THREE WAYS THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL HAS INFECTED OUR CHURCHES by Stephen Kneale

Found here. My comments in bold.

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The Doctrinal Police seem to be obsessed with looking for bogeymen under every rock. They have caused large parts of the Church to become suspicious, hair-splitting, doctrinal exclusionists. They insist on absolute doctrinal conformity. Miss a small point and you're a heretic. Use the wrong word and you're branded an apostate.

We believe there should be room in the Church for any who have been saved and call upon the name of the Lord. 

This isn't to say that we accept any and all no matter what they believe. Rather, those who are our brothers and sisters should be honored and prayed for, not bludgeoned and left by the side of the road.

If the author simply made his points apart from blaming things on the prosperity gospel, well, we might tend to agree with him at points. But the issues of our prayer lives, our service, and our worship, can be fully dealt with via encouragement, instruction, and exhortation.

In addition, the author never quotes a single Scripture. We can only conclude that either there isn't a biblical case to be made, or that these points are nothing more than the author's ax to grind.

Finally, we note that every issue the author chronicles pre-dates the prosperity gospel by centuries.

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So many of our churches – otherwise sound, godly, healthy churches – have been infected by the prosperity gospel. Obviously, we’re not handing out lifts across the world in our private jets. We’re not typically telling people that, if you just trust God enough, he’ll make you rich. But we definitely do believe some soft prosperity lies.

Let me land on just three examples.

Prosperity prayers
Be honest, how many of your prayers start and end with thoughts about the glory of God? How many of the things you ask the Lord to do are to serve his glory? Now there are things in the everyday life of the believer that, should we ask the Lord for them and should he grant them to us, most certainly serve his glory. But often, that thought it nowhere near our motivations.

Many of our prayers, if we’re being honest, are just transactional. (That is, we are asking God to do something. Why this is bad is left unsaid.)

We imbibe the slightly iffy theology of the third, and frankly questionable, verse of the children’s chorus, the wise man built his house upon the rock. We effectively think, as the song goes, the prayers go up and the blessings come down. (The author bases his case on what a children's song lyric is?)

I’ve prayed for the stuff I want now the Lord’s gonna bless me big time. (Ge. 32:26: 

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

1Ch. 4:10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.)

Even if we’re not being quite so crass about it, we happily pray for Norma’s back to get better, or Ali’s asylum application to be successful, or Frank to get that job he applied for. (The author finds fault with asking for God to intervene in our affairs, but does not provide us with a biblical basis for this. 

We, however, shall make our case from the Bible. We would consider David to be a primary model for prayer and worship. David prayed many times for relief, help, justice, and even retribution. 

Here he asks for mercy: 

Ps. 28:2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands towards your Most Holy Place. 

The word "cry" is תַּחֲנוּן (tachanun) which means supplication for favor.

In the NT we also see this kind of prayer. In fact, we are commanded to pray this way:

Ph. 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

The word "petition" is δέησις, εως, ἡ (deésis) a seeking, asking, entreating, entreaty (from Plato down); in the N. T. requests addressed by men to God... 

It's the same word used in Ja. 5:16: ...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 

Therefore, it is biblical to bring requests to God.)

But often, underlying those requests, is a belief that the Lord never wants us to be ill, face deportation or out of work. (Undocumented statement. We have no reason to accept the author's characterization.)

But, who do you think put us in those situations to begin with? (Does the author believe that every circumstance we find ourselves in is due to God's direct will? This is a preposterous assertion. 

Is. 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...

Ac. 14:16-17 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony...) 

What is more, guess who never promises to take us out of those situations? (Whaaaat? 

Ps. 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all...

Ps. 50:14-15 Sacrifice thank-offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.

Ps. 91:15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

Paul writes:

2Co. 1:10-11 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers.

2Th. 3:2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.) 

What the Lord is concerned about is his glory and the multifaceted ways that it is served. (Yes, but He is concerned with much more than His glory. 

Ps. 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

Ps. 146:5-9 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them — the LORD, who remains faithful for ever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, 8 the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. 9 The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

1Pe. 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.) 

Rarely is that our concern, (Again the author makes an undocumented assertion.)

we are more bothered about folks being upset over their situation and want the Lord, like some prosperity genie, to make it better. Give them the thing they crave Lord, then they’ll be happy, and you only really want us to be happy, don’t you Lord. In other words, we affirm the person’s contentment is tied up in things other than Christ (No, we do not.)

and then petition the Lord to grant the thing (that isn’t him) to make the person content. That is prosperity praying.

Prosperity service
It’s pretty easy to fall into a quid pro quo with the Lord regarding our service. If I do enough evangelism, the Lord will give me whatever it is I’m after. I scratch your back, Lord, you scratch mine. (We have never heard anyone use such terminology.)

Granted, we’re often not saying I’ll serve in the soup kitchen and Jesus can send me a nice fat cheque. But we often think to ourselves, (No, we do not.)

I’m doing all the right things, so the Lord is sure to bless me. (Maybe on some level this is actually true. But we would not know this from the author, for he makes pronouncements about things as if they were self evidently true.

1Sa. 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness.

2Sa. 22:21 “The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

Ps. 62:11-12 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12 and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.

Pr. 13:21 Misfortune pursues the sinner, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

Mt. 6:3-4 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Ep. 6:7-8 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.)

Perhaps we recognise it more clearly when, so far as we’re concerned, we’re doing all the right things and the Lord isn’t giving us what we think he should. I’m obeying you in all the right areas, Lord, why haven’t you fulfilled my desire yet? (We are beginning to suspect that the author is projecting his own thought life on others.)

So often, our service ends up being transactional. I will serve here, I will obey rightly as far as I can, and when I’ve done that Jesus will give me whatever I’ve decided I need from him. (The author persists in this odd characterization.)

But that’s not how grace works. (The author will never explain how grace actually works.)

That is the older brother from the parable of the prodigal son talking. I’ve slaved away for you, Lord, because I want what is yours and yet you haven’t give it to me. If we’re only serving when we feel it, or we’re serving because we think the Lord will give us what we want and need when we do, that’s prosperity service. Transactional service for the purposes of extracting from the Lord what we really want (which, if that’s our attitude, usually isn’t him).

Prosperity worship
We are wont to be unduly affected by our feelings when we come into church. That’s not to say our feelings don’t matter at all, it is just to say they aren’t ultimate. But frequently, if we feel low or like the Lord isn’t giving us what we feel by rights he should, we have no real interest in worshiping him like we should. (Perhaps true. How this might relate to prosperity is unstated.)

Again, just as with our prayers and our service, it becomes a highly transactional approach to church and worship of God. If the Lord has blessed me with a good wife, top job, all the various things I could wish for, I’m happy to rock up to church on a Sunday morning and sing with gusto, praising him with all my might for the great things he has done for me. If, however, I consider my life or circumstances lacking in some way, my worship is non-existent. The Lord hasn’t blessed me in the way I think he ought, so I shan’t be blessing him either.

This is prosperity worship. (No, it's not.)

Never mind that the Lord, if you are his, has blessed you beyond your wildest imaginings. Never mind that the Lord is using your current circumstances, hard as they may be, for his glory and your ultimate good. You’ve decided the job you really wanted, or your singleness, or your sense of lack, mean that the Lord hasn’t done as you wanted. And, if that’s the case, there’s no way you’ll be singing or praising him. No way. Not until he does what he’s supposed to and gives me what I want. Until he contents me in the way I reckon I need to be contented, he can forget it!

That is prosperity worship. (No, it's not.)

We’ll only worship the Lord, we’ll only bless him, when he blesses us in the way we want. We’ll give testimony to his goodness, but only once he’s been good in the way we’ve decided he should be good. We withhold our worship because, as far as we’re concerned, we we aren’t feeling it because the Lord hasn’t given us what we demand.