The Prosperity Gospel
In the forefront is the doctrine of the assurance of “divine” physical health and prosperity through faith. In short, this means that “health and wealth” are the automatic divine right of all Bible-believing Christians and may be procreated by faith as part of the package of salvation, since the Atonement of Christ includes not just the removal of sin, but also the removal of sickness and poverty.- The Gospel Coalition
To be clear, The Gospel Coalition does not affirm this belief, rather they defined it in order to raise concern among the Church and to make a distinction between it and the true gospel. There are very few false gospels as prevalent in upperclass America as the prosperity gospel and for this reason, the Church must be ready to defend the true message of Christ as we see in the Scriptures. Let us begin by doing that very thing.
Man is born sinful because of Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 and because of that, we are all in desperate need of a savior. Our savior came in the form of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary: truly God and truly man. Jesus lived a perfect life (never once committing a sin), and then was falsely accused, arrested, beaten and hung on a cross to die the death of a criminal in our place. Then, miraculously, three days later, he arose from the grave completely healed and appeared to hundreds of witnesses. Man is able to attain salvation in believing these things, and once he has salvation he cannot lose it. The Holy Spirit lives inside of every believer, and takes on the process of helping the believer look less and less like himself, and more and more like Jesus. This is the gospel. We are not saved by anything we have done or will do, in fact we are saved despite what we have done and will do (see Romans 5 and Ephesians 2). Jesus came to save the broken and to give them a hope and joy that cannot be quenched by earthly circumstances.
Where the biblical gospel and prosperity gospel differ, is that prosperity gospel teachers tell people that because of their salvation/faith they will encounter physical, spiritual and monetary health and wealth in their earthly lives. As a result, they teach that if a believer suffers it is the fault of the people around the sick/poor or the sick and poor themselves because they supposedly do not have enough faith to be healed and/or have enough faith to be wealthy. That might not sound bad to you but let us take a look at the Bible. Hebrews 11 is known to many as the ‘Hall of Faith’ because it tells the story of many Old Testament people and how their faith saved them despite their circumstances. The end of the chapter should convict us all for a lack of faith, I know this passage always convicts me (though not condemn us, because we are all in a process to be more and more like Christ, and we are not called to be perfect or to measure up to anyone else).
There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Look again at verse 38…”the world was not worthy of them”. Chew on that. How then, after reading that may one assume that Christians will flourish materially on earth? If that does not convince you, perhaps the Apostles of Christ will. Simon Peter (who Christ used to establish the early church) was crucified upside down, John the Baptist was beheaded, Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India, Nathaniel (Bartholomew) was flayed to death by whip in Asia Minor, Paul was shipwrecked multiple times, beaten nearly to death at least three times, stoned and left for dead and then thrown into the sewers yet lived and so on… Furthermore, Jesus Christ was beaten with rocks, animal bones and glass, and then had thorns shoved into his bloodied head before he had nails driven into His palms/writs and ankles to be hung on a cross and die essentially of choking both from lack of air and blood filling His lungs. These men all had incredible faith and yet suffered excruciating pain for the name of Jesus Christ because their reward is in heaven. They counted all things on this earth as trivial in comparison with the joy and glory they would experience in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:7-8).
Now, after looking at Scripture and Church history, we have made it clear that there is no place in the Church for the prosperity gospel because it completely contradicts the Holy, inerrant Word of God and does not align with what our savior, Jesus Christ experienced on earth. Practically, we should live our lives in the same way as these men (and the many women) of the church who have suffered for His name. I am not saying that we should look for someone in Asia to flog us or imprison us for preaching the gospel; but, we must be prepared to go to those places and to preach the gospel where it is not comfortable: where, in fact, it is very dangerous to preach the gospel. We do this knowing that Jesus Christ and the assurance we have in our salvation and the riches we will have in heaven far surpass anything that man could do to us. Ultimately, what I am saying to you is that we must elevate Christ and lower ourselves, we must understand God’s sovereignty in comparison with our frailty, we must love God and love His gospel far more than we love our earthly, temporal comforts.
“A gospel that elevates man and dethrones God is not the gospel.” – Will Metzger