Gospel of Prosperity 2

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Gospel of Prosperity II- The Gospel of Mammon

The Gospel of Prosperity is an off- shoot of the all the other gospels we have considered so far. It has to do with the hope that the gospel have to offer. The gift of every gospel is the offer of salvation. However, the term is a very broad term. In Christianity, salvation has to do with deliverance from the power and nature of sin to life eternal guaranteed in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God. Since other “gospels” cannot offer the hope of eternal life, they hence offer a salvation of the here and now, the ephemeral blessings of God which passes with time.

The Moralist can claim that if you do certain things, God will in turn bless you financially and health wise. It gives man the legal ground to claim or demand some benefits and good will from God as though God is indebted to him.

The pervert grace proponent can also propound that God loves us so much and He has released extra ordinary grace for us to live full like gods in this world.

The Philosophical gospel of Syncretism could teach us to kill our enemies by prayer who are hindering our breakthrough while the gospel of wisdom would teach us to be inspired, free ourselves and motivate ourselves to a life we desire.

The question is not whether prosperity preaching is right or wrong, every right thinking pastor would definitely want his/ her members to flourish but the higher question to be answered is where are we placing their hope?

Jesus challenged the Pharisees who taught people to disobey God in order to exploit and manipulate people into thinking they are serving God. They would teach the people that whatever you ought to give your father or mother, bring it to the Lord, to the very house of God. If you do so, God acquits you of your responsibility to your parents. Jesus told them they were wrong, Matt. 15:3-9. The Pharisees commercialized prayer and other spiritual activities or gifts, Matt. 23:14. They use ministry as a means of gain by monetizing or materializing the sacredness of ministry through heretical and desecrating teachings, Matt. 23:16-23. Finally, they are good and meticulous in paying tithes and “sowing seeds.” They also encouraged people to do so but they neglected the gospel, Matt. 23:23. Remember, these are moralists who parade good dressing and conduct. Prosperity gospel can be cloaked under those who preach Moralism in order to earn the favour and blessing of God. Paul having warned the Philippian church about the “circumcision” said:

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame- who set their mind on earthly things. Philippians 3:18-19.

Peter and Jude also made mention that the Pervert Grace teachers were coveteous and proud indicating they were also proponents of the prosperity gospel because the gospel must give hope and if it is not eternal life, it has to be in this present life, 2 Peter 2:2-3, Jude 16. Our Master, Jesus Christ has told us we cannot serve God and Mammon and as a result we must lay our treasures in heaven and not on the earth, for where our heart (hope) is, there our treasure will be also. He demonstrated this twice in His teaching ministry. A rich, young ruler came to him to seek the way of salvation and He told the young man to sell all he had to give to the poor so he could lay his treasures in heaven but the young man went away sad. At another time, a man came to Jesus to settle a dispute between him and his brother over inheritance. Jesus told him that was not within the jurisdiction of his calling, and taught that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he has.

In conclusion, Apostle Paul writes about the Prosperity Movement in 1 Timothy 6:3-10 thus:

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ- “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul” and to the doctrine which accords (agrees) with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute (lacking) of the truth (the gospel), who suppose that godliness is a means of gain (physical enrichment). From such, withdraw yourself.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich (whose earnest hope and expectation is the prosperity which the world gives) fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition (Prosperity Gospel will damn every of it’s adherents who yields to it). For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed (into the Prosperity Movement) from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

© Purpose Media Publications, 2020