I write with concern this
installment on the reformation, because I know that this aspect of Christendom
carries with it the hopes and dreams of countless Christians. Many would not have trouble adopting my first
two installments but I admit for some this may seem an assault on the very core
of all that they believe and hold dear.
If this is you I make no apologies, because the truths of God’s word is
far more important that our sensibilities and emotions.
An aberration is something that
deviates from what is deemed normal or usual.
I classify the prosperity gospel as an aberration because it does just
that. There is no doubt that this
concept has indeed trekked far from what Jesus gave us in the gospel of the kingdom. In fact, through this writing you will come
to see that the prosperity gospel could be classified as another gospel with
all the bells and whistles.
When I speak of the prosperity
gospel I speak as one who was caught up in the deep recesses of this
movement. For many years I sent, in faith, thousand of dollars to various ministries all promising to better
my financial state if only I sowed a seed.
I was not a fly-by-night adherent to this doctrine. I bought their teaching tapes, studied their
books and went to their conferences. I
wholeheartedly embraced the tenets of this faith, and I did all that was
required to see a manifestation of my faith.
So when I speak of this doctrine I speak from a position of
experience.
What is the Prosperity
Gospel?
To understand the prosperity gospel
one must understand how human beings in general operate. We are indeed complex creatures and as such
our motives and methods of operation bear this out. When humans are oppressed for extended
periods of time we begin to resent that oppression. This is due to our nature; we all seek to be masters
of our own destiny and commanders of our own fate. This natural inclination drives us to rebel
against anyone or anything that we perceive as a hindrance to the expression of
our personal freedom. The problem is
that more often than not when we escape these entanglements we go from one
extreme to the next and often at light speeds.
The reason for this is that we want to put as much distance as possible
between us and the thing that oppressed us.
This is what gave rise to the saying ‘he went from one extreme to the
next’. Understanding this concept will
help you to see the true nature of the prosperity gospel and to understand why
it is so popular.
For years a legacy of poverty has
been handed down through the body of Christ.
This legacy was effective in equating poverty with holiness. This was and is a hallmark concept of the
Catholic faith and for centuries after Christ this concept was held as the
oracle from God and this teaching has continued to this day. Even after the reformation with Martin Luther
these powerful concept remained with us.
This led Christians to eschew abundance and cling to a life of
impoverishment. This was the
oppression. In the early 20th
century, with the rise of Pentecostalism and Charismata, this began to
change. Christians were now awaking to
the concept that God wants his people to be rich and prosperous. This lit a fire that has raged on to this
day. But what we have today is the
extreme side of the poverty we once espoused.
We escaped the dregs of poverty like a bat out of hell; so much so that
where our ancestors once sought to be seen as righteous by what they lacked we
now seek to show our righteousness by our abundance.
The tenets of the prosperity gospel
are few in that it can all be reduced to these concepts:
- God wants you to be rich
- God wants you to have the best of everything
Together these fuel the minds of
the prosperity teachers and lead to the doctrines we have today.
Before I am dismissed as an
antagonist to God’s people prospering let me say from the onset the true gospel
of the kingdom does agree with an infinitesimal portion of the prosperity teachings
about God’s blessing. But I contend that
what we have today is a sordid, perverted, distortion of what the true gospel
had in mind. This will all come to light
very shortly. Please read on.
Flawed foundations
According to the grace of
God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he
buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:10, 11)
Foundations are very
important. They provide the basis for
our structures and metaphorically they form the basis of our belief systems. Each philosophical idea has its basis on
something. Each doctrine is rooted and
grounded in some thought. The prosperity
gospel is no different. The problem is
that the prosperity gospel has its footing on flawed foundations.
Money, Money, Money
Regardless as to what is said and
how it is said the prosperity teachers have this concept at hand: ‘the body of
Christ needs money’. This building block
is faulty from the onset. Now I am not
some nitwit that believes that we should not have money. I contend, as I will explain, that money is
important but what the prosperity gospel does is push the quest to achieve
money to the extreme. In fact the gospel
has become the way to achieve financial breakthrough. I know what they say, ‘Oh it is about having
your family whole and your body whole’, but these are only thrown in to mask
the stench of monetary pursuit. Listen
to what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:
But
realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;
The key phrase here is that Paul
recognized that there would be people that would become lovers of money. This phrase is a mouthful but it simply describes
men consumed by greed. The next phrase
is very telling in that it says that these men will be holding to a form
of godliness. This is important
because Paul says that it is just a form of godliness and not the real thing which
has power. But what is the true power of
godliness or what makes us act in a way that pleases God -- which is what godliness
is. The gospel of the kingdom is
the power of God and it leads us to live godly lives. The prosperity gospel denies that power
because it draws men deeper into the love of money, instead of the gospel of
the kingdom, which causes its adherents to overcome the vices listed in the passage
above.
Some of you may be wondering just what
all this has to do with some of our illustrious teachers today. Surely these verses cannot be talking about
them, and surely it must be talking of those who are outside the church. Consider the following:
I know that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after
them. (Acts 20:29 ,
30)
A perversion is anything that
deviates from the truth. It is very
simple to determine perversion. All you have
to do is find the truth and compare it with what you are examining and if it
does not compare with the truth then it is a perversion.
The prosperity Gospel sounds
very much like the American Dream
This is another chink in the armor
of the prosperity doctrine. The
prosperity gospel sounds exactly like the American
Dream. The American Dream was a concept
that was developed to embody a single idea of what the pursuits of a typical
American should be. This concept is not
new, in fact the idea was around from the 1800s, but through time it became
totally focused on the materialistic aspects of life. Today it can be summed up in the following:
With hard work one can achieve all his hopes
and dreams regardless of the condition of his birth. The fruits of this success are exemplified by
an abundance of wealth further exemplified by ones possession of fine houses
and cars.
The concept of the American Dream has
become a totally self-centered, egotistical concept that drives us to live for
us alone and to seek out life’s pleasures.
Does this sound like any of the end-promises of the prosperity
gospel? Ask for what you want? Seek after your desire? What do I want God to
do for me? These concepts only pander to
our flesh and not to the purposes of God for our lives.
How did this happen? While they do not admit it, the truth is that
we have looked to the world to teach us what is good and what is acceptable. This leads to an unquenchable greed in the
body of Christ. These leaders have given
us concepts of what it means to be prosperous and having the abundant
life. The problem is these concepts are based
on westernized concepts of greed and excess.
Cultures all over the world have their own ideas of what it means to be
blessed and oftentimes it does not involve having a million dollars and a
private jet. To some of them it could
just mean having their children fed, clothed and safe. It is unjust for us to export our brand of
prosperity under the guise of the gospel to these otherwise contented people
and in so doing corrupt their concepts.
It is connected to the ebb and
flow of the US
This is one of the greatest
challenges with the prosperity gospel.
It would not appear to be so on its face, but consider when the
prosperity that is associated with this gospel began. It began in the 1980s during the beginning of
the prosperity years of the Reagan administration’s economic initiatives. From this time the American economy was for
the most part in an economic boom that has continued up until now. It was at this time that prosperity was about
and greed began to rule the day. But
also consider this; if this was a genuine move of God there would under no circumstances
be a connection or susceptibility to the contractions and corrections that
happen from time to time in the US
Blessed is
the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. "For he
will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a
stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be
green, and it will not be anxious
in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8
Do you see that? It says that to the man that trusts in the
Lord when drought comes [corrections, contractions, slowdowns and recessions] HE WOULD NOT KNOW IT. In fact this verse declares that his
abundance would not cease. It is not
uncommon to hear that there was a slowdown in giving during times of economic
hardships, but this should not be since if this is a move from God it is
independent of the world’s fickle system.
God is not hoping that the stock market will go up, or that the price of
oil will be stabilized so that he would be able to continue to bless you. He is not hampered by this. So why then is there a slowdown in giving that
is in step with the American economic systems. For that matter why does it
affect the continued prosperity of the adherents to this gospel just as it
affects the people of the world? What seems applicable in this instance is the
saying ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’.
Can you see therefore another
problem arising? If the prosperity
gospel is genuine then there should be a host of other success stories (based
on what the prosperity teachers deem as success) throughout the world. In particular the Developing and Third World should be replete with abundance by now,
since it is these people that are so close to desperation that they have
latched onto this teaching so desperately.
By now they would have been able to turn around their whole economies
with the abundance that would have been coming to them. Places like Haiti Sudan India Ethiopia
No sure method
This is also another flaw in the
foundation of the prosperity gospel.
There is no sure way agreed upon by all its proponents of how the
blessings of God are received. In fact
the only thing that all of them can agree on is that God wants you rich. This is evident by the fact that from time to
time there would arise some new catch-phrase to explain how one acquires this
blessing. It just keeps evolving so much
so that if the thinking person were to examine it, what you are taught now as ‘the
way’ would be obsolete in five years. It
is like the weather in some temperate climates ‘If you do not like the weather
just wait a few minutes’. Because there
is this abundant flow of ‘revelation’ the way to the blessing keeps
changing. Does this sound familiar to
you? Consider this:
These are
the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you
without fear, caring for themselves; clouds
without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted.
Jude 12
Do you see this? The prophet says that they are carried about
by winds. This is a strange place to put
that word ‘winds’ is it not? Why would
he describe them as being carried by winds?
Well it is because winds are by nature capricious as they continue to
change directions. Is this confirmed
anywhere else?
As a
result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery
of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4:14
Well now, what do we have
here? First we have to realize that
these influences in this verse comes from the within the body. These were deceptive elements in the body seeking to
distort the scriptures. Ok, let us see how
he describes their actions. ‘Every wind
of doctrine.’ Well look at that, there
it is again. These tricksters will come
to the body to deceive us with a continually evolving and changing word that is
designed to fleece and confuse us.
It incites greed
There is nothing that incites greed
in the body of Christ quite like the prosperity gospel. We now have a ‘godly’ way to pander to all
our feckless desires. Have you ever
noticed that we have a hard time today trying to determine how someone can
commit idolatry in our time since the worship of idols is passé? Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 10:14
Wherefore,
my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
And,
Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, Idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies
(Galatians 5:19 , 20)
, just do not seem to make sense so we cast them
off to an age gone by. But could there
still be idolatry today? Consider the following:
Put to death, therefore,
whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossian 3:5)
Do you see what he said? He equates greed with idolatry. So if you find greed in your life then you
have an idol.
The un-sovereign God and the all-knowing
Man
This is the greatest travesty to
the body of Christ in all of the flaws of this doctrine. The prosperity gospel
demotes God to a simple bellhop waiting for your commands, and it places man at
the center of the universe. Again they
would not overtly say this but it is classic prosperity doctrine
Do you realize what it means to say
that God is sovereign? It means that he
does whatever pleases him,
all the time!
Consider the following:
Remember the former things
of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like
me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure: (Isaiah
46:9-10)
Consider
the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
(Ecclesiastes 7:13)
Before you say to me that ‘it is
his will that I prosper and be wealthy therefore he will prosper me’ consider
that you
are not that smart to know what you need. You do not have sufficient information as to
what your life would need in the next minute! So how can God place seemingly limitless power
in your hands? Consider for a moment if
what the prosperity teachers taught was right.
God would give them whatever they wanted. In fact, God will give you anything you ask
for. Are you serious? Do you know what you need? What
does God think of this?
O LORD, I
know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
(Jeremiah 10:23)
You think that God would leave it
up to you to determine what is best for you?
How ridiculous! Even those that
have been saved for many years who feel as though they are confident in knowing
the will of God for their lives would be lying if the said they did. Consider how James responds to this arrogance:
Go to now, ye that say,
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and
buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye
ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
(James 4:13-15)
You are praying for a car and a
house, but how can you assume the will of God?
He may have you designated to leave for a mission trip to the Netherlands
I will like to make one final note
on the sovereignty of God. Nebuchadnezzar,
you remember him – great king head of gold majesty. He had a problem with acknowledging God as sovereign. He too wanted to impose his will in the earth;
until God helped him realize he alone was sovereign by turning Nebuchadnezzar
into a goat! Do you know what the new
and improved Nebuchadnezzar had to say after he came to his senses?
At the end of that time,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.
Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to
generation. All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the
peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you
done?"
Watch yourselves!!!
Is it working?
This is a pertinent question. While we must never use
our experiences to determine if God is in agreement with a thing, it would be hard-pressed
to deny some credence to the prosperity doctrine if we had some overwhelming
results. Well let us ask ourselves is it
working? Consider the fact that if one has money in this day and age it is
difficult to hide. In fact the psyche of
those who have bought into this doctrine would not allow them to keep such
things quiet. Well, where are these ‘bajillionaires’. Let us see, under the prosperity gospel the
minimum return on one’s giving is a 100 fold return. I say minimum because of late there are some
outrageous prophecies of ministers telling the gullible that they would receive
1000 times as much as they gave! That aside let us stick with the conservative
figure of 100 fold return on seed sown; so this is how it works:
- You find some ministry that is preaching the true word
of God (which would be someone who believes in the prosperity gospel)
- You submit, give, or yield up a sum of money to aid
them in their ‘work’
- Depending on the setting, you either shout out or
declare to the heavens what you want your seed to produce (which is
important because apparently if you do not label it God has no idea what
to use it for or even how to return it to you).
- This person then prays over your seed very piously,
in a loud fire and brimstone type prayer for God to return your money to
you multiplied
- You wait a while
- Then miraculously you receive through some unforeseen
way a sum of money that is supposed to represent a return on your seed
sown.
Did I get it all? Oh one more thing, you are then suppose to restart
the process all over again; this time with a bigger seed so as to increase your
harvest next time. So let us look at an
example to see how this thing would work:
We give $100 that should return to
us at
least $10,000; let us sow the entire $10,000 we should then end up with
$1,000,000. So in a two step process,
just two steps mind you, they promise based on God’s word
that you can go from having a measly $100 to $1 million. At this point, you reason that you would take
this thing for all it is worth and you find some big time ministry and sow into
them the entire $1million. What should
be your return? The return would be $100,000,000 i.e. one hundred million dollars.
Now you say to yourself, I will do this one more time to watch God
work! I sow the entire amount, so what
is my new return? Well, that friend is
equal to $10 billion dollars!!! So count
the steps with me that is one, two, three, four, five – five steps. In sowing five steps we can all be multi-billionaires. Just five steps!! I have to emphasize this to show its
simplicity. There you have it.
Now I question you dear reader has
this happened? Where is this
manifestation in the life of the typical believer? Okay maybe it is not in all cash, maybe it is
in a mixture of cash and property? Surely
this would not have been hidden from the Forbes
100 which is a list of the world’s richest people. Consider this, if indeed it was working for these
ministers themselves they would have ceased to ask for more money. I mean this is the best system ever. This is my challenge to them:
Put yourselves on the level of the typical believer. We have no TV ministry on which to demand
funds of our listeners. We just have
typical jobs or small businesses. Ok on
this level prove the veracity of what you are saying. Without your elaborate support system you
should be a multi-billionaire in five easy steps.
They are asking us to live by faith
and give to them but they are naturally receiving abundance because of the
system they have in place. This is no
miracle it is simple mechanics.
When examining our lives for
results there will be those reading who will say but I gave and I received. Did you receive based on the level that was
promised? If so then there would be many
more million- no billionaires in the body of Christ. We Christians have this uncanny ability to attribute
actions to the last activity we performed.
So if we give today and we happen to receive something tomorrow we
assume that it is because of what we just gave.
This is faulty reasoning, because oftentimes the things that happen to
us are effects that may not be of the cause to which we ascribe it. Please do
not misunderstand me the 100 fold return promise has a scriptural basis, but I
will show that their reasoning and their interpretation of that scripture is
faulty.
Excuses, excuses,
excuses.
Regardless to what the diehard
believers of the prosperity gospel say, the results cannot be denied. If I give in accordance with their doctrine I
should at some point receive at least 100 times as much as I gave. And since the following scripture speaks to
us all:
For God
shows no partiality [undue favor or
unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another]. (Romans
2:11)
Then God will not do something for me
that he would not do for you. If he does
not show partiality then why aren’t these abundant blessings widespread among
the prosperity followers? The leaders of
this movement have of late had to answer these questions as well. This has led to a slew of excuses (of which
they do not admit that they are excuses) from these preachers. These excuses will just get weirder and weirder,
but because we are ‘people of faith’ we are often too credulous. Since they cannot blame God and they would
not even question their own doctrine. Who then is at fault for your lack of
manifestation? Well you of course! On one
recent occasion, I heard a preacher say the reason for your failure to receive
is because you sowed in a field that had weeds.
The weeds then entangle your seed and killed your fruit. I say to you there will be no end to the
imaginative concoctions for your failures.
It is beneath them to consider that
maybe they indeed had erred in their beliefs and proclamations so you must foot
the bill for your failure to receive.
Either you are not giving into good soil or there is some step in the
formula you have missed; or maybe even it is some new revelation that God just
gave them in their sleep last night. I
in particular was aghast at one preacher.
I was once caught up deeply in this particular thing and I followed my
faith with action sending thousands of dollars in hopes that I would be
overwhelmed by the blessings they touted.
I did everything according to their proclamation. I spoke, I declared, I decreed, I confessed,
I gave , I sowed, I waited, I expected, I travailed. I followed their teachings. Back to this one preacher, for years he
preached that we are to owe no man anything but to love them. He talked about the importance of living debt
free and how we should be living on our giving.
I guess he finally had a revelation and after years of telling his listeners
to stay away from debt I heard him recant and he now says that debt is
okay. The concept behind what he was
saying was that:
While you are waiting for God to manifest his blessing, it is okay to get
into debt. Why pay rent when you can pay
a mortgage on something you would eventually own.
I was flabbergasted. Here is this man now saying something he
denounced for years and now conceding its validity. The thing is that for years I and others like
me believed him and stayed away from debt and paid rent hoping in God based on
his promises, and now he had the audacity to concede. Please do not feel that this writing is
therefore out of anger at these teachers.
No it is not, what happened is, as a result of this event I begin to
search the scriptures for myself and I sought the truth of God. My question to those who have ears to hear is
this:
What are they right now preaching
as God’s way that in time they will come to modify?
There is another aspect of these
excuses that is very sinister indeed.
Understand this; the prosperity teachers are supposedly now walking in
what they determine to be the blessing of God.
They are now experiencing the abundance that God is promising to the
body through the prosperity teaching.
The sinister part is that they are just now being given NEW
revelation from God in respect to why you are not receiving the abundance
yet. For the most part some of these
prosperity teachers have been living in this prosperity for ten, fifteen or
more years. How is it that they are just
now getting new revelation on what is causing it not to happen for you? This presupposes that they were able to
achieve this level of abundance years ago without this new revelation. How did this happen? They must be some super-elite
Christians. Did God allow them to miss a
few steps? If what they were saying was
true then we should all be progressing (prosperity teachers included) along on
the same level, since they would not have had the benefit of this new knowledge
until now, and therefore they could not have put it into practice until now. But no, they are there without the benefit of
the new revelation knowledge that they are now receiving to explain why you are
not there yet.
The misapplication of
scripture
…and regard the patience
of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to
the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in
them of these things, in which are some
things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own
destruction. You therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by
the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
(2Peter 3:15-17)
The majority of the apostles were
unlearned men. Even Jesus himself was a
carpenter without any formal training in the theological seminaries of his day. So how then were these men able to understand
the whole counsel of God and not be engulfed by error? There
are three things that are essential in understanding the word of God:
1 - The Spirit of God must be present.
It is because they had the spirit of God in them that the spirit ensured that
what they said was in accordance with the way of God.
2 - Another point that I cannot
stress enough is the power and importance of context. When examining the scriptures we must
examine not just one verse but the entire context of the verse. If we do not, then we risk running afoul of
what the word of God says.
3 - In addition to these the most
essential thing to escaping error is to first have a good and pure heart before
God. The gospel of the kingdom of God
But that
on the good ground are they, which in an honest and
good heart, having heard the word, keep it,
and bring forth fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15)
This is essential to experiencing
an error-free interpretation of the scriptures.
So what of the scriptures touted by
the prosperity teachers to prove the veracity of what they teach? I will not examine all but only the more
popular ones because it is through these that most of the damage is done.
Ask in his name and receive it
And whatsoever ye shall
ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If
ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13, 14)
Ye have not chosen me, but
I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father
in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)
There you have it you say! Doesn’t this prove that God will give us what
we want if we ask in Jesus’ name? No Sir, It Does Not! When reading scripture it is imperative that
we understand the whole counsel of God.
Since the word of God does not contradict then all scripture has to
interlock for the scriptures to be true.
Now, that said, is the above scripture the whole counsel of God
regarding making requests of God? No it
is not, for if that was the case the depravity of man would make God a partner
in sin. What does he say in his word?
And this is the confidence
that we have in him that, if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us: (1 John
5:14 )
If you remain in
me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be given you. (John
15:7)
These verses together combined with the above
verses give the entire counsel of God on the matter. In fact the verse in 1 John 5:14 governs all the above verses. The key is that Jesus promised to give you
anything you ask that is in accord with his
will. Not your will,
His will!
The scripture comes to light when we realize that the will of God for
each of us is different. Some of us God has
designated for one purpose and some he has designated for another. How can we say we will ask for anything
unless we know the purpose of God for our lives? One brother would need a large dining room
table because his purpose demands that he accommodates several people at dinner
time, another brother would need only a compact car because his purpose does
not require him to pick up anyone. In
fact with closer examination we see that truthfully he only hears us when
our prayers are consistent with what HE
wants. So in a nutshell:
God will
only give you what you ask for when it is in accordance with what his specific
will is for your life. It is therefore
the will of God that governs your life!
And our prayers and request do not register to him if they are not in
accordance with HIS will for us.
The will of God demanded that Paul’s life needed certain
things but the will of God called for different things for Peter. This therefore demanded that their request be
different. Paul could not say “Lord you
gave Peter a shiny new horse to get from Jerusalem Damascus
Give and it shall be given to you
“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed
down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with
the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38)
Prosperity teachers tout this passage to confirm a
whole host of unrelated scriptures all leading you to give to their
ministries. But is this really what Jesus
was saying to his listeners? At the time
when Jesus was teaching this particular verse there were no ministries. To
what then was he talking? He was talking
about giving to the poor and indigent.
That was his primary focus. It
was them that needed to see and experience the goodness of God.
This verse is also used for a more disturbing
purpose. It further deepens the
deception of this doctrine. Prosperity teachers
say that when you give to them according to this verse God will give back to
you a good measure. They say that the
manifestation of this could show up in an increase in sales in your business or
a salary increase on your job. THI IS NOT SO! They say this because they do not understand
the nature of giving. When someone gives
you something in order for it to be a gift it cannot be because of something you did to
or for them. Understand this,
when you have someone purchase something from your business did they give
you the money for the purchase? No, they
paid for your services or product. I assure you semantics this is not; please
bear with me. If you pay for something it
is not
a gift. If your boss gives you a
raise is that giving or is it compensation for working? When Jesus gave this promise he said, ‘Give and it shall be given to you’. Giving involves the yielding up of what you
have for no favors whatsoever from the persons to which you gave it. So this promise is not fulfilled through a
prosperous business or a job, but through some other person (the scripture says
men) giving something to you freely. Could this scripture be fulfilled through winning
a settlement in a lawsuit? No sir that
is not giving, but it could be fulfilled by some individual walking up to you
who the Lord has touched to bless you.
So if we take away all the ways we thought we were
receiving a fulfillment of this scripture can the teachers of the prosperity
gospel stand? You see it is easy to
conclude that you received the fulfillment of this verse if after you give to some
ministry you get a bump in orders from a customer, but on closer examination
this could not be attributed to that.
If two agree
"Again, I tell you
that if two of you on earth agree
about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
(Matthew 18:19)
This is like the first scripture we examined. This too is governed by the will of the
God. But because we feel inadequate due
to the flawed clergy system we feel that if we can get someone very spiritual
to agree with us that God will do whatever we want. No way, brother! The will of God will reign
supreme.
Speak it!
And Jesus answering saith
unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall
say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he
saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Mark
11:22-23
Ok this is the biggest one of them all. This verse is used to justify creating one’s
own little world. With this verse we should
be able to go about creating the reality that we want unhindered by
anyone. You do not like your
circumstances? Well speak a word against
it and it will change. Do not like your
spouse, speak over him and he will change.
Oh yeah! Well let us just examine
their claims. What would be a handier
tool than to have the power to change the world with just your speech? But does it work. Some even claim that bad things happen to believers
because they speak negative things over their lives -- because you would have
whatever you say. So let us examine
this:
Who gives this promise? Jesus.
Ok, who then is responsible for ensuring that this promise is kept? Jesus.
So we are saying that if we speak negative words over our life then Jesus
therefore has to make sure that
these things happen to us. What! Are you
serious? If I say that I feel like I am
coming down with the flu according to the prevailing understanding, Jesus would
have to cause the flu to overcome me.
Now do not go and bring the devil into this. This is a promise by Jesus, the devil is nowhere
in this verse. Jesus is the one doing
it. Please do not be ridiculous! Why would God give his children a promise
that had the potential to destroy them?
If this verse meant what they said it meant we would all be dead!
What does it really say and how do we activate this
verse:
And Jesus answering saith
unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall
say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he
saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto
you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them
You see that word ‘therefore’ it means that the
verse is not complete. He is not saying
you will have whatever you say he is saying that you would have whatever you
pray to God. Now when he introduces this,
the factor of the will of God kicks in and in comes back around to 1 John
again. So please understand the
scriptures in their entirety.
Thirty, sixty, one hundredfold
Still other seed fell on
good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was
sown. Matthew 13:8
Abuse of this verse has been appalling. I am sure that God grieves over our misuse of
his word. Prosperity teachers have an
uncanny ability to make any scripture in the bible talk about money. This is because their minds are consumed with
the concept of blessings. Look at this verse. Look carefully at its context. How in the world could anyone construe this
passage to mean money is beyond me.
Maybe I am just unlearned, but what is this passage talking about:
A farmer went out to sow
his seed…
Okay, well obviously Jesus was talking
metaphorically because he was speaking a parable. So every time I see the word seed in the
bible I am to assume that it is talking about money. Is this so? Let us ask Jesus:
Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom
Do you see that?
The seed that Jesus was talking about here was the message of the
Kingdom which we now know to be the gospel.
In the book of Luke he clearly says that the seed is the word of God. So how did we get from a description of how
the kingdom of God
The one hundred-fold blessing
And Jesus answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake,
and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses,
and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions;
and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10:29-30
Understanding this verse is critical to the
blessings in the life of a believer. It
is a promise from Jesus to his followers that would ensure that they experience
the abundant life. Let us look at this
scripture to determine the claims of the prosperity teachers. First, this scripture is the bedrock for the
teaching of the hundredfold return. This
scripture is as true as any other in the bible.
So why is it not working for the average believer? I have already established that if indeed it
were, as the promise clearly says, we would be the financial powerhouse of the
earth. So what is wrong? The key to understanding this verse is in
understanding the true Gospel of the kingdom
of God
And Jesus answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
Do you see that?
Now if our understanding of one part of this equation is wrong but we
are adept at performing the other part would it still be successful? Jesus is saying that this verse is activated
when we give into the advancement of the true gospel of the kingdom, not any
old ministry but to our purpose (which should be in establishing the kingdom of
God -- which by the way is not synonymous with getting people rich) and our
personal righteousness in complying with his tenets.
Offerings
The seemingly benign concept of offerings has been
manipulated by today’s prosperity teachers in their effort to further engraft
this error into the faithful. They have plucked
from the Old Testament every scripture that relates to God commanding an
offering from the people, and used it today to justify a host of fleecing
gimmicks to extract money from the body.
The more devious of these teachings is the connections that they have
made to receiving almost anything from God to giving them money. To the point now that if you require healing
for your body or salvation for an errant loved one what are you to do? Sow a seed they bellow. On its face this may seem plausible but
consider its premise:
If I want
God to heal my body or save my loved ones I should sow a seed. Now it is not just any seed but a significant
sum of money that would prove to God the seriousness of your faith.
Can you imagine this blasphemy from these fablers? I even heard one of them say that he was once
sick and when he came to himself he told his wife to get the checkbook and
write a check for everything they had to some ministry; this was done as a
point of contact of his faith to watch God work.
For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:16
They would be quick to point out to you that ‘Oh
you are not buying a miracle but simply showing your faith to God’. Oh yeah?
This is rank and utterly disgraceful blasphemy. In this ‘faith’ transaction you are
exchanging the money for the healing or the salvation of a loved one. That is the bottom line. Now in regards to faith or salvation when did
Jesus EVER connect giving money to someone getting healed? For that matter when did the apostles? You know Peter had an excellent opportunity
to ask for money for a healing:
Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Acts 3:6
Well now, let us see, this fellow was by the wayside
begging. Ok, now if he was any good at
begging by this time he would have already accumulated some money. The apostles would have been able to ask him
to sow a seed in faith to show God he really believes him for his healing. This man got up and walked on faith alone. No money
no sowing. Yet these modern day false teachers
would have us believe through some wresting of the scripture that giving them
money is a point of contact for your faith so that God would heal you. The apostles did however encounter someone
who wanted to exchange money as a point of faith for a response from God. Let us see what they did:
And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands
the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
Saying, Give me also this power, that on
whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart
is not right in the sight of God. Acts 8:18-21
Old Simon only had to wait until 21st
century and he would have been able to get the gift by sowing into the hands of
the MEN of God today. These deceivers
would have you believe that giving into their particular ministries is a
cure-all for all your problems. This is
not so! Jesus never once demanded from
anyone that they sow into his ministry before he healed their loved one or cast
out demons or anything else. But because
these men know nothing but greed and are greed driven money has become their
answer to solving all your problems -- and that given to them.
So what’s so wrong with preachers
prospering?
Nothing and everything. There is nothing wrong with preachers
prospering the problem is that they are the only ones doing so. And I contend that they are only doing so
because of an illegitimate clergy system.
God’s intention was never for a select group of people to be blessed and
the others struggle. They are not
Levites and they do not stand in this office!!
There is a model that God has given to the preachers to be an example of
the conduct they should exhibit in regards to the abundance that they
receive. That model is found in Paul.
Paul was a shining example for any ‘man of God’
today. His life was an example for
us. God set him on display for those who
would follow to emulate in their walk and conduct. Today we see that the conduct of Paul is in diametric
contrast to today’s prosperity teachers and their lifestyles. (Please remember that I am not
against the prosperity of the people of God just this blatant inequality) I
will talk later on the demonic concept of full time ministry, but suffice it
now to say that Paul knew of no such thing.
Consider his words:
I have coveted no man's
silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have
ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things,
how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, [Remember what I said in the passage about who we
should give to.] and to remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts
33-35
Oh no he didn’t!
Did he just say he worked! Oh,
maybe he did not have much to do; he probably only focused on one church. Let us ask him, Brother Paul were you only
able to work and support yourself and those who were with you because
you only had a single church to take care of:
Besides everything else, I face daily the
pressure of my concern for all the churches. 2
Corinthians 11:28
Well now, Paul actually worked and I do not mean he
sat in his office and typed newsletters or church bulletins:
There he met a Jew named Aquila , a native of Pontus Italy Rome
Paul had his own business that he worked in and he still
preached the gospel. Today we have preachers who ‘must protect the anointing’
(please say the previous statement in a deeply spiritual voice). Maybe Paul accepted big love offerings when
he came to preach the word of God:
And when I was present
with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to
me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from
being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep
myself. 2 Corinthians 11:9
You will not see this happening today. Love offering number 1, 2 and 3 all in the
name of the Lord! They will accept gifts
from those who sent them and from those to whom they are sent. Have you ever
wondered why God allowed this example to be the one we have today? It is because it is his ideal. I am sure there were examples back then of
the same things we have today but God exalted Paul because he had the right
attitude.
God knew that there would come peddlers of his word
and he inspired the following:
And many shall follow
their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not. 2 Peter 2:2-4
Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort
are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:5-7
For we are not, like so
many, [like
hucksters making a trade of] peddling God's
Word [shortchanging
and adulterating the divine message]; but like
[men] of sincerity and the purest motive, as [commissioned and sent] by God, we
speak [His message] in Christ (the Messiah), in the [very] sight and presence
of God. 2 Corinthians 2:17
What does
God really want for his people?
As I stated before God wants his people to be
blessed, but we cannot allow the world to determine what being blessed is. We must not look to them for inspiration of
how to live the abundant life. What does
God want you to understand regarding wealth?
1 - Your wealth is determined by your purpose
The following is an excerpt from my book the Ideal Paradigm:
The things that money can bring and provide
for us indeed make life easier. It is
easier to get from point A to Z in a brand new Maybach rather than a broken
down old clunker. The trouble is when
they become our motivation and focus in life.
Our overarching life’s objective should be to fulfill our own personal
purpose in life. If this path of purpose
leads to a life replete with monetary abundance then that is fine, but this should be determined only by our
purpose not an unchecked selfish ambition.
There is no cookie cutter lifestyle. Life
does not work that way. When you were
born the mold was broken that is why we should all embrace uniqueness not
imitation. We are not all fated to be
mega rich even upon embracing the ideal paradigm. The measure of wealth that is available to
us, to any of us, is always in correlation to what we have been purposed. Not every business is to achieve worldwide
status and not every individual is fated to be world renowned. The flaws of our thinking lead us to believe
that everyone must be rich in order to enjoy life. The proliferation of this thought has spawned
greed and covetousness in our world. The truth of the matter is that our level
of financial wealth does not really measure true worth to the world. It just more often than not leads to lives
centered on ourselves; lives devoid of the concept that ‘you have a part to
play in the drama of life’.
What good is an accumulation of money, and
why do we seek to acquire or hoard wealth?
Some would say that this would be the key to a successful and complete
life. Let us look to examine the validity of this statement. Most of the current generation has latched
onto a culture that is materialistic and greed driven, therefore their ambition
has led them to seek after financial wealth at any cost. My question to you is does this really bring
personal satisfaction? Oh yes you can
buy whatever you want, but what good is that.
After eighty years of a life of accumulation then what; you die. Now here enters the interesting part: Who has
really benefited from your existence.
Much of what we do in civilized countries has to do with securing a
legacy. This component is very powerful
and effective at helping us live our lives.
But who would care 100 years from now if during your life you were able
to accumulate 1 billion dollars? Flip
that same coin and let us say you use your wealth for the purpose of
discovering true wealth: uncovering potential and facilitating for its
development in people. You leave a
charitable organization or start a college.
This is true wealth and this has lasting worth.
Your wealth level is determined by what God
has for you to do. There is no arbitrary
status or figure we must all seek. The
knowledge of our purpose can only be had by obeying God and listening to his
leading.
2- God uses lack
This is like foul language to prosperity
teachers. They refuse to concede that
your present circumstances may be in direct connection to the will of God; be
it a financial abundance or in lack.
Consider the following:
In the day of prosperity
be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end
that man should find nothing after him. Ecclesiastes 7:14
Do you realize what this means? God says that he makes both the prosperity
and the adversity and it is for our good.
But emphasis should be made on God;
he
makes days of adversity! How pray tell
you say that God can use adverse financial circumstances to teach me
anything? Consider this:
I know both how to be
abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:12-13
We love to quote ‘we can
do all things through Christ’ but how did Paul come to the point that he
could say this? Well the answer is in
the preceding verse, ‘I know both how to be abased,
and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to
be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need’. Paul learned that he can do all through
Christ because of the lack he suffered.
This is very important to know because for many
years I was so focused on trying to escape lack that I was missing the things
that God was teaching me. And guess what;
as long as you neglect his lessons the longer you stay in the situation. He does not give in and say ‘Well my child
isn’t getting the message so let me give him what he wants’. No sir, you will die in the wilderness!
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
3 - God wants you to use your money to be a
blessing to those around you
One of the ways to act in the kingdom is to
give. I am not talking about giving to
the prosperity gospel but giving to those who are around you. As you walk to the bank to pay your cable
bill to ensure that you can get your daily prosperity fix you will undoubtedly
pass many who are impoverished. You send
money to the rich you cannot touch and leave destitute the poor that you can
touch. We should be a blessing to those
around us not to those who use you to fulfill their every fantasy.
Contentment: The mortal enemy of the
prosperity gospel
Not that I speak in
respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
content. Philippians 4:11
The teaching of contentment while central to the
true gospel of the Kingdom it is marginalized by the prosperity teachers. This is because the teaching of contentment
goes against the greed that drives you to want more. You see the more you want the more you have
to give to get God to bless you; so in their system it is in their best interest
to have you desire more. If you were
content with what you had like Paul then we would not be consumed with the
greed that accompanies this teaching. Consider
the following:
And having food and
raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and
perdition. For the love of money is the root of
all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:8-10
When was the last time you ever heard one of these
preachers talk of being content. In fact
if Paul were to preach this today he would be considered to have a poverty
mindset. But there he is content in
whichever state he was. Look at what he
says next and notice what he did not say.
He says: But they that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown
men in destruction and perdition.
He says that they that have a desire to be rich. He could not say that they that are rich
because prosperity based on purpose is the way of the kingdom, but those who
lust after wealth will be destroyed pierced through with many sorrows. Is it not interesting that he is not talking
to the world in this passage but to the church?
How do we know this?
For the love of money is
the root of all evil: which while some
coveted after, they have erred from the
faith,
These are Christians! Does anyone see that! Christians in love with
money. Please consider the pleas of
Hebrews:
Keep your lives free from
the love of money and be content with what you have, Hebrews 13:5a
We are to be content in every circumstance, every
situation as we go through life. God
provides us with seasons. Each season
has a predetermined measure of supply depending on our compliance with our
purpose. The problem occurs when we do
not recognize this and reach for what we perceive to be a better state
exceeding the provisions of the current.
What we want to do is seek after the things and ignore our righteousness.
How do we do this? With debt of
course. And we do this and call it the
blessing of the Lord? When saddled with
the sorrows of payback we call on the name of the Lord for relief. If we are content with what we have today
then we will not regret what we have to payback tomorrow. No one wants to have to payback and maintain
what God has not given. God will bless
you but until he does do not live as though he already has.
If this paper in anyway describes you I hope you
consider your ways and escape the trap of the prosperity doctrine. Please I implore you repent and believe the gospel.
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