The Prosperity Gospel
Who is Joel Osteen and Are His Teachings Biblical?
A serious look at the teachings of Joel Osteen and how they are in conflict with Historic Christianity. (From Got Questions.) Excellent!
Errors of the Prosperity Gospel
David W. Jones
Charles Spurgeon said, “I believe that it is anti-Christian and unholy for any Christian to live with the object of accumulating wealth.”
However, the message being preached in some of the largest churches in the world has changed—indeed, a new gospel is being taught to many congregations today. This gospel has many names, such as the “name it and claim it” gospel, the “blab it and grab it” gospel, the “health and wealth” gospel, the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession theology.”
The Gospel Of Greed Versus The Gospel Of The Grace Of God
David L. Larsen
A pernicious and dangerous teaching is stalking our land. It has filtered into evangelical communication and thinking more than we realize. Unfortunately, we have exported it to Europe and the third world where it has brought dissension and even schism. I am referring to what we may call “the gospel of greed.” It is the prosperity gospel, health and wealth theology, the grab it and get it, name it and claim it, God is for our gain message which has such widespread currency in our time.
The Prosperity Gospel Loves God’s Gifts, But Ignores God Himself
Mike McKinley & Sean DeMars
Think about the last time you gave a gift to someone you really care about. Maybe it was a Christmas present for a friend, an anniversary gift for your spouse, or a birthday present for your child. Whatever the circumstances, it’s likely that you intended that gift to be an expression of your care and love for that person. God’s gifts are meant to lead our thoughts and our hearts back to him the way that a stream leads back to its spring.
Does God Want You to Be Rich?
Gregory K. Hollifield, PhD
A practical theologian who is most concerned about sound biblical preaching annihilates the Prosperity Gospel!
The Bankruptcy of Prosperity Theology: An Unprofitable Gospel
Russell S. Woodbridge, PhD
Are you having financial difficulties? Try this strategy to solve your problem. Simply declare to yourself, “Everything I touch prospers and succeeds” because “there is a miracle in your mouth.” According to prosperity theology, positive confessions and thinking are the keys to unlocking God’s favor upon you is to exercise faith, change your thoughts and proclaim God’s favor upon you blessings upon your life.
A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel
Ken L. Sarles
Evangelicals have always been known for their commitment to the evangel, the “good news.” But in recent years the content of this good news has been redefined in certain quarters of evangelicalism. Rather than glorifying the grace of God in salvation, this newly conceived gospel focuses on human potential for successful living, emphasizing health and wealth.
Enjoying God Forever: An Historical/Sociological Profile of the Health and Wealth Gospel
Dennis Hollinger
The 1647 Westminster Catechism begins with the question. “What is the chief end of man?” The cathecist responds, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Throughout the church’s history certain groups have over-emphasized one dimension of this response at the expense of the other. The Prosperity Gospel appears to be a case in point. Evidence for the theme of enjoyment is seen in the promises of healing, financial prosperity, and general well-being.
The Soil of the Prosperity Gospel
Jonathan Baer
While the prosperity gospel comes packaged in a number of different forms—Word of Faith, Positive Confession, and so on—the core product is consistent. At its heart is the conviction that human words and faith shape reality. We are empowered to speak life into being, but regrettably few of us are aware of this great privilege. The reason we do not have the financial security, health, and success we want is that we do not call it forth and draw it unto ourselves. Beneath this claim rests a high anthropology, which regards human beings as fundamentally good and ultimately powerful.
Prosperity Theology and the Faith Movement
Robert Jackson
A thorough repudiation of Prosperity Theology.
The Old Testament Promise of Material Blessings and the Contemporary Believer
Walter C. Kaiser, PhD
Can the OT be interpreted as advocating a prosperity gospel of wealth, health and success? Are such passages as Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 and Psalm 37 fairly understood as supporting a theology of affluence? Can we revise the proverb to say “Early to faith and early to obedience, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise”? Regardless of anything else? Such questions are being answered affirmatively by an increasingly large number of evangelicals and some positive thinkers.
The Real Prosperity Gospel
John Calvin
God so governs the universe by his secret providence that while nothing happens apart from God’s decree, his hand remains largely hidden from us. Church father Basil the Great said that fortune and chance are pagan terms, and ones the godly should not use. But even though all things are ordained by God’s plan, for us they seem fortuitous—their order, reason, end, and necessity seem accidental. Yet in our hearts it nonetheless should remain fixed that nothing will take place that the Lord has not previously foreseen.
The Soft Prosperity Gospel
Erik Raymond
What do you think of when you read the words prosperity gospel? Odds are that your stomach turns a bit as you think about the preachers on television who speak to very large crowds and appeal to even more people in their books. Queasiness is the reaction one should have to the brand of Christianity trumpeted by prosperity preachers. This is because the prosperity gospel is not a gospel at all but rather a damnable perversion of the true gospel. Its preachers herald a message of self-improvement that runs painfully contrary to several key biblical realities.
Why Has the Prosperity Gospel Prospered?
Miguel Núñez
Why has the prosperity gospel prospered? It would be easy to say that the spread of the prosperity gospel is simply the result of a lack of biblical knowledge, and certainly no one can deny that. The movement misinterprets Scripture, selectively uses biblical texts at the expense of others, missing the balanced view of the whole counsel of God on health and wealth. And in an era when many teachers of the Word are not preaching expositionally, all kinds of heresies will arise. But two questions remain: why this heresy? And why now?
The Bankruptcy of the Prosperity Gospel: An Exercise on Biblical and Theological Ethics
David W. Jones
This is an expanded version of Jones’s article, “Errors of the Prosperity Gospel.”
A Theological Evaluation of the Utopian Image of Prosperity Gospel and the African Dilemma
Efe M. Ehioghae and Joseph A. Olanrewaju
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