By Joel Mitchell
Shepherds Who Feed Only Themselves
Many of the world’s most popular Christian preachers proclaim a message of unending, guaranteed health, wealth, and prosperity for those who exercise the right kind of faith. Jesus must have misspoken when he told his followers they would experience mistreatment (Matthew 5:10-12), conflict (Matthew 10:34-39), troubles (John 16:33), and weakness/sickness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), because these men and women can tell you how to have “your best life now” (in Jesus’ name, of course). You know it’s true because just look at how rich they are! If it doesn’t work for you, you obviously don’t have enough faith, and maybe throwing some money their way (“planting a seed”) would be a demonstration of your faith that would really catch God’s attention.
In God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel, Costi Hinn (nephew of faith healer Benny Hinn) confronts this twisted, self-serving teaching. For the first 60% of the book he recounts his own story of growing up in luxury funded by the offerings of people desperate for healing or prosperity, of slowly coming to the realization of the abusive deceptive nature of this false gospel, and of rejecting it. The remainder of the book examines the nature, history, and impact of the prosperity gospel. He emphasizes its distortion of Scripture and the true Gospel (e.g. Romans 5:8-10, Romans 3:23-25, Ephesians 2:4-10). Given his family ties, the teachings and actions Costi refers to most directly are Benny Hinn’s, but he touches on beliefs shared by Joel Osteen, Oral Roberts, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Paula White, and many others.
Costi’s overall tone is as gracious as you can possibly be while warning that someone else’s belief system is dangerous and completely in the wrong. The abuse of Scripture and exploitation of people carried out by the prosperity gospel makes my blood boil, so I am impressed with his self-control and ability to “speak the truth in love.” The most scathing criticism in the book comes when he quotes from Scripture. These are the words of Jude writing about exploitive teachers:
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. – Jude 12-13 (NIV)
Please, don’t be led astray by these kinds of people or write off Jesus Christ because of wolves in sheep’s clothing who exploit his name for personal gain. I highly recommend this book as a very readable warning against a pervasive false teaching and a record of God’s grace to a young man who was caught up in it. (And if you want a shorter, blunter explanation of the problems with the prosperity gospel and examples of those who teach it check out Fal$e Teacher$ by hip-hop/rap artist Shai Linne).
Addendum: A few days after I wrote this review Benny Hinn himself denounced some aspects of the prosperity gospel (video here). This is an encouraging start, and time will tell whether he “bears fruit in keeping with repentance” like Zacchaeus did (Luke 19:1-10).
