Chapter 9: Prosperity—A Blessing or a Snare? The pastor of the largest church in the world, Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho, recently wrote a book on the subject of Christian prosperity. He entitled it, "Salvation, Health, and Prosperity." After discussing the fact that we are citizens of heaven, he went on to declare, "If we are kings, shouldn't we have majesty, honor, and material things befitting kings? This is our natural inheritance. It is a legacy which we can claim by showing the proper credentials.
These are our treasures which we can claim as easily as we would draw money from a bank in which a generous amount of money had been deposited in our name with our account number on it. If one professes to be a king but is impoverished and helplessly sick in bed, how can people believe he is a king?" The health and wealth gospel is extremely popular in the church today. Many of the fastest-growing churches in America and throughout the world preach this so-called gospel.
Some prosperity preachers build an entire theology around one verse from the third letter of John, which says, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." But what did John mean by those words? Was he saying that he wanted his fellow Christians to be materially prosperous and physically healthy? Was he promising them riches and health from God?
Before conjecturing about the meaning of John's words, why doesn't anyone bother to consult the writings of Polycarp, John's close companion? If our prosperity preachers had checked the writings of John's companion, they would have found an urgent warning against seeking material prosperity, not a message of physical health and material wealth. In fact, the early Christians testify that the apostles themselves lived in poverty, not material wealth.
Rather than viewing wealth as a promised blessing from God, the early Christians viewed it as an entanglement that could cost a Christian his eternal life. They based this understanding on Scripture passages such as 1 Timothy 6:10, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Hebrews 13:5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have." Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon." Finally, 1 Timothy 6:8, "Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." Our first subheading, the dangers of prosperity. Applying some of the verses cited above, Hermas wrote, "These are those who have faith indeed, but also have the riches of this world.
When tribulation comes, they deny the Lord on account of their riches and business. As a result, those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches are first cut down. Learn this first from your own case. When you were rich, you were useless, but now you are useful and fit for life." Hermas therefore advised, "Refrain from much business and you will avoid sin.
Those who are occupied with much business also commit many sins, being distracted by their business affairs instead of serving their Lord." Clement warned that, "Wealth can single-handedly puff up and corrupt the souls of those who possess it and turn them from the path of salvation." He went on to describe wealth as a, "A weight that ought to be removed and taken away as though it were a dangerous and deadly disease." Cyprian, a wealthy man who gave all his goods to the poor upon becoming a Christian, admonished
the members of his own congregation with these words, "A blind love of one's own property has deceived many.
How could they be prepared for or comfortable with departing this earth during persecution when their wealth fettered them like a chain? Therefore the Lord, the teacher of good things, forewarning for the future, says, 'If you will be perfect, go sell all you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come and follow me.'" I'm still quoting from Cyprian. If rich men did this, they would not perish by their riches. Heart, mind, and feeling would be in heaven if the treasure were in heaven.
He who had nothing in the world would not be overcome by the world. He would follow the Lord unfettered and free as the apostles did. But how can they follow Christ when they are held back by the chain of their wealth? They think that they own, when actually it is they who are owned. They are not the lords of their money, but rather the slaves of money.
Drawing from Jesus' illustration of the broad and the narrow roads, Lactantius warned against those who promised wealth and prosperity with these words, "Satan, having invented false religions, turns men away from the heavenly path and leads them into the way of ruin. That path seems to be level and spacious and delightful with all kinds of flowers and fruits. For Satan places on this path all the things which are esteemed on earth as good things: wealth, honor, leisure, pleasure, and all sorts of enticements.
But hidden along with these are also injustice, cruelty, pride, lust, fights, ignorance, falsehood, folly, and other vices. But the end of this way is as follows. When they have reached the point of no return, it is suddenly removed along with its beauty. It is so sudden that no one is able to foresee this fraud before he falls headfirst into a deep abyss." In contrast, the heavenly path seems to be difficult and hilly, covered with painful thorns and strewn with jagged rocks.
As a result, everyone must walk with the greatest care and must take precautions against falling. On this road, God has placed justice, self-restraint, patience, faith, chastity, self-control, peace, knowledge, truth, wisdom, and other virtues. But along with these go poverty, lowliness, work, pain, and all kinds of hardships. For whoever has extended his hope beyond the present life and chosen better things will be without these earthly goods.
Because he is lightly equipped and free of hindrances, he can overcome the difficulty of the way. For it is impossible for the man who has surrounded himself with royal pomp or loaded himself with riches either to enter this path or to persevere in the face of these difficulties. But the early Christians didn't just talk about poverty. The majority of them were poor, and the Romans ridiculed them for it.
For example, one Roman taunted the Christians saying, "See, many of you, in fact, by your own admission, the majority of you are in want, are cold, are hungry, and are laboring in hard work. Yet your God allows it." Admitting the truthfulness of this accusation, the Christian lawyer Mark Felix answered, "That many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but our glory. As our mind is relaxed by luxury, it is strengthened by poverty.
Yet who can be poor if he does not long for anything, if he does not crave the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God? He rather is poor who, although he has much, desires more." The anti-materialistic message of the early Christians was so strange to the Romans that they ridiculed Christianity.
The Roman critic Celsus asked the Christians, "How could God command the Jews through Moses to gather wealth, to extend their dominion, to fill the earth, and to put their enemies of every age to the sword, while on the other hand, his son, the man of Nazareth, gave laws quite opposite to these? He declared that no one can come to the Father if he loves power, riches, or glory. That men should no more worry about obtaining food than the ravens.
That they should be less concerned about their clothing than the lilies." Now, someone might argue that these Christians lived in poverty only because they rejected God's prosperity and gave their wealth away. But how can a person outgive God? If wealth is from God, a Christian can't lose it by obeying God's word and sharing his wealth with the poor. Our next subheading, what a contrast between their message and today's message.
Now, contrast the teachings of the early Christians with what is being taught in so many churches today. For example, Kenneth Hagin, a popular Christian preacher and writer in America today, claims to have had this conversation with God. "The Lord continued, 'You say, 'Satan, take your hands off my money, because it is Satan who is keeping it from coming to you, not me. Claim it because it's down there on earth, and Satan has the most control of it, because he's the God of this world.
Say, 'I claim,' naming whatever it is you want or need.'" Hagin then says, "People will argue, 'Well, I can believe that God will meet our needs, but that's getting too far out when you start talking about our wants.'" He says, "That's just what I said to the Lord. 'Now, Lord, I can believe that you want me to meet our needs, but our wants?'" God replied, "You claim to be a stickler for the word. In the 23rd Psalm that you quote so many times, it says, 'The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.' It says in the 34th Psalm, 'The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Claim whatever you need or want. Say, 'Satan, take your hands off my finances.' Then say, 'Go ministering spirits and cause the money to come.'" What I'm about to say actually isn't in the Heretics book, but as probably most of you know, in the days of King James, the word want meant need. When they talked about someone being in want, they meant someone being in need.
So what Kenneth Hagin says there is rather absurd on its own merits, despite what everything else the Bible says. Okay, continuing from the book. However, in the first few centuries, it was the Heretics, not the church, who taught prosperity theology. For example, one of the most infamous Heretics of the 3rd century, Paul of Samosata, both taught and practiced a message of wealth. A group of elders living in his day described him this way, "Formerly, he was destitute and poor.
He inherited no wealth from his father. He did not acquire anything by trade or business. But now he possesses abundant wealth through his wrongdoing and sacrilegious acts. He has made his followers rich. Because of this, he is loved and admired by those who desire such things." Our next subheading, did Christians enjoy better health? As to the gospel of health, the records of both secular and Christian history show that the early Christians enjoyed no better health than the world around them.
Letters written by early Christians testify to the fact that Christians suffered from the same plagues and calamities as the rest of mankind. Early Christians believed in divine healing, but their testimonies about healing miracles indicate that such miracles were primarily administered to non-believers as a sign. They weren't something Christians normally received as a promised blessing every time they were sick.
Cyprian discussed the fact that some Christians were disappointed when they suffered from a severe plague, saying, "It disturbs some that the power of this disease attacks our people in the same way it attacks the pagans. As if the Christian believed in order to have the pleasures of the world and a life free from illness, instead of enduring adversity here and awaiting a future joy.
As long as we are here on the earth, we experience the same fleshly tribulations as the rest of the human race, although we are separated in spirit. So when the earth is barren with an unproductive harvest, famine makes no distinction. When an invading army captures a city, all are taken as captives alike. When the serene clouds withhold rain, the drought is alike to all.
We have eye diseases, fevers, and feebleness of the limbs, the same as others." Early Christianity wasn't a religion that promised material prosperity and better health in this life. Yet the early Christians surely believed in the power of God. As earlier chapters have shown, their faith in the power and protection of God surpassed the trust of most Christians today. However, their conflict with us went far beyond the issue of prosperity. They clashed with us on several moral issues that face the church today.
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