In many cases, the emphasis on riches links directly to a teaching commonly called “the health and wealth gospel.” Also known as “prosperity theology,” this is the belief that God rewards true faith with riches and good health. Illness, weakness and money problems are viewed as the result of poor Bible knowledge and lack of faith. This emphasis on earthly riches just happens to match the world’s emphasis, which draws many followers. As Jeremiah 6:13 says, “From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.” Greed is this world’s god or idol (Matthew 6:24,32; Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:5). The cloak of faith covers this greed, making it all the more attractive for it offers a direct path to the ultimate Source. Prayer becomes a tool guaranteed to get wealth (or whatever one wants) out of God. This is not, “Thy will be done” but rather “my will be done.” Of course, there is nothing new about religion as a path to earthly advantage and exalted status.
Famous faith-healers, surrounded as they are by glamorous mansions, flashing diamonds and expensive cars, pose the most striking contrast with the humble Savior and His peasant followers, who were in fact the true miracle workers.
Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed [Jesus]. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:14-15).
Jesus Himself warns about “the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things [that] enter in and choke the word” (Mark 4:19). The attraction and deceit are so strong that Jesus stresses,
How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!…. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:23,25).