Prosperity Gospel

The Gospel of Greed: 

How Prosperity Preachers Pervert Christ’s Promise 

The Prosperity Gospel—often called the “health and wealth gospel”—is one of the most controversial theological movements of the modern era. It asserts that God’s will is for believers to be materially wealthy, physically healthy, and personally successful, and that these blessings can be accessed through specific acts of faith, giving, and positive confession. Its appeal is undeniable, but its claims demand rigorous examination and uncompromising rejection, especially in light of Christ’s explicit promises regarding prayer.

Origins and Terminology

The Prosperity Gospel did not originate with a single founder or a single moment, but emerged through a century-long theological synthesis in the United States.

• New Thought Movement (Late 19th Century): Established the philosophical precursor by teaching that positive mental attitudes and “right thinking” could produce tangible results.

• Early Pentecostalism (Early 20th Century): Contributed the doctrine of healing in the atonement, arguing that physical healing was a guaranteed right of the believer, purchased by Christ’s suffering ($Isaiah\ 53:5$).

• Word of Faith Movement (Mid-20th Century): Expanded the healing mandate to include financial prosperity. Key figures popularized seed faith (giving money to receive a multiplied return) and positive confession (speaking health and wealth into existence).

The term “Prosperity Gospel” itself was not coined by its proponents but arose in the 1980s as a descriptive label used by academics, journalists, and critics to categorize ministries that heavily emphasized material gain.

Development and Global Reach

Since the 1980s, the Prosperity Gospel has not declined but expanded into a global religious force of spiritual deception.

• Globalization: Exported to Africa, Latin America, and Asia, often merging with local beliefs and offering hope in contexts of poverty.

• Media Saturation: Prosperity preachers leveraged television and digital platforms, bypassing denominational structures and branding themselves as motivational entrepreneurs.

• Expansion of Mandate: The promises broadened from wealth and health to holistic success—career, relationships, and social status.

The Transactional Claim and Mark 11:24

At its core, the Prosperity Gospel rests on a transactional principle: blessings are guaranteed through formulaic acts of faith. Proponents cite scripture to validate this fraudulent claim:

• Financial Return: 2 Corinthians 9:6 is used to mandate giving: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

• Covenantal Right: Galatians 3:13–14 and 2 Corinthians 8:9 are twisted to extend Abraham’s material wealth to all believers.

• Core Formula (Mark 11:24): “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” This verse is treated as an absolute law where human faith compels divine action.

The Explicit Qualifications

Yet the immediate context of Mark 11:24 provides two non-negotiable qualifications that Prosperity preachers blatantly violate:

• Faith in God (Mark 11:22): The power of the petition rests entirely on the nature and character of God, not on human willpower.

• Forgiveness (Mark 11:25): The promise is repudiated by the unforgiving heart. Christ's law is clear: "if you have anything against anyone, forgive him..." Forgive, or your transaction is void, your prayer rejected.

Without these explicit, non-optional conditions, the formula collapses into brazen presumption.

The Close but Missed Target: John 15:7

The Prosperity Gospel comes closest to truth with John 15:7, yet still utterly misses the target.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

The Prosperity Gospel imagines prayer as a mechanism to force divine action, as though God were passive, waiting for human speech to unlock hidden will. Christ, however, reveals God as dynamic, relational, and responsive.

The conditions of abiding are paramount:

• Abiding in Christ: The disciple’s life must be grafted into Christ’s life. (I am the vine, you are the branch...John 15:5)

• His Words abiding in you: The Word must saturate the disciple’s mind and heart.

The blank check is real, but it is written in the ink of abiding, not presumption.

Incantation vs. Incarnation: The Clash of Gospels 

The Prosperity Gospel offers a gospel of incantation—“speaking it into reality”—but Christ demands a gospel of incarnation—abiding in reality.

The Prosperity Gospel perpetrates the deceit that words alone compel outcomes, but Christ's truth stands inviolable: abiding words alone compel petitions heard by the Father.

The Prosperity Gospel imagines God as passive, waiting for human speech to unlock hidden will, but Christ reveals God as dynamic, acting when His children abide and ask.

The Prosperity Gospel reduces prayer to demand, but Christ elevates prayer to covenant—where abiding makes the petition itself the unleashing of divine will.

The Blank Check Vindicated 

The Prosperity Gospel minimizes faith in God, erases forgiveness, and amputates abiding. It strips the text of its moral spine and turns discipleship into transaction.

Faith severed from God is arrogant heresy.

Prayer divorced from forgiveness is damnable hypocrisy.

Petition outside of abiding is a brazen fraud.

But Christ’s promise remains absolute:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

The blank check is real. The conditions guarantee it. And when they are met, the petition itself unleashes divine will.