Prosperity theology is a heretical teaching which says it’s God’s goal and desire to prosper his people financially and in other ways if they would only believe it and obey him. Prosperity teaching takes numerous verses of the Bible out of context and twists them to support what is often a money making business disguised as a “ministry.” If we are not careful these alluring teachings can sneak in and slip into the church in various ways which in effect redefine the gospel, turning it into a good news message of how we can get rich instead of a good news message of how a savior died for our sin.

Our church doctrinal statement and church elders unanimously recognize and condemn prosperity teaching as being false doctrine and are ever on watch to protect the flock from its destructive heresy. 1 Timothy 6:9 clearly states “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” Below are four main things which get twisted as a result of prosperity teaching. In addition we’ve added some links to other good articles and video on this subject.

Twisted Scripture

I can’t take the space to go through every Scripture prosperity teachers abuse but I’ll try and hit a few main ones. What they all have in common is taking verses out of context, both the immediate context and the context of the whole Bible. One of the best principles of interpreting the Bible is that Scripture always best interprets Scripture, so if any verse blatantly contradicts how you are understanding a given passage then one or both of the passages are being interpreted incorrectly.

3 John 1:2 is often used to support prosperity teaching. 3 John 1:2 says, “I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.” However, “go well with you” or “prosper” in the KJV does not mean financial prosperity. The word is “euodousthai” which means “to have a good journey” hence the ESV “go well with you” translation.

Matthew 16:18 is often cited as the method for getting prosperity, namely claiming or affirming it (a practice called rhematology). Matthew 16:18 says, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” However, any plain reading of the verses before and after this verse demonstrate this has nothing to do with citing certain words and believing them but rather God’s blessing on the exercise of church discipline by pastors.

Deuteronomy 29:9 and many other Old Testament verses like it are quoted as support for the supposed desire of God to financially bless all who worship him. Deuteronomy 29:9 says, “Keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper.” However, if you read the rest of the book of Deuteronomy and/or the rest of the Old Testament you hear the people do not keep the covenant (Deut 32:16) and in the New Testament we learn no one on this side of heaven besides Jesus will be able to keep the covenant (Rom 3:9-20).

Twisted Motive

The motive of prosperity teaching is often an appeal to either one’s sense of guilt and suffering or compassion for others. Enticing things are said like, “Don’t you wish you could have a better life? Or “Don’t you wish you could give more to others?” The knee jerk reaction is “of course!” Then prosperity teachers swoop in and say, “Guess what? You can live in prosperity and God wants you! Just do this…”

However, this is the wrong motive for Christians. Christians are called to be motivated in everything by a desire to worship and glorify God (1 Cor 10:31) and to live and give out of the grace of the gospel even when we’re in poverty. For example, 1 Corinthians 8:1-2 commends the Macedonian church, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

The prosperity message often utilizes “the ends justify the means” appeal to the motive. The idea is, if you have more money won’t you be able to give to others more or take care of your family better? That’s the wrong motive. The right motive for handling money is a desire not for wealth but for worship. The best antidote to materialism and greed is not get more in order to give more, but to worship and honor Jesus in everything you do because it pleases him and he is all you need.

Twisted Suffering

One gaping hole in prosperity teaching is what to do with Scriptures where God directly calls people to financial poverty, including Jesus himself. Here are a just a few examples:

Jeremiah – Called to financial and physical destitution by God (Lamentations 3:1-20).

Jesus – Intentionally incarnated into a financially poor family. 2 Corinthians 8:9 “Know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.”

The Early Church – Hebrews 10:34 “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

God sometimes sees fit to call people to poverty for his good purposes. Sometimes idols of our heart need to be crushed and sometimes there are poor people who need to be reached by us becoming poor too. This does not negate the need for us to be good stewards of God’s money and it does not negate the fact that God sometimes blesses people with money but it does teach us we do not need financial wealth for our happiness.

Twisted Treasure

The implicit message of prosperity teaching is that life with more money is simply better. This is one of the beliefs Jesus himself attacked the most. Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

God’s goal is for him to be our treasure. For if we have him we may have no money and yet be the richest and happiest people in the world. Job 22:25-26 “The Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.” Or consider the great promise of Isaiah 55:1 “Come (to God), everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

One of the main errors of prosperity teaching is it considers the future heavenly life of the kingdom of heaven and all the physical and financial prosperity it will consist of…as being for now, here on earth. But we are not promised that now. Instead we are promised suffering in this age which will help us see how great and good our future prosperity will be. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Twisted Jesus

Bank tellers used to be taught how to detect counterfeit money by having to play with real money a lot. The thinking was you never know when and in what form fake money will come in…but if you know real money you’ll be able to detect counterfeit cash. One of the good things about knowing, believing in, teaching and loving the gospel of Jesus Christ all the time is when a false gospel comes in we are automatically able to detect it, even if we’re not exactly sure of what’s wrong with it.

The prosperity gospel in effect gets rid of Jesus because the real sin is not living in prosperity and the real answer is getting into prosperity by your own efforts. In the gospel, the real sin is not worshipping and honoring a holy God, which deservers eternal hell. Yet in love, God sent his son to die for our sin and rise again so that we can have a new and eternal life in and with him. That is true good news which will keep us happy even if we lose every dime we own. That’s the real gospel and any other “good news” is not good news at all but destructive news which will take our eyes off of Jesus and lead us down the road to destruction.

Conclusion

Keep an eye out for the prosperity gospel, not only from miscellaneous preachers, teachers, books, articles and videos that are out there but keep an eye out for it in your own heart. Anytime we are looking to wealth as the answer for our happiness we are looking to a false savior who cannot give us what we are looking for. Only Jesus can bring us the joy we are designed for. So look to him always.