Quantum Physics and Prosperity Proponents

Quantum Physics (quantum mechanics) is in the loop for many spiritualists, esoteric proponents and it is making its way in the evangelical grounds in order to explain miracles and how to receive them.

But what is quantum physics about?

Amir O. Caldeira, professor of the Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute of the Unicamp (University of Campinas – Brazil), defines it as being “the theory that describes the behavior of matter within the scale of minute things, that is, it is the physics of matter components: atoms, molecules, and nucleus ...”
He, yet, explains that without the knowledge of quantum physics we would not have CD, remote control, microwave oven, computer, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, in sum all high-tech developments.
(http://www.comciencia.br/reportagens/fisica/fisica02.htm).

And for Osvaldo Pessoa Jr. (Professor of the Department of Philosophy, Course of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences, of Sao Paulo University), quantum physics “describes microscopic objects, such as atoms, and their interaction with radiation (light etc.)”.
Therefore, it deals with microscopic, subatomic particles, which make up matter and consequently are matter as well.
Quantum physicists, through several experiments have proved that light, which is energy, despite it is not palpable, is matter. For instance, the light materiality can be felt on one’s skin, depending on the kind of light, by its heat.
Light according to quantum physics is composed of quanta, a number of measurable particles (blocks of matter) that emanate energy. Not only light but everything we can see or cannot see with our eyes in nature is made up of these blocks of minute energetic particles.

What is the relationship between this and spirituality?

The answer is that some people are using quantum physics theories in order to try to explain every kind of phenomenon, including spiritual phenomena (or supposed as such).

Almir Caldeira’s words help us to understand that this is a tendency
(http://www.comciencia.br/reportagens/fisica/fisica02.htm):

“[...] all is indicating that quantum mechanics is the correct theory to describe physic phenomena in every energy scale”.

Add to this the fact the some quantum physicists, besides being physicists, are spiritualists and, thus, they end up linking both things and theorizing about spirituality through quantum physics.
I would dare to say that the nonscientific usage of quantum physics begins at this very point where, in my point of view, speculation gains ground.

Many of these speculators claim that the elements forming what we desire and want are in the universe and through our thoughts (which for some are also matter, since the manifestation of thoughts can be observed by electronic apparatus) we can make them gather together, bringing to reality (materiality) what is desired. This argument of the modern positivists is well propagated in the book and film The Secret (commented in previous posts).

Evangelicals’ bonds with prosperity theology are also being influenced, in the heat of the moment, by thoughts of quantum physics and are producing the discourse that we can bring to existence what we think.

Prosperity theology in its pursuit for innovation is using arguments based on quantum physics in an attempt to validate its discourse and practices, that is, it is trying to pass on and sell the idea that we are the owners of the miracle and that miracles only depend on us to come true; we are the ones who are going to attract the energetic material elements and then bring into existence what we want.

There are preachers of prosperity claiming that the smallest particle of matter is the sound. Therefore, for these preachers the words of desire, of faith, have the power to materialize desired things, because God created the world, and all which is in it, through the sound of his words, through the expression let there be. Such theorization, in addition to the understanding that the gospel to be preached is the gospel of the kingdom (and not only the gospel of salvation) is one of the strategies to convince neophytes and gospel workers eager for newness.

For prosperity preachers, the gospel of the kingdom is the one which brings heaven’s dimension to earth in that in heaven any sickness, poorness, lack of this or that cannot exist for just a while.
The gospel that emphasizes affirmations that bring into existence what we desire is seeking by means of quantum physics new elements in order to strengthen itself (one of the prosperity theology’s strategy to maintain itself in evidence and to go on attracting sympathizers for many years is its constant innovation, which doesn’t mean biblical foundation).

Sincere quantum physicists disagree the kind of speculation that is going on lately about spiritual things through the science they study, and they see this as just attempts to give to spiritual theories labels of scientific stuff, credibility.

Writer Marcelo Druyan, one who discusses the true and the false science, thinks the following about the usage of quantum physics to validate spiritual theories:
Pseudoscience seems to have the right to take for itself jargons of Science and make low and poor philosophy. Besides breaking down the door of valid scientific theories, they allow themselves to have a promiscuous relationship with religion and mysticism. They take definitions and concepts out of the original context to put them in different contexts, where theories attempt to prove suppositions and not to explain an experience.
Quantum Mysticism is not just a thing of the moment, it came to stay, it is there! In quantum mysticism, prayers get heaven because they take advantage of the principle of non-locality. The same occurs with telepathy and clairvoyance. Demons are the manifestation of evil which abides in a holographic universe. The saints look after everybody because “everything is in everything”. And God, at least, can play his dice game in peace, hidden in the horizon of events of a huge black hole.
http://www.ceticismoaberto.com/ceticismo/misticismo_quantico.htm

What advice does the Word of God give to us about all of this?

Peter, in his second letter (2 Peter 1:16), advises us to be cautious regarding fabricated inventions strategically organized, which he calls fables:

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

Gospel with feet steadfastly on the ground is something, it seems, that has become hard to find. The keynote today seems to be newness, it doesn’t matter how it comes; what matters are the results coming from the last thing, the thing of the moment, mainly financial results. All has showed us that leaders are being chanted not by the “truths” they have found in the innovations, but by the profits the innovations have given to their proponents. The materialization of properties, comfort and trips are things that, it seems, leaders have enjoyed more then their followers.

How can you say this? somebody could ask me. I have this impression by what it is seen today, by the fruit, by the testimony, on account of the human glory some leaders are receiving, against what they are not able to teach, demystifying wrong understandings (of their followers), that is, that they are not worthy being flattered, divinized. Or would I be materializing mistaken thoughts, which make me see a reality that in deed is not what I’ve seen, at least, in the lives of a great number of our leaders today? (Of course that those who have lived honestly according to the Gospel do not fit in this situation).



Let’s think of it!

José Martins

He Takes Care Part IV



It is hard you see a leader to say: I am a follower of the prosperity doctrine. But what classifies a leader as sympathizer, an adherent or someone taking advantage of the fronts of this theology is mainly his or her practices, which will be the parameters to determine the extent he or she is supporting what the prosperity doctrine proposes. Among these practices is the tolerance to preachers who come to the local church emphasizing actions and practices originated from the prosperity doctrine, such as:

1- What determines prosperity is giving (to give the tithe, for stance); prosperity will come to those that give even they do not practice justice in their lives (this is the secret to prosperity, they say, based on Malachi 03); material prosperity is not in a righteous life, prayer, in being spiritual along with giving, but uniquely in giving money.
This kind of teaching helps to create believers without responsibility concerning the truth and spiritually; it helps to create worldly believers with little compassion for those who have less.

2- You have to determine and declare in order to make things come true. This kind of affirmation comes from the positivist confession which is part of the prosperity doctrine, which defends that our words can be materialized as the let there be of God was materialized during the creation. (By the way, arguments of quantum physics are being used to sustain ideas that our words can be materialized. In my point of view, believers will hear more and more about these ideas. Quantum physics will be used in an attempt to persuade believers that they can have what they want – THIS MATTER OF QUANTUM PHYSICS WILL BE DISCUSSED IN TEXTS I WILL POST AHEAD).

3- Tying the blessing to money offers at meetings specifically designed to receive blessings.
Bring your prayer request and propose to give 50, 20 or 10 dollars (not to use higher figures) and God will give you your blessing.

They are preachers who go easily and amazingly deep into God’s mind to know who God is going to bless.

Our lives should not be measured by what we have; the world already do this. The church has to have a different message for those who come in it, a message that can bring and give something different of what we find outside the church in our every day life, in our struggle for living, a message that can help us leave the church more human and more confident than when we entered it, and so through mercy, love, peace, through communion with God, abandoning sin, we can make the difference, in someway, to somebody.
It was never so necessary to be alert, watchful and steadfast concerning what the gospel really proposes to us, that is, we depending on Him, being in Him and living for Him, because He has taken care of us.

Believers matured under the circumstances of the message of the cross can discern and then they stay within the boundaries of which was revealed to them through the scriptures and they take what Paul said to the Corinthians seriously: …that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written … (1Co 4.6).
Also David Wilkerson, founder of the Teen Challenge (center of rehabilitation of drug addicted teenagers) after which the other centers existing around the world were inspired, in one of his teachings in Times Square Church, in New York, speaking about the gospel of prosperity said:

The mark of a mature believer is a refusal to be "tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine..." (Ephesians 4:14). Such believers cannot be manipulated by any teacher. They don't need to run around because they are growing up in Christ. They are feasting in green pastures. They have circumcised their ears, and they measure every teacher, every doctrine, by how much it conforms to Christ's holiness. They can discern all doctrines that are false, and they are repulsed by all the strange, new teachings. They have learned Christ. They will not be held by music, friends, personalities or miracles, but by a hunger for the pure Word.
http://www.tscpulpitseries.org/english/1980s/ts880118.html

Incentive for possessing properties based on losing inner qualities of the being, can create and accumulate poors within the church, not poors in the sense of holding tightly and not giving, but in the sense of having palpable, tangible things as their main objectives in their lives . Concerning this, Jesus recommended: "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses" (Lucas 12.15).

If he has taken care of us, this is enough for us. The gospel is sufficient in our lives to supply us with which we need, there is no necessity of artifices, secrets, especial revelations; it is all very simple, it is the good news that Christ brought to us, nothing mysterious, nothing that everybody can not understand, it is not in the depths but it is on the surface, it is all very clear. This is what the apostle John in his first letter, chapter 5 and verse 14, teaches: Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Observe that the expressions this is the confidence / that we have are at a verbal tense, real present, which denotes factuality (certainty, reality, something that happens), showing that indeed He takes care of us. On the other hand, his care is according to his desire and not ours, which can be understood in the second part of the verse that states a condition in God’s caring of us: God’s will is manifested according to our petition nature and our petition has to be within God’s condition.
Thus:
That we have to have confidence in Him, it is unquestionable (without faith nobody can please God, Hebrew 11.6 *).
That He takes care of us is a truth Jesus stated and the contrary would be to say that the gospel is a lie, a farce.
That He knows what is better for us is something that we have do accept.
This is faith. It is to believe in the invisible hand of God guiding us. It is to rest in Him, it is not moving desperately to and fro for God’s favor, it doesn’t matter the price.


* This verse, before referring to the possibility of the occurrence of any sign (cure, gifts, prosperity) refers to the belief that God exists, that He is real, and in second place, only in second place, it refers to the fact that He is rewarder – because it belongs to God’s nature to bless. Thus, the true faith comes from the conviction that He is real; the results (the rewards) are consequence of this. The second aspect, according to the Bible, does not precede the first one; who put it first is trying to confirm God’s word to men’s theories, to self-interest, to the sight of those who walk based on what they see only.

Let’s think about this!

José Martins

He Takes Care Part III

The Old Testament is the most explored soil for proponents of the gospel of prosperity because in the New Testament there are few arguments for this, especially in Jesus’ teachings and in Paul’s letters.
Abraham, Job, Joseph, Ester, David and Salomon are the most used characters in the apology that in the Bible there is a secret, a scheme to achieve materially what we want, just because they succeeded well.
Abraham didn’t have anything and got everything, Job always had, Joseph came out of the inner country and was lifted up to the position of second Pharaoh, Ester became a queen out of nothing, David didn’t have anything e became rich, Salomon inherited his father’s riches and made them gigantic.
All of these were well successful people who demonstrated, without doubt, and I don’t disagree with this, that God brings prosperity, because He is the almighty God and everything belongs to him.
The preachers of prosperity have forgot to look at the life of Noah, a man whose material power is not mentioned in the Bible; they have forgot to look at Moses who was and had much but left all behind in behalf of God, they have forgot Samuel who never had too much, they have forgot Elijah, what was Elijah’s treasure? They have forgot Daniel who hadn’t anything, started to have, and again he didn’t have anything, they have forgot Jeremiah, Ezekiel and many other prophets that had little. They have forgot to look at the final part of the passage of the heroes of faith mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews, 11.36-38, that says:

Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

What a contradiction these verses present in relation to what is seen today, a huge emphasis on riches, the best houses, the best cars, the best jobs, the best this and that, and too lithe emphasis on the best of the soul, of the heart, of the truth, of justice for God and for those who are around us, believers or not.
As I said before, this is a kind of gospel (not the GOSPEL) that has done that a great number of people, in my point of view, more than those that prosper, get frustrated and withdraw from churches when they notice the fallacy by which they were deceived.
A Gospel that does not firstly and primarily deals with the necessities of the soul, with the understanding of a world full of adversities, like the one we live in, generates people without existential reflection (they are not able to understand life), without interpretative perception of what they are being taught to believe in. This kind of gospel has created people who only applaud, and when they do not, there comes to their minds a false perception that they are omitting something and consequently they will miss God’s blessing (especially the material blessing). This behavior can be explained as being the result of the conditioning produced by lack of reflection, under God’s Word light, on what we hear and read.
Concerning the doctrine of prosperity, still, there are those who argue: Yeah, really the doctrine of prosperity is false, but we can not deny that the Bible speaks about prosperity; we cannot be against prosperity.
This is true, it would be nonsense to be against the prosperity of those who love God, it would be against God, because Jesus himself made clear that those who are of God can prosper, but it would happen as consequence of their living the kingdom of God as their priority, what I have already said before. Nevertheless, we have to notice that in the discourse that I don’t approve the doctrine of prosperity but I understand that prosperity exists is that the danger abides. This discourse tends to strengthen alienation, tends to avoid questions about what we see and hear in the church, and it makes prosperity doctrine to become more present in our meetings than we think. What started with some drops some years ago, today passed from drizzle to rain. We can say that we are not followers of such doctrine, but several practices of it have been part of our worship meetings nowadays; perhaps, in some cases, due to fear of erring and going against “what comes from God”.

José Martins


To be continued ...