The first time I came across the stream of teaching known as the prosperity gospel, (also known as word of faith or faith movement) I was shocked and disgusted. This movement is a movement which teaches several key errors. Two of its main errors, are that 1) It is God’s will that all of His children walk in divine health 2) It is God’s will that all of His children prosper financially.

While I immediatly rejected this teaching, a few years later a shift began to take place. I was studying at an interdenominational theological college and I was pretty weary from the liberal theology that was being promoted at this college. During this time I noticed that there where loads of Old Testament verses that spoke about prosperity. So in reaction to much of the liberal scholarship I moved towards a very literalist approach to scripture which was very much a form of the faith movement. My journey into the world of Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland etc led me to join a charismatic church which although was not ‘hyper prosperity’ was influenced deeply by the theology of the faith movement.

The bottom line was that for me at that time it seemed the only way to keep my faith alive. However, I am grateful that I later came across some evangelical scholarship which was commited to a faithful interpretation of the texts. The problem with those who advocate this view is not that they do not use scripture, it is just that they misuse scripture. Although this movement makes much of ‘The Word of God’ they are actually very selective in the scriptures which they preach on. Another danger in this movement is that almost every message preached is the same. Week in week out the followers of these pastors are told how blessed they are supposed to be, how they healthy they should be and how finacially prosperous they should be. Many in their churches are depressed, in debt and seriously sick and all this teaching does is weigh them down with even more burdens!

Let me say this loud and clear, true faith is the ability to walk with God through sickness, through financial hardship and through suffering. many brought up on this poor teaching do not have the spiritual resources to deal with difficulty. When their faith god does not pull through they either feel condemned, or get upset with God.

Very often faith is turned into a work, many pastors berate the sheep into getting ‘more faith’, faith becomes a thing that we must do or work at. Yet true faith comes from the true word of God. If many pastors would stop demmanding their flock to get more faith, and instead begin to preach Christ, they would discover that faith would follow their preaching!