The Danger of the Health and Wealth "Gospel" (Part 1)

Error doesn’t show up wearing a warning label. It shows up dressed in Christian language, quoting Scripture, and promising the one thing our culture already tells us to chase: the life that looks successful. That’s why we’re starting a special multi-episode series on the prosperity gospel, also known as the health and wealth gospel or the Word of Faith movement. We want to name what it teaches, why it feels so convincing, and why we believe it’s not good news at all.

We talk through the real-world versions of the message many people hear, from late-night TV appeals that turn giving into a transaction to public “healing” claims that use Isaiah 53 to argue sickness should alweays be healed in the "here and now." We connect those claims to Paul’s blunt warning in Galatians 1: there is “a different gospel,” and the church cannot treat it lightly. Along the way, we make an important distinction between prosperity teachers and many charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who faithfully preach Christ while rejecting Word of Faith extremes.

The heart of the problem is a bait-and-switch with definitions. Prosperity preaching keeps Bible words but swaps their meaning, turning faith into a tool for getting what we want and blessing into a synonym for money and perfect health. We push back with Scripture, especially Hebrews 11, and with historic Christian teaching that faith leans on Christ rather than manipulating God. If you’ve been confused by these claims, harmed by them, or just want sharper discernment, walk with us through this series. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find it.

Transcript

Catechizing Conversations · Special Series · Episode 1

The Danger of the Health and Wealth Gospel

Part One — A Different Gospel

In the first episode of a new series, Pastor Cisco Victa and Micah Natal begin to examine one of the most pervasive, most appealing, and most dangerous distortions of Christianity in the world today.

“Error indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected; but it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as by its outward form to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.”
— Irenaeus, second century church father

The Series and the Hosts

Cisco  Welcome to Catechizing Conversations. My name is Cisco Victa, a pastor at Lebanon Valley Presbyterian Church here in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. I am joined by Micah Natal, the DiscipleMakers lead staff at Lebanon Valley College here in Lebanon County. Welcome, Micah.

Micah  Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Cisco  Micah and I have been talking about this for some time. We have wanted to focus on the danger of the health and wealth “gospel”—and we put gospel in quotation marks because it is no gospel at all. So we are starting a special multipart series on the subject. It is one of the most pervasive and most appealing, and we will argue one of the most dangerous, distortions of Christianity in the world today: the health and wealth gospel. Sometimes it is called the prosperity gospel. That language comes from Galatians 1, where Paul writes to the church in Galatia:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
— Galatians 1:6–9

Cisco  Those are strong words, and Paul says it twice. What is the Greek word there for “accursed”? Anathema. Paul is not mildly concerned about what is happening in the church in Galatia; and we should not be mildly concerned about what is happening in the church today when it comes to this health and wealth gospel.

Defining the Prosperity Gospel

Cisco  What is the health and wealth gospel? Let us define our terms. It can take many different shades, but the premise is this: if you have enough faith, or if you give enough money, God is going to do certain things. Would that be accurate?

Micah  That is a good explanation. I would say it is a gospel centered on the individual’s state of being—physically, not spiritually. The spiritual is incorporated, but it goes beyond what the Scriptures actually show. It is a gospel centered on the extraordinary works of God becoming the ordinary works of our ordinary lives, including the idea that no one should be “cursed” by poverty. According to them, this is the gospel in its fullness; it impacts not just your spiritual life, but your physical life, and with it, your pocket.

Cisco  Yes, it places a great deal of focus on the here and now, and on your supposed success.

The Money Pitch in Real Life

Cisco  I could define the health and wealth gospel by a car salesman I was talking to recently—a real story. As I sat down in his office, he saw that I was a pastor and said, “You know, I fall asleep at night with the TV on, and I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, and there is always this preacher saying that if you give money—if you give enough money—God is going to give back to you more money.” He was equating me, as a pastor, with that message. I had to say, “No, that is not the kind of pastor I am.” How sad is that? Here is a man I perceived to be an unbeliever, and yet he assumed a pastor was someone who tells people, “Give money, and God will return it to you.” That is the health and wealth gospel. That is a big part of it.

Micah  Yes—and that is the wealth part.

Healing Claims and Blame

Micah  For me, I have experienced the health part very recently on campus at Lebanon Valley. I was speaking with a man who was going around healing people. He approached me while I was meeting with one of my students for discipleship. He got out of his car, started interacting with us, and opened by asking, “What do you guys think is the meaning of life?” After he found out we were Christians, he said, “Oh, so am I. I am here healing people, and we are recording it so people can see the miracles.” After much conversation, he told me that his reading of Isaiah 53—“by his stripes we are healed”—meant healed physically; that Christ’s blood not only cleanses us from sin but cleanses us from all sickness; and that if you are sick, it is solely because you do not have enough faith. He actually said that, which opened up a great deal more. There is that sense to this gospel where it is centered on health and prosperity physically, not only in the range of money but also in the body.

Cisco  And those who propagate this probably would not like the term “health and wealth gospel”; they do not like to be criticized. But this is what they are saying—and they say it clearly. As you said: if you have enough faith, you will be healed physically. And my car salesman friend hears a preacher on TV saying that if you give money, God will give money back to you.

Galatians Warns of Another Gospel

Cisco  He equates that with Christianity. Go back to what Paul said in Galatians 1:6–9 about this different gospel—he is astonished that the Galatians are being persuaded by it. He is shocked. Part of the shock is how fast the distortion happened. Scholars place the letter to the Galatians around A.D. 55, which means we are only twenty to twenty five years out from the resurrection of Jesus, and already the gospel is being twisted beyond recognition. Paul says this is a different gospel that you are preaching and listening to. So this is not even a modern problem; it is the same kind of distortion. It is not the true gospel. Hopefully, over the next several episodes, we will show scripturally why both ideas—that if you give money God is obligated to give money back, or that if you have enough perceived faith God is obligated to heal you physically—are serious error. It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Insider Critiques and Key Distinctions

Cisco  As we prepared for these episodes, we picked up McConnell’s book, A Different Gospel. I was surprised that McConnell is identified as a charismatic. I have known of this book for some time, but I had missed that point. He critiques the Word of Faith movement—another term for the health and wealth or prosperity gospel—and he does so as a professor at Oral Roberts University more than twenty years ago. Neither Micah nor I identifies as Pentecostal or charismatic, but McConnell does; so he offers this academic critique as an insider. Although the teaching has spread well beyond Pentecostalism and the charismatic church, that is where it found its hotbed of influence. McConnell sees the renewal he believes is happening in the charismatic community being infected by this message. Now, I do not think we believe there are prophets today—

Micah  Correct.

Cisco  —but it could be said he is “prophetic,” loosely speaking, because the Word of Faith movement has seriously infected the Pentecostal and charismatic community.

Micah  I would agree with that. And he is not the only Pentecostal or charismatic who has spoken against the Word of Faith prosperity gospel. There are names out there—Sam Storms, Wayne Grudem, Gordon Fee—men who would be more continuationist in their understanding of the gifts, meaning they believe the gifts continue and have not ceased. There are plenty who are academic, who are faithful to the gospel, and who have rejected this different gospel.

Cisco  That is a great point. We would disagree with Grudem, Fee, and Storms on some things; but you are right—they are within that sphere and yet calling this out as error. Thank God for that. From afar, and from within when I was in that world some time ago—which I have strongly repudiated and repented of—I am not seeing much calling out of these health and wealth preachers.

Micah  I completely agree. And it is important to mention that we are making a distinction between the Word of Faith prosperity gospel and its teachers on one hand, and charismatic and Pentecostal believers who understand the gospel on the other. We are not saying they are the same. Men like Sam Storms and Wayne Grudem are dear brothers in the faith; we are one in mind on the gospel and the central principles of Christianity, even while we disagree on secondary or tertiary issues like tongues or prophecy. That is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about individuals—whom we will name later—who are clearly distorting the gospel, taking advantage of people financially, and enslaving them in a message that says, “You are at fault, because you are not healed.” That distinction matters.

Cisco  Thank you for bringing that up; that is clear. We have Pentecostal and charismatic friends—and that is a broad group; it is one of the fastest growing Protestant movements, and has been for some time. We acknowledge that many of our friends in that sphere are genuinely preaching the gospel and are people of the Word. We have differences we may or may not get to. But we are not talking about them. We are acknowledging that the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the Word of Faith movement, has found a home in that community—though it has now spread far beyond it. One critic of the prosperity gospel has called it, and I quote:

“Without question, the most attractive message being preached today, or for that matter, in the whole history of the church.”

Cisco  That is a tremendous statement—most attractive in the whole history of the church. McConnell’s book was written some decades ago, but I would agree: it is an attractive message that is drawing in many people.

Why the Message Hooks People

Cisco  I am seeing it among young people particularly. As one who works among students, is this something you see—that students are attracted by this message?

Micah  Yes. The message is that you will have the American dream the culture already tells you to pursue. It is really the same message our culture is preaching, just Christianized. People want to see miraculous things they can talk about; they want experiences. So it is popular in that sense. And when it is something the culture is also saying—when everyone around them who is not a Christian is advocating for it—it is an easier pill to swallow. Convince an unbeliever that Jesus loves you so much that he wants you healthy and wealthy, that you do not need to be sick, that your grandmother does not need to be sick, that your family can have healing—emphasize all the gifts—and of course it sounds like something you want. But in pursuing all of those gifts, we miss the Giver.

Cisco  It is attractive because it is the bent of our human heart to pursue and lust after the goods and the power of this world. That is the sinful human heart. It is Adam and Eve reaching out in the garden, saying, “I want what God said is not mine to take.” I want the Mercedes and the gold chains and the diamonds and the bigger home, and I do not want to suffer. It feeds the narcissistic sinner that we are.

Micah  It is literally the same temptation Satan gave to Jesus: “Here are all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; I will give them all to you, if you will bow down and worship me.”

Cisco  Right. And you made a great point—it is Christianized. It is glossed over with Christian emblems and Christian speak. It is attractive because it promises so much: health, wealth, prosperity, success. And it does this using the Bible, using the name of Jesus, using language like faith, blessing, and covenant—all biblical words.

False Teaching Redefines Christian Vocabulary

Cisco  This is where Irenaeus’s warning becomes so important—the one we opened with: error never presents itself as error; otherwise no one would bite. Who would join a cult if error announced itself as error right up front? We know Satan’s tricks. Error dresses up, and it borrows the vocabulary of truth. That is what is so terrible: the health and wealth preachers have no problem using the name of Jesus, the words covenant and blessing, and the Bible itself. It sounds like Christianity, but it is anything but. Walter Martin, who spent his life studying cults, pointed to this very thing—a kind of terminology barrier. The most sophisticated false teaching does not invent new words; it redefines old ones. So when a Word of Faith preacher says “faith,” he does not mean what Paul means by faith.

Biblical Faith Centers on Christ

Cisco  Let us talk about that. What is biblical faith? Where is my Shorter Catechism?

Micah  That is probably what we should pick up. But I think of Hebrews 11, which tells us right away what faith truly is. Faith is not something we invent and define on our own; the Scriptures clearly tell us what it is.

Cisco  Faith is turning to Christ; it is trusting in Christ; it is believing in Christ; it is believing the message of the gospel; it is leaning upon Christ.

Micah  Hebrews 11:1 says:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
— Hebrews 11:1

Micah  We get an entire chapter showing how, by faith, all these men and women were assured and anchored upon the hope of the Messiah to come, the hope of the restoration of all things through Christ—the conviction of things they had not seen. That is what propelled them to live faithfully. And verse 6 says:

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
— Hebrews 11:6

Micah  I do not think that is how they are describing faith.

Cisco  No. They use faith as faith in faith. As that young man said while going around claiming to heal people: if you have faith, you will be healed; if you do not, you will not. The focus is on your faith—when biblical faith’s focus is on Christ; it is leaning upon Christ. I was frantically searching my Shorter Catechism, and here it is, under justification:

“Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
— Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 33

Cisco  We believe the good news of Jesus; that is faith. That is what Paul means: “the just shall live by faith.” It has nothing to do with my bank account bursting, my stocks ascending, or even my body being healthy. There is faith in God to provide; but their definition is far different. For them, if you have faith, you are going to get what you want—wholeness, and “your best life now,” to borrow the title of Joel Osteen’s book.

Micah  It seems they treat faith almost like the quarter you put into a vending machine—the thing that moves the mechanics to give you what you want. But that is not what faith was ever meant to be. Faith is not what makes God move; it is what grounds us to God. It is what keeps us; it is what actually pleases him—not what we use to stiff arm him into giving us what we want.

Blessing Beyond Money and Health

Cisco  When Paul, or any of the Scripture writers, uses the word “blessing,” it carries an entirely different meaning from what these prosperity preachers intend. When they say “blessing,” they are thinking of money, power, and wealth—“the blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it”—read only in terms of the here and now. But scripturally it is possible to be blessed and yet have very little, even nothing. It is possible to be blessed and suffering with cancer; to be blessed and paralyzed. Their view of blessing operates in an entirely different framework from the Scriptures. Same words; radically different meanings. That is the challenge.

Closing

Cisco  We are doing this podcast because we want to confront this false teaching, this different gospel. I trust you will continue with us. If you have been caught in this world, I pray that, by God’s good pleasure, you would be delivered from it and come to a biblical understanding of these topics—what faith and blessing truly are, scripturally. Thank you for joining us for this first episode of Catechizing Conversations, our special series on the danger of the health and wealth gospel. Micah, thank you for joining me.

Micah  Thank you again. We thank you for joining us. Tune in again—like, subscribe, and share if this has been a blessing to you. We look forward to meeting with you again soon.

Catechizing Conversations is hosted by Cisco Victa, pastor at Lebanon Valley Presbyterian Church (PCA), Lebanon, Pennsylvania. This is Part One of a special series on the danger of the health and wealth gospel.