Exposing the Prosperity “Gospel” (which is no gospel at all)

I was encouraged to see some Iranian Christians exposing the heresy of the “Health and Wealth”/ “Name it Claim it”/ “Word of Faith” movement, and even mentioning some names of some of the false teachers.

Most of you will not be able to read the Farsi, but I have worked through all of it; and it is a good article. One of the most interesting things, which I did not know, was it’s reference to an article in the Atlantic monthly, asking whether the “Health and Wealth Gospel” was part of the cause of the recent economic crisis.

The government under liberals like homosexual Congressman Barney Frank; and liberal Senator Chris Dodd, led the charge to force banks and financial institutions to loan too much money to people who could not afford it. In a similar way the name and claim teachers like Creflo Dollar tell people “to fake it till you make it!” or “act like you are rich and you will be”. “make a positive confession”. Or “your miracle or new level of living is just around the corner” (they have to keep saying that to keep those who it didn’t work for coming and giving. Even though in reality you are not rich, say it enough and fool yourself into thinking you are. Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Marilyn Hickey, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, the late Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Fred Price, Paula White, and many others are some of these false teachers and heretics!

As John McArthur rightly put it, the false teachers are at the top of a Ponzi scheme, and it works for them, while many thousands of gullible people are deceived. But it is the people’s evil desires that keep them afloat – 2 Timothy 4:3

“wanting to have their ears tickled”

and

“they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires”

See John McArthur’s message: “A true knowledge of the True God”

The “god” of the Prosperity gospel is not the God of the Bible.

God sometimes heals and sometimes makes some people rich; but there are no guarantees or formulas to confess to make these things happen and we are not “little gods” who can create things out of nothing. What a blasphemous teaching, to say that we are “little gods” that can “cause something to come into existence out of nothing”, twisting the meaning of Romans 4:17. Only God does that (Genesis 1:1, Heb. 11:3) – you, o mortal men of flesh, cannot do that, no matter how much you confess it.

In evangelism, church planting, discipleship, and teaching, we must also expose false teachers. The apostles did, and Paul named the names of some of the false teachers. Read the books of I and 2 Timothy and Titus and you will see.