The Prosperity Gospel: Truth or Lie ?: Reviewing the “Wealth Gospel”

By Jean Maurice Prosper

In this actual generation, God is practically absent. The World is now a place where personal glory, fame and riches is the prime goal of everybody. The society is now a success driven one and the importance of having money and riches has never been more important. Christianity have unfortunately been caught up in this movement and we now have a new type of gospel known to many as the Prosperity Gospel. For many, this gospel is the intention or blessings that God has declared for his followers, for others this is simply a twisted and corrupted version of the real Gospel.

This book is an invitation to review the claims of the prosperity gospel and at the same time, review what the Bible really teaches. Are we born to be rich and possess the world ? Are we to live in extreme riches and abundance until our Lord returns or are we called to live out as followers and disciples of Jesus, being content with what we have and leaving everything we need to Jesus? Does God really promises all the riches of the world to all of us once we start following Jesus ?

Join me in this interesting and most important exploration of the hottest topic around, The prosperity gospel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449767525

Jean Maurice Prosper

Jean Maurice has since his conversion, believed that seeking God and studying his Word is the basis of a Christian life. He firmly believes that, as Christ followers we are to imitate Jesus in everything that He did and in everything that He taught. This book has been written following his journey with God till now, based on real life experiences but reviewed through the Words of Christ. It has been through the study of the Word that this project has been possible . Jean Maurice is married to Esther and they live with their two children, Holy-Grace and Matthew, in Mauritius. Jean works as an IT engineer in his own IT company. He and his wife also run a Christian bookstore and coffeeshop. Jean Maurice helps in organising small group studies, bible study classes and Praise and Worship evenings. They also run Praize Ministries which is committed to helping the community and bring the gospel to the needy. He is actually planning to move fully in ministry and dedicate his life fully to serving Christ where the Lord will guide him.

Book preview

The Prosperity Gospel:

Truth or Lie?

Reviewing the Wealth Gospel

Jean Maurice Prosper

11_a_images.ai

Copyright © 2012 by Jean Maurice Prosper.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All Scriptures, except if otherwise stated, are from the King James Bible (KJV). Public domain version.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-6751-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6753-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6752-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012917260

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/20/2012

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

What Is the Prosperity Gospel?

Chapter 2

The Seeds and the Firstfruits

Chapter 3

Questioning the Prosperity Principles

Chapter 4

The Prosperity Theology

Chapter 5

The Power of Deception

Chapter 6

How to Identify Them?

Chapter 7

Promoters of

the Prosperity Gospel

Chapter 8

The Common Messages

Chapter 9

Prosperity Faith at Work

Chapter 10

Poverty and Suffering

Chapter 11

What about Servanthood?

Chapter 12

Biblical Warning against Wealth or Love of Wealth

Chapter 11

The Grace of God

Chapter 12

Consequences

Individual Consequences

Congregational Consequences

Chapter 13

Personal Experiences

Chapter 14

Visit to America

Chapter 15

My New Car

Chapter 16

Still Going Strong in God

Chapter 17

Conclusion

Chapter 18

Bernadette

About the Author

Bibliography and References

To my parents, Claire and Melchiade, who brought me up in a better way than they knew. The work they performed when I was a small child is now producing its fruit.

To my wife, Esther-Grace, and my children, Holy-Grace and Matthew, for being very patient and loving to me. You have been the best things that God has given me. God has shown how great he is by blessing me with the gift of your presence in my life; I am forever grateful and thankful to the Lord for that.

To my friends at Praize, with whom I have spent so much time in studies and in Christian living discussions. It is thanks to you that I have learned so much and have been able to grow for the past years. Warm thanks also to my friends of TruthXchange, especially to Pam. Also, I would like to thank Micheline Daurat for her time and help. I really appreciate all of you.

Finally, I want to dedicate this book to every reader. God has a great plan for each of you. He has provided salvation for you for better things. He wants a real fellowship with you all. I pray that you can use this book as a tool that will help you discern and understand the difference between serving God and using God.

We are here to serve him with all our heart, with all our might, with all our soul and all our strength. Let us give him his rightful place in our lives, the place above all things.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

1 John 2:15–17

Preface

When I first encountered the world of God, I was nearly seven years old. At this age, as it usually was for young children, I too learned about the chronicles of Samson, who had that tremendous strength. I heard about David and how he vanquished Goliath; I was told about Noah and the flood and how he saved the animals by taking them with him in the ark. I also heard about Babel, which was a very well-known story for kids. Then, of course, I heard the very good news of Jesus, this man who performed so many miracles, this man who had so many stories to tell, this man who was the reason why we celebrated Christmas. All these nice stories made me feel like I wanted to spend my time with God, being an obedient child and fulfilling the will of Jesus.

However, as we grow older, we start discovering the reality of life and we somehow find that our childhood Jesus is quite out of pace with the actual life we are living. Life is a struggle in itself due to the various socio-economic issues that govern society. All the day-to-day issues of life, relationships, workload, family issues, and peer pressure also have an impact upon us. All these make it quite hard to live what society calls a happy life. We are always trying to find a solution to all those problems, or else we can easily let ourselves drown in this spiral and end up as failures. We are on the lookout to find a way to go through life with some joy and happiness.

It happens that you come to remember Jesus, but your thoughts are of that Jesus you knew when you were a kid, the Jesus who always had some nice talks and some good words and was just telling some stories. And you find yourself questioning his existence. If however, you do believe in him, you then start looking for the real answers, and you want to know more of what he has to say. You want to know if there is any other reason why he came to earth. Everyone has heard that Jesus can save. Those who grew up in a Christian family know about Jesus. Although they might not have met him personally, they are aware of his existence. Therefore, they set out again to rediscover him, and this time they want to have a real relationship with him.

I had the opportunity to hear this gospel, and I managed to get back on the right track. I am saved, and I can take pleasure in the relationship that I have with my Savior. However, coming to Christ, to the real Christ, has not been that easy and obvious. My concern is that there are so many false Christian doctrines and teachings out there. There are so many deformities of the gospel. There are unworthy leaders, teachers, and evangelists who, having understood that other people are desperately seeking God and willing to do many sacrifices to find Jesus, are using this opportunity to satisfy their personal greed. They are using this thirst for God, which people have, as a means of satisfying their covetousness. They have no genuine care for people, and we can certainly ask if they have any concern for God and his kingdom.

This is exactly what the prosperity gospel is doing. Nowadays, society is success driven; the more you succeed, the more popular you become. You are also likely to be sought after. Hence, as a normal consequence, you grow as a person, and most importantly to the society, you grow financially. People are all running after success and trying to find ways to get fame as fast as possible. I do not think that this quest for power and money is something new; Jesus and the early apostles spoke about these issues in their times. However, today this problem is more acute, as almost everyone is looking forward to getting wealthier. It is an ideology now that if you are not rich, you cannot live decently. It is also true that life is getting more and more expensive and that we need money to live. This is where some preachers and teachers have failed. They have created a shift in a very profound foundation of our Christian faith. Instead of remaining true to the gospel and exhorting people to continue to seek what we can do for God, what we can do for the kingdom of God and for others, they are now using the gospel to teach people how to gain from the gospel, how to gain from God, and how to gain from others. While faith and walk with Christ is all about renouncing ourselves, they have turned it into a walk where we only seek what to gain from it. In doing so, believers now see Jesus as a means rather than as a Saviour, and this is really damaging the church.

The thirst for God runs parallel to the thirst for financial safety. In this crazy world in which we are living, it is not surprising to find people who are looking for both God and money. This cannot be, for we know that Jesus said we cannot serve God and Mammon. On the one hand, they are trying to find a reason to live; on the other hand, they are working hard to make enough money, and hearing the prosperity gospel teaching that God can provide both, the choice is quite clear for them. The reality of today’s society is that money is the predominant matter; the more money you have, the safer and happier you feel. The less you have, the more you feel insecure and sad. Everything is about how great your savings account is in the bank. This is such an accepted fact that everyone feels that money is now the credential by which one is accepted or rejected. Even Christians think that being blessed and approved by God is a question of how wealthy they are and how many possessions they have. The more they have, the more they are blessed.

Wealth and blessings are not the issue. It is not a question of whether God wants to bless us, whether God wants us to prosper or not. It is not a question about if we need to give or not. It is about what God really said about being prosperous and how he wants this to happen. It is a biblical fact that God wants us to prosper; that God has blessings for us. God is the God of blessings and prosperity. But he is not a financial God. This book is an attempt to reveal what God really said about prosperity and blessings, and certainly it is also a tool to reveal what God did not say. It is a fact that many people have not yet understood the real meaning of giving, prosperity, and blessings. Consequently, they do not teach these concepts accurately and therefore act as false teachers.

What is also a very sad reality is the fact that so many people no longer have any love for the Word of God. I really cannot understand how people can say that they love God but do not like reading and studying the Bible. Have they not heard that this is the Word of God? People rely so much on other preachers and teachers, because they are somehow very lazy and lack the patience and love to read and study the Word of God. How can we become proper disciples if we do not read the Word? How can we know that some things are good or bad, biblical or not, if we do not know what God has to say about these things? How can we know what God expects from us if we do not even read his instructions?

I just hope that God helps me expose this heresy to make people understand that they need to seek God first and seek salvation rather than their own success.

My youth mentor told me once, You need to have a successful life, and not only a successful living.

Today I understand the full meaning of this because living by and for God has made my life a success.

Chapter 1

What Is the Prosperity Gospel?

As per this gospel, God’s plan for us all is to have health, wealth, and success and to be living like kings. Jesus took all the sickness, all problems, and all poverty on the cross, and he left riches, good health, and a great life for us because he loves us so much.

I am sure that you all must have come across those strong words of faith and promises; we all have at a certain point in our Christian walk. You must have read books, listened to sermons, and even watched many televangelists who talked about God’s plan for his children to live in full prosperity, to have everything they want, and to have the best possible life on this earth. This is what the prosperity gospel is about.

The prosperity gospel is the assertion that God wants all of us to be wealthy. It expounds that Christians are entitled to greater riches, dwelling in abundance of wealth and health and enjoying everything the world has to offer. It also claims that as God’s children, we have been called to enjoy all these privileges. All that is expected of us is to believe in these biblical promises and apply some biblical principles established by God to unleash them. Christians are the ones who have been given the promise of enjoying the world and everything it produces. We must take possession of our promised land where honey and milk flow. The prosperity gospel educates that this is what Jesus wants for us as referred to in the Bible.

Those truths were given as revelations to those who are genuinely looking for the blessings of God in the Word. As per the various prophets and preachers of this gospel, only those who are really on the right path will receive those revelations, and indeed they consider themselves to be prophets who received those new revelations. The main revelation is about the will of God for all his people to be very rich financially and never experience poverty. They call this the supernatural financial blessing principle instated by God. They also claim that no Christian should ever be sick. Jesus has died on the cross, has already conquered sickness, and has provided atonement so we can enjoy a healthy body. Christians must not experience any disease or sickness as the world does, because in Jesus, we have all the health we need to lead an enjoyable life. We have to believe this, and it will become reality. Although prosperity gospel is a combination of assorted false teachings or the distortion of God’s Word, starting from divine health, divine wealth, and divine abundance, I will be talking about what is damaging the world and causing much harm to believers and unbelievers: the divine wealth or financial abundance miracles.

I need to point out that this is not a book about convicting wealthy people and encouraging impoverishment. Clearly, we need to work hard and always be faithful to God. It is very true and scriptural that God sends blessings in countless forms comprising of material and financial ones. One will definitely experience economic blessings and will become very prosperous, but that is certainly not a general rule, as most preachers want to make us believe. It is not an inheritance that is automatic once we become believers. We need to understand the biblical aspect of wealth and prosperity.

It is also very clear that hard work produces results. Anyone running a trade properly, having good merchandises and services, will obtain rewards. The rule that governs trade is something that works for everybody, Christian or non-Christian, in the same way that the sun ascends and rain falls for both the righteous and the wicked. We can give accounts of so many people around us who run successful businesses and are very wealthy. The same applies to Christians or non-Christians. My intention here is to expose what the prosperity gospel is about and, using biblical passages, compare the claims about it with what the Bible really means. One distinct fact with the prosperity gospel is that nothing is free. For everything you want to obtain, there is a price to pay for it.

As warned by Peter, Paul, and even Jesus, false teachers make use of the Word of God; they are people who make heavy use of the Bible to prove their points. We should not think of them as people who do not know the Bible. In fact, they know it so well that they distort and use it in a way that seems to make their message acceptable. They are what I call prosperity psychologists who have understood how to use the gospel to take advantage of others. Using the words, they think that they are untouchables. They make heavy use of specific Scriptures, and it is usual to hear the same verses mentioned repeatedly.

The verses below are commonly used to promote the prosperous nature of our God-given blessings.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Honour Jehovah with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall overflow with new wine (Proverbs 3:9–10).

The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22).

Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over, shall be given into your bosom: for with the same measure with which ye mete it shall be measured to you again (Luke 6:38).

And he said to them, Take heed what ye hear; with what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you; and there shall be more added to you (Mark 4:24).

All of the above excerpts talk about being rich, being poor and then being enriched, putting God to the test by giving, barns being filled to overflowing, blessings making people rich, and giving and blessings shall be given to you. All the