I was watching a televangelist recently. His sermon was about material wealth and the current economic climate in America. It sounded fairly straightforward and observant until he made a prophetic announcement to his church. He prophesied that if the church would simply be more faithful, God would pour material blessings down from heaven and the church would reap a financial harvest. He prophesied a message of financial profit as the reward for faithfulness.
Some refer to this message as a “health and wealth gospel,” “name it, claim it theology,” or even baldly, “prosperity theology.” It’s a common ideology in many American churches (hardly elsewhere!). Many honest, sincere, conscientious Christians believe that faithfulness is a good business investment and reaps a financial reward. Since we’re talking numbers here let me explain the prosperity theology with a simple mathematical formula: spirituality = financial prosperity.
There are prooftexts that, when flattened, reduced to their least common denominator, and taken out of context, can lend themselves to a prosperity theology. Just like anything, prosperity theology is “biblical” if you know what to look for and where to look for it. If the starting point is that God blesses spirituality in terms of financial prosperity, you can find it in the Bible. I have found that anyone can find nearly anything in the Bible given a certain amount of creativity. But I digress.
The prosperity gospel seems pervasive in Scripture. God himself said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it” (Mal 3:10). Sounds straightforward huh? Granted, this passage is more about tithing under the old covenant but never mind the context. Or take Deut 8:18: “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” Who can argue with that? God designed work so that we reap a financial harvest as the fruit of our labors. Granted, it is God who ultimately gives but he gives without restraint right? Never mind the context, again. Don’t read what’s written before and after it. Never mind that it was originally a warning to the arrogant regarding prosperity (Deut 8:17-19). And again, never mind that it was originally written to ancient Israel under the old covenant of Moses as God was about to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. Indeed he made Israel prosperous!
We need to be more careful with our handling of Scripture. I say this with humility since I have my own agendas that Scripture obviously supports;-) Christians today are not ancient Israel. We are not entering a Promised Land in this fallen world. We are not under the old covenant of Moses but are under the new covenant of Christ. God is not promising us riches, prosperity, and a land flowing with milk and honey. Those were his promises to ancient Israel; and he fulfilled them! The ancient, theocratic kingdom of Israel is not the current kingdom of heaven. We should define “blessings” based on the kingdom we belong to. Granted, material blessing was certainly part of the old covenant. Just read the blessings and curses in Deut. The OT passages mentioned earlier should not be rejected simply because they were part of the old covenant. It is not that they do not apply to the church today but it is a question of how they apply, and to what degree. They are reapplied in the new covenant in a more spiritual way – a Christ-centered way. They are indeed part of Christian Scripture but just like the sacrifices and other cultic ceremonies in the OT, they are applied spiritually and symbolically to the church due to their fulfillment in Christ. We now seek to apply the theological principles rather than the specifics.
It’s not just the OT. There are plenty of NT passages that when read as proverbs or as stand alone verses, lend themselves to prosperity theology (Luke 6:38; John 10:10; 2 Cor 9:6-10). Of course, the question is, what do these passages mean in their contexts? Reading the whole context should drive one away from a materialistic interpretation: Luke 6:38 is about judgment and/or grace, not wealth; John 10:10 is about eternal life – life in Christ, right here, right now. “Life to full” is relationship with Christ no matter what our present economic status looks like. Indeed, "life to the full" is as about contentment. Even 2 Cor 9 is a specific admonition to a specific church on a specific occasion for a specific purpose. The principle of reciprocity expressed is more spiritually focused than materially. It speaks of God meeting our needs not our greeds. It’s about sharing material wealth out of love for our siblings in Christ, not about receiving rewards.
Don’t misunderstand; I’m not one who claims that the new covenant is entirely spiritual. Material blessings have a concrete application in the church. When we care for one another’s needs we do so materially (1 John 3:16-18) and spiritually. The NT is full of passages that convey financial responsibility, stewardship, and material blessing. But, and this is the main point, financial blessing is not presented in the NT as a reward for faithfulness. It is true that God blesses us, and finances may play a role, but it is not true that God rewards our level of faithfulness with an accompanying level of material blessing. Rewards in the NT are primarily spiritual. Rewards are viewed as the gracious gift of God, not as wages earned (Matt 20:1-16). Rewards, for the most part, are conferred at the future judgment; and those are given graciously not meritoriously (Luke 14:12-14).
I think it shipwrecks faith to tell a struggling soul that if she just has more faith God will heal her illness, get her out of debt, or make her wealthy. Tell that to Jesus or Paul. Both were persecuted for their faithfulness. God takes care of basic needs (Matt 6:25-34). When we aren’t healed of cancer, heart disease, or depression, when we continue to be weighed down in debt, when we continue to live paycheck to paycheck, is that due to our own spiritual sickness? Not according to the Bible. There’s probably more going on than meets the eye. Perhaps God is revealing his power to withstand, his grace to cope, and drawing us closer to the cross (2 Cor 12:7-10).
