Health. Wealth & Happiness by David W Jones & Russell S Woodbridge
Published by Kregel 2011
David W Jones ( PhD) serves as Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Coordinator of Th M and Thesis Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He did his doctoral work in the field of financial ethics
Russell S Woodbridge (PhD) is a former Assistant Professor of Theology and Church History at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to seminary, he was the Vice President of Equity Derivatives for Salomon Brothers AG in Frankfurt, Germany. He is now with the International Mission Board
Published by Kregel 2011
David W Jones ( PhD) serves as Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Coordinator of Th M and Thesis Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He did his doctoral work in the field of financial ethics
Russell S Woodbridge (PhD) is a former Assistant Professor of Theology and Church History at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to seminary, he was the Vice President of Equity Derivatives for Salomon Brothers AG in Frankfurt, Germany. He is now with the International Mission Board
A brief history of the prosperity gospel
I am using a book review to show the development and concept of prosperity gospel. This book provides a very thorough account from its beginnings to its current form in the early 21st century. The authors have provided many references to support their claims.
There is no fix prosperity gospel theology. Some prosperity gospel preachers are obviously liberal and others more conservative. Often it is difficult to discern a prosperity gospel preacher by a casual listening to one of their sermons. It is only by listening through a series of the sermons and understanding their church culture that we can understand what is a prosperity message. I am reviewing only a portion of the book to present the fundamental errors of the prosperity gospel. I will be quoting the prosperity gospel preachers themselves, and through their own words, I hope you can see clearly the problems in the prosperity gospel.
Index
New thought movement
Prosperity Gospel
A Disorted View of God
Mind Over Matter
An Exalted view of Man
Focus on Health and Wealth
Health Claims of the Prosperity Gospel
New thought movement
Prosperity gospel sprang from new thought movement. New thought began around 1895. It is not a church or a denomination. New thought has beliefs not found in the bible. The pioneers of new thought are Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and Phineas Quimby (1802-1866)
The chief tenets of New Thought are: (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_thought )
Infinite Intelligence or God is omnipotent and omnipresent.
Spirit is the ultimate reality.
True human self-hood is divine.
Divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good.
All disease is mental in origin.
Right thinking has a healing effect.
In the early 20th century, books on health and success started to incorporate new thought
Ernest Holmes - Creative Mind and success
Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich
Wallace D Wattles - The Science of getting Rich
Ralph Waldo Trine - In Tune with the Infinite Fullness of Peace, Power and Plenty (1897)
Ralph’s book sold millions and was translated into over 20 languages.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City popularized New thought ideas. His Church was part of the Dutch Reformed Church , a historical, conservative Calvinistic denomination. Norman writings combine bible and new thought. He is best known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
In another book Guide to Confident Living Norman had chapters like
Prayer - The Most powerful form of Energy
How to think your way to success
Change your thoughts and you change everything
Phineas Quimby quotes
“If I believe I am sick , I am sick, for my feelings are my sickness, and my sickness is my belief, and my belief is my mind. Therefore all disease is in the mind or belief”( Phineas Quimby The Quimbly Manuscripts)
Prosperity Gospel
Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) is the father of the modern prosperity gospel. He was the pastor of the New Covenant Baptist Church and founder and president of Bethel Bible Institute in Spencer, Massachusetts. He blended new thought with the bible. He is most famous for the prosperity gospel phrase “What I confess, I possess”
Kenyon quotes
“Confessing always goes ahead of healing. Don’t watch the symptoms, watch the word, and be sure that your confession is bold and vigorous. Don’t listen to people. Act on the word. Be a doer of the word. It is God speaking. You are healed. The word says you are. Don’t listen to the senses. Give the word its place. God cannot lie” ( E W Kenyon Jesus the Healer )
“You will seldom rise above your words. If you talk sickness you will go to the level of your conversation. If you talk weakness and failure you will act it. You keep saying
‘I can’t work’ or ‘I can’t do this’ and your words react to your body. Why is this? It is because you are a spirit being. You are not a physical being. Basically you are a spirit and spirit registers words just as a piece of blotting paper takes ink” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
“The value of an investment is its dividends. The value of Christianity is what you get out of it. We are Christians for what we can get in this life, and we claim a hope of a world to come, where pain and sorrow cannot claim us as victims, and death cannot cut short our joys. We also demand that God we serve and worship shall hear our petitions, protect us in danger, comfort us in sorrow” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
“God never planned that we should live in poverty, physical, mental or spiritual. He made Israel go to the head of the nations financially. When we go into partnership with Him, and we learn His ways of doing business, we cannot be failures. Failures are not God made. God never made a weakling or an inefficient man. He is purely a human product. You can’t be a failure for His wisdom is your wisdom; His ability in every department of life is your ability. All you need to do is study the Word of God and get the knowledge that is imparted to you there. Then He will give the ability to make your life a success.” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
A Distorted view of God
Some prosperity gospel preachers have a vague or distorted view of God.
Kenneth Copeland
“I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the bible actually is .... The biggest one in the whole bible is God.... Now the reason you don’t think God as a failure is He never said He’s a failure. And you’re not a failure until you say you’re one”
(quoted from Kenneth Copeland on Praise a Thon program on TBN - April 1988, also quoted in Hannegraaff Christianity in Crisis . Copeland was suggesting that God has been disappointed or suffered setbacks just like us and we get down on ourselves. His fuller quotation is " I mean. He lost his top ranking , most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least - that's a big loss, man" Arguably Copeland was trying to encourage his audience but instead he ends up demeaning God's character and sovereignty)
Creflo Dollar
“You know Jesus, in one Scripture in the Bible, he went on a journey and he was tired. you better hope God don't get tired. Isaiah 50 says we have a God who fainteth not, neither is weary. but Jesus did, if he came as God and he got tired , he says he sat down by the well because he was tired. Boy we’re in trouble. you know the Bible says God never sleeps nor slumbers?” (Creflo Dollar message titled Jesus Growth into Sonship 8 Dec 2002)
Mind over Matter
In prosperity gospel, words are a force. Words are the power of mind over matter. Believers must visualize, speak and have faith in their words, then only can God work on their behalf.
Creflo Dollar
“God uses words to create what he wants to exist. Christians have the same ability. For example, when there is lack in your life, call forth abundance to replace it. Say what you believe is true according to the Word. This is not denying what exist. We speak the desired result. When you need healing, say what the Bible says, by his stripes I am healed" (Creflo Dollar Faith : The power that Brings the World to Its knees. Calling Those Things that be not as though They were 2 June 2009 )
"When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are prayng, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass" (Creflo Dollar Prayer Your Path to Success 2 March 2009)
Joel Osteen
“Our words have tremendous power, and whether we want or not, we will give life to what we’re saying, either good or bad... Words are similar to seeds, by speaking them aloud, they are planted in our subconscious minds, and they take a life of their own” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
“There is a miracle in your mouth. If you want to change your world, start by changing your words. If you’ll learn how to speak the right words and keep the right attitude, God will turn that situation around.” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
“When you sense it’s your season, you need to declare it. Words have creative power. You need to hear it, and so does the enemy. You may not feel well but it’s good to announce ‘Health is coming my way. I will live and not die’” (Joel Osteen It's Your Time )
In Joel Osteen’s book, Becoming a better you: 7 Keys to improving your life everyday, he suggest boosting oneself by repeating some of the following statements daily
“I am blessed, I am equipped. I have the favor of God. This is going to be a great day
I am blessed; I am prosperous, I am healthy; I am continually growing wiser”
Exalted view of Man
Prosperity theology inverts the relationship between God and man. There is an overemphasis on man and that God simply exists to meet the needs of man.
Joel Osteen
“I say this humbly. I’ve come to expect to be treated differently. I’ve learned to expect people to want to help me. My attitude is this. I’m a child of the Most High God. My father created the whole universe. He has crowned me with favor; therefore I can expect preferential treatment. I can expect people to go out their way to want to help me.” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
Some preachers teach the divinity of man
Kenneth Copeland
" You don't have a God in you, you're one" ( Kenneth Copeland The Force of Love )
Focus on wealth and health
The focus on the prosperity gospel is material prosperity. Almost all prosperity gospel preachers will share similar concepts and use similar scriptural verses to preach wealth and health
Prosperity gospel preachers use the law of compensation. Commonly quoted verses are Ecclesiastes 11:1, Mark 10:30, 2 Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 6:7. Christians are told to give to the church (not other organizations) generously because God will give them back more in return. This then results in a spiral of increasing prosperity.
Kenneth Copeland
"You must realize that it is God's will for you to prosper. This is available to you and frankly, it would be stupid of you not to partake of it" (Kenneth Copeland Laws of Prosperity)
Gloria Copeland
“Give a $10 and receive $1000, give $1000 and receive $100000....In short Mark 10:30 is a very good deal.” (Gloria Copeland God's Will is Prosperity)
Paula White
“God is not magnified when you are broke, busted or disgusted" ( Paula White Prosperity )
Health Claims of the Prosperity Gospel
Prosperity gospel teaches that every Christian has the right to be healed. And this can be achieved by exercising faith. It claims that physical healing and financial prosperity have been provided in the atonement.
Robert Bolden
"As a believer we understand that healing belongs to us as a covenant right. We also must exercise our rights by using God's word concerning healing. Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24, clearly these scriptures tell us that healing belongs to us. We also see in Philippians 2:9 'Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every other name' so, we have the right and privilege to use that name against asthma and everything that is associated with it. In Mark 11:23 the Word says that whosoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. In this case the mountain is asthma, and we say to asthma be removed and be cast into the sea, and no doubt"
(Robert Bolden in Fred Price ministry magazine , was discussing about asthma, it causes and treatment. He encouraged people to consult a doctor and to claim their right to be healed)
Kenneth Copeland
“The basic principle of the Christian life is to know that God put our sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, grief and poverty on Jesus at the Calvary”
Kenneth Hagin
"I believe that it is the plan of God our Father that no believer should ever be sick... It is not - I state boldly - it is not the will of God my Father that we should suffer with cancer and other dreaded diseases which bring pain and anguish. No! It is God's will we be healed" (Kenneth Hagin Healing: The Fathers Provision, Word of Faith)
“Don’t ever tell anyone sickness is the will of God for us. It isn’t. Healing and health are the will of God for mankind. If sickness were the will of God, heaven would be filled with sickness and disease.”
“The cure to illness is to have a positive outlook, thinking and saying the right words. If healing does not occur, then the problem is lack of faith”
Joyce Meyer
“I have faith, for I am a believer. I believe I receive my healing and my faith makes me whole. The power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in me. My faith puts that power into active operation in my body. Disease has no choice. There is no chance for its survival in my body. That power is flowing in me and makes me whole. I am free. I am entirely free from sickness and disease. I am whole. I believe I have received my healing and my faith has made me whole” (Meyer Healing Scriptures)
Robert Tilton
“God will always heal on faith” (Robert Tilton God's laws of success)
I am using a book review to show the development and concept of prosperity gospel. This book provides a very thorough account from its beginnings to its current form in the early 21st century. The authors have provided many references to support their claims.
There is no fix prosperity gospel theology. Some prosperity gospel preachers are obviously liberal and others more conservative. Often it is difficult to discern a prosperity gospel preacher by a casual listening to one of their sermons. It is only by listening through a series of the sermons and understanding their church culture that we can understand what is a prosperity message. I am reviewing only a portion of the book to present the fundamental errors of the prosperity gospel. I will be quoting the prosperity gospel preachers themselves, and through their own words, I hope you can see clearly the problems in the prosperity gospel.
Index
New thought movement
Prosperity Gospel
A Disorted View of God
Mind Over Matter
An Exalted view of Man
Focus on Health and Wealth
Health Claims of the Prosperity Gospel
New thought movement
Prosperity gospel sprang from new thought movement. New thought began around 1895. It is not a church or a denomination. New thought has beliefs not found in the bible. The pioneers of new thought are Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and Phineas Quimby (1802-1866)
The chief tenets of New Thought are: (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_thought )
Infinite Intelligence or God is omnipotent and omnipresent.
Spirit is the ultimate reality.
True human self-hood is divine.
Divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good.
All disease is mental in origin.
Right thinking has a healing effect.
In the early 20th century, books on health and success started to incorporate new thought
Ernest Holmes - Creative Mind and success
Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich
Wallace D Wattles - The Science of getting Rich
Ralph Waldo Trine - In Tune with the Infinite Fullness of Peace, Power and Plenty (1897)
Ralph’s book sold millions and was translated into over 20 languages.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City popularized New thought ideas. His Church was part of the Dutch Reformed Church , a historical, conservative Calvinistic denomination. Norman writings combine bible and new thought. He is best known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
In another book Guide to Confident Living Norman had chapters like
Prayer - The Most powerful form of Energy
How to think your way to success
Change your thoughts and you change everything
Phineas Quimby quotes
“If I believe I am sick , I am sick, for my feelings are my sickness, and my sickness is my belief, and my belief is my mind. Therefore all disease is in the mind or belief”( Phineas Quimby The Quimbly Manuscripts)
Prosperity Gospel
Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) is the father of the modern prosperity gospel. He was the pastor of the New Covenant Baptist Church and founder and president of Bethel Bible Institute in Spencer, Massachusetts. He blended new thought with the bible. He is most famous for the prosperity gospel phrase “What I confess, I possess”
Kenyon quotes
“Confessing always goes ahead of healing. Don’t watch the symptoms, watch the word, and be sure that your confession is bold and vigorous. Don’t listen to people. Act on the word. Be a doer of the word. It is God speaking. You are healed. The word says you are. Don’t listen to the senses. Give the word its place. God cannot lie” ( E W Kenyon Jesus the Healer )
“You will seldom rise above your words. If you talk sickness you will go to the level of your conversation. If you talk weakness and failure you will act it. You keep saying
‘I can’t work’ or ‘I can’t do this’ and your words react to your body. Why is this? It is because you are a spirit being. You are not a physical being. Basically you are a spirit and spirit registers words just as a piece of blotting paper takes ink” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
“The value of an investment is its dividends. The value of Christianity is what you get out of it. We are Christians for what we can get in this life, and we claim a hope of a world to come, where pain and sorrow cannot claim us as victims, and death cannot cut short our joys. We also demand that God we serve and worship shall hear our petitions, protect us in danger, comfort us in sorrow” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
“God never planned that we should live in poverty, physical, mental or spiritual. He made Israel go to the head of the nations financially. When we go into partnership with Him, and we learn His ways of doing business, we cannot be failures. Failures are not God made. God never made a weakling or an inefficient man. He is purely a human product. You can’t be a failure for His wisdom is your wisdom; His ability in every department of life is your ability. All you need to do is study the Word of God and get the knowledge that is imparted to you there. Then He will give the ability to make your life a success.” ( Simmons E W Kenyon )
A Distorted view of God
Some prosperity gospel preachers have a vague or distorted view of God.
Kenneth Copeland
“I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the bible actually is .... The biggest one in the whole bible is God.... Now the reason you don’t think God as a failure is He never said He’s a failure. And you’re not a failure until you say you’re one”
(quoted from Kenneth Copeland on Praise a Thon program on TBN - April 1988, also quoted in Hannegraaff Christianity in Crisis . Copeland was suggesting that God has been disappointed or suffered setbacks just like us and we get down on ourselves. His fuller quotation is " I mean. He lost his top ranking , most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least - that's a big loss, man" Arguably Copeland was trying to encourage his audience but instead he ends up demeaning God's character and sovereignty)
Creflo Dollar
“You know Jesus, in one Scripture in the Bible, he went on a journey and he was tired. you better hope God don't get tired. Isaiah 50 says we have a God who fainteth not, neither is weary. but Jesus did, if he came as God and he got tired , he says he sat down by the well because he was tired. Boy we’re in trouble. you know the Bible says God never sleeps nor slumbers?” (Creflo Dollar message titled Jesus Growth into Sonship 8 Dec 2002)
Mind over Matter
In prosperity gospel, words are a force. Words are the power of mind over matter. Believers must visualize, speak and have faith in their words, then only can God work on their behalf.
Creflo Dollar
“God uses words to create what he wants to exist. Christians have the same ability. For example, when there is lack in your life, call forth abundance to replace it. Say what you believe is true according to the Word. This is not denying what exist. We speak the desired result. When you need healing, say what the Bible says, by his stripes I am healed" (Creflo Dollar Faith : The power that Brings the World to Its knees. Calling Those Things that be not as though They were 2 June 2009 )
"When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are prayng, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass" (Creflo Dollar Prayer Your Path to Success 2 March 2009)
Joel Osteen
“Our words have tremendous power, and whether we want or not, we will give life to what we’re saying, either good or bad... Words are similar to seeds, by speaking them aloud, they are planted in our subconscious minds, and they take a life of their own” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
“There is a miracle in your mouth. If you want to change your world, start by changing your words. If you’ll learn how to speak the right words and keep the right attitude, God will turn that situation around.” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
“When you sense it’s your season, you need to declare it. Words have creative power. You need to hear it, and so does the enemy. You may not feel well but it’s good to announce ‘Health is coming my way. I will live and not die’” (Joel Osteen It's Your Time )
In Joel Osteen’s book, Becoming a better you: 7 Keys to improving your life everyday, he suggest boosting oneself by repeating some of the following statements daily
“I am blessed, I am equipped. I have the favor of God. This is going to be a great day
I am blessed; I am prosperous, I am healthy; I am continually growing wiser”
Exalted view of Man
Prosperity theology inverts the relationship between God and man. There is an overemphasis on man and that God simply exists to meet the needs of man.
Joel Osteen
“I say this humbly. I’ve come to expect to be treated differently. I’ve learned to expect people to want to help me. My attitude is this. I’m a child of the Most High God. My father created the whole universe. He has crowned me with favor; therefore I can expect preferential treatment. I can expect people to go out their way to want to help me.” (Joel Osteen Your Best life now )
Some preachers teach the divinity of man
Kenneth Copeland
" You don't have a God in you, you're one" ( Kenneth Copeland The Force of Love )
Focus on wealth and health
The focus on the prosperity gospel is material prosperity. Almost all prosperity gospel preachers will share similar concepts and use similar scriptural verses to preach wealth and health
Prosperity gospel preachers use the law of compensation. Commonly quoted verses are Ecclesiastes 11:1, Mark 10:30, 2 Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 6:7. Christians are told to give to the church (not other organizations) generously because God will give them back more in return. This then results in a spiral of increasing prosperity.
Kenneth Copeland
"You must realize that it is God's will for you to prosper. This is available to you and frankly, it would be stupid of you not to partake of it" (Kenneth Copeland Laws of Prosperity)
Gloria Copeland
“Give a $10 and receive $1000, give $1000 and receive $100000....In short Mark 10:30 is a very good deal.” (Gloria Copeland God's Will is Prosperity)
Paula White
“God is not magnified when you are broke, busted or disgusted" ( Paula White Prosperity )
Health Claims of the Prosperity Gospel
Prosperity gospel teaches that every Christian has the right to be healed. And this can be achieved by exercising faith. It claims that physical healing and financial prosperity have been provided in the atonement.
Robert Bolden
"As a believer we understand that healing belongs to us as a covenant right. We also must exercise our rights by using God's word concerning healing. Isaiah 53:4-5, Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24, clearly these scriptures tell us that healing belongs to us. We also see in Philippians 2:9 'Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every other name' so, we have the right and privilege to use that name against asthma and everything that is associated with it. In Mark 11:23 the Word says that whosoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. In this case the mountain is asthma, and we say to asthma be removed and be cast into the sea, and no doubt"
(Robert Bolden in Fred Price ministry magazine , was discussing about asthma, it causes and treatment. He encouraged people to consult a doctor and to claim their right to be healed)
Kenneth Copeland
“The basic principle of the Christian life is to know that God put our sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, grief and poverty on Jesus at the Calvary”
Kenneth Hagin
"I believe that it is the plan of God our Father that no believer should ever be sick... It is not - I state boldly - it is not the will of God my Father that we should suffer with cancer and other dreaded diseases which bring pain and anguish. No! It is God's will we be healed" (Kenneth Hagin Healing: The Fathers Provision, Word of Faith)
“Don’t ever tell anyone sickness is the will of God for us. It isn’t. Healing and health are the will of God for mankind. If sickness were the will of God, heaven would be filled with sickness and disease.”
“The cure to illness is to have a positive outlook, thinking and saying the right words. If healing does not occur, then the problem is lack of faith”
Joyce Meyer
“I have faith, for I am a believer. I believe I receive my healing and my faith makes me whole. The power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in me. My faith puts that power into active operation in my body. Disease has no choice. There is no chance for its survival in my body. That power is flowing in me and makes me whole. I am free. I am entirely free from sickness and disease. I am whole. I believe I have received my healing and my faith has made me whole” (Meyer Healing Scriptures)
Robert Tilton
“God will always heal on faith” (Robert Tilton God's laws of success)
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law " Deuteronomy 29:29
A study of medicine with evidence from the bible
This website is the sole property of Dr Benjamin Cheah
Materials excluding links on this website are not copyrighted. They may be reproduced and distributed without fees.
This website is the sole property of Dr Benjamin Cheah
Materials excluding links on this website are not copyrighted. They may be reproduced and distributed without fees.