Is the Prosperity Gospel Biblical? | Episode 20

welcome to apostolic life in the 21st century a podcast dedicated to helping modern day believers live out the teachings of the first century church this podcast is part of the teaching ministry of dr david k bernard dr bernard has dedicated his life to studying the bible and helping believers apply its message to their daily lives in apostolic life in the 21st century dr bernard answers your questions about what the bible teaches and how those teachings apply to everyday life thank you for joining us for this broadcast proverbs 3 9-10 says that if we honor the lord with our wealth through giving that our barns will be filled with plenty and our presses shall burst out with new wine and then later in malachi chapter 3 god promises his people that if they give their tithes and their offerings that he will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing he said that there won't be room enough to receive it of course some have used these verses and others like them as proof that if we give we're guaranteed that god is going to bless us financially in return this of course has developed into what has sometimes been referred to as the prosperity gospel in according to many the prosperity gospel is that it is god's will for the believer to be financially blessed to be healthy in body and mind and that we can achieve this health and wealth through faith through speaking positive words and to giving to the right causes does the bible actually teach this is that what these verses mean is the prosperity gospel biblical there is an element of truth in that message but it's a distorted message with misplaced priorities i think it's interesting that this particular form arose really in prosperous western culture if you look in the bible and over the centuries and even around the world today many of the most faithful saints of god have lived in poverty or deprivation and maybe they're more spiritual than a lot of people who live in prosperity and even the statements in scripture and proverbs for example they are talking about general principles but there can be many reasons why that god's people do suffer under adverse circumstances so you can't take a general statement or a principle of how things are supposed to work in god's plan and a wise way to live and translate that into some iron-clad rule that would say well if you're spiritual you're going to be rich and therefore if you're not rich you're not spiritual and in fact jesus flipped that thinking on his head because that was prevalent even in the first century among jews well if you're if you're really living for god you're going to be prosperous and if you're not prosperous there's something wrong with you and jesus actually blew the minds of the disciples he said you know it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven and they recalled in shock well we all want to be rich what do you mean we think being rich is the epitome of god's blessings that's that's what we're living for what do you mean you can't we can't go to heaven if we get rich and he said well with god all things are possible so it's possible but you're starting off putting yourself in a very difficult position if you're striving to be rich because there are many distractions many temptations but yes with god's grace you can overcome them so actually we might be asking can can people who believe the prosperity gospel be saved not not should we all believe the prosperity gospel now i will say god does as a general principle uh and you even see this in john's epistles you know i want you to be in health and prosper even as your soul prospers of course that's a that's what we might say to our friends and our family and fellow believers i want you to be blessed and that's true and that is the will of god that's the general will of god but you can't translate that into a doctrine that would be contrary to the word of god because god's foremost blessings are spiritual and not necessarily material and god doesn't promise that we would be materially wealthy i think if we follow godly principles we're much more likely to be successful in all aspects of life including business and personal life but because there are so many other factors the attack of the devil yes god can uh can rebuke the devil but the circumstances of life it's much as we also talked about divine healing yes there's healing but not all of it's going to happen in this life so whatever we don't get down here we'll get in heaven i would likewise say it is god's will for us to prosper but due to various circumstances of life our culture our our nation our family uh are just the particular events of life that god doesn't intervene and dramatically overturn so you you get in a car accident or your house burns down or some uh unforeseen calamity an earthquake a tornado and it could destroy your life savings it's not god's fault it's not necessarily god's plan but it's it's life and not all of that is going to be fixed immediately whatever we don't receive down here we will see receive up there i will say giving is a is a divine principle tithes and offerings we see in second corinthians 8 and 9 god loves a cheerful giver if we give generously we'll reap gen generously again that's a general principle i think it's a mistake and even a travis you say okay if i give a thousand dollars i'm going to get 5 000 back first of all our motive has to be to give to god's cause not to see what we can get we don't give to get we do believe that god will supply our needs honor our faith and bless us but it's not a mechanical process where we can punch buttons and get things back we don't give to the church so we can get material possessions that's the wrong motive second all of all god's richest blessings are not material so we may be greatly blessed it doesn't mean we're going to have a new house or a new car or double our income but it may means god's blessings of protection on our family it may mean that we have peace of mind it may mean we have satisfaction knowing we invested in the kingdom of god and our investment will last for eternity it may be the joy of knowing that we've helped win souls through through our financial giving to missions or or through our labor in the local church so the richest blessings of god are not necessarily going to be returned in a financial sense so i think a holistic approach to say number one god does bless us he wants to bless us he does supply our needs but number two not all the blessings are material not all of them come in this life not all of them are a mechanical return in a financial sense uh we must be very well aware of that and we are simply here's the point we're trying to be good stewards of everything that god has given us god will supply our needs but not necessarily all of our wants and truly ninety percent of what's on our list is not a need so yes we might want a bigger house but we could live in a two-room house if we needed to we might want a new car but we could actually survive without a car and throughout most of history and most of our united pentecostal believers today live in very humble circumstances and we can't say we're more spiritual they we just happen to live in a country that has followed principles of economic prosperity so we're just fortunate to be in such a case and i would say god may have allowed that and blessed us so that we could give generously to missions and so that we could help those who are in need and also first john also talks about you know you can quote scriptures that whatever you ask in faith you will receive that's true but sometimes it's stated sometimes it's not always stated but first john states it plainly according to god's will and jesus himself said in john 14 if you ask anything in my name and that implies not just a mechanical repetition of the word jesus to get something but in god in the name of jesus means with him as lord according to his purpose and will so no god god is not obligated to give us everything we want and god may have a will that is different from what we want so to to teach the prosperity gospel as a mechanical um reward system i think is a distortion of scripture yes god wants to bless us yes we should have faith for financial needs for physical needs for all aspects of life at the same time we must say with the apostle paul in whatever state i find myself there i will be content i will trust that god will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory but my goal is to serve him to be a good steward of whatever he gives me to be content with what i have and to trust him in all things and most of all to understand the greatest blessings are going to be spiritual and the ultimate reward is going to be eternal thank you for joining us for today's broadcast we hope you'll make plans to join us again next time when once again we take a look at how the bible applies to our everyday lives

Channel: David K. Bernard

Views: 3,375

Rating: 4.9603958 out of 5

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Id: 86f2fJTk3NU

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021