Health, Wealth, and a Different Gospel
Turn on Christian television on almost any night and you are likely to hear some version of the same promise: God wants you healthy and wealthy, and faith is the key that releases it. Believe without doubting, speak the right words, sow a generous seed, and healing and prosperity will follow. This is the message of the Word of Faith movement and the prosperity gospel, and it has spread from American television studios to churches on every continent.
A movement within charismatic Christianity that teaches that faith is a spiritual force released through spoken words, so that believers can confess health, wealth, and success into being. It is closely tied to the prosperity gospel, which presents material blessing and physical health as the right of every believer who has enough faith.
The two names overlap. Word of Faith names the theology: faith as a force, words as its carrier, and the believer's authority to command results. Prosperity gospel names the promise that the theology delivers: money, health, and success. Not every preacher who stresses prosperity holds every Word of Faith doctrine, but the two grew up together. Both teach that Christ's atonement provides not only forgiveness of sins but physical health and material abundance for every believer who will claim them.
Is God obligated to give you health and wealth if you have enough faith and say the right words?
This study traces the movement's rise and roots, then answers its central claims from Scripture. As in the rest of this series, the critique is of teaching, not of the many sincere people drawn to it, often because they were sick, poor, or desperate for hope. Those needs are real, and Christ meets them with something far better.
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For Deeper Study
- Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity GospelAmazon Kate BowlerA careful history (2013) of the prosperity movement's roots, teachers, and growth, written by a historian as description rather than critique.
- 9Marks Journal: Prosperity Gospel9Marks, Jonathan Leeman, editorThe January–February 2014 issue: short articles answering the prosperity gospel from Scripture and from pastoral experience around the world.
- A Different GospelAmazon D. R. McConnellA study (1988, updated 1995) by a scholar who did graduate work at Oral Roberts University, tracing Word of Faith teaching to E. W. Kenyon.
- Health, Wealth & Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ?Amazon David W. Jones and Russell S. WoodbridgeA short, clear biblical evaluation of prosperity theology (2011).
- God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel: How Truth Overwhelms a Life Built on LiesAmazon Costi W. HinnThe testimony (2019) of a former insider, raised in a family of healing evangelists, who came to see the prosperity message as unbiblical.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Charismatic Movement
The charismatic movement carried Pentecostal experience into the historic denominations, the Roman Catholic Church, and new independent churches, and its worship has shaped churches far beyond its own.
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