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 ...