𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥 - "𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥"

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one, we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:6-12)

If even an angel preaches a gospel contrary to God’s word, he is under a curse. There is no Christian in the world who does not need to consider Paul’s words to the Galatians seriously. The gospel is the church’s most precious gift to cherish, protect, and pass on. And so, as Christians, and particularly preachers, we must never stop checking what we believe and preach and then asking the question: is this the gospel? Is this the gospel that God has revealed to us in the Bible? That is what we seek to do here.

Convention seasons have started and it will be common to hear the following from the stages to stir the audiences to their tunes.

•God wants you to be healthy. You just need to confess and believe for it.

•God wants you to be wealthy. You just need to confess and believe for it.

•God wants your life to be comfortable and easy. Your confession controls your outcomes.

•God wants you to have everything you need. Your negativity is your problem.

•God already sent Jesus to die for your abundant life. Your faith is the problem.

•God already sent Jesus to die for that job promotion to be yours.

•God already sent Jesus to pay for your debt so you can live debt-free

If you have heard these words often from the preacher on the pulpit …be cautious as you may be hearing “another gospel” as against what the Bible says. Let us now learn in detail.

How it Began (The beginning of the Prosperity Gospel “Another Gospel.”)

The Prosperity Movement is a religious phenomenon that has rapidly gained and sustained ascendency in some Christian circles over the decades. This movement is also known. as ‘Prosperity Gospel’, ‘Prosperity Theology’, ‘Word of Faith’, ‘Health and Wealth’, ‘Name It and Claim It’, ‘Seed Faith Movement’, ‘Blab It and Grab It’ and ‘Prosperity Preaching.’

This prosperity teaching is built on a particular interpretation of the biblical promises of abundant life in Christ. “I have come,” Jesus says, “so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10b NET). Most evangelical scholars read this as a reference “to eternal life, that is, the life of the coming age which…begins in the present with a divine birth.” Building on this verse in the Old Testament promises of covenantal blessings, at its most simple the Prosperity Gospel “portrays wealth and riches as a covenant and the fulfilment of the divine promise of God to his people.” The Prosperity Gospel proclaims that “God wills spiritual and material prosperity for all believers” as an appropriation of “the victory that Christ has won over sin, sickness, curses, poverty and setbacks in life.” This teaching is justified by those who argue that Jesus came to liberate the “poor” from the bondage of poverty and brought healing to all areas of a believer’s life. For C. B. Peter, this is a “gospel of human possibility…wrapped in God’s name.”

It all began in the 1950s after World War II. Some white American Pentecostal preachers stepped away from traditional Pentecostal preaching to revive Kenyon’s theology of “dominating faith,” which he borrowed from the Metaphysical Movement - “lauding positive thinking using the science of psychology.”

By the middle of the 1950s revivalists resounded Kenyon’s theology in varying “constituted gospels of health, wealth and prosperity” in American Culture. They presented faith as that which operates the authority to positive confession and actualization of health and wealth in a believer’s life. Through radio ministry, books and articles, and the use of formulas and catchphrases, the preachers encouraged people to claim their legal right to health, wealth and success.

By the late 1970s, the movement had become prominent and its theology had gained dominancy in the American theological landscape. Subsequently, it attracted more preachers from major denominations and even across racial lines to draw in the black and the Latino population of America. Nigeria and Ghana on the West Coast of Africa rank high in the reception of the teachings of the faith movement. Paul Gifford identifies Enoch A. Adeboye and David O. Oyedipo as major proponents of this theology in Nigeria.

While preachers of the movement refute the stereotype term “prosperity preacher,” they emerge with a message of supernatural promises of Christian faith that are measured in material wealth, health and success in every aspect of Christian life. The preachers of Prosperity Gospel are themselves living examples of their message of divine prosperity. Most live extravagantly- with luxurious cars, private jets, mansions with gold-plated fixtures, expensive designer clothing, vacationing in exotic places, and so on. Their lavish lifestyle reminds their followers of the power of faith that lays claim to hidden spiritual realities and translates them into material realities.

Like many Christian institutions, these Faith Movements use music to convey Prosperity Gospel message to the homes of many. They churn out all kinds of songs with diverse rhythms, lyric and tunes. Songs with titles such as “The Lord shall provide all my needs,” “Jehovah Jireh takes care of me,” “Me, I no go suffer [I will not suffer],” and “Everything na double [I receive blessings in double]” promote faith as a force that actualizes Christian rights to health, wealth, and financial security in the material world.

The preachers of the Faith Movement may be independent but united in their hermeneutical approach. They make generous use of Scripture to propagate the ideology of Prosperity Gospel. Assessing their use of Scripture. prosperity hermeneutics shuns engagement with the scholarly community and rather emphasizes subjective revelation. Subjective revelation is what is known to the preachers of this movement as revelation knowledge, which transcends sensory knowledge and reveals the reality of the spiritual realm. It is attainable only through the spiritual realm and superior to sensory knowledge. This theory creates sensory and revelation levels of biblical knowledge, and sees revelation knowledge to be superior, as it is received directly from God.

Proponents of the prosperity gospel attribute poverty to the work of the devil and see it as inimical to productivity.

True Gospel revealed in the Scriptures.

“This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

When Paul taught the Colossians about the glory of God’s work in us, he centred on our union with Christ. “To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

The gospel is about an infinitely great God who offers us the best gift imaginable: himself. That is the incredible beauty of the gospel—sinners can know God and enjoy him forever. God’s people through the ages have understood that there is nothing better. But the prosperity gospel reduces God to a sugar daddy by treating material gifts as the purpose of the gospel. The temporary benefits of material prosperity are not what Jesus died to win for us.

Preachers of the prosperity gospel call people to turn to Jesus. But the motivation they give people is health, wealth, husbands wives, jobs, and promotions. In this false gospel, we are not persuaded to desire, pursue, or treasure Jesus. Instead, Jesus is regarded as merely the way to get the material things our worldly hearts hunger for. And what your heart desires more than God has become your god.

Jesus performed signs and wonders in order that people would believe in him and receive eternal life (John 20:30-31). But these people were more interested in a free lunch. They thought the Messiah would give them all they wanted in this life, but they were missing the incomparably better thing that he offered. If you are following Jesus for material benefits, you have failed to identify your greatest need.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. (John 6:26-27)

They were following Jesus for material advantage. Jesus performed signs and wonders so that people would believe in him and receive eternal life (John 20:30- 31). But these people were more interested in a free lunch. They thought the Messiah would give them all they wanted in this life, but they were missing the incomparably better thing that he offered. If you are following Jesus for material benefits, you have failed to identify your greatest need.

The falsehood of the prosperity gospel is rooted in the misinterpretation of the Bible. The word of God has been twisted, both unintentionally and intentionally, and the result is a deceptive man-made message. Prosperity gospel preachers regularly approach God’s word as though it can mean whatever they decide it means. Sentences are taken out of context, the rest of the Bible is ignored, and words are twisted. If people read our letters and text messages in the same way, we would also be misunderstood. We cannot afford to make this mistake with the most important message. The problem is not in the verses you learn but in the way prosperity preachers are misinterpreting them.

Did Christ give up material wealth to become our Saviour? The Bible, and basic logic, clearly show us that this is not what Christ gave up.

As taught by Jesus-

Jesus’ mission as messiah was filled with pain and suffering: despised, rejected, man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, not esteemed, stricken, smitten by God, afflicted, pierced, crushed, and wounded. The call to follow this Lord is not a call to walk an easy road. Isaac Watts summarised the difference between the Christian’s path and our selfish demands when he wrote: “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease? While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”

Christ was indeed poor while he was on this earth, as the Gospels frequently show (Luke 9:58). But, as the above text explains, Christ lowered himself by leaving heaven and the intimate spiritual communion and glory with his Father that he enjoyed there to come to this world as a man. This is far greater than material wealth. The riches that Christ (temporarily) gave up for us were heavenly and spiritual riches. And, ultimately, these are the riches that Christ died to win for us: reconciliation and communion with God (John 17:24).

Our Lord who suffered for us called us to be ready to do the same. “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). To follow Christ is to be ready to accept pain and suffering.

While Jesus showed us—and prepared us for—a simple and hard life, he also made it clear that we should not even want to be rich. “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Jesus Christ warned that the pursuit of wealth was not a godly quest but a grave danger to avoid. When he taught his disciples about wealth, he did not teach them secrets of how to attain it. Instead, he told them to let go of loving it. Letting go of the lust for money is a must if you want to take hold of Jesus (Luke 16:13).

The prosperity gospel is primarily about money and it contradicts both the life of Christ and the purpose for which he died on the cross. It is important to recognize this and take it seriously. This ‘gospel’ elevates money to compete for the space in our lives that only God deserves. If the love of money is the root of all evil, the love of material property, mansions and other accumulations in the dragnet of money must follow closely after. We are increasingly defined not by who or what we are, but by what we have or own. Very easily—in more subtle ways than we might like to think- any of these can become idols that dim our view of God and diminish our passion for him.

As taught by the Apostles

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he was correcting problems that we see all around us today. The Corinthians had received the pure gospel from the lips of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:1-4), but over time their preachers had changed the message to suit the audience. And as they modified the gospel message, they did not just change its emphasis; they emptied the gospel of its power. Churches that preach the prosperity gospel make a similar mistake. Their preachers might mention the cross in their preaching and even say that Christ died for our sins. But they say that the purpose of Christ’s death was our healing and prosperity. Paul wrote this to Christians who thought too highly of themselves in order to rebuke them. He drew a valuable contrast between their conceit and the apostles’ godly lowliness.

Paul does not pray that they may be materially wealthy; he does not pray that they may be successful in business; he does not pray that they may buy a better house; he does not pray that they always be healthy; he does not pray that they will not die. Instead, he prays that God will fill them with the knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding. He prays this so that they may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. And Paul shows us what it means to live a life worthy of the Lord, which is in contrast to what the prosperity preachers focus on. A life worthy of the Lord is a life of bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened by God’s power to endure, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father.

Scripture is clear that the goal of our salvation is God, not gold. Knowing Him, being united to Him, and being reconciled with Him are the purposes to which the Bible points us. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). Take note of the word in this verse; it helps us understand why Christ suffered and died. He suffered and died so that he might bring us to God. Jesus Christ himself perfectly summed up the heart and purpose of our salvation in his prayer to the Father.

Four times in his second letter to Timothy, Paul taught his spiritual son to be ready to suffer. Instead of running away from suffering, Paul said that we should “share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (2 Tim. 1:8). “Share in suffering,” Paul emphasised later, not as an exception, but “as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:3). And just in case we wanted to escape the universal nature of his message, Paul stated that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Paul showed Timothy and reminds us (as Jesus Christ did before him) that we should expect suffering as a natural result of being a Christian. “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). Suffering is an essential part of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

As lived by the Early Church

Many faithful Christians are dying for Jesus Christ; brothers and sisters whose lives and deaths bring great glory to God as they affirm Paul’s creed: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). What mockery against these saints to preach that Christians should not suffer!

Let us begin with one of the early church fathers, Polycarp. He was the bishop of Smyrna in the second century AD. Here is an account of the conclusion of his trial by the Roman authorities in which he had been charged with being a follower of Christ:

The proconsul then urged him, saying, “Swear, and I will release thee; reproach Christ.” Polycarp answered, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?” This great Christian submitted calmly to his execution rather than betraying Christ. The history of the Roman Empire contains numerous similar accounts. For example, seventy years later, in Rome itself, there was a woman named Cecilia. She gave up the comforts of a respectable family, not only believing in Christ but passionately bringing others to him, even if it killed her. She converted her husband and brother, who were beheaded; and the Maximus, or officer, who led them to execution, becoming their convert, suffered the same fate. The lady was placed naked in a scalding bath, and having continued there a considerable time, her head was struck off with a sword, A.D.

True prosperity is enjoyed by those whose focus is God. God’s people have been defined, distinguished, and blessed in all ages by their worship of him. Their worship is filled with the knowledge that God alone is the source of all blessings in and through Jesus Christ. And it is deepened by the truth that the spiritual blessings God gives his people are secure from anything or anyone in this world. This is why their prayers are dominated by spiritual desires. We live in a materialistic world, but God calls his people to do something better by far.

The prosperity gospel takes the sovereignty of God and tosses it aside, claiming that we can control the God of the universe. In the most arrogant claim that humans could make, prosperity preachers declare that our mouths control our money, and much more.

Paula White, a world-renowned prosperity preacher and presidential advisor to Donald Trump, claims to know exactly why Jesus came to earth. It wasn’t to reconcile you to God the Father. It wasn’t merely to pay for sin and provide the eternal riches and glory of heaven to the poor, the rich, and the broken. He came to make you healthy and wealthy! In her book Living the Abundant Life: Why Not Me? Why Not Now? she boldly asserts, “Prosperity means: welfare, well-being; affluence (wealth); success; thrift, roaring trade; good fortune, smiles of fortune; blessings; and a God send…Jesus said, ‘I come that you would have abundant life, that you would enjoy life.’ He didn’t say, ‘You have to wait to get to heaven before you will be blessed.’ God came to give me abundant life… How do I begin to live the abundant life of Christ? . . . You cannot be a non-tither and have God’s breakthrough.”

This twisting of the Bible makes God a cosmic banker in charge of dispensing your wishes. It makes Jesus’ death on the cross simply a transaction to provide an earthly reward of fancy cars, perfect health, and expanding bank accounts. If it were that easy, then why doesn’t every single person who confesses Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord suddenly see their pockets filled with cash? Why isn’t their cancer healed when they repent of their sins and confess Jesus as their loving Redeemer? If the sovereignty of God works only to provide health and wealth, and Jesus died to provide an abundant life for all, then why are the prosperity preachers the only ones driving Bentleys and living in multi-million-dollar New York penthouses? In the prosperity gospel, these are all earthly promises.

When we get God's sovereignty wrong, we get God wrong. When we get the abundant life wrong, we get Jesus wrong. When we get faith and confession wrong, we get salvation wrong.

Why is that a huge deal? Because all roads that the prosperity gospel paves lead to hell.

That God is sovereign means he will one day wipe away every tear and right every wrong. There will be a short time on earth in which turmoil and pain seem to run rampant, but our lives are but specks compared with eternity. An infinite number of years in heaven will provide healing, riches, glory, and, best of all, life with Jesus. No matter what we face in this life, God is in control. We can trust in his promises for a better future.

There are few people today who can speak as authoritatively as Jim Bakker on the prosperity gospel. In an interview with Charisma, shortly after his release from jail, Jim Bakker admitted that he had been building a 1980s-style tower of Babel to make a name for himself. His tower of Babel was a multimillion-dollar business with a payroll of $30 million (US) and more than 2,200 employees. Bakker has since repented and apologized for the PTL scandal. Far from what he used to be, Bakker has written a 647-page book, I Was Wrong and now teaches about sacrifice and the cost of discipleship. In the interview with Charisma, Bakker says-

While I was in prison, the Lord showed me He wanted me to study the words of Christ in the Bible. So, I began to write out in longhand every word that Christ spoke. I spent two years doing this. I wanted to know Christ and everything He said. And as I began to absorb the teachings of Christ, it changed my life. Sometimes I would be moved to study 16 hours a day.

After his years of study, what did Bakker discover about Jesus concerning wealth?

While I studied Jesus’ words, I couldn’t find anywhere in the Bible where He said anything good about money. And this started to prick my heart. Luke 6:24 says, ‘Woe to you who are rich.’ Jesus talked about the ‘deceitfulness of riches’ in Mark 4:19. Jesus told us not to lay up treasures on earth in Matthew 6:24. In Luke 12:15, He said: ‘Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

Beware what you hear from these pulpits and let us not give heed to this “Another Gospel” and cast ourselves to judgment before God.