A Biblical Understanding And Response

Scripture Focus Deut. 8:10–14; Job 1:1; Ps. 119:71, 75; Luke 12:13–21; John 9; Rom. 8:22, 23; 1 Cor. 11:17–34; Gal. 1:6–8; Phil. 2:25–30; 1 Tim. 5:23; 6:6–10That God rewards faithfulness with good health and material wealth has quickly become one of the most captivating messages in churches across North America. The impact of this movement transcends racial and denominational lines. Advocates such as Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas; T. D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas; Frederick K. C. Price of Crenshaw Christian Center in Inglewood, California; and Creflo Dollar of World Changers Ministries near Atlanta, Georgia, all expound messages that promise much but deliver little.1. Why do you think prosperity-gospel preachers are so popular? 2. Have you ever been drawn to their messages? Explain.This study will help you understand both what the prosperity preachers believe and what the Bible actually says about health and wealth.Prosperity preachers claim to give the full gospel by adding health and wealth to it. In reality their message is what God condemns as being a different gospel. Their ideology is a disease that maligns the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and distorts the true message of His gospel.3. Read Galatians 1:6–8. How serious is the matter of keeping the gospel unadulterated?Health Gospel The prosperity-gospel’s philosophy on the subject of health was greatly influenced by the metaphysical Mind Science groups such as Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity, and Church of Religious Science. Benny Hinn, one of the movement’s most outspoken preachers, believes God’s healing power is already in us and that God’s highest desire is for His church to be perfectly healthy. Supporters of this teaching believe that any acknowledgment of sickness opens the door to satanic control and that medicine is a crutch for the spiritually immature. They also claim that physical healing is in the atoning work of Jesus Christ and that all diseases are healed by Christ’s spiritual atonement in Hell, not His physical death on the cross.