In the last few years we have seen an increase in the proclaiming of the Prosperity Theology. Especially relevant in the charismatic churches. It fundamentally says:
· If your relationship with the Lord is sound, He will bless you financially and
· If you are not blessed financially there is something wrong in your relationship with the Lord.
There is no doubt that God wants to bless His children. The Bible is full of this. We have seen some kings in the Old Testament that had wealth beyond measure. It is not wrong to be blessed by God financially. That is a gift from God. But is this something we can expect (“demand”) from God?
If we look at Jesus, who was God, was born of humble beginnings in a stable. His life was one of simplicity. He had no permanent abode and did not amass money. In fact he warned about hoarding of money.
· Matthew 6:24 - “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
· Matthew 19:23-25 - 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
· Luke 12:15 - Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
· 1 Timothy 6:9-11 - 9 those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs
· Matthew 6.19-21 - Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
· John 2:16-17 - For everything that is in the world—the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God’s will remains forever.
· Hebrew 13:5 - Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
And there are many more…
When one looks at the opulent lifestyle of these preachers, it begs the question? Why do they need to have huge multi-million dollar houses, landing strips, multi airplanes, hugely expensive limousines? I do not say they must not have decent homes and vehicles, but why so opulent? Their fortunes are counted in millions. A lot of their wealth comes from the poor that believe their false preaching. Many preachers make huge fortunes out of writing books. The Gospel has been given to us free. Why capitalize on their popularity to make money out of the Gospel.
What makes matters worse is that they use the Bible to justify their views. What is disheartening is that they interpret the Scriptures they use, incorrectly. They don’t read it in contexts and sometimes uses on part of Scripture. Here are some of them:
· Jeremiah 29:11 — “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” One of the most misunderstood verses by Christians more generally; It is often used to promise good news, suggesting that God works every seemingly bad situation for our benefit in the not-so-distant future. But this verse come amidst Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon, and it would be 70 more years before they would return to home. The verse is not a promise to Christians today who lose jobs or experience heartbreak of any kind. It was a promise to the Israelites that God, on his own timetable and plan, would restore his people. It was to give them hope for the future. It has nothing to do with prosperity. God wants us to be spiritually blessed. That is His prime focus.
· . John 14:14 — “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Prosperity preachers misinterpret this verse to suggest that God will answer all the prayers of the faithful. They forget that there is a condition to it. God answers prayers that is within His will and glorifies His name. We know from experience that God does answer all prayers but it could be in three different ways:
o Yes
o No it is not within my will
o Wait. The time is not right.
We cannot manipulate God with our prayers to get what we want. If God did, many people would have found out that their desires were selfish and greedy. And they would have had to live with the consequences of their request. I only want what God thinks is good for me. Nothing more, nothing less.
I can add many more Scripture. What is more disturbing is that prosperity theology sees the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to do God's will. The prosperity gospel movement closely resembles some of the destructive greed sects that infiltrated the early church. Paul and the other apostles were not accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers who propagated such heresy. They identified them as dangerous false teachers and urged Christians to avoid them.
· John 16:13-14 - 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
An obvious deduction is that the prosperity preachers do not have the Spirit of Truth. Harsh thing to say, but if they had and listened to the Holy Spirit, they would not proclaim this false Gospel.
Toxic Charity - should you help the poor??
We have been involved in ministry amongst the poor for many years. We had two scenarios.
• Scenario one: Temporary short term help
• Scenario two: Gainful employment to cultivate a productive lifestyle
The end result of both of these actions ended up not achieving the end goal but ended up in ungratefulness and demanding. The reason for them is different and I will deal with each one separately.
Short term help
Short term help is based on giving short term help where a crisis occurs. The people don’t have the necessary funds to “pay” or “work” for services rendered. We found out that toxic charity develops because of the “free” help that is given. They claim that it affects their self-image negatively. These are the stages that you will encounter:
• Give once = Appreciation
• Give twice = Anticipation
• Give 3 times = Expectation
• Give 4 times = Entitlement
• Give 5 times = Dependency
A solution to this problem could be to have a different approach. Have a clothes or food bank. Make the prices low so that the poor can contribute. If they do not have any money, they can contribute by working in the ministry serving others. A great way of teaching one of the basic principles of serving others to people. It becomes like a normal department store where people will congregate without fear of creating toxic charity. We know of a number of churches that have done this with great success.
Chronic help
The foundation of our help was to help people help themselves. Longer term development and creating a more sustainable solution for the people.
We had a ministry on the farm where we accommodated people in some of our houses as they did not have work or no money to pay for accommodation. We would give them employment (by contract), accommodation free of charge, a month’s food to start them off until they were paid, and paid them the going wage.
We initially though that this change in approach would give us more of a success in the ministry One of the most disturbing experiences has been the ungratefulness of the poor when you assist them in their needs. Our experience has been that the first 3 months things go well and thereafter they become difficult and demanding and at times quite rude. They would at times refuse to do the work that they were employed to do stipulated in their letter of appointment. They would even resign and go back where they came from. Some of them back to the bush in a small shack, a family of 3 living in a back room, etc.
This was a disturbing result as we thought that by protecting their self-worth and showing them a new lifestyle, they would change to adopt a new lifestyle. It was so disturbing to us that we started researching why this was happening as our intent sounded right.
We spoke to an occupational therapist. She told us that when people come out of a non-structured environment with no discipline, the discipline over time became spiritual. They would then be confronted with a choice. Go back to their undisciplined past or adopt the new lifestyle. We were told that only 10% would be able to make the change. 90% would opt to go back to the old lifestyle, irrespective of the fat that their employment created wealth for themselves. What is very interesting was that that was our experience. Disturbing as it may be.
We were aloo involved in a night shelter for a few years. We would assist in the crisis, accommodation for a few days, and then start the process of evaluation with a development program for the individual. Ultimately we would secure them gainful employment whilst still staying at the shelter, but they had to pay a minimum amount for their accommodation and two meals per day. It was disheartening to see some of them come home at night and plead poverty whilst you can see they have bought cigarettes and other goods with their money. Eventually one had to practice tough love. No pay – no accommodation.
Again we found out that the success rate was very low. It also takes a lot of support staff to work with the poor of you want to have some success. That includes physical, mental, spiritual, skills traing, etc. I have also learnt that, although you have done everything you possibly could, at the end of the day you cannot be accountable for what people decide and only God through His Holy Spirit can change people. It has however not changed our approach to help and assist people in need. One has to live with a low % of successes. Heartbreaking, especially where children are involved.
One of our success stories is a young couple that was desperate for accommodation. They were on one of our Alpha courses. The Lord sometimes gives me a person’s face during our Holy Spirit weekend that I as leader had to pray for and focus on. On these camps I do not lead a group but is on standby to give help where needed. Every time I enquired about this young man, the leaders reported that they made no progress and that he was just quiet, not speaking a word!
On the Sunday we have a Word for the guests and we have communion and then close of the camp. The whole time I was effectively wrestling with God about this man. It was a traumatic experience. I was busy packing up my equipment with a very sad heart when someone tapped me on my shoulder. It was him! “Can I please speak to you?” he asked. We went aside and he came to Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. I saw the right vision. I heard the voice of the Lord, and the Lord made my desire a reality. All glory to Him.
For some unknown reason, not really unknown, we had the feeling to invite him and his wife to the farm for a weekend. We started a relationship and he lost his employment and she had to resign as her then boss hounded her that she felt that she was going to lose her baby. She was pregnant.
Without thinking twice, we invited them to stay in one of the houses. They both come out of unloving homes. His wife came to Christ at another Alpha camp. He has no family and has adopted us as his parents and my daughters as his sisters. He eventually was employed again and she started her own business. They will never be rich but they can pay their way. He has health issues that the doctors struggle to find out what it is. He will soon be working for me on the farm as I have a problem walking right now and we are getting older. It is going to be a challenge, but I now know that my role will be to mentor both of them. And mentoring gives us older people a new lease on life. Irrespective of the issues they are always grateful and willing to help where help is needed.
They have been here almost 6 years and their son that has just turned 5 is one of our adopted grandchildren. What a delight and blessing!
We have spent an enormous amount of money in helping and trying to restore people’s lives with the help of the Lord. Our success has been limited. But I have no regret spending the money as all I have is the Lord’s. I showed them a new fulfilling lifestyle. They are responsible for the choice s they made. And the mistakes we made have given us wisdom!
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