by John Piper
• Last Sunday “more Presbyterians were in church in Ghana than in Scotland.”8
• “This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. Most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia.”9
“In a word,” Noll says, “the Christian church has experienced a larger geographical redistribution in the last fifty years than in any comparable period in its history, with the exception of the very earliest years of church history.”10
The Day of Western Missionaries Is Not Over
This is a cause for Christians to rejoice in the sovereign grace of God. But the news is not all good. For example, one of the effects of this kind of news is to make many Christians in the West think that the day of sending missionaries from our churches is past. This is tragic. Presumably, what we should do now is support missions from the Global South. My way of putting that would be: Let them shed their blood. We will just send money.
Many have embraced the uninformed notion that it is always more efficient and culturally effective to support local churches and ministries of the Global South to do the work of missions rather than to pay tens of thousands of dollars each year to send Western missionaries.
I am not opposed to partnering with indigenous missions of the Global South. There are many reputable churches and agencies that make that possible. But it is uninformed to assume that local churches or nearby missionaries can always reach a people better than Western missionaries.
It is uninformed, first of all, because in pioneer missionary situations there are no local churches to do the work. That’s the meaning of an un-reached people.11 Moreover, there is no assurance that a nearby missionary will be more effective than you in learning the new language and crossing the culture teaching the truth. This is especially true if there are old tribal hostilities to be overcome locally. Such a strategy may sometimes be best, and other times not.
The day of Western missions is not over. There are many ways to partner with believers around the world besides simply sending money. There are, as I write in 2009, according to the Joshua Project, 6,645 unreached people groups in the world out of a total of 16,309 ethnolinguistic peoples. And of these 6,645, Joshua Project lists 1,540 of these as unengaged. You can find out the ever-changing, current statistics by checking www.JoshuaProject.net.
The Global South and the Prosperity Gospel
Another ambiguity in the present magnificent expansion of Christianity is that not all the forms of this faith are based on what the apostle Paul calls “sound doctrine” (Titus 1:9; 2:1). Michael Horton makes this sobering observation:
Celebration of the much-advertised expansion of Christianity in the two-thirds world (most notably in recent years in Philip Jenkins’s The Next Christendom) should at least be tempered by the fact that the prosperity gospel is the most explosive version of this phenomenon.12
The prosperity gospel is the most sweeping movement within the continent of Africa.13
What I mean by “the prosperity gospel” is a teaching that emphasizes God’s aim to make believers healthy and wealthy in this life, while it overlooks or minimizes the dangers of wealth, the biblical call to a wartime mindset, and the necessity and purposes of suffering.
The prosperity gospel would be represented by one leading African prosperity preacher who says, “Many are ignorant of the fact that God has already made provision for his children to be wealthy here on earth. When I say wealthy, I mean very, very rich. . . . Break loose! It is not a sin to desire to be wealthy.”14
I am deeply concerned when a preacher encourages a crowd to give $200 to “open themselves to the blessing” in a culture where a schoolteacher earns $150 a month. Yet more than 300 people come forward to receive the speaker’s oil and “within minutes, the church nets tax-free $60,000.”15
The extent of the teaching in Africa is remarkable. In a 2006 survey, Pew asked participants if God would “grant material prosperity to all believers who have enough faith.” Eighty-five percent of Kenyan Pentecostals, 90 percent of South African Pentecostals, and 95 percent of Nigerian Pentecostals said yes.16
“The worst brand of African prosperity teaching is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an American export.”17 Television has become Africa’s religious classroom. “People turn it on and assume that TBN is American Christianity, and Americans know everything, so why not listen to it?”18 And of course prosperity teaching is not unique to America and Africa. It has its Latino and Asian forms and can be found throughout the Global South from Seoul to São Paulo.19
What Shall We Say about the Prosperity Gospel?
The first thing we should say about the prosperity gospel is that wealthy Westerners are probably as guilty of its excesses as are the poor in the Global South. The difference is that the poor don’t have wealth and want it, while the rich have it, expect to keep it, and get angry if God takes it. Both have their hearts set on prosperity. It’s just more subtle in the West because we can take prosperity for granted. This is why I spend more time calling our church to live differently than I do calling the Global South to think differently.20 I am more responsible for the sins at home.
Prosperity Is Relative and the Paths to It Diverse
But this is a book about global missions. And what we think about money and possessions is profoundly important in the way we do missions and the way we disciple converts. So I would like to provide a biblical response to the prosperity gospel. As I point out some of its weaknesses, I aim to keep in mind my own sins, and I hope to remember that it is not a monolithic movement and that “prosperity” is a relative term.
Prosperity in one part of the world would mean a roof over your head, nourishing food on the table a couple times a day, and clean drinking water. “Currently, about 315 million sub-Saharan Africans live on less than a dollar a day.”21 And what we would call a modest lifestyle in America (with a home, a car, electricity, refrigeration, indoor plumbing, clean drinking water, central heating, a computer, a phone, several changes of clothes, and unheard of choices in groceries) would be wildly opulent in most of the world. This is one reason why criticisms of the prosperity preachers must be nuanced and cautious.
Another caution for critics is that there are different ways to think about how Christianity brings prosperity. Few would disagree that a gospel-driven movement of honesty, hard work, patience, generosity, perseverance, and love for excellence would over time lift a culture from the dysfunction of corruption and bring more stable and prosperous times. If that is what the prosperity preachers were saying, there would be little controversy.22
But given the lavish way that prosperity preachers often live, even by Western standards—flying in personal jets, living in palatial homes with eight bathrooms, and staying overnight in $5,000 suites—and given the way they clothe the eternal gospel of Christ in the garments of worldliness, it seems wise to provide a measured biblical response. I will put this response in the form of twelve appeals. I am not eager to vilify but to redeem and transform.
Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers
1. Don’t preach a gospel that puts unnecessary obstacles in the way of people getting into heaven.
Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” His disciples were astonished, as many in the “prosperity” movement should be. So Jesus went on to raise their astonishment even higher by saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They responded in disbelief: “Then who can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23–27).
This means that their astonishment was warranted. A camel can’t go through the eye of a needle. This is not a metaphor for something requiring great effort or humble sacrifice. It can’t be done. We know this because Jesus said, Impossible! That was his word, not ours. “With man it is impossible.” The
point is that the heart-change required is something man can’t do for himself. God must do it—“. . . but [it is] not [impossible] with God.”
We can’t make ourselves stop treasuring money above Christ. But God can. That is good news. And that should be part of the message that prosperity preachers herald before they entice people to become more camel-like. Why would a preacher want to preach a gospel that encourages the desire to be rich and thus confirms people in their natural unfitness for the kingdom of God?
2. Don’t preach a gospel that kindles suicidal desires in people.
The apostle Paul warned against the desire to be rich. And by implication, he warned against preachers who stir up the desire to be rich instead of helping people get rid of it. He warned, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:9–10).
These are very serious words, but they don’t seem to find an echo in the preaching of the prosperity gospel. It is not wrong for the poor to want measures of prosperity so that they have what they need and can be generous and can devote time and energy to Christ-exalting tasks other than scraping to get by. It is not wrong to seek Christ for help in this quest. He cares about our needs (Matt. 6:33).
But we all—poor and rich—are constantly in danger of setting our affections (1 John 2:15–16) and our hope (1 Tim. 6:17) on riches rather than Christ. This “desire to be rich” is so strong and so suicidal that Paul uses the strongest language to warn us. My appeal is that prosperity preachers would do the same.
3. Don’t preach a gospel that encourages vulnerability to moth and rust.
Jesus warns against the effort to lay up treasures on earth; that is, he tells us to be givers, not keepers. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt. 6:19–20).
Yes, we all keep something. Jesus assumes that. He does not expect, except in extreme cases, that our giving will mean we will no longer be able to give. There may be a time when we will give our life for someone and thus no longer be able to give any more. But ordinarily Jesus expects us to live in a way that there is an ongoing pattern of work and earning and simple living and continual giving.
But given the built-in tendency toward greed in all of us, Jesus feels the need to warn against “laying up treasures on earth.” It looks like gain, but it leads only to loss (“moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal”). My appeal is that Jesus’ warning find a strong echo in the mouths of prosperity preachers.
4. Don’t preach a gospel that makes good work a means of getting rich.
Getting rich is not what work is for. Paul said we should not steal. The alternative was hard work with our own hands. But the main purpose was not merely to hoard or even to have. The purpose was “to have in order to give.”
“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Eph. 4:28). This is not a justification for being rich in order to give more. It is a call to make more and keep less so you can give more. There is no reason why a person who prospers more and more in his business should increase the lavishness of his lifestyle indefinitely. Paul would say, Cap your expenditures and give the rest away.
I can’t determine your “cap.” But in all the texts we are looking at in this chapter, there is an impulse toward simplicity and lavish generosity, not lavish possessions. When Jesus said, “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy” (Luke 12:33), he seemed to imply not that the disciples were wealthy and could give from their overflow. It seems they had so few liquid assets that they had to sell something in order to have something to give.
Why would preachers want to encourage people to think that they should possess wealth in order to be a lavish giver? Why not encourage them to keep their lives more simple and be an even more lavish giver? Would that not add to their generosity a strong testimony that Christ, and not possessions, is their treasure?
5. Don’t preach a gospel that promotes less faith in God’s promise and diminishes the glory of God’s help.
The reason the writer to the Hebrews tells us to be content with what we have is that the opposite implies less faith in the promises of God. He says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5–6).
On the one hand, we may trust in the Lord to be our helper. He will provide and protect. And in that sense there is a measure of prosperity he will give us. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matt. 6:32). But, on the other hand, when it says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have” because God promises never to leave us, it must mean that we can easily move from trusting God for our needs to using God for our wants.
The line between “God help me,” and “God make me rich,” is real, and the writer to the Hebrews doesn’t want us to cross it. Preachers should help their people to remember and recognize this line rather than speaking as though it weren’t there.
6. Don’t preach a gospel that contributes to people being choked to death.
Jesus warns that the word of God, the gospel, which is meant to give us life, can be choked to death by riches. He says it is like a seed that grows up among thorns: “They are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the . . . riches . . . of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14).
Prosperity preachers should warn their hearers that there is a kind of financial prosperity that can choke them to death. Why would we want to encourage people to pursue the very thing that Jesus warns can make them fruitless?
7. Don’t preach a gospel that takes the seasoning out of the salt and puts the light under a basket.
What is it about Christians that makes them the salt of the earth and the light of the world? It is not wealth. The desire for wealth and the pursuit of wealth tastes and looks just like the world. Desiring to be rich makes us like the world, not different. At the very point where we should taste different, we have the same bland covetousness that the world has. In that case, we don’t offer the world anything different from what it already believes in.
The great tragedy of prosperity preaching is that a person does not have to be spiritually awakened in order to embrace it; one needs only to be greedy. Getting rich in the name of Jesus is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. In this, the world simply sees a reflection of itself. And if they are “converted” to this, they have not been truly converted but only put a new name on an old life.
The context of Jesus’ saying shows us what the salt and light are. They are the joyful willingness to suffer for Christ. Here is what Jesus said,
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world.
Matthew 5:11–14
What will make the world taste the salt and see the light of Christ in us is not that we love wealth the same way they do. Rather, it will be the willingness and the ability of Christians to love others through suffering, all the while rejoicing because their reward is in heaven with Jesus. “Rejoice and be glad [in hardship] . . . You are the salt of the earth.” The saltiness is the taste of joy in hardship. This is unusual life that the world can taste as different.
Such life is inexplicable on hu
man terms. It is supernatural. But to attract people with promises of prosperity is simply natural. It is not the message of Jesus. It is not what he died to achieve.
8. Don’t preach a gospel that conceals the necessity of suffering in the Christian life.
Missing from most prosperity preaching is the fact that the New Testament emphasizes the necessity of suffering far more than it does the notion of material prosperity.
Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (John 15:20). Or again he said, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matt. 10:25).
Paul reminded the new believers on his missionary journeys, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). And he told the believers in Rome that their sufferings were a necessary part of the path to eternal inheritance.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:16–18
Peter too said that suffering is the normal pathway to God’s eternal blessing.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
1 Peter 4:12–14
