Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Christian views on poverty and wealth vary. At one end of the spectrum is a view which casts wealth and materialism as an evil to be avoided and even combated. At the other end is a view which casts prosperity and well-being as a blessing from God.
Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, seed-faith gospel, Faith movement, or Word-Faith movement) [1] is a religious belief among some Charismatic Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive scriptural confession, and giving to ...
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible says it is "a Semitic word for money or riches". [13] The International Children's Bible (ICB) uses the wording "You cannot serve God and money at the same time". [14] Christians began to use "mammon" as a term that was used to describe gluttony, excessive materialism, greed, and unjust worldly gain.
Prosperity is not desired for the hoarding of finances but to be an avenue God uses to fund missions for the spreading of the gospel and to help the needy. [citation needed] Word of Faith preachers such as Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland claim that Jesus was rich, and teach that modern believers are entitled to financial wealth. [1]: 30 [16]
According to the abundant life interpretation, the Bible has promises of wealth, health, and well-being, but these promises are conditional promises. According to James 1:17, God gives only good and perfect gifts, so God only gives gifts and blessings that are compatible with that person's abilities and God's goals for that person. [18]
These gifts have been seen to include personal abilities ("talents" in the everyday sense), as well as personal wealth. Failure to use one's gifts, the parable suggests, will result in negative judgment. [1] From a psychological point of view, the failure is the immediate result of the failure of feeling God's love.
Some Christian critiques have compared it to the Pentecostal prosperity gospel, and state that it suggests that God will obey people's wishes. [9] [10] Critics including Forbes and The Christian Century have made references to Santa Claus, commenting on the book's apparent "Santa-fication of God".
The Economy of God, first published in 1968, is one of Witness Lee's principal works and is a compilation of messages he gave in the summer of 1964 in Los Angeles. These messages build on one of Watchman Nee 's classics, The Spiritual Man , which reveals that man is composed of three parts - spirit, soul, and body.