A Rant

Recently I was at a church where I heard the prosperity doctrine preached. It disturbed me. I honestly just cannot understand how people are able to buy that crap! I have no problem with someone believing God to meet their financial needs (God knows I have done a lot of that in the past few months!). What I have a problem with, is the doctrine that basically says that the manifestation of a godly life, or a life of faith, is the presence of wealth in the life of the believer. This preacher actually tried to teach that "prosperity" was part of the atonement. He taught that when Jesus died on the cross, he was stripped of every possession, and in this was was made "poor." Then he quoted 2 Cor. 8:9, "...that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."

To be fair, the context is talking about money and giving, etc. However, Paul never makes the leap to say that we are guaranteed wealth because of the cross!!! He is urging this church to give financially, and he uses the churches of Macedonia as an example, saying that they basically made themselves poor by "giving beyond their means." And THIS is the context in which Paul uses Christ as the ultimate example of making Himself poor for the sake of others. He wasn't preaching that Christ will make us rich!! He was preaching that we should follow Christ's example of impoverishing ourselves in order to bless others! What a beautiful scripture, and how horrible it is made by those who preach this filth!!

Furthermore, I nowhere does this verse say that Christ gave up his wealth on the cross! I think the clear interpretation would be that He was rich in heaven, but gave up the wealth of heaven when He came to earth. Why do I think this is the accurate interpretation? Because other scriptures back it up...

Philippians 2:6-8

Amateurs.