Most Christians Believe God Wants People to be Rich
Prosperity theology is "booming," Time magazine reported in this week’s issue, with some of the biggest megachurches in the country preaching the Health and Wealth message that many other evangelical leaders criticize.
The cover of this week's Time was dominated by a silver Rolls Royce car topped with a gold cross emblem shining on the front. The headline: "Does God want you to be rich?"
According to a new Time poll, 61 percent of adult Christians in America agree that "God wants people to be financially prosperous" and 49 percent disagree that "poverty can be a blessing from God."
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The reportedly fastest-growing U.S. church – Lakewood Church in Houston – preaches emphatically about the "goodness of the Lord." Lead pastor Joel Osteen wrote a best-selling book, Your Best Life Now, which Time said helped spread prosperity theology "beyond its Pentecostal base" and "into more buttoned-down evangelical churches, and even into congregations in the more liberal Mainline."
Osteen, who preaches each weekend in a renovated Compaq Center sports arena to over 30,000 worshippers, told Time, "I don't think I've ever preached a sermon about money."
The megachurch pastor said in the interview that he “preach[es] that anybody can improve their lives.”
“I think God wants us to be prosperous,” he stated. “I think He wants us to be happy. To me, you need to have money to pay your bills. I think God wants us to send our kids to college. I think He wants us to be a blessing to other people. But I don't think I'd say God wants us to be rich."
Other influential megachurch pastors including Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potter's House in Dallas and Creflo Dollar of World Changers in Atlanta embrace the message of prosperity.
However, prominent pastors such as the Rev. Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., call it "baloney."
"This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy?" Time reported Warren as saying. "There is a word for that: baloney. It's creating a false idol. You don't measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn't everyone in the church a millionaire?"
Both sides go to the Bible to support what they preach.
"'Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try Me now in this,' says the Lord of hosts. 'If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it'" (Malachi 3:10). The report placed this verse among others against several other passages that say wealth is not a gift of God.
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:24-26).
Among the people in the pews, 73 percent disagreed that "material wealth is a sign of God's blessing." The Time poll noted that 21 percent agreed with that. The majority of Christians (63 percent) also didn't agree that giving away money to God would necessarily mean that God would bless the person with more money.
Evangelical leaders are concerned over what prosperity messages de-emphasize. Southern Baptist Alan Branch of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., said prosperity theology "wants the positive but not the negative."
"Problem is, we live on this side of Eden. We're fallen," he added, according to Time.
The Time poll was conducted on June 27-29 among 770 self-reported adult Christians throughout the U.S.
