Is it wrong to become wealthy by teaching the prosperity gospel?

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I’m going to break this question down into a number of sub-questions, which, added together, should provide a more complete picture of how the Lord does His work in us.

First, is it wrong to become wealthy? Absolutely not. The Lord is omni-benevolent, He wants all good things to happen to all people and all good things will eventually become ours through His promise of eternal life.

Second, do the ends justify the means? Is it “anything goes” when it comes to enjoying this world the Lord gave us? Absolutely not. Wrong things are still wrong. Acting irresponsibly, if you are lucky, will earn you the Lord’s chastisement. If you are not lucky, you are left to deal with the consequences all by yourself. If you enrich yourself at other’s expense, your life will be every bit as hollow as it was before you started lying and cheating to fill your cup. All good things come from the Lord. Good things do not come from money.

Third, is prosperity theology wrong? Not necessarily. Riches are abundant on heaven and earth. In Jesus’ day, they were not so abundant. They were so scarce they blinded people. Money buys convenience and pleasure. Convenience and pleasure are not evil. But they are not good either, in and of themselves. They are good if coming from the Lord. Sloth and vice are convenience and pleasure that isn’t coming from the Lord.

Fourth, is it wrong to get rich off of others? No. All riches were made with human hands. There is nowhere else to get them from. The Lord gave us this world so that we can build a kingdom on it, a kingdom with the Lord as sovereign. The Lord does not till the land and plant crops and harvest them, we do.

Fifth, is it wrong to use the Lord to get rich, are preachers wrong to enrich themselves off of donations? The answer to this question can only be no, given the answers to the first four questions. It is not wrong in and of itself, but it may be irresponsible depending on how and why you conducted yourself. If you took your duty to spread the message of God seriously and touched many and caused them to do good things and spread the message of the Lord themselves, then you can rest easy that your career was an admirable one. Many wealthy people become the target of selfishness. The person who is most selfish tells others that they are selfish.

As always with the Lord, you can hear His voice deep within, as what we call conscience. If you listen to and follow it the Lord will show you wonders you could never have dreamed of. If you cannot hear it, pray until you can. If you are worried about whether the voice is good or evil, walk towards the temptation just like Jesus into the desert. Let the devil show you what he has to offer. If you succumb, pray for forgiveness, and repair your conscience. Only the Lord is perfect, the rest of us are sinners. But do not be guilty for possessing mere pleasure or riches or convenience. They are just things. It is the Lord that makes them wondrous.