Sunday, January 03, 2010

Prosperity "Gospel"- Does God Want You To Be Wealthy?

The short answer: Probably not. The following 2:46 minute long video is John Piper's response to the Prosperity "Gospel". Needless to say, his thoughts are not too positive about it and his passion does not seem unwarranted. I think too many times, this is paired with "God told me... that your faith is tied to how much you give my ministry." And if you are a long-time reader of the blog, you'll know that I am not a fan of folks vainly claiming God spoke to them.



The second video is about 9 minutes and it seems to be a look into the Prosperity "Gospel" in Africa. If you have time, check it out. It is an interesting piece from a guy over at Christianity Today.

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.



What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Kwame E. said...

From Piper's video I actually didn't see what was so bad about the "Prosperity Gospel." And it certainly wasn't obvious to me that what he labeled as idolatry was in fact idolatry.

Second video: I didn't understand what the guy was trying to say at the end; in fact, as with the first video I actually didn't see what was so bad about the "Prosperity Gospel."

It's as if the videos were meant as propaganda pieces meant to go light on the logic and heavy on the shock factor, yet failed to deliver the goods at the end. Is there a part two that accompanies the second video?

D.B. said...

I don't think the Piper clip was meant to be an argument against the Prosperity gospel, but rather a response to it. I think it was a powerful, or passionate response to it.

Since too often these folks think they are getting the Gospel, but what they are being preached is that God will give you all these nice things if you just have enough faith AND give to the ministry of the guy in a nice suit.

RE: Idolatry- I think his point was that when we seek "Jesus" because He will give us material stuff, we are not actually seeking Jesus, but rather the elevating the stuff above Jesus. Because once we find out that Jesus didn't give us the stuff we wanted, well, then, I don't need that Jesus, especially if we were told that is what Jesus is about.

I imagine the first video was a part of a longer sermon. The second video was mostly an observational piece, it seemed, on the properity 'gospel'. It was just illustrating what was happening- not an argument either way. Not sure about the Pt. 2; Though, since it was from Christianity Today, I am not sure they would have any problems with the Prosperity 'gospel'.