prosperity gospel - beware

The prosperity gospel is poor, and when taken in full dosage it has a devastating side effect; it impoverishes the Christian faith. The promises of health and wealth for all Christians are exciting and appealing as they often are presented by rhetorically gifted speakers who seem larger than life. Yet behind the golden façade lies at least three weaknesses, each of which I will briefly discuss.

For the record I want to mention that I have graduated Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema Bible Training Center. I have been a strong proponent of prosperity theology until further studies and New Testament research opened my eyes to some of its fatal weaknesses. What I present here are some loosely put together thoughts which I hope can spark further discussion.

The Prosperity Gospel Is Theologically Poor

What view of God does the prosperity gospel generate? This is perhaps the most important question to ask. If, at the end of the day, God is portrayed differently from what emerges from the biblical accounts, then there is a major problem.

A common criticism voiced at the prosperity gospel is that it turns God into a vending machine; put faith or “seed money” in and out comes the blessing you want. Even though prosperity preachers vehemently oppose such criticism it is in fact how God becomes. Central to prosperity theology is the idea that God operates on divine principles or laws (e.g. sowing and reaping and the mouth’s confession or positive confession). If we learn how to practice these laws we will get access to “life more abundantly.” There is therefore a great emphasis on studying and learning these principles as lack of knowledge is the main reason why Christians are stuck in poverty mentality, it is said.

But if God simply operates – responds – to our actions and acts within spiritual laws, what does that make of his sovereignty and omnipotence or of creation ex nihilo? We must also ask what such a Newtonian view of God makes of a personal relationship with the personal God? Further, if God requires us to provide “seeds” to work “harvests” in our lives, what does that make of grace and atonement? Does not God give freely and is the cross not sufficient? These are some important questions to consider.

Prosperity theology is in the danger of putting humans in the center. Instead of us being “here” for God’s glory, he is “there” for our. Ironically, prosperity theology thus runs the danger of being anthropocentric, much like the 19th-20th century liberal theology that it so sharply opposes and ridicules.

The Prosperity Gospel Is Hermeneutically Poor

If prosperity theology can boast of any kind of exegesis it is more of a barbaric sort. Little thought is given to hermeneutical method. Prosperity teaching is often an exercise in proof texting, where Scriptures are taken out of their proper setting and used to support an argument or point which is not itself taken from Scripture. Scriptures tend to be used without considering literary context, cultural context, linguistic gaps, literary genres and other crucial areas. A common mistake is to see Proverbs as absolute promises, something which a proper use of such Jewish wisdom literature disallows. Poetic devices are often read as direct language (e.g. metaphors or hyperboles tend to be taken literally and parallelism is mistakenly seen as equal statements).