The hidden harm of the prosperity gospel

If you’re from Nigeria (or another country in Africa) like me, you’ve probably come across the prosperity gospel. It’s deeply woven into the material of many churches – preaching that the more you suspect, declare, and provides, especially financially (whether to the church or to your individual ventures), the more blessings and breakthroughs you’ll receive.

At first, it sounds appealing. Who wouldn’t need a faith that guarantees wealth, health, and success? But beneath its shiny surface, the prosperity gospel holds dangerous distortions of God’s character and the true essence of Christian faith. Let’s unpack that.

We know that God is all-powerful, perfectly loving, and endlessly generous (Jeremiah 32:17; Romans 5:8; Philippians 4:19). He is Jehovah Jireh – our Provider (Genesis 22:14). He hears us once we pray and delights in our obedience (1 John 5:14 and 1 Samuel 15:22). The Bible is filled with stories of God answering prayers and dealing miracles. 

But listed below are the hard questions: What happens when He doesn’t? What if the job doesn’t come? What if the healing never happens? What if the connection fails, or the suffering doesn’t go away? Does that mean God has failed? Has He stopped being good, loving and faithful?

This is where the prosperity gospel crumbles.

It turns God right into a vending machine – or worse, a genie. If we just say the suitable words or give the suitable amount, we expect Him to grant our wishes. It sounds rather a lot just like the New Age idea of manifestation or the “law of attraction,” where your outcomes are dictated by your declarations. But Christianity was never meant to be about manipulating God for gain.

In prosperity teaching, spiritual success becomes synonymous with material wealth. And when suffering shows up, because it inevitably does, it’s seen as an indication of failure, punishment, or God’s absence. 

This results in a shallow faith, one which can’t withstand the burden of real life. But biblical faith looks very different.

Real faith says, “Even if God doesn’t deliver me from this case, I’ll still trust in His love and goodness.”

Just like Daniel, who stood firm whether God saved him from the hearth or not (Daniel 3:17-18). Just like Jesus, who prayed in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42), after which walked the painful road to the cross.

Christian joy isn’t depending on comfort. It’s rooted in a deeper truth: God loves us. He proved it not with material things, but by taking our punishment and giving us everlasting life through Christ (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).

Jesus Himself said, “In this world, you’ll have trouble” (John 16:33). Suffering isn’t a glitch within the system – it’s a part of the Christian journey. But it isn’t wasted. We can find peace and joy in knowing that if God says “no” or “not yet”, it’s not because He is cruel or distant, it’s because He sees what we cannot and is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28; Isaiah 55:8-9).

Even once we lack materially, it isn’t evidence of abandonment. In fact, our biggest treasure isn’t something we are able to touch or spend – it’s Jesus Himself, the embodiment of God’s love. As Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:8, “What is more, I consider every little thing a loss due to the surpassing price of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I actually have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I’ll gain Christ.”

So allow us to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And let every little thing else come as it is going to.

The danger of the prosperity gospel is that it offers a faith built on conditions – a transactional faith that places the concentrate on us as an alternative of God and is well shaken. True faith, nonetheless, is built on the unchanging truth that God loves me, even within the suffering; even within the silence, He continues to be my God.