Doctrine of Prosperity

by Matt Slick

Email:  I overheard a person talking about teaching in Christian doctrine, Doctrine of prosperity according to the Bible?  Is there a prosperity doctrine? Or there is a Christian doctrine that teach about the mysteries of Christ? I would just like to find out.

Response:  It is difficult to answer sufficiently without more information. However, within the Christian movement there is something called the "doctrine of prosperity." It is also known as positive confession and is a movement designed it to elevate the Christian's position before society by stating that God has promised to the believer financial and physical prosperity. In other words, what they are saying is that we are not supposed to be poor or sick. Some positive confession teachers even go so far as to say that if you are sick or poor, it is because of sin in your life. The problem is that they are wrong. God often allows sickness and poverty to overtake us in order to teach us things that we could not learn otherwise. The cross of Christ was not for the purpose of bringing money to us or making us healthy. It was for the purpose of redeeming our souls.

So, I would say that be careful of what you are taught regarding the doctrine of prosperity particularly if it has to do with what I've described above.