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When a close friend began to follow the teachings of a faith healing ministry in Texas, I was guarded and suspicious. I had a vague idea of what they would say – that disability was the result of sin and if you prayed hard enough, you could be healed – but I was shocked by how unapologetically they preached their message. But more than that, a wrenching fear gripped me: would my friend adopt these beliefs? Would this change how she saw my disabled body?
The word gospel means “good news” but there is nothing good in the beliefs of the Prosperity Gospel. Through well-known figures such as Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland, a false doctrine has infiltrated the Church. It teaches that, by faith, a believer can attain whatever earthly pleasures they most desire, whether financial, relational or health. It isn’t just possible – it’s expected. This takes the omniscience of God and puts all control into the hands of the believer; as long as we “have enough faith,” we’ll get what we want.
When compared with the teachings of Jesus and the apostles in Scripture, the Prosperity Gospel’s message is startling. The Living Savior Ministries, started by Thurman Scrivner and now carried on by his wife, Cheryl, has a clear central belief. “Sickness and disease,” its Facebook bio says, “can be healed by the remission of sins.” It’s unequivocal: disability is the result of sin and, by the forgiveness of sins, one can be healed.
Yet Scripture paints a completely different picture. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself,” Jesus said. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt.16:24-25). The Apostle Paul recounts similar sentiments when he writes that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Suffering and trouble were promised for believers in this life (John 16:33), and nowhere in Scripture is there support for the belief that faith in Christ equates earthly prosperity. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite.
Nor is there a Scriptural basis for the claim that the forgiveness of sins will result in physical healing. Only Jesus has the power to forgive sins, and his purpose is far greater and far more wonderful than the healing of our temporal bodies. Colossians 1:13-14 says that “for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
But these antibiblical views aren’t just academic. I fear for the faith of disabled people who have been used by faith healing ministries and how their perception of Christ has been skewed.
Teaching that disabilities can and ought to be healed as an outward sign of faith in Christ plants doubts about the character of God: why did he make me disabled? Why won’t he heal me? If I don’t have enough faith, is it my fault that I’m disabled? Does God love me?
The Prosperity Gospel takes our focus off the Lord and his work of salvation and replaces it with the earthly manipulations of false gospels. They trade a loving God who came to earth to save undeserving sinners for eternity with a fleeting desire for control over our lives on Earth.
I am angry with how the Prosperity Gospel manipulates and uses God’s people. These are people like me – it is me, being used for the selfish wants of others. After years of wrestling, questioning and doubting, the Lord has brought me to a place of true contentment and joy in the body he’s blessed me with. But this is what the Prosperity Gospel steals from God’s disabled children. It pushes God and his omniscient plan for humanity aside. And the only way to reclaim it is by returning to God’s Word where we find the true gospel, the good news of God’s free gift of salvation and his unfailing love for each one of us.
View this article online.
Read the full issue of Christian Courier [PDF] here.
