The eminent sociologist Peter L. Berger says we should take a second look at the prosperity gospel. Excerpt:
Leaving aside theology and moral philosophy, sociology provides a rather different perspective. A few months ago, I visited a Pentecostal megachurch in a suburb of Johannesburg. The congregation of some 7,000 South Africans, black and white, created enough noise to give me a headache for hours. This was hardly a congenial form of worship for me. But I did hear the sermon, delivered by a highly charismatic preacher. There were two simple but powerful messages. One, "God does not want you to be poor!" And, two, "You can do something about it!" The New Testament strongly suggests that Jesus had a particular concern for the poor, but there is no suggestion that he wanted people to remain poor. As for the idea that God will bestow material blessings on those who remain faithful to him, there are some passages in the Old Testament, often cited by the prosperity preachers, that imply just that.
As I left the church, I asked myself: Would I really want to quarrel with these messages? There is no sentimentality about poverty in the prosperity gospel. There is an appeal to people not as victims but as responsible actors. There is also the confidence that generally people know what is best for themselves, better than any well-meaning outsiders. It is no wonder, then, that research data, from South Africa for instance, show that Pentecostals have an unusual degree of self-confidence and optimism about the future.
More:
Weber believed that the economic consequences of Protestantism were unintentional. The prosperity gospel intends these consequences -- material betterment for individuals, economic growth in the aggregate. It promises poor people that these goals are attainable. It is a promise likely to be kept. It seems to me that this empirical reality must be taken into account in any evaluation of the prosperity gospel -- even by theologians and moral philosophers.
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Prosperity gospel is pure falsehood/Mammon worship. The good news that Jesus proclaimed has to do with the love of good work with our hands that produces useful things that benefit others. The spirit that Jesus gives us leads us to discern what good work we might be best suited to do. All of the Christian's life revolves around tending the creation so as to benefit others just as Jesus did. This is the pearl of great value that we sell everything to buy! The modern world is so lost in materialism and the prolonging of a life of comfort that it is more than willing to enslave others in order to obtain ever more treasure that will only be a testament against them in the great day of judgement. It is foolish to think that we will not reap what we sow and that God will transform our evil selfish ways into good ones. Our actions are of great importance since they are who we really truly are. God has given us that freedom by grace to choose to follow his spirit of love toward the creation or to follow our selfish short sighted desires of the flesh that lead to death. Perhaps that could be thought of as cruel except that God, I believe, has spoken and continues to speak to us all to give and show us opportunities to love day by day indeed moment by moment. Many/most people that I encounter display the truth of this in their love toward me as I am prompted to express love and empathy toward them. Casting one's bread upon the waters of God's love, abiding in others, frees them to love you and I have found that they will joyfully do so. That is the true prosperity of the Gospel that Jesus brought us.
The 'Prosperity Gospel' scam is the same scam as the 'Faith Healing' scam, wearing new clothes.
95% of the time it's 'Give your money to the church and you will make more money', and it cycles through suckers who end up discontented with Christianity in general. It is very destruction to people's existing faith, it is destructive to people's future faith (You would be amazed as to how many people are not willing to give Christianity a chance because they think the churches are in it for the money.), and, of course, it is destructive to people's finances.
There probably are some preachers out there who aren't in it for the money, just like with faith healing. Sometimes those people have just deluded themselves, sometimes they've seen an actual miracle once and decided that's the way it always works, when in reality relying on miracles is...um...stupid. But the fact there are few honest men doesn't mean that we shouldn't condemn the entire thing as incorrect.
Now, hard work, on average, tends to make you better off than the lack of it, but that doesn't have anything to do with God, and it's not really what the 'prosperity gospel' is teaching. The 'prosperity gospel' is teaching 'If you are a good person, God will pay your bills', which is just flat out wrong. And a lot of them add 'And by 'good person' we mean 'gives large amounts of money to us'.
It seems to me that the functional value of a particular religious belief is of secondary importance, far behind it primary value of truth or falsehood. The first question isn't, "is this a doctrine that can better people's socioeconomic circumstances", but rather "is this God's truth that will better people's spiritual condition." On this count, the prosperity gospel fails miserably. I think that an especially revealing statement in this regard is your assertion that, "there is no suggestion that he wanted people to remain poor." Are we to assume therefore, that any doctrine not specifically repudiated by scripture is allowable?
Christ's idea of human wealth was not that everyone should remain poor. After all, "the laborer is worthy of his wages". The Christian ideal is not in favor of everyone becoming rich, either. Which of the disciples retired a wealthy man? Oh wait, all but one was executed. I guess that's one way to save on retirement costs. The early church was mocked for being composed primarily of the poor and uneducated. The idea is rather that, as Christians, we should be, as much as possible, indifferent to our economic circumstances. Remember Christ's admonition to look to the birds of the air and the lillies of the field. After all, it is the "LOVE" of money that is the root of all evil.
Sorry, I just realized I addressed a few lines in that last post as if Rod was the one writing the initial stuff, rather than quoting at length from Peter Berger. I got caught up in my thoughts on the issue, rather that necessarily focusing on how to phrase it correctly. Anyway, the point remains that despite what he says about, "leaving aside theology and moral philosophy", you simply cannot do it. A religious belief cannot be simply boiled down to whether or not it is good public policy, as if it has no inherent religious truth (although if the religious value of an argument is established, I have no problem pointing out that it ALSO has positive or negative public policy implications). If you divorce it from it's religious content and look at it only from a functional perspective, you also divorce it from any power it holds to shape people's lives. People follow religious systems because they believe in them, after all.
Justin Peters is an expert in this area and gives a seminar entitled, "A Call for Discernment." There is an overview of this at http://www.justinpeters.org
He spoke at my church and comes highly recommended by my pastor, Dr. John MacArthur.
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