Kenneth E. Hagin is usually credited with originating the prosperity gospel (variously called the “health and wealth” gospel, the “abundant life” gospel or the “name it and claim it” gospel). In the 1960s, Hagin was a well-known preacher, the founder of many ministries and the writer of such books as How God Taught Me about Prosperity and Biblical Keys to Financial Prosperity. Today, many of our most famous (or infamous) Christian celebrities are actually members of the prosperity fraternity. Examples include Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and David Yongi Cho. These preachers, along with a legion of televangelists, promise financial prosperity if only we have enough faith.

It is understandable why millions of people subscribe to the Gospel of prosperity. People are obsessed with money. Ours is a culture dedicated to the pursuit of happiness through financial gain. The more possessions we have, the happier we are, or so the advertisers say. It's the same mentality that drives people to the lottery or casinos. In the end, however, properity theology is hollow, offering little more than a spiritual get-rich-quick scam. 1 Timothy 6:10 is a worthwhile warning: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

The Lord is my banker; my credit is good. He maketh me to lie down in the consciousness of omnipresent abundance; he giveth me the key to his strong box; he restoreth my faith in his riches; he guideth me in the paths of prosperity for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk in the very shadow of debt, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me; thou preparest a way for me in the presence of the collector; thou fillest my wallet with plenty; my measure runneth over. Surely goodness and plenty will follow me all the days of my life, And I shall do business in the name of the Lord forever.―Charles Filmore's rendition of Psalm 23

Creflo Dollar is one of the more well-known prosperity preachers. Thousands of people gather at his church every Sunday, and many thousands more watch him on TV and the Internet. According to The New Yorker, “one of his ministry's biggest selling points is his glamorous lifestyle. His followers see the hand of Providence in his custom-tailored suits and alligator shoes, his Rolls-Royces, his private airplanes” (Pray and Grow Rich, October 11, 2004). Weekly, Creflo Dollar admonishes his congregation to give their 10 percent. Tithing is a vital part of prosperity teaching, but instead of giving out of obedience or charity, prosperity preachers teach that tithing is essential to the giver's eventual financial gain. The lesson is that when you give to God, you will in turn grow rich. You too can have the suits, the shoes, the fame and the Rolls-Royces (Dollar has two and mentions them often).

Inherent in the prosperity gospel is the subtle implication that, when we pray, we can bend God's will to ours. The proof-text “Ask and it will be given to you” is taken literally, based only on the capacity of a believer's faith. As televangelist Frederick Price suggests in his “Praise the Lord” broadcast: “It's a matter of your faith. You got one-dollar faith, and you ask for a $10,000 item, it ain't gonna work. Jesus said, 'According to your faith,' not according to his will, if he can work it into His busy schedule. He said, 'according to your faith be it unto you.' Now I may want a Rolls Royce and don't have but bicycle faith. Guess what I'm gonna get? A bicycle.”

God is the giver of good gifts to his children; the Bible does promise that God hears and answers our prayers. James 4:2-3 says: “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” However, James adds: “When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” The prosperity gospel contains dangerous theology based on greed in which God is understood as almost a deified Santa Claus or an overindulgent heavenly grandparent.

How many times have we heard sermons that could just as easily be found in a self-help manual or on Oprah as in the Bible?

Another characteristic of the prosperity gospel is “positive visualization;” in other words, believe it will happen and it will happen. The problem in this message is that sometimes it is hard to identify the redemptive power of Jesus Christ or the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. One of Creflo Dollar's recent sermons was entitled “The Number One Enemy of the Prosperous Life.” What was this enemy? Negative emotion. Dollar said: “If you can control your negative emotions, you can absolutely do anything.” This mind-over-matter philosophy is a message that has influenced many preachers. How many times have we heard sermons that could just as easily be found in a self-help manual or on Oprah as in the Bible? A line from the song Survivor by Destiny's Child says: “After all of the darkness and sadness/ Still comes happiness/If I surround myself with positive things/ I'll gain prosperity.” That about sums it up.

Prosperity teaching links financial gain to living the full Christian life―even to the point of vilifying the poor. The New Yorker describes the prosperity gospel's understanding of poverty as “just a matter of bad faith and negative thinking. God wants us to be wealthy, but only our prayers and offerings can unleash his power” (God Doesn't Need Ole Anthony, December 6, 2004). Implicit in the widespread acceptance of prosperity teaching is that somehow we deserve what we get. Such a philosophy is a product of the development of affluent American culture, where capitalistic and individualistic ideals influence theology, to the point that sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between a cultural (American) ideal, such as the “pursuit of happiness,” and a Christian ideal. For example, if we have a nice house, family and car, we say it is because God has “blessed us.” But if this is true, what is the corollary? If material blessing is God's stamp of approval on our lives and faith, what does that say about times of scarcity and suffering? This has enormous implications for how we view the poor. If poverty is a matter of the poor not having enough faith, affluent Christians are relieved of any responsibility to care for them.

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw the danger of this type of thinking: “If we want to understand God's goodness in God's gifts, then we must think of them as a responsibility we bear for our brothers and sisters. Let none say: 'God has blessed us with money and possession,' and then live as if they and their God were alone in the world. For the time will come when they realize that they have been worshiping the ideals of their good fortune and selfishness. Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which God entrusts to us” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Justice for the Poor, Geoffrey B. Kelly).

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.―Colossians 2:8

Unfortunately, prosperity teaching is experiencing explosive growth in many of the poorer parts of the world such as Africa and Latin and South America. As American and western ideals have now spread to every corner of the world, so has the gospel of prosperity. In many developing nations, the message is growing that to follow God properly means to become rich.

Prosperity proponent Joyce Meyers asks: “Why would [God] want all of His people poverty stricken while all of the people that aren't living for God have everything? I think it's old religious thinking, and I believe the devil uses it to keep people from wanting to serve God.” This stands in stark contrast to the life and teaching of Jesus, who taught the distinctly countercultural message that the least of us is actually the greatest.

In Luke 18:35, a rich young man walks away from Jesus. The economic sacrifice of a disciple was just too great. After he leaves, Jesus turns to his followers and says: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” Jesus instructed his followers to walk the opposite path, away from wealth and recognition. He himself was the “image of the invisible God” in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1), yet he divested himself of all the riches and glory of Heaven in order to become a rejected slave here on earth (Philippians 2). Such a suffering Saviour has something of substance to say to the poor and rejected in our world, something beyond the temporal hope of material gain.

The danger of the prosperity gospel is how it can so easily seep into our consciousness without us even noticing. We need to examine ourselves to see how far prosperity teaching has encroached on our own theologies and churches. We must critically inspect the books we buy at Christian bookstores, and thoroughly think through the preaching we hear on the TV and radio. We must ask ourselves hard questions: Do we believe that if only we have high self-worth, control our emotions and have a positive worldview, everything will be OK? Do we think that if we pray hard enough we can bend God's will to ours? When we look at poor people, do we sometimes quietly assume that their plight is their own fault, thereby relieving ourselves of any responsibility to care for them? Do we look at our material belongings as God's gifts to us meant primarily for our own happiness? When we place our tithe in the offering plate, do we secretly consider it a deposit that will return to us and make us wealthy on Earth?

I remember when I was a teenager going door-to-door raising money for The Salvation Army. As a few of us went to the doors, a volunteer driver picked us up and dropped us off making sure that we were where we needed to be. This man, a member but not an employee of The Salvation Army, drove a beautiful shiny old Cadillac. That year, we canvassed in style!

Then at one door, I received a life lesson. A man came to the door and I asked him if he cared to make a donation to The Salvation Army. He looked at me in the eye and said, “Every year for 35 years I have given to The Salvation Army, but not any more. And do you know why?” He pointed to the Cadillac driven by the man in The Salvation Army uniform sitting on the corner. I did not stop to explain that the driver was not an Army employee, but a volunteer, or that it would not be his donations that paid for that car. I did not try to defend anyone or anything. I am not sure that I could have. After all, should a Christian drive a Cadillac? What do we deserve? Unfortunately there are no easy answers, just more questions. Could it be that it is easier for a Rolls-Royce to go through the eye of a needle?