From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part eight of a series. Read part seven.

"The prosperity gospel turns faith into a works-based system and confuses it by adding burdens that people cannot carry."

Part of the prosperity gospel movement's Scripture-twisting involves an un-Biblical redefinition of "faith". As former prosperity preacher Costi Hinn continues his analysis he writes:

When it comes to our salvation, faith is monumentally important to understand. Our salvation, our faith, and our ability to do good works on this earth are all gifts from God (Ephesians 2:8-10). Faith in Jesus Christ saves us, and the evidence of genuine faith is our obedience to Jesus' commands (John 14:23-24). Jesus doesn't make being His follower complicated. He promises that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), and that His people can cast their anxieties on Him because he cares for them (1 Peter 5:7). Though it may not be an easy life, the Christian life is full of freedom in Him.

Faith isn't giving money to get his love. Faith isn't paying a fee for his saving grace. Faith isn't going broke to get healed. Faith isn't traveling to a special service to receive his anointing. Faith is repenting of your sins and turning to him, believing that he is the Son of God. Any religion teaching that you need to do good works, give enough money, or speak enough positive declarations to unlock God's saving grace or abundant blessings on your life is a false religion. Christian faith is believing in Jesus Christ for eternal life and experiencing the joy, freedom, and blessing of knowing Christ - for free.

The prosperity gospel turns faith into a works-based system and confuses it by adding burdens that people cannot carry. The Pharisees did the same thing when they were manipulating and exploiting people (Luke 11:46). Jesus called them "whitewashed tombs" and "a generation of vipers" for requiring the people to do what they themselves were not willing to do.[1]

Delivered From Falsehood to Truth

On pages 136 to 141 of his book God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel, Pastor Hinn describes how these truths finally gripped his soul and brought him to true saving faith in Christ. [2] Having forsaken the riches of the prosperity-preacher lifestyle, he had become a low-income pastor-in-training at a small independent church in California. The senior pastor, needing to be out of town, asked Costi Hinn to preach in his absence, continuing a series already underway in the Gospel of John. His assignment would be to preach from the next section to be covered - John 5:1-17, the account of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed." He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' "

Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."

The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

The senior pastor was continually helping Costi Hinn understand how to properly study and exegete Scripture in order to prepare to preach.  As Hinn studied the passage intensively, he noted three things that decisively contradicted the false teachings of the prosperity gospel.

First, he noted that there were at this place "a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame" - but that Jesus healed only one individual. Prosperity theology teaches that everyone is always supposed to be healed, because it is always God's will to heal everyone, and sickness is therefore the individual's own fault because of lack of faith or lack of giving enough money to a so-called healer.

Secondly, he noted that healing was immediate. As Hinn put it in his sermon notes, "No process. No music. No special service. No offering. No fanfare. He healed the sick man with a word. Arise!" In prosperity theology "healing" is often a process requiring multiple payments of money, including the purchase of special so-called healing oils, prayer cloths, and other high-priced products from a charlatan "healer".

Thirdly, he noted that the man who was healed did not even know who had healed him. He wrote in his notes, "How could he have faith to be healed if he didn't even know who Jesus was? How could he even believe in Jesus if he didn't know Jesus? Was faith involved at all? How could faith be involved if he was passive in receiving his healing and ignorant of who the Healer was? Was any money involved? There is no indication of this man doing anything for Jesus to get a healing. Jesus seems to have healed the man out of His own volition and desire to do so." He noted that Jesus "most certainly didn't have catchers, nor did He knock people over repeatedly or tell the man to give him a seed-faith offering to receive his healing."

A Prosperity Preacher Comes to Saving Faith

As Hinn recounts, "Each one of these observations put a devastating crack in the foundation of my theology within the first couple of hours of study. I couldn't believe what I was reading, but at the same time, it was all starting to become clear, like a camera slowly shifting focus from blurry to high-definition resolution."

Costi Hinn testifies that it was on this date, April 30, 2013, that he was truly born again. "Now I could finally see the full truth. Over the course of what seemed to be hours, I repented of my sins, false teachings, and life of hypocrisy. I confessed to God that I had twisted His Gospel for greedy gain, and I asked Him to forgive me and give me a fresh start. I committed to studying the truth, preaching the truth, and standing up for the truth no matter what the cost. The real Jesus was now my Lord, and the real Gospel was now my life..."

Our prayer is that many who have been duped by the false prosperity gospel will in the same way be delivered to see "the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

References:

1. Costi W. Hinn, "Healthy, Wealthy, and Lies", Answers magazine, January-March 2022, pages 73-74. Used by permission.

2. Costi W. Hinn, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2019)

Next: The Prosperity Gospel Ruins Christianity's Witness

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