What does the Bible say about the prosperity gospel? Is it God's Will for all Christians to be financially prosperous?

OLAADEGBU:
What does the Bible say about the prosperity gospel? Is it God's Will for all Christians to be financially prosperous?

The Bible says little or nothing abut prosperity gospel or poverty gospel
However, the old testament is quite replete on stories of people who's God's blessing on them was financially measurable
The new testament on the other hand tends to narrate stories of people who God's blessing on them made them loose much financially.

So, is it God's will that all Christians be financially prosperous?
Is it God's will that we be financially bankrupt?
Is it God's will that we trim our beards?
Is it God's will that we pee in toilets instead of on the streets?

The answer to this is simple as the creation story. It is VOID i.e nothing

A prosperity or poverty gospel does not exist from God
However, if we choose to be prosperous, then nothing in this world or underneath it can stop us
Our choice, and the blessings from God to go ahead with it is what we usually package as prosperity gospel

You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day (Deut. 8:18).
True wealth comes from God.

OLAADEGBU:


What does the Bible say about the prosperity gospel? Is it God's Will for all Christians to be financially prosperous?

Suggested answer:

In the prosperity gospel, also known as the "Word of Faith," the believer is told to use God, whereas the truth of biblical Christianity is just the opposite—God uses the believer. Word of Faith or prosperity theology sees the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to do God's will. The prosperity gospel movement closely resembles some of the destructive greed sects that infiltrated the early church. Paul and the other apostles were not accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers who propagated such heresy. They identified them as dangerous false teachers and urged Christians to avoid them.

Paul warned Timothy about such men in 1 Timothy 6:5, 9-11. These men of "corrupt mind" supposed godliness was a means of gain and their desire for riches was a trap that brought them "into ruin and destruction" (v. 9). The pursuit of wealth is a dangerous path for Christians and one which God warns about: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (v. 10). If riches were a reasonable goal for the godly, Jesus would have pursued it. But He did not, preferring instead to have no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) and teaching His disciples to do the same. It should also be remembered that the only disciple concerned with wealth was Judas.

Paul said covetousness is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5) and instructed the Ephesians to avoid anyone who brought a message of immorality or covetousness (Ephesians 5:6-7). Prosperity teaching prohibits God from working on His own, meaning that God is not Lord of all because He cannot work until we release Him to do so. Faith, according to the Word of Faith doctrine, is not submissive trust in God; faith is a formula by which we manipulate the spiritual laws that prosperity teachers believe govern the universe. As the name "Word of Faith" implies, this movement teaches that faith is a matter of what we say more than whom we trust or what truths we embrace and affirm in our hearts.

A favourite term in the Word of Faith movement is "positive confession." This refers to the teaching that words themselves have creative power. What you say, Word of Faith teachers claim, determines everything that happens to you. Your confessions, especially the favours you demand of God, must all be stated positively and without wavering. Then God is required to answer (as though man could require anything of God!). Thus, God's ability to bless us supposedly hangs on our faith. James 4:13-16 clearly contradicts this teaching: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." Far from speaking things into existence in the future, we do not even know what tomorrow will bring or even whether we will be alive.

Instead of stressing the importance of wealth, the Bible warns against pursuing it. Believers, especially leaders in the church (1 Timothy 3:3), are to be free from the love of money (Hebrews 13:5). The love of money leads to all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus warned, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). In sharp contrast to the Word of Faith emphasis on gaining money and possessions in this life, Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19). The irreconcilable contradictions between prosperity teaching and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is best summed up in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:24, "You cannot serve both God and money."

http://www.gotquestions.org/prosperity-gospel.html