The Prosperity Gospel

Purpose Media Productions

The Prosperity Gospel Movement- The Gospel of Mammon

After the captivity, the social, economic and political state of the returned exiles never remained the same. They had never been able to gain their political freedom right from the reigns of the Medo- Persian empires even to the reign of the Greeks. When Rome took over power, the Jews began to expect their Messiah because of the brutal rule of the Romans and mass poverty in the land. There was a wide gulp between the rich and the poor. The only hope for the Jews was the coming of the Messiah who would bring political liberation and socio- economic emancipation. This was interpreted from Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah’s role as he who brings good news to the poor and deliverance for the captive.

The ruling class were getting richer and richer while the masses were getting poorer. The ruling class were people of the political and religious class. The political class made use of tax collectors as revenue collectors for the Roman administration which results in the grave enmity between the citizenry and tax collectors.

The Pharisees, Saducees and Scribes were religious leaders at the time. They governed the religious and civic cases of the people. They constituted a 70 man council who sat to take responsibility for the religious and civil affairs of the state. The council is headed by the high priest and derived from form of authority from the Roman authorities. Caiaphas was the high priest and is in-law, Annas. Annas was a deposed high priest. The reason why he was dethroned from the office by the Roman authority is unclear. But the power was handed over to his son in law, this made him a more powerful force in Israel as a kingmaker or godfather in Israel. He established a market in his name (Annas Bassa), where people who wanted to buy animals for sacrifices could have easy access and a foreign exchange market for those coming from other countries. It was not soon that the market was used as an avenue to exploit and manipulate people. While the tax collectors exploited people in the name of the Roman government, the religious leaders also exploited people in the name of God. They turned people’s heart to hate the tax collectors as being chief of sinners but hid their own wickedness, covetousness and exploitation under the garment of religiousity and spirituality.

To be continued

© Purpose Media Publications, 2020