The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Auteur: Femi B. Adeleye
Date: 20.07.2010
Category: Évangile de la prospérité
Editor’s Note: This Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper has been written by Femi Adeleye as an overview of the topic to be discussed at the Multiplex session on “Poverty, Prosperity and the Gospel.” Responses to this paper through the Lausanne Global Conversation will be fed back to the author and others to help shape their final presentations at the Congress.
Introduction
The ‘Prosperity’ or ‘health and wealth gospel’ which has also been referred to as the ‘Name it, claim it’ gospel, or ‘Gospel of greed’ is a rapidly growing emphasis within churches. The key emphasis is focus on material possessions and physical well-being. This may include financial resources, good health, promotion at work, success in examinations, success in business, success in any endeavour of life, or material well-being – as in good clothes, good housing, cars, etc., etc. It also includes victory over perceived enemies who may be responsible for one’s material lack of progress. The focus on material well-being and acquisition is often used as a sign of one’s approval or standing before God. The ‘health and wealth gospel’ cuts across denominational barriers and is more defined by its features and emphases.
1. The Hermeneutics of Offering Time in Some Churches
The time of offering or giving is often the defining moment for the prosperity gospel in many churches. In the past the central part of the worship hour or two was the proclamation of the Word. Today in many churches the centerpiece is now the ‘offering time’ and not a few churches have specially skilled and designated people to be masters of this significant ceremony. The popular saying is ‘Offering time is blessing time’, not least because for many it is viewed as investment time. It is often regarded as sowing time, which looks forward to significant returns. The Word itself is often twisted to back the centrality of offering time, and in some churches there is a mini-sermon to ‘urge’ the congregation to give. (1) However quite often there can be as many as five or six different collections taken in a single service. One cannot but feel a sense of the flock being fleeced bare.
From this writer’s observation the most popular verse used in motivating or mobilizing the congregation to give is Luke 6:38, which says, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you”.(2) This verse is quoted with relish and often backed by a mini-sermon on the benefits of giving. Its use, however, is often not faithful to the text or context. Its context is Jesus’ teaching on love and mercy and how we relate to and treat others. The paragraph begins with “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven”. (3) Following in God’s example, love and mercy should produce a hesitation in judging others, as believers realise that God will treat them in the same way they have treated others. The passage is therefore first and foremost about relationships – not treating others or judging them in the way we do not want to be judge – for in this regard, “with the same measure that we use, it will be measured back to us.”
The passage is therefore not about giving to God financially and expecting returns. It has more to do with loving and forgiving as well as being of service without expecting anything in return. This has, however, been twisted to indicate that God will return in double or hundred-fold whatever one gives in offering. It is common for several collections to be taken in a single service. Songs like “I am a millionaire” and “Let the poor say I am rich” became popular in anticipation of God’s reward with material blessings. Positive confession was encouraged for good health, wealth and other blessings. (4)
Very few people who use this passage as a basis for motivating or mobilising people to give may have observed that it is preceded by some very strong words of the Lord Jesus Christ on wealth and resources. For example in the very same chapter Jesus says in Luke 6: 24-25, “But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! For ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! For ye shall mourn and weep”. (5)
This appeal however has had significant impact on average members of various churches, particularly those in struggling situations and who go to Church ‘expecting their miracles’. With more people losing confidence in the countless government promises to eradicate poverty by so many dates that have passed and left them poorer than before the promises were made, and with non-governmental organizations seeming to spend more money on their fuel guzzling four-wheel drives than on the desperate situations they are expected to rescue, many have turned to the church as the place to find relief from poverty. Perhaps it is the realities of our context that make the desire for financial reliance or success so contagious or all-consuming. This will include situations of acute poverty – low wages (non-living wages) creating dependency, high inflation etc.
The situation has definitely contributed to making this gospel, variously called the ‘Prosperity’ or ‘Health and wealth’ gospel one of the fastest growing attractions in the context of the African Church as well as other parts of the world. Initially closely associated with the Charismatic Renewal and churches or ministries related to it, ‘the health and wealth gospel’ or the ‘prosperity gospel’ has since spread significantly beyond diverse church and denominational lines.
2. Suggested Defects of this Gospel
One may ask what is wrong with this gospel?
2.1. Escape from Reality
First, it offers an unhealthy escape from reality. The quest for deliverance from present challenges has brought about almost a denial of reality. For instance when one has a headache it is considered unspiritual to say “I have a headache”. It is considered more spiritual to deny that one has a headache and believe that one is healed. Rather than admit that one has a neck pain, it is considered better to “confess” that “I am strong” (“Let the weak say I am strong”). To admit otherwise is considered unspiritual. All things related to discomfort, pain, suffering, poverty and death are considered to be of the devil and therefore to be rejected. The underlying theology is that Christians must not suffer, or misreading Romans 8:28 to mean, “Only good things happen to those that are in Christ Jesus”.
2.2. Misinterpretation of Purpose of ‘Giving’
Secondly, it deliberately fails to see that all forms of giving to God, whether tithes or offerings, should be acts of worship. Instead it teaches that tithing or giving to God is an investment. It also motivates people to give with wrong motives. Essentially, the motive of giving to God is for the primary purpose of expecting special returns from Him. The person who gives to God appears to be the one in charge. His or her measure of investment is expected to dictate God’s level of reward. It suggests that people have the initiative and God the response. This contradicts the whole understanding of our salvation and worship being God’s initiative and God’s response.
Furthermore, this gospel suggests that we must have our rewards or inheritance here and now in material form. Ultimately all that matters is material prosperity here and now. The pursuit of this is contrary to biblical faith and blurs our vision and understanding of God. Stephen Eyre says,
‘Materialism blunts a living faith’. A vibrant sense of the presence of God becomes dead orthodoxy. The reality of the Christian life becomes a shadow. Our experience of life in Christ becomes hollow. Our knowledge of God becomes empty. If we can’t see it, taste it, smell it or measure it, then we doubt that it’s real; therefore, we come to doubt that God is real. (6)
2.3 A Misunderstanding of Jesus
Thirdly, those who teach this gospel have misunderstood Jesus and His mission. It is so rare in any of the meetings to hear preaching or teaching on the love of God reaching out to save people from their sins. Could it be that they are ignorant of all that Jesus had to say about wealth and prosperity? Was Jesus really as rich materially as these teachers would have us believe?
While Jesus was not destitute, we know from scripture that he was not as materially prosperous as the ‘health and wealth’ teachers make him out to be. His home situation was as modest as can be. We know his parents did not have the means to avoid his being born in an animal manger. We also know that when his parents, Joseph and Mary, went to the temple to dedicate him, all they could present as an offering was a pair of doves instead of a lamb and dove as required by the law (7) (see Luke 2:21 and Lev. 12:6).
We are also aware that in his ministry Jesus often depended on the resources of other people because he did not have his own. He taught from a borrowed boat, rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, ate the Passover meal with his disciples in a borrowed room and was buried in a borrowed tomb. If Jesus were as materially wealthy as we are made to believe, where and how is this reflected in his life and ministry? One thing is certain. Jesus did not preach or teach a prosperity gospel. All of Jesus’ teachings about earthly possessions come as warnings to us. He taught very clearly, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15) (8). Unlike our modern day preachers, Jesus warned against the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22). In fact he refers to it as “unrighteousness mammon” (Luke 16:9). As an end in itself money has the tendency to compete for our loyalty that belongs to God. It has the tendency to become an idol that rules our lives. This is why Jesus warns against relating to money as we relate to God. “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13).
To the Pharisees, who loved money, Jesus gave the warning, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15). The ‘health and wealth’ gospel does not appear to have taken the warnings of Jesus seriously.
3. Prosperity Gospel and the Challenge of Poverty in the African Context
The inequitable distribution of resources and the resultant gap between the rich and poor in Africa has always been a concern for government and churches. In the past, most people looked to governments for the remedy. However, increasingly with the rapid growth of Christianity, more and more people are looking towards the church for succour. The prosperity gospel, which is increasingly becoming part of the identity of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, has very strong appeal to those seeking material and physical well-being. In the milieu of socio-economic and political instability and their impact on society, churches with the prosperity emphasis have become the fastest growing face of African Christianity.
Africa is still believed to be the richest continent in the whole world in spite of droughts or other natural disasters that limit production or productivity. Yet significant numbers of our people still live in abject poverty, and many below recognized poverty lines. Describing the challenge of poverty, particularly in the African context, the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has said, “For all too many... life is a continuous struggle against hunger, malnutrition, polluted drinking water, infectious disease, ignorance, oppression and violent conflict”. (9)
It must be added that in most contexts, there exists the paradox of the affluent rich in contrast to the poor. This reality often fuels an unlimited ascent of greed. Very often the most affected people are the younger generation (Africa’s population is mostly young). As national resources are plundered, it is the future of young people that is compromised. When the Nigerian or Angolan oil resources, Cameroonian mahogany or Zambian copper is plundered and traded at give-away prices to the highest bidder, it is the future of the younger generation that is being mortgaged.
In the past, most people would have looked to the government for the remedy. However, this trend is changing fast as government leadership can hardly meet the needs of the poor. Among young people in particular, there is growing loss of confidence in political leaders.
Tired of Government promises and inability of leaders like these to deliver, young people resort to at least three things.
First, some give up and commit suicide, as happened recently with a twenty-one year old in South Africa. (10) Denied a much-needed permit to secure work in his own country and having been rejected in derogatory terms, this young man took his own life. Even though the Home Affairs minister wept when she heard the news, her tears were too late to remedy the situation.
Secondly, those who do not commit suicide find ways to take flight to greener pastures. Thousands of African young people migrate to Europe or North America because home is no longer safe or conducive to a promising future. In 2006 alone, 31,000 illegal immigrants from West Africa are reported to have crossed into Spain’s Canary Islands (11). One would suggest that issues like these are critical enough to be among the concerns of African churches. Rather than address issues like this, the health and wealth gospel fuels it.
Thirdly, and not least, many young people as well as the old turn to churches who are or should be the custodians of good news. Ordinarily the Church, and especially those who have embraced the prosperity gospel, should be good news to the poor. While some are, others are not. This is primarily because of some contradictions. Some have, as Schuller suggested many years ago, become a place where “Christianity has impressed many as being largely a social organisation capable of worshipping God and mammon simultaneously, and demanding payments for the symbols of membership, the administration of the sacraments”. (12)
Especially there are issues with the affluence and lifestyle of some prosperity church leaders. Some are known to be afflicted with greed, using greed to fleece their flocks. Others are known to use the promise of miracles to gain more affluence. While many churches claim to be concerned about alleviating the needs of victims of poverty, they may have raised another category of victims – victims of prosperity. Victims of prosperity are people within the African context, including some in churches, who are so materially prosperous that they have become blind to the needs of others. While the focus on various victims of poverty is critical, there are many ‘victims of prosperity’ who need a different kind of attention, calling them to renounce their affluent lifestyle for the sake and benefit of the poor. If the needs of those that are materially poor are to be met, there is a great need for those that are materially affluent to be better stewards of their resources for the benefit of those less privileged. Therefore victims of material prosperity, wherever they are, need attention as well, particularly within churches that have embraced the prosperity gospel. This of course would mean calling pastors and bishops to set the example by living more simply.
The tendency for all people, when prosperous and comfortable, is to be less aware of the plight of others around us. And this is where greed steps in. Lamin Sanneh indicates how Chevalier de Jaucourt, a leading voice of French Enlightenment, wrote in 1765 about how “avarice and greed, which ruled the earth, never allowed the cry of humanity on behalf of slaves to be heard”(13). It is easy to say because we are a people of God or ‘men of God’ we are above such blindness. But as Lamin Sanneh warns, religion itself “could easily be enticed by profits and worldly gain to bend conscience into compliance”.(14) There is much work to be done in this area.
4. Is the Prosperity Gospel Good News for the Poor?
The Message of God’s Kingdom has been called ‘Good News’. The Kingdom is about Good News (Luke 4:18). The emphasis on repentance is about restoration (Luke 3). With all that has been described above, where the shepherds appear to be fleecing the flock, one cannot say the prosperity gospel, as it is now, is good news to the poor. Many poor people who go to church always expecting their own miracle cannot help but feel a sense of abandonment. Some African women have been known sometimes to skip going to church because they do not feel they have the right attire, or because they have nothing to put into the multiple offering time collections. As they see others dancing to the front, they feel a sense of diminished self-worth, even though they know that some who dance to the front only go through the motions without putting anything into the offering basket. Outside church, the pains of poverty give them a diminished sense of dignity as they struggle to make ends meet. One cannot therefore say this gospel, as it is, constitutes ‘good news’ for the poor. What can the Church do to alleviate the situation?
Remembering the Poor
Do prosperity preaching churches really remember the poor? How do we help the Church to remember the poor in a context in which many do not see the promises of ‘men of God’ to them fulfilled? Paul, in writing to the Church in Galatia, says,
James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (15)
In another letter to the Church at Colossae, Paul writes,
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. (16)
These passages suggest that greed is as much an affliction of the rich as it is of the poor. It takes people who have renounced the greed for the good things in life to really remember the needs of the poor. Are there things the Church can do to focus on the needs of the poor? How many churches are actually creating opportunities for vocational training or other means of helping the poor? There are other issues related to this.
In Conclusion:
There are few people today who can speak as authoritatively as Jim Baker on the prosperity gospel. In an interview with Charisma shortly after his release from jail, Baker admitted that he had been building a 1980 style tower of Babel to make a name for himself. His tower of Babel was a multimillion-dollar business that had a $30 million payroll and more than 2,200 employees.
Baker has since repented and apologised for the PTL scandal. He has written a 647-page book titled I Was Wrong (Thomas Nelson) in which he confessed his sins. Far from what he used to be, Baker now teaches about sacrifice and the cost of discipleship. In his interview with Charisma, Bakker says:
While I was in prison, the Lord showed me He wanted me to study the words of Christ in the Bible. So I began to write out in longhand every word that Christ spoke. I spent two years doing this. I wanted to know Christ and everything He said. And as I began to absorb the teachings of Christ, it changed my life. Sometimes I would be moved to study 16 hours a day. (17)
After his years of study, what did Bakker discover about Jesus concerning wealth?
While I studied Jesus’ words, I couldn’t find anywhere in the Bible where He said anything good about money. And this started to prick my heart. Luke 6:24 says, ‘Woe to you who are rich’. In Mark 4:19, Jesus talked about the ‘deceitfulness of riches’. Jesus told us not to lay up treasures on earth in Matthew 6:24. In Luke 12:15, He said: ‘Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’. (18)
This ‘health and wealth’ gospel is therefore nothing less than seduction into a false delusion. It is an unrealistic solution to challenges of daily life in Africa and destroys the Protestant work ethic by offering shortcuts to material success. Besides, it reduces God to the ‘genie in the bottle’ whose main task is to respond to human manipulation.
To embrace it is to fall into the peril of the love of money that Paul warned Timothy about. (19) To embrace it is to be more earthly minded than heavenly minded. It is to forget that the Kingdom of God is not just “of this world” and to assume that it is primarily meat and drink.
It is worth taking seriously the truth from John Stott that,
Life, in fact, is a pilgrimage from one moment of nakedness to another. So we should travel light and live simply. (20)
© The Lausanne Movement 2010
Mots-clés: Prosperity, possessions, well-being, wealth, greed, offering, giving, Jim Baker, poverty, Luke 6:38, rich, poor, money, affluence
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Brésil
Bro Femi
This paper which you delivered at Cape Town was most applicable for the moment a couple of years ago and continues to be applicable. I participated in the break out session which left much to still be discussed. I hope the Latin American consultation in Latin American will continue to guide the global church.
I am most interested in helping with the Latin American conference on this topic. Could you tell me to whom I should contact?
Thanks
22.08.2012
États-Unis
In this paper, I think Adeleye makes a solid foundation for the biblical case for the inadequacy of the prosperity gospel. I see nothing in the Scriptures, if one considers them contextually, which indicates that a person who is a a so-called good Christian should necessarily be materially blessed. Instead, I see quite the opposite. Though the specific context of the African church is unfamiliar to me, the idea of the inequitable distribution of resources between the rich and poor certainly seems like something that could lead to a greater attraction to the prosperity gospel.
What most interests me is an extension of this paper. Here it is suggested that, in order to break the cycle of bondage to the prosperity gospel, the leaders of the African church ought to live more simply. This suggestion seems to be given without any tangible indicators of how this ought to be done. Since I am not familiar with the church in Africa, I am curious what that might look like in Africa. How do the leaders of the African church get there? More broadly, what would that look like in other parts of the world?
06.04.2011
États-Unis
This is a formal review for a doctoral program at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Portland, OR USA. See more at dmingml.com.
DMIN517 / Engaging Leadership Concepts / Jason Clark
Russ Pierson
It Hurts So Good:
A Review of “Reflections on the Hermeneutics and Practice of the Prosperity Gospel” by Femi B. Adeleye
#dmingml #capetown2010
Life, in fact, is a pilgrimage from one moment of nakedness to another.
So we should travel light and live simply.[1]
“Déjà vu all over again” was how the inimitable Yogi Berra once described that sense that you’ve “been there, done that” before. I had that haunting sense of familiarity as I read Femi Adeleye’s perceptive analysis of the prosperity gospel, that most American of theologies born in Charismatic revivals and the tent meetings of theological snake oil salesmen through the latter half of the twentieth century. Imagine my chagrin as I learned that this diabolical twisting of scripture aimed right at the pocketbooks of well-fleeced parishioners has made it as a successful export to Latin America and Africa.
I wonder if the obligatory bouffant televangelist haircut has made it around the world as part of the package?
Femis Adeleye is a bright young African scholar and serves as the Associate General Secretary for Partnership and Collaboration with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He completed his Master of Arts in Christian History and Theology at Wheaton College in the US, so perhaps he’s seen the prosperity gospel honed to his highest artform here in the land of the free and the brave.
Adeleye notes that he has sat first-hand through African services where as many as six collections were taken, each putting the screws a little tighter to the impoverished congregation, challenging them to sow in anticipation of great returns.
This made me so proud to be an American Evangelical.
Not.
After a quick analysis of the hermeneutics behind the prosperity gospel, Adeleye offers the following “suggested defects of this gospel:”
I found myself barely believing that we might be having this conversation in a third-world context. How could we have possibly exported such an obvious heresy into places marked by poverty? Femi seems to have read my mind:
The inequitable distribution of resources and the resultant gap between the rich and poor in Africa has always been a concern for government and churches. In the past, most people looked to governments for the remedy. However, increasingly with the rapid growth of Christianity, more and more people are looking towards the church for succour. The prosperity gospel, which is increasingly becoming part of the identity of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, has very strong appeal to those seeking material and physical well-being. In the milieu of socio-economic and political instability and their impact on society, churches with the prosperity emphasis have become the fastest growing face of African Christianity. [4]
In an attempt to remind the West, Adeleye notes, “greed is as much an affliction of the rich as it is of the poor.” The remarkable thing, however, that Adeleye teaches us is that the reverse is likewise true.
The prosperity gospel, it seems to me, is as old as idolatry itself, rooted in a tit-for-tat spirituality. It reduces the great God of the universe to a small, pocket Jesus: “I pays my dues, I gets my goods.” It is one of the ancient heresies, reformulated by American televangelists and now shipped overseas.
In this case, and for that reason, and in only the narrowest of senses, I am sorry to see it go.
* * *
[1] John R. W. Stott, Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today (Old Tappan, N.J.: F.H. Revell, 1990), 246.
[2] Femi B. Adeleye, "Reflections on the Hermeneutics and Practice of the Prosperity Gospel," in The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Cape Town, South Africa2010).
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
25.10.2010
États-Unis
I am most grateful for the author’s sharing regarding the "prosperity gospel, hermeneutical errors and the challenges of the this epidemically growing movement in the world. I am also thankful to God for the repentance of Jim Baker, and the testimony that his life can now shed light to the sin and errors of this false theology. How could the prophets, Jesus Christ and the apostles live as they did and generations later, false teachers proclaim something so antithetical to the lives of the pioneer, founder and teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My abundance needs to be used not for my luxuries but for the needs of a world hungry for truth, basic necessities and dignity.
18.10.2010
Kenya
Rev, Femi,
Thank you for a wonderful piece of paper. You have given the true context of matters hear in Kenya especially with our "dearly beloved tele-evangelists" this message of giving, receieving and getting all the miracles we desire, want and need has spread like wildfire hear in Kenya.
A few years ago, i thought that this type of Gospel was for those of us who have not had the privilege of going to school and gaining any form of education- how wrong I was! The interesting thing is that these same famous preachers are the ones being invited by our Christian Unions to preach and spread this seed of message.
It is always awesome to see how young people respond to such a gospel in comparison to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What you have pointed out needs to be picked by all Christians and be engaged in all contexts, from the village to the highest office in our lands. Many of our young graduates get disillisuined and give up on life due to the gospel of prosperity and everything double double.
A christian is not just tested when he has good times, but mostly when the times are hard and the substance he or she is made of is revealed.
Wonderful paper and a good continuation of your book "Preachers of another Gospel"
Caroline Kasaya-FOCUS-Kenya Nairobi
18.10.2010
Royaume-Uni
Hi Femi. Thank you for putting this document together, it is well written, and I for one definitely enjoyed the read and the points mentioned by everyone.
Without taking up too much of your time, in short; I think it’s the victims that need to take back what has been stolen from them through some premise of false promises or motives.
I agree with Jim Baker’s statement that he could not find a good reference in scripture concerning money. But that doesn’t solve tomorrow’s problems.
I believe at the end of the Third Lausanne’ Congress there should be a full years continuing time table (calendar) of high priority prayers that ALL Christians should pray about on those planned, agreed and stated dates and one of those dates should be about praying to our Lord and Master to take back what was stolen, out of the enemies control and put it back into initiatives that impact and enhance the less advantaged. If we as humans create laws and legislate -tive measures to counter this disease of greed the enemy just finds another way around getting his desire, we must ask God himself to physically take back what is ours and we MUST do so collectively and uniformly.
I do believe churches that spend more than 10% of their time preaching (greed) prosperity should be named and shamed.
15.10.2010
Royaume-Uni
Hi Femi. Thank you for putting this document together, it is well written, and I for one definitely enjoyed the read and the points mentioned by everyone.
Without taking up too much of your time, in short; I think it’s the victims that need to take back what has been stolen from them through some premise of false promises or motives.
I agree with Jim Baker’s statement that he could not find a good reference in scripture concerning money. But that doesn’t solve tomorrow’s problems.
I believe at the end of the Third Lausanne’ Congress there should be a full years continuing time table (calendar) of high priority prayers that ALL Christians should pray about on those planned, agreed and stated dates and one of those dates should be about praying to our Lord and Master to take back what was stolen, out of the enemies control and put it back into initiatives that impact and enhance the less advantaged. If we as humans create laws and legislate -tive measures to counter this disease of greed the enemy just finds another way around getting his desire, we must ask God himself to physically take back what is ours and we MUST do so collectively and uniformly.
I do believe churches that spend more than 10% of their time preaching (greed) prosperity should be named and shamed.
15.10.2010
Norvège
Your paper helps me to understand and better interpret the health-and-wealth gospel, also as it spreads to many places in the Global South. Also there a key reason is that we have not discipled people well enough so that they fully comprehend the biblical design for life.
You touch on the issue of young people migrating from Africa. This is also a concern in relation to Christian students going abroad for studies. At the institution where I teach we have had to decline more students coming from a couple of African countries because they never returned, but went to the US.
One concern, however: as in other Cape Town papers I lack more ’gospel’ in your paper. You are good in applying (and whipping us a bit with) the law, but could you have taken a few gospel-steps also?
14.10.2010
Kenya
While I appreciate the many comments that we get and have been getting that point out that the prosperity gospel arises from poor hermeneutics, I thought I would also give another view - that it arises out of context.
My own experience is particularly the African context. If I simplify a little - I could say that Africans had ’nothing’ (materially traditional African societies were often poorly endowed by comparison with the West). Then the colonialists came with wealth and technology of all sorts, and with the Gospel.
One of the root causes for the continuation of the prosperity gospel into the current era, I suggest, is a mis-application of ’integral gospel’ teaching. I think we would all agree that it is good for the Gospel to be integral / holistic. But, how this is to be ’implemented’ in practice may be at question. For many in the poor world, integral gospel means Gospel plus money from the West, which is of course the power house driving prosperity gospel teachings ever forward. No end of hermeneutics will undo this reality that people are seeing with their own eyes. Someone who chooses not to believe in it comes out the fool when the next-door-church that does gets the money ....
12.10.2010
Taïwan (RDC)
@ Jim_Harries:
This is very true. By trying to be holistic, we meant to supply the missing parts in the Fundamentalistic gospel, not aware they catered to human greed to a pathetic proportion.
13.10.2010
Taïwan (RDC)
Among many valuable discussions in this article, the idea “victims of prosperity” is a very insightful observation. They are in equally desperate need of attention as the poor. The affluent should become “better stewards….for the benefit of those less privileged”; not so much as to alleviate poverty as a sociological problem, but they themselves are in need. They have a desperate need to repent, to turn back to the Cross, from which they have wandered away by ignoring the plight of others. For them especially, the Way of the Cross means denying one’s rightful enjoyment for the benefit of others. “Remembering the poor” is not a socialistic drive for fair distribution, but a way for us to return to God’s grace.
13.10.2010
États-Unis
Thank you so much for posting this Advance Paper.
I have seen the use of the Prosperity Gospel in many different forms within the United States. The gospel message has been watered down to focus more on what one can get out of God, instead of truly receiving and recognizing the gift of eternal life that the Lord has given us. More focus has been placed on this temporal life instead of living for eternity.
I agree with you that improper hermeneutics is being used to justify the prosperity gospel, and as a result we are seeing the negative effects within the church and on the mission field.
I would love to hear your thoughts, on ways we can address these issues at home and abroad. Thank you and God Bless
11.10.2010
Indonésie
Worldly and Godly never been synthesized . Is possible to put prosperity term in Godly domain , Church for example ? Which is closer to church ? Prosperity or suffering ? I remember Ajith Fernanto say about the necessity of church in suffering. And I agree about that. Then where is the place of prosperity ?
I think we need new, refreshed or restored hermeneutic of what prosperity means. The Radical hermeneutic to understand that the prosperity we embrace will beyond and transcend what the world so called prosperity. Worldly prosperity is prosperity with prosperity while new and radical hermeneutic of prosperity is The Prosperity without prosperity. We are prosperous even we are not in worldly prosperity condition.
08.10.2010
Pays-Bas
Thank you Femi. For putting Scripture together and giving explanations that can be used in discussion with others. Also here, in the Netherlands prosperity teaching is a lurking danger, making people cop-out from the real Christian life with and for Christ Himself.
07.10.2010
Royaume-Uni
Thank you for an excellant, timely paper. I certainly agree with the revelation behind it even if I don’t have experience of the challenges higlighted regarding the African context.
I find that the prosperity message is a hinderance everywhere to the hearing of the full-gospel message as it attracts many who are genuinly searching yet cannot produce the fullness of life that scripture promises. I work primarily among young Christians and they are a generation that has been indoctrinated from birth by the consumer driven spirits of the age. They are sold a gospel that says they can have it all - someone to save them from Hell and a way to gain all the riches of the world as well. There is a real challenge then in discipling them when you begin to speak of sacrifice, of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, making Jesus Lord and obeying his every command, laying down our lives for one another, storing up treasures in Heaven not on Earth and so on.
So many reject "these harder teachings" and move on to the next teacher who will tickle their ears (2 Tim 4).
It is not surprising then that the lives and ministries subsequently built on those foundation more strongly represents the values of this world than those of Christ Jesus.
Be encouraged and continue declaring the unadulterated truth of the gospel. Narrow is the road that leads to life but it does lead to the life of "abundance" as defined in scripture. When we find that ’treasure’, in our joy we will indeed sell all and buy that field.
05.10.2010
Royaume-Uni
Thank you Femi for these really interesting and challenging insights.
I heard a talk recently too where the rejection of being ill and the suggestion that as Christians we should spend lots in restaurants so as to be ’seen as different by the world’ were both preached. Lots of interesting discussions around these ideas!
It is concerning how subtle some of these messages can be at times too.
24.09.2010
États-Unis
Thank you, Femi. I am glad that this paper addresses the Prosperity Gospel and hermeneutics because I agree with Christine; the Prosperity Gospel is a result of Scripture misused and taught out of context. It is interesting to note that only when Jim Bakker studied and absorbed the complete words of Christ did he realize his errors and repent.
I once heard a pastor speak at a mission conference who said that we should pursue wealth to better fulfill our task of making disciples, that having a nice car, for example, would make our neighbors ask questions about our lifestyle and want to know Christ. For those at the conference who did not have a firm grounding in the Bible, his ideas sounded reasonable and appealing; for those who did, his words were cause for concern as we knew from Scripture that Jesus did not say make money in order to make disciples.
Each member of the Church (but especially pastors and teachers) must know God’s Word and, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, learn to properly interpret it, for His Word is the weapon we have for spiritual battle (Ephesians 6: 17) as well as our tool for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
17.09.2010
États-Unis
Femi, thank you for your very good thoughts. I am thankful for you and others like you who are working to stem the tide of this malaise within our global community.
15.09.2010
Chine
Thank you for opening my eyes to the influence that these kinds of teachings have within the African church. As the church in China finds more and more civic space within which to practice their faith, I expect that these kinds of issues will increasingly become sources of contention.
My experiences with local Christians here in China—particularly the times when I walk with them through various economic and health-related difficulties—remind me of Yahweh’s command through the prophet Jeremiah for Israel to “seek the welfare of the city.” (Jer 29:7) Surely, the full shalom of the Lord for these people in this place would include a just distribution of wealth and the kind of health that arises from our responsible stewardship over creation (and our own bodies). And yet, I also know that the Gospel is meaningful to these people not only because of the promise it holds out for the future—the promise of the new heavens and the new earth where there is no weeping—but also because of the otherworldly peace that Jesus offers right here in the midst of our troubles. In Chinese society where those struggling with poverty and imperfect health are considered by most to be somehow “less human,” people want to hear that their suffering has meaning—that it is not all in vain. Certainly, people in my community want jobs and access to quality health care; but they also long to know that as creatures made in the image of God they are valued right now, as they are, without reference to their financial wealth or their physical health.
Any attempt to present the Kingdom of God that does not include both of these aspects of the Gospel is a necessarily limited one. The challenge for us as the church is to offer both to the world: we are Jesus’ ambassadors on earth to minister to both the bodies and souls of our fellow human beings.
For more on economics from a Biblical point of view, check out some of the “Cambridge Papers” from Michael Schluter and others at the Jubilee Centre.
06.09.2010
Argentine
Querido Femi muchas gracias por esta excelente presentación. En cuanto a las ofrendas simplemente compartir que la escritura describe a Dios y a Cristo como los grandes Dadores que enriquecen a los seres humanos mediante su bondadosa gracia. El propósito de la ofrenda y generosidad cristiana no es suplir las necesidades de Dios, puesto que él no necesita nada (Hech. 17:25). Nuestro dar nos hace más semejantes a nuestro Señor. Esta relacionado también con los conceptos de adoración, homenaje y sumisión. Tiene que ver con la condición interior de la persona, la fuerza espiritual de su amor a Dios. Jesús rechaza el egoísmo como motivación para dar porque corrompe la ofrenda. La ofrenda debe provenir de un corazón dispuesto a dar y debe llegar a ser una respuesta natural de amor a Dios y de fe en El. Este entendimiento erradica el egoísmo del acto de dar. Nuestras ofrendas nunca deben ser un intento de ganar simpatía, el amor o el perdón de Dios o que sigan un fin egoísta para enriquecernos.
El amor a Dios es lo que motiva a los cristianos a dar ofrendas, un amor desinteresado cuyo foco de atención es Dios y los seres humanos: “que trabaje honradamente con las manos para tener que compartir con los necesitados” Efesios 4:28. Testifica que Dios está primero en la vida del creyente por lo tanto una ofrenda es una expresión tangible de la entrega plena de una persona al Señor, traída con gratitud y amor. Las ofrendas son requeridas por Dios, según las posibilidades o recursos que se tiene, pero deben ser expresiones voluntarias de gozo y gratitud. También el Señor interpreta la negligencia en traerle ofrendas como un acto deshonesto El privar al Señor de las ofrendas equivale a rechazar su señorío y atribuir las bendiciones recibidas a algún otro poder. Toda ofrenda presupone una firme entrega total y personal. Jesús afirmó claramente que debemos dar sin esperar recompensa alguna de otros, por consiguiente, nuestra ofrenda y generosidad debe ser silenciosa y secreta. Refleja nuestra entrega al mensaje y la misión de Dios. Debemos estar dispuestos a poner nuestros recursos al servicio del plan de Dios para la humanidad. Proviene de un corazón que está en paz con Dios y con los demás. El tratar a otros bondadosamente es un deber tan religioso como traer ofrendas a Dios. Expresa fe en el cuidado providencial de Dios por nosotros. Tal ofrenda proviene de un corazón que confía en un Dios personal que suple nuestras verdaderas necesidades.
Tambien se puede ver ¿Los pobres para el templo o el templo para los pobres...?
Ver en: http://conversation.lausanne.org/conversations/detail/10060 y A los pobres siempre los tendran entre ustedes Ver en: http://conversation.lausanne.org/conversations/detail/10069
01.09.2010
États-Unis
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I will be reporting on the Lausanne Congress from a missions perspective and I have written up some thoughts on the paper (see link below). I am also asking for input on a cross-cultural missionaries’ role in addressing prosperity gospel issues. I would love more input: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/groups/conversation_detail/1056
Thanks for any feedback you have.
28.07.2010
Ghana
@ PalmerHolt:
Dear Palmer, thank you for your comments and paper. (I’ve been away for a while) Cape Town is a good place to reflect together on these matters and to hopefuly come up with ways to address them in our various contexts.
25.08.2010
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