The Prosperity Gospel
Some Christians believe that “godliness is a means to financial gain.” The Bible describes these people as “those who have been robbed of the truth” (I Timothy 6:3-19).
According to the Prosperity Gospel, which seems rampant amongst white evangelical Christians, if you are a believer, things will go well for you, and God will bless you with wealth and success. Prosperity gospel preachers will tell you that riches are a sign of God’s blessing and approval.
Sometimes, indeed, God blesses Christians with great wealth, and that’s a good thing! However the heresy of the Prosperity Gospel plants the weed of belief that we, as Christians, are entitled to more earthly blessings than “the other people.”
There may be passages in the Old Testament (the old covenant) that would support this belief. For example, the proverb:
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm” (Proverbs 1:32-33).
However, in the New Testament (new agreement between God and man), Jesus said,
“If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily
and follow me.
For whoever would save his life
will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
will save it.
For what does it profit a man
if he gains the whole world
and loses or forfeits himself?”
(Luke 9:23-25)
Take up your cross?!
You mean, like, a necklace? Or a tatoo? Can I get the necklace made of pewter, with amethyst crystals? Because purple is my favourite colour.
Or does taking up your cross mean to bear suffering for the sake of others?
To love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us?
To lay down your life to save another, like Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old volunteer fire chief who died while trying to protect his family during the attempted assassination of Trump – diving onto his loved ones to shield them from the bullets.
Could it be as simple as to pick up the piece of garbage someone else carelessly dropped on the sidewalk?
In the third year of a Bachelor of Theology program, we studied the book The Cost of Discipleship by German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived in the time of Hitler. This book opened my eyes to the message of Christ and changed my life.
It is understandable that people would be
more interested in the “benefits of membership”
than in the “cost of discipleship.”
However, when we come to Christ, we come to die to ourselves.
At our local cathedral, my husband and I recently led the song, “The Wonderful Cross” by Chis Tomlin:
“Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live…
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
And Christ calls us to love and give ourselves for “the least of these.”
Who Is the Greatest?
If Christians say, “America First!” it must be in the context of Jesus’ words to his disciples…
Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:33-37).
Perhaps, in Jesus’ eyes, the greatest people – the chosen ones, the ones he considers to be first – are, indeed, the people working those “black jobs” as Trump calls them.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Servant Gospel, which is the antithesis of the Prosperity Gospel.
After Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he said, “A servant is not greater than his master” (John 13). And added in chapter 15, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
In regard to material wealth, Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
The Apostle Peter, after faithfully serving Christ, was crucified upside down.
Hebrews 11 honours great people of faith. Some of them were sawn in two for following Jesus.
“Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
Do we still want to be Christians?
You who are tempted by the prosperity gospel, do you still believe that, as a Christian, Jesus says you are entitled to greater prosperity on earth than the immigrants fleeing violence in their homeland?
Sometimes we forget that, with the exception of the indigenous people, everyone in North America is an immigrant.
The Bible has much to say about Christians and riches.
Money is not the root of evil; however, the LOVE of money can indeed rot your roots and ominously affect your connection to Christ and your “fruit” production.
I Timothy 6:3-19 – Rich in Good Deeds
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For 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…
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Revelation 3:17-19 – I Am Rich
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked…. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
Matthew 6:24 – Choose your Master
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord]” (Amplified version).
Luke 12:48 – From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Here’s an interesting video of John Piper with insights on the Prosperity Gospel:
https://youtu.be/jLRue4nwJaA?si=kuNR96sNDLav1u28
Christian Nationalism vs. the Kingdom of God
Is the United States of America God’s “chosen nation”?
Within the United States of America, are white evangelicals God’s elite?
That’s definitely a rhetorical question. Jesus, the Word of God in the flesh, did not have white flesh; nor did his disciples. Jesus probably looked more like Osama bin Laden than any blue-eyed Jesus you’ve seen in a movie.
If there is such a thing as a Christian Nation, what would it look like?
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
God calls us into HIS KINGDOM – a Kingdom without borders in which his followers from all nations live and love and forgive and care for others as Christ loved and served and suffered for them.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
Jesus quoted the scripture, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations…” (Mark 11:17).
In regard to the realities of earthly politics, it would follow that these subjects of God’s Kingdom would vote for policies that Jesus would favour – policies that would help the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the outcasts, the “least of these”… (See Matthew 25:32-46).
Within this kingdom, all are valued as being created in the image of God.
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM promotes an earthly kingdom where Christians force their culture and religious beliefs on their neighbours through political power. Within this nation, Christians are favoured above other religious people and/or cultural and racial groups, and Christians are protected by their worshipped authority figure from anything they perceive to be persecution.
Christians control the narrative, the history, the education, the laws, the national relations. “America First!”
Within this kingdom, only the Christians who agree with this strategy have freedom because they are amongst the chosen ones.
The others are, well…the OTHERS, the THEM in the “Us and Them” segregation, and they are not protected.
In 2008, Sarah Palin, in a campaign speech as a Republican nominee, referred to “wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America.” Hmmm. Who’s living in the other pockets?
“Instead of loving your enemy, as Christ taught, Christian nationalism seeks to stoke fear of their evil enemies so that violence against them is justifiable” (Pastor Adam Erickson https://adamericksen.org/the-unchristianity-of-christian-nationalism/).
Or, as John Fugelsang says in his video “The Separation of Church & Hate”:
“Jesus teaches us as Christians to bear a cross for our enemies.
And Christian nationalism wants to build a cross to crucify theirs.”
I remember that our daughter wrote a term paper on nationalism and its role in Germany’s ambitions during WWII. Hitler’s nationalism was based on the separation of mankind into races of superior and inferior quality.
CIVIC NATIONALISM, in contrast, is inclusive and bases membership on common values and beliefs.
Hitler spoke out against this: “…it is almost inconceivable how such a mistake could be made as to think that a Nigger or a Chinaman will become a German because he has learned the German language and is willing to speak German for the future and even to cast his vote for a German political party.”
What Does the Bible Say About Christian Nationalism?
When Jesus healed the ten men who had leprosy, only one came back to thank him – the Samaritan – the foreigner, one despised by the Jews as being inferior. (Luke 17:11-19). Jesus’ “nation”, the Kingdom of Heaven, is Civic – inclusive. It includes people that would be considered, by people of his race and religion, to be not only despised, but as a leper, unclean, diseased, dangerous to even touch…a total outcast to be feared and ostracized.
When Jesus’ followers saw that he was going to be arrested, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” and Peter struck the servant of the High Priest, cutting off a his right ear. Jesus said, “Put away your sword…”, and he touched the man’s ear and healed him (Luke 22:47-51 and John 18:10-11).
In John 18:36-37 we read that Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight…The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
The sword to be wielded by Christians is the sword of truth, which cuts through the lies and the hatred and the darkness.
If there is such a thing as a Christian Nation, it would be one that cares for the poor and does what God requires of us,
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly* with your God (Michah 6:8).”
*also translated “prudently,” marked by wisdom or judiciousness
White supremacy and racism have no place in the Kingdom of God.
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
“Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:15).
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (I John 4:20).
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