Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #156： 3 Theological Flaws of the Prosperity Gospel

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:00:11.240 My name is Dale Partridge, where each week I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological

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00:00:42.580 Welcome to Real Christianity.

00:00:44.060 My name is Dale Partridge.

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00:00:49.460 our website at relearn.org.

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00:01:06.800 Today's episode is Three Theological Flaws of the Prosperity Gospel.

00:01:12.700 Important conversation we're going to have today.

00:01:15.280 The third one is the most important, so please stick around until the very end of this episode.

00:01:21.540 But before we jump into this, I wanted to mention just a few things.

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00:03:12.180 families are in financial turmoil, and that's okay. So on that note, let's go ahead and dive

00:03:18.260 in to three theological flaws of the prosperity gospel. Today's conversation is going to mostly

00:03:24.820 focus on the health side. And as many of you guys know, I'm sick. I've been sick on and off

00:03:33.040 for nearly 10 years, but chronically ill really for the past four years. And I've had the elders

00:03:40.300 of our church pray over me and anoint me with oil. I fasted. I've had the entire church pray

00:03:45.960 for me locally. I've seen the best doctors. I've seen the best naturopaths. I've tried

00:03:52.780 experimental treatments. I've read tons of books on the topic. I've tried herbals and oils. I've

00:04:00.100 tried diets and supplements. I've tried lifestyle adjustments. And while I've seen improvement and

00:04:08.500 even seasons of remission by God's grace, I'm still ill. And has God sustained me through it?

00:04:16.840 Absolutely. Has God healed me? No. And here's why I know this. John MacArthur speaks about

00:04:25.540 how Jesus heals in his earthly ministry. He says, Jesus healed people sometimes who had faith

00:04:35.180 and sometimes who didn't. He healed people who asked for it and some who didn't. He healed people

00:04:42.600 near and he healed people far. He healed people he was looking at and people he couldn't see.

00:04:48.300 He healed not psychosomatic disorders, but organic illnesses. He healed people from demon

00:04:55.020 possession and oppression. And he always healed immediately. There's no such thing as a lingering

00:05:02.420 healing, a multiple phase healing. There's no such thing as, quote, I was healed and slowly I'm

00:05:10.840 getting better, he healed everything, everyone he wanted to heal, completely, instantaneously,

00:05:18.600 and permanently. People don't realize that suffering with sickness, or any trial for that

00:05:27.920 matter, is extremely theological. In fact, it's pain that forces people to attain doctrinal and

00:05:37.880 biblical clarity. Because if you don't have a correct view of God and yourself and the gospel

00:05:44.420 of Jesus Christ, you're going to be inclined to do two things. One, adopt false doctrine based on

00:05:51.200 your emotions. And two, deny true doctrine based on your emotions. And over the years, I've seen

00:05:59.620 the claims and promises of the health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel. And I've seen the

00:06:06.180 preachers on TBN and heard the theology that comes out of Bethel and the other prosperity pushers

00:06:10.940 that are out there today. In fact, just yesterday, I had a well-intended gentleman comment on one of

00:06:17.200 my posts telling me, quote, I have a word for you, implying that he had a word for God or from God

00:06:26.520 for me. He continued to say, quote, God wants to heal you completely. One word is all it will take,

00:06:34.920 but you must take the next step of faith. He then went on to give instructions of how

00:06:43.740 I need to throw away everything that is of man in my life and walk the narrow path.

00:06:50.220 He continued and kind of closed off his statement with, he will do it. Take my word and put God to

00:06:57.960 the test. The just shall live by faith. All right. So since this stuff is becoming more and more

00:07:06.340 common in the church today, I thought it would be helpful if I just broke down this man's comment

00:07:12.480 for you in hopes to equip you with the truth on the matter for the next time that you're approached

00:07:23.260 by, again, a well-intended but very theologically confused person about the truths regarding faith

00:07:30.720 and healing. So, first he says, quote, I have a word for you, end quote. Now, this is really

00:07:40.160 dangerous. When someone says that they have a word from God for you or imply that, your response

00:07:47.920 should always be great. What chapter and verse? Okay. Meaning that I'm not saying that the Lord

00:07:55.360 can't put a prompting upon someone's heart to go encourage another believer. That's very possible

00:08:03.000 and that's very biblical. But to imply that God is speaking through one person to another person

00:08:09.000 means that one, if the following statement made doesn't materialize, then either God lied, which 0.98

00:08:18.900 is impossible according to scripture, or two, you're a deceiver. The person that's saying these

00:08:24.220 things is a deceiver and needs to repent. And so this is why we just go, if someone says that God's

00:08:30.000 speaking to them, you just go, well, show me in the scriptures where this is true, because the spirit

00:08:35.460 of God and the word of God are one, and they're not going to disagree with each other. So tell me

00:08:40.840 where you're getting this word from God, because if it's not in scripture, then it's not going to

00:08:47.180 be true. And then you can look at it theologically in the scripture, in the context of that passage,

00:08:53.420 and try to interpret if this person is deceiving intentionally or unintentionally, or speaking

00:09:00.900 truth. And we know that God is no longer speaking through men. Why? Well, Hebrews 1, 1 through 2,

00:09:09.980 important passage of scripture, it says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the

00:09:15.820 prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in his son.

00:09:22.400 The key word here is spoken, which is in the past tense. That is that God has once for all

00:09:30.200 delivered his words to his people through the testimony of his son, and the recording clarifying

00:09:35.940 and inscripturating of that testimony by his 12 chosen apostles. Okay, so that's just, I wish I

00:09:45.120 could talk about that more. That's more of an issue that I could have a whole episode on, but

00:09:50.520 that's just the quick on that. The next thing this gentleman says is number two. He says that God

00:09:58.820 wants to heal you completely, end quote. All right, so this implies that God has healed me partially,

00:10:10.220 right? God wants to heal you completely, right? You're partially healed right now. But again,

00:10:14.940 which we talked about MacArthur's quote before, the idea of partial healing is out of step

00:10:22.180 with the healing ministry of Jesus according to scripture. But more importantly, what he's doing

00:10:29.320 here is he's painting a picture of a wanting God who is waiting on me and my faith to accomplish

00:10:38.240 his will. And it becomes evident that this gentleman does not understand the doctrine of

00:10:43.660 God's sovereignty and providence. Okay, Psalm 115.3 says, but our God is in the heavens. He does

00:10:51.680 whatever he pleases. In other words, if God wants to heal me, he would heal me. And yes, this also

00:10:58.600 implies that the Lord, for some reason, has permitted my illness and its continued presence

00:11:03.620 in my life. John Piper speaks to the purpose of this when he says, the suffering of sickness

00:11:09.540 and the suffering of persecution have this in common. They are both intended by Satan for the

00:11:17.960 destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith. Christ sovereignly

00:11:25.880 accomplishes his loving, purifying purpose by overruling Satan's destructive attempts.

00:11:33.020 Satan is always aiming to destroy our faith, but Christ magnifies our faith and his power in our

00:11:41.620 weakness. In other words, God has seen that he would be more greatly glorified in my illness

00:11:50.620 at this point in time than in my wellness. That is that when an onlooking world sees the staying

00:12:00.000 power of my faith in the face of my illness and trials, it's a testament not to me,

00:12:07.860 but a testament to the sustainer of my faith.

00:12:12.320 And he knows that like Job,

00:12:14.800 the enemy could throw complete tragedy at me

00:12:20.420 and I would not deny Christ.

00:12:23.720 And I can say this because scripture promises

00:12:25.940 that God will sustain my faith.

00:12:30.560 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10

00:12:34.000 talks about Paul in his state of weakness.

00:12:40.340 It says,

00:12:41.680 Because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations,

00:12:44.100 for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself,

00:12:47.960 that's the purpose,

00:12:49.760 there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

00:12:56.220 We don't know exactly what that is,

00:12:58.100 but it's some sort of pain in his body.

00:13:00.260 and it says comma a messenger of satan to torment me in addition he also gave him a persecutor

00:13:08.900 to torment paul goes on to say to keep me from exalting myself concerning this that is the flesh

00:13:19.960 the thorn in the flesh and the messenger of satan i pleaded with the lord three times

00:13:25.040 that it might leave me.

00:13:28.120 And he said to me, quote,

00:13:30.120 My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

00:13:35.780 Some have translated, for my power is perfected in weakness.

00:13:40.460 He goes on and writes,

00:13:42.460 Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses,

00:13:46.940 so that, purpose clause, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

00:13:51.480 Therefore, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ.

00:14:01.640 For when I am weak, then I am strong.

00:14:06.380 So this passage essentially is the nail in the coffin of the health and wealth gospel.

00:14:12.220 God uses our weaknesses, whether by trial or tragedy, to demonstrate his power in us before a lost and onlooking world.

00:14:24.740 They look at us and they go, how can a man under that much trial still have faith in a good and loving God?

00:14:33.400 And there are men and women who suffer far greater than I do.

00:14:36.800 And so for those of you who are under trial today, don't only ask God how to remove the pain, but ask yourself, how can I glorify God in this pain today?

00:14:51.880 How can I show that unstoppable trust and faith that I have in Christ in this suffering to an onlooking world?

00:15:01.420 so that's we talked about the first point which was speaking on behalf of god we talked about

00:15:09.080 the second point which is this idea of a wanting god but he's waiting on me and we'll talk a little

00:15:14.160 bit more about that in a second third and i think this is the most dangerous theological flaw of

00:15:19.160 this gentleman's comment he said one word is all it will take but you must take the next step of

00:15:27.220 faith. He goes on later in his comment talking about how I

00:15:32.240 need to take a fierce step of faith, implying that I need to

00:15:37.100 ratchet up the intensity of my faith, like I got work to do.

00:15:41.980 Trust, right? You got to increase my faith. Now, if this

00:15:49.900 theological instruction is true. This means I get to share in the glory of the healing

00:16:00.800 of my body. I get the credit for my ability to intrinsically exercise greater faith,

00:16:11.100 which in this gentleman's theology is the catalyst for my healing. And then God gets

00:16:19.520 the glory on his part for his ability to heal me. Now, first, we know that Isaiah 42.8 says this,

00:16:33.260 I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another. Some have translated it,

00:16:41.140 I will not share my glory with another. We also know that Romans 11.36 says,

00:16:46.360 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever amen end quote

00:16:54.340 so my first point is that any system of theology where the work of man

00:17:00.200 is needed for god to perform his will is called synergism and it's unbiblical we know

00:17:10.220 know that God, according to Scripture, is monergistic. Synergistic means two parties

00:17:18.240 working together. Monergistic is one party working, you know, meaning that He works,

00:17:26.120 God works to bring about His will in our lives regardless of our cooperation.

00:17:32.200 We can actually see that most famously in our salvation under the doctrine of irresistible

00:17:36.380 grace. But again, not a conversation for today. But let me move to what I think is the core

00:17:45.840 of this statement that he made and what I think the major theological flaw is and how to deal with

00:17:55.220 it. His argument with this statement that he says, but you must take the next step of faith.

00:18:07.380 His argument presupposes that I have the ability to increase or decrease my level of faith.

00:18:15.900 Okay. He believes that I have the ability

00:18:18.980 intrinsically on my own to increase or decrease my level of faith. Namely, that I alone

00:18:29.340 have that capability, right? Those means to take that next step of big, fierce faith,

00:18:38.260 if we used his wording. This is not a biblical perspective. As you might know, according to

00:18:47.440 scripture, I'm not the author of my faith, nor am I the sustainer of my faith, and therefore I cannot

00:18:56.680 increase my faith on my own. Now let's look at a few scriptures to back up that claim.

00:19:04.280 Hebrews 12.2 says, quote, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some have

00:19:12.820 translated, the author and finisher of our faith. What it's saying is that Jesus is the forerunner

00:19:19.920 of all saving and obeying faith. Okay, he is the source, the way maker, the very bridge and

00:19:29.820 foundation that makes true saving faith, obeying faith, God glorifying faith, even accessible to

00:19:38.680 fallen man. But Jesus isn't just the one who made faith obtainable to men through the Spirit.

00:19:49.200 He's also the wellspring of faith, the manager of faith, the distributor of faith. And we know

00:19:58.480 this Ephesians 2.8 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,

00:20:07.380 it is a gift of God. Okay, the word that is a demonstrative pronoun.

00:20:18.480 And I'm talking about, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of

00:20:24.040 yourselves, it is a gift of God. So the word that is a demonstrative pronoun. And with any pronoun

00:20:31.160 in Scripture, we want to identify its antecedent. And an antecedent is just the object which a

00:20:38.480 pronoun is referring to. For example, if I say, Bill threw the ball and then he chased after it.

00:20:47.400 Well, what's the antecedent of he? Who's the he? Oh, it's Bill, because Bill threw the ball and

00:20:54.080 then he chased after it. So I want to find the antecedent for the word that. What's the

00:21:03.620 that? For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is

00:21:10.920 a gift of God. Well, without explaining exegetical Greek to you guys on this episode, I can tell

00:21:17.980 you that that is referring to both the grace and the faith. They are both gifts from God.

00:21:29.320 We don't have saving faith, God-glorifying, obeying faith in us prior to God gifting it to us.

00:21:39.880 Okay, so Jesus is not only the waymaker of our faith, but he is also the gifter and distributor of our faith, meaning that any faith that you have is not of yourself, but it was a gift from God.

00:21:56.920 and we know this Romans 12 3 says you you not to think are I cut off a little bit of the beginning

00:22:06.080 of the section here it says you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think

00:22:09.980 but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned

00:22:17.560 okay God has not just made the way for faith not just gifted the faith but has actually

00:22:26.120 the manager of faith and has assigned each person a measure of that faith.

00:22:34.260 There are people that have actually been given the gift of incredible faith.

00:22:40.400 And you may have witnessed these individuals.

00:22:44.600 So we are not the originators of faith.

00:22:49.940 We are not people who have faith that was not gifted to us.

00:22:57.680 We are not able to control the measure of faith intrinsically.

00:23:02.740 It is assigned to us by God.

00:23:06.720 And then basically what I'm getting at is that if you want a stronger faith, there's

00:23:12.360 only one solution.

00:23:13.480 You have to ask God through prayer to strengthen your faith.

00:23:20.480 It is God who can strengthen your faith.

00:23:23.680 You can't increase your faith without God.

00:23:27.520 And this is exactly what we see in Luke 17 5 that says, quote, the apostle said to the

00:23:34.300 Lord, quote, increase our faith.

00:23:39.200 They knew that Jesus is the source of faith.

00:23:43.480 that he's the manager of faith. He's the distributor of faith. And this is why the

00:23:48.840 theological position that tells Christians that they must increase their faith in order to make

00:23:55.420 them well or in order for God to heal them is absolutely unbiblical and absurd. To demand

00:24:02.940 believers to do something that only God can do for them is not only deceptive, but it actually

00:24:07.660 creates an act where we're made to believe that we have some involvement in divine healing. 0.80

00:24:15.380 It's grossly, it's just a gross elevated view of man and forces Christians to look 0.73

00:24:23.340 into themselves rather than looking up to God for their needs. 0.73

00:24:29.460 and ultimately our healing has nothing to do with our measure of faith. Paul had an incredible

00:24:39.020 measure of faith, yet the Lord kept him in a state of weakness. Timothy had such a strong faith

00:24:46.660 that he endured martyrdom, according to church history, but he also had stomach ailments that

00:24:53.140 the Lord chose not to remove. I mean, the list goes on of incredible men and women with great

00:25:00.080 faith who suffered with illness and glorified God in their illness. Now, does this mean that

00:25:12.780 we don't ask God to heal us? No, we do. We absolutely ask God. God is a good God who

00:25:22.440 wants to give good things to his children. That said, in God's wisdom, he may permit us to remain

00:25:29.140 in a state of weakness or in a state of illness or in a state of trial, that it may more effectively

00:25:35.120 conform us to the image of his son and also bring about more glory to his name.

00:25:43.480 And I feel like I should stop there, but I guess I will at least just close with the last statement

00:25:51.440 because I said I would talk about his whole quote and comment.

00:25:58.940 The last statement, as you guys remember from when I said previously,

00:26:02.940 he basically said,

00:26:04.480 and put God to the test, the just shall live by faith.

00:26:10.980 I'm sure that we know the position on testing God that's in the Bible.

00:26:15.580 Jesus said to Satan, and I quote from Luke 4.12,

00:26:19.380 And Jesus answered and said to him,

00:26:22.540 It is said, you shall not put the Lord God to the test.

00:26:26.760 Plain and simple.

00:26:28.280 And yes, the just do live by faith.

00:26:31.980 We are justified by our faith.

00:26:34.720 It has nothing to do with the healing of our flesh.

00:26:40.640 So I hope this has been edifying to you guys.

00:26:44.120 We must be biblically literate

00:26:47.040 so that we can catch heresies and counterfeits and false doctrines.

00:26:52.320 They're coming at us everywhere in social media and worship songs

00:26:57.520 and sermon clips and podcasts.

00:27:00.460 We need to be able to identify errors

00:27:07.720 because we have spent time in the truth.

00:27:12.280 And so, please, I've said this many times before, you can't know your Bible by simply allowing other people to tell you what's in it.

00:27:22.840 You need to get that Bible out, study it, read through it, pray through it, look at commentaries, try to grasp the systematic theological comprehension, the web of Scripture, the grand redemptive plan of the gospel.

00:27:41.140 it will help you and help others guard from heresies that are entering the church all around

00:27:47.780 us on that note i hope this episode was helpful for you guys thank you for listening and thank

00:27:53.500 you for your loyal listenership for those that are regular listeners to the real christianity

00:27:58.580 podcast if you are would you guys consider leaving a review you can do that by just going to the

00:28:04.080 podcast app and tapping the stars you don't even need to write anything but if you do write

00:28:07.860 something, we will absolutely read it. They're very encouraging to me. Thank you also for your

00:28:15.900 continued support of our ministry. Again, you can do so at relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:28:20.420 On that note, my name is Dale Partridge, and I'll see you next week.

00:28:37.860 And for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home,

00:28:46.880 you can download our free PDF ebook titled The Basics of Biblical House Church by visiting

00:28:52.040 relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological question you would like

00:28:57.240 answered on the show? Submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question. Thanks for

00:29:02.780 joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

00:29:07.860 Thank you.

Dale Partridge - July 28, 2021

Real Christianity #156： 3 Theological Flaws of the Prosperity Gospel

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