| Health And Wealth Gospel |
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The essence of ''Health and Wealth'' teaching is that God desires for all his followers to be materially prosperous and to live a healthy, fulfilled life. They claim that the true Christian has only to ask for these things and they will be granted to them. By contrast if a Christian is not enjoying these benefits then it is because they either have not asked for them (thus denying themselves for no reason) or because they have some Sin in their lives which is preventing God from blessing them. '''Health and Wealth'' is not an organised movement, but a name applied to groups and people with similar teachings. It is also called "Prosperity Gospel", "Word of Faith" (or "Word Faith"), "Name-it-and-claim-it", "Positive Confession", and others. At times, the prosperity gospel expands it's hold over perishiners, so as to have them believe that they will only receive God' blessings for them if they tithe (to that organization), that a 100fold return awaits them, that the windows of heaven will open, and may even go to extremes of asking for additional offerings in the form of 1st Fruits style offerings. Prosperity Gospel churches and their teachings can be further examined at this site: {Link without Title} . Preachers espousing these teachings generally draw on various parts of the Hebrew Bible where God promises to Israel that they will enjoy peace, contentment, and prosperity if they will stay faithful to him. God's promises of Blessings throughout the Bible are generally interpreted to mean material prosperity in this life. Health and Wealth teaching tends not to stress the multiple scriptures warning against material prosperity (eg. Luke 6:20 , Matthew 19:24 , Ezekiel 16:49 , James 2:5 ) and telling of the importance of helping the poor (eg. Isaiah 58:5-7 , Luke 12:33 Mark 10:21 , Proverbs 22:9 , Acts 20:35 , Psalm 82:1-5 , Proverbs 24:31 , Proverbs 19:17 , Proverbs 29:7 , Proverbs 21:13 , Luke 20:37-42 , Acts 10:5 ). Critics of the movement claim that the teachings represent at best a part of the message of God. They point out that many prominent Christians, and Jesus himself, did not receive prosperity as a result of their dedication to the faith, and that to attribute poverty to sin or lack of faith in the individual denies social and institutional causes of poverty that Christians should be seeking to remedy rather than attributing to God's will. Some critics liken the Health and Wealth gospel to Karma , and claim that it is intrinsically unfair, leading to apathy for the poor's needs because one assumes that because if God rewards the righteous with earthly riches, the poor deserve their position. |
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