Prosperity Gospel

Prosperity Gospel or sometimes it is called Gospel of "health and wealth". It is the teaching that God wants to bless everyone with material riches and good health if you follow Him to claim His promises. Some how it appears that the real celebrity seeking pastors and evangelists are also preaching the prosperity gospel.

To us ordinary Christians, the teaching may not seem negative, after all it is teaching us to work at it and earn lots of money. But, it is the message of Jesus that we should strive to be wealthy? Hardly so. He said we will face trials in this life.

If prosperity gospel is not biblical how are we to avoid such teaching? In our local environment we can check the teaching of the pastors whether they are Biblical before continuing to attend their church. What other Christ centered pastors or Bible teachers are saying about their preaching. What kind of lifestyles are they living? Next, you may want to avoid reading books written by these pastors or evangelists.

Pastor John Piper gave a very good view of prosperity gospel which you can watch at the end of this post. He said prosperity gospel is an abomination to God for misleading Christians into the wrong path. Our lives are just a small part of eternity and it is not helpful to emphasize on this small area. He was upset that prosperity gospel has been exported from America to Africa, and Asia.

Another re-known Pastor-Bible teacher John MacArthur of Grace Community, California used very strong word against these pastors and evangelists. He said their teaching is satanic. He named these prosperity gospel pastors, they are : Benny Hinn, Jocye Meyer, and Kenneth Copeland. Elsewhere you will also find that people are calling Joel Olsteen a prosperity gospel preacher.

We need to be discerning in order not to follow the wrong paths.