 28  The Blessings of Obedience
​ “If you obey the Lord your God and faithfully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, he will make you more significant than any other nation on earth. Therefore, to obey the Lord your God and all these blessings will be yours:”The Lord will bless your towns and your fields.
“The Lord will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep.
“The Lord will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.
“The Lord will bless everything you do.
“The Lord will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions.
“The Lord, your God, will bless your work and fill your barns with grain. He will bless you in the land that he is giving you.
“If you obey the Lord your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised. Then all the peoples on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his own people, and they will be afraid of you. The Lord will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work so that you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any. The Lord, your God, will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today. But you must never disobey them in any way or worship and serve other gods.”

Summary
All blessings from God are  “earthly blessings,” not spiritual for being obedient to God’s law.

Leviticus 26  The Blessings for Obedience
​ “The Lord said, “Do not make idols or set up statues, stone pillars, or carved stones to worship. I am the Lord your God. Keep the religious festivals and honor the place where I am worshiped. I am the Lord.
“If you live according to my laws and obey my commands, I will send you rain at the right time so that the land will produce crops and the trees will bear fruit. Your crops will be so plentiful that you will still be harvesting grain when it is time to pick grapes, and you will still be picking grapes when it is time to plant grain. You will have all that you want to eat, and you can live in safety in your land.
“I will give you peace in your land, and you can sleep without being afraid of anyone. I will get rid of the dangerous animals in the land, and there will be no more war there. You will be victorious over your enemies; five of you will be able to defeat a hundred, and a hundred will be able to defeat ten thousand. I will bless you and give you many children; I will keep my part of the covenant that I made with you. Your harvests will be so plentiful that they will last for a year, and even then, you will have to throw away what is left of the old harvest to make room for the new. I will live among you in my sacred Tent, and I will never turn away from you. I will be with you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I, the Lord your God, brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the power that held you down, and I let you walk with your head held high.”

Summary
Again, all blessings from God are “earthly blessings,” not spiritual for being obedient to God’s law.

The New Covenant

Spiritual Blessings

The New Covenant is a conditional covenant based on humbling One’s heart to Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  The agreement is spiritual, written in our hearts, and based on salvation and relationship with Christ Jesus.

John 3:16
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.”

Summary
The blessing in  John 3:16 is a spiritual blessing of eternal life.

Ephesians 2: 8-9
“For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it.”

Summary  Ephesians 2: 8-9  is a spiritual blessing of eternal life.

Romans 10: 9-13
“If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. The scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.” This verse states no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.”

Summary
Romans 10: 9-13 is a spiritual blessing of salvation for believing in Christ Jesus as your Lord and savior.

New Covenant scriptures about wealth.

Luke 12: 13-21  The Parable of the Rich Fool
A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us.”
Jesus answered him, “Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?” And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, ‘I don’t have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?'”
And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.”

Summary
This Parable from Christ Jesus implies that we are “fools” seeking personal wealth over spiritual wealth.

Matthew 19: 16-24  The Rich Young Man
Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”
“What commandments?” he asked.
Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
“I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?”
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.
Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

Summary
The rich man was following the love of money rather than receiving and following the love of Christ Jesus.   Jesus also states that the riches He gives us are spiritual, not physical.
In addition, Christ Jesus indicates that the love of money is a stumbling block to those seeking the Kingdom of heaven.

Luke 12: 32-34  Riches in Heaven
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them, and no moth can destroy them. For your heart will always be where your riches are.

Summary
Christ Jesus teaches us that true riches are in your heart and stored in heaven.

Luke 16:13
“No servant can be the slave of two masters; such a slave will hate one and love the other or will be loyal to one and despise the other. Therefore, you cannot serve both God and money.”

Summary
Christ Jesus is straightforward: you have to pick God or Money.

Matthew 6: 24-34  God and Possessions
“You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
“This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn’t life worth more than food? And isn’t the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest, and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?
“And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. It is God who clothes the wild grass—grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won’t he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!
“So do not start worrying: ‘Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?’ (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things. So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

Summary
Again, Christ Jesus is straightforward: you have to pick God or Money.

The Ministers of Babel 

In 2 Corinthians 8:9, the ministers of the  “Word of Faith” theology that teach the Prosperity Gospel have used this one scripture to justify their theology.

2 Corinthians 8:9
“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty.”

However, the verses preceding and after clarify the misinterpretation of the statement, “make you rich,” made by the Prosperity Gospel, “Word of Faith,” false apostles.

2 Corinthians 8: 5-7
“It was more than we could have hoped for! First they gave themselves to the Lord; and then, by God’s will they gave themselves to us as well. So we urged Titus, who began this work, to continue it and help you complete this special service of love. You are so rich in all you have: in faith, speech, and knowledge, in your eagerness to help and in your love for us. And so we want you to be generous also in this service of love.”

2 Corinthians 8: 13-14  Share
“I am not trying to relieve others by putting a burden on you; but since you have plenty at this time, it is only fair that you should help those who are in need. Then, when you are in need, and they have plenty, they will help you. In this way, both are treated equally.”

Summary
The verse preceding 2 Corinthians 8:9 explains that riches are spiritual, not physical, and consist of being rich is in faith, speech, and knowledge.  Also, 2 Corinthians 8:9 indicates that we should help our brothers and sisters in need.

Course of Action

James 4: 1-9   Friendship with the World
​”Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.  You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.  Unfaithful people! Don’t you know that to be the world’s friend means to be God’s enemy? If you want to be the world’s friend, you make yourself God’s enemy.  Don’t think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.” But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.“
So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Matthew 16: 24-28
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life?  Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life. For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his deeds. I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King.”

Romans 12: 1-2
“So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.”

Matthew 22: 37-40
“Jesus answered, ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Conclusion

God has made two (2) major covenants with humankind,
The Old Covenant, which is a conditional covenant initially written in stone and made to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai.  The agreement is based on “earthly blessings” for obedience to God’s law.
and
The New Covenant is also a conditional covenant based on humbling one’s heart to Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  The agreement is spiritually written in our hearts and based on spiritual promises of salvation and relationship with Christ Jesus.

The Prosperity Gospel is thus unbiblically created for reasons listed below,
1.  The Prosperity Gospel improperly combines The Old and New Covenants, “agreements.”
2.  The complete misinterpretation of 2 Corinthians 8:9.
Christ Jesus’ teachings are clear that you can only serve one master. God or Money, “The World.”
Luke 16:13
“No servant can be the slave of two masters; such a slave will hate one and love the other or will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Personal Comment
The Ministers of the “Word of Faith” theology that teach and promote the Prosperity Gospel have turned their heart, mind, and soul away from the light of Christ Jesus to the darkness that forms the greed and deceit of this world.   When you peer into their lifestyle, you will see their desire displayed and a life full of hypocrisy.  I pray that you flee from the false teachings of personal gain that leads to destruction and humble yourself to Christ Jesus.  Remember, “You cannot serve both God and money.”