Prosperity Theology

Definition

Prosperity theology (the prosperity gospel) teaches that God desires to give believers not only the salvation of their souls but also health and material abundance. It is often accompanied by the claim that those who make declarations in faith and "sow" offerings will reap in proportion. The teaching became prominent in the twentieth-century American Word of Faith movement and spread around the world through broadcast preachers.

Scriptures Cited in Support

• "That thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 1:2).
• "He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6), along with the promise of blessing attached to the tithe (Malachi 3:10).
• Deuteronomy 28, which speaks of the blessings that follow obedience.

Criticism

• It shifts the center of the gospel from the cross and the forgiveness of sins to success in this present life.
• It cannot account for the suffering righteous (Job, Paul's thorn in the flesh, the martyrs of Hebrews 11). It places on sick or poor church members the burden of being told that they "lack faith."
• By teaching giving as a kind of investment, it can mask a church's financial greed.
• Critical statements have also been issued from within global evangelicalism, including the Lausanne Movement.

Context in the Korean Church

In Korea, preaching that emphasized blessing spread widely during the poverty of the postwar years and the era of industrialization, in tandem with the widespread aspiration to "live well." A representative example is the "threefold blessing" (salvation of the soul, prosperity in all things, and health of the body) taught by Pastor David Yonggi Cho. Assessments of this ministry are divided: some regard it as having given hope to the poor and the sick, while others criticize it for fostering church-growth ideology and blessing-seeking faith. Some analysts also argue that it absorbed the concept of blessing found in traditional Korean shamanism.

This does not mean that praying for blessing is itself wrong. Critics, too, acknowledge that God supplies the needs of everyday life; what they object to is blessing becoming the goal of faith, with faith reduced to a means of obtaining it.