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>> We've heard quite a bit about prosperity this morning, and those of you who have looked
at the Lausanne website, we put a number of articles there including one or two by myself.
So I would just spend a short time message, where we are summarizing some of the thoughts.
And the title I have given this presentation is "This is What the Bible Says: Understanding
and Answering the ‘Word of Faith’ Movement.” And I chose this title because those who teach
prosperity use the Bible as a foundation for the message.
Pictures like this are sold on the streets of Accra in Ghana, and we have all kinds of
writings underneath promising people that these are the sorts of things that God will
give them through faithful Christianity. So as I said, the images of prosperity abound
in the media, and we heard this morning that much of the message about wealth, health,
and well being. Now, this is the definition that I give to prosperity gospel because Jesus
in a way also talked about prosperity, but when I talk about prosperity gospel, what
do I mean? Preaching, interpreting, and teaching the
word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in a self serving manner that places
its emphasis on conspicuous consumerism, to suggest that the possession of the material
things of this world are necessary indicators of genuine Christianity and God's approval.
And I define it this way in order to make a distinction between true Biblical prosperity
and the negative one that we have in our churches these days.
In the (?) of this movement, the prosperity movement is that every Christian should show
evidence of material prosperity. We heard this morning, that Scripture is misinterpreted,
and I have given an example here of 3 John 2, which is interpreted to mean wealth in
material terms, and then Jesus himself, as presented as somebody who led a materialistic
lifestyle. One of the critical texts of prosperity is
Galatians 3:13-14, and there in that passage, the promise of Abraham is interpreted to mean
his blessings in gold and cattle, and this is used to support the message of prosperity.
Now, the question who preaches the prosperity Gospel? The response to that, my response
to that is traditionally, neo-Pentecostals have been the most forceful preachers of this
kind of message, but the success, and success in quotes, if you like, has led to a number
of other churches taking on this message, too. And recently, I heard, I learned, let
me say, that one of our churches near the Capitol is putting up a new bishop’s manse
and they are going to put a swimming pool in it. I met the bishop and told him my piece
of mind about that. I have given this as an example of how even
the traditional churches are preaching this sort of message. This is a Presbyterian handbill,
“pray until something happens,” and this is a Methodist handbill, in case they accuse
me of being parochial, I’ve put something from my own church there.
And the evidence, as we know, has to do with the material prosperity, and this is pervaded
through the media. I took this picture myself, I was driving on the streets of Accra, and
I saw this Mercedes Benz ahead of me. The number plate is Kristodea in Twi, a Ghanian
language. It means, ‘this is for Jesus.’ And it costs a lot of money, you know, to
buy these number plates. Now, these two persons have been key in the
introduction of prosperity Gospel in sub- Sahara Africa. The late Idahosa and Archbishop
Duncan Williams, who runs the Christian Action Faith Ministry in Accra. Duncan Williams has
a book called "Destined to Succeed," and in that book he outlines what he means by the
prosperity gospel. I have taken some of these hand bills which we collect from Ghana and
elsewhere to show how prosperity gospel is advertised.
So these are just for you to have some kind of understanding of how this is being preached.
A ‘Power to Make Wealth Summit,’ for example, and these things are happening all the time.
Almost weekly. This is a hand bill on the ‘Highway to the
Promised Land.’ This is also a hand bill that we picked up.
I was in the church once, this is the prayer that the members were led to say over the
offering. “Offering - I'm sending you into the offering bowl; come back to me in dollars,
in pounds sterling, in euros and in yen.” Now, sometimes when I talk about these things,
some people feel that I make this up. In my work, I rarely use research assistants, so
I was personally present and recorded this myself.
Prosperity is not alien to Scripture. Scriptures promises God's blessing, but the question
we're asking is whether the prosperity that Scripture promises is what is being preached
these days. I go to the story of Jim Baker because he became an example, an icon for
many of our African prosperity preachers and we know the story so I'm not going to rehearse
all of that now. This particular picture is a very pitiful
one, when Jim Baker was eventually arrested and jailed for purchasing things that were
way beyond his means, and so on and so forth. So the question is, are we learning from his
example? And this is a quotation that I took from this book. “For most of my life I believed
that my understanding of God and how he wants us to live was not only correct, but worth
exporting to the world. One reason that I have risked putting my heart into print is
to tell you that my previous philosophy of life, out of which my attitudes and actions
flowed, was fundamentally flawed. “ My question is whether we are learning anything
from his experience. This morning, we heard a lot about prosperity,
as I said. I'm not going to rehearse all that was said but the point is that it uses proof
texting. It is based on a formulaic theology. It demonizes poverty especially in Africa,
and does not engaged properly with the story of the incarnation, where God becomes man
in order to redeem his own creation. And does not appreciate a holistic theology of the
cross. My conclusions are this. That prosperity messages
privilege the rich and marginalizes the poor, the weak, and the underprivileged. It has
a poor understanding of pain and suffering. It has a materialistic orientation. It misrepresents
the work of God in Christ, and it preaches a partial Gospel.
I gave you a definition of prosperity Gospel, the negative one at the beginning and this
is what I would consider a more Biblical view of prosperity.
‘The aggregate meaning of all of this is that Biblical prosperity encapsulates God's
physical and spiritual deliverance and personal and communal well being. All the people who
have been blessed materially were expected to extend hands of support to those who did
not have. Prosperity in the Scriptures was never conceived entirely in material terms.
This helps us to realize those who are poor materially are still participants in God's
grace.” But let me finish with this true story that
I encountered in one of my research visits to a church.
A very well-known Pentecostal pastor came to Ghana and preached. I was at the service.
And he preached over three days what I thought was a very good message. And then on the first
day, after the message, he said God was going to perform a 24 hour miracle and those who
wanted to benefit from that miracle should come forward and pay $240. It was not too
long ago. Some people came forward, and then the next day I went, and he reduced it to
$100. But what was most disturbing about the presentation was that he said, if you came
the previous night, know that that was yesterday's blessing. So if you paid $240 yesterday, come
forward today and pay $100, because yesterday's blessing was different from today's blessing.
Something like that. And I think that the opportunity we have is
one from God to help us to wrestle, engage with the issues and make a Biblically sound
evangelical response to the message. Thank you