“As Christians we do have an inheritance and reward, but the treasures we acquire as we journey through our life in Christ are stored up in heaven.”
It is difficult to decide where to start unravelling the mess that is the prosperity gospel. Yet, what better place to begin than close to home? The mention of this brand of teaching almost immediately brings to mind the word ‘inheritance’. Growing up, I always heard pastors encourage their congregation to claim their inheritance. “Pray against inheritance snatchers. Anything that is standing in the way of your inheritance must bow. You will get your inheritance. You will prosper. Praaaayyyy!!” By inheritance they mean some earthly blessing usually in form of good health, a spouse and children, a highflying career, professional and educational acclaim, and wealth and/or fame.
First of all, as a Christian, I am actually Someone’s inheritance – Jesus Christ. Secondly, yes I do have a blessing that has been held in store for me since before I was conceived but it’s not success in this life. It is heaven, for which I experience suffering yet possess the joyful hope of having my name written in the Book of Life. Any other ‘inheritance’ is a farce:
“17Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17 NIVUK)
The prosperity gospel is a collection of teachings that seeks to find justification for earthly success in the Gospel. To an extent, one can say that much of it is sourced from the materialism that plagues the world. Those who preach the prosperity gospel are often shrewd businesspersons who are making more from you than you from them. In addition, such churches have a tendency to idolise pastors and wealth.
Unfortunately, the prosperity gospel has become deeply associated with Pentecostals, ridiculing the truths that these churches do hold on to. For example, the dispensation and manifestation of the Holy Spirit to us all and not just to the early Christians or the apostles. Today, the Holy Spirit does work to enable us to speak in new tongues, heal, have dreams and visions, and prophesy.
Granted in a lot of churches there is on overemphasis on these gifts and benefits that we forget their purpose which is to bring people to Christ. As Jesus said, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven”[1]. In addition, the signs performed by Jesus were recorded so we may believe[2].
We ignore the crux of the Gospel and salvation of our souls while desiring gifts as a child desires superpowers. I call this ‘the spiritual prosperity gospel’ and it deserves its own write-up. Without focus on the purpose of spiritual gifts and miracles through the Holy Spirit, the church is very similar to a congregation of psychics.
Nevertheless, it is wrong to say that because of the misuse/misconceptions, the Spirit does not manifest physically and miraculously today. God does speak to us directly and audibly – as well as through reading the Bible – just as He did to the prophets and the early Christians through the Holy Spirit. However, that is a discussion for another time. This essay is about the tragedy that is the prosperity gospel, and what a disaster it really is!
One thing I heard often in university when visiting churches was: “Become a Christian and your life troubles will be sorted out”; “You will get that visa”; “You will get that job”; “You will get that place to live”. They promise all these things as a guarantee to every Christian. In theory, according to the prosperity gospel, we should all be rich and successful individuals, living our dream lives, always healthy and never getting sick – not even a cold or flu.
Furthermore, with the prosperity gospel comes the idea that we must do something to unlock God’s blessings. Start saying a special prayer, for example, that unless we say this prayer we won’t be blessed. Or we need go to a certain place or event at a certain time to praise and pray, and our ‘breakthrough’ will surely arrive. The general reasoning is that if we are not getting any of the things promised to us in these churches, we must be doing something wrong or we are yet to master some special way of appealing to God in order to achieve our prosperity.
However, from the lives of the twelve disciples, Paul and other early Christians, one can easily tell that the prosperity gospel is all a lie. These people walked with God. Many of them knew Jesus while He was on Earth. Yet they lived on little and suffered poor health. They were beaten, exiled and executed. Where was their wealth and prosperity? Or was Stephen using an ineffective prayer formula that couldn’t save him from his stoning? Or did Paul, whose letters make up the bulk of the New Testament, do something wrong that led to his shipwreck, imprisonment and execution?
The prosperity gospel is anchored to the theory that all good things happen by right to the Christian who cruises through life while all calamity and confusion befalls a non-Christian. That is why people’s faith shake when the ‘inheritance’ they have by ‘right’ doesn’t come through and why they try to look to deeds to earn such blessings, making it easier for prosperity gospel churches to sift money out of people who are hoping to get rich or healthy. This is also why after some people have attained their ‘inheritance’, they tend to drift away from God because they’ve got what they wanted from this whole Christian and church thing. After all, that was the basis of their relationship. To them they have fulfilled their side of the bargain by becoming a Christian and Jesus has done His by giving them success. What more could they possibly want from church?
One would find that a lot of Christians that cling to prosperity gospel teachings refer to the Old Testament as their first port of call. This section of the Bible records the journey of God’s chosen people – through whom grace and salvation later poured out into the world in the person of Jesus Christ – as they go from nothing to claiming the promised land and subsequently losing it. It is full of many promises of attaining the land flowing with milk and honey. That is why it is much loved over the infinite grace, mercy and realities of the Christian life that is given in the New Testament. If the Old Testament saints could see us today, they would hit us with a really thick stick for not appreciating what we have, what they longed for but were not graced to witness and receive.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (1 Peter 10-12 NIVUK)
Even angels want to peep into this saving grace we have. So, why look for something else? Why does the church keep looking back to what the Law had based on deeds and physical rewards that expire? This is a robust question that covers a lot of issues among Christians today and requires an equally robust and thorough answer that is beyond the scope of this write-up.
Unfortunately, many churchgoers today don’t know any other Gospel apart from the prosperity gospel as that was the only teaching they received when they made the decision to join the church. The prevalence of this tragic version of the Gospel makes one wonder how many true Christ followers there really are out there. Not people who raise their hands up in church and call themselves Christians in hope of getting something out of it, but true sacrificial cross carriers.
The truth is when one becomes a Christian, the trials increase and the real struggle of life begins. John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress captures this fight perfectly. The main character, Christian, left everything behind (including his family), was scorned by society, battled with the devil’s schemes and struggled with despair all for his decision to follow Christ. The very call to be a Christian is a call to self-sacrifice and abandonment of personal desires to take up the will of God as illustrated by Jesus in Mark 8 and also in His death and resurrection. Jesus doesn’t say take up your cross so you can become rich and succeed in this life. On the contrary, He asks us to lay down our lives.
I personally see the prosperity gospel as a resistance to the call to let go of one’s life in pursuit of Jesus. It shows a refusal to relinquish the things of this world and all its possessions. If one is truly a Christian, you are to take up the life we are called to live: Dead to the world, alive in Christ; presently to partake of His sufferings, thereafter to glory in Him.
We are not of this world. The world and its principles are contrary to our sanctified lives in the Spirit. Though the world lives according to the flesh we live to the Spirit. That is why we suffer. Suffering seems like a really harsh, exaggerated word but that is indeed what we go through. I have tried to think of a synonym to dilute away the bluntness and apparent melodrama of the word but the others that capture the Christian journey perfectly are equally as harsh. Perhaps no sugar-coating is needed because that is the truth: Christians suffer. We cross carriers experience troubles that the devil throws at us to tempt us to give up the journey. However, by God’s infinite grace, we are strengthened to overcome these times. When we overcome, we emerge stronger and purer like gold refined by fire.
However, many of us want the glory but not the suffering. People who are unwilling to sacrifice for the gospel are in essence saying they are in doubt about the truthfulness of the Gospel. Anyone who fully grasps the gravity of the message of Jesus Christ will feel the pull to drop everything and all personal desires to follow Him.
I feel the need to state this: Just because someone has a large following doesn’t mean the teaching is sound, and just because you like the teaching or feel encouraged by it doesn’t mean it is right. To be honest, I would love the prosperity gospel to be true. I would love to be free from illnesses and pains in this life, I would love to own a billion-pound organisation, I would love to be a renowned professor and I would love to win a Nobel Prize. I would love all this to be my right and guaranteed as a good person and a Christian; but this is not the truth. Jesus laid out the truth in the trajectory of His life. He too would have loved a pain-free existence but He had to drink the cup of death on the cross according to the Father’s will. And so, regardless of what I would love, I refuse to live by natural instinct but strive to look to God for guidance. Anything in me that is not according to Your Spirit, take it away.
All this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t present our needs to God. We can tell God what troubles us; but these needs should not be the central focus. Today, one goes for church service and it’s all about, “Tell God what you want”; “The gates of heaven are open today for your miracle”; “That thing you’ve been waiting for is coming”. One can sit through an entire service and not hear the message of salvation. The church’s purpose is not to be a money maker or wish granter. It is to tell people about the eternal saving grace of Jesus. It is all about Jesus and what He did on the cross to defeat sin and death. He didn’t die on the cross to bring us wealth or a good job or children or a spouse. He died for something infinitely greater than these things, something that has a mark on all eternity and creation. Cast your cares and needs on God but don’t let them dominate your relationship with Him.
In conclusion, as Christians we do have an inheritance and reward, but the treasures we acquire as we journey through our life in Christ are stored up in heaven. That is why we need faith to plough on despite the difficulty we see around us. This is tough and may even seem silly to some but
16 …we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIVUK)
[1] Luke 10:20
[2] John 22:30-31
The Mark 8 Christian 