PROSPERITY THEOLOGY (from the lens of South Asian Context)

PROSPERITY THEOLOGY

(from the lens of South Asian Context)

Prabo Mihindukulasuriya

Prosperity theology is the popular yet deviant teaching that God will bestow material prosperity and physical well-being on all believer who claim them by faith. It is characterised by preaching that downplays the challenge of the cross and instead claims that every Christian is entitled to enjoy health and wealth. It presents Jesus himself as a wealthy man, while ignoring his words that he had “no place to lay his head” (Matt 8:20).

Prosperity teaching originated in North America after the Second World War when Christians sought spiritual grounds for participating in their culture’s unprecedented prosperity. It is also widespread in South Asia because it resonates with popular South Asian religiosity in which Hindus pray to gods and goddesses such as Ganesh, Lakshmi and Saraswati for blessings in business and education.

Similarly Buddhists in Sri Lanka display pictures of Arahat Sivali in the belief that this will ensure prosperity and sufficient food for their family. Godmen and women such as Sai Baba, Amma Rajarajeshwari and Osho Rajneesh are also believed to be able to dispense success.

The prosperity gospel is harmful because it misinterprets the Bible, as a closer look at some of the frequently quoted proof-texts shows. For instance, its proponents will quote 3 John 2: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” They interpret this as implying that material wealth and good health are manifestations of spiritual obedience. But the verse is not a statement of a principle but a prayer for the recipient.

Similarly, those who preach a prosperity gospel love to quote passages like Luke 6:38: “For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” They claim that those who give to their ministries are guaranteed a material reward that is proportionate to the amount they give. In this way, the preachers accumulate riches, much of which they spend on themselves and their own families, while ignoring the context of Jesus’ words, which shows that he was actually saying that God will judge us according to how we judge others. Similarly, they present Malachi 3:10-12 as a contract in which God guarantees blessing in exchange for tithing, whereas it is actually a shaming challenge to Israel’s mercenary attitude to the covenant that saw no profit in obeying God (Mal 3:14). True covenant faithfulness pledges devotion to God even in the absence of fruitfulness (Hab 3:17-18).

Prosperity teaching misrepresents God’s purposes for his children. It fails to distinguish between the foretaste of God’s abundant life we enjoy in the present and its complete bestowal at Christ’s return.

Christ explained this foretaste in terms of kinship and economic sharing when he said, “Truly I tell you … no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

Prosperity teaching also misrepresents the prosperity of faithful teachers. It implies that they will be rich. But Paul told the Corinthian church that he and his fellow apostles were not prosperous but “hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless” (1 Cor 4:8-13). Rather than seeking riches, he explained, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil 4:12). Rather than enjoying superb health, he had to learn to live with “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7).

The OT presents sufficiency as the ideal state. Extremes of either wealth or poverty are to be rejected. That is why the author of Proverbs prays: “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God” (Prov 30:8-9; see also 1 Tim 6:5-6).

In the NT, Paul states, “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: ‘The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little’” (2 Cor 8:13-15, quoting Exod 16:18).