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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Does
Faith Equal Prosperity? There
are variations to what has been commonly called the "Prosperity
Gospel". The simplest
way to explain this teaching is that if we have sufficient faith in God,
He will not only bless us spiritually, but also materially, and
physically. We should
therefore expect God to make us rich and healthy.
If God doesn't prosper us, then we're deficient in faith.
Examples of people being so blessed are often taken from the Old
Testament. Few examples are
taken from the New Testament. That
should make people take a second look at this doctrine, but it often
doesn't. Two
examples of wealthy men are Abraham and Isaac.
These men were certainly wealthy.
We see Abraham's wealth in Genesis 24:34, and Isaac's wealth in
Genesis 26:13. Prosperity
teaching is like a math equation. Faith,
plus more faith, equals blessings. I
think reducing God's response to our expectations with a math equation
shows a lack of reverence for Him. So
I ask, "did Abraham and Isaac become wealthy solely because of
their faith, or is there more to this we need to understand?" Abraham
and Isaac had faith, but if you look at their lives, they didn't always
demonstrate great faith. I
believe that Abraham really didn't come to trust God until God asked him
to sacrifice his son Isaac. I
do believe that God's seemingly strange request was a test of faith, but
it was more than that. When
Abraham pulled out his knife to slit Isaac's throat, God stopped him and
said, "now I know you fear God". (Genesis 22:12)
This test was just as much a test of fearing God as it was a test
of faith. Fearing God was
fundamental to Abraham passing the test of faith.
Fearing God was why Abraham trusted God in the first place. Genesis
26:5 also specifically states that God would fulfill the promises he
made to Abraham because Abraham "obeyed God".
So along with fearing God, was obedience to God.
Clearly, there was more than faith involved when it came to God
blessing Abraham. Some
of Isaac's wealth was inherited, as seen in Genesis 24:36 and 25:5.
The rest of his wealth was accumulated after Abraham died.
In Genesis 26:3 God told Isaac to stay in the land where he was
living, even though there was a famine.
God told Isaac that if he would obey Him, He would bless Isaac.
So "obeying God" was fundamental to Isaac becoming
wealthy too. Faith without
obedience is not faith, as the New Testament book of James makes clear. Prosperity
people miss a couple of important points when they claim we can prosper
if we can scrape up sufficient faith.
Both fearing God and obeying God are fundamental to trusting Him.
Abraham and Isaac both feared God and obeyed Him.
For these reasons, God chose to bless these men.
I specifically use the word "chose" here.
God is sovereign, and beyond faith, fear, and obedience,
prosperity is still His choice to make.
He will choose who and how to bless.
It's not a matter of a simple formula of faith.
Faith, plus more faith, and sometimes even more faith, doesn't
equal wealth. The great men
of the New Testament prove that, which is one reason why you can't pull
out a few examples of wealthy men from the Old Testament to prove
prosperity teaching.
I'd
like to suggest this to any hyper faith, or prosperity person who may
read these words. Before you
teach on faith, spend time teaching that God is to be feared and obeyed.
This will make a drastic difference in your teaching on faith.
It might even make you re-evaluate the "Prosperity
Gospel" altogether.
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