Does God Give Prosperity?

What is prosperity doctrine?
It is the teaching that the normative Christian life is being wealthy, healthy and successful in the world. To live a life of poverty, illness or dishonor is to lack faith or righteousness. It is not the same as charismatic or Pentecostal teaching, which teaches that the Holy Spirit’s power is just as strong in the world today as it was in the first century. Prosperity doctrine connects the Spirit’s power with always being healthy, and always having the blessings of this world. While the Spirit is just as powerful as he ever was, and heals just as strongly as he ever did, does this mean that the Spirit desires believers to be always healthy, always rich and always popular?

Is There a Biblical Basis for Prosperity Doctrine?
There certainly is. Many prosperity doctrine teachers use the Bible, especially many Old Testament passages, to support their concept. Isaiah 53:5 and II Chronicles 7:14 certainly speaks about God healing sicknesses through prayer and the sacrifice of Jesus. And there is a strong theme throughout the OT of God providing prosperity for those who are righteous, whether it be a nation or an individual. Among the passages that indicate this are: Deuteronomy 28:11; Psalm 25:12-13; Proverbs 13:21 and Zechariah 1:17.

However there is an equally strong, but seemingly opposing theme in the OT of the righteous suffering illness, calamity, persecution and tragedy of no fault of their own, but even especially because they were righteous. Stephan in Acts 7 and Hebrews 11 both give a long list of righteous people whose lives were surrounded by tragedy. The Psalms as well are full of many cries of the righteous to deliver them from trouble that the righteous did not cause. The book of Job in and of itself repeats again and again that disease and calamity in a person’s life is not an indication of their lack righteousness or faith.

Of course, prosperity teachers understand that most people do go through periods of tribulation, poverty and ill health, but they also teach that for the person who has perfect faith in Christ that such difficulties would be behind them forever. The completely righteous person in Christ would never again have to suffer in such a way.

One problem with their teaching even from the OT is that when the Scripture speaks of “prosperity” it does not mean material wealth as we have today. Rather it describes prosperity as being abundance of produce and cattle, enough to eat, enough clean water to drink, a community which worships God, peace from enemies and contentment. It does not anywhere speak of the abundance of wealth and the comparative economic plenty in comparison with 99 percent of the rest of the world that prosperity doctrine teachers promote. (I Timothy 6:8)

Another issue is that when the OT speaks of healing, it is done in the context of forgiveness from judgment. If the nation of Israel disobeys the covenant at Sinai, then God would visit upon them the diseases that he put upon Egypt. But if they return to Him, then he will heal them, and He will be their healer. It does not ever give a carte blanche healing for all diseases that might come upon a person. (Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 28; Isaiah 57:16-21; Jeremiah 3:22)

What Does Jesus Say?
Jesus himself knew of the two theological ideas in the OT—the righteous would prosper and the righteous would suffer. He did not deny one part to take up the other, but joined them together into a unity. He claimed that the righteous would suffer in this age, which is under the control of Satan and humans under the thumb of Satan. The characteristics of the righteous at this time, Jesus says, is poverty, lowliness, persecution, mourning, and the deep desire for justice to come. And, Jesus says, it is exactly these who suffer now that the blessings of prosperity would be offered to these in the coming kingdom of God. In the kingdom, these who suffered would receive justice, happiness, peace, authority, safety and wealth. Thus, Jesus says, both themes in the OT are true—the righteous will suffer now and in order to enact justice for them, God will give them wealth and prosperity in the future when the kingdom comes. On the contrary, those who have a good life now—wealth, success, popularity—cannot expect to receive these blessings in God’s kingdom. (Matthew 3:3-12; Luke 6:20-26; Matthew 10:24-42; Mark 8:34-37)

Is this in agreement with the rest of the New Testament?
The rest of the New Testament is in agreement with Jesus. It is, James says, the poor who will receive the blessings of God, while the rich will be left empty (James 1:9-11; 2:5; 5:1-5). One of the characteristics of faith, says the writer of Hebrews, is not receiving what one expects, but believing in that expectation anyway and persevering in faith (Hebrews 11:32-12:4).

One of the best examples we have of this is the apostle Paul. Paul and his evangelists suffered all kinds of tribulations—illness, persecution, shipwrecks, sleeplessness, hard labor, constant danger, hunger, poverty, cold, imprisonments and much more. Yet he boasted in all this suffering, knowing that it is the suffering that grants him security in Christ, not wealth or popularity. (Philippians 2:25-27; Galatians 4:13; II Corinthians 11:21-30; Philippians 4:11-12; II Timothy 4:6-8.)

Thus, it is the entire New Testament that is in agreement with Jesus about the righteous being characterized for a time by suffering, while later they will receive security and wealth in the kingdom of God.

Is That All?
Some might say, “Is this all about what one expects out of the Christian life? So what’s the big deal? Some Christians receive poverty and some are wealthy, so why argue about it?” The problem with prosperity doctrine is not as much what the implications of their doctrine are.

Dishonoring the Poor
First of all, prosperity teachers find it necessary to put believers in Jesus who experience poverty or illness on a lower level than those who experience wealth and health. They claim that believers who are poor or ill are stricken by an evil spirit which they do not have the faith to resist. This is, frankly, insulting to believers who have been faithful to Jesus, have endured in spiritual warfare and yet remain poor and ill. And it is the opposite of what Jesus promised them. Those who are poor should be honored by the church, but instead they are dishonored, which is an abomination in Jesus (James 2:1-9).

This position also lessens the danger of wealth that Jesus expressed in many times and ways. Being wealthy does not exclude you from the kingdom of God, but it does make it more difficult. The reason for this, Jesus says, is the necessity to give up the wealth of this life for the sake of the poor and then the wealth will be stored up for one in the kingdom of God. Should one fail to give his or her wealth to the poor, they will be punished eternally. (Mark 10:17-25; Luke 12:15-21; 32-34; Luke 16:19-31) Prosperity doctrine honors the rich for their wealth and does not emphasize the giving to the poor, thus endangering their wealthy disciples to eternal fire.

Preaching for Personal Gain
Another danger of prosperity doctrine is the teachers themselves tend to seek personal wealth. This only makes sense, for they want to be good examples to their disciples, to show them what their teaching brings. However, the New Testament teaches that it is a characteristic of a false teacher to preach for personal gain. The Bible is opposed to the demand of salaries and payments to preach the gospel—one’s room and board, offered after the gospel is given, is sufficient.

In fact, a very strong statement is given in I Timothy 6 against the very thing that prosperity doctrine promotes—the thought that the gospel is for the increase of personal wealth. Paul does not say that being rich is bad, but he does say that one should be content with what one has and be generous to the poor. But he does say that those who teach the gospel for the sake of obtaining personal wealth “do not agree with… the teaching of Jesus” and are “conceited and understand nothing” because they believe that “godliness is a means of great gain.”

Does God Promise Prosperity?
Yes, he does! But in order to obtain the wealth and blessings we have in store for us in the kingdom of God, we must endure through a time of testing of our faith. For now, in this age, life is suffering and difficulty and struggle for the one who follows Jesus. But if we endure to the end, then great blessing will be ours and eternal life.