Mediation on the Text of the Week

Away with Peddlers of Prosperity and Wishful Thinking

For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Philippians 1:29

Over the past week we watched some folk tell how they had donated disproportionately large sums of money to a particular church's pastor, yet they were not wealthy and ended up going down to the food bank to feed their children. When asked why they replied that they had believed they were going to get back all the money they had donated up to one hundred fold. They were told God would do this for them. So, giving the money was a no-brainer. It was a sound investment.

The so-called “Prosperity Gospel” is an odious perversion of the Bible. It represents nothing more nor less than an evil attempt to test God whilst appealing to motives of avarice and greed. It was doubly scandalous that simple souls had been preyed upon by the unscrupulous. Insofar as the peddlers of Prosperity Gospel snakeoil are causing little ones to stumble they had better start preparing for the millstone to go around their neck with which they will be cast into the pond. (Matthew 18:6)

But there is a watered down version of the Prosperity Gospel widely abroad in Jerusalem today which, while less extreme, is equally misguided. It is the false view that true faith in God will always result in genuine direct divine intervention on one's behalf. Since genuine Christianity is a religion of signs and wonders; true faith will “produce” such wonders. If you are sick, God will heal you miraculously. If you lack money, God will miraculously provide. Attending signs and wonders are proof of God and of the genuineness of one's faith. This is just another variant upon the theme of the Prosperity Gospel.

When Paul was writing to the Philippians he was in prison, awaiting trial for the sake of Christ. Now, Paul had experienced miraculous releases from prison before—in fact, when he was in the very town of Philippi (Acts 16:25,26). So, the Philippian Christians knew all about direct, divine interventions. At least one of their households was of the jailer, whose life was wonderfully spared that night. But Paul is not looking for such a release from his prison in Rome this time. Rather, he is rejoicing that while in prison, the cause of the Gospel is moving ahead in leaps and bounds in the city of Rome (Philippians 1:12).

Nor does Paul encourage the Philippians to look for, nor expect, miraculous intervention in their lives. Rather he says they were actually really favoured and blessed because it had been granted to them that they suffer for Christ's sake. God had ordained that they share in precisely the same sufferings that Paul himself was going through.

In the ambit of this terrible Prosperity Gospel there is no room for suffering. It is a sign that your faith is not strong enough. Or that you are not obeying God. Few things could be a greater perversion of the actual truth.

One of the favorite passages of the peddlers of the Prosperity Gospel is Hebrews 11—cut and pasted. As you come to the end of that chapter you can just sense the triumphant, “I told you so!” of the Prosperity peddlers. Paul has called the roll of honour of those who:

by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. . . .
Hebrews 11:32—35.

“See what God will do you for”, says the Prosperity Peddler, “if you only believe or have enough faith! Look it's in the Bible.” Well, it is if you “cut and paste”, for Paul goes on to say:

. . . and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill treated (men of whom the world was not worthy) wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 11: 35—40.

True faith means you entrust yourself to God and His promises, no matter what—despite the fact that everything, every empirical experience, may say otherwise. At times, it will please the Lord to grant a wonderful deliverance. At other times, for His greater purposes and His greater glory, He will not. Either way, we keep entrusted ourselves to Him. This is the undoubted Christian faith.

Let Prosperity Peddlers begone.