A few years ago, I was having a lighthearted conversation with a friend of mine. We were joking about how the wealth of the Catholic church cannot be calculated. They are by far the wealthiest organization in the history of the world. The value of just the real estate and art that they own is impossible to measure. Yet, many Catholic priests take vows of poverty. How does it make sense for some Catholics to take vows of poverty, while simultaneously, the Catholic church itself represents anything but poverty. That sparked two thoughts:
- Where did the vow of poverty come from?
- What does the Bible – and therefore God – really say about prosperity?
My friend and I both grew up in churches that would be seen as “prosperity gospel” churches. And went to school at THE prosperity gospel university. Oral Roberts University.
My sophomore year at ORU was 2007. In this same year, three former professors filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination after they reported financial and ethical misconduct by Richard Roberts, the son of the founder, Oral Roberts. Richard Roberts resigned by November of 2007, and for a few months, we didn’t know if ORU would survive the school year. In January 2008, the Green family, founders of Hobby Lobby, donated $62 million to ORU, contingent upon governance changes. These events were seminal moments in my life. I didn’t grow up in the “prosperity gospel.” But I grew up around it. I felt drawn to reformed theology as a response to the insanity that was happening at the core of prosperity gospel country.
A lot of reformed theology is just good theology. But reformed, arminians and everything in between have it wrong when they start preaching their interpretation as the Word itself. I love what John MacArthur said, “I’m wrong in my theology, I just don’t know where.”
Bias
So with that said, what follows is my best attempt to explore Biblical prosperity in a “middle” way. I don’t know if I can truly say unbiased, but let’s say both sides of the argument are often wrong in their own ways. I really want to understand what the Bible and therefore God says about prosperity. I also want to understand church history and what got us to this point. My intention in writing this book is to strip back as much of the church traditions, thoughts, opinions and interpretations as possible. This is the first place that I think we must come to when talking about money, church and God. Our starting point is inherently biased based on many factors. Including the idea that we are somehow capable of being unbiased.
What if we admitted our biases and allowed truth to challenge them? I want to understand the unvarnished perspective of God on prosperity in the Scripture. I also want to allow where I am wrong to be challenged and corrected. My way of thinking today is not the same as it was 10 years ago. I doubt that it will be the same 10 years from now. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more of what is true.
As it relates to the existence of my own biases, I believe in accordance with Augustine.
“Nay, but let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, ‘when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.’ “ (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Chapter 18)
Some people like to paraphrase this quote as saying “all truth is God’s truth.” And that’s part of what Augustine was saying. But the most important part of his statement is the second part. All truths outside of God are merely fragments of truth. If “truth” does not ultimately point to the truth of God and Scripture, it is not fully true. It’s not just that “all truth is God’s truth.” It’s that all things that are truly true will find their ultimate expression and conclusion in the pursuit of Jesus. All “truths” are merely the efforts of a finite human mind to comprehend the infinite nature of God. When Paul reasoned with the Stoics and the Epicureans at the Areopagus in Athens, he said this:
“From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
(Acts 17:26-28, NLT)
Questions first, then answers
Despite what the title may indicate, this book did not start as a response to the vow of poverty from a position of expertise. I did not start this book with a conclusion. I started this book with some questions:
- Does God want me to be rich?
- What about Jesus, poverty and prosperity?
- What really is wealth?
- What is the history of all of this thinking?
- If i’m supposed to prosper, how can I? can I prosper?
- Is what I have mine or God’s?
- What is a good steward?
- What does it mean to be rich?
If you already have an answer, what’s the point of asking a question? There is no point in asking questions when we have already made up our mind. When we have made our mind up, and already decided to lean into our biases, all information we encounter is either something that confirms what we know, or something that we need to create a defense for. This book is not a defense of any particular line of thinking. Every line of thinking has pros and cons, good and bad. As long as human beings are being human, our perspectives will be flawed in some way. If you have already made your mind up on the subject of God and prosperity, this book will most likely not help you. This is a journey to understand, in the midst of a lot of strong opinions, if there is an objective, truthful answer somewhere in the midst of all the subjectivity. And if there is an answer, what is it?
Iff we ask questions that we already have the answers to, we’re not asking questions. We’re making a point. Only lawyers and professional arguers ask questions they already know the answers to. Why? Because they are asking questions to prove a point. They don’t want to learn anything. They want us to learn what they already know. If we want to truly learn, first we should ask the question. Second, we should wait for the answer. Maybe the problem with many of us is that we do this in reverse. Instead of asking questions and allowing the answer to come, we have already decided our answers and are just looking for questions that support the answers we already think we have. I believe there are answers, but the answers come at the end, not the beginning. The title of this book is a result of asking questions. It came last, not first. Yes, it telegraphs where we are headed, but, there are some questions that lead to answers, and some questions that lead to journeys. Answers are like the X on the treasure map. Just because we have a map with an X on it doesn’t mean that we are standing where the X is. The questions we ask, determine the journey we take to that X.
This book is journey of asking questions and seeking truthful answers. Consider this your invitation to that same journey. Your answers may turn out differently than mine, but these are the best current answers that I have. The quality of our answers is dependent on the quality of our questions. As I grow, I believe I will become capable of asking better questions and getting better answers. As a human being, I reserve the right to change my mind if better answers make themselves clear. So should you. I don’t know if I will ever arrive at THE answer, but there can be no better journey to take. If you’re open to the journey, keep reading. Maybe you’ll agree with me, maybe you won’t. Either way, the journey is worth taking. If your mind is already made up, this book will not help you.
The discovery of truth
When we “discover” a truth, like the law of gravity, or virtues like wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, we are feeling our way towards the ultimate truth, which is the truth of God himself. In Acts 17:27-28, Paul goes to reason with philosophers at the Areopagus. He tells them that God’s purpose in all human philosophies is “that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’” it is believed that Paul actually quotes two philosophers to make his point, Aratus of Cilicia and Epiminedes of Knossos. In both Aratus’ and Epiminedes’ writings, they are referring to Zeus. But Paul is not referring to Zeus, he is referring to the Hebrew God, and His son Jesus. My admission is this: Whatever is true finds its fullest and most complete expression through the Bible and the life of Jesus. Every other truth points to these ultimate truths. So when God speaks through his Word, the canon of Scripture, it is the final word. There are many opinions and philosophies which may or may be more or less true. If they are in anyway true, they will remain lesser truths when compared to the truth of Scripture.
What follows this introduction is my best, current attempt at understanding what the Bible – and therefore God – really has to say about prosperity. As well as the journey of the human relationship to prosperity. We will explore the history of church “thinking” on prosperity, the theology of the Prosperity Gospel and even study economics and capitalism. I hope you will enjoy this journey through history as much as I have enjoyed it.
One day, this may be a book. For now, it’s just a series of thoughts.