When dealing with prosperity teaching/the prosperity gospel, it is helpful to understand the overall framework and main verses used to support such teachings. Being armed with such knowledge will help people to spot this kind of teaching as well as to biblically refute it.

Prosperity Framework

God

Prosperity teaching¹ begins with God having faith that He could create the world. It is believed that He spoke the universe into existence because He had faith and expected it to come true. Additionally, “Kenneth Copeland has taught that God ‘stands somewhere around 6’2”, 6’3” and ‘weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple hundred pounds’’²

• Example verse:
• Heb. 11:3 - By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Man

It is further reasoned that since God created man in His own image, man can now emulate God’s creative power. Since man is a spirit like God, and they are both considered to be in the same class of beings, man is a little god who can have faith as God and thus speak things into existence. Kenneth E. Hagin stated, “Man…was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority….God has made us as much like Himself as possible….He has made us the same class of being that He is Himself….Man lives in the realm of God. He lives on terms equal with God.”³ Copeland has stated, “You don’t have a god in you, you are one.”⁴

• Example verse:
• Gen. 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Fall

Man was given dominion over the entire world, not as a steward, but as a little god. However, man fell into sin and gave his legal rule over to Satan who now rules the world. Thus, “[M]ankind became a sinner, was separated from God, and, as a result, lost their divine nature and consequently took on the nature of Satan. Once Satan obtained the lease, he became the legal god of the earth, unable to be evicted until his lease runs out. This means that…God doesn’t have control over the earth—Satan does.”⁵ Charles Capps stated, “His man, Adam, had lost his authority. Satan…had become the god of the world system….Satan had gained ascendency in the earth by gaining Adam’s authority, and God was left on the outside. God couldn’t come here in His divine power and wipe them out.’”⁶

Jesus Christ

Prosperity teaching instructs that Jesus died twice—a physical death and a spiritual death. They believe that He died physically on the cross and then descended to hell to finish redemption and die a spiritual death. Jesus is said to have taken on the nature of Satan (as Adam did) and thus to lose His divinity for a time. Kenneth Copeland states, “Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go to hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God….Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound….They dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence.”⁷ Frederick K. C. Price said, “The thing that redeemed us was not Jesus being nailed to the cross. His Spirit and soul went to Hades.”⁸

Following His death, Jesus is said to be born-again in hell, thus becoming the first born-again man. His fellowship with the Father was restored as well as His divinity.

Redemption

On account of personal faith, Man is now restored to his original little god image (divinity restored) whereby he can speak things into existence like God. He can declare right now by faith the spiritual and material blessings secured by Jesus and God contractual has to answer man’s believing words. E. W. Kenyon stated, “The Word is your evidence. He says you are, and because He says you are, you are. WHAT I CONFESS, I POSSESS.”⁹ Copeland professed, “By getting the Word deep into your spirit and speaking it boldly out of your mouth, you release power to change things in the natural circumstance.”¹⁰ Creflo Dollar declared, “When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass.”¹¹

Moreover, these teachers proclaim principles of sowing and reaping (and first fruits) where health, wealth, and prosperity is found by first giving money or other things (usually to certain ministries). You cannot receive these blessings unless you believe, give, and expect a miracle. Any negative thoughts and/or sin will prevent the desired result.

• Example verses include:
• 2 Peter 1:3–4 - ³His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ³by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
• Romans 4:17b - who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
• 2 Cor. 9:6 - The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
• John 14:13 - Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
• Mark 10:29–30 - Jesus said, “²⁹Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, ³⁰who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Prosperity teaching has a twisted theological framework derived from a shallow reading of the verses given above. It is a dangerous framework that has a distorted and unbiblical view of God, man, Jesus, salvation, and sanctification. However, when the Scriptures are exegeted faithfully and are permitted to interpret themselves, such a framework is easily dismissed.

Part two will examine these verses for a proper biblical understanding and basis of refutation.