from heprayed.com

A prosperity preacher is one who claims to be a Christian, but whose teaching focuses on man’s happiness and prosperity in this life. He is a humanist. It’s amazing… the only time in scripture where Jesus got furious was when men used God’s temple to make money (Luke 19:45-46). These were money-grubbers setting up shop in the Lord’s house of prayer. It happened in Jesus’ day and it’s happening in our day. This is exactly what hundreds and thousands of prosperity preachers are doing today. These men and women that stand up in their golden pulpits in designer clothing begging for money and making promises of healing and monetary return in the name of Christ should cause a holy anger in God’s children! The immature believer will often find it hard to distinguish these false teachers. We must warn against these mammon worshippers that call themselves Christians as a doctor warns against a deadly poison advertised as a medicine. This false gospel is spreading like wildfire.

Here’s a question: how can you recognize prosperity preaching? How can you tell if a person is a prosperity preacher? A million different people are saying 10 million different things so how in the world can we know the difference? Our answer is to look to Jesus. It's as simple as that. Ask yourself, “Did Jesus preach like this? Did Jesus’ preaching sound like this? What did Jesus talk about? What was His emphasis? How did He live?” Let’s take a look at some of the things that prosperity preachers tend to do and preach. They preach and live exactly the opposite of the way that Jesus preached and lived. If you are in a church where the preacher is guilty of any or at least a few of the following, RUN away from that church… you’ve found yourself in the midst of the prosperity gospel.
Prosperity preachers tend to live lavish lifestyles with fancy cars, large houses, expensive clothes. Jesus did not do this. He did not even carry a penny on him (Matt 22:19). He had no place to live. “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” (Luke 9:58). You can imagine the types of clothes He walked around in. Scripture says about our Lord that there was nothing in his physical appearance to attract people to Him. “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him,” Isa 53:2.

It has been said that an indicator of a godly man is when his salary goes up and he still lives at the same standard of living as he did before. A prosperity preacher is not like this. As a prosperity preacher gains wealth, his lifestyle will also become more excessive.
Prosperity preachers constantly attempt to make their hearers feel good. This is because they care about the number of people in their churches, not the spiritual maturity of the congregation. Jesus did not do this. C.S. Lewis said of Jesus, "He produced mainly three results: Hatred, Terror, Adoration." Jesus’ word is a sword. It cut people into two groups - those for Him, and those against Him. Those that love Him, and those that don't. The sons of God, the children of the devil. A prosperity preacher keeps everybody in one group... even an atheist can listen to the prosperity gospel and feel good. They wish to unite the world no matter who believes what. Their focus is peace and happiness instead of God's honor.
Prosperity preachers sometimes promise blessing if you give to their ministry (emphasizing the word “their”). Try to find one instance in scripture where our Lord asked for money. You cannot do it! Jesus never asked for money… not even one time.
You will hear them teach people to pray for and pursue prosperity but will not once hear them teach people the value of being content. It is rightly said that "He who possesses the most is he who is content with little," but since these false teachers are not concerned with the spiritual well-being of their congregation as much as their material well-being, you will not hear them talk of contentment.
There is ZERO fear of God in their preaching. For all the gentle things that Jesus said to one person, He had a rebuke for another. He once called a Roman a man of great faith, and then called the Pharisees brood of vipers! The first is a picture of the Lord’s love, meekness and gentleness. How about the latter? Would you call Him “gentle Jesus” when He spoke to the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, sons of Satan?! Our Lord was doing as the scripture commands : “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” (Jude 1:22-23). Prosperity preachers only follow the "compassion" part of that passage, for they are too fearful to rebuke. They believe in the love of God, but not the fear of God.
Prosperity preachers rarely preach against sin. This is because they are concerned less about the soul than they are the body. They are concerned about this life more than they are eternity. Jesus preached against sin harder than anybody I’ve ever heard. When a man tells you to rather cut out your eye than sin, you can be sure that He’s serious about it (Matt 18:9). Listen very carefully and take note of how often a pastor talks about sin and speaks against it. This will tell you much about his own walk with the Lord.
They say that it is God’s will for you to be prosperous (materially). Jesus said that the rich will enter the kingdom with more difficulty than a camel going through the eye of a needle! Yes, riches are dangerous for the immature believers who cannot handle the temptation… and you will not hear a prosperity preacher say this. If he or she could bestow masses of money on every believer, they would do it in a heartbeat because their motivation is to make people feel good. This is like giving every 5 year old child a $500 bill, a very foolish thing to do indeed. You can be sure that our Father in Heaven does not do this.
They very rarely use the phrases "eternity," "sin", and "Hell"... but very often use the phrases "your life", "your blessing". Jesus did not do this - He talked both of Heaven and Hell. He talked of sin and salvation. He talked of joy and torment. He left nothing out. The centrality of the gospel He brought is not in the happiness of man, but the glory of God. It does no justice to God to talk only of His perfect love, but not of His perfect power, justice and wrath.
They say that faith will get you anything that you pray for (in other words, anything that you want - this is also known as the "Word of faith movement"). Jesus prayed to the Father, “not my will but yours be done.” Word of faith preachers focus on man’s desire. Jesus focused on God’s desire. The scripture says that God grants our desires only if it is according to His will. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14)
They use God as a means to their end. In their world God exists mainly to bring us to Heaven and give us happy lives here on earth. They will not say this blatantly, of course. Satan tends to hide poison in attractive bottles. What A.W. Tozer said of some false preachers is also true of prosperity preachers, “The problem is not so much error of doctrine as error of emphasis”. They emphasize what YOU want. Jesus always emphasized what His Father wanted.
It's no sin to have money. It's no sin to take leisure time. It's no sin to be happy. But make no mistake... the Judas Iscariots of the world that cling on to their moneybags and attempt to walk with Jesus at the same time will eventually find themselves selling their Lord for silver. Flee from prosperity preachers. Flee from a false gospel that puts the focus on what you can get from God in this life rather than what you can give to God. Remember that the entire reason for mans existence is not to get happy... it's to glorify, serve, and love the Lord. The rest is added to us.

"Does the Lord intend to make man happy? Sure... but it's a byproduct, not a prime product." - Paris Reidhead

If you have a show on TBN... you might be a prosperity preacher!

If your wife's hair resembles a large carnival sized pink roll of cotton candy... you might be a prosperity preacher!

If you have a $300,000 RV... for your dogs to travel in... you might be a prosperity preacher!

If you host a talk show sitting on a gold ornait throne... you might be a prosperity preacher!


Krispy

Zach Poonen said that Christians usualy suffer from pendulim-itis. I sometimes sense that some of the comments are starting to swing to the other extreme. Jesus was provided with a large, furnished room to celebrate passover in a swamped Jerusalem. His feet were anointed with costly perfume ....

There are dangers of muzzling the ox that treads out the corn, and the elder, that is worthy, not receiving double honor when we over-react to the Prosperity error.

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J Kruger

Hi jochbaptist,

I think that the difference is that Jesus was not focused upon the size or cost of the room in which he celebrated the Passover. He was not concerned with the cost of the perfume that was poured on his feet. After all, this world and everything in it is corruptible.

The prosperity message meanders from the gifts and provisions of God to specific measurements of those things. Sometimes, the greatest answer that God can give us is "no" or some other answer that is not what we specifically desired.

A "prosperity" has meandered from trusting in and relying on God to meet his needs to coveting the things of this world. I have heard prosperity preachers "claim" everything from jobs with six-figure incomes to fancy cars to houses to even water park slides. This isn't about needs: It is about coveting the things of this world.

A person can "claim" a specific job until they are blue in the face, but it doesn't mean that the job is the specific one that God would even want for that person. They can point out a fancy car or home, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is the best one that God desires for you (or for HIS good).

Faith calls for us to trust in the Lord for our provisions and to meet our needs or what He knows is best for us. Worldliness prompts us to covet the things of this world that WE think are best and try to impress God enough with our "faith" until He gives them to us.

Like you said, we can overemphasize the error of others. However, the prosperity message can damage the faith of some because they fully expect God to act on their behalf because they truly feel to have "faith" in Him. Charismatic prosperity churches often have a tremendous congregational "changeover" rate.

I know of one prosperity church where only about 25% of the people were still attending after five years, but the overall attendance remained nearly the same. I think that it is because people leave after they have "tested" the teaching and realized that the "principles of prosperity" are either non-scriptural or just don't work in practice.

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Christopher

Many an ox feed themselves vs relying on the little sheep to bring them their mouthful.

As we meditate on God, our vision of both heaven and hell are expanded. I can scarcely imagine that which awaits those who have denied the Son, but even more, those who have caused His little ones to stumble.

I would add to KK's top ten list by saying: If you have left you body and in Spirit find yourself at the right hand of Christ who is weeping because He dreads the day He will have to judge some to eternity in hell and so you hold Christ and comfort Him like a mother holds her young child who has fallen, you may very well be a prosperity preacher.

The children of this world exercise greater discernment than the millions deceived in this cult.

This is the most disturbing image I have read in any context. What in the name of Our Lord Jesus does it mean!

Brother there is much in what you write here which is both true and a blessing. I have no doubt that what is now called 'prosperity preaching' has always existed in the sense that its root, love of ones self and present comfort, have always been around in the Church.

In England in the days of Henry VIII monasteries filled with many men, who had forsaken everything in order to live a more devoted life to Christ, had become the richest places on God's earth. What seemed inconceivable when Henry ascended to the throne of England (i.e. the destruction of the monasteries) happened and it did so at least in part because of the reformed gospel.

I believe that prosperity teachers today will go the same way. In the end, at a time of great persecution they will have to either truly repent and be saved, or else they will be irrevocably driven to deny Christ Himself openly. In a sense suffering or the thought of it will make up their minds.

I use the word 'they' whilst speaking about prosperity teachers. I don't use my imagination to believe that none of them have at some time or other given their lives to Christ in a reasonable response to God's love through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. I use the term to set myself apart from them.

Finally, some of the 'sayings' which have been posted, are unworthy of The Lord. I have made another post prior to this one. It speaks about that concern. Thanks for your wisdom and efforts. More of us need to explain accurately what this 'false gospel' really is. I have watched it grow in my own life time. From my cry unto salvation unto this very hour. I can tell you that its roots were oh so gently put down. Today it is drinking all the life out of the ground and destroying the garden. May God have mercy on all of us. Amen.

easy....a propensity for gold ornamentation, pinky rings, necklaces.

they're gonna burn like wax.