The first time I encountered the prosperity gospel was in seminary. I remember watching a video about this so-called Christian movement with my jaw on the floor. The idea that God rewards faith, positive thinking, and regular tithing with financial wealth was counter to everything that I’d ever learned about God up to that point. It’s God-as-a-cosmic-vending-machine theology on steroids. By the time a pastor with the actual name Creflo Dollar showed up on the screen to defend this theology, I was convinced that the whole thing had to be either a joke or a cult. Everybody knows that God isn’t in the business of trading blessings for obedience, right?
Except that sometimes, that seems to be exactly what God is doing. Today’s reading kind of sounds like an early version of the prosperity gospel to me. This is the very first encounter between God and Abram, and God gets straight to the point without wasting time on introductions or other niceties: “Here’s the deal, Abram: if you prove your faith by giving up everything you’ve ever known to move somewhere that I’m not gonna tell you about until later, I’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams - you’ll become famous, respected, and wealthy.” And of course, by the beginning of the next chapter, we discover that the exchange of faith for prosperity did work - Abram became a very wealthy man.
We can make excuses for this all day long, but the parallels are undeniable. God’s proposal seems pretty clearly transactional, or at least conditional. There’s a direct cause and effect relationship between Abram’s obedience and his blessing. And not only does God give out blessings in exchange for faith, it seems that God also dispenses punishment for those who *don’t* do what God wants: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” If the Prosperity Gospel is God distributing tangible blessings and curses according to each individual’s faith and choices, then this divine interaction could’ve served as a template for Creflo Dollar’s theology thousands of years later - it’s the ORIGINAL Prosperity Gospel.
Except that there’s one critical difference between these theologies. According to the modern Prosperity Gospel, YOUR faith and YOUR obedience will result in YOUR personal gain. That’s the only thing that matters. But in the original Prosperity Gospel, God has much bigger plans. Not only will *Abram* prosper as a result of his faith, but so will the rest of humanity. This is such an important aspect of the deal that God repeats it twice within three verses, saying both “You will be a blessing” and “All the families of the earth will be blessed because of you”. The goal of the modern Prosperity Gospel is to acquire wealth and well-being for yourself. The goal of the original Prosperity Gospel is to acquire wealth and well-being for THE WHOLE WORLD.
Too often, we think of our faith as a strictly personal thing, impacting only ourselves. Even if we don’t believe in God as a cosmic vending machine, our goal is for OUR relationship with God to flourish; for OUR church to prosper and succeed; for OUR prayers to be answered. Our faith is understood to be between us and God, and therefore our blessings are ours alone. We don’t think as much about how we can use our faith, our obedience to God, and our blessings to benefit OTHER people. But based on God’s words in this passage, that’s kind of the entire point - for ALL PEOPLE to prosper through the faithfulness of a few. And this has apparently been God’s plan from the very beginning.
Once you realize this, it’s hard to take the transactional, individualist version of the Prosperity Gospel seriously - which is probably why it’s been denounced by most Christian denominations. But just because it’s not popular as a formal theology doesn’t mean that its principles and tenets aren’t embraced in other forms. And nowhere is it more insidious than in the recent rise of Christian Nationalism in our country.
Although the Christian Nationalist ideology is built around the idea of a collective identity rather than specific personal interactions with God, it’s implied that blessings will directly follow its adoption. Proponents insist that the reason we should embrace Christianity as our cultural and political identity is because our country will flourish as a result - we’ll be stronger, happier, more respected, and of course, wealthier. In other words, our national obedience to God will lead to national prosperity.
Now, you might be thinking, “That makes Christian Nationalism more like the *original* Prosperity Gospel than the modern version! It’s seeking prosperity for everyone in the whole country, not just for individuals.” While it’s true that Christian Nationalism is less individualistic than the gospel according to Creflo Dollar, that doesn’t make it analogous to *God’s* Prosperity Gospel. Because while in theory Christian Nationalism is concerned with the well-being of the entire nation, in practice *it only looks out for those who adhere to its way of thinking.* It sees dissenters as heretics who are undeserving of the national prosperity to come. And zooming even further out, it generally doesn’t care about anyone outside of the country at all - Christian Nationalism believes they should be looking out for themselves, anyway. It’s “every man for himself” thinking disguised as faith wrapped in an American flag.
This would be like if God had told Abram, “Leave your father’s household for the land that I will show you, and I will bless you and your descendants…aaaand that’s it. Just you guys. No outsiders. Oh, and if any of your kids ever give me trouble, they’re out.” Can you imagine? That’s not the God we know, worship, and love. Our God calls people and sets them apart not as an exclusive reward, but as a way to ensure that ALL people are blessed. So why would we think that any policy or worldview that privileges some people over others would be acceptable, let alone pleasing, to that God?
Christian Nationalism, like all distortions of the original Prosperity Gospel, is a terribly misguided sin. Anything that seeks the wellbeing of some while neglecting the wellbeing of others is counter to who God has called us to be from the very beginning. Yes, we have been blessed, but not just for our own benefit. God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others - ALL others, to the ends of the earth. Prosperity for everyone is God’s Prosperity Gospel.
As one who has been richly blessed by God, how is your faith directing you to be a blessing to others right now? How are you practicing the original Prosperity Gospel every day? Sharing your financial blessings is obviously an important way, but we’re wealthy in far more ways than just money. If you’re wealthy in friends and family, how can you pass that blessing on to those who are not? If you’re wealthy in reputation or social standing, how can you use that blessing to benefit those whom society has forgotten? If you’re wealthy in talent or skill, how can you bless others with your gifts? If you consider yourself a person of faith, these are questions you should constantly be asking yourself.
As tempting as it may be to follow the modern-day Prosperity Gospel, we’ve seen that it’s simply not the way God works. The more we try to live by it, the farther away we become from God. And somewhere deep in their hearts, even its most devoted adherents know this to be true. As I understand it, Creflo Dollar himself has recently come around from his previous ways of thinking. He doesn’t emphasize the Prosperity Gospel much anymore. In fact, in a 2022 sermon, he admitted to his congregation that his previous teachings about tithing had been flat-out wrong.
These days, he says, he focuses on the gospel of grace instead. That sounds like a more reliable path to prosperity, anyway. Maybe not *individual* prosperity, but certainly the kind that God entrusted to Abram so many years ago. Today, through God’s grace alone, we’ve also been entrusted with these same blessings. The question is: what will we do with them? There’s no better time to decide than right now Amen.
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