A Strange Gospel

Richard Wurmbrand, who was one of Christianity's greatest missionaries of the 20th Century, once was asked whether he'd ever consider renouncing Jesus Christ for unlimited riches and material wealth. This was his response: "I would rather be the poorest man on earth and know Jesus Christ than be the richest man on earth and be going to hell."

Sadly, Wurmbrand wouldn't be welcome in many churches today where Christ has been dethroned for lucre and materialism. And sadly, neither would the apostle Paul be welcome in many modern churches because he warned that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs." (1Timothy 6:10)

When we study the decay and decline of Christendom that began in the 19th Century, we can trace much of that decline to the false gospel of wealth that transformed Jesus Christ from the Son of God who entered the world to die for the sins of mankind into a celestial sugar-daddy who allegedly came to reveal the heavenly secrets of acquiring vast wealth. Suddenly, salvation through Christ's crucifixion on the cross and the subsequent eternal life that his death brought to every person that confessed their sins to Jesus took a back seat to money, materialism and power. This strange new gospel, that is commonly called the Health and Wealth Gospel or the Name It and Claim It Gospel, became the central message of such preachers as E.W. Kenyon, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Robert Tilton, Fred K.C. Price and Creflo Dollar just to name a few.

The prosperity gospel not only isn't biblical, it's another gospel that promotes a different Jesus Christ that can't save anyone. Paul continued: "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1Timothy 6:9) And it was Christ himself who stated: "No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24)

How then did the false prosperity gospel become so entrenched in the modern Church? Because of this quote by Christ that was taken completely out of context: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8) Prosperity preachers use that scripture to claim that Christ taught us how to gain wealth by faith when in fact, he did no such thing. Christ taught us how to accomplish God's will through persistent faithful prayer rather than using faith as a spiritual tool to become rich.

Sadly, many Christians are biblically illiterate and don't have the ability to test false teachers who promote phony gospels such as the prosperity gospel. If they studied the Bible, they would quickly understand that the love of money is just another form of idolatry. And tragically, the false prosperity gospel has produced damaging guilt in multitudes who doubted their faith because they failed to acquire wealth and become rich. And yet true faith comes from believing every word that Jesus Christ spoke rather than the lies of false teachers and sleazy preachers who use the prosperity gospel to line their pockets at the expense of their gullible followers.