Should Believers Expect Blessings in Regard to Finances, Health, and Success? (Part 1 of Interaction with the Belief Statement of a Prosperity Gospel Church)

While giving at a sermon a local SBC church in Shreveport, the pastor mentioned his joyful willingness to partner with a local church called the Word of God Ministries. Honestly, the name alone drew my attention as it suggests affiliation with the Word of Faith and Prosperity Gospel movements. Given this concern, it made sense to tour their website (See link in 1^st endnote) and determine whether or not grounds existed to support my suspicion. On their website, I accessed their belief statement which included the following words:

It is the Father’s will for all believers to become prosperous, healthy and successful in all areas of life. But because of the fall, many may not receive the full benefits of God’s will and blessing while on earth. However, this should never prevent all believers from seeking the full endowment of God’s Blessings offered through Jesus Christ. Biblical wholeness affects at least four areas of one’s life:

Spiritual (John 3:3-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Romans 10:9-13); Mental or Emotional (2 Timothy 1:7; Philippians 4:7-8; Romans 12:2; Isaiah 26:3); Physical (Isaiah 53:4,5; Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24); Financial (Joshua 1:8; Malachi 3:10-11; Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:6-10; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Psalm 34:10, 84:11; Philippians 4:19; 3 John 2)[i]

From a cursory glance at this statement, any informed reader should be able to discern the obvious identification with the Prosperity Gospel movement. In the first sentence, the reader is informed that God’s will is that all believers become prosperous, healthy, and successful. While the second sentence does admit that the fall of man (the original sin) may affect one’s partaking of these blessings in full, it fails to mention any other potential reasons for God to withhold his abundance. The reader is essentially left to conclude that receiving God’s abundant supply is the norm for all believers, and any deviation from this is an exception. Given this “rule”, believers should seek out this overflow in the form of spiritual, mental/emotional, physical, and financial blessings.

In this five-part article, the quoted belief of this church will be considered first as to whether or not it is biblical (Successive articles will consider the Bible’s teachings on each of the four areas of blessing). While this church claims that God’s desire is to bless believers in regard to their finances, health, and success during their earthly lives, this is not the teaching found in Scripture. Moreover, On the surface alone, this claim seems to be against Christ’s call to his followers: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23 NASB). Jesus’s desire is for believers to set aside selfish desires and instead choose a faithful life that will include a cross, i.e. suffering. Paul testifies that believers partake in the sufferings of Christ faithfully so that others believers can receive comfort and encouragement when they likewise suffer (2 Cor 1:3-7). In Philippians 3:2-6, Paul provides a list of things that spoke to his worldly prosperity as Pharisee and rejected all of them as things associated with the flesh (i.e., his old self). Instead, he made clear his focus, a focus which seems clearly absent from the statement above:

But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; ¹¹ if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:7-10 NASB).

Paul’s focus was on Christ alone. He cared nothing about anything associated with the fallen world, and desired only to be a true Christian who looked forward to the resurrection. As a true Christian, he wanted to know Christ fully by living a Spirit-empowered, obedient life whereby his close relationship with Christ would lead to “sufferings” and his “being conformed to [Christ’s] death.” In Philippians 3:14-17, he makes it clear that faithful Christians are to follow his example. In other words, Christians should gladly suffer for Christ as they focus on the resurrection as opposed to “seeking the full endowment of God’s Blessings offered through Jesus Christ” which, according to this church, includes earthly prosperity, health, and success.[ii]

Incidentally, Paul commends the Philippians for sharing financially with him during his suffering and, by doing so, sharing in it (Phil 4:14). In the context, Paul speaks to having experienced times of varying degrees of prosperity and advocated a spirit of contentment during whatever circumstances a believer may face at a given moment (Phil 4:12-13). He did not focus on his lacking or on his abundance of material things, but rather trusted God at all times.

In Colossians 1:24, Paul rejoiced in his sufferings and saw his endurance of them as a ministry to God’s church. Instead of focusing on his on earthly desires and being overly concerned about himself (which would be in-line with the beliefs of this Prosperity Gospel church), Paul focuses solely on Christ and remains thankful knowing the blessings that come to him and others from his own difficulties.

When commending the Thessalonians, Paul congratulates them for enduring suffering (1 Thess 2:14). He then reminds the Thessalonians of how the church in Judea suffered as well as how Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets were treated (1 Thess 2:15). Clearly, Paul sees suffering as a part of the Christian life. Christians today can expect trouble as this is the example from the Early Church, the apostles, Jesus, and the OT prophets. At the end of his ministry while imprisoned in Rome and abandoned by all local believers except Onesiphorus, Paul left this word to believers: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Tim 1:8 NASB). Obviously, receiving this call to suffering from Paul will mean that one must relinquish the call to biblical wholeness as directed by this Prosperity Gospel church.

[i]Available at: http://wogm.com/about-us.

[ii]Ibid.