The Prosperity Doctrine
“Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money.”
Micah 3:11
‘Prosperity preachers’ who teach a ‘prosperity doctrine’ are a blight on the Pentecostal movement. They are typically identified by their fundamental premise that God wants believers to be “healthy, wealthy and wise”. The first and last conditions were always believed and taught by Pentecostals in accordance with biblical truth:
- Healing was purchased by Christ through His sufferings and accessed through faith (Psalms 103:3, Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8:17, James 5:13-15, 3 John 2, Matthew 8:1-4. Luke 8:42-48. Matthew 13:58. Hebrews 11:6). And the Holy Spirit continued to dispense “gifts of healings” and “miracles” in and through the church (1 Corinthians 12:9-10).
- God who is the source of all wisdom made his wisdom known to His children, who walked in His ways being led by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:7-8, Colossians 1:9-10, 2:3, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16). And the Holy Spirit dispensed special and particular “message(s) of wisdom” (and also “of knowledge”) in and through the church (1Corinthians 12:7-8).
(Note: (1) Prosperity preachers do not have the Spirit of God, so that real manifestations of the Holy Spirit through gifts of healing or wisdom are absent in their ministries. Any apparent displays of God’s power are feigned. Sick people fall down when ‘touched by the Lord’ at the gesture of a prosperity preacher, hoping and expecting that they will be healed. But they get up still sick. You will not find one credible healing performed through them.
(2) The Pentecostal movement is a skeleton of its former glory (writing from an Australian perspective). The evidence of the gifts of the Spirit is long gone from many (most?) churches though they still carry the name Pentecostal. These churches typically now rely on music performances and pulpit teaching on principles of success – a variation of the prosperity doctrine whereby God wants us to possess the keys to a happy, successful and wonderful life.)
As to the condition of prosperity being a promise in the same vein as healing and wisdom, this has always been the domain of charlatans and pretenders who often started on the right course but became corrupted in their thinking and teaching.
There is another saying amongst Pentecostals – this time a valid one – that a preacher can succumb to the three temptations of “the gold, the glory and the girls”, and thereby falter, and potentially evolve into a false teacher. 2 Peter 2 presents an expose on false teachers and contains these three elements:
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies… Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up…
Bold and arrogant … Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery , they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed — an accursed brood! …
These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity…”
Greed for wealth lies at the heart of “the lustful desires of sinful human nature”. And it is defined in the Bible as idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
Prosperity preachers typically teach that tithing is essential to unlock the abundance that God wants to give His children; in this they twist and distort the meaning of the scriptures. And they are the ones who become rich as they seduce and trick people into tithing to them.
The Bible cautions very carefully about the dangers of desiring to be rich. It is a principal enemy of faith and of righteousness; and being idolatry, an enemy of God Himself:
1 Timothy 6:3-5, 9-10
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain…
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 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.
Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters . Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Luke 18:24-25
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Colossians 3:5-6
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…
Now, it is true that a person who becomes a Christian will automatically be financially blessed because of their dramatic change of lifestyle. This is entirely irrespective, however, of any contrived route to riches through tithing. In becoming a Christian their consumption and income patterns undergo a radical change, producing a prosperous state. This is the financial blessing that accompanies righteousness, when a sinner turns from their sin and walks with God. Their consumption expenditures go down and their income goes up:
- Consumption
- Their expenditures on sinful activities cease – gambling, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, entertainment (clubbing, partying, gaming, movies, music etc), food (gluttony) and sexual sins (pornography and prostitution). This alone means their savings will rise by between 20-60%. As a proportion of income, the poor spend more on these things so they are on the upper end of this scale.
- Also, their excessive expenditures on clothing (latest fashion), jewellery, cars and housing are all curtailed, as they no longer pursue the display of wealth to win the approval of others. They no longer satisfy the old sinful nature – “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” (1 John 2:16) – with the pleasures of this world, as defined by this world.
- Income
- Sluggards will repent of their laziness and go to work; in obedience to God they will work to supply their own needs and those of their families.
- Work no longer is a means of obtaining money for self-satisfaction, but of glorifying God in being productive with the gifts and abilities he has given to each person. In this, they supply not only their own needs but inevitably by producing an abundance they are able to become givers and so provide also for the needs of others.
- As Christians act with honesty and integrity, and are hard workers, they win the approval and admiration of employers. Therefore, they tend to be chosen for promotion and leadership roles in work environments. The increased responsibility they are entrusted with comes with an increase in pay.
- They limit their indebtedness, pay off their debts and are freed from debt slavery (Proverbs 22:7, Romans 13:8).
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Titus 3:14
Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.
Proverbs 14:23, 18:9, 21:25-26
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty…
One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys…
The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.
This financial blessing is tempered by:
- wisdom not to pursue wealth for the sake of wealth:
Proverbs 23:4-5
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
- recognising that all of our needs are met by God, who loves us and cares for us:
Philippians 4:19
…God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
- being content with what we have, even to the point of being satisfied with just having our basic needs met:
1 Timothy 6:6-9
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
- using our increased income to raise our standard of giving, and not our standard of living:
Romans 12:13
Share with God’s people who are in need .
1 John 3:17-18
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Luke 12:33-34
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
James 1:27, 2:15-17
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world…Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
We do not accumulate wealth as a show of prideful accomplishments. We are sojourners passing through this land on our way to a glorious kingdom that awaits us, with real riches that are beyond imagination. We store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, therefore, rather than the treasures of this world (Matthew 6:19-21).
A Note on The Tithe
The tithe (i.e. literally a tenth of a person’s income) was an integral component of the law i.e. the Old Covenant with its temple, sacrifices, priesthood, regulations etc. The book of Hebrews explains at length the setting aside of the Old Covenant and its replacement with the New Covenant. In particular, with regard to the tithe as an express component of the law, Hebrews 7:5 acknowledges:
…the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people…
Now, however, the priesthood and the law has been overturned because Jesus has become the new and eternal High Priest:
Hebrews 7:17, 12-13, 18-19, 8:13
“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”…
…when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law…
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God…
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Consequently, the tithe is no longer in effect and no longer required under the New Covenant. No instruction on tithing is given, therefore, by any of the apostles in their New Testament letters to the churches. Nevertheless, Christians are to be generous givers and church costs are to be met by its members (see 2Corinthians 8-9, 1Timothy 5:3, 9, 17-18, 6:17-19). Based on 1 Timothy 5:17-18, pastors should receive twice the average wage (and not excessive income/bonuses like a corporate chief executive or prosperity preacher):
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
This allows an elder/pastor to be free from financial concerns, and permits him to be actively engaged in hospitality and care, and to be a generous giver himself. It also protects him from the love of money by restricting his income if church giving could allow a higher income.