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Prosperity doctrine: a corrective

Throughout the twentieth-century the Pentecostal movement increasingly emphasised a theology of material prosperity. The origins of Prosperity doctrine have been discussed, but it remains the case that contemporary Pentecostals appeal directly to the Bible to explain their belief in God’s desire and promise to make Christians rich.

Diversity on Prosperity in the Bible

The Bible certainly has much to say about prosperity, though the various attitudes to wealth found within the Bible are diverse and at times seem to convey almost contradictory messages. Consider the multiple perspectives on riches and poverty contained within the following brief list of passages:
“…It is [the LORD your God] who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant…” (Deuteronomy 8:18)
“The king… must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17)
“…It pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you…” (Deuteronomy 28:63)
“The LORD sends poverty and wealth...” (1 Samuel 2:7)
“With [wisdom] are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.” (Proverbs 8:18)
“…Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” (Proverbs 30:8)
“…Money is the answer for everything.” (Ecclesiastes 10:19)
“I am the LORD… I bring prosperity and create disaster…” (Isaiah 45:6-7)
“…Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jeremiah 12:1)
“… Their gold … has made them stumble into sin.” (Ezekiel 7:19)
“…It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:23)
“He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” (Luke 6:20, 24)
“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…” (2 Corinthians 9:11)
“…Godliness with contentment is great gain… People who want to get rich fall into temptation…" (1 Timothy 6:6-9)
“…[God] richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17)
“…The one who is rich should take pride in his low position…” (James 1:10)
“You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)
" 'Woe! Woe, O great city… glittering with gold… In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!' (Rev 18:16-17)
Gratitude, concern and caution

Although the Bible contains no one single attitude to prosperity, Jack Mahoney categorizes the Bible’s various teachings on wealth into three strands, gratitude, social concern and spiritual caution:
“A triple message emerges from the Hebrew Bible on the right approach to wealth: a theology of gratitude to God for his bounteous generosity to his favoured ones; a social theology on the need for a just distribution of wealth in society to meet the needs of all without exception; and a spiritual theology on the dangers of the wealthy becoming so immersed in making or enjoying their wealth that they lose all proportion and forget their radical need to center their whole life on God.” [1]
Gratitude

A theology of gratitude in relation to wealth is highlighted throughout the Bible, but particularly in the Patriarchal literature beginning with God’s promise of blessing to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), and throughout the Former Prophets who spoke of Israel’s golden years under Solomon (1 Kings 3:13). Since everything belongs to God (Psalm 24:1), he chose to bless his chosen ones throughout Israel’s history by providing them with a share of his abundance.

Social concern

The social theology of wealth is particularly seen in the Latter Prophets, who were grieved that many of Israel’s rich had risen to prosperity by exploiting the poor (Isaiah 58:3-10; Amos 2:6-8; 3:10; 4:1), but is also evident in the teaching of John the Baptist and Jesus. The ‘rich’ became a theological term for the enemies of God, and the ‘poor’ God’s friends, language that is picked up in the New Testament (cf. Luke 6:20, 24).

Caution

The third message on the dangers of wealth features strongly throughout the Bible. The Law safeguarded against the dangers of riches to God’s people by commanding Israel’s future kings to not accumulate large amounts of wealth (Deuteronomy 17:17). In the end, Israel’s expulsion from the Land was attributable (in part) to the temptations of wealth (Ezekiel 7:19). It is this spiritual theology on the risk to the soul of riches that the New Testament emphasizes strongly, with some of most serious warnings coming from Jesus himself.

No simple answers

Mahoney’s three-part categorization is helpful, though it may be too simplistic. The message of the Wisdom literature in relation to wealth, for example, cannot be neatly fit into these groups. The Proverbs, the book of Job and Ecclesiastes each contain contrasting messages on prosperity that collectively must be kept in tension with one another.

Proverbs on prosperity

The Proverbs generally advocate a common sense attitude in relation to money – that wealth is the product of hard work (Proverbs 10:4) – but also that riches are the reward of God for righteous, and poverty his repayment to sinners (Proverbs 13:21; 21:21).

Job on prosperity

This almost mechanical view regarding the relationship between prosperity and righteousness, and poverty and wickedness, is sharply contrasted by the message of the book of Job, which challenges this popular wisdom in Israel (cf. Job 15:29). The dialogue between Job and his friends serve to prove that the common sense rules relating to prosperity do not always hold. Prosperity and poverty are not governed by any type of formulaic relationship or logic, but by God himself in his sovereignty. The Scriptures also repeatedly make clear elsewhere that God is the ultimate cause of all prosperity and poverty, including the prosperity of the wicked and the poverty of the righteous. (1 Samuel 2:7; Isaiah 45:6-7).

Ecclesiastes on prosperity

Ecclesiastes also has a different message again to bring. Ecclesiastes questions the point of working hard and accumulating wealth at all by highlighting the meaninglessness of riches in view of the certainty of death and the many other factors in life that make prosperity a vanity and a grievous evil, though he does retain something of Mahoney’s theology of gratitude (Ecclesiastes 5:8-20) which no doubt is based on an underlying theology of creation and God’s curse as a result of sin (Genesis 3:14).

Diversity of Christian thought on prosperity

With such a great diversity of attitudes within the Scriptures themselves in regard to the subject of wealth and prosperity, it is little wonder that a great diversity of Christian thought, attitudes and teachings on wealth exists, both in present and throughout Church history.

Mahoney has also observed that placing an emphasis on any one of the Bible’s core teachings profoundly shapes Christian attitudes, including their attitude to money and processions; that is, a particular emphasis within Christianity on the doctrine of human sinfulness, for example, would affect different attitudes to wealth than would a particular emphasis on the doctrine of creation.

The Protestant emphasis

Historically, Protestants have emphasized the doctrine of justification; that Christ’s resurrection from the dead brings forgiveness from God for the sin of fallen humanity. The Reformation was a movement that realigned Christianity to the Scriptural doctrines of justification through faith alone, by God’s grace alone, and revealed in the Bible alone.

However, justification entails that saved humanity is still inherently sinful, and consequently, reason remains an untrustworthy guide to moral behaviour. Thus, Protestants have relied solely upon the Biblical revelation, which reaches its climax in Jesus, who gave his own moral teaching as the fulfillment of God’s law. Consequently the New Testament’s emphasis on the dangers of wealth has been emphasized within Protestantism. This in turn has reinforced the Protestant stress upon the doctrine of justification, because the teaching on the dangers of money and the risks of the soul acquiring many possessions throws light back onto the inherent sinfulness of people, even forgiven people, who are in continual need of forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection life.

The Pentecostal emphasis

From within Protestantism, Pentecostalism emerged early in the twentieth-century. It is apparent from the history of the development of Pentecostalism that the movement has taken many steps away from the determined emphasis of traditional Protestantism and the more recent Evangelical movement, out of which it was born, which continues to emphasize justification by God’s grace, through faith in Christ, revealed in the gospel of the Bible.

Pentecostalism shifts the emphasis onto the subjective inward work of the Spirit subsequent and in addition to justification, which is insufficient to enable ‘full’ Christian living. The Pentecostal gospel has become less about the objective work of God for people in history, and more about the fruit of the Spirit’s work in people. The ‘full gospel’ involves Spirit-baptism as an experience of empowerment for Christian service, and entails the right of Christians, by means of faith in Christ’s atonement, to walk in divine health and divine prosperity.

Pentecostalism’s increasing desire for wealth and material prosperity may well be the result of a simplistic emphasis on the doctrine of God’s original purposes for humanity, coupled with an emphasis on prosperity from an allegorized interpretation of Old Testament history, a covenantal understanding of the Proverbs (as binding promises), a literalistic interpretation of the Prophets, and a failure to rely on the historical context of the Old Testament to provide the context for interpreting the Gospels and Acts. This, coupled with a wholesale decline in systematic exposition of all of the New Testament, has contributed to the development in Pentecostalism of an altogether different attitude to prosperity than what is seen in the overall message of Jesus and his Apostles.

The need for a Biblical Theology of Prosperity

It is one thing to select particular passages in the Bible that collectively demonstrate one single attitude on the subject of wealth, such as a positive belief in its created purpose, but it is another thing to give due weight to all the biblical data that bare on the subject and observe where the Bible itself places the emphasis in its own unfolding revelation in salvation history from Genesis to Revelation. This is the discipline of Biblical theology, which may be the answer for Pentecostalism in the twenty-first-century. (See The answer for Pentecostalism: Biblical Theology).

A Biblical theology of prosperity begins, not by conducting word searches and undertaking a topical study of wealth in the Bible, as incredibly informative as that is when done comprehensively, but by reading the Bible from beginning to end and carefully allowing its own progressive revelation within the context of the stages of Biblical history to inform its own message on the subject of wealth.

Because the Bible is an unfolding revelation about historical events and their meaning, we expect a Biblical theology of prosperity to reach its climax in the climax of salvation history itself. This must allow the Old Testament to focus its emphasis on wealth onto the perspective given in the full height of God’s fulfilled revelation in the gospel of Jesus Christ and his New Creation. It remains for us to discuss such a biblical theology of prosperity and how this provides a corrective to the prosperity doctrine of the Pentecostal movement today.

A corrective

In Neither Poverty nor Riches, A biblical theology of possessions, Craig Blomberg provides this urgently needed corrective to the Prosperity movement [2]. He also refers readers to Bruce Barron's The Health and Wealth Gospel (1987, Downers Grove: IVP) for a "relatively sympathetic critique" of the prosperity gospel.

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[1] Companion encyclopedia of theology / edited by Peter Byrne and Leslie Houlden, London : Routledge, 1995, Theology, wealth and social justice (Jack Mahoney), p. 760.

[2] Blomberg, Craig L. Neither Poverty nor Riches, A biblical theology of possessions, IVP, 1999.

The Oxford companion to Christian thought / edited by Adrian Hastings ... [et al.] Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000, Prosperity. talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Answering Pentecostalism: Biblical theology

Pentecostalism is a distinct theological system with its own distinctive method, doctrines and practices. Although similarities exist between Pentecostalism and Protestantism, Evangelicalism, even Catholicism, the former is separate from such theological systems because of its specific origin in the more recent American movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, such as Methodism, Dispensationalism, Millennialism and the Holiness movement. Within this context, Pentecostalism emerged in the early twentieth century when a new generation departed from such movements by taking further steps away from an understanding of the gospel based in the historic events of the Old Testament.

Graeme Goldsworthy has observed that when the loss of understanding of the historical meaning of the Old Testament has occurred in the church in the past, the result has been a shift in emphasis from the New Testament’s focus on the historical basis in the Old Testament of the gospel. After the fourth-century A.D, with the rise of Catholicism, Christianity turned inward as the church during the medieval era and into the dark ages increasingly emphasised the personal sacraments:
“When the plain meaning of the Old Testament was lost to parts of the early church, often through the adoption of a dehistoricizing, allegorical interpretation of the Bible, the gospel ceased to be regarded as primarily what God has done in the historical Christ. The emphasis shifted to what God does inwardly in the human soul through piety and the sacramental ministrations of the church.” (Goldsworthy, G., New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 523) [1]
The same may be said to have occurred more recently following the American revivalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century movements that gave birth to Pentecostalism: The lack of basis in Pentecostalism on a historical understanding of Old Testament, which had been central in the Reformation era, has blurred the gospel itself, (the work of God for Christians through Christ) by a refocus inward that is evident in Pentecostalism’s primary emphasises on the fruit of the gospel (the work of God in Christians by his Holy Spirit). Pentecostalism’s central basis of an experience of Spirit-baptism that produces tongues-speaking is a charismatic sacramentalism. This, together with their focus on personal worship and the Spirit’s inner voice, gives Pentecostalism more in common with the subjective focus of Catholicism’s sacramentalism than many realise.

The fundamental problem with Pentecostal theology is its lack of understanding of the meaning of the Old Testament. Just as the message of the Bible is a progressive story from creation to new creation, the message of God’s Word is to be understood in terms of his promises and revealed plan and their historical fulfilment. These are the revelation of a mystery, previously hidden in Israel’s historical development, and now disclosed through the writings of the New Testament apostles and prophets, though still yet awaiting completion in history. (Romans 1:2; 16: 25-26, Ephesians 3:4-5)

What is needed by Pentecostals is a careful reading of the meaning of the Bible’s message in its progressive historical revelation of the gospel of God, through the words, grammar, and contexts of the various writings of the Biblical authors, in their various genres, who make known God’s purposes for his own glory, of which salvation for his people is one aspect.

The Biblical authors demonstrate that the message of the Bible is self-interpreting, and as such the only appropriate means of comprehending the meaning of Scripture is to allow its own unfolding unity to give its interpretation. This way of reading, popularly called ‘Biblical theology’ – referring to the Bible’s own method of doing theology – is the answer for today’s Pentecostal and charismatic movements.

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[1] Of great use for understanding the historical meaning of the Old Testament is G. Goldsworthy’s According to Plan: The unfolding revelation of God in the Bible (IVP, 1991). talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Prosperity doctrine: Blessing with a twist

‘Health, wealth and wisdom;’ that’s what the world wants, and we want in now. And that’s what the twenty-first-century tries to offer in the West, at least to some. But there are no promises, not it seems unless you step into the right church. For over a century now, Pentecostalism has maintained that Spirit-filled living leads, not just to peace with God, but also to divine health for your body. And the message is not only, ‘God wants you well.’ ‘God wants you rich’ too.

Although such claims from leading proponents of the Prosperity message may be repudiated formally by whole scores of Pentecostal Christians, increasingly today the underlying emphasis on abundance is evident within widespread Pentecostalism. This was demonstrated clearly by the many millions of book sales of Bruce Wilkinson's The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking through to the Blessed Life (2000), a recent best seller that promised God’s favour, power and protection to those who simply pray the right kind of prayer. This very contemporary message is just what the itching ears of many in the church today want to hear.

Pentecostal prosperity

The Prosperity movement of present-day Pentecostalism is based on the belief that every blessing won by Christ in his death and resurrection are presently available to the believing Christian. Consequently, many Pentecostal churches teach that God promises an array of physical blessings as well as spiritual for the Christian life in the ‘here and now’. While the Second Coming will accomplish the destruction of sin, death and Satan permanently, such things as sickness, pain and poverty are completely unnecessary for Christians. And so, faith in Christ entitles one to experience the full implications of Christ’s reversal of the curse of Genesis 3. The basic bones of this system is that Christians are now set free by Christ’s resurrection from the curse of sickness and poverty, and consequently are entitled through the combined power of faith and the positive confession of the Word of God to experience Eden like blessing in every sphere of their lives.

In essence, this emphasis within Pentecostalism is based on a view that the Kingdom of God has already completely arrived with Christ’s first coming. Although the Consummation will entail the appropriation of that Kingdom to the entire world in the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, for the Spirit-filled, faith-filled Christian, all the promises of God in Scripture are already theirs for the enjoyment. In other words, to the committed Pentecostal, a ‘heaven on earth’ lifestyle is not decedent greed, or excessive indulgence, but a God-given right and God’s revealed will for his children; prosperity is therefore, in fact, a sign of true godliness. Accordingly, Christians are to ‘claim’ from God, health, wealth, wisdom, power, esteem, comfort, and whatever else originally belonged to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Pentecostals have it that God guarantees in his Word that Christians through faith may have now complete victory over Satan and therefore may walk in total deliverance from his dominion in to any situation of life. ‘It’s all be done for us by Christ,’ therefore, ‘we have everything now through Christ.’ It follows that, ‘if Christians don’t have it, its not on account of God withholding it.’ The obvious implication is that many Christians forfeit their God-given right to such a ‘higher-life’ because of their lack of faith and commitment; that is, their lack of godliness. Christians are only limited by the strength of their faith.

This movement is unembarrassed in its emphasis on abundance. ‘If I’m a child of the King’ and ‘the Kingdom has arrived’, it follows that ‘we ought to live like princes and princesses’. This ‘Kingdom mentality’ goes someway towards explaining the increasing emphasis within Pentecostal churches on outward beauty. The use of makeup and the acquisition of jewelry, fashionable clothes, luxury cars and other status symbols are all encouraged because they are seen as intrinsically tied to self-esteem. To the proponents of this message, self-esteem is critical for the faithful Christian because ‘we are royalty,’ and if we are God’s royalty, genuine belief necessitates that we feel like it, and if we feel like it, we will look like it. Conversely, there are few things as despised within Pentecostal Prosperity circles as a ‘poverty mentality,’ which is tantamount to unbelief.

Brian Houston sets out this message in How to Flourish in Life (2003), in which he argues that Christians need to be prosperous and successful in order to show the power of God: “God’s purpose and intention is clearly that we should have an abundant life—that means bountiful, productive, successful, prosperous and flourishing. This kind of abundant life reveals and demonstrates the power of God to others.” To Houston, other signs of God’s work include positive self-esteem, beauty and physical attractiveness. Of course, all of this has implications for the sex-life of Christians too. Bobbie Houston was unabashed to declare: ‘Kingdom women love sex’.

It is deeply ironic that Pentecostalism has been so progressive in its acculturation of the contemporary message of society that their gospel now preached from the platform is “sex, money and power”.

The present time

The fundamental problem with this new gospel of health, wealth and victory is that it is ‘out of time’ with the Biblical picture of the present. In truth, Christians live in a time still awaiting the full consummation of the Kingdom of God, in which the gift of the Spirit guarantees Christians every spiritual blessing ‘here and now’ through faith in Christ, but we are ‘not yet’ glorified in the consummated Kingdom, when every physical blessing will be ours in experience, including the redemption of our physical bodies and the everlasting security of permanent peace and life, without pain, loss or mourning. These physical blessings belong to the Christian now only through the eye of faith, but in physical reality we’re not there yet, like first homeowners who still wait settlement day (Ephesians 1:3, Romans 8:23). We are living in the ‘overlap of the ages:’ the old order continues even though we live now as citizens of the new order that is yet to arrive. There are numerous passages that indicate clearly what we do have ‘now’ as Christians, and what is yet to come.

Dying bodies

Romans 8:22-25 portrays Christians as ones groaning ‘as in the pains of childbirth’ (a metaphor clearly implying the pain-filled nature of our present state) as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. Clearly, then, the body is not yet redeemed. With respect to spiritual matters such as the forgiveness of sin, and adoption into God’s family, certainly Christian are redeemed. We have been resurrected spiritually already. But with respect to our bodies, we are not yet redeemed, or adopted. We moan and groan in pain and suffer all types of physical hardships and discomforts and distresses and disorders. With regard to our bodies we are in this way like every other non-Christian: open to disease, and suffering and eventually death. But if as some Pentecostals teach, our bodies may experience perfect health already, why must Christians die at all, and why do Christians require physical resurrection of their bodies?

Sinful natures

The Christian still does not yet have perfection in the mind, will or emotions. Though we may have been made new in Christ spiritually, yet in the mind and the will and the emotions there is still a battle going on against the sinful nature, as Romans 7 and Galatians 5 insist. The Apostle John declares, “If anyone says he is without sin, he makes God to be a liar.” Clearly Christians cannot yet have, or be able to achieve, perfect blessing now in a physical sense in this life, for we are not yet able to avoid sin in our own lives, let alone that of others.

Persecuted and oppressed

Christians do not have justice and righteousness in the affairs of their lives. The epistles of 1 Peter and James picture the Christian as one ‘yearning for the home of righteousness.’ For in this world we experience suffering, injustice and persecution. John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ is a word given to the Church to comfort her by demonstrating that her crying out, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” does not go unnoticed and is not at all to be underemphasized (much less counter emphasized). Their patient waiting for justice is not in vain for He who is coming will come. Rather, the Christian’s cry of yearning is magnified as being central in the cosmic battle that is now taking place, of which Christ Jesus, the Lord of all, has victory, though the battle will continue “until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who are to be killed as they had been was completed.” (Revelation 6:11).

Clearly, then, Christians do not yet have complete physical victory in this life. The Bible does not promise Christians power, money and sex in a worldly sense. We live in the overlap of the ages, between his cross and his coming, when although every spiritual blessing is ours now in Christ in the heavenly realms, every physical blessing in Christ awaits his coming and our resurrection.

The promise of suffering

The Prosperity message ignores Christ our King’s call to follow his model of suffering and death before entry into glory. He did not promise, nor expect, his followers to walk in the perfect glory of the Kingdom now. Quite the contrary: “In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33) Pentecostalism is creating generations of Christians without any ‘homesickness for heaven’, who are busy trying to find complete material and bodily blessing now, forgetting the encouragement of the Scriptures to remain true to the faith: "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22). Prosperity doctrine shares none of the Biblical emphasis on the imitation of the sufferings of Christ and of the Apostles. It also has no understanding of the implication of physical death for the Christian life and the certainty for many Christians of martyrdom for Christ.

In contrast to the leading proponents of the Prosperity movement, the Apostle Paul delighted in weaknesses, in hardships, and in difficulties (2 Corinthians 12:10). He himself suffered sicknesses, as did Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23), Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:27) and others in the New Testament. He ‘knew hunger and thirst’ and often went without food (2 Corinthians 11:27). The Apostles themselves were ‘in rags’ and ‘homeless’, even though they ‘worked hard with their own hands’ (1 Corinthians 4:11).

These are the very passages where our Apostle Paul urges Christians to ‘imitate him,’ for he was imitating Christ’s own lifestyle: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1). It was Christ our King himself who gave us the pattern of suffering, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21). Therefore anyone who would truly live a godly life in Christ should expect suffering, whether because of sin, sickness, or injustice; and they should freely part with possessions in order to live and die for the salvation of others and for the glory of God. This is the pattern laid down for us; this is what our Lord commanded – that we should suffer for his Name’s sake before entering his glory.

"What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away." (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)
Prosperity with a twist

Just as evil is a perversion of God’s good creation, wickedness is truth with a twist. The Prosperity gospel amounts to as cunning a deception as the age-old promise of blessing to Eve who listened to the voice of Satan and ate from the tree about which God had commanded Adam not to eat. The Devil’s temptation of Christ was similar, “All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Once tested, it was Christ who warned, “You cannot serve both God and money.” Neither can you love the world and have the love of the Father (1 John 2:15). “You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

Though now for a little while we may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials – sweat, pain and tears, disappointment and lack, sickness and injustice, and death – ‘These have come so that our faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:7) The day is coming when Christ himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes: ‘There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away.’ (Revelation 21:4). Therefore, in the mean time, don’t be led astray by any promise of a blessing with a twist.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Americanized Christianity: Richard Kyle

"The orthodox Christian has paid a very heavy price, both in the defense and communication of the gospel, for his failure to think and act as an educated person understanding and at war with the uniformity of our modern culture."

(Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, 1968, p. 12).
Richard Kyle’s Evangelicalism: An Americanized Christianity observes that in its history Evangelicalism has maintained an ironic relationship with the wider Christianity community and the culture within which it was born. From its domination in nineteenth-century culture to its marginalization in the first half of the twentieth century to its recent return to power in America, Kyle traces the often-paradoxical way that Evangelicals have been “agents as well as victims of cultural accommodation” (p. 273). The price of the movement’s contemporary success involves its surrender to popular culture. The key to the movement’s numerical growth – its adaptability to the changing culture – may ironically be its greatest weakness.

Big changes and their implications

Kyle highlights the symptomatic changes that have occurred within conservative Evangelicalism that have accelerated in the second half of the last century with the rise of Pentecostalism:

"The late twentieth century has witnessed a major shift in religion towards the inward, subjective, and experiential. The baby boomers and generation Xers have been raised in a therapeutic self-help environment. Out of this has come a tremendous quest for self-fulfilment. The boomers and Xers became seekers for a spirituality that went beyond the mechanics of some self-improvement program. They have given a spiritual, inward and experiential twist to the notion of self-improvement. This new dimension of self-improvement might be better described as a desire for self-transformation… “We live in an experience saturated culture,” says George Gullop. Advertisements do more than try to sell you a quality product; they promise you an ecstatic moment. As a result, in religion experience has taken precedence over belief. People seek authenticity by means of an experience, not through ideas. This trend has accelerated as the vitality of conservative Protestantism has shifted from fundamentalism to evangelicalism to Pentecostalism." (p. 231-232).
The ‘seeker-sensitive’ variety of charismatic churches signifies this significant departure from the emphasis of the past:

"While the Reformation emphasized faith over works and placed the Bible ahead of tradition, the new seeker churches have stressed experience over doctrine, emotion over serious Bible study, and spirituality over religious tradition." (p. 223).
Accommodating culture

Kyle observes that of the many movements that have emerged within Evangelicalism since the nineteenth-century, including Methodism and the Holiness Movement, Pentecostalism has by far been the most progressive. But their tendency towards popular appeal has contributed to their own loss of Christian distinctiveness:

"Pentecostalism must be seen as an aspect of the post-World War II revival… During these middle years, [1940-1960s] Pentecostalism maintained a paradoxical relationship with American religion and culture. On one hand, their particular distinctives—tongues-speaking, faith healing, and exuberant worship—set them outside the mainstream of American religion. These practices drew a line between them and non-charismatic Christians… On the other hand, Pentecostalism was at home with American religion and culture. According to Martin Marty, “American religion has been characteristically… experiential, affective, emotive, practical, personal, activist, and behavioural in intent and expression.” And so has Pentecostalism. In fact, during the 1960s Pentecostalism and American society took steps toward each other. The Pentecostals became more mainstream while American society became more experiential, subjective, and less cognitive in its outlook." (p. 148-149).
Speaking of popular American Evangelicalism in general (rather than its more serious varieties), Kyle observes that since the mid-1960s the movement has trended towards increased acculturation:

"Evangelical churches and organizations have grown tremendously in the post-war era largely because they have been populist and pragmatic to the core… Throughout its history, Evangelicalism has sensed the heartbeat of American culture and has adapted its approach to religion—if not its message and morals—to accommodate culture. These adjustments have come in the areas of preaching, promoting Christian activities, finances, worship, music, utilizing the latest technology, and more. But in the late twentieth century, the acculturation of evangelicalism reached even greater proportions. Evangelicals uncritically embraced American nationalism, the market economy, political conservatism, rampant consumerism, and an emotional approach to religion. While they have retained the core of the gospel, many evangelicals have adjusted their values and secondary beliefs to American culture. For example, while having roots in the past, the health and wealth gospel and the positive thinking movement reflect more secular trends than biblical principles… This combination of strictness and accommodation may be a key to the numerical success of evangelicalism… By maintaining some measure of their values, they have not made the mistake of liberal Protestantism—namely, abandoning the historical Christian faith. Conversely, in catering to popular tastes and blurring the line between entertainment and religion, evangelicalism has attracted large numbers of people, especially the youth. In this combination of strictness and accommodation, evangelicalism may have the best of both worlds. But it has paid a stiff price. In many ways, without even knowing it, evangelicalism has simply Americanized the Christian faith and Christianized secular society. In doing so, many evangelicals are in danger of trivializing Christianity.” (p. 156-157).
Compromising the core

“This book is a highly informative warning. Americanized evangelical Christianity may be losing its soul and compromising the core of the gospel.” (James C. Juhnke). Certainly, there is a poignant lesson here for all Evangelicals, and none need heed this warning more than those of the Pentecostal movement (not only in America), and of those none need heed this more than adherents to present-day Prosperity doctrine.

The words of Christ stand as our warning:

"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14:34-35)
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Kyle, Richard G, Evangelicalism: An Americanized Christianity, New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Transaction Publishers, 2006. talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Comment: Did Branham preach prosperity?

Erlend Førsund wrote on 15/5/08,

Dear Joseph R. Towns,

In your article about the faith movement you write that "Branham emphasised prosperity". As one who has studied the teachings of Rev. William Branham and as a personal critic of the prosperity teaching I was (to say the least) somewhat surprised to read your statement.

What I know about Rev. Branham tells me quite the opposite. In fact, he preached that Christians should be contented with what they have and that material things are not necessarily blessings from God. He criticized that greedy money-loving spirit that was creeping in among the pentecostal circles. Read this quote from 1963:
"I was speaking at a Christian Business Men one time, down there. I don't know how they ever had me back. I guess, 'cause they love me. But I--I--I don't... I tell them just what I--I know the Lord says. I don't say it to be smart. If I do, I need to be down there at the altar. I say it because I love them. I respect them. One night down there, testifying before businessmen of the world, how many Cadillacs they have, and what their little business. I said, 'Them men don't want that. Tell them about the humility of Christ.' I said, 'You're so much different from the early pentecostal Church. They sold everything they had, and give to the poor, and went out preaching the Gospel.' I said, 'You people trying to say how much you prospered, how much you got.' Not how much you got; how much you can get rid of!"
The movement he left behind, which I am a part of, are shocked by how the faith movement in their rude way propagate their greedy doctrine of prosperity. Such a teaching was never brought by Rev. Branham and it is certainly not found in the Bible.

So, the reason that I write to you is to give you constructive critique on the mentioned post of yours. Rev. William Branham did not emphasize prosperity. These quotes will give you a better reason to believe me. They are collected from Rev. Branham's sermons:

"God doesn't promise ease and prosperity. But He promises grace to endure in every trial. It's the grace that we look to." (1956)
"Prosperity always ruins people. That's a hard thing to say. But prosperity takes a man away from God." (1958)
"Prosperity is not always the sign that God is with you. Many times that's deceiving. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. But it's by their fruits they are known." (1959)
"People think that prosperity is a sign of spiritual blessing. That's exactly contrary." (1962)
"And, usually, prosperity causes sin. Many people look upon prosperity as blessings. It would be, if we could handle it right. But it usually leads to sin, dishonoring God." (1963)
"I was having a meeting. That night when they come back over to the Flamingo Motel, I said,'I'm ashamed of you fellows.' I said, 'It's a disgrace. All you talked about, before all the political leaders and things, and businessmen up-and-down here, was about, 'I had a little bitty business down here, and I got sixteen Cadillacs,' or whatever more.' I said, 'Them man, you can't compare with them.' That's what's the trouble with the church today, you are trying to compare with Hollywood. You're trying to make it like Hollywood. Remember, Hollywood glares; the Gospel glows. You can't go over on their ground; you've got to bring them on our ground." (1964)
http://talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com/2008/05/origin-of-prosperity-doctrine-part-v.html

In Christian love,

Bro. Erlend Førsund (Norway)

J. R. Towns replied on 15/5/2008,

Dear Erlend Førsund,

Thank you very much for your criticism of my mention of W. M Branham 'emphasising prosperity' in Origin of prosperity doctrine Part V.

I found your quotes informative, and I can see why you were surprised with my statement, "Branham emphasised prosperity as well as healing and taught about the intrinsic power of the spoken word."

Although your quotes do demonstrate that Branham's emphasis was different to those who have later built on his teaching (at least at times), do these quotes show that Branham never emphasised prosperity? In other words, is your knowledge of Branham exhaustive? (that is, is it completely comprehensive?).

By the sounds of things, you know of Branham better than I, and so I can only refer you to my sources, which seem to be reputable and I have assumed to be reliable:

Dwight J. Wilson, (Ph.D., University of California-Santa Cruz. Professor of History, Bethany Bible College, Santa Cruz, California) has made the following comments in his article on Branham in The International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Burgess, Stanley M., et. al., 2003, Zondervan.):

"In contrast to the image-minded evangelist, he lived moderately, dressed modestly, and boasted of his youthful poverty. This endeared him to the throngs who idolized him. He was self-conscious about his lack of education, but the simplicity of his message had worldwide appeal. By emphasizing healing and prosperity and neglecting his Oneness theology, Branham was able to minister in Trinitarian pentecostal circles as well... His teaching on the power of the spoken word has been a characteristic of later revivalists. Kenneth Hagin identifies Branham as a prophet."
Leonard Lovett (Ph.D., Emory University. Chief Executive Officer, Seminex Ministries, Alexandria, Virginia) made the following comments in his article on Positive Confession Theology in the same Dictionary:

"...From Quimby, William Branham, E. W. Kenyon, and John G. Lake, a view of God emerged that is currently espoused by Hagin, Copeland, Capps, and Price."
I will follow this up some more, as you may also like to do, and if I can convince myself (or if you can convince me) that Branham did not emphasise prosperity at all (at least in the Trinitarian Pentecostal circles he ministered in), then I am more than happy to revise the statement I've made in this article.

With this in mind, if you'd like a list of Dwight J. Wilson's sources given in his article on Brahman (quoted above) then I can provide this also.

Again, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I always appreciate readers helping me to get the facts right!

Peace in Christ our Lord,

Joe

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Origin of Prosperity Doctrine Part V: Faith-Formula

Positive Confession and the Word of Faith movement

In 1846 Ethan O. Allen became the first American to make the faith-healing ministry his full-time vocation. By the mid-twentieth century, a hundred years later, a legion of faith-healers had descended from him and others with a developed system of theology that emphasised prosperity and healing as a divine right. Their central message resulted in a new generation of preachers that had at their disposal the enormous funds required to grow international media ministries. By the late twentieth century their radio broadcasts, publications and prime-time television shows had spread prosperity doctrine to hundreds of millions of people across many countries of the world.

The influence of New Thought

The New Thought movement of the late nineteenth century had a profound influence on a number of American leaders in the Divine Healing movement in the first half of the twentieth century who went on to become the fathers of the Positive Confession, or Faith-Formula theology of Pentecostalism.

New Thought was a movement that began after the death of Phineas P. Quimby (1802-66) when a number of his students came together to preserve his teaching. Quimby had developed an alternative system of healing through parapsychology after beginning a career as a mesmerist. Quimby taught that bodily sickness was caused when the mind believed false notions about health, and could be healed by correcting these beliefs in the mind. The movement that sprang from his protégé emphasised, not only health and healing, but also abundance, prosperity, wealth and happiness. The basic presuppositions of New Thought’s system of divine healing are, firstly, God is all reality and in God is no sickness; secondly, man is a part of God and therefore man’s sickness is not a reality; thirdly, healing occurs automatically when men believe the truth about reality.

Quimby labelled his system the ‘science’ of Christ. From Quimby came M. B. Eddy who developed Christian Science as a movement separately from New Thought and founded the Church of Christ, Scientist. From Quimby also came a new generation of faith-healers in the Divine Healing movement, such as E. W. Kenyon, John G. Lake and William M. Branham, who carried the emphasis of Quimby and New Thought into their own Pentecostal healing ministries.

E. W. Kenyon

Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) pastored several churches in New England and founded what was later known as Providence Bible Institute. Kenyon was a student of Emerson College of Oratory, a breeding ground for New Thought philosophical ideas. He was heavily influenced by the system of P. P Quimby but adapted the ideas of the New Thought movement as he merged them together with the teachings of Divine Healing that came out of the Holiness movement.

Like Quimby, who taught that beliefs in the mind cause bodily conditions, E. W. Kenyon emphasised the combined power of belief and the tongue. He taught that the words of our mouths betray faith or fear in our minds, and the combined affect of positive or negative belief and words cause the positive or negative realities that come into existence. Kenyon’s focus on the “positive confession of the Word of God” earned the doctrine that sprang from his ministry the title, Positive Confession theology. Similar to E. O. Allen and A. B. Simpson before him, Kenyon taught prosperity as a “divine right.” Reminiscent of the laws formulated by C. G. Finney for spiritual success, Kenyon formulated laws of prosperity for daily rehearsal and recital to cultivate a mind of faith that would result in a life of complete health and material wealth.

J. G. Lake

John Graham Lake (1870-1935) was an early Pentecostal faith-healer who, after being ordained as a Methodist minister, chose to pursue commercial business and became very successful and wealthy. His wife experienced a healing under J. A. Dowie in 1898, and soon after Lake became an associate and elder in Dowie’s Zion Catholic Apostolic Church for a number of years. After the birth of Pentecostalism and his wife’s death in 1908 Lake went on to conduct a very influential healing ministry in America between 1913 and 1935. Mirroring the position of New Thought and Christian Science, J. G. Lake taught, “Man is not a separate creation detached from God, he is part of God Himself… God intends us to be gods. The inner man is the real governor, the true man that Jesus said was a god.”

W. M. Branham

William Marrion Branham (1909-65) was another very influential faith-healer in the Divine Healing movement in the first half of the twentieth century. Branham emphasised prosperity as well as healing and taught about the intrinsic power of the spoken word. Kenneth Hagin, an important propagator of the prosperity gospel in the latter part of the twentieth century, identified Branham as a prophet.

Positive Confession Theology

From E. W. Kenyon, J. G. Lake, W. M. Branham and others, the twentieth century saw a Positive Confession or Faith-Formula theology emerge in American Pentecostalism that triggered the current Prosperity movement. This theology stresses that we create reality with the words of our mouths; “what I confess, I possess.”

The key to this new theology is what has become known as ‘Rhema’ doctrine, after the original Greek word rhema, which refers to the “spoken word” (Compared to logos which refers to the “written word.”) This doctrine teaches that whatever is spoken in faith (or fear) becomes immediately inspired with dynamic power that will affect change in whatever situation it is uttered.

Kenyon held to a dichotomy concerning knowledge. He believed that two types of knowledge existed, being ‘revelation’ knowledge and ‘sense’ knowledge. ‘Revelation’ or ‘faith’ knowledge was above the realm of the senses and was the true and higher knowledge of God himself.

Kenyon held to a number of other beliefs that go against mainstream evangelical thought. He believed that Jesus died spiritually, as well as physically, and therefore, after his death on the cross, was ‘born again.’ Many of his predecessors, such as Kenneth Copeland, continue to hold to this position. His basis theological distinctives were preserved in a book published after his death: The Power of the Positive Confession of God’s Word (1977, D. Gossett and E. Kenyon).

The Word of Faith movement

E. W. Kenyon’s theology and the doctrines espoused by J. G. Lake and W. M. Branham inspired the Word of Faith movement of the latter part of the twentieth century. Also known as the Faith movement, or Word movement, it began within American Pentecostalism by emphasising divine prosperity and health through the power of the spoken word. The essential elements of this system are, firstly, that Christ won victory over sin, sickness and poverty; secondly, that believers therefore have a right to health and wealth; and thirdly, that divine health and prosperity are obtained by the positive confession of faith in the Word of God.

Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Frederick Price, Kenneth Copeland, Don Gossett, Charles Capps and other leading proponents in this movement all directly inherited their theology from Kenyon and his contemporaries. This new generation of televangelists have enjoyed the ability to propagate the Prosperity message by means of extensive and expensive media ministries, fully funded by the giving of their movement in response to their message, thus self-perpetuating the influx of funds.

Kenneth Hagin & Oral Roberts

Kenneth E. Hagin (1917 - 2004) emphasised the power of the spoken word for victorious Christian living after E. W. Kenyon and W. M. Branham. In 1974 he founded Rhema Bible Training Centre for equipping new generations in the Faith movement with Kenyon’s Rhema doctrine. Hagin’s message promised a return on investments made to God that were given to the church.

Oral Granville Roberts (1918 - ), who was considered by Vinson Synan in 1980 the most prominent Pentecostal in the world, in 1956 was circulating his monthly magazine, Abundant Life, to over a million people. In 1969 he was reaching 64 million viewers with prime-time television programs. By 1981 he was able to open his $250 million City of Faith Medical and Research Centre to combine the healing power of faith with medicine. Roberts’ basic presuppositions were, firstly, that God is good; and, secondly, that God therefore wills to heal and prosper his people. Roberts taught that monetary giving to the church was a “seed of faith” that would return a harvest of wealth for those who had complete faith in God.

Kenneth Copeland & Charles Capps

Charles Emmitt Capps (1934 - ) is a current proponent of the Prosperity movement. After being healed by Hagin in 1969 he began teaching that words are the most powerful things in the universe. If spoken in faith, Capps taught, words carry creative power by releasing God’s ability within you. He set out his message in The Tongue, a Creative Force (1976) and in 1980 he was ordained to the “faith ministry” by K. Copeland.

Kenneth Copeland (1937 - ) is perhaps the leading proponent of the Word of Faith gospel today. In his early days, Kenneth Hagin and Oral Roberts had a life changing impact on Copeland. He enrolled in Oral Roberts University while attending Kenneth Hagin’s Tulsa seminars. He also mined the teachings of E. W. Kenyon, which had a determining influence on his theology. In 1973 Copeland began publishing Believer’s Voice of Victory. Like his spiritual fathers, Copeland emphasises complete prosperity – spirit, soul and body – though total commitment to God’s will.

Like John G. Lake, M. B. Eddy and P.P Quimby before them, Copeland’s teaching raises the status of humanity to a God-like level by teaching that believers possess the ability to rescue themselves from trouble by use of their ‘divine right.’ It was Copeland who said, “You impart humanity into a child that’s born of you. Because you are a human, you have imparted the nature of humanity into that born child. That child wasn’t born a whale. It was born a human. Well, now, you don’t have a God in you. You are one.”

Prosperity in Pentecostalism

Although the Word of Faith movement is currently controversial and even repudiated by some sections within Pentecostalism, the key figures who were influential in creating the underlying doctrines of this movement were all Pentecostal. Like the emphasis on Divine Healing within the Holiness movement, which naturally carried over into Pentecostalism when it emerged, the emphasis of Positive Confession theology, which pre-existed Pentecostalism, carried over into the movement from it’s origin because those who were key proponents of these doctrinal emphases became Pentecostals and continued to be leaders within the movement.

Even though many Pentecostals reject some aspects of the foundational doctrines of the Word of Faith movement, general acceptance has occurred of the overall emphasis on material abundance, positivity and the power of the spoken word, and victorious Christian living.

More on this topic

The origin, Part I - Reformation

The origin, Part II - Perfectionism

The origin, Part III - Divine Healing

The origin, Part IV - New Thought

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Burgess, Stanley M., et. al., The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 2003, Zondervan.

Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology / edited by J. Gordon Melton, 5th ed, Detroit : Gale Group, c2001.

The Oxford companion to Christian thought / edited by Adrian Hastings ... [et al.], Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Origin of Prosperity Doctrine Part IV: New Thought

New Thought, Mind Cure and Christian Science

New Thought

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) was a clock maker from New Hampshire who became interested in mesmerism in 1838. After observing the influence of suggesting ‘healing thoughts’ on his patients he concluded that the mind was the limiting factor determining healing potential. Quimby speculated that the mind’s operation on the body produces its physical condition. Sickness came from accepting false notions in the mind that cause sickness. Healing occurred when the mind came to believe true notions about health.

Between 1859 and 1866 in Portland, Maine, Quimby treated up to 12,000 patients professionally. His new method consisted of presenting patients with wisdom, who after accepting the ‘truth’ became well. Quimby wrote down his reflections, which were found after his death when a number of his former students came together and began a movement that preserved and developed upon his system. From 1890 the movement became known as New Thought.

New Thought viewed God and humanity as a unity. The universe is the ‘body’ of God. Humans are spirit dwellers in physical bodies. God manifests in humans as virtues. Mental states manifest in humans as physical traits. Since humans are a part of God, they could produce divine perfection in the body. Perfect health is attainable by means of maintaining a perfect mental state.

Mind Cure

Quimby was the first of a number of alternative healing systems through parapsychology. The most famous of his students, Mary Eddy Baker, transformed Quimby’s metaphysical notions of healing into the ‘Divine Healing’ system of Christian Science after founding the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879. In the 1880s a number of independent practitioners broke away from Eddy’s movement because of her focus on the Bible and Christianity. These collectively became known to as the ‘Mind Cure’ movement.

Christian Science

Mary Morse (Baker) Eddy (1821-1910) was a patient of P. P. Quimby and experienced some relief from her medical problems through his methods. However her returning symptoms caused her to search for answers in the Bible. After Quimby’s death in 1866 she made a discovery. While bedridden she came to the realisation that illness must be an error in the mind. Since God was the sum total of all reality, she thought, and in him is no sickness, then by deduction illness was not a part of reality; it must be an illusion in the mind. This realisation apparently brought Eddy immediate healing. She developed a new system of ‘Divine Healing,’ which she first outlined in The Science of Man (1870) and more fully in Science and Health (1875).

The Christian Science movement helped to generate a new emphasis on healing within American society in the late nineteenth century. What the positive thinking movement, New Thought, Mind Cure and Christian Science all expressed in common during the second half of the nineteenth century was a new faith in the ability of the will. P.P Quimby’s doctrine, preserved in the emphasis of the New Thought movement, had a profound influence on such American Christians as E. W. Kenyon.

Part V

Kenyon was a student of Emerson College of Oratory, a spawning ground for New Thought philosophical ideas and who went on to become the origin of the Positive Confession (or Word of Faith) movement within Pentecostalism. E. W. Kenyon brought into his Methodism (which after 1906 became Pentecostalism) a new doctrine involving the intrinsic power of faith and words. His 'positive confession theology,' along with the influence of other prosperity preachers such as John Lake, William Branham and Oral Roberts directly inspired such modern day Pentecostal ambassadors of the prosperity gospel as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and Frederick Price.

More on this topic

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part III

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part I

What Pentecostals believe about prosperity

Changing views on money

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Burgess, Stanley M., et. al., The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 2003, Zondervan.

Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology / edited by J. Gordon Melton, 5th ed, Detroit : Gale Group, c2001

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Origin of Prosperity Doctrine Part III: Divine Healing

Holiness and the Divine Healing movement

The Holiness movement and the Faith movement that emerged in the late nineteenth century laid foundations for the Prosperity movement that developed in the early twentieth century. The Prosperity doctrine of Pentecostalism emerged in force in the 1950s, but the seeds were sown before the turn of the twentieth century. The doctrinal changes that occurred before the nineteenth century, as far back as the Christian Perfection of John Wesley in the eighteenth century, were pivotal changes that enabled the earliest Pioneers of the Divine Healing movement and the Faith movement to build their doctrine of Prosperity.

The Holiness movement

The Holiness movement spread from England to America in the 1840s and 1850s to preserve John Wesley’s doctrine of ‘Christian Perfection’. Wesley’s Christian Perfection had a profound influence on Charles Finney, Asa Mahan, Phoebe Palmer, Ethan Allen and others in the Holiness movement, from whom prosperity doctrine distinctives began to emerge in the late nineteenth century.

The Holiness movement emphasised purification from sin and the power of the Holy Spirit. Wesley regarded Christian Perfection, or Entire Sanctification, as a second experience of grace, distinct from conversion. From the 1830s under the influence of Charles Finney and Phoebe Palmer this experience came to be viewed as an immediate, instantaneous work of perfection by the Holy Spirit, received through faith.

In the 1850s Phoebe Palmer began to refer to the perfectionist experience as a “baptism with the Spirit and with fire,” or simply as a “Pentecostal baptism.” Asa Mahan approved of this new terminology, noting that power was one of the most significant characteristics of the perfectionist experience. Palmer, in Faith and its Effects, (1854) wrote, “Just so soon as you come believing… come complying with the conditions and claim it… it is already yours. If you do not now receive it, the delay will not be on the part of God, but wholly with yourself.”

By spreading the doctrine of Christian perfection or Spirit-baptism as an experience of purification from sin and endowment with power, the nineteenth century Holiness movement provided the basic theological environment out of which the Faith Healing movement in America grew.

The Divine Healing movement

America’s Faith Healing movement, more accurately known as Divine Healing, was intimately connected with the Holiness movement from its origin. The chief pioneers of the Faith Healing movement were strong advocates of Christian Perfection, such as Ethan O. Allen, who may be considered the father of the Divine Healing movement. In 1846 Allen became the first member of the movement to officially associate the doctrine of Christian Perfection with Divine Healing.

E. O. Allen, like John Wesley, believed that Christ’s atonement provided for purification of the human nature from sin, in addition to justification from sin. Having held that sickness was caused by sin, Allen believed that the experience of entire sanctification, purifying the human nature from sin, would restore complete health to the body.

The fundamental basis of the Divine Healing movement betrays the close connection between Perfectionism and Healing. The basic presuppositions of Divine Healing in the late nineteenth century were, firstly, that sickness was ultimately caused by sin and Satan; and secondly, that Spirit-filled Christians were endued with Pentecostal power. Accordingly, a sanctified believer, who had received power over sin and Satan, also had power over sickness. Full salvation included not only salvation from sin but also healing of the physical body. The movement reflected the same emphasis on instantaneity as the Holiness movement by insisting that healing was available now and was to be received immediately and instantaneously. If not it was due to a lack of faith.

The Divine Healing movement emerged in force in the 1870s at the same time as New Thought and Christian Science appeared. Charles Cullis, the Episcopal physician in Boston, grew the new healing movement more than any other figure by successfully convincing prominent Holiness leaders of E. O. Allen’s doctrine, including John Inskip, A. J. Gordon and A. B Simpson.

A. B. Simpson

One of those healed under the ministry of Charles Cullis in his famous Annual Faith Convention in Maine in the early 1880s was Reverend Albert Benjamin Simpson, a Presbyterian minister who had previously joined the Holiness movement. After leaving his church Simpson became one of the most influencial figures in the Divine Healing movement, primarily because of this theological developments. In 1887 Simpson wrote Inquiries and Answers concerning Divine Healing, followed by numerous other books, including The Gospel of Healing (1896).

A. B. Simpson formalised and stressed four basic doctrines: salvation, baptism in the Spirit, divine healing, and the second coming of Christ, which together became known as the 'full gospel.' Simpson and A. J. Gordon were among those who first began teaching that healing was part of Christ's atonement. Simpson's basic propositions mirrored those of Ethan O. Allen. He taught that sickness was a result of sin; that the atonement reversed the consequences of sin; and thus, healing for sickness was provided by the atonement. For Simpson, healing was a redemptive 'right' which we may simply 'claim' as our purchased inheritance as part of the complete redemption accomplished by Christ's death and resurrection. The promise of healing was there for all, only to be received by faith.

This shift in emphasis culminated in a new 'restoration theology' which taught that Spirit-baptism fully restored to the Christian the spiritual relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God in the Garden of Eden. Consequently, the Holiness movement began emphasising not only faith-healing; now also Spirit-baptism brought 'the higher life in Christ' that would reverse all the physical effects of the Fall, thus enabling believers to take authority over all areas of life. Christians by the same means as faith-healing could live a life of complete abundance and prosperity. The experience of 'victory' in every area of life became the divine right of all believers through faith.

J. A. Dowie

John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) was another very influential figure in the Divine Healing movement and also an important forerunner of Pentecostalism. An itinerant faith-healer who migrated to the USA from Australia in 1888, he founded and headed the International Divine Healing Association. He based himself in Illinois and began publishing Leaves of Healing. He opened a divine healing home in Chicago, which soon expanded into several homes. In 1895 he founded the Christian Catholic Church. He also founded Zion City, a community built around his vision of a holy society.

Dowie was intensely evangelistic. His two driving foci were holiness and healing. He was fiercely legalistic, insisting that followers abstain from pork and those who sought healing refrain from medicine and exercise unwavering faith. Dowie was hoping for a full restoration of ‘apostolic Christianity’ in his lifetime. In anticipation he announced himself as the prophesied Elijah in 1901, and in 1904 as the first apostle of a renewed end-time church.

Most of Dowie’s followers became Pentecostals when it emerged in America in 1906 because Pentecostalism saw itself as the end-time restoration of the ‘full gospel’ that Dowie had been expecting. Some became prominent leaders in the movement, most of whom affiliated themselves with the Assemblies of God. Those of Dowie’s followers who were still committed to his particular restorationist vision joined the Oneness Pentecostal movement that developed after the early controversies within Pentecostalism.

An important example is John G. Lake. He was an associate of Dowie and an elder in Dowies' church for a number of years. In 1907 Lake experienced 'baptism in the Holy Spirit' one year after the birth of the Pentecostal movement and following went on to make an important contribution to the development of Positive Confession or Faith-Formula theology, a prosperity doctrine that emerged during the twentieth century within American Pentecostalism that triggered the current Prosperity movement.

New Thought and Christian Science

The fact that the Divine Healing movement emerged at the same time as the New Thought movement and Christian Science appeared is not insignificant. Phineas Quimby (1809-66) developed ideas related to health, healing, abundance, prosperity, wealth and happiness. His ideas were preserved in New Thought and developed in Christian Science and sowed the seeds that gave birth to a new generation of evangelists preaching a gospel of prosperity. Particularly, the New Thought movement had a significant influence on E. W. Kenyon (1867–1948) who may be considered the father of twentieth century prosperity doctrine in Pentecostalism.

More on this topic

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part IV

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part I

What Pentecostals believe about prosperity

Changing views on money

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Dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements / Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, editors; Patrick H. Alexander, associate editor. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Regency Reference Library, c1988

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Origin of Prosperity Doctrine Part II: Perfectionism

Christian Perfection and Wealth through Virtue

How did the present-day emphasis on prosperity in Pentecostalism come to the point of promising material wealth now through faith to all Christian by means of Christ's work on the cross?

In Part I of this article we saw that the origin of the prosperity doctrine can be traced back as far as the radical changes of the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, and in particular to the foundational influence of the Reformation work ethic and the consequent emphasis within Protestantism on the pursuit of money for the sake of society and the good of the church.

More directly, however, the prosperity doctrine of Pentecostalism has it's origin in the theological developments of the seventeen, eighteen and nineteen hundreds within Methodism and the Holiness movement. In Part II of this article we'll discuss the part played by John Wesley and Charles Finney's 'Christian perfection,' (1800s) and the key doctrinal developments of the nineteenth century that gave rise to the prosperity doctrine.

Wesley's Christian Perfection

The influence of the Protestant Reformation in eighteenth-century Methodism under John Wesley (1703-1791) saw a new focus emerge on Christian perfection. 'The Holy Club,' which began with John Wesley, his brother Charles and George Whitefield, stressed 'inward' religion and insisted on strict discipline and organisation, and by 1729 had earned themselves the title, 'Methodists.' Welsey was strongly influenced by Luther's Reformation principles. By 1739 the Methodists, under Wesley's control, had become a rapidly spreading movement of clubs, societies and bands, with highly committed members to the Movement's 'rules' of holiness, discipline, evangelism and good works.

John Wesley's contribution to Pentecostalism came particularly from his development of a unique teaching regarding Christian 'perfection.' In A Short Account of Christian Perfection (1760) Wesley urged Christians to seek a second work of grace involving 'entire sanctification.' Entire sanctification would be attained the moment a Christian, having progressed in holiness, became completely devoid of self-interest.

This doctrine of 'Christian perfection' had a strong inluence on Charles Finney, who later contributed to the development of Pentecostalism's prosperity doctrine. Welsey did not view prosperity himself to be 'supernatural blessing through faith,' but rather emphasised 'natural prosperity through hard work.' It was he who said, "religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches." He added, however, "Whenever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased. Therefore I do not see how it is possible in the nature of things for any revival of religion to continue long... As riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of this world in all its branches." His motto, however, has an ongoing influence: "Get all you can, save all you can, and give all you can."

Growing prosperity

The Industrial Revolution dramatically increased the levels of wealth in the West. In addition to industrialisation, significant changes occurred in the nineteenth-century that made America, in particular, conducive to rapid economic growth, such as unprecedented licence for free enterprise and a revolution in transportation with the construction of an extensive railroad system. As a result, between 1775 and 1850, America experienced a prolific escalation in the material wealth of the nation.

Self-Help

Consequently over the nineteenth-century longstanding views within American society regarding prosperity began to change. In 1790 Benjamin Franklin left at his death his incomplete Autobiography that recounted his life's journey from 'rags-to-riches,' entirely by means of his own ingenuity. This was pehaps the first of an entire genre that followed of self-help literature that continues today, designed to motivate readers to accelerate their own efforts toward fortune and fame. His prosperity maxims, such as 'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,' and 'There is no gain without pain,' have inspired a view of man as the master of his own fate, whose success or failure is proportional to the quality of his character and determination. With the demise of aristocracy, the meritocratic society that followed awarded prosperity to those with the best combination of intelligence (talent) and effort (character).

Finney's Perfectionism

Methodism evolved through the influence of Charles G. Finney to place central emphasis on a higher Christian life of blessing from God and the central role of human ability as a means to bring God's blessing and the Spirit's power.

Charles Finney (1792-1875) spent the last 40 years of his life constructing a theology of revival. Underpinning all of his doctrine was his teaching that the practice of Christian perfection was the attainable duty of all Christians. Finney was significantly influenced by Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection, which crystallised his belief in 'entire sanctification' as a state of perfect trust in God and committment to his will.

Finney also taught that God had established the means by which humans could produce revival. He believed, not only that individuals possessed the ability within themselves to make a choice to follow Christ, but also that Christians possessed the power within themselves to live holy lives. He taught that the result of God's help combined with strenuous human effort was blessing and revival. "A revival is as naturally a result of the use of the appropriate means as a crop is of the use of it's means." In his Revival Lectures, Finney taught that God had revealed laws of revival in Scripture. Thus, when the Church obeyed these laws, spiritual renewal followed.

In 1835 Charles Finney and Asa Mahan joined together with perfectionist leaders in Methodism. Later, Walter and Phoebe Palmer used Finney's revival methods in the Holiness movement to call Christians to a second experience of the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion that required total committment.

By 1836, when Finney became professor of Oberlin College in Ohio, he had developed a distinct doctrinal emphasis that was to be a key ingredient within the developing Holiness movement and Pentecostalism that followed it. "An all together higher and more stable form of Christian life was attainable and was the priviledge of all Christians." The prosperity doctrine of Pentecostalism inherited the emphasis of Finney and others in Methodism and the Holiness movement on a Christian's ability by means of complete committment and faith to bring the Holy Spirit's blessing.

Positive Thinking

Finney was broke with the Calvinism of the post-Reformation era. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), the classical theologian of revival, had emphasised the sovereignty of God in and the inability of men to produce revival. Finney emphasised human choice in conversion and the ability of men to create revivals by use of human means. Finney psychologised conversion. His Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1854) taught techniques for success. The positive thinking movement that developed in the second half of the nineteenth century can be traced to the radical influence on American society of Finney’s emphasis on human ability.

Also a part of the origin of the positive thinking movement was the transcendentalism of Henry D. Thoreau and others. In the secular world of 1854, Thoreau developed a view of faith as a psychological faculty that expressed itself as self-confidence in human ability to triumph against the odds.

Wealth through Virtue

The doctrine of Christian leaders in many Protestant denominations also began to change over the nineteenth-century. Perhaps the most famous example is Reverend Thomas P. Hunt, who in 1836 wrote The Book of Wealth: In Which it is Proved from the Bible that it is the Duty of Every Man to Become Rich, which soon became a bestseller.

John D. Rockefeller, the Baptist minister, explained to one of his Sunday-school classes, "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest... It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God," portraying his own influence from the Social Darwinism movement of the day (Herbert Spencer, Social Statics, 1850).

A new 'wealth-through-virtue' gospel developed. Andrew Carnegie, who was also a self-stated fan of Spencer's Social Darwinism, taught that an honest days work was 'not a bad sort of prayer.' The Baptist Charles H. Conwell taught, "It is your duty to get rich... To make money honestly is to preach the gospel." William Lawrence, the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, writing in 1892, argued: "In the long run, it is only to the man of morality that wealth comes. We, like the Psalmist, occasionally see the wicked prosper, but only occasionally. Godliness is in league with riches."

More on this topic

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part III

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part I

What Pentecostals believe about prosperity

Changing views on money

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Burgess, Stanley M., et. al., The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, 2003, Zondervan.

De Botton, Alain. Status Anxiety, Camberwell, Vic. : Hamish Hamilton, 2004, p. 85.

Water, Mark, The new encyclopedia of Christian quotations, Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, c2000.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Prosperity: How you should pray

How should Christians pray in regard to money? Should Christians pray for their prosperity? Is it godly to desire riches in the form of material wealth?

There is one prayer in the bible that needs more than a little attention today:
"Two things I ask of you, O LORD ;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

(Proverbs 30:7-9)
This was the prayer of Agur son of Jakeh. It is a prayer which has more obvious application for the Christian than the prayer of Jabez, for one simple reason: The Lord's own prayer, in his instruction to his disciples on "how you should pray", took up these very words:
He said to them, "When you pray, say:

" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "
(Luke 11:2-4)
Jesus, echoing the prayer of wisdom in Proverbs - the prayer of Agur son of Jakeh - taught us that we should pray only for our daily bread. "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." (Proverbs 30:8).

The reasons are evident. " '...Forgive us our sins... And lead us not into temptation.' " (Luke 11:4) "Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." (Proverbs 30:9). talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Origin of Prosperity Doctrine Part I: Reformation

The Reformation and the Protestant work ethic

What is the origin of the prosperity doctrine of modern-day Pentecostalism? Where did Pentecostals get their emphasis on blessing in the form of material wealth from God? In Part I of this article, we'll talk about the social, economic and political changes of the fifteen and sixteen hundreds and how they gave legitimacy to the pursuit of monetary wealth and the growing capitalism of the West and opened the way for our contemporary culture of secularity.

Monasticism and Asceticism

After the close of the early church era of the first few centuries, Christianity increasingly developed a leaning towards asceticism; a paradigm prevailed that lead Christians to make simplistic living the goal and abstinence from the normal pleasures of life the model godly lifestyle. This focus on self-denial of material satisfaction was institutionalised within monasticism.

Monasticism spread through the Christian world during the fourth to sixth centuries. Monastics emphasised poverty, simplicity and humility as a way of imitating Christ. Consequently, the Middle Ages saw the trend towards asceticism increase. Sufficiency for daily needs was acceptable; poverty was virtuous. Covertness and uncharitable living were targeted vices. Money-making was dangerous; commerce was equated with iniquity; profiting was unchristian. It goes without saying that the private accumulation of material wealth was discouraged in the church prior to the fifteenth century.

The Reformation and Protestantism

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries unprecedented social and economic change occurred in the West. The Protestant Reformation changed society radically. It occurred within a historical context of existing economic change. Urban growth, expanding trade, a new money economy and new technologies all resulted in a new assertive middle class that rose above the discontents of the existing peasantry. The scientific progress of this time had its roots in the Renaissance that began in the fourteenth century. Francis Schaeffer has shown that the Protestant Reformation not only opened up the free approach to God that the Bible prescribes. The Reformation was also a catalyst for the creation of political and economic freedom in society.

Widespread proliferation of material wealth and general prosperity occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was coupled with a momentous shift in emphasis within Christianity in regard to work and wealth.

Protestants objected to the superiority of the “religious” life and the inferiority of the “secular,” portrayed by Monasticism. The reformed theology of Martin Luther and subsequent reformers rejected the distinction between the secular and religious world altogether. Martin Luther, and John Calvin after him, exalted the dignity of the ordinary life, stressing that human callings to work in the world, in the home or with the ground, were as sacred as the call to minister in the Church. They regarded the secular political office as one of the most significant Christian vocations of all.

Protestants stressed predestination, discipline and vocationalism. Money-making became profitable for the glory of God; material prosperity became the reward of virtue and a sign of godliness. Now, improvidence and idleness became targeted vices. In a way, because Protestantism reconciled Christianity and commerce, enabling acceptable religion to be married with the demands of business and industry, it gave legitimacy to the pursuit of increasing wealth and the growing capitalism of the West. It also opened the way for our contemporary culture of secularity.

More on this topic

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part II

Changing views on money

What Pentecostals believe about prosperity

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Dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements / Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, editors; Patrick H. Alexander, associate editor, Grand Rapids, Mich. : Regency Reference Library, 1988.

Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed., Paternoster Press, 2001, p. 900.

The Oxford companion to Christian thought / edited by Adrian Hastings ... [et al.], Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000.

talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Prosperity doctrine: What Pentecostals believe

'Prosperity doctrine', 'positive confession theology', 'faith-formula theology'. These are some of the terms used to describe a relatively new system of theology that has emerged from the Word of Faith movement, also called the Faith movement or the Word movement, that began in the nineteenth century and after its rise in the twentieth century has reached wide-spread influence within the Pentecostal movement and beyond. Prosperity theology is also strongly associated with the Divine Healing movement.

Current proponents of this movement in America include Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and Frederick Price. Prosperity doctrine is based upon a belief in the unified power of faith and the tongue. Faith is a confession; faith speaks (“I believed, therefore I have spoken.”) Also, words spoken in faith come to pass. According to this view, we create reality, whether good or bad, with the words of our mouths. Fear is negative faith. It is confidence in the certainty of a negative outcome. 'What I confess, I possess' is the view sometimes referred to as 'now faith.'

Accordingly, there is available for the Christian supernatural blessing for their complete prosperity. 'Prosperity' is broad, encompassing all of life, including blessing mentally, physically, financially and socially. And it is immediately available for all Christians who follow the 'laws of prosperity' outlined in God's Word, the Bible. This view also stems from a belief that a Christian’s inward and spiritual transformation will naturally result in an outward working that takes effect in every area of life. God’s blessing for Christians who lay hold of it is victory and overcoming in every sphere.

Generosity is encouraged as a key to financial prosperity, however such giving must be faith-filled to have a positive effect. The essential law of prosperity is the power that resides in the spoken word which will always precede from faith. Prosperity leaders and teachers would urge, ‘don’t pray the problem; speak the solution.’ ‘If you honour God, he will honour you’, in your business, your body, your exams. God's goal for every Christian is success and abundance in all its forms.

The logical endpoint of this doctrine is what some Pentecostals insist: God's ultimate goal for Christians is constant health, wealth and happiness. Where they fail to achieve this divine healing is a matter of expectation. However, God’s desire for Christians is that they do not suffer at all. This teaching insists that it is never God's will for physical disorder or discomfort for any of his children, ever. For them, suffering occurs for Christians because of personal sin, even involving a simple lack of faith in God’s will to protect them from harm.

In Australia the growth of the prosperity movement, particularly within Pentecostalism, is largely attributed to the influence of the movement in America. Key leaders within Australian Pentecostalism have embraced the prosperity message in recent times, such as Brian Houston, who wrote You need more money (1999), urging readers to discover God's "amazing financial plan" for their lives. Phil Pringle, another Pentecostal leader who is a key proponent of the prosperity gospel, wrote Keys to Financial Excellence, explaining how Christians could achieve financial success and freedom for themselves through the Biblical principles of prosperity.

What are the origins of the Prosperity doctrine? How far do the roots of Positive Confession theology go back and how has the Word of Faith movement developed over time to result in the current emphasis on abundant and prosperous living within Pentecostalism? This will be the topic of articles coming up.

More on this topic

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part II

The origin of the prosperity doctrine - Part I

Changing views on money

- -

Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, editors; Patrick H. Alexander, associate editor, Dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements, Grand Rapids, Mich. : Regency Reference Library, c1988. (Positive Confession theology). talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.