"The lack of money is the root of all evil." Mark Twain
Apparently, that’s what
Creflo Dollar, prominent Georgia megachurch pastor and evangelist believes.
Creflo Dollar teaches what’s known as Prosperity
Theology, as do many popular TV preachers (Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Joyce
Meyer…to name a few). Prosperity Theology
or the “Prosperity Gospel” is tragically a very popular heresy in America. It
appeals to our materialistic driven culture, perverted view of success and this
world appetites. Essentially, it teaches that if you’re blessed by God, one of
those that God favors – you will have material wealth. During the last week
Creflo has been all over the news because he’s really “needy.”
It seems that Creflo Dollar, (rather appropriately
named), at a mere $27 million net worth is feeling impoverished. Unfortunately,
his jet is wearing out so he’s asking for donations
to buy a new luxury one valued at more than $65 million. His website asked
people to “Sow your love gift of any amount” to help the ministry buy a
Gulfstream G650 airplane. “We are asking members, partners, and supporters of
this ministry to assist us in acquiring a Gulfstream G650 airplane so that
Pastors Creflo and Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue
to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace,” the ministry's website says. Sadly,
they’re blaketing the globe with something, but it’s not the gospel, nor is it
the grace of God found in Scripture.
Few theological heresies are more repulsive to
Scripture than a focus on storing up treasures here on earth as a primary goal
of faithful living. The gospel of prosperity turns Christianity into some vapid
bless-me now club, with a doctrine that amounts to little more than spiritual
magical thinking: If you pray the right
way, God will make you rich.
But what if you're not rich, then what? Are the poor
cursed by God because of their unfaithfulness? If God is so concerned about
401(k)s, Mercedes and mansions, why did He allow His Son, Jesus to be born into
abject poverty? Jesus was born poor and died poor. During His earthly tenure,
Jesus spoke time and again about the importance of spiritual wealth and health.
Whenever Jesus talked about material wealth, it was usually to warn His hearers
as part of a cautionary tale.
Nowhere has the prosperity gospel flourished
more than among the poor and working class. This heresy is one of our worst
exports to the dire poor around the globe. It’s cruel to tell those who truly
are poor, beyond most of our worst nightmares, that wealth and prosperity is a
sign of God's favor. Desperate followers pray fervently, give to charlatans and
strive for trappings of luxury that they can little afford in an effort to
prove that they’re blessed spiritually.
Yet, prosperity theology does not just appeal
to us financially. It’s very subtle and exploits the evangelical inclination
toward an attractional model of ministry, which focuses on having your “best
life” now. It sneaks in softly, gently, not with the BLING BLING of the Preachers of L.A., but with a
nodding and sympathetic, “You want a healthy marriage? Jesus wants that, too.” Of
course, that’s true. Yet little by little, the Bible becomes a handbook to your
best life now and church morphs into little more than a therapy session. God
and His gospel exist for you, your benefits, well-being and pleasure.
Often undetected by Bible-believers, it
assumes the gospel and leads its adherents to focus on things like financial
planning, diet and exercise, as well as strategies for self-improvement. In
contrast to the hard prosperity gospel, which offers miraculous and immediate
health and wealth, this softer, subtler variety challenges believers to break
through to the blessed life by means of the latest book or pastor-prescribed
technique.
Please understand, matters of personal
stewardship like money, health, and leadership skills should be woven into a
whole-Bible theology of Christian discipleship. The trouble comes when the
Church places greater emphasis on these temporal, secondary matters. What we
choose to preach or listen to says much about our values and worldview. Too
often this, “it’s about me” theology devolves into a Christless Christianity
with no Gospel.
So what if you have a happy marriage, great
family, comfortable life, fit body – if you don’t know Jesus as your personal
Savior? Isn’t that exactly what Jesus warned us of: “For what will it profit a man if he
gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return
for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
None of this is new. It goes all the way back
to the Garden, that we can somehow have a good life without God. It’s Satan’s
lie, “you will be like God” (Genesis
3:5). The tragedy of the soft prosperity gospel is that it focuses on this life
only benefits. By offering hearers their best life now, eternal realities of
heaven and hell are lost. This brings the very real possibility that many who
hear the soft prosperity gospel are and will remain eternally lost. If you have
the good life now, what more could you need or want?
Yet, as I look within my own heart, I must confess
that I’m drawn to the soft prosperity gospel. Imagine you’re driving to church
on a miserably cold, Sunday morning, and you get a flat tire. What’s your
immediate thought? “God, really? I’m going to church. Isn’t there some drug
dealer or abusive husband you could have afflicted with a flat tire?” That’s the prosperity gospel in my own soul.
Maybe you don’t get that promotion at work, your child gets sick, or you’re gossiped
about by a “friend.” The usual result? You get mad at God because you were
overlooked, troubled, or disparaged. That’s the prosperity gospel in your own soul.
The idea that God owes me a relatively
trouble-free life and the anger I feel when God doesn’t act the way I believe that
He’s supposed to act, betray a heart that expects God to prosper us because of
our good works. That’s the
prosperity gospel. It’s loving the presents
of God rather than the presence of
God. It’s what Satan falsely accused Job of.
As believers, we must learn to recognize the
errors of anything that takes away from or even adds to God’s standard of
truth, the Bible, even soft prosperity. We need to confess the ways that
desires for a happy life or earthly success have often invaded our own souls
and drawn us away from our first love (Revelation 2:4). We must not be deceived
by longing for temporal pleasure or success that distracts us from eternal
riches. We must determine by God’s grace and the power of the Spirit to live
for the real world, God’s world and not just for your “best life now.”
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