"The modern-day greed gospel is one of the worst cancers and blights on the present-day Church. I don't apologize for saying that, I'm not gonna back up for saying that, and I'm not gonna apologize saying that. It is evil, it is a cancer, and it leads to covetousness, and it leads to destruction. There is no difference between the evil of that message and the evil of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or any other place of gambling. Actually, Las Vegas and Atlantic City and any other casino is more holy than that demonic greed gospel, because casinos do not bring God into their lives. [emphasis mine]" -Donnie Swaggert
The prosperity gospel is not a hard theological fraud to disprove. In fact, there are only two types of people who can genuinely believe in it: those ignorant of history and theology and hucksters. History, even current events, is filled with countless examples of Christians being bitterly persecuted for their faith. These events range from the nearly cliche example of Romans throwing Christians to the lions, to North Korean government forces running over Christian converts with steamrollers. Jesus warned His followers of this when he said that we must count the cost of following him, that he who tried to save his life would lose it, that we must take up our cross daily, and especially when He warned us that the world would hate us for His sake. America is exceptional in that the "persecution" we face today is little more than discrimination and sneering rather than being subjected to serious loss of life, liberty and property. That exception helps to prove the rule that nowhere in the Gospel is there a promise of earthly material success or material happiness.
None of this is to say that God doesn't desire happiness for us, that God won't bless a family with intimacy and stability if they are faithful. God will also never forsake those who make an effort to be faithful to Him. However, that is a far cry from prosperity. Both history and theology attest to the fact that the Gospel is more likely to be spread around the world by faithfulness in times of misery than by people seeing Christians becoming prosperous.
And of course, if anyone remains on the fence about this issue, I suggest reading a few chapters into the Book of Job...
Oh, but Job is such a small and insignificant book. Not to mention Old Testament! Its not anything like deriving your believes from the extensively documented life of Jabez. If only the Church had paid more attention to Jabez thru-out the centuries just think of how much better we would be?
But being serious for a moment... I don't think it is a coincidence at all that the vapid nature of the secular world parallels that of the Church. We focus on smaller and smaller things allowing the world to sink lower and lower. I guess the theory is that if we get lower we can reach them as the y get lower and lower, but the truth is that everytime the Church lowers itself it also lowers the floor allowing the secular world to sink to new lows. Thus feeding into the never ending cycle. Its not until the Church stands up and stands on the authority of Scripture that the secular world will be able to rise above its filth.
Amen to this! There are many false movements out there, the prosperity gospel being a major player. It is basically christianity sold on a big business level.