{"id":71521,"date":"2024-02-05T23:17:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71521"},"modified":"2024-02-08T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:26:00","slug":"evangelizing-prosperity-gospel-disciples-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71521","title":{"rendered":"Evangelizing Prosperity Gospel Disciples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">A few years ago, I met a missionary to Africa who boasted of winning \u201cthousands of new Christians\u201d and planting \u201chundreds of churches.\u201d Intrigued, I asked: \u201cWhat is the gospel you preach?\u201d His answer was deeply disheartening.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">He shared about Jesus\u2019s desire to bless and heal people. He minimized sin and elevated success. He had an obvious fascination with big numbers. He was, quite obviously, a prosperity gospel preacher.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Like every other false gospel, the prosperity gospel replaces God\u2019s gracious work with our work. The specific work it promotes is <span data-contrast=\"none\">more<span data-contrast=\"none\"> faith and <span data-contrast=\"none\">more<span data-contrast=\"none\"> giving. God subsequently rewards such works with more health and more wealth.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">This false gospel cherry-picks Scripture, which teaches its adherents to read their Bibles poorly. It then uses its bankrupt exegesis to diminish the greatness of God and elevate man. It creates a shrunken God whom people can manipulate.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">This teaching isn\u2019t just an annoying alternative or unfortunate compromise. It\u2019s a damning false gospel. Paul\u2019s stark words to the Galatians apply here. The prosperity gospel \u201cdistorts\u201d the true gospel, rendering its preachers and disciples \u201caccursed\u201d (Gal. 1:6\u20139).<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">It may be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Christian life isn\u2019t doing more for Jesus to get more from Jesus. The Christian life is forsaking more for Jesus to gain more of Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":888,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-71521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-evangelism-gospel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/888"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71523,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71521\/revisions\/71523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}