Prosperity Gospel Poison

Does God want you to be rich? Or maybe not rich, just really "well off"?

Recently a friend of mine here in Mexico City positively remarked how his church is helping people believe that God wants them to experience financial blessings and rise up out of meager living. Indeed, this church targets some of the most influential people in the city and draws many who would like to follow in their footsteps.

Is this focus biblically accurate and beneficial to the Church?

Far from new, this paradigm finds its roots in the era before Christ. The Jews came to believe that material wealth signified God's blessing, and poverty or disability meant a curse. When Jesus appeared on the scene, he shattered this paradigm and forcefully taught against it. Now, at the height of a consumerist culture, "name it, claim it" preachers have reverted back to this faulty understanding of material blessing.

Those who understand the dangerous ramifications of this poor theology speak boldly against it. And they must, as the rest of the world is learning a extremely destructive model that flies in the face of the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. (My friend had learned this model from some churches in Dallas, TX.)

In this TIME article, Rick Warren states, "This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy? There is a word for that: baloney. It's creating a false idol. You don't measure your self-worth by your net worth."

Alan Hirsch, in The Forgotten Ways, writes, "Offered 'heaven now,' we give up the ultimate quest in pursuit of that which can be immediately consumed, be it a service, product, or pseudo-religious experience. Consumerism has all the distinguishing traits of outright paganism - we need to see it for what it really is."

The cost of discipleship is high when following Jesus Christ, which is why the road to life is narrow and wide is the gate that leads to destruction. It makes me nauseous to think of the tens of thousands being deceived by the golden calf of health, wealth, and prosperity. We need the great teachers of Christianity to speak against this self-centered doctrine of consumption and wealth as John Piper does so eloquently in this video: