Show me the money

Does God want you to be rich? Is the kind of prosperity that Jesus promises in the Bible all about financial wealth?

Prosperity gospel is sweeping the world with many people claiming that financial wealth is an important indicator of God’s blessing.

Where does this gospel come from? Were Jesus and his disciples rich as many prosperity gospel followers claim? Are we being unfaithful to God’s call on our lives if we don’t have everything we desire in this world?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we talked about prosperity gospel and the way that it is not only sweeping through prosperous western countries but poor nations throughout Africa. Did you know that some prosperity gospel televangelists are taking more money out of poor regions in Africa than they are putting back in to care for the starving?

What is God’s call on our lives? Should we be amassing personal wealth? Should we be serving others with the rich blessings God gives us?

You can listen to our conversation through the media player below.



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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4 Comments

  • Does God want us to be rich? I am quite sure he wouldn’t give two hoots if we were rich or not. That’s if your were talking about the holy dollar.

    Some people would suggest that amassing a personal wealth is an indicator of a successful life. We have already seen in the tabloids that money and happiness do not go hand in hand.

    Many a poor folk are looked down on by the ignorant just on this very indicator.

    The term “rich” means different things to different people. It’s like talking about polictics or religion. You could go on all day about it until you were blue in the face.

    In conclusion, being rich in wealth certainly comes in handy! As long as you use it wisely and remain on the right side of God!

    Well, that’s my two cent’s worth and my quote for today is, “Live Long and Prosper”. Regards Peter McCartney

  • We’ve just finished a series on prosperity in church. One thing that was made quite clear is that prosperity is NOT always about money. Some people make it so, but not at my church. Basically the teaching went along these themes: to prosper is to ‘push forward’ in every area of life. We were encouraged to be generous; in thought, words and action. We spent a couple of weeks on generosity, and a couple re-defining what true success involves and looks like. It was a great series of teaching!

  • I’m really glad there is some sceptism about the prosperity-preaching churches, as the marriage with market-capitalism as an ethos is quite worrying for me, and certainly one of the gifts that the Christian churches have given to the world, is their concern with the marginalised and the poor, rather than with amassing wealth. Well… most churches anyway.

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