The Prosperity Gospel and Satan's Wager

The prosperity gospel is no gospel at all. It is a false teaching within Christianity that says "Believe in Jesus and He will reward you!" This reward comes in the fashion of health and wealth. It denies the doctrines of the Fall and original sin saying in effect we are 'little gods'. And as little gods we can effect change in our lives. 'Name it and claim it' is the mantra of the prosperity gospel. And when things are named and they do not bear the intended results, then it is the fault of the person who did not have enough faith. The prosperity gospel is a system of works that denies the sovereign grace of God. Do want that Mercedes? Then sow a seed of money to your pastor who promises that you get a hundred fold in return. The bottom line is this, believe in Jesus and He will make your life materially better. In other words, only have faith in the savior if you want the good life. 

The question, "Do we believe because we have or want a good life?" is not new. We hear it most often in the negative, "I cannot believe in God because of all the suffering in the world." In fact, Satan, himself had a theory. His theory was people basically believe in God because God is good to them. Take away His grace and they will no longer believe in God. This was the wager Satan made with God regarding Job.

Job was wealthy man. But Satan challenged The Lord saying, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job. 1:9-11) Satan was making the assumption that Job's faith was a result of his blessing. God allowed Job to inflict suffering on the man by destroying his family and possessions. Job's response was not a lack a faith but an acknowledgement on God's sovereignty saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job. 1:21) Job never lost his faith. He never charged God with wrong (Job. 1:22) In fact it is from Job we here the often quoted phrase of hope, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth." (Job 19:25) This act of faith was uttered in the midst of suffering. 

But the prosperity preacher would have you believe that the only reason to believe is so that one may have wealth and health. This is a teaching of demons. (1 Tim. 4:1) Nowhere in Scripture is this the promise. Ask John the Baptist who was beheaded for speaking the truth. Ask Paul who was stoned and whipped. In fact Paul had a 'better' life before he became a Christian. And let us not forget the warning Jesus issued to Peter upon his three-fold affirmation of his love toward his Savior, "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This He said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” (Jn. 21:17b-19)

To follow Jesus is to go where He leads. Not where we want to go. In fact, becoming a Christian is to turn away from the world and its temptations. (Rom. 12:2) True faith in Christ weathers the storms of afflictions as they will come. And if you only believe for the sake of accumulation, well, you are betting on the devil! 

What does Satan Look Like?

Recently a few believed that a recent episode of 'The Bible' on the History Channel portrayed Satan, the

tempter of Jesus in the wilderness, as looking quite a bit like President Barak Obama.I suppose if you do not like the President, you may very well think he is the devil. But is this what the devil really looks like?

When I was a child I remember Mom buying a devil costume for me one Halloween. It was the traditional red with horns, tail and pitchfork. Mom said it fit me well. And this was basically what I thought Satan did look like when I was growing up. But a funny think happened on the way to growing up. On a family trip through the Great Smokey Mountains, we spent a day in Gatlinburg, TN. There we visited Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and another attraction called Christus Gardens. It was a diorama of the life of Christ. So one would enter and see these scenes of Christ's life from birth to the Great Commission. But one scene struck me in such a way that caused me to think about Satan in a different way. It was a scene of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Satan was not red with a tail. He was an attractive man in a suit. The narrator explained that in order for Satan to tempt us, he cannot appear offensive. There must be something attractive about him that makes us want to listen. And usually what he has to offer is attractive!

So what does Satan look like? There is only one description of what the devil looks like. It is in The Book of Revelation that we have Satan described as a serpent and a dragon. He has seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems. (Rev. 12) There is nothing attractive about him. Between Genesis and

Revelation we are warned not to be led into temptation. And it is Satan's attractive temptations that we must be careful about.

St. Paul warns us in his First Letter to Timothy: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, (1 Tim. 4:1-2) In Paul's day as is true today, many preach another gospel. Most of them are on TV. They package their message that appeals to the unconverted soul. As Paul again writes: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim. 4:3-4) The biggest myth today is the prosperity gospel. It is no gospel but another system of works. We cannot work our way into heaven. Neither can we manipulate Almighty God. This false teaching is attractive to those who desire to be like God (little god's), who want to influence their world (name it and claim it) and just want more in their life (health & wealth). It is all about the self and selfish desires. This is opposite of the true gospel that saves us from our self and selfish desires. But who wants to hear that message? But that is the point! The true gospel is offensive. It does not fill stadiums with people who are willing to give money with the thought they will get something in return. Or if they fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law they will blessed. Scripture reminds us that if we are guilty in just one part of the law we are guilty from breaking the whole law. (James. 2:10) In fact it is The Law that reminds us just how bad we are. (Rom. 3:20) There is no hope for us especially when we die. At death there is judgment. No matter how hard we work, hell is waiting for the lawless. (Mt. 7:21-23) And so people who are tempted towards the attractiveness of the prosperity gospel will fall into the devil's hand.

Satan will not tempt us with the horrors of this life. But he will be appealing, attractive to the eyes. In fact it will be in the church that he will sow his seeds. (Mt. 13:25) After all, when Eve was tempted to disobey God who gave her life and paradise, it was in the garden. She looked at the forbidden fruit and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Gen. 3:6) We cannot see Satan, but we can discern his temptations. (Heb. 5:14)

Temptation of Eve by Michelangelo

We are Just Like God - NOT!

This post was inspired from a Facebook post I made which was "Let's not forget Satan always wants us to think we can be gods. Gn. 3:3" The motivation for this little piece of wisdom has been an increasing awareness that many prosperity preachers teach that we are little gods. This makes sense since these same preachers say we can speak into existence what we want just like God Almighty can speak creation into existence. We are warned by the apostle Paul to be aware of doctrines of demons. (1 Tm. 4:1)

Now one person thought enough of the post to offer a rebuttal. He writes, "According to Psalm 82:6, We are gods and sons of the MOST HIGH because we were originally made in the image and after the likeness of God (Imagodei). What Satan wanted to do was to stop us from depending on God. That we are images of God should not stop us from depending on Him"

Can you believe it? Of course we should depend on God. But we are not gods. The word 'son' can best be rendered children and we are children of God but only by adoption! (Rm. 8:15, Rm. 8:23, Rom. 9:4, Gal. 4:5, Eph. 1:5) Now really, what was Satan doing in the Garden of Eden? He was tempting Eve saying, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' (Gen. 3:5-6) Here is the first temptation from the devil, to be like God. Hence, when a preacher like Creflo Dollar or Joyce Meyers says we are gods, well just remember where that lie came from.

I responded to this young man's bold assertion with the following. And here you will need your bible:

Let's take a close look at Ps. 82. It is not about you. It's about local rulers, judges. In Hebrew the word 'el' can be used for a ruler who makes judgements on behalf of God. (See Romans 13) The first verse reminds the judges of the obvious. God judges among the judges. In verse 2 God is asking the judges why they are showing partiality to the wicked. In verses 3 & 4 He commands they give justice to the poor & weak. Verse 5 could mean the weak & poor need help with the law or perhaps the judges themselves are ignorant because of their sin. Verse 6 is not addressed to you but to these judges. An understanding of Hebrew poetry is helpful here. Hebrew poetry uses parallelisms. So the line I said you are gods is parallel to nevertheless like men you shall die & sons of the most high is parallel to and fall like any prince. In other words, you local rulers are just men! Verse 8 is a plea to God Almighty to judge the earth as God is Lord of all!

Taking a verse out of context is not a faithful reading of Scripture! And is dangerous!

I then revisited the fall of mankind!

Now let's look at The Fall. God created us created beings. Only Jesus is the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD! We are like the clay jar a potter makes. We are not the potter but a creation of the potter. See Romans 9. Satan cannot tell the truth. What he said was that Adam & Eve would become like God if they ate the fruit. Therefore, he was lying. They at the fruit and died spiritually. We are dead spiritually until we are born again. But we do not become gods. This is Satan's lie!

That was the final word of this dialogue. Without a proper theology we are doomed. The creeds explicitly state Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. Only means only. By the grace of God we have received the 'spirit' of adoption. (Rm. 8:15) We recognize God as our Father. But it is not because we have the same nature as God.  Without the understanding of original sin, then we surely believe our nature is uncorrupted and we have no idea why we need a redeemer. And all of this will lead us to hell which is why this 'little gods' theology is a doctrine of demons authored by Satan!

Unfortunately, to be honest, prosperity/word of faith churches are not unique in this heresy. Any denomination that emphasizes works over grace believe our purpose is to become like god!

Spiritual Warfare: Dealing with Doubts and Accusations

Our authority is found in Jesus Christ. He is authoring or writing our life to fulfill His purposes here on earth. But while we remain on earth awaiting our future glory we are often faced with doubts about where is God when trouble afflicts us or whether or not we are saved from the eternal judgment. Sometimes these doubts come though the imaginations of our mind and other times through other people who accuse us of a sin or character flaw. And why is this?

Gustave Dore's Depiction of Satan Being Cast out of Heaven in MIlton's "Paradise Lost"

At the Cross a battle was won. Jesus rose in victory over the strongholds of Satan. The very name of Satan means ‘accuser’. He accuses Job before God regarding the motivation of Job’s righteousness. (Job 1:9-11) He accuses the high priest, Joshua, before the angel of the Lord. ( Zech. 3) Satan uses our own thoughts against us when we do not see ourselves as God see us. And he can use the criticism of others and gossip of our neighbors to heap false judgments upon ourselves. All because Jesus won for us eternal life on Calvary. John in Patmos reminds us, And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Rev. 12:10-12)

Satan’s time is short as he will be thrown into the lake of fire at the final battle. (Rev. 20:10) Until then he is confined to earth trying to bring the saints down with him. And he will if we don’t put on Jesus for our salvation. When we believe that Jesus did die for our personal sins paying our debt to the Law, our names will forever be written in the Book of Life. (Rev. 21:5-8)

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits  of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:8-15)

Remember, when Satan brings up your past, remind him of his future!


Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
The strife is o'er, the battle done,
the victory of life is won;
the song of triumph has begun.
Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
The powers of death have done their worst,
but Christ their legions hath dispersed:
let shout of holy joy outburst.
Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
The three sad days are quickly sped,
he rises glorious from the dead:
all glory to our risen Head!
Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
He closed the yawning gates of hell,
the bars from heaven's high portals fell;
let hymns of praise his triumphs tell!
Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Lord! by the stripes which wounded thee,
from death's dread sting thy servants free,
that we may live and sing to thee.
Alleluia!

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Words: Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum, 1695;
trans. Francis Pott (1832-1909)