Thank you for starting this thread, Greg. The "prosperity gospel" has been on my mind lately because it is everywhere. I can’t understand why the “prosperity gospel” is so widely taught and believed today among people who identify with Christ and the Church. I’ve known people to contrive a doctrine of prosperity by misquoting scripture or taking some verse(s) out of context and applying it incorrectly to the gospel of Christ. Some will “claim” for themselves an Old Testament verse intended for the Israelites, expecting—even demanding of God—material, financial and fleshly gain. Then, the look down on people who have little in the world and who suffer afflictions because they believe those people don't have God's blessing.
Over a decade ago, someone discovered the prayer of Jabez in the Old Testament, claimed it as their own, and began teaching a doctrine of prosperity based on it. In 1 Chronicles 4:9, the word nichbad, as it applies to Jabez, is widely translated “honorable,” “respected,” or “noble.” This is derived from it’s meaning of “weighty,” which is used to denote wealth or honor. The other meaning of nichbad is “burdensome.” Its use in this passage may be a double entendre because it seems Jabez was the cause of great pain at birth. His mother named him Yabetz (Jabetz), meaning “sorrowful,” because she “bore him with pain” (or “sorrow”).
In 1 Chronicles 4:10, Jabez prayed that God would bless him, enlarge his border (territory) and keep him from evil. The word translated as enlarge, vehirbita, means “to become much, many or great.” One thing to remember is that God blessed Abraham and his descendants, promising to multiply them and make them a great nation. The prayer of Jabez comes in the midst of the delineation of the various Hebrew clans in 1 Chronicles 4. God granted Jabez his requests because of his honor, but those blessings were not solely for Jabez; they were extended to his clan, because they were descendants of Abraham.
In Deuteronomy 15:4-5, God said, “there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.” But, in Deuteronomy 15:7-11, God added that there would always be poor in the land and that the Hebrew people were to be generous toward the poor. He makes it clear that hardening their hearts against the poor would be sin. Therefore, the prosperity of the land depended on the charity of those who had an abundance.
Also, contrary to popular belief, God didn’t promise that all individuals among the Israelites would be healthy. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan in 2 Samuel 9, was a faithful Israelite who was paraplegic from infancy. Job is also an example of a man faithful to God but who lost everything for a time, including his health. Job said that prior to his affliction, “I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy…” (Job 29:15–16). He had shown compassion toward those less fortunate than himself.
Unfortunately, I’ve heard people quote verses from the book of Job to support a doctrine of prosperity, as well as contempt for the poor and afflicted. Those verses they quote are spoken by Job’s three friends who tormented him, insisting he must have sinned to have suffered such loss of possessions, family and health. Out of frustration, Job began to accuse God of being unjust, which he later repented of. At the end of the book of Job, God chastised Job’s friends for their misguided beliefs and insensitivity to Job’s condition, and instructed Job to pray for his friends that they might be forgiven.
It’s inexcusable when people take a verse or two out of context, oblivious to who they’re quoting and without reading the entire book or passage they’re quoting from to gain a thorough understanding. But, people do the same even in the New Testament. For instance, some people will argue that God approves a life of ease and luxury because of the words “relax, eat, drink, be merry” spoken by Jesus in Luke 12:19. What they miss is that Jesus was telling a parable in which he ascribed those words to a rich man whom God condemned for laying up treasure for himself while not being rich toward God (Luke 12:21).
I find less evidence of a prosperity gospel for Christians in the New Testament than for the Israelites in the Old Testament. There is much evidence in the New Testament that in sending His son to the earth, God was seeking people who are not focused on pursuing and preoccupying themselves with worldly pleasures, but who earnestly pursue the righteousness of God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, said in her hymn of praise, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty”(Luke 1:53). Jesus told the multitudes in Luke 6:24, “woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
James exhorted Christians not to show partiality toward the rich, saying (James 2:5), “has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” Also, in James 5:1–3 he says, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you… You have laid up treasure in the last days.” In Revelation 3:17, Jesus chastised the church in Laodicea: “you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” The latter condition, of poverty and affliction, he spoke of in a spiritual sense.
Jesus was himself poor while here on earth, as were his apostles and others in the Church. It is said of the first Christians, “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need“ (Acts 4:34–35). A disciple named Tabitha, who was known for her “good works and acts of charity” (Acts 9:36), was healed by the apostles after she became ill and died. When a lame man asked alms of Peter and John as they entered the temple, Peter told him (Acts 3:6), “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
Jesus had compassion on those who were afflicted with diseases and troubled by unclean spirits (Matthew 12:9-13, 22; Mark 2:3-12; Mark 6:5, 12, 53-56; Luke 4:38-41; Luke 6:6-10, 18; Luke 6:6-10; Luke 7:1-10; Luke 8:2, 26-33, 40-55; Luke 9:37-43; Luke 13:10-16) His teachings and deeds were in conflict with the beliefs of the scribes and Pharisees, who were convinced that physical afflictions were the result of sin and, therefore, that those who suffered them, such as the man blind from birth in John 9, were worthy of contempt. When his disciples questioned whether the blind man or his parents sinned (John 9:2), Jesus responded in John 9:3: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
It's clear to me the Christian life is not one of ease and luxury. God doesn't owe us anything. He has given us everything we need and given us His best in His Son. We are useful to Him only when we are emptied of self and the desires of the flesh.
