Where Does the Prosperity Gospel Take Us?
A prosperity gospel can’t help itself. It can’t avoid building up the wrong things. In it: • getting takes the place of giving, • guarantees take the place of possibilities and dreams, • ‘I’ takes the place of ‘we’, • command takes the place of obedience, service, and duty, • being served takes the place of serving, • self-indulgence takes the place of discipline and self-control. The prosperity gospel attracts the wrong sort of leaders: the totally corrupt, and those deceived by other prosperity preachers. It brings out the worst in elders and other church leaders, because they’re vigorously encouraged to think of wealth before anything else. The dreck rises to the top. In a prosperity gospel, I am what it’s all about: my needs, my wants, my wealth, my success. I me mine. The only ‘blame’ I have is not from my behavior, but from the act of not withdrawing from the unlimited bank account that God has given me. Push the Gimme Button and expect it to come. The desperate and the gullible
