Prosperity Gospel

Prosperity Gospel is also known as the "wealth and health" Gospel.  This Gospel is an export from America and it appeared that Africa is one of the largest importer of such Gospel.  You must have read many stories coming from America where this Gospel is well known and easily identified by people outside of the US.  We can easily read from on line Christian sites about such churches.  We in Asia is not immune to such Gospel. In Singapore there was such a church whose senior pastor was accused of using the church's funds to promote the secular musical career of his wife.  Despite the fact that the government has investigated and charged the senior pastors and his managers, the church continue to thrive.  In fact, it was reported that immediately after the case came to light, the attendance at this church actually increased!  What is the matter with the Christians?  Each believer makes his/her decision about the church he/she is attending and certainly there are many who do not see anything wrong with their church.

In the US there are many more of such mega churches peddling the prosperity Gospel.  The Trinity Foundation, a non profit organization has been helping the authorities to investigate such churches and similar organizations.  Some of these evangelists, you will be familiar: Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Paul White, Jocye Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie L Long and others.  Many Christians outside of the US are reading the books by these evangelists, and it will be wise for you to check the Bible whether what they preached are biblical.  You may unknowingly misled by their teaching.

Watch the videos below:



Pastor John Piper preaches against such gospel

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.