Selfish Prosperity Doctrines

The Word of God does teach that the Lord delights in the prosperity of His servant (Psalm 35:27). But it also teaches that "whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?" (1 John 3:17).
The Christian man having the world's good is supposed to help his brother in need in a practical way, and not just with some words. We know this because the very next verse says, "My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.". It didn't say he should ask his brother in need to give to the rich man of God so that God will send someone else to bless the poor brother.
Getting rich in religion is NOT a proof of God's favor. Rev Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, has amassed untold wealth from his followers. He has told them that he is the Messiah, that Jesus of Nazareth was a failure. Do the billions of dollars of Rev Moon prove that God is with him? Do the billions of dollars in the Church of Scientology or the Mormon church prove that God is pleased to dwell with them? Of course not, unless God is indifferent to truth.
So when a Christian preacher tells us that he can spend thousands of dollars on vain luxuries he doesn't really need, all it proves is that he is happy to selfishly waste what God has entrusted to his care for use in Kingdom purposes.
If anyone has a few million dollars lying around, I can show you how to get in every home in India for that money, on television, 24 hours a day! What is worth more, the gospel going out to hundreds of millions of people, or an expensive mansion on the coast somewhere? It all depends on who you are actually living for.
Another thing: it is possible to spend money on the "gospel" in such a way as to build OURSELVES as a kind of "marketing brand". We can make OUR NAME great with media. When your name is a brand, you can sell your time as a religious consultant at a high price, demand high honorariums in advance before you condescend to preach in some church, and you should be able to sell thousands of books or tapes at a good profit just because your name is on it, even if you employed a ghost-writer to do the work. So it has lots of advantages. But we must be very careful

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