Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Prosperity Gospel: What It Is and What It's Not | Torah | Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

If you obey God, will you get physical blessings in life? If you're a good Christian, does God owe you good things? Is the prosperity gospel real? Why is the prosperity gospel harmful. Keith uses Deuteronomy 28:1-14 to share the danger of the health and wealth gospel. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 28:1-14 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. One of the most dangerous Christian heresies spread around the world today is called the Prosperity Gospel. And one reason it's so dangerous is because it can be so difficult to identify. And yet, it will lead people away from Jesus by distorting the meaning of Jesus' life and death.

It's critics, and I'm definitely one of them. call it the prosperity gospel or the health wealth gospel, but the people who teach it try to pass it off as the biblical gospel or as biblical Christianity. Let me define the prosperity gospel and then I'll tell you why I'm bringing it up in the context of Deuteronomy 28, which is where we are on our trip through the Pentateuch. It's really simple to define. Prosperity teaching says that through faith God will bless you with health and wealth in this life. And if you aren't healthy and wealthy, it's because you don't have enough faith. Let me give you a quick example. My wife and I had friends, Larry and Kathy, and they were saints. They were hardworking. They were godly people. They had a great family.

They volunteered in their church, everything you would want out of a Christian family. Not only that, but they were also trying to start a new ministry to orphans and people in foster care. Now, Kathy came down with an advanced form of very aggressive cancer. She wasn't given much time to live. Her friends, her church people, the people you would think would encourage her to hold on to Jesus during this time. Some of them came and said to her, Kathy, if you had more faith, God will heal you. God wants you to live. He doesn't want you to die of this cancer. You just need to believe him. And the worse the cancer got, the more they told her that she needed to have more faith. Well, you can imagine what this would do to a young mom who wanted desperately to live.

for all kinds of reasons. For them to make her death about her lack of faith, well, that's cruel. And it's definitely unbiblical. Now, all this connects to Deuteronomy 28 because the chapter contains a list of blessings and curses that will visit Israel based on whether they obey God's law. Tanya will deal with the curses in tomorrow's episode.

Today we're going to talk about the blessings. So let's ask the question, If I obey God, will I get physical blessings in this life? That's what the prosperity gospel teaches. Here's a sample of the blessings we find in Deuteronomy 28. I'll start reading in verse 2. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock, the calves of your herd and the lambs of your flocks. your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

Now here's verse 11. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock, and the crops of your ground, in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. So the first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 are a lot like those verses. They promise immediate blessing for those who obey God. So you might be wondering if the prosperity preachers are right. They aren't. Remember that Deuteronomy records Moses' charge to the Israelites right before they enter the

promised land. That's why so many of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 have to do with land and crops and livestock. God is fulfilling his promise that he made to Abraham and his descendants to give them the promised land. Now, this never meant that every individual Israelite would experience financial blessing even in the promised land. We know that because God commanded radical generosity among the Israelites while they lived there. There's no need for radical generosity if everyone's rich. So what do we do with these promises of blessing in Deuteronomy 28? We can't directly apply those promises that were made to Israel to us because we're not Israel living in the promised land. So when a Christian reads Deuteronomy 28, I think we should hear God telling us that

he always keeps his promises. He is faithful. He kept his promises to Israel and he will keep his promises to us. Also, we should hear that his blessings in Jesus are better than we could ever hope for. He promises us forgiveness and peace and joy and so much more. But those blessings won't be fully realized until Jesus returns and brings heaven to earth. Jesus says that in this world you will have trouble. Paul says that the godly will be persecuted. In the book of Acts, when the apostles are preaching, they say, through many hardships, you will enter the kingdom of God. James tells us to consider it joy when we face trials. When Jesus is listing the blessings that will come to his followers, he puts persecution on the list. See, Jesus considers persecution and suffering a blessing

that comes to believers. So if the Bible doesn't teach the prosperity gospel, then where did it come from? Historically speaking, the prosperity gospel is related to Pentecostal and charismatic churches. Now, that does not mean that all or even most Pentecostal and charismatic churches teach the prosperity gospel, but it is the tradition most associated with it. Some prominent names associated with the prosperity gospel are names like Orl Roberts, T.D. Jakes, Crefflow Dollar, Benny Hinn, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Joel Osteen, Paula White. Now, not all these teachers are as blatant as others. Some are far more subtle, but all of them, to one degree or another, teach that the good life, and by that they mean health and wealth, come by having faith in God. They avoid

Jesus' teaching to deny yourself and take up your cross. Many of those teachers live a lifestyle that reflects the lifestyles of the rich and famous more than Jesus. They flash their wealth because it's a sign to you, their follower, that if you believe like they do, you too can be wealthy. Remember that no one obeyed God more faithfully than Jesus, and yet Jesus had no place to lay his head. Jesus was falsely accused and then crucified. If the prosperity gospel is true, it failed Jesus big time.

The people who are most attracted to the prosperity gospel are those who are living in poverty. That's true whether you're in the United States or in the developing world. It's particularly sad to see millions attracted to churches that teach this prosperity gospel, hoping to get rich, or at least to have enough money to get buy on. The prosperity gospel prays on those in need and promises a quick fix to their problem. The biggest error of the prosperity gospel, though, is that it distorts the picture of Jesus. The prosperity gospel makes Jesus a means to an end. They say, believe in Jesus so that you can get the real treasure of health and wealth.

But Jesus is not a means to an end. He is the end. There's no better treasure than him. God can't give you something better than himself because there is nothing better than God. If you have Jesus and everything this world has to offer you, you have no more than the person who has Jesus and nothing else. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week.

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