All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Why do churches now usually base their teaching on prosperity?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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We, or at least I, have not lumped people into one category. There is a group who teach a properity gospel that is focused on wealth and use the basic ideas of name it and claim it, God wants you to be wealthy, seed-time-harvest. I simply look to see if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then I can safely call it a duck. Your church may not be a duck ... I have no idea (in fact I have not spoken about your church at all), but I do know that there is a teaching out there that is very popular and gaining ground that is harming people and the body of Christ.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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About Joyce & her riches - She'll convince me she's not into riches when she sells that private jet in the back yard.
There are some genuine pastors who preach seed time/harvest as it should be preached. It's given this name though because of those who aren't genuine. The seed time/harvest / Faith Movement was originated in the Pentecostal denomination. Prayerfully, your evangelist doesn't eventually turn it around to God wants you to be prosperous & rich, etc. They also bring in the verse about the word speaks life & death. They interpret that as whatever we say, God has to obey our word. So, speak riches & you'll have a Jaguar in the carport of your 7 story house.
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The Seed-Time-Harvest is at the root of most prosperity gospel teachings. It is coined in various ways, but it almost always comes back to this concept. You are embracing that title, prosperity gospel, when I believe you simply believe that God wants to bless His children. That is completely different than what the prosperity teachers are teaching.
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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That the "Prosperity Gospel" and God wanting to bless his children with "our daily bread" are not the same thing (not even close) is a distinction with a difference.
The former is all about accumulating money and possessions, or "storing up earthly treasures," which the Bible warns against. (Matthew 6:19-20).
The latter, which is right and proper, is asking for God to provide us and our loved ones with the basic necessities of life. As we recite in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread... ." (Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3).
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Char it's not necessarily meaning you've heard the seed/harvest scenario. That is just the title that many have placed on that preaching. Name It Claim It. Blab It Grab It. As I said earlier, it's also known as the Faith Movement. If you have enough faith to move a mountain then you can have enough faith to wield God as you desire to get that new house, car, etc.
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The teaching is very deceptive. Anyone can take something out of the word & make it work for them. Prosperity gospel makes us God & He has to do what we command. The teaching is from the pits of hell & smells of smoke.
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This reply confuses me a bit Char, knowing you how I think I know you. You really believe God desires all of us to be prosperous monetary-wise so we can bless others?
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Prosperity theology is, in my view, a plague that is infecting contemporary American Christianity. It turns God into an ATM in the sky and Christianity into a religion that I can use to get what I want when I want it. It promises us that faith in Jesus leads to increased prosperity and carefree living. It says God rewards the faithful with new cars, a bigger house, more money. The more you give financially to the ministry, we are assured, the more you will get back. "Give to get" is the handy catch phrase. So the preachers who lead these ministries often make a point of living a lavish and extravagant lifestyle as if to say that, by their example, we can do the same.
But this is not the kind of faith that Jesus calls us to. Jesus is calling us into a relationship with God and with one another other based on love. (1 John 4:16). The central quality of this relationship is not on us and our needs, but on God's deep and abiding mercy and his great love for us. Jesus calls on us to service for God: to care about the lost, the lonely, the hurting, the hopeless, and the left-out, and not to focus on pursuing our own selfish devices and desires.
Christians find true and lasting treasure in heaven and not in money and material possessions on this earth. Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19-20).
But that is not all. Look at Verse 21: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So where is our treasure?
Jesus goes on to say: "No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money" (Matthew 6:24).
"Then he [Jesus] said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions'" (Luke 12:15).
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (Luke 9:25)
I haven't answered the "why" part of your question, but I think the answer is readily apparent. Prosperity theology (or whatever you wish to call it) appeals to one of our basest desires: greed. Its emergence in the religious marketplace is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The Bible issues strong warnings that people will fall away from or reject the true teachings of the Gospel. Instead, their "itching ears" will cause them to be deceived by false teachers and their false teachings. (2 Timothy 4:3; Matthew 7:15, 24:24; 1 John 4:1; Galatians 1:8) Prosperity theology is one of many such false teachings currently on the scene. My best advice? Examine carefully what is being taught in the bright antiseptic light of Scripture. "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Good word Colby. It is a blessing to have you here my brother.
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Ultimately, from my perspective, it boils down to this.
- The apostle Paul instructs us to be imitators of Christ. (1 Cor 11:1)
- Jesus says we are to obey God's commandments. (Matt 19:17; 1 Jn 5:3; Jn 14:23 )
- When we look at the lifestyles of Jesus and his closest disciples, including Paul, does the Bible show them as modeling anything resembling the "Prosperity Gospel?"
For all that is in the world—
the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—
is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 Jn 2:16) - The apostle Paul instructs us to be imitators of Christ. (1 Cor 11:1)
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