Prosperity for All?

The legacy of the “Prosperity Gospel” is the corruption of the gospel of Jesus Christ and increasingly, apostasy. 

When I became a Christian, the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” was new and restricted to the fringes of the Charismatic Movement. When I heard about it, I concluded: “This will never last. Who would believe such an obvious scam?” So much for my prophetic abilities! This deception now dominates and even defines today’s “Charismatic Movement.”

Many of the older charlatans from this movement are still peddling their wares, and quite successfully, too. I do not really care how much personal wealth they accumulate. They “have their reward.” I fear for them, for God is certainly just. His judgment may linger as He allows time for them to repent. However, He is just as concerned over the fate of His children, perhaps even more so, and He cannot delay forever while wolves plunder His flock.

But the real issue is not doctrinal purity, but the hurt being done to Christians and to the harm the gospel. Hucksters of the “Prosperity Gospel” proclaim another gospel and a different Jesus. They serve the false god, Mammon.  How many sinners have turned their hearts against the true gospel after watching the shenanigans and sales pitches of these charlatans?

The “success” of the Prosperity Gospel has certainly surprised me, though I do not see how wealth and possessions is the mark of success or God’s blessing. The world has seen a great many very wealthy men come and go who were anything but “Christian.”

In the end, we will find that these prosperity preachers are among the most deceived and pitiful of all Christians. They need our prayers. But Paul did warn, and more than once, that deceivers would come and scratch our itching ears with “doctrines of demons.”

Unfortunately, apostasy and the corruption of the gospel are precisely what the “Prosperity Gospel” and its proponents have achieved. And it is by no means the only deception making the rounds, but it is one that has changed the “Charismatic Movement” in fundamental ways, and not for the better. And it has continued to evolve into new and ever-expanding deceptions. So much so, that today’s Charismatic Movement is a very different animal than what it was in the mid-twentieth century.

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