The Trinity Broadcasting Network and a growing number of Pentecostal and Baptist teachers are preaching that an essential aspect of the Christian life involves laying claim to material prosperity as a right of believers. Variously called the Word of Faith movement, health and wealth, or (less approvingly) "name it and claim it," this teaching has gained prominence in the past few decades. Some Word of Faith teachers believe that it is material blessing that sets Christianity apart from rival religions, and that without it, Christianity is no better than Old Testament Judaism.
I have explained the basics of the Word of Faith movement in a previous article. Here I wish to analyze the movement's health-and-wealth claims by comparing them with the Bible. I will also try to set forth some biblical principles for how to deal with abundance and the lack of it as a Christian, and deal directly with the more common Word of Faith proof-texts. I will not be dealing here with much of the aberrant theology of the Word of Faith movement (which changes frequently), or with the questions of faith-healing and charismatic gifts (which I address elsewhere).
(Note: Before we begin, I wish to point out that health and wealth teaching is not exactly synonymous with "Word of Faith" teaching, even though I use the terms interchangeably in this article. Word of Faith or Word-Faith includes the idea that we speak health and wealth into reality for ourselves, while more mainstream health/wealth advocates link prosperity to humble requests in prayer or to tithing and giving to the poor. The two have in common the conviction that God's will is for all His people to prosper, that we are guaranteed that prosperity if we know how to access it, and that material abundance is a very important aspect of the Christian life. Both ascribe suffering to Satan, and they tend to endorse one another's ministries. The difference is that health-and-wealth teaching does not necessariliy imply a belief in positive confession or "speaking a word of faith.")
Isaiah 53:4-6 is one of the most important texts for our understanding of what Jesus accomplished by His death. This familiar passage, translated literally, says:
| 4 | Surely our diseases He took up, and our pains He carried, Yet we considered Him struck, beaten by God and humiliated. |
| 5 | But he was pierced for our trespasses, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment for our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we have been healed. |
| 6 | We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way. And Yahweh laid on Him the iniquity of us all. |
That Jesus died to save us from our sins is clear both in Isaiah 53 and many other portions of Scripture. But Word of Faith teachers often state that Jesus also died to deliver us from our diseases. As a result, either we are already healed and are merely deceived by illusory symptoms, or else healing is available for the asking, and guaranteed to us if we ask.
First, let's consider the question biblically. Verse 4 does speak of Jesus taking away diseases. This word in Hebrew nearly always refers to physical ailments or injuries (e.g., 1 Kgs. 17:17; 2 Kgs. 1:2; 2 Chr. 16:12; 21:19), and we should take the word pains in this sense as well, since it is in parallel with diseases. However, we should regard this verse as fulfilled in Jesus' ministry of miraculous healing during His time on earth. Matthew says as much when he quotes this very verse in 8:17 of his Gospel.
But what of verse 5? The references to punishment and wounds, in parallel with pierced and crushed, obviously refer to the events surrounding Christ's death. In this case, the parallel structure of the passage works against the Word of Faith teachers. These lines have to do with peace and deliverance from sin. Being cleansed and made whole from sin is the truest kind of healing, and the word heal is used with a spiritual meaning in both testaments (Psa. 41:4; Jer. 3:22; 33:6; Hos. 14:4; Matt. 13:15 and parallels; Luke 4:18). Also consider Mark 2:17: "It is not the healthy who have need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call righteous people but sinners."
A second consideration is that believers often fall sick and are not healed when they ask. The forgiveness obtained by Christ's death is freely granted to all who come to Him, but even the most faithful of God's people suffer from sickness. Word of Faith teachers must therefore come up with barriers that prevent us from receiving our rightful healing: sin, lack of faith, demonic affliction, or simply not using the right "formula." Ultimately, the blame for not being healed rests with the afflicted believer. However, it is difficult to see such a pattern in the Bible. Examples of sick Christians in the New Testament (discussed below) show no indication that they were guaranteed miraculous healing, and in fact suggest the very opposite. Even the most popular faith-healers of the past eventually got sick and died, even Smith Wiggleworth, who claimed to raise the dead, and more recently, Ken Hagin, popularly known as the father of the modern Word of Faith movement.
One final thought is that once we partake of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross, we have it forever. "The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29). Both mainstream evangelicals and Word of Faith teachers believe that our forgiveness is eternal. Yet God sometimes uses sickness to judge His people (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:30). But if forgiveness and healing were both secured for us on the cross, then how can we lose one and not the other? This is an inconsistency that Word of Faith teachers have yet to address, but both the Bible and common experience speak clearly enough that the logical problem is relatively insignificant.
At this point in our analysis, we may say that God might very well promise healing (we have yet to determine that), but not here. Any conclusion that physical healing is secured through Christ's death must be derived from other passages. But all other passages regarding Christ's death have to do with deliverance from sin and reconciliation with God.
One health-and-wealth website opens with this statement: "The Abrahamic covenant guaranteed physical healing, material prosperity and family well-being for Old Testament Judaism. Christianity must do the same in the Christian era. Otherwise, Old Testament Judaism is superior to Christianity." This syllogism assumes that the special spiritual blessings we have in Christ are inferior to the material blessings promised to Israel in Deuteronomy 28 and other passages. I will deal with our relationship to Israelite blessings later, but for now let's simply deal with the relative value of spiritual and material blessings.
We can gain some perspective here just through common sense. Christianity is about a relationship with God. He is the Creator and Ruler of this universe, and without Christ we are in rebellion against Him. In our salvation our plight is reversed, and God is now our friend (though still our Lord). We also have the promise of eternal joy, as opposed to seventy or so years on earth followed by eternal punishment. These facts alone should clarify that spiritual blessings are superior.
The Bible repeatedly warns against fixing our attention on material possessions. While the Bible does teach that we should be responsible with our money, this statement by Jesus is typical of His teaching: "Beware, and be on guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). In 1 Timothy 6:5-11, Paul condemns those who "suppose that godliness is a means of gain." Rather, "godliness with contentment" is itself gain, and so we should flee from the love of money to pursue...what? Spiritual things–"righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness." We must not fall prey to the notion that spiritual blessings are nebulous and material things are somehow more "real." What is more real than the things that will last for eternity?
There are many things in the Bible more important than health and wealth. One obviously superior blessing is what awaits believers in eternity. Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven..., for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:19-21). Likewise, Paul says that in this life, we "prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:6). Life here is good, but not as good as heaven. This is also why Jesus can say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20). Perhaps the greatest passage contrasting this world with the next is Romans 8:19-24, in which we groan along with creation, awaiting "the redemption of our body," which now is in slavery to corruption. This hope is by definition future, for "hope that is seen is not hope," and "with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."
The Bible also presents generosity and suffering as superior to material gain and success. When Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), this is true not because giving qualifies us to receive even more, but because the ability to give is itself a gift from God greater than whatever we ourselves give. In addition, when Paul discusses the remarkable generosity of the materially poor Macedonians, he speaks of "the grace of God that has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality" (2 Cor. 8:1-2). Paul desires that God would bless the Corinthians too with "this gracious work" (8:6). And when Paul once dares to boast of his faithfulness to Christ, he lists not houses, fancy transportation, and millions in the bank, but his many sufferings. These include "labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure," what Paul calls "external things" (2 Cor. 11:23-30). He points to his weaknesses rather than to his profits as evidence of his faithfulness as a servant of God.
Of course, our eternity with God will involve material blessing, for we will have material (though immortal) bodies and will live on a new earth. It is then that we will receive recompense for whatever injustices and loss afflicted us in this life. Nevertheless, even our eternal riches take a back seat in Scripture to our being with Christ. The proclamation at the descent of the new Jerusalem is, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them" (Rev. 21:3). And in the letters to the seven churches, the blessings promised to "those who overcome" are spiritual: access to the tree of life, exemption from the second death, a hospitality stone (granting the guest permission to visit whenever he likes), the Morning Star, righteous standing before God, a place in God's temple, and the right to sit with Jesus on the throne (Rev. 2-3).
With regard to family well-being, the Bible of course commands us to love our spouses, children, and parents. But a life fully devoted to Christ may also bring friction in the family. We would do well to consider Jesus' teaching: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matt. 10:34-37). It is for this reason that Paul had to address the problem of women whose unbelieving husbands abandoned them (1 Cor. 7:12-16). We see this especially among Jewish, Muslim, and strict Catholic families. Adults and chlidren alike may be disowned for embracing the gospel of Christ. We know that the ideal is a loving Christian family that stays together. But when one or more members of the family do not have God as their first priority, God does not promise "family well-being." That is something even believing families must strive to maintain by following the biblical model.
When Jesus said, "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10), what is the abundant life? It is evident that spiritual blessings are not all about heaven. Some of our spiritual blessings have already entered into our discussion, but it is worthwhile to spend a minute or two observing just some of what the Bible says Christ has given us as believers in the here and now.
Let's take a walk through the first two chapters of Ephesians. The third verse shows the relevance to our topic: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ." We already know from this verse that the blessings Paul is about to discuss are spiritual rather than material. (We could mention, on a side note, that it was in Ephesus that Timothy was serving when Paul warned him against lovers of money.) In Ephesians 1:4, Paul says God chose us to be "holy and blameless" before Him. Now that is a remarkable blessing. We are blameless because Christ has paid for our sins, and we are regarded as holy because Christ's righteousness is imputed to our account. We live holy lives because of the work of the Holy Spirit, who has set us apart for God's purposes. According to verse 5, the Father "predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself." We are children of God, a blessing Paul develops more thoroughly in Galatians 3. All this is by the "riches" of God's grace, which God "freely bestowed" (v. 6) and "lavished on us" (v. 8). In Christ we have "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (v. 7). That is, our will is set free from its slavery to sin, and every single one of our sins is forgiven. In verses 9-10 we read that God "made known to us the mystery of His will...with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ." In other words, even though things don't seem to "add up" in this life, God has given us special insight into how Christ will accomplish ultimate justice. In verse 11 we read of our inheritance as heirs with Christ. Again, this is one of many spiritual blessings and is thus not a dozen or so of the "cattle on a thousand hills" (Psa. 50:10) but has to do with eternity. In verses 13 and 14, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit, which is a seal, a pledge, a guarantee of that inheritance "with a view to the redemption of God's own possession." Just think of that: you, as a believer, are God's very own possession. That itself is an unimaginable privilege.
As in Ephesians 1:7, Paul brings up riches again in chapter 2: "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (2:4-7). Again, Paul is speaking of our freedom from bondage to sin, but also of our fellowship with Christ and (as the context makes clear) with one another. In 2:10 we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works," not just as a duty but as a wonderful privilege to be "fellow workers together with God" (1 Cor. 3:9). The main point of chapter two is that we Gentiles who "formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both [Jews and Gentiles] one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall" (2:13-14). This wall was a structure in the temple beyond which Gentiles could not step, on pain of death. The peace Paul mentions here is also the peace Isaiah spoke of in 53:5. It is not a life of material ease but a peaceful relationship with the very God we warred against when we were lost. Finally, Paul says that we who were once strangers to the things of God are now "fellow citizens with the holy ones, and are of God's household," being built into a church which is the "dwelling of God in the Spirit" (2:21-22).
We could also mention the enabling power of the Spirit in our lives, granting spiritual gifts and producing the fruits of the Spirit, which are not material things but character qualities and abilities to serve one another (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4; 1 Pet. 4). Certainly things such as love, kindness, self-control, and joy are more valuable in the long run than material well-being. We know they are more pleasing to God (Jer. 9:23-24). A poor man with love, kindness, self-control, and joy is content, eagerly serving God despite difficulties. On the other hand, material blessings by themselves merely makes a life of hatred, malice, indulgence, and misery a tad more comfortable.
A Word of Faith teacher might respond, "But people in Old Testament Judaism were saved, too, and were promised material blessings. What do we have that they didn't?" It is true that the Israelites knew of salvation by grace. David said, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity!" (Psa. 32:1-2a). Although God instituted animal sacrifices as a shadow of things to come, the faithful Israelites' hope pointed forward to the Messiah (Heb. 10:1-10), who alone took away their sins and ours. We would also grant that it was God who enabled Old Testament saints to remain faithful. If Jesus' statement, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" was true for the disciples (John 15:5), it was true for Noah, Job, and Daniel as well.
I encourage you to read through Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews over the course of this week. They explain better than I could what spiritual realities make the new covenant better than the old one. But here it is in a nutshell: First, OT saints strained to comprehend mysteries that are now clear to us (Eph. 3:4-7; 1 Pet. 1:10-12). Whereas they had to look forward through sometimes vague prophecies, we can look back at what is now recorded history. They had only the Torah and the prophets; we have the completed Bible and Jesus Christ as God's most perfect revelation. The many diverse excellencies of Christ, the Trinitarian doctrine of God, and a more revealing glimpse of the afterlife were hidden in past ages. Second, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling and enabling us in ways Old Testament saints could not imagine. Recall Moses' plea, "Would that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put His Spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:29). It may only be a verbal nuance, but it is interesting to note that in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was usually "upon" a person and not "in" him. That there is a difference is confirmed by John 7:39, in which "the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). Finally, the New Testament era saw the formation of the church as a local body of believers, all gifted to do the work of God. In the former times, God worked through a nation nearly always dominated by those who were God's people in name only. Gentiles were generally outside the covenant, and only priests and Levites were privileged to minister. In Christ, there is no longer any difference between Jew and Gentile, baptism and church discipline are designed to ensure that church members are true children of God, and all are equipped to minister. The New Testament tells of encouragement and fellowship on a level that is rare in the Old Testament if present at all. No longer confined to a single geographic area, Christians are scattered to do God's work all over the world, proclaiming the gospel everywhere to gather a people of every tribe, nation, and tongue. I myself would be utterly without hope if the gospel hadn't extended to the British Isles from which my ancestors descended. The same can be said for believers in South America, Africa, China, and anywhere else outside Israel. I'll take New Testament salvation over Deuteronomy's blessing/curse formulas any day.
One argument for health and wealth actually relates to spiritual blessing. Word of Faith teachers often state that believers have authority, either as images of God or as children of God, and that this authority allows us to claim for ourselves whatever we desire. It is true that John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right [or authority] to become children of God." But what does this authority entail? Once again, the Bible gives us the answers.
The broadest authority given to man came with his creation. Genesis 1:26-28 recounts that God gave man dominion over all the animals, as God's representative. Psalm 8 reflects on this dominion. A key part of Word of Faith teaching was that God was delegating His Lordship of the physical realm to mankind, and that man gave that authority to Satan when they fell. The plan of redemption then involves God's efforts to get His authority back from Satan and return it to the rightful hands of man. Man's status as the image of God also brings with it certain powers, including the ability to bring our desires into reality through our spoken words, which presumably have creative power. Some of the more extreme Word of Faith teachers have even referred to humans as incarnations of God or "gods with a little 'g.'"
This is a total misunderstanding of what it means to be in God's image. In ancient times, when a king conquered a land, he would leave an image (i.e., statue or likeness) of himself in the land to represent his dominion over that area. While the king returned to his home country, what the people did with the image was regarded as a thing done to the king himself. Ambassadors ensured that the image was respected. This is the picture of Genesis; man is both God's image and God's ambassador to care for the earth and to represent God in His ownership of it. Genesis 9 demands payment for any man or animal who destroyed God's image by murdering a man. But man is not a god any more than the statue was a king.
Of course, there are ways in which man reflects and resembles God. We have a degree of rationality, creativity, personality, wisdom, morality, knowledge, love, justice, mercy, etc., whereas God has them infinitely and perfectly. These are what theologians call God's communicable attributes–those He can transmit to us. But such things as omnipotence, sovereignty, transcendence, and immutability are incommunicable; only God possesses such qualities. The Bible gives every indication that the act of creation belongs to God alone. Only God is the subject of the verb to create, and His creative ability is proof that He alone is God (Isa. 40:26; 45:7-12; Amos 4:13). The oft-quoted verse about "calling those things which be not as though they were" (Rom.4:7) is a reference to God as the only hope of Abraham, and in no way ascribes creative power to humans.
Perhaps there is a special kind of authority given only to Christians that goes beyond just being in the image of God. Well, there is such a thing as Christian liberty. We are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13) and are no longer under its obligations. While we still owe God our obedience, we are not required to be circumcised, to observe the Sabbath and the feasts legalistically, or to make animal sacrifices. In fact, to do so may be to insult grace and deny Christ's fulfillment of the Mosaic law (Gal. 5:2-3; Heb. 10). Paul cautions about the misuse of Christian liberty (e.g., 1 Cor. 8; Gal. 5:1) and also gives up his own rights as an apostle if it will make his ministry more effective (1 Cor. 9:4-6, 18). In the Christian life, authority and rights are not things to be grasped (Phil. 2:6).
God has also granted authority to the church to conduct its own affairs. This includes disciplining church members. It is in this context that Jesus promises, "Where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst" (Matt. 18:20). What Jesus is saying, and what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, is that if a congregation is united in the need to censure a member who shows no evidence of conversion or who is causing discord, He supports their right to exercise discipline.
The believer's authority will be extended when Christ returns and establishes His kingdom. Jesus said the apostles would "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28), and that those who overcome will have "authority to judge the nations" (Rev. 2:26). It is at that time that we will also judge angels (1 Cor. 6:2). What does all this have to do with health and wealth? Not much. That's the point.
Where health and wealth enters the picture is in the authority to command spiritual powers. What some call "kingdom authority" ultimately arises from the ministry of Jesus and the apostles in casting out demons. (I will not take much time here discussing demons and spiritual warfare; my thoughts are posted in another article.) Jesus granted the disciples authority to cast out demons when He appointed them (Mark 3:14), when He sent out the twelve (Matt. 10:1; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1), and when He sent out the seventy (Luke 10:19).
Do all believers have the authority to cast out demons? Only Jesus and appointed disciples cast them out in Scripture. A magician named Simon asked to buy that authority but was denied it (Acts 8:18), and the sons of a Jewish sorcerer tried to appropriate the names of Jesus and Paul for their rituals with disastrous results (Acts 19:14-16). However, demonization has been a reality throughout the church period, particularly in centers of occultic activity, and there are no apostles today to cast them out. Although exorcism is nowhere listed in the Bible as a spiritual gift, it seems reasonable to conclude that at least some Christians may be able to cast out demons. One caution is that superstition and empty rituals abound in this area. Errors about demons go all the way back to Tertullian in the Christian era, and from there into post-Old Testament Judaism. The Bible makes it clear that incantations and ceremonies are not effective, and spiritual warfare is not a matter to be entered into lightly. It is also true that the Spirit protects the believer from being internally afflicted by demons.
Word of Faith teachers make application of demonology by suggesting that poverty and sickness are attacks of the devil. James 4:7 says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," and so the right kind of rebuke, they say, will prevent the devil from snatching away our health and possessions. In this case, we are not talking about the kind of demonization presented in the Gospels, but the kind of external affliction Paul mentions in 1 Thessalonians 2:18 or the attacks of Job 1-2. Satan's primary roles in the Bible are those of tempter and accuser. But Satan is sometimes behind the loss of possessions, health, and even life, as we see in the Book of Job. The Word of Faith answer to these losses is to rebuke Satan and reclaim what is rightfully ours.
There are several difficulties with this tactic. First, Satan himself cannot escape God's control; he must ask permission from God to afflict believers (Job 2:4-6). Second, the Bible never tells us to rebuke demonic powers and in fact warns against it. Jude 8-9 and 2 Peter 2:11-12 indicate that even evil celestial beings are worthy of respect (but not to be feared–Matt. 10:28), and that disrespect for them is a mark of false teachers. Third, as we shall see, not all suffering comes from the devil. Some of it actually comes from God. Without question, no believer has the authority to declare himself free from God's work in his life.
Word of Faith teachers and faith healers often express their contempt for the notion that we can learn from suffering. Ken Hagin has written, "You cannot find anywhere in the Bible where God causes these things to happen to teach His people something." We should stop asking what God might be trying to teach us; what we need to do is reclaim our prosperity so we can go on serving God. Suffering comes only from the devil, nowhere else. At best, the idea that God never causes suffering arises from a view of God as never wanting anything that would cause His people unhappiness or inconvenience. God wouldn't hurt anybody, right?
If we take our view of God from the Bible, we see that God often does bring suffering. This is most obvious when God exercises punishment. Here are just a few instances in which God punishes through sickness, calamity, or death: Gen. 12:17; Num. 11:33; Judg. 20:35; 1 Sam. 25:38; 26:10; 2 Kgs. 15:5; 2 Chr. 13:20; Ezek. 28:23; Dan. 9:12-14; Acts 12:23. In one such case, God's punishment involved the death of an innocent child (2 Sam. 12:13-15).
Health-wealth advocates will then acknowledge that sin in our lives can hold us back from God's blessings. But if we are living for Him, and have faith, surely He would not bring suffering to the righteous! The biblical writers did not seem to agree. Hannah sang, "Yahweh kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up. Yahweh makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts" (2 Sam. 2:6). Job said, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?," and "in all this Job did not sin with his lips" (Job 2:10). Amos said, "If a calamity occurs in a city, has not Yahweh done it?" (Amos 3:6). God asked Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh?" (Exod. 4:11). To Isaiah He said, "The One who forms light and creates darkness, who causes well-being and creates calamity; I am Yahweh who does all these" (Isa. 45:6).
We see an example of this in Genesis 41. Based on two dreams God sent to Pharaoh, Joseph prophesies seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of severe famine. Listen to what Joseph says about the situation: "God has told Pharaoh what He is about to do" (41:25). "The matter is determined by God, and God will quickly bring it about" (41:32). In light of these statements, we cannot ascribe the prosperity to God without also attributing the famine to Him. Yes, God provides deliverance from the famine through Joseph's advice later in the chapter, but we must remember that it was God who would send the famine as well as the prosperity. With regard to Joseph himself, he attributes his being sold into slavery by his brothers as an act of God. He says to his brothers, "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God" (Gen. 45:7-8). We should keep in mind while reading this that Joseph spent thirteen years as a slave and a prisoner before his exaltation by Pharaoh.
We should listen to Peter, who tells us that "those who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right." Suffering according to the will of God is a concept devastating to the health and wealth philosophy. In fact, it directly contradicts health and wealth's basic proposition: that God's will for believers is always their prosperity and never their suffering. There are times, according to Peter, when suffering is the will of God. And contrary to Hagin's claims, the Bible does say that God teaches us through suffering. As just one example, consider Psalm 119:71 and 75. The psalmist said, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.... I know, O Yahweh, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." But could God-given suffering include sickness and poverty? We will see in the next section that such things are actually part of the Christian life.
We know that Jesus suffered greatly. "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:7-8). And Jesus suffered not only as our substitute, but also as our example. "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). Suffering is part of our imitation of Christ. Nor are we exempt from suffering on account of Christ's work, because Jesus Himself promised, "In this world you have tribulation" (John 16:33).
Kenneth Copeland's book The Force of Faith says there is "no glory in knuckling down and enduring a trial" (p. 25). But quoting from James, "As an example, brothers, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful" (James 5:10-11). Job did not suffer for doing wrong, and his relief did not come when he first asked. When we read Job's first chapter, we discover that it was indeed God who initiated the chain of events He knew would lead to Job's suffering. Why God did this is never explained in the book, but Job and his friends all learn that God may do as He pleases and is not obligated to keep a hedge around His people, even though He often does so. Job's righteous words were, "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15).
There are literally hundreds of biblical examples of the righteous suffering, and not through their own lack of faith. Hebrews catalogues not only the victories of the faithful, but also their trials: "others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground" (Heb. 11:36-38). Time prevents us from looking at more than a tiny fraction of the examples, but a few will suffice to show that God does not promise prosperity to all His people under the old covenant or the new:
Sickness often comes to believers. Hezekiah became mortally ill in 2 Kings 20:11. God miraculously healed Hezekiah, but Isaiah's announcement from Yahweh suggests that it was God, not Satan, who sent the sickness in the first place. We know that Elisha "became sick with the illness of which he was to die" in 2 Kings 13:14. Elisha was a great healer and even raised the dead on one occasion, and nowhere do we find the slightest hint that his sickness was due to sin or lack of faith. The disciples asked Jesus about a man born blind in John 9:1-3, and He said, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents, but so that the works of God might be displayed in him." God had a higher purpose in mind for making the man less than healthy.
Contrary to the Word of Faith message, believers received their suffering with joy and gratitude. The early church rejoiced "that they had been considered worthy to suffer for the name" (Acts 5:41). Paul knew suffering throughout his ministry, for from his very calling God promised to "show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:15-16), and before his imprisonment, Paul said, "the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me" (Acts 20:23). At times he was "burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life" (2 Cor. 4:8).
Paul and his companions suffered not only persecution, but also the trials that afflict all people. Timothy was subject to frequent ailments, and Paul advised not that Timothy claim his healing, but that he drink wine (for medicinal purposes, 1 Tim. 5:23). Paul also left his companion Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20), and Epaphroditus was sick to the point of death (Phil. 2:27). Paul himself was sick when he first preached to the Galatians (Gal. 4:13). He prayed for relief from a "thorn in the flesh," but God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Paul also says that this affliction was given to keep him from boasting of the revelations given to him.
Paul taught that suffering was not a hindrance to the Christian life, but an important part of it. "It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). "We are children of God...if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him" (Rom. 8:16-17). When he lists common trials, it is not "over these things," but " in these things" that "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom. 8:35-37). "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29). Suffering was a privilege for Paul because it brought him closer to his goal: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:10).
As I have stated, Paul was not an isolated example, but he was one of the best. And so he can say, "Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God" (1 Tim. 1:8), and "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:3). Peter also taught the value of suffering, "for this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly" (1 Pet. 2:19). "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation" (1 Pet. 4:12-13).
"How can you glorify God in your body when it doesn't function right?," asks Fred Price. Rod Parsley's book He Came First says that since Christ "came first," in everything, Christians show their Christlikeness by having the best of everything. Joel Osteen has extended this idea to include preferential treatment by the world in everything from special seating at restaurants to exemption from traffic tickets, all because we are children of God. Of course this includes having the highest income on the block. A rich God should have rich followers, right? Christians who are content with being poor are telling the world they serve a poor God. John Avanzini's book Rich God, Poor God was written to make that very point. In the words of one Word of Faith website, being healthy and rich enables a believer "to more adequately demonstrate God's glory to an unbelieving, needy world." The Word of Faith teachers are united here more than anywhere else: that we glorify God through visible success and implicitly malign Him if we refuse to claim our blessings. But is this the biblical message?
God's response to Paul's thorn in the flesh gives us a principle that explains one reason Christian suffering is often part of God's will. Remember that He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul's response to the trial? "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (12:10). God often chooses to glorify Himself through the most unlikely people and circumstances, rather than through those the world favors.
Paul also makes this point in First Corinthians: "For look at your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born. But God chose the foolish of the world to humiliate the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to humiliate the strong, and God chose the low-born of the world and the despised–those that are 'not'–to humiliate those that 'are,' so that no flesh might boast in God's sight" (1:26-29). We find in Second Corinthians that some in the church in Corinth doubted Paul's abilities as a minister because he was not a very glorious creature himself. Paul spends much of the letter making the point that his weakness allows God to receive the glory for whatever the Lord accomplishes through him. God is particularly glorified when Christians patiently endure trials:
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. 4:7-11)
Paul says at the end of that same chapter that "light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
We should always remember that God is never constrained by our sickness or our poverty. In fact, His activity is not limited by anything we do. "But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'" (Dan. 4:35). But when it comes to the people God will use to glorify Himself, He "opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble" (Jam. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). We show humility when we submit ourselves to whatever life God would have for us. When we commit to live for Christ, we do so, just as in marriage, "in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer." This is what brings glory to God.
Having considered the more common Word of Faith claims, I want to address an argument that is beginning to appear more and more among health-and-wealth teachers. A misguided hymn once said, "Every promise in the Book is mine," and it sometimes seems that Word of Faith teachers fall prey to this fallacy when taking verses out of context. But sometimes their use of promises made to people in the Old Testament has some logic to it. The growing trend is to say that we are entitled to riches and wellness because we are the Israel of God, the true children of Abraham. If the promises made to the Patriarchs and to the Israelites at Mount Sinai apply to us, then we should be able to claim them since we have been grafted into the covenant.
I give a fuller discussion of the covenant and its promises in this article. This is a summary of that discussion: God does have one covenant plan of salvation for all time. With roots going all the way back to the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15), the covenant as established by God with a people that were His own possession began with Abraham. God confirmed that covenant with Abraham's family and again at Mount Sinai with the Israelites in the days of Moses.
The essence of this covenant was always salvation by grace through faith that God would atone for sins and defeat evil through a coming Messiah. Throughout the Old Testament, this salvation was primarily for the Jews, but after the coming of Christ, the gospel of God's kingdom was sent out to all nations. As Gentiles, we who believe in Christ are grafted into the people of God as a wild olive branch might be grafted into a cultivated olive tree. Today, both Jews and Gentiles alike who are born again are one people of God through their covenant relationship with Him, on account of the finished work of Christ.
But in the Old Testament, God's people sacrificed lambs, bulls, and goats to cover their sins, and they could approach God only through the work of priests and Levites. Gentiles could only come into the covenant through circumcision, and everyone was obliged to follow a strict written code that covered every aspect of life. These were the requirements of the covenant, and blessings and curses were attached to show the consequences of obedience or disobedience.
What are these blessings and curses? Well, God's promises to Abraham were to give him possession of the land of Canaan, to give him many descendants, and to make his seed a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Abraham also became rich, but this was before, not after, God made His covenant with Abraham. The Israelites were chosen because of God's promise to the patriarchs. They were always numerous, and on Mt. Sinai they received the full form of the covenant. In Deuteronomy 28 we see that material prosperity, health, and success in battle were among the blessings, and that the curses included poverty, famine, and defeat. But most emphatic were promises that obeying the Law allowed the people to stay in the promised land, and disobedience would bring deportation and captivity.
This is a far cry from traditional Christianity, so what changed? Hebrews explains that in the days of the Old Testament, the covenant was administered to the Israelites in shadows and symbols. Rituals of material cleanness and uncleanness, dissociation from death, keeping the Sabbath, and making animal sacrifices pointed to higher, spiritual realities that would be fulfilled in the coming of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit. The same is true for material blessings and curses. They are fulfilled and indeed surpassed by the blessings we have in Christ, and by the warnings to those who prove their faith false by abandoning Christianity. When we read Old Testament covenant passages, we must be careful to distinguish the eternal messages of God's covenant of salvation, His fatherly love, and His moral demands from the requirements and promises related to the Law of Moses. The New Testament is very clear about this. One of the key messages of the Book of Galatians is that if we try to claim part of the Law for ourselves, we obligate ourselves to the whole of the Law and abandon the grace of Christ. And Hebrews warns that those who do this are without hope because there is no sacrifice for sins apart from Christ; the "old covenant" is no longer in effect.
(This would be a good place to say a word about the salvation of Jews, even though it's not a health/wealth issue. In the New Testament, Jews and Gentiles alike are called to believe in Christ as the only way to salvation. Stephen's speech in Acts 7 and Paul's discussion in Romans 9-11 explain that salvation was never guaranteed to every biological descendant of Abraham, or even of Israel. The faithful were those whose faith and hope were in the righteousness of God. Israel's history was often one of rebellion against God; the same can be said of much of the institutional church in more recent history. The true believers among the Jews recognized and embraced the Messiah when He came; those who rejected the Messiah were never God's people to begin with. The standard is the same for Jew or Gentile now as then, and Romans 9-11 seems to indicate that while the Gentiles dominate the church for now, a revival of Christianity among Jews will accompany Christ's return.)
In conclusion, the old covenant did indeed have material promises, but the new covenant (or, to be precise, the new administration of the one eternal covenant) has better, spiritual promises (Heb. 8:6). And the ultimate fulfillment of the eternal covenant, in which we join God in His eternal kingdom, is the inheritance of the saints in both the Old and New Testaments. The abundant life we enjoy in the meantime does not consist of our possessions, but in our close walk with God, our understanding of His ways, and the opening of our hearts to follow Him wherever He leads.
Reflect on the things we've learned that the Bible teaches. All Christians suffer, and suffering may come from many sources: Satan, persecution from the world, the consequences of our sin, or even directly from God. But no suffering can ever touch us except by the will of God. Undeserved suffering is part of our Christian calling, and God can use it to teach us lessons, grow our character, or bring about a greater good. Often when God denies us something we want, He does so only to give us something better (not necessarily material) in His own time. Remember that not all good things are material, and that the spiritual blessings we have in Christ outweigh any suffering we experience in this life. Also keep in mind that our status as sinners means that any good thing we receive comes only by God's undeserved grace.
Remember also that God loves to bless His people. This blessing may be (and sometimes is) material. There's no special formula for getting material blessings; God alone determines how He distributes His gifts. But poverty and sickness are not God's will for every believer any more than health and wealth are. God has promised to supply your needs and to equip you for every thing He has in mind for you to do. Do not worry about illness or a lack of money preventing you from fulfilling your Christian calling. If something stands in the way of God's plan for your life, He will remove it in His own time. True success is not material prosperity, but living so as to please God.
Read the Bible thoroughly and follow its examples. Large portions of the Bible cover the subject of suffering, as well as both positive and negative examples of how to deal with whatever comes our way. Good books to study include 2 Corinthians, Philippians, James, and 1 Peter, as well as the Sermon on the Mount. Examples of people who held up under suffering include Joseph, Job, Jeremiah, Paul, and most especially Jesus. We can also learn what not to do from the bad examples such as Solomon, Jeroboam, and (in one case) Elijah. Dozens of psalms are written from the perspective of a sufferer, and these psalms acknowledge the reality of suffering while also remembering the faithfulness and kindness of God. From these we learn that we can be honest with God as we talk to Him, and also confident that He will provide help at the best possible time.
In good times, be thankful and keep your eyes on God. James 1:17 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." The Bible is replete with warnings against forgetting God during times of blessing. Material abundance can lead to complacency and feelings of self-sufficiency on one hand, and on the other, worry that it might all be taken away (1 Tim. 6:17). "Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth" (Col. 3:1-2).
Be especially careful about letting dissatisfaction drive you to want more and more money. We are designed for heaven, and anything less than that perfect place is bound to leave us dissatisfied. Realize that more money will not meet this need. We must be as content as we can be as we await the return of Christ, where real life awaits us.
Also be wary of pride. Even if you can justly attribute your wealth to hard work and wise risk-taking, and your health to a good diet and exercise, you don't have anything you did not receive from God. At least credit God with giving you your work ethic, your wisdom, and your diligence. If a rich man is to boast, as James says, let it be "in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away" (1:10). Find your weakness, your trials, and your hardships and let God be glorified through your finitude.
In hard times, be thankful and keep your eyes on God. As you can deduce from the above quotes, James has a lot of good, practical advice for rich and poor alike. He says, "Regard it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials, knowing that the proving of your faith effects endurance. But let the endurance have its work completed, so that you might be complete and whole, lacking nothing" (1:2-4). What God sends His people is ultimately for their good, and is an opportunity for us to become more Christlike. So not only can we thank Him for those good things we have, but also for the suffering itself.
Be mindful of the fact that life in the Bible is a good thing in itself. Life is a sacred blessing with much to enjoy. We can take joy in every minute we have to worship and serve God. But if we focus on our circumstances, we can get bogged down by our problems, and even a materially abundant life can seem depressing and pointless. A spiritual mindset will help take our eyes off mundane cares and see God in every facet of life. And as we said above, God has promised to supply your needs and to equip you for every thing He has in mind for you to do. Work hard to live a productive life, keep safe, and provide for yourself as you can, but don't get frustrated by obstacles that are beyond your control. (In other words, trust God but go to work and keep your car locked.)
Pray. In good times, this is a crucial way to maintain a close relationship with God and keep from becoming attached to the world. From time to time, give up the enjoyment of your blessings in order to pray and spend time with God. (This is a kind of fasting.) In bad times, prayer is just as important, as this renews our focus and helps us to feel love from God when we might not be receiving much love from other people. The Bible tells us to present our requests to God. Do this. There is nothing wrong with asking God for material things. Don't be selfish by praying only for yourself, or only about material things. Pray for God to make you desire the things He does, and to provide the means for you to please Him. If you feel that your hardships are standing in the way of your ministry, ask God anew what He wants you to be doing, and be open to a change of plans if necessary. But also remember in prayer that God has promised to provide for your true needs. The road God leads you down may be unpaved and muddy but is still passible. And God's providence acts as a guardrail to keep you from slipping off the path.
Praying the Bible is a neglected but enormously helpful spiritual practice. When you see a promise made for all God's people, or a psalm that communicates your perspective, pray it to God and meditate on that scripture. The Spirit often uses the Bible to indicate His will and give us assurances about God's truth and faithfulness. If you're not sure if a promise is one you can rightfully apply to yourself, make that a matter of prayer, and ask God to give you understanding and to grant your request for what you need or desire.
Avoid false hopes. Let me say here that I learned a harsh lesson in high school. There was a girl I loved whom I believed (through a complex chain of events) God had promised would fall in love with me. I spent years claiming that promise in prayer, believing that God would never let down anyone who trusted Him. She never was attracted to me, and she eventually married someone else. The lesson I learned was that God is not obligated to fulfill promises He has not made, or grant to one person what He has promised another. Please do not let this kind of disillusionment distance you from God or make you hesitant to trust Him. Just pray for a better understanding of His ways and live in the confidence that He will take care of you. Of course, the best way to avoid this situation is to be careful about presuming on God or on the future, and know the Bible well enough to interpret its promises in their proper context.
Accept suffering, but do not seek it out.
There are many Christians who are known as ascetics. They believe that the Christian principle of self-denial means there is inherent good in suffering, poverty, or even disease. They forego conveniences and may view normal pleasure as sinful. The Bible actually teaches against this, saying that ascetic teachings are "matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humble-mindedness and non-indulgence of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence" (Col. 2:20-23). Just as the Bible never tells us to pursue wealth, it also tells us not to pursue suffering. Instead, the Bible says that God "richly supplies us with all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17), so we should enjoy the things God gives us.Also, part of accepting suffering is not exaggerating it. Many Christians have faced horrifying trials of torture, deep poverty, lengthy, agonizing sicknesses, and the loss of many loved ones at once. So many of the things we fret about are minor inconveniences or common hardships. Even most of us in America who are below the "poverty line" are rich by much of the world's standards and have opportunities for ministry undreamed of in biblical times. (I'm technically poor but have a web site, for example.)
Work hard and invest. Read through Jesus' teachings on money in Matthew and Luke, as well as practical advice from Paul in letters such as 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, and Titus. God wants believers to work hard and be sensible with their money. The means God usually chooses to provide for your needs are your own common sense and effort. Most of us seminary students rely on part-time blue-collar and service jobs rather than the legendary "anonymous check in the mail" (even though those checks would sure help). Christians should "come in first" with regard to their responsibility with worldly possessions. We should stay out of debt not by asking God to pay our way, but by working to pay what we owe and by not buying things we can't afford. Also, investment is not a form of gambling but is a biblically commended way to capitalize on the mathematical laws of interest. A wise, long-term investment of even a small portion of your earned income can give you enough to live on when you are older or between jobs, and keeps you from being a burden to other people. If you've done all you can and still need help, most churches follow the biblical pattern of helping out godly believers in times of crisis.
Remember the wisdom of Agur. Agur's famous prayer is this: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion–that I not be full and deny You and say, 'Who is Yahweh?,' or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God" (Prov. 30:8-9). This is the "daily bread" of the Lord's prayer: enough to avoid the pitfalls of both extremes. In this sense, we do not serve the "God of more than enough" that health/wealth advocates incessantly speak of, nor do we serve a God of lack who fails to show up when we need Him. He is a God of exactly enough to fulfill His calling for your individual life. Following God's call may involve voluntary poverty to serve the homeless, or the millions necessary to oversee an international ministry. But for most of us, it means providing for ourselves and our family and having something to help support the church and give to those in need.
Reflect on the insights of fellow Christians on success and suffering. Talk to wise Christians you know, particularly those who are older. The present older generation faced spectacular trials but also made remarkable achievements. You can also learn a lot from Christians of centuries past by reading books like Foxe's Book of Martyrs and John Piper's The Hidden Smile of God. Many of the great hymns arose from suffering. Perhaps the most famous is "It is Well With My Soul" by Horatio G. Spafford, who tragically lost his wife and daughters. One other good devotional hymn is "He Leadeth Me! O Blessed Thought," by Joseph H. Gilmore. I have reproduced the lyrics here:
He leadeth me! O blessed thought! O words with heav'nly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be, still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!
Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
By waters still, o'er troubled sea, still 'tis His hand that leadeth me!
Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur nor repine,
Content, whatever lot I see, since 'tis Thy hand that leadeth me!
And when my task on earth is done, when, by Thy grace, the vict'ry's won,
E'en death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me!
He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me:
His faithful foll'wer I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. (1862, Joseph H. Gilmore)
In the remainder of this article I will deal specifically with verses offered by health and wealth advocates. Many of these, on their surface, appear to support the position that God desires and promises material prosperity for all believers. We should take all the Bible's assertions seriously, but seek their intended meaning rather than see only what we want to see.
Please note that I am neither questioning nor deriding the high regard for the Bible that many people in Word of Faith churches profess to have. Many of these churches have taken up the chant that says, "This is my Bible. I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do," etc. But this raises the question of what the Bible really says about our identity, possessions, and abilities as Christians, and how they apply to our day-to-day lives. The answer lies in a careful interpretation of the relevant portions of the Bible.
To find the intended meaning of an apparent promise, it helps to ask these questions of the text:
I put this verse first because it is the number one prosperity proof-text of all time. I don't know of a single Word of Faith teacher who doesn't cite this verse as proving that God's top priority is that we have material prosperity. But I refers to John, not God. John, writing to a friend, is giving a common, customary greeting that we find in other letters of the period. He's basically saying, "Dear Gaius, I sure hope everything's going well." We shouldn't read anything more into it than that. (For evidence, see just about every commentary ever written on the letters of John.)
I won't follow the four-point formula above for all the proof-texts, but these two verses allow for a good demonstration. First, are these promises? Based on the surrounding material (especially in Deut. 7), we can be sure they are. This is one of the covenant promises related to God's protection of His people.
Second, who is being addressed? Moses is delivering these words to the generation of Israelites on their way to Mount Sinai in Exodus, and to the next generation–those who would enter the promised land–in Deuteronomy. Since this covenant is also with their descendants (e.g., Deut. 11:9), the nation of Israel as a whole is the recipient of this promise.
What is being promised? Exemption from the plagues of Egypt. Only one of the plagues (boils) was a bodily ailment, but it seems all the plagues are in view here. Deuteronomy adds the promise that the plagues will fall instead on Israel's enemies. Verse 7:20 mentions God sending hornets to drive the Canaanites away, and elsewhere He speaks of sending confusion.
Absolute or conditional? The promise in Exodus has clear conditions. The verse begins, "If you give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes." The passage in Deuteronomy is likewise prefaced by conditions: "Because [or if] you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, Yahweh your God will keep you with His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers." Among the other promises in Deuteronomy 7 is that there would be no one barren, man or beast.
We know from the remainder of the Old Testament that famine, disease, and barrenness were problems in Israel throughout its history. Why? In large part, the Israelites forsook the law and did not obey the covenant. The "secret" to activating these promises had nothing to do with declaring them by faith, calling them into existence, or claiming them as a right of inheritance. The nation as a whole had to obey the Mosaic law. By breaking the covenant, the Israelites opened the door to these problems, and affliction came to the faithful and unfaithful alike.
Christians cannot claim this physical promise today because of the conditions. This is clearly an "old covenant" promise since it hinges on following the law. We cannot and should not obligate ourselves to its requirements, blessings, and curses, because we are under the new covenant and the freedom it offers in Christ. But the spiritual healing and cleansing from sin we receive, and the sanctifying effects of the Holy Spirit, are superior to physical healing. God is our Healer in a better and more lasting way. This is not to deny that God heals physical diseases today when He chooses to, even miraculously, but these verses do not promise New Testament believers exemption from all disease.
As for the plague aspect of the promise, Israel periodically saw locust plagues such as the one described in Joel, as well as famines and droughts given in judgment. But the Book of Revelation describes its plagues in terms similar to the Egyptian judgments, and they may be the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to cast them on those who hate His people.
Without question, material wealth is in view here, and the simplicity of this sentence makes it one of the most common Word of Faith proof texts. Health and wealth advocates draw from this verse the teaching that every believer has a God-given "power to get wealth," and if God gives us an ability, He means for us to use it. However, no one reading Deuteronomy 8 with care could get that idea from this verse. Here is the context in which this verse appears:
For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land...a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today.... Otherwise, you may say in your heart, "My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth." But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget Yahweh your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish (Deut. 8:7, 9-11, 17-19).
The proof text is part of a warning against pride. The Israelites were freed from Egypt and were about to be led into a promised land that was the most fertile, desirable territory in the entire region. God is reminding them that He alone gets the glory for this. The Israelites would wrongfully assume they had made this wealth for themselves. That pride would lead to idolatry and disaster.
This was a one-time event in history. In fulfillment of God's promises to the patriarchs that He would give them the land of Canaan, He was about to bring the people in. The people's prosperity and length of time in the land depended on their obeying the covenant. There is no indication in this passage that God gives everyone, or even every believer, the power to make wealth for themselves. What we can conclude is that all good gifts come from God, and He reserves the right to take them away, especially if they are received with ingratitude.
There is a message of caution in this passage for a certain branch of the health and wealth movement. Some of the leaders rarely speak of God's power but instead focus on our ability as gods (or images of God) to create reality with our words. In their teaching, whether we are rich or poor depends not on God's will, but on our own faith and our use of it. This seems to me to be perilously close to what Deuteronomy 8 is warning about.
TBN personality Rod Parsley uses this verse as part of his teaching that wealth of all kinds is guaranteed to those who tithe and help the poor. God gives us money, and we can spend it however we want and consume the goods ourselves. As with other verses in this part of the Bible, an understanding of covenant sets things straight. Ancient Near Eastern covenants were often ratified and remembered by a shared feast between the king and his people. This feast between Yahweh and Israel involved the tithe. The tithe consisted of a tenth of each farmer's edible produce (14:22). Each year, the people were to bring the tithe to the chosen city (Jerusalem) and eat it there with God as a reminder of the covenant. (God's "eating" was symbolized by burning a portion on the altar.) Verses 25-26 explain that those who were too far away to bring their livestock to Jerusalem could sell their goods for money and purchase like goods in Jerusalem to observe the feast. This is why there were moneychangers in the temple in Jesus' day; He rebuked them because they charged exorbitant rates to take advantage of the Gentile participants. The rest of chapter 14 reveals that every third year, the tithe was kept in one's hometown to sustain the ministers, widows, and others who could not produce for themselves. This also works into the covenant concept, as a king might support the dependent members of society with leftovers from his extravagant feast.
The problem with Parsley's use of the verse is in mischaracterizing the use of this money. This is not "personal use," but presentation of the goods to the Lord as an offering. Also problematic is the fact that we are not Israelites engaged in tabernacle/temple worship, and so we do not observe feasts such as this anyway. The use of the tithe to sustain the church and its ministries today is based on the frequency of the "tenth" figure in gifts of devotion to God throughout the Bible. We are not attempting to re-create the practice of Deuteronomy 14. In any case, everything in this passage has to do with a person's normal produce and is not a promise of material wealth or money beyond the fruits of one's own labor.
Deuteronomy is structured as a covenant. It first establishes the history of the King (God) with His subjects (Israel), lays out His requirements for them, and closes with blessings and curses. As was typical for covenants of the day, the curses far outnumber the blessings. The blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 are sandwiched between the curse lists (which Word of Faith teachers largely ignore except in the context of dubious end-time prophecy). These blessings are promised to those who "listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them" (28:13-14). The blessings cover just about every aspect of life, as do the curses that follow, which are structured as the direct grammatical opposites of the blessings. Verses 11 and 12 have the particular reference to wealth and freedom from debt that Word of Faith teachers love to capitalize on.
Once again, we see that these promises apply under the old covenant. When Israel kept the covenant, they defeated their enemies and had abundance, especially in the time of David and Solomon. When they disobeyed, the nation fell into servitude and famine, and ultimately deportation. These promises continued for the remnant that returned from captivity. Nevertheless, we are not part of the old covenant. It has disappeared and been replaced by the new covenant (Heb. 8:13). The current administration of God's eternal plan of redemption and salvation has greater blessings and more dire warnings than the old did.
Little more needs to be said here except that in this passage, Moses summarizes the blessings and curses of the preceding chapters and commends the covenant to Israel for acceptance. This verse encapsulates the promises of prosperity in 28:1-14, and so its relevance to health-wealth theology stands or falls with those verses as discussed above.
Health-wealth teachers, and even some mainstream motivational speakers, often use this verse as guaranteeing that the world is ours for the taking. Whatever we claim for ourselves belongs to us. But to whom is God speaking? These are God's words to Joshua just before entering the promised land. And even so, He is not giving Joshua license to conquer the world. The next verse qualifies the extent of this promise: "from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory." (Unfortunately, Joshua and the Israelites failed to take full advantage of this promise and only drove out Canaanites from a small portion of the area described.)
Even if we see ourselves as modern-day Joshuas, the earth in this age is not our "promised land." Canaan for us has always symbolized what awaits us after this life. Old Testament saints and today's believers both await the fulfillment of this verse when God's kingdom fully comes on earth as in heaven, and we will inherit the earth at that time.
The deleted portion of this verse has to do with obeying the covenant (now in its written form). "Prospering wherever we go" is something we would all like to do. All it takes, some say, is courage and devotion to God's Word. Again, I would point out that this promise is to Joshua as a leader and Moses' successor–a position of unparalleled responsibility in his day. In fact, the assurances of this passage are qualified by the requirement that Joshua obey God. The implication is that if Joshua forsook God, the Israelites would find defeat rather than victory during their conquest of Canaan. Joshua 7 gives an example of disobedience bringing just such a military defeat.
God was not speaking of riches and health in this verse, but military success. It helps our interpretation to know that the word prosper (hishkil) literally means to have success by acting prudently or skillfully. Its meanings can range from gaining popularity (1 Sam. 18:5) to benefitting unjustly from a bribe (Prov. 17:8). If we understand success as pleasing God and accomplishing what He sets before us to do, then we can apply the promise to ourselves with full confidence. But to use this verse for material profit is unwarranted in both its original and present contexts.
This is a key verse for all Bible teachers who consider themselves prophets. It can even serve as a warning against those who would dare criticize "the Lord's anointed." It has become a way of saying, "Trust me. Don't bother testing me against the Scriptures." In 2 Chronicles 20, Judah was facing a mighty army, and King Jehoshaphat had prayed that God would deliver them. The prophet Jahaziel told the Israelites not to fear but to go out to face the enemy the next day. They would not have to fight the battle, for they would find the enemy already slain when they arrived. Jehoshaphat was telling the people to listen to the prophet. In this case, the Israelites obeyed the prophet (imagine that!), and went to the battlefield praising God. They arrived to find that God had sent the surrounding peoples to ambush the enemy army. It is a wonderful story of God's deliverance, and an example of God's people doing things right.
Again understanding prosper in the sense outlined above, this is a trustworthy saying. But the "prophets" of this verse are not the Word of Faith leaders, or any human teacher for that matter, but the prophets to whom God revealed His words, which are preserved for us in the Bible. I can think of no better key to succeeding in ministry, or in the Christian life in general, than to know what the Bible teaches and put one's trust in it. This is a promise we should all "activate" by learning, believing, and obeying the Scriptures.
I was surprised to see this cited by Word of Faith teachers as a proof-text. Their critics have sometimes compared health-wealth advocates to Job's friends, who supposed that obedience brought good and that suffering came from disobedience, without exception. One might expect these teachers to be especially careful not to give credibility to that charge. Well, guess who is speaking in Job 22? Eliphaz, one of Job's friends. He is in the middle of a tirade, falsely accusing Job of irreverence, wickedness, and oppression. If Job would only return to God, all these troubles would just go away. Eliphaz even suggests Job has been obsessed with his money, and that he should let God be his gold and silver (22:24-25–also frequently taken out of context). The point to remember is that Eliphaz is wrong. Job has not sinned and cannot decree himself out of his predicament. As Job says in his own defense: "I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (23:12).
Occasionally, some Word of Faith teachers actually blame Job for his troubles and suggest that Job's friends were right. But God Himself says, "There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (1:8; 2:3). At the end of the book, the Lord gives a stinging indictment to Eliphaz: "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has" (42:7). Job's righteousness and patience are an example for those of us who suffer today (James 5:11).
The first psalm is actually a proverb. Proverbs are a form of wisdom literature I've best heard described as "general observations learned from a wise and careful look at life." They are not absolute rules or even promises. For example, Proverbs 1:33 says, "He who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil." All of us would grant that sometimes people who live wisely nevertheless meet with tragedy. It is a common theme in wisdom literature that wise living brings good while foolish living brings calamity, but in this fallen world our "fortunes" are often reversed. This is the enigma that concerns Solomon throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, and is the obstacle that Job's friends could not hurdle.
Psalm 1 basically says that a man of integrity who devotes himself to the Bible will yield much fruit and have success, while the wicked will come under judgment. This is true as a general observation, but those who claim it as a promise of material wealth misunderstand both the biblical concept of prospering and the fundamental meaning of proverbs. Follow God's Word and know that by doing so you are more likely to live successfully than wicked fools and sinful scoffers, but if you see the godless gain power or if your dreams are shattered, God's promises have not failed, and in the biblical sense, neither have you.
Let's return briefly to our four questions. Is this a promise? No, it merely states what God delights in. Not everything God delights in comes to pass; for example, God delights in our obedience, yet sometimes we sin. This is not to say that God has lost control. We can at least say that God has a higher purpose in mind when He allows things that displease Him. Second, who is in view here? The servant of Yahweh. This is a Messianic title that David, the author of this psalm, often uses when speaking of his special relationship to God. What is being promised? Prosperity, as defined by the surrrounding verses, is vindication and deliverance from ruthless enemies and treacherous loved ones, probably during the coup led by David's son Absalom. Are there conditions? No. God's covenant with David was unconditional from the day God took him from the pasture. Future kings jeopardized their life and their political power through disobedience, but God had already promised David protection, and that his son would rule after him and would build God's temple.
We conclude that in this verse David looks ahead to his supporters' joy when they see God acting as David's protector in fulfillment of His promises. Does this mean God does not delight in our prosperity? I believe He does. I would even go so far as to say that God is pleased with the material profiting of His people. I wish there were no disease or poverty, and God is much more benevolent than me, mere human that I am. But this is a far cry from saying God guarantees material prosperity, any more than He guarantees that we will be perfectly sinless in this life. That would please Him, but for His own purposes, God has chosen to reserve some of that pleasure for the eternity He will spend with His people when this age is over.
Jesus quotes this verse in the Sermon on the Mount, where we traditionally read, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." In both Matthew and Luke, these beatitudes contrast the suffering and submission of saints in this age with the rewards of the kingdom in the age to come. Compare this with Luke 6:21, "Blessed are those who hunger now, for they will be fattened. Blessed are those who weep now, for they will laugh." Jesus closes the beatitudes with the statement, "Your reward is great in the heavens." So Jesus' application of this verse has to do with our eternal riches.
The original context of the psalm confirms this forward-looking approach. Verse 7 says, "Rest in Yahweh and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes." The writer acknowledges that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper in this life, but as verse 13 says of the wicked, "his day is coming." Verse 18 says of the blameless that "their inheritance will be forever." If we are God's people, blameless in His sight by the righteousness of Christ, we can lay claim to this promise, but we need to wait patiently for it.
Psalm 37 makes reference to this life as well, as David cites God's protection of His people. We need to be careful not to transform an observation into a promise, or make a statement more absolute than it is intended to be. David's own great-grandmother Ruth had to beg for barley as one of the poor. Boaz married her, thereby delivering her from her situation, but for a time she did "beg bread." Jesus' story of the rich man and Lazarus is about a righteous beggar. These exceptions do not falsify David's statement. God gives us far more provision than we deserve, and often more than we really need–to the point where (in this country anyway) we have difficulty knowing the difference between need and desire.
Citing this verse as a promise of wealth also has problems. There is a big difference between being rich and just not having to beg. We can be poor, even deeply in debt, and still have enough for food. But even so, in Christian history there have been believers who have died of starvation, whether in times of famine or persecution. Are we to say God was unfaithful, or that they weren't really Christians? Or should we conclude that they didn't have enough faith or didn't know how to activate it? That would be stretching this verse beyond its intent. The point of Psalm 37 is that God is a protector and sustainer of His people, and either in this life or the next, they will receive vindication for all their troubles.
This verse has been used for blasphemous purposes by many cults, but it is understandable how Christians might find it difficult to reconcile with the biblical teaching that Yahweh alone is God (Isa. 45:5). Psalm 82 is a rebuke of the judges of Israel for their injustice and oppression. Because judges interpreted and taught God's law and therefore represented Him before the people, they were sometimes called 'elohim, which is the Hebrew word for God or gods. This does not mean that they were deities, but that they stood in God's place for the Israelites. This use of 'elohim occurs, for example, in Exod. 22:8-9; Deut. 1:17; 2 Chr. 19:6; and Psa. 58:1. Psalm 82 makes an ironic use of this lofty title (and the responsibility it implies) by declaring, "You are gods...nevertheless you will die like men." (This if nothing else should confirm to us that these judges were mere mortals.) The psalm ends by calling on the true God to arise and judge the earth.
This was the common understanding of the psalm in Jesus' day. When Jesus quoted this verse in John 10:34-35, He affirmed their interpretation: "He called them gods to whom the word of God came." To the Jews' objections that He was making Himself out to be God, Jesus was saying that if these unjust judges could claim the title god, how much more appropriate was it for Him to use it, since He represented God perfectly? And in fact, He was God in the truest sense, as He had indicated in John 8.
The Word of Faith interpretation of this verse is that it implies that we as gods have creative power, specifically the power to speak health and wealth for ourselves. But even though we are the body of Christ, adopted children of the Father, temples of the Spirit, and a kingdom of priests who represent God to the world and to one another, this does not mean we have all of God's attributes and abilities.
Word of Faith teachers often use this verse to stress the importance of the spoken word. Creflo Dollar places a special emphasis on angels as agents of protection and healing, as well as channels of material wealth. We command these angels by speaking words out loud. For support, Dollar and others point to Psalm 103 because it says the angels perform "His word." Problems with this interpretation: First of all, it is God's word, not ours, that the angels obey in this verse. Second, obeying God's words means obeying His commands, whether they are spoken, written, or otherwise expressed. This is in accord with the following, parallel statement in verse 21: "Bless Yahweh, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will." Verses such as Psalm 91:11 and Hebrews 1:14 teach that angels do protect and aid Christians, but in all cases it is God alone whom they obey and serve.
The subject of this anonymous psalm is "the man who fears Yahweh, who greatly delights in His commandments" (112:1). The message is much the same as Psalm 1 (discussed above), that a righteous life brings with it rewards of all kinds, whereas "the desire of the wicked will perish" (112:10). Again, this is a general truth, and (with reference to this age) there are obvious exceptions in the pages of Scripture as well as everyday experience. But if you are storing up treasures in heaven by doing the things this psalm commends, you do have wealth and riches that will last forever–something much better than a finite amount of money that can be lost, stolen, or spent away.
For all these proverbs, I refer the reader back to my comments on Psalm 1 about wisdom literature. These are wise and careful observations about life, made in this case by King Solomon and given for the special benefit of his heir and more generally to all readers. Many of these exalt the benefits of wisdom and the disastrous end of the fool. However, the frequent calls for mercy on the poor and statements that wisdom is better than riches demonstrate that there are exceptions (e.g., 14:31; 15:17; 18:23; 19:1). Wisdom, personified in this chapter, proclaims that her benefits include long life, riches, honor, peace, happiness, freedom from fear, a good night's sleep, and benefits "better than the profit of silver" and more than "fine gold." We should certainly not dismiss these statements as meaningless because of the exceptions. The wise is much more likely to see them than lazy fools are. But nor should we absolutize these proverbs as promises to the point of ignoring reality.
(This might be a good time to mention Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I have seen health and wealth advocates quote some of Spurgeon's sermons, in which his preaching sounds much like Proverbs chapter 3. But before we place him and the health-wealth teachers in the same category, we should remember that he suffered from frequent ailments and depression throughout his life and died at the relatively young age of 58. This does not in any way make him any less spiritual or diminsh our perception of his faith, or of God's faithfulness.)
Health-wealth advocates need to be careful about this verse, because it says a little too much for their comfort. The key to wealth in this verse is not positive confession, prayer, or tithing, but hard work. To say that a good work ethic brings financial gain while laziness has a cost is indeed true. Most of the CEOs and other wealthy people in our society worked very hard, got the education, made investments, and took the chances necessary to get where they are, and we've all heard of the people who can't bother to pull themselves off the couch and look for a job. But is this an absolute promise? Once more, no, that's not how proverbs work. Many people become poor for reasons other than laziness. We should also balance this with another proverb, 23:4-5, which says, "Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For it certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens." Wealth is fleeting, and it should not become our life's obsession. Seek to please God first of all, in your work as well as in other areas of your life. But know that hard work pays off, and poverty is a real pitfall for those whose hands are negligent.
Wealth is a gift from God, and what we receive from God does not come with strings attached. This is in contrast to verse 2, which says, "Ill-gotten gains do not profit." Keep in mind that even as a proverb, this verse does not say that everyone God blesses becomes rich, but that those who are made rich have their wealth as a blessing from God. Word of Faith leaders who insist on believing in the system they teach should remember to credit God, not themselves, for their money and should ensure that they have gotten it through honest means. (And if they have any respect for the Book of Proverbs, they should be especially careful not to oppress or take advantage of the poor.)
If we speak all this money to ourselves, where does it come from? By quoting this verse, the Word of Faith teachers seek to identify the source of the believer's wealth. Exactly how it gets from one person to the other is left unexplained, and it conflicts with other Word of Faith teachings about our "creative" powers. Not to beat a dead horse, but like all proverbs, this is a general truth. Job made the same observation when he said that though a wicked man "piles up silver like dust and prepares garments as plentiful as clay, he may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver" (Job 27:16-17). Job had in view an evil person who spends his life acquiring possessions and then "lies down rich," never again to open his eyes (27:19). His children all die by the sword through their own folly, and the inheritance passes to the righteous (probably to those he had oppressed).
Our legal system makes a literal demonstration of this pattern unlikely today, but it is not hard to think of examples where an evil man's sucesses end up benefitting the righteous more than they benefit him. This need not be a material benefit. One key historical example is the extravagant wealth of the Church at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Magnificent cathedrals were built and expensive works of art commissioned from money forced from the poor or conned in the fraudulent sale of indulgences. These excesses may have had as much to do with people's departures to the budding Protestant churches as the doctrinal errors. The result was great spiritual benefit for those who fled Catholicism, not to mention a great loss of power for Rome once it no longer had a monopoly on the Christian religion.
The Word of Faith error lies in suggesting that every believer has some rightful portion in the assets of non-Christian CEOs, athletes, and celebrities. This only leads to greed and covetousness, whereas our attitude towards these people should be loving, generous, and spiritually minded.
There you go. The spoken word creates and changes reality. This verse proves it. Actually, no it doesn't. Proverbs is full of observations that kind words turn away anger, hastily spoken words lead to trouble, flattery and gossip are dangerous, encouraging words lift one's spirits, etc. We need only watch the news coverage of a political campaign to see how much a person's words can help or hurt his efforts to succeed in life. Words spoken a certain way can even scar a child for life, drive a person to suicide, or give a sickly person the will to keep going. My own life has been turned around at various points by things other people have said to me. But this is a far cry from saying that words literally bring objects and events into reality. Telling my wallet it's full of money or muttering, "I wish he were dead" will not bring about what I have spoken. Think of all the chaos it would cause if that were true!
There are other verses about prosperity and riches in the Book of Proverbs, but I think by this time I've established the proper framework for dealing with these verses. These promised rewards come absolutely only in an eternal sense. The life we live now, being "between the times" as it were, has imbalances and injustices that will only be righted when Christ returns. Even so, it is generally true that wise living has great benefits, including material ones. But Proverbs reveals that wealth comes more often by hard work, sensible decisions, and following good advice than by claiming promises or ordering angels around.
In Isaiah's day, the nation of Judah was in trouble. The northern kingdom had recently fallen, and Assyria was threatening the south. King Hezekiah had turned to the Babylonians for help, despite Isaiah's pronouncements against Babylon. The covenant with Israel stressed that following God's laws was essential to the nation's prosperity, and that famine and defeat would come if they compromised themselves and mingled with the other nations. Hezekiah had done so much good in his early years, and now he was throwing it all away in order to secure the people's well being. In this chapter, God pleads with Judah, "If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea" (48:18). Instead, captivity would come.
God had taught His people to profit by following Him alone. Elsewhere in Isaiah, profit is used in a negative sense, where it was the motive for the people's compromise. This verse is not teaching that we should pursue profit, or that money should be the goal of our godliness. First Timothy 6:5-6 warns against precisely that error, and Jesus says that if we seek God's kingdom first instead of seeking food and clothing, God will see that we get what we need (Matt. 6:25-34). Instead, some in the health-wealth movement have used this verse as a command to pursue riches, the very thing the Bible repeatedly warns us never to do.
Using this verse as a proof-text for prosperity in this life really takes the cake. Verse 17 gives the setting for the chapter: the new heavens and the new earth. The blessings and freedom from sorrow described throughout this chapter tell us of life in the resurrection. The focus of this verse in particular is that we will no longer face the injustice that robs us of the fruits of our labors, or the sorrow of losing children through death and other tragedies. We, our ancestors, and our descendants will one day know eternal peace, justice, and happiness. But complete exemption from life's affliction is not available to us yet; in this world we will have trouble.
It's four-question time again. (1) Is this a promise? Yes. (2) Who's the audience? The nation of Judah, whom God has wounded in His fierce judgment (30:12-14). (3) What is God promising? Restoration of captivity and a return to Messianic rule (30:18-24). Are there conditions? Not here. Judah's sins by this point (597 B.C.) were so severe that judgment would happen no matter what. Yet God would eventually restore the kingdom to a remnant. Chapter 31 goes on to speak of the new covenant, and it quickly becomes apparent that the return from literal Babylon is not the restoration Jeremiah describes here. This is end-time prophecy.
The health and healing in verse 17 are therefore not a promise that God will heal every believer who ever gets sick and asks for healing. This is a prophecy to restore a nation and reverse the consequences of its former punishment. It is nothing short of dishonest for anyone with knowledge of the context to quote this verse in answer to the question, "Will God heal me?"
To understand this verse, we need to recall some things discussed in our analysis of Deuteronomy 14. Every third year, the annual tithe (which consisted of edible goods) was kept in storehouses for the benefit of widows, the poor, and the Levites who ministered over God's house and had no secular occupation. In Nehemiah 13:10-14, Nehemiah discovered that the Jews had stopped doing this, and the Levites had abandoned their work and become farmers. Malachi, who lived about the same time, was addressing this problem. As everywhere in Malachi, the people are forsaking their old covenant obligations, preferring their own interests. On this one occasion, one time in history, God makes this challenge: "Try me. You'll see that you were wrong to say it's vain to serve Me. "
This is not a promise to all generations, even though nearly every sermon I've ever heard on tithing makes reference to it. We are talking here about a one-time challenge linked to an old-covenant obligation. What can we take from this passage today? That it is very important to God that we give for the support of the church and its ministers, and that it is presumptuous to say that serving God has no benefit. Who knows what God might be holding back from us because we aren't serving Him and worshiping Him as He desires? It may very well be some abundant material blessing, but God is not promising us "double your money back" for everything we put in the offering plate.
This family of verses has been a source of frustration for immature believers who take them in an absolute sense. I remember as a eight-year-old child asking for all forty-eight Star Wars action figures to suddenly appear in my room. I really believed it would happen. I prayed it in Jesus' name and everything. I was even tithing from my allowance. No figures. What happened? Had God's promise failed? Not remotely. Will I have those figures when I get to heaven? Not likely, and I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much as I would have back in 1982. I missed a basic, common-sense principle of interpretation.
Here's the principle: If someone makes a statement in several places, and gives a qualification or exception in one of those places, the exception usually applies to the others as well. An example is Jesus' teaching about remarriage. In Mark 10:11, He says, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her." But in Matthew 19:9, we read, "Whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." The broader statement in Mark does not cancel out the exception in Matthew; instead, the exception applies to both.
This is what happens with these "ask and receive" promises. Believing in Matthew and Mark, asking in Christ's name for the Father's glory in John, and asking according to God's will in 1 John–all are essential to receiving what we ask. The context of these promises is also important. All of these passages have to do either with the gospel ministry and church discipline, or else with meeting our daily needs. Healing can enter the equation, as 1 John 5:16 demonstrates–again, allowing for the will of God to be done. But there is nothing here to justify claiming extreme wealth for ourselves, since that is rarely what God wants for us.
Update: Today (August 15, 2003), Rod Parsley preached on 1 John 5:14, arguing that the phrase "according to His will" goes with the phrase that follows it. In other words, the verse is not, "If we ask anything that is in accordance with His will, He hears us," but, "If we ask anything at all, it is His will that He hears us." Parsely even moves the comma when he quotes the verse to support his point. Parsley's interpretation is extremely unlikely given the rules of language and the principle in other verses (Matt. 6:10; 26:39; James 4:15) that we submit our requests to the will of God. Parsley also cites 1 Samuel 8, in which the Israelites demand a king and God grants it, even though this is not His desire. The problem with Parsley's view is clear from the very example he cites: asking God for something outside His will is a bad idea. If He doesn't want it, we don't want it, either. It's not in our best interests. So even if God grants requests that are against His will, we should still strive to submit our desires to His.
Here we have common-sense, proverbial advice from Jesus. A good general rule, according to verses 36-38, is that if you treat people well, they'll treat you well. "Condemn and you will not be condemned," etc. It's based on the Golden Rule. But of course there are exceptions, for "Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man" (Luke 6:22). Some people may be ungrateful even after you've demonstrated your generosity, but most people will return simple acts of kindness. "Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount" (Luke 6:34). Take notice of the word they in 6:38; Jesus is not talking about God directly rewarding generosity; it is the person you give to who shows gratitude in this verse by a common Middle Eastern custom of hospitality.
I try to keep a level head in doctrinal debates, but I honestly laughed when I saw this. The argument is that since God is no "respecter of persons," if He makes one person rich, He'd better have brought enough for everybody. We should remember Jesus' parable, in which the owner of the vineyard said, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?" (Matt. 21:15). Furthermore, God told Moses, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion" (Exod. 33:19). God is under no obligation to any of us, and He gives blessings based on His free choice alone. That is what it means to show no partiality. And I suppose it bears mention that Peter was talking about salvation being for Gentiles as well as Jews, and wasn't saying anything about money.
One Word of Faith site I saw linked this with Proverbs 22:7 ("The rich rules over the poor") to conclude that if we are to reign, we have to be rich. A quick glance at the use of reign in Romans makes it obvious that Paul is talking about spiritual things. Paul rebukes the Corinthians for assuming that they had gotten to wealth and kingship ahead of Paul. He says sarcastically, "I wish that you really had become kings so that we also might reign with you" (1 Cor. 4:8). On the contrary, "God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world" (4:9). When a king returned from battle, he was first in the triumphal procession, while the condemned and conquered prisoners were in the back. The Corinthians had placed themselves at the wrong end of the parade.
Reigning with Christ is an eschatological (end-time) concept; it has to do with our eternal life. In 2 Timothy 2:11-12 we read, "If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure [that is, put up with hard times], we will also reign with Him." The time for this promise's fulfillment is the new creation, as revealed in Revelation 22:5: "And there will not longer be any night, and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever."
Riches in what sense? We learn this by reading the rest of the sentence: "For, 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" In these chapters Paul is explaining how salvation has been offered to the Gentiles and is not exclusive to Jews. When Paul speaks of riches, he almost always has in mind spiritual riches such as God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness. As we said in the very beginning of our analysis, spiritual blessings outweigh material ones.
Health-wealth advocates will quote this verse about Jesus becoming spiritually poor for our material wealth, and then turn around and tell us that Jesus was materially rich during His earthly ministry. Either we're talking about material wealth and poverty in this verse or we aren't; we cannot have it both ways. Paul brings up Jesus in this chapter as an example of generosity and self-sacrifice because he is explaining to the Corinthians that real riches are the "wealth of their generosity" in helping the poor Christians in Jerusalem. Go back to Ephesians chapter 1 if you need a refresher course on all the rich spiritual blessings we have in Christ because of His sacrifice. Jesus left His glorious throne and took the form of a servant, suffered rebuke, humiliation, and death, and for a time was forsaken by His Father, so that we could have eternal peace with God. It would cheapen the work of Christ to suggest that He did all that just to give us bigger bank accounts.
The language of sowing and reaping is indispensible to health-wealth teachers. Sowing, by their definition, means sending money to their ministry. By pledging to give a hundred or a thousand dollars, you are planting a seed of faith, and when that seed grows up, you will harvest a hundred times as much as you've sown. Paul is still talking about generosity toward Jerusalem here, and what he says is very similar to Jesus' observation in Luke 6:38. But even so, there is no reason to assume that giving money means getting even more money. God may reward our generosity with things far more important than money. But when we give the money God has entrusted to us, we should make sure it goes to His work and His glory, which does not include ministries built on false teaching.
We're back to the covenant again. The Word of Faith movement would have us believe that we don't have to follow the Old Testament law, and aren't subject to its curses, but still receive all its blessings. This is the verse they cite for support. After all, verse 14 says, "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." The Word of Faith argument may sound convincing until we look at what the blessing of Abraham was.
Keep reading through Galatians 3-5 and perhaps take a glance back at Genesis 12, 15, and 17. The blessing of Abraham has to do with justification by faith, the opportunity to be God's friend, and to be a blessing to all peoples. All the promises of prosperity we read about in Deuteronomy were part of the covenant with Israel in Moses' day, which is simply one administration of this covenant–the administration Paul here refers to as "the law" and elsewhere called the old covenant. Paul explains in the rest of chapter 3 how the law served to prepare the way for the new covenant that took its place. Life in Christ is not simply the blessings of Deuteornomy 28 without the curses or obligations. It is much more, and much better. See my article on the covenant for more details.
Health and wealth teachers cite this verse to demonstrate that God is able to do anything, even more than we can imagine. But no one disputes this, and it has nothing to do with whether God plans to give us money, healing, or anything else. Opponents of the Word of Faith movement and even full cessationists believe that God has infinite power to do whatever He pleases. The question is what He has said He will do.
There are two likely interpretations of this verse, neither of which support health-and-wealth claims. I'll give both views here, since my own study of this passage is incomplete:
In either case, Robert Bowman gives 12 things James is not teaching in these verses. (I paraphrase here.)
Verse 3, in a nutshell, says that God has given us everything we need to fulfill our calling. This is true, but Word of Faith teachers make it say more than this when they suggest that God has made "extreme wealth" available to all of us or that we can claim anything we can wrap our tongue around. Verse 4's reference to "divine nature" is also ripe for twisting by the teachers who say we have godlike powers to get things for ourselves. This is a reference to our status are reborn new creations. The new heart we receive from God is divine first in the sense that it comes from Him, and second in that it reflects His character as Peter elaborates in verses 5-8. This is in contrast to the animalistic, sensual natures of the false prophets in 2:2, 10, 12. Notice especially the very end of verse 4; in order to live out what Peter says here, we cannot be corrupted by covetousness, to which seekers of health and wealth are especially prone.
As we come to the end of this 22,000-word journey, let's summarize what we've learned: Health and wealth teachers say that God always wants us to be healthy, rich, and happy. Anything less than this comes either because we don't ask, we don't have faith, or we are under demonic attack and need to rebuke Satan. We should command suffering to leave us and claim our rightful prosperity so we can make God look glorious. Allowing ourselves to remain in sickness and poverty is disgraceful and living below our calling. But we must ask in the right way, because even though God has promised to bless us, He can't do it unless we take the right steps. Word of Faith teachers add that the spoken word is the key to these blessings because we have creative power and authority over this universe.
On the contrary, the Bible teaches that God is sovereign over life and death, benefit and calamity. He blesses those He chooses, however He chooses. We have the freedom to make requests from God, and living a godly life has its rewards; but there are imbalances in this life that God will set right in eternity. In the meantime, we know that suffering is part of our calling as Christians, and actually allows God to get the glory for what He accomplishes through us. As a result, we should rejoice in our sufferings, be grateful to God, and keep our eyes on things above. The real blessings we have as Christians are spiritual, and these are far more important than mere money or physical healing. Spiritual blessings are a large part of what makes the New Testament church better off than the Old Testament assembly of Israel.
So how should we classify health-wealth teaching, and the Word of Faith movement specifically? As usual, I'll give you my reasoning as well as my answer:
I do not believe I am stepping outside the bounds of Christian civility or objective argument by saying this. I am simply assessing the data according to biblical standards. What about the terms heresy and cult, words some critics have used to describe the movement? (In the following points I bring up some matters discussed in other Word of Faith sources, for which see "recommended reading.")