MATERIAL PROSPERITY GOSPEL: The Hidden Agenda

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Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, or seed faith)[A] is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one's material wealth.[1] Material and especially financial success is seen as a sign of divine favor.

The New Thought movement, which emerged in the 1880s, was responsible for popularizing belief in the power of the mind to achieve prosperity. While initially focused on achieving mental and physical health, New Thought teachers such as Charles Fillmore made material success a major emphasis of the movement.[15] By the 20th century, New Thought concepts had saturated American popular culture, being common features of both self-help literature and popular psychology.[16]

While Kenyon's teachings on overcoming faith laid the groundwork for the prosperity gospel, the first generation of Pentecostals influenced by him and other figures, such as Bosworth, did not view faith as a means to attain material prosperity. In fact, early Pentecostals tended to view prosperity as a threat to a person's spiritual well-being.[24][25] By the 1940s and 1950s, however, a recognizable form of the doctrine began to take shape within the Pentecostal movement through the teachings of deliverance and healing evangelists. Combining prosperity teaching with revivalism and faith healing, these evangelists taught "the laws of faith ('ask and ye shall receive') and the laws of divine reciprocity ('give and it will be given back unto you')".[26]

Reverend Ike, a pastor from New York City, began preaching about prosperity in the late 1960s. He soon had widely aired radio and television programs and became distinguished for his flashy style. His openness about love for material possessions and teachings about the "Science of the Mind" led many evangelists to distance themselves from him.[11]

Prosperity theology teaches that Christians are entitled to well-being and, because spiritual and physical realities are seen as one inseparable reality, interprets well-being as physical health and economic prosperity.[51] Teachers of the doctrine focus on personal empowerment,[52] promoting a positive view of the spirit and body. They maintain that Christians have been given power over creation because they are made in the image of God and teach that positive confession allows Christians to exercise dominion over their souls and material objects around them.[52] Leaders of the movement view the atonement as providing for the alleviation of sickness, poverty, and spiritual corruption;[53] poverty and illness are cast as curses which can be broken by faith and righteous actions.[46] There are, however, some prosperity churches which seek a more moderate or reformed paradigm of prosperity.[12] Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of a Methodist mega-church, supports a theology of abundant life, teaching prosperity for the whole human being, which he sees as a path to combating poverty.[9][B]

In the United States, the movement has drawn many followers from the middle class[52] and is most popular in commuter towns and urban areas.[37] In Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism Steve Brouwer, Paul Gifford, and Susan Rose speculate that the movement was fueled by a prevailing disdain for social liberalism in the United States that began in the 1970s.[39][G] Rosin argues that prosperity theology emerged because of broader trends, particularly American economic optimism in the 1950s and 1990s. Tony Lin of the University of Virginia has also compared the teaching to manifest destiny,[37] the 19th-century belief that the United States was entitled to the West. Marvin Harris argues that the doctrine's focus on the material world is a symptom of the secularization of American religion. He sees it as an attempt to fulfill the American Dream by using supernatural power.[69]

In a 1998 interview in Christianity Today, Bong Rin Ro of the Asia Graduate School of Theology suggested that the growth in popularity of prosperity theology in South Korea reflects a strong "shamanistic influence". Bong pointed to parallels between the tradition of paying shamans for healing and the prosperity theology's contractual doctrine about giving and blessings. Asia's economic problems, he argued, encouraged the growth of the doctrine in South Korea, though he claims it ignores the poor and needy. During the interview, he stated that he saw the problem beginning to be reversed, citing calls for renewed faith and other practices.[74] Cho Yong-gi, pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, has been criticized for shamanising Christianity. This criticism has focused on his healing and exorcism ministries and his promise of material blessings. Malaysian Christian writer Hwa Yung has defended Cho's healing and exorcism ministries, arguing that he successfully contextualized the Gospel in a culture where shamanism was still prevalent. However, Hwa criticizes Cho's teaching of earthly blessings for not reflecting a trust in God's daily provision and for their heavy focus on earthly wealth.[75]

Mainstream evangelicalism has consistently opposed prosperity theology as heretical[37] and prosperity ministries have frequently come into conflict with other Christian groups, including those within the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.[39] Critics, such as Evangelical pastor Michael Catt, have argued that prosperity theology has little in common with traditional Christian theology.[83] Prominent evangelical leaders, such as Rick Warren,[9] Ben Witherington III,[9] and Jerry Falwell,[84] have harshly criticized the movement, sometimes denouncing it as heretical.[9] Warren proposes that prosperity theology promotes the idolatry of money, and others argue that Jesus' teachings indicate a disdain for material wealth.[9] In Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, R. Kent Hughes notes that some 1st-century rabbis portrayed material blessings as a sign of God's favor. He cites Jesus' statement in Mark 10:25 that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (KJV) as evidence to oppose such thinking.[85]

Other critics of the movement assail promises made by its leaders, arguing that the broad freedom from problems they promise is irresponsible.[39] Televangelists are often criticized for abusing the faith of their listeners by enriching themselves through large donations.[86] Prosperity theology has been opposed for not adequately explaining the poverty of the Apostles. For instance, some theologians believe that the life and writings of Paul the Apostle, who is believed to have experienced significant suffering during his ministry, are particularly in conflict with prosperity theology.[87] Cathleen Falsani, religion writer in an opinion piece in The Washington Post, points to the conflict with basic Christian teachings "Jesus was born poor, and he died poor. During his earthly tenure, he spoke time and again about the importance of spiritual wealth and health. When he talked about material wealth, it was usually part of a cautionary tale."[88]

Oyedepo believes in talking big about money and wealth. He has written at least 40 books and most of them are on material prosperity and good health. They include Covenant Wealth, Breaking Financial Hardship, Success Buttons, Born to Win, The Miracle Seed, Keys to Divine Health, Anointing for breakthrough and the Mystery of the Anointing Oil. Most of these encourage his followers on how to prosper materially and physically. In Breaking Financial Hardship he says,

Furthermore, this gospel suggests that we must have our rewards or inheritance here and now in material form. Ultimately all that matters is the material prosperity here and now. The pursuit of this is contrary to Biblical faith and blurs our vision and understanding of God. Stephen Eyre says,

It is important to recognise and take seriously the fact that the prosperity gospel is primarily about money and that it contradicts both the life of Christ and the purpose for which He died on the Cross. The gospel elevates money to compete for a 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. In very easy ways- more subtle that we often think- any of these can become idols that dim our view of God and diminish our passion for Him.

Second, as even one of its arch-critics has admitted, the Faith gospel is without question the most attractive message being preached today or, for that matter, in the whole history of the Church.[8] Seldom if ever, has there been a gospel that has promised so much, and demanded so little. The Faith gospel is a message ideally suited to the twentieth-century American Christian. In an age in America characterized by complexity, the Faith gospel gives simple, if not revelational, answers. In an economy fueled by materialism and fired by the ambitions of the upwardly mobile, the Faith gospel preaches wealth and prosperity. The Faith gospel promises health and long life to a world in which death can come a myriad of different ways. Finally, in an international environment characterized by anarchy, in which terrorists strike at will and nuclear holocaust can come screaming from the sky at any moment, the Faith gospel confers an authority with which the believer can supposedly exercise complete control over his or her own environment. Little wonder that armed with such a gospel the Faith movement has grown to the extent that in the minds of many it is no longer just a part of the charismatic movement: it is the charismatic movement. 2b1af7f3a8