3 Lies from the Prosperity Gospel
“The prosperity gospel is a label used to describe the popular teaching that Christians who put their faith in God and his promises will receive prosperity in their finances, health, and fulfill their life goals” (Cole Brown).
My father is a pastor of a healthy hispanic church in Russellville, AL (Iglesia Aliento de Vida). God has been good in preserving my dad’s church as many evangelical churches in the city of Russellville have sadly turned in deception to the prosperity gospel and preach it. My desire and prayer is to see many Hispanics all over the world caught in the lies of the prosperity gospel be rescued by the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1–4; Galatians 1:6–9).
While there are many lies the prosperity gospel preaches, here are at least three:
1. God promises prosperity in this world.
Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, ESV, emphasis mine). Opposite of this lie, Jesus promised we would have tribulation in this world. While God does promise that He will never abandon us (Heb. 13:5) and will take care of our needs (Matthew 6:33), He does not promise to fulfill every one of our desires — and that is good news. Too often, our own desires do not line up with God’s. And while we are not promised prosperity here on earth, we will have perfect prosperity in the kingdom with God as our ultimate treasure (Rev. 21:1–3).
Prosperity preaching tends to bring into this life greater expectation of prosperity than is intended for this life and only intended for the next life (John Piper, “Are We Overdoing the Anti-Prosperity Gospel Theme?”).
2. If we obey we will have prosperity.
In Deuteronomy 28, Moses tells the people of Israel that if they obeyed they would be blessed. If they disobeyed, they would be cursed. What many miss in that passage however is that God tells Moses that the people were going to disobey regardless, and break the covenant that God made with them (Deut. 31:16–18). To teach that obedience leads to prosperity from this passage is to miss the point of the passage altogether. The point is that humanity cannot obey, and therefore needs a new and better covenant mediated through Jesus. In this new covenant, “Christ has already borne the curses for our disobedience and earned for us the blessings of obedience” (Jerry Bridges, The Disicpline of Grace, p. 9). In this new covenant, we are also empowered to obey by the Spirit (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–27).
Further, if obedience always leads to prosperity, why did men and women of the Old Testament, the apostles, other disciples, and Jesus himself — who lived in perfect obedience — suffer hunger, loss, poverty, and even death? Clearly, obedience doesn’t always lead to prosperity.
3. Prosperity always equals blessing.
“And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24–25, ESV).
Prosperity does not always equal blessing — in fact, it can often be a barrier to enter the kingdom of God, for “love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10, ESV). Instead, it is better to be content with what we have (Philip. 4:11–13; 1 Tim. 6:6–11), with the inheritance we have in Christ (Eph. 1:11), and the riches of knowing the living God through his Son Jesus (John 17:3; Psalm 73:25–26).
The prosperity gospel promises temporary blessings of wealth. The biblical gospel promises eternal blessings in Christ.
