Prosperity Doctrine
Submitted by Wayne on Fri, 2006-12-22 19:20.
Church | Doctrine
A popular heresy among Pentecostals is the Prosperity Doctrine. In short, this is the philosophy that the more you give (financially to the church), the more you'll receive (usually in terms of mysteriously, "miraculously" sourced income). Along with a common perversion of tithing, this garbage is often used in churches to guilt more money from the congregration. In some cases, the motives may be decent, but it doesn't justify this sinful, antibiblical doctrine.
One phrase I hear from church after church is this:
You can't out-give God.
Regardless of the truth of this statement, its only real application is in pushing the Prosperity Doctrine. If you hear a church leader utter this statement, beware. That leader has already sinned in his heart, and now he's going to take as many congregants with him as he can.
If your motivation for contributing to charities is that you'll gain something, keep your dirty money. If you happen to receive anything at all--well, you have your reward in the here and now. I'd rather have mine in eternity. I urge you to give. After all, everything you have was given to you by the Lord. However, if you give, give cheerfully!
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Nothing new
As I read Wayne's post, I couldn't help thinking about the first time I encountered the "prosperity doctrine." It was years ago, many years before I caved to the Lord. Does anybody besides me remember Robert Tilton, a cheesy "televangelist" with a $2000 suit and slicked-back hair? His TV show was called "Success'N'Life," and its central message was the "prosperity doctrine."
"You have to give more than you can afford, in order to demonstrate your faith," Tilton would croon. "Once you have planted that seed, the Lord will bless you many times over." Apparently, a lot of people bought into Tilton's message. I say this because a) every time I saw him, he was wearing a different suit, and b) every show seemed to have a testimonial by someone for whom the "prosperity doctrine" had "borne fruit." He'd send a camera crew to rural Oklahoma, and we'd be treated to the interior of a humble home and a woman saying, "After Jake lost his job, we were down to our last two nickels. We sent them in to Rev. Tilton (that wonderful man, don't you love his 18 carat gold Jesus tie pin?), and three weeks later, we received an unexpected windfall, and then Jake got his job back plus a promotion, so we were able to pay our bills and keep the trailer." Then Tilton would come back and say how wonderful it was, and how you were just thinking about sending in a thousand dollars, and then he'd raise his hand to the screen and speak in tongues (for effect).
Folks, if my pastor ever starts preaching the same gunk as that scum Tilton, I'm heading for the door.