The Heresy of Prosperity
The Gospel of Christ is not about luxury cars, mansions, or Rolex watches, as many charismatics posit. It’s about love, justice, and mercy; Christianity emphasizes serving one another, not accruing wealth for personal enjoyment. It is a wonder that so many charismatics can willfully overlook the details of Christ’s life and ministry to justify their greed and self-centeredness. We have remade Jesus in our image if we expect him to bless our self-indulgence. Jesus, a homeless social outcast living under the oppressive conditions of the Roman empire, was (unsurprisingly) a friend to the poor and oppressed. His teachings do not advance the notion that righteousness begets riches, and anyone that claims otherwise hasn’t studied his life.
If you haven’t guessed it, I have a severe problem with the “heresy of prosperity,” as I’ve termed it here. Jesus constantly preaches about the pitfalls of wealth, greed, and lavish living and even suggests that it will be tough for the “rich” to enter the kingdom of God. Now, I’m not saying that Jesus was a first-century communist preaching about class warfare and petitioning to eradicate private property, either. But, it’d be easier to make a biblical case for that view than what many charismatics believe about the Gospel. There are plenty of charismatics who could define the doctrine better than I could, but in short, it’s a version of the retribution principle.
Basically, if you serve Jesus faithfully, then you can expect to be “blessed” by God in your physical being, personal relationships, and (especially) your finances. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fringe movement, either. It’s been popularized by charismatics like Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, and even T.D. Jakes. In other words, these are my spiritual cousins, and even if I’d rather ignore it, it seems this false Gospel has ravaged our movement. It’s shameful, too, because it requires such a degree of ignorance of both scripture and our history.
First, the entire book of Job is a classic example of why the retribution principle is misguided. A righteous man is afflicted by economic calamity, grief, and even disease but maintains his faith despite it all. Job thoroughly refutes the notion of God as a karmic figure. If that wasn’t enough, you have the life of Christ himself. His goodness didn’t cause him to be accepted by the religious authorities, climb the ladder of political success, and eventually avoid execution. Instead, the opposite occurs, and I doubt anyone is challenging the virtue of our Lord. Should I mention Stephen as well? Alternatively, every single martyr. Their blood condemns this doctrine as fraudulent. Are we really willing to believe that Jesus loves us more than his disciples, all of whom were tortured, mocked, and (many times) killed for the Gospel? If serving Jesus really did result in unparalleled success, then perhaps we should stop venerating the Apostle Paul since he spent much of his time in prison writing to a group of underground believers. We are so addicted to materialism that we have pushed it into our most sacred texts to justify our gluttony. This Americanized, individualistic, egotistical Gospel deserves all the scorn it receives from non-believers. At this point, charismatics could reasonably add free-market capitalism to their creeds. It’s unfortunate, too, because early Pentecostals were excessively populist in their disposition towards the poor, disabled, and elderly.
Our success has eroded our high-view of Jesus and his ministry.
Is it any wonder that so many young people are disillusioned? Homelessness is a national crisis, and yet Kenneth Copeland has a small fleet of private jets. The minimum wage hasn’t seen an increase in more than a decade, yet Creflo Dollar’s net worth exceeds $27 million. The divide between the rich and the poor widens each year, while Joel Osteen champions the “power of positive thinking.”
The rise of motivational speakers posing as Spirit-empowered liberators will be the demise of many. I hope that we repent of our dependence on celebrity and capital and return to the saving message of the Cross, but I’m not optimistic it’ll happen within my generation. We have many vices, and chief among them is status, which we inherited from Baby Boomers, no doubt (the irony). I could chatter on this subject for 1,000+ pages, but I think you understand: the Prosperity Gospel is not just a gross distortion of faith, but it’s also a crass indictment of our worst impulses as American evangelicals, too.
