Let’s take a moment to consider Prosperity Gospel, or shall we call it “Grab It Gospel?”
Thousands of Christians in both Great Britain and America currently are being deluded by a new style of preaching that promises untold wealth to the believer whose faith is strong enough, according to reports circulated in religious circles and online Christian ministries.
Many of the self-anointed TV evangelists, who are worth staggering sums of wealth, some even multi–millionaires, are preaching the new gospel style that promises wealth beyond measure. If you don’t believe it, (like Yogi says) look it up.
Followers of the so-called prosperity gospel—known by its critics as “blab it and grab it”—are encouraged to believe that it is acceptable to pray for material wealth.
An authoritative report by the Evangelical Alliance, an umbrella organization for Britain’s evangelical churches, raises concerns about teachings that if the believer gives a sum of money to the preacher, God will multiply it by a hundred times or more in favor of the giver.
Preachers use mailshots, television, and churches to persuade Christians that, by giving them money, believers will not only get out of debt, but they will also become rich.
Churches have traditionally repudiated wealth in favor of a modest lifestyle. The prosperity gospel plays on an equivalent belief that traditional religion will ensure fertility, abundance, and longevity.
It is proving attractive to wealthy Christians in the West, particularly in America, because it assuages their consciences. Some preachersteach that material blessings, along with physical health, are confirmation from God of a righteous and holy lifestyle.
Some of the poorest churchgoers are said to be deluded into believing that, if they give what spare cash they have to a particular preacher, they will receive the money back “one hundredfold.” It is then the minister who becomes rich, often flaunting his wealthy lifestyle as proof of how well the prosperity gospel works.
The report says that the prosperous, charismatic preachers can replace Christ as the object of adulation and admiration.
If you don’t believe that, just observe the waythat some preachers dominate their pulpit, preventing anyone else in the congregation, including deacons, to have a microphone when they are delivering prayer or participating in communion.
I would not have believed it if I had not seen it. I chalked it up to the minister’s insecurity. He wanted to be the only voice heard in the church arena. In fact, during two different services that my family and I attended at one church, the preacher failed to mention the name of Jesus in either sermon.
On the contrary, the pastor’s message was all about him, about his blessings and his rewards, in a kind of funny, feel-good kind of note, where everyone leaves church convinced of having been exalted, praised, and loved on Sunday morning.
When he asked me why I didn’t come back, I replied that I would when he included Jesus Christ in his sermon. A deacon, standing nearby, affirmed, “He’s right, preacher.”
Meanwhile, the prosperity gospel developed in America after the Second World War, its proponents teaching that health and wealth are not only good and godly but the inalienable right of every believer.
Preachers did not merely ignore the examples of Saint Frances and Mother Teresa, they condemned them, teaching that poverty was the work of Satan.
Lacking the traditional British embarrassment about money, Americans are more likely to see wealth as something to be invested and exploited, according to the Evangelical Alliance commentary.
“The movement has been an unabashed advocate of material prosperity and this has naturally invited the charge that it promotes a lifestyle and ethos fundamentally at odds with the values of the kingdom of God,” the report explains.
Analysis of the movement abounds with anecdotes about luxury cars and Rolex watches. “The emphasis on debt reduction in prosperity teaching is clearly a response to a serious and widespread social problem.”
The prosperity gospel has proved particularly fertile for leaders among black–led churches,which are among the fastest growing churches in the world.
At the same time, the report notes that similarities with pagan superstition in that “what you say is what you get.” Preachers teach that believers first must convince themselves that God has already made them a millionaire, preferably for giving money to the preacher himself.
If the person fails then to become rich, it is because his faith was not strong enough.
Members of the Evangelical Alliance council were alarmed by fundraising methods and otheractivities of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, which had offices in this country, too.
Fundraising suspicion arose when it was linked to the level of donors’ contributions to the evangelist’s own ministry with the extent of God’s blessing the donors’ lives. The concern was about the “suggestion of so automatic an equation between material offering and divine favor.”
Under pressure from the council, Mr. Cerullo resigned from the Alliance a few years ago, after a huge expansion of the prosperity message in America was about to be paralleled in Britain.
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Top ‘o the morning!