Prosperity Gospel: a deep rooted heresy in most Churches

A heresy that has eaten deep and hence profoundly rooted in today’s Christendom is the Prosperity Theology or Gospel. It is a gospel that focuses on financial prosperity and material wealth acquisition, at the detriment of spiritual wealth. Prosperity gospel preachers usually claim that faith word backed with donations to Christian ministries or churches will increase one's material wealth. They also teach that it is not God’s will for believers to fall sick or experience afflictions and other life’s challenges. In summary Prosperity gospel is all about my needs, my wants, my wealth, my success. It is about I, me, and mine.

Prosperity gospel which is mostly marked among the faith word churches was born and bred in the United States of America by Napoleon Hill and E W Kenyon. It was later embraced by Oral Roberts in the 1970s. This theology has over the years spread to most parts of the world and is being propagated by high net worth ministers that includes but not limited to TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Morris Cerullo, Mike Murdoch and Kenneth Copeland. It made its way into Nigeria in the late 1970s through Benson Idahosa, the late Archbishop Church of God Missions International. Currently its main promoters in Nigeria include David Oyedepo, the Bishop of Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel) and Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God.

Beliefs of the Prosperity Theology
i. Christians are not supposed to be poor: that if you firmly put material wealth into your soul, God will make them bear material fruit.
ii. The Lord Jesus Christ's lack of material things while here on earth was flipped through His resurrection so that His followers have claim to His limitless material wealth.
iii. Believers have to give large sums of money as tithes, offerings, and pledges in order to reap great harvests of material wealth.
iv. Faith word or positive speech backed with donations guarantee security and prosperity for believers.

Bible Teachings on riches and wealth
The Bible identifies and likens greed and the pursuit of wealth with idolatry. Idolatry is demonic.
Colossians 3:5
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry

Due to the demonic nature of covetousness (greed), the desire for wealth and the pursuit of it often bring enslavement. This is the reason the rich is never satisfied with their wealth, they forever crave to have more.

The Lord Jesus in Matthew 19:23-24 and Matthew 13:22 identified riches as a big obstacle both to salvation and discipleship.

Matthew 13:22
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Matthew 19:23-24
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

According to Luke 12:15, wealth gives one a false sense of security.

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

According to Matthew 13:22, wealth deceives the heart.
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

According to Matthew 6:21, riches demands loyalty from its owners.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

People who are rich often live as if they have no need of God. This causes their spiritual lives to become choked and are led into temptations and harmful desires. This finally results into abandonment of saving faith. Many may not believe this: most of these your darling prosperity preachers have long abandoned the faith.

1 Timothy 6:9-10
9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Conclusion
When we look at the Bible, we will discover that the prosperity gospel deviates in several ways from the Gospel preached by The Lord Jesus Christ and the early Apostles. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles in several passages of the Bible spoke vehemently against covetousness and unbridled wealth acquisitions. Prosperity theology is therefore more of sound bites and bereft of truth of God's Word. It is an instrument that satan has used to infiltrate most mainstream churches. It is full of damnable errors and heresies. There is nowhere in the Bible where Christ Jesus taught the beliefs on which this theology is based. The Lord Jesus never taught His disciples that the more money they gave, the more money they would get from God. Neither did He teach his disciples that they will never experience challenges of life. They early Apostles did not teach this strange doctrine being propagated by prosperity gospel preachers.

Believers do not give in order to get out of poverty. They give in order to help those brethren in need and to support the work of ministry (Romans 15:25-26; 1 Corinthians 16:1; Philippians 4:15-18; 3 John 5-. To support the work of the ministry does not imply enriching the pastor or the minister.

It is not true as peddled by prosperity gospel preachers that believers do not have to suffer nor face challenges in life. There are several instances in the Bible where believers suffered and faced afflictions and trials, which were neither as a result of their sins nor the sins of their fore-fathers. You can read some of the challenges that Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament books encountered in his ministry in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33. The same Apostle who was caught up to paradise was given a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Stephen, one of the first seven deacons in the early church was stoned to death by the Jews (Acts 7:54-60). Job, a man who feared God and hates evil in the Old Testament was afflicted (Job 1:1, 13-22; 2:7-. James the brother of John the beloved was killed by Herod (Acts 12:1-2). Brethren, persecutions; afflictions and sufferings are all part of our Christian experience. It is not usually because of our sins neither is it because of our being under curses from our fore-fathers like many deliverance ministers, so called say. Paul told Timothy his son in The Lord to endure affliction (1 Timothy 4:5).

2 Timothy 3:12 says
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

For anyone to teach that believers are not meant to suffer is to declare that he or she is greater that The Lord Jesus Christ Who suffered and died for our sins. Jesus Christ The Lord warned His disciples as follows in John 15:18-20.

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.'

No true minister of the Gospel would major on material wealth and acquisition or on dominion theology at this point in time when the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is very imminent. To emphasise on these is an indication that life is no longer seen from eternity's vantage point. If The Lord Jesus Christ had preached prosperity gospel, He would not have been crucified. He would have been a friend of the Jewish leaders like most prosperity preachers are to political leaders in this generation.

As believers we have to examine our hearts and desires. Am I a greedy person? Do I yearn for material abundance at the detriment of spiritual abundance? Am I laying my treasures on earth or in heaven? If you attend any of these prosperity preaching churches and you want to make heaven, you are definitely in the wrong church. They will lead you nowhere else but hell. All we have said in this message is the truth, in Christ we lie not. We bear no grudge or bitterness against any church leader, whether living or dead. But we must to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, against ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 3-4).

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches (Revelation 3:6).

Till we meet again on this platform by the grace of God, I remain yours in The Lord Jesus Christ our soon coming KING.

God bless you.

Sadly most of the church goers hardly study their bible

Plain truth! Plain for all to see! But would they?

Prosperity "gospel" is pure fraud.

Church in itself is a fraud. Prosperity churches much more so.

So if you guy choose to remain poor, how are you supposed to help In financing the gospel? How is it going to reach the ends of the earth? How are you going to support the missionaries if all your doing is thinking of how to pay your children school fees?

What happened to scriptures like 1 John where God said "beloved I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers"?

What Happened to "Jesus became poor so that through His poverty you will be rich"?

What happened to " Jesus saying concerning the rich man to His disciples that if he like others would do, would have giving it all for His sake, he will receive a hundred fold in this time" not in heaven o?

You said Jesus said "its hard for a rich man to enter heaven, well why didn't you complete the verse where He said but with God it will be possible?

What happened to what Paul told a church " that God will make all grace abound to them so that they having sufficiency in all things abounds in every good work?

What happened to Jesus saying "The enemy comes to steal.....but I have come to give abundant life? Is your finances and health not part of what the enemy steals? And Jesus said " I have come to give in abundance.

What of Gal 3:13 "that the blessings of Abraham is ours by right. What was the blessing of Abraham? That God will bless Him to be a blessing isn't it. And God says the same blessing is also ours.

BTW. Anytime suffering is mentioned in the NT, is refers to suffering persecutions for the Word and gospel and not poverty or sickness.

The reason why you folks believe not in prosperity is because you heard someone climb and altar and took some part of the scriptures and twisted it and left the other parts. And you were fed with that.