Why Prosperity Preaching is wrong

DouglasBitMeFingerBoomz SG

I believe that prosperity preaching is wrong.

simple verses explain why:

Matthew:6 - 24

²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6 - 33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Now our main focus in a christian life cannot be money. Because God created us and loves us, not money.

God never promised us success in life in the bible. But in order to gain some sort of 'desires' we have to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. To believe in him and worship him and grow closer to him in a personal relationship. Now, if our aim of serving God is to gain money, that is also wrong, because that means we have the wrong purpose. because the one and only true purpose why we serve him is because we love him.

SPDCP SG

I'm thinking there are tooo many topics like this one already.. How about focusing on the true purpose of this forum, which is : "A place for Christians to meet and talk. "...let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,..." Hebrews 10:25 " "

I don't believe for one moment that "meet and talk" includes pointing fingers, passing judgements, especially since most of the comments would be more about what the Christian has to do, instead of what Christ has already done.

Dreamwerkz SG

God is not against you having wealth if you are willing to use your wealth to bless the world. Such as funding for missions & disaster reliefs. The bigger your heart, the more He will give because He gives to good stewards of His riches.

But it will not be pleasing to the Lord if wealth haves you. A rich man can be spiritually broke, worrying about his business empire all the time, sacrificing health & time with his family. A poor man can love money more than the Lord, thinking about ways to create more wealth, also sacrificing health & time with his family.

You can have your right to pray to be broke & poor but I don't think that what is what your Heavenly Father wants for you. For he feeds the birds of the air which does not sow & reap, how much more about you? He wants you to have a life of abundant, it may not only mean entering the list of top 10 of Forbes magazine. But the abundant life means not having the need to worry whether you still have the ability to bring bread on the table to feed your wife & kids.

Whether your heart is for money or for the Lord is very simple. The Lord sees your heart when you tithe. Trust me that it really takes faith to tithe. 1/10 is quite a big portion of money. When you tithe, you are acknowledging that the Lord is your provider & that is when you find yourself less depending on money but more dependent on the Lord & faith builds up & open up your heart.

That is why the Lord rains blessings on you when your heart is open because you have the heart to give & bless. He wants to give you success so that you can glorify Him through your success. Success not only in finances but a whole rounded success in good health as well as family life so that you can proclaim His goodness with a bold heart. Do not reject His blessings. Receive it & bless the world with it.

Miracles&Prophecies SG

There's nothing wrong being rich but it's wrong to love the money and wealth more than anything and do evil to gain them.

Wealth is only a tool you don't bring them to your grave only your deeds. There's a popular phrase too from the bible John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

This verse is a popular verse to support prosperity teaching....but does Jesus really mean more abundantly this life? He might be unlikely as this was preached to the poor who gathered there...Jesus was referring that he will give his follower THE life so that they have a more abundant in everything. In other words Jesus was speaking the life after death and that He came to offer us that life so that we could partake in the best of life.

I'm not saying that God wouldn't bless his followers with wealth but what Jesus was offering was much more than the wealth of this world but a wealth which nobody could have bought.

Jesus also equate the kingdom of God with a man who found a buried treasure and sold everything that he had to buy that land. The buried treasure is the life in the kingdom of God and the fact that the man went and sold everything that he had means that it must be paid more often than not with sacrifices in any form.

Miracles&Prophecies SG

The notion that it was a buried treasure also means that the reward is not obvious and not immediate and to others may simply be passed as plain stupidity. The knowledge of the reward itself is often a secret itself hence the notion buried and could only be known by man who has found out about it.

What men are given is just time and only time everything else will be irrelevant. Alexander the great is now dead and been dead for a long time and will never again rise. even if the whole world knows his name what good would that be? If I were to make a pact with satan I would make sure not only to gain the whole world but to have it for eternity because if it was less than that it would be foolish. Because the world is not enough. Because the temporal world is not enough

Miracles&Prophecies SG

But when God’s chosen people find themselves being in the lowest places of all they can have peace knowing the reward that awaits them. Even in death they can rest assured of the promised given by their Lord of eternal life and eternal power. Though to the strangers they may have died in vain and in humiliation. Because their reward is not immediate and is not in this world.

Fantagf SG

Hey, the bible mentioned about greed. I link prosperity preaching = greed

noahnoah SG

if churches just preach on $$$ alone

one might as well go attend those

seminar by adam khoo or whoever

Yourtrustedresource SG

Matthew:6 - 24

²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6 - 33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Nice bible verses, but you got abit messed up in whats prosperity preaching.. i understand some pastors twisted the prosperity stuff upside down.. In life, prosperous doesnt mean that one is only wealthy (materialistic), being prosperous is to have a well and healthy life. A life with no dieseases nor sickness, a life with abundance, a life with happiness, and a life with over abundance of riches, and all those are true prosperity.. if you are refering to the "prosperity preaching" that pastors often refer to wealth.. Its NOT true prosperity teachings..

As in Matthew 6 - 33, it shows that what i had said, the things on god's right hand: Health, and on the left hand: Wealth. This often leads to a misconception that those who seeks God and his kingdom, no matter what are their intention is, obtain the promises of God.. The fact is, is is not true.. For one to obtain the promises of God, there are no steps in obtaining the promises.. It all boils down to revelations, testimonial that people have in their christian life.. Their Belief in God, their belief in the bible, and experience the love that they experienced..

What does Matthew refer is, if one seeks the lord with just plainly want to know God, want to know their heavenly father, because of what he had done, Riches, honour and health will be added to you.. The reason is because, when the reason of seeking God is plainly because the simple reason of God loving you, and because of that reason you want to seek God is just because of what he has done for you, that would be a purest way of seeking the lord.. and that would mean, u already accepted your love that came down from heaven from your heavenly father.. With this, you therfore acknowledge between you and your heavenly father relationship, and THUS, because the lord is the alpha and the omega, the creator of the World, the things of his right hand n left hand will be all added onto you, and its all due to that simple fact..

Thus, I would say that, real prosperity teaching would be impacting people that how God love them, and is always around them, and how abundance is God's grace.. N not asking them to read the bible, eat the last supper daily, go the chruch, etc etc, IT WILL be a RITUAL, and make this realtionship with your heavenly father a religion.. I believe you yrself is a christian, and i hope you understand that christianity is what the world like to call, a religion, but it is actually a relationship.. i understand that you might not be totally agreeing with what i say, but that obviously, i could say, is just my honest opinions.. and what i experienced as a christian..

DouglasBitMeFingerBoomz SG

exactly what Fantagf was thinking. the point here is not exactly for christians. It's for non-christians who want to take the faith but are dealing with certain issues as such. I'm sure many non-believers think of prosperity preaching in this way.

stupidissmart SG

So the reason why people should believe in god is to gain health and wealth ? To me tat just really means it just widens to scope to attract more people into it

If u ask me a relationship with a supernatural being is just a religion. Just labeling another word to it (relationship) doesn't means it is no longer the former (religion).

Rooney9 SG

So the reason why people should believe in god is to gain health and wealth ? To me tat just really means it just widens to scope to attract more people into it

If u ask me a relationship with a supernatural being is just a religion. Just labeling another word to it (relationship) doesn't means it is no longer the former (religion).

you hit the jackpot, spot on. well isnt the chinese have been offering chicken, ducks, oranges, apples to the altar amd prayed they strike 4-D, gain promotion, good health, able to bear children and many other more. man turned to religion is due to fear, like fear of bad luck, ill health and money woes etc etc. religion was invented by our early ancestors due to fear of the unknown like natural diasters. they could not understand that lightning, thunder, rain etc were natural phenomenon and reckoned they must be a god, like lightning god, thunder god and rain god etc etc. that is why you got god such as sun, moon, wind and many others. that was how religion was formed in the beginning.

Rooney9 SG

even though science and technology has advanced so much this century, people still turned to religion for various reasons. some want god to bless them with good fortune/luck, blessed with intelligence, some even want god to help them strike ToTo, 4-D, Big Sweep etc etc. when they were down or lost a bereavement, they turned to god as they need to relieve from their emotional stress. you see, god has become their companion and stress reliever of some sorts.

noahnoah SG

hmm

nowdays

God already become a multi purpose God

Some even asked God wat to eat

wat to wear, who to marry, where to invest,

Which house to buy, so much so that believer

become like robot, no more the ability to decide

God will never be free again..

likeyou SG

...and pple's brain becoming smaller and smaller.Unable to decide for themselves. Cham liao.

Rooney9 SG

some even used fear to induce and attract believers by telling them that you will go to hell when you die unless you join in our religion.

likeyou SG

The other way round, they are the one who fear of being go to hell.

So, must find someone and use fear to make them go hell. Replace them.

Rooney9 SG

does this sounded like MLM?

I think religion was the first to use MLM, so MLM existed since the ancient times.

Cc hern SG

It is a interesting forum here. Actually, is there anyone here really understands and thoroughly study christianity? Besides flooding with Individual opinions and criticizing with groundless proof. Like what i leant in Army: I Think, You Thought, Who confirm?

Don't mind, i'm a person of facts. Anything groundless is FAKE.

From the Histories of countless religions... All lead to 1... Source. Thousands of years ago. In the begining... The practices of these religions evolved from this source and divided among differrent races of men into man made cultures today.

The Truth of the source is still unclear to many. 99.99% of our ancestors stopped pursuing the Truth and obediently PRACTISE ONLY what was passed to them without UNDERSTANDING "What, Where, When, Who, Why, How". while the 0.01% still passionately searching for Truth.

Personally I cannot believe something without understanding. It's like headless fly. I watched the "Huang Fei Hong" and in it he said, "If there are Gods, one good God is sufficient".

Is it God who made Man or Man made God?

If God made man why can man instruct God what to do? Contradicting. e.g. The Child Ordered the Father amd Mother around like Servant...

If it is so easy to understand God and start suggesting how God should be and what his followers should do. Then isn't it that WE are ALL Gods? And God is man?

The idols in my house are all man made. So what is God's appearance like? 1 person = 10 imaginations. 60 billion people = 600 billion faces of God? equivalent: 600 billion kind of religion practices??? Who set the standards, who decides who is real? Is it the Most Popular and well liked person decides how God should be?

Enough of my questions... I CONFIRM only those who are Scholar Or Anyone who diligently studies religions can answer me... hahaha...

vince69 SG

I believe that prosperity preaching is wrong.

simple verses explain why:

Matthew:6 - 24

²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6 - 33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Now our main focus in a christian life cannot be money. Because God created us and loves us, not money.

What is prosperity to you?

What about aiming to gain money to be a blessing/provider to His people? (example: you cannot donate money to charity if you don't have the money; you cannot feed the poor if you are poor and hungry ...etc)

and prosperity is not just about money (this is too narrow in definition), health, peace of mind, peace in the house, safety, and very important, wisdom ...etc are all part of prosperity.

May you prosper both in health and in the knowledge of God who loves you.