Jeff's Insight

Blog about Christianity and Culture

prosperity gospel

Truth in the Details

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Many times teachers in the church leave out important details in passages in the bible. They connect verses from different passages that create a different narrative. It is easy to take a small verse and add your own context when you are teaching the gospel. Also it is easy to put a small verse on a projector for everyone to see. What is convenient isn’t always right.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB) is the best example to use for this post:
“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'”

This verse is the most predominate verse for the prosperity gospel. People think that that this verse is talking about all of creation. Also they think you will have a life that will be materially blessed. The pastor can use this verse and bend it to their own narrative. This verse is lacking details. When you read something with pronouns you have to ask yourself “Who is ‘you?'” “You” is referring to a reprisal of a time of judgement of Israel. Huh.

If you read a verse that needs more context you have to quote more verses. Pronouns that are not clearly defined need to be defined. Don’t define it by your own biases. Let the bible do it. Prosperity gospel is a by product of not showing the details of a biblical passage. It is destructive and leads people astray. The worst thing you can do is use the bible incorrectly to manipulate people.

Lacking details makes it very easy to use Scripture Hopping by linking small verses together. In church you have a topic that has multiple verses attached to it. It is like a river. One flows into another and creates the current that the preacher wants you to see. If individually the verses doesn’t highlight your point don’t use it. This is done many times in ignorance and laziness.

This is a big issue in the church. Be on guard by reading the whole passage when a teacher gives you a verse. If it alone has nothing to do with the topic disregard it. Do it to not be manipulated. I’m not telling you to disregard the truth in the bible. I’m telling you to disregard the false connection the teacher is guiding you toward. Also please read my older post, Scripture Hopping, to add more context to this important issue.

The Disparity Gospel

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Too often we look at the differences between each other’s lives. If we see a great disparity between you and someone else you make a judgement. This judgement could either be you are doing something right or wrong. This is vanity mixed in with the prosperity gospel. This disparity eventually makes us live is despair.

The disparity gospel starts with the prosperity gospel. Your vision of success is based on earthly wealth. It can be vocational, financial, and physical. If you acquire this wealth you start to believe that you are being blessed for your faith or your works toward God. You begin to enact a sliding scale to determine what wealth equals what view God has of you. This sliding scale leads into the disparity gospel.

Many times we have this ideal view of a Christian. This person doesn’t struggle with anything and has a comfortable life. People believed they are rewarded for their diligence and holiness. This person has 2 and a half kids with a great career without challenges in life. There is nothing wrong with success but there is something wrong with this false equivalency. A horrible person can have the same lifestyle.

After we look to this ideal person we start looking at our own life. We can never compare to this fictitious person in our head. We see a great disparity between our life and the life that we believe should be rewarded for holy works and faith. One truth remains. We are never guaranteed a great life. Thru Jesus we are guaranteed and eternity with our Creator. Looking at other lives and seeing prosperity only creates despair in your own life.

Satan doesn’t want you to live a holy life. A life that honors Jesus. A hard life, in some, leads to the disparity gospel. It draws the focus away from our Creator. It takes away from the mission we have in this world. The people who have the prosperity of the world (many times) are not filled with a Christ centered life. When life attacks know that your true treasure lie in heaven.

Celebrity Church Leaders

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Sunday morning services we hear worship service and the content of the message and say how amazing they did. We disregard the content and only value the emotion it build within us. This creates an opportunity for teachers in the church to only appeal to your emotion instead of telling you the truth. These leaders in the church want to be loved by people instead of doing the will of God. These leaders could become false teachers.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NASB):
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

It all starts when a church defines “growth.” Is growth getting more people to add to the offering plate? Should growth be equipping the members to grow the kingdom of God? Success sometimes is measured by the attendance of Sunday morning. That is a lie. What happens when you only teach to gain an audience? People who want their ears tickled, explained in the verse I gave. The leaders in the church become celebrity church leaders because the congregation only consume what they want to hear.

People frequently get attracted to teaching style instead of the truth. We often praise the messenger instead of finding out where the message is coming from. We are creating a celebrity in the church by stagnation. Do not take a teacher’s word about anything. Look at the verse they give you as well as the surrounding verses. This gives you context to point out scripture hopping within teaching. Scripture hopping allows people to insert their own message by comparing unlike verses in the bible. Don’t allow this to happen.

Look at the most popular churches in our country. Most of them give a version of the prosperity gospel. Buy telling the congregation what they want to hear they become popular. Being accountable for your sin is not popular. Receiving for not sinning sounds more interesting. The best teachers do not want to become a celebrity. You aim to equip and not to affirm their beliefs.

Wanting attention only gives the congregation milk. If we want Christians to grow and have the full armor of God. Life will sink Christians when the world consumes them. Solid food helps us become apart from the world. We become the shining Light that God wants us to be. We will become a victim of cultural decline. Us wanting to be loved by the world makes us become like them. Teachers, do not seek to become a celebrity. Tell your congregation what they don’t want to hear. Give them solid food.

Treasures On The Earth

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Many teachers within the church preach the prosperity gospel. We get taught that God rewards us for the righteous actions we facilitate. Also, we are told that our treasures we accumulate on earth reflects our character. The greatest misnomer is that the prosperity gospel only refers to physical possessions. These treasures could be referring to health, emotional gratification, and many others. Should we try to pursue the doctrine of earthly treasures?

Mathew 6:19-21 (NASB):

“’Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”

The passage in Mathew should be straight forward. Unfortunately, like many things, we input our own ideas into the passage. Many people decipher this passage as talking about physical treasures. The logic breaks down when you ask one simple question. Can you literally put physical treasures from Earth into Heaven? No, you can’t. So, what is it talking about? What you put your value in is where you would be drawn toward. For example, success can be your treasure. If you value your career over the pursuit of God’s kingdom you heart will not fully belong to God. These treasures have no value. Compared to eternity they are very temporal.

I believe our church consistently teaches righteous treasures. They make the rewards in life more pleasing to the eye. They are based on the concept of God giving you a gift for a job well done. Getting a raise in pay is dubbed a gift of being a faithful servant of God. God has given physical blessings before, but a quid pro quo needs to have more information before it should be believed. A church turns to a success story of a member and uses their story as a baseline for your story. Many people in this life is running the race way better then I am and doing far worse with physical treasures. Their eyes are intently focused on the finish line. The reward they see in heaven will be far greater than they can ever imagine.

There is a serious damage that can occur in the Church. If we are looking for a reward, we are not looking at God. He told us to pick up our cross and follow him. Christians who are weak in their faith will see a lack of treasure as a lack of God’s presence. It starts with anger then leads to resentment. Eventually the agnostic belief would lead to atheism. We need to teach these people the truth. Life can be horrible but your treasures in heaven will be far beyond anything you can imagine. God doesn’t take joy in your pain. God wants all of you. We think too temporal and selfish.

Let’s stop using the word “blessed” in the wrong context. Social media is full of quotes that use that “blessed” to glorify themselves and dilute any purpose they can gain from it. If they are blessings and you hoard them you are doing God a disservice. There are friends and family that could be suffering a lot while you brag about a new car, house, career, or any other thing. In many nations Christians are being persecuted. They don’t get to have a status update about a treasure that appeared in front of them. The persecuted Christians who get martyred will be served a crown when they get into heaven. A far more prestigious reward then you could ever have. Don’t talk about what you have but how you can use it for God.

Watered Down Prosperity Gospel

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Many people in the Christian church do not believe in the hardcore prosperity gospel. At the same time most of us believe in the prosperity gospel. If this is confusing your not alone. I am a little confused while I’m typing on this topic as well. We water down the prosperity gospel, so it can become more palatable. Our church is becoming more concerned about the desires of the flesh. We need to be more concerned about bringing people to Christ. Our life after this is far more important then the material of this world.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NASB):

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

The hardcore prosperity gospel is believed by a few. This ideology is if you ask for something from God you will receive it. Essentially, they turn God into their personal vending machine. There is also even a crazier version of the hardcore prosperity gospel. This is the “name it and claim it” ideology. If you want something you just declare it and it will be given to you. Many people have turned this exception into a Red Herring. They distance themselves from this ideology while still believing in the prosperity gospel.

Let’s start with a metaphor to describe the watered-down version of the prosperity gospel. This metaphor is the word “storm.” People tend to limit this word to their own hopes and feelings. All of us deal with problems in this life. A factor associated with a storm is time. You have people in your life tell you this storm will be over soon. Decades go by and they become incredibly angry at God. They essentially believe God grants an isolated storm when your life could be in a rainforest. We become so fixated on our problems that we don’t look to our impact on our culture for God.

Also, the watered-down version of the prosperity gospel leads to stagnation. I made a blog post explaining this idea in detail. You wait for a sign as to when the storm is over. The storm will rain on those who have no shelter. People are heading to darkness while you are waiting for your person storm to end. You are in this race of life to win. Some problems in your life has a potential to never end until death. What would our excuse be when we stand in front of the Creator? I didn’t want to go outside because I would get wet? No. You would be grief stricken by all the opportunities you missed while writhing in your own pity.

Matthew 6:19-21 (NASB):

“’Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.’”

Another part of the prosperity gospel is earthly rewards. If you do X you will be rewarded with Y. This idea creates many agnostics. You have people within our culture saying this constantly. Some say, “you are not praying enough.” “There is a sin holding you from God’s reward.” “You are not having enough faith.” This later statement I make fun of a lot. I satirically say, “If you think hard enough and pray deep enough all your dreams will come true.” Life is not about what God can give you. It is about worshiping and following our creator. If God doesn’t give us an earthly reward who cares. Many of you reading this doesn’t have more then 60 years to live. What is 60 years compared to eternity? Nothing at all. Let’s give this messily 60 years to our Creator. Giving him the gift of endurance and perseverance.

Our life is not our own. It is God’s. We must live sacrificially and boldly for Him daily. Prosperity is our reward in heaven. Our soul given to God is what will make us prosper. When we look to what God can give us all the time me miss what we can give him. He died for us. Really, what more can we ask? Stop thinking of the material and look to the eternal.