My comment will be a bit long, but I think it’s an interesting story that shows the same thing. First, so sorry you lost your dad so young, and to this cause.
When I was a young Christian in college, one morning I decided to attend the local Vineyard Church. As I got ready in my dorm bathroom, putting in my contacts I prayed “Lord, I want to serve on the mission field, it sure would be great if you healed my terrible eyesight to make that easier.” I told no one about this prayer.
30 minutes later in the service during the Words of Wisdom time, someone got up and said “Someone here wants to serve on the mission field, but wants their eyes healed.” Wow. So I stayed after the service and said that was me. Three times he prayed over me but nothing happened. In the end, he said, you don’t have enough faith to be healed. Even at the time I thought, “Wait, I was the one who prayed for this! That’s why I’m here, I believe God can do it!”
I had one other equally supernatural experience with that Vineyard Church in Evanston, Illinois but the takeaways were these: this is bad theology, and the verse “My grace is sufficient for you, and My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Jeff, thank you so much for sharing this. I did read every word, and I’m grateful you took the time to write it.
Your story captures something so many of us have wrestled with—when we genuinely seek God in faith, only to be met with theology that puts the burden back on us when things don’t go the way we hoped.
That moment in the Vineyard Church must have been incredibly disorienting, especially after such a specific and vulnerable prayer. And yet, your response—to hold on to the truth of “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness”—is a powerful testimony in itself. May God bless you because of that!
As you mentioned, bad theology can wound deeply, especially when it comes wrapped in spiritual language. But your story is a reminder that God’s grace meets us not in polished outcomes, but in real, raw faith—even when our eyes aren’t healed, and our questions linger.
Thanks again for sharing. You’re not alone in this—and your honesty helps others feel less alone, too.
Thanks for sharing this. I have been a Pastor for 50 years in a Charismatic Church. This Heresy has, like a weed, popped up over and over in our Church. As a young Pastor I made some mistakes with this false message and embraced parts of it. But, it did not take long before my wife and I completely rejected it and spoke out against it. Your story was sincere and compelling. Thanks again.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate your honesty and the wisdom that comes with so many years of pastoral experience. It’s encouraging to hear how you and your wife navigated those challenges and spoke out against it. Thank you again for taking the time to read and comment!
The prosperity gospel has always baffled me. How can you claim God as omnipotent, almighty and in charge of all that exists in one breath and in the next demand that God do your will? I was at a Bible study once when a woman started praying, claiming God’s promises and saying she would hold tight and not let Him go until she got the van she needed to go camping with her family because they could not take their Mercedes camping. She prayed loudly, with grabbing and holding motions. I looked around and everybody was saying Amen! Thank you Jesus! I wanted to sneak out the door and never come back.
But the prosperity gospel is also a way of controlling people. Back 30+ years ago I went to Central America with a church group. The mainline missionary we met there explained how the CIA backed certain Pentecostal preachers and used them and the prosperity gospel to woo and control the population, especially the young leaders. In war torn countries, who didn’t want the wealthy safe world depicted on American television?
The easy capitulation to false promises and the surrender of self and control is seductive. It’s like buying a lottery ticket that promises to win it all.
Thank you for all the thought and work you put into this article.
Wow! What a story. Thank you so much for sharing it. I’ve encountered similarly bizarre situations in Africa, Asia, and across the U.S., but the image of someone refusing to take their Mercedes camping and demanding a van from God is a new one for me!
You’re absolutely right—it’s not just bad theology; it’s also a powerful tool for control. I had never connected prosperity preaching with global power structures and media influence for control purposes, and while that doesn’t surprise me, it does give further evidence of how demonic it really is.
It breaks my heart how seductive these messages can be, especially for those in desperate situations. Like you said, it really is like buying a spiritual lottery ticket—promising everything, delivering nothing.
Thank you again for your thoughtful comment. It’s incredibly encouraging to hear from others who see these same patterns and can give language to a movement that so often feels slippery and hard to pin down, like trying to hold onto Jello.
I think that conversations like ours are vital for exposing the counterfeit and calling people back to the true hope we have in Christ.
True story … 1984, Marine base, many of the chaplains and their families were into focus on the family and that type of very fundy controlling beliefs. My ex was a very junior chaplain and I am more of a liberation theology person. He was told to keep me quiet if he wanted to get promotions. Obviously, he couldn’t keep me quiet.
Sometimes I think it is like multi level marketing, the more disciples and devotees, the bigger your paycheck.
First of all, Focus on the Family is a legitimate ministry designed to help people navigate serious, practical problems. It’s not an offshoot of the “prosperity gospel.“ It has nothing to do with the prosperity gospel. The founder actually received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California.
Now, if you want to disagree with or oppose “very Fundy controlling beliefs,“ that’s your prerogative. But don’t lump everything that you dislike into one category. That’s not only bigotry, it’s stupidity.
The tragic death of your father broke my heart, and I’m so sorry that happened.
It’s such a wicked twist of what scripture teaches, but so many are led astray.
Commenting to hopefully further amplify you’re incredible post and pray the HS helps let the scales fall off the eyes of anyone deceived by the prosperity gospel.
Christopher, thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to comment. It’s truly heartbreaking to see so many led astray by teachings that distort the gospel. I’m grateful for your prayers and hope that, through conversations like this, more people can see the truth and be freed from those lies. May the Holy Spirit work in mighty ways to open eyes and hearts, and may He use your work to do it.
I have a hard time with people deciding who has the “right Gospel”. Someone may know Jesus, be surrendered to Him, but in a “bad” church, and not certain of all the truth. Hearing their church or beliefs are false by other Christians could ruin their faith. (I believe Christ would go after them, though.)
It seems it would be more helpful if others would ask questions, help steer them around errors, and help those preachers get better understanding too. Matthew 13: about the tares and wheat seems, to suggest this.
I’m sorry the writer lost his dad. I’ve known just as cruel Christians who think you trust GOD, so do not even grieve, because suffering is fine. Jesus grieved.
Regarding faith: We are not to tempt GOD—expect Him to do something we can already do something about. This idea has helped me.
But our mouths can still speak faith. Romans 10.
But faith in Christ, hope in Christ, rather than a (OT) outcome, helps. OT: More like heaven. Here and now, can be 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 and 11:21-33; Matthew 10 about taking up one’s cross.
I do find it strange that Christians can see and condemn one for nice inherited things, which it would cost a lot more to replace! Especially when they have no idea the other things one does with one’s money! And lack of good income in jobs.
And get to know Jesus; will He not help people give in His timing? Ecclesiastes 3
Yet I lived in that system for many years as a young person and it has deep roots. Kenyon etc were such familiar names at that time even in some places in UK. It was the source of much despair and disillusionment and though I can now see it for what it is, it’s not always easy to spot and untangle some of the beliefs that remain...
Thank you so much for your honesty and tenderness. You're right—those roots run deep, and even after we leave the system, its residue can linger in ways we don’t always recognize. The despair and disillusionment it creates are so real because it offers a version of hope that ultimately can’t bear the weight of real life, real pain, or real faith.
It takes time, grace, and often painful reflection to untangle those beliefs. But you're not alone in the journey, and I'm so glad you're seeing it more clearly now. There’s something freeing—and healing—in reclaiming a gospel that embraces both suffering and resurrection, not just success. Thank you for sharing this.
“Material and financial prosperity and health are sometimes seen as evidence of spirituality…”
It was this way in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. Those in expensive flowing robes, making a big show of their wealth, praying on the streets, powerful and influential.
They were “spiritual.”
How hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, said Jesus. And His disciples were surprised.
Exactly so. I have watched people being destroyed by this heresy for more can 40 years. It is the cancer within the church body. Even so, I still have family who hold to it strongly, even though they are like a person drowning in the ocean grasping on to a life preserver thrown to them by the Prosperity preacher they love and exalt above all, but without knowing that the preacher also threw the other end of life preserver rope into the water and left the area.
Thank you for reading. I, too, am amazed at how many hold to it even when it flounders in the face of sound exegesis, church history, and personal testimony. It's painful to see such adherence. I hurt for all of those affected by it.
So sorry that this teaching has harmed you and your loved ones so much.
I have also experienced the faith and faithfulness of the Karen believers, in the US and in Myanmar and read with them from the Sgaw Karen and the Judson Burmese Bibles. That was a blessing.
That's fantastic that you worked in the U.S. and in Myanmar! Do you read Sgaw Karen?
We ended up hosting a Karen church at our church. It was a wonderful opportunity to grow and learn together despite the linguistic and cultural differences.
Their faith, shaped by real suffering and resilience, was a powerful witness—a lived theology that left a deep impact on me.
I read Burmese better, but I learned enough Sgaw to put some vocabulary lists together.
I met a group of Christians in Yangon, an ethnically mixed group of mostly minority citizens who used Burmese as their common language. The Karen folks in the US were refugees I was doing some support work with. My kids went to school with some of them.
THANK YOU FOR A POWERFUL TESTIMONY,I QUIT WATCHING MOST OF TBN PREACHERS, SEEING SO MUCH APOSTASY THERE! THE AMERICAN CHURCH AS A WHOLE IS RIFE WITH APOSTASY AND PROSPERITY DECPTION. I BELIEVE ITS A SIGN OF THESE FINAL DAYS WE ARE IN!
Thank you! I have followed your work a bit over the years. Your work on the global church has been encouraging and helpful in our own journey. Thank you for the work you are doing!
Great analysis. My dad was a preacher and never cared for the “TV preachers.” At that time it was Oral Roberts and others. I’m sorry for the loss of your dad. These erroneous teachings forget that suffering is our lot, it helps bring us to Christ, that Christ suffered on our behalf, and “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7
Thank you so much for sharing this. I deeply appreciate your kind words and your insight. Your dad sounds like a man of real discernment and conviction—something we desperately need more of in these days. You’re absolutely right: so much of the prosperity teaching glosses over the central truth of the gospel—that Christ suffered, and we are called to follow Him, even through suffering.
That verse from Job is such a sobering and necessary reminder. Trouble is part of life in a broken world, but it's in that very place that God's presence becomes most profound. Thank you for bearing witness to that truth.
I have to disagree with your statement, “suffering is our lot.” Yes, we live in a broken world contaminated by sin. Yes, all of us are broken to one degree or another. But there are some of us who have been so oppressed by trauma, abuse, and profound emotional pain that we see the world through that lens. For all too many of us, it becomes our de facto identity, and we can’t get out of our own way.
Are you seriously suggesting that this is how God wanted the human race to live when he created it in the first place?
This garbage is a main reason why the established church in all its sectors does not know how to deal with the emotionally broken.
I have listened to Joel Osteen for the past eight years. I don’t agree with everything he says. I’ve gone to an intense Bible study for the past quarter of a century, so I believe I can discern truth from fallacy. But I will give Osteen credit for this much: he offers hope to people who don’t have it. I’m not talking about material benefits, here. I’m talking about the idea that God loves them more passionately, and profoundly than they can ever imagine, that he weeps with them when they weep.
By the way, I have never heard Osteen or any of his speakers decry people for not having enough faith for their healing. I have never heard Osteen say that people should not go to doctors or receive medical treatment. I really wonder how much some of you know about the man.
Some of the “prosperity preachers“ might ignore suffering. But none of them glorify it, unlike the Catholic Church, which I was a part of for most of my life.
My comment will be a bit long, but I think it’s an interesting story that shows the same thing. First, so sorry you lost your dad so young, and to this cause.
When I was a young Christian in college, one morning I decided to attend the local Vineyard Church. As I got ready in my dorm bathroom, putting in my contacts I prayed “Lord, I want to serve on the mission field, it sure would be great if you healed my terrible eyesight to make that easier.” I told no one about this prayer.
30 minutes later in the service during the Words of Wisdom time, someone got up and said “Someone here wants to serve on the mission field, but wants their eyes healed.” Wow. So I stayed after the service and said that was me. Three times he prayed over me but nothing happened. In the end, he said, you don’t have enough faith to be healed. Even at the time I thought, “Wait, I was the one who prayed for this! That’s why I’m here, I believe God can do it!”
I had one other equally supernatural experience with that Vineyard Church in Evanston, Illinois but the takeaways were these: this is bad theology, and the verse “My grace is sufficient for you, and My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Thanks for reading..: if anyone did. 😀
Jeff, thank you so much for sharing this. I did read every word, and I’m grateful you took the time to write it.
Your story captures something so many of us have wrestled with—when we genuinely seek God in faith, only to be met with theology that puts the burden back on us when things don’t go the way we hoped.
That moment in the Vineyard Church must have been incredibly disorienting, especially after such a specific and vulnerable prayer. And yet, your response—to hold on to the truth of “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness”—is a powerful testimony in itself. May God bless you because of that!
As you mentioned, bad theology can wound deeply, especially when it comes wrapped in spiritual language. But your story is a reminder that God’s grace meets us not in polished outcomes, but in real, raw faith—even when our eyes aren’t healed, and our questions linger.
Thanks again for sharing. You’re not alone in this—and your honesty helps others feel less alone, too.
Thank you sir. We are currently experiencing a small outbreak in our little church here in SE Asia. Lord willing we’ll deal with it properly.
May the Lord our God bring hope, healing, and give you wisdom and discernment.
Thanks for sharing this. I have been a Pastor for 50 years in a Charismatic Church. This Heresy has, like a weed, popped up over and over in our Church. As a young Pastor I made some mistakes with this false message and embraced parts of it. But, it did not take long before my wife and I completely rejected it and spoke out against it. Your story was sincere and compelling. Thanks again.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate your honesty and the wisdom that comes with so many years of pastoral experience. It’s encouraging to hear how you and your wife navigated those challenges and spoke out against it. Thank you again for taking the time to read and comment!
The prosperity gospel has always baffled me. How can you claim God as omnipotent, almighty and in charge of all that exists in one breath and in the next demand that God do your will? I was at a Bible study once when a woman started praying, claiming God’s promises and saying she would hold tight and not let Him go until she got the van she needed to go camping with her family because they could not take their Mercedes camping. She prayed loudly, with grabbing and holding motions. I looked around and everybody was saying Amen! Thank you Jesus! I wanted to sneak out the door and never come back.
But the prosperity gospel is also a way of controlling people. Back 30+ years ago I went to Central America with a church group. The mainline missionary we met there explained how the CIA backed certain Pentecostal preachers and used them and the prosperity gospel to woo and control the population, especially the young leaders. In war torn countries, who didn’t want the wealthy safe world depicted on American television?
The easy capitulation to false promises and the surrender of self and control is seductive. It’s like buying a lottery ticket that promises to win it all.
Thank you for all the thought and work you put into this article.
Corina,
Wow! What a story. Thank you so much for sharing it. I’ve encountered similarly bizarre situations in Africa, Asia, and across the U.S., but the image of someone refusing to take their Mercedes camping and demanding a van from God is a new one for me!
You’re absolutely right—it’s not just bad theology; it’s also a powerful tool for control. I had never connected prosperity preaching with global power structures and media influence for control purposes, and while that doesn’t surprise me, it does give further evidence of how demonic it really is.
It breaks my heart how seductive these messages can be, especially for those in desperate situations. Like you said, it really is like buying a spiritual lottery ticket—promising everything, delivering nothing.
Thank you again for your thoughtful comment. It’s incredibly encouraging to hear from others who see these same patterns and can give language to a movement that so often feels slippery and hard to pin down, like trying to hold onto Jello.
I think that conversations like ours are vital for exposing the counterfeit and calling people back to the true hope we have in Christ.
True story … 1984, Marine base, many of the chaplains and their families were into focus on the family and that type of very fundy controlling beliefs. My ex was a very junior chaplain and I am more of a liberation theology person. He was told to keep me quiet if he wanted to get promotions. Obviously, he couldn’t keep me quiet.
Sometimes I think it is like multi level marketing, the more disciples and devotees, the bigger your paycheck.
First of all, Focus on the Family is a legitimate ministry designed to help people navigate serious, practical problems. It’s not an offshoot of the “prosperity gospel.“ It has nothing to do with the prosperity gospel. The founder actually received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California.
Now, if you want to disagree with or oppose “very Fundy controlling beliefs,“ that’s your prerogative. But don’t lump everything that you dislike into one category. That’s not only bigotry, it’s stupidity.
Okey dokey … I won’t call you names. God bless you.
What a powerful testimony and story Travis.
The tragic death of your father broke my heart, and I’m so sorry that happened.
It’s such a wicked twist of what scripture teaches, but so many are led astray.
Commenting to hopefully further amplify you’re incredible post and pray the HS helps let the scales fall off the eyes of anyone deceived by the prosperity gospel.
Christopher, thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to comment. It’s truly heartbreaking to see so many led astray by teachings that distort the gospel. I’m grateful for your prayers and hope that, through conversations like this, more people can see the truth and be freed from those lies. May the Holy Spirit work in mighty ways to open eyes and hearts, and may He use your work to do it.
I have a hard time with people deciding who has the “right Gospel”. Someone may know Jesus, be surrendered to Him, but in a “bad” church, and not certain of all the truth. Hearing their church or beliefs are false by other Christians could ruin their faith. (I believe Christ would go after them, though.)
It seems it would be more helpful if others would ask questions, help steer them around errors, and help those preachers get better understanding too. Matthew 13: about the tares and wheat seems, to suggest this.
I’m sorry the writer lost his dad. I’ve known just as cruel Christians who think you trust GOD, so do not even grieve, because suffering is fine. Jesus grieved.
Regarding faith: We are not to tempt GOD—expect Him to do something we can already do something about. This idea has helped me.
But our mouths can still speak faith. Romans 10.
But faith in Christ, hope in Christ, rather than a (OT) outcome, helps. OT: More like heaven. Here and now, can be 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 and 11:21-33; Matthew 10 about taking up one’s cross.
I do find it strange that Christians can see and condemn one for nice inherited things, which it would cost a lot more to replace! Especially when they have no idea the other things one does with one’s money! And lack of good income in jobs.
And get to know Jesus; will He not help people give in His timing? Ecclesiastes 3
Your story is heartbreaking 💔
Yet I lived in that system for many years as a young person and it has deep roots. Kenyon etc were such familiar names at that time even in some places in UK. It was the source of much despair and disillusionment and though I can now see it for what it is, it’s not always easy to spot and untangle some of the beliefs that remain...
Thank you so much for your honesty and tenderness. You're right—those roots run deep, and even after we leave the system, its residue can linger in ways we don’t always recognize. The despair and disillusionment it creates are so real because it offers a version of hope that ultimately can’t bear the weight of real life, real pain, or real faith.
It takes time, grace, and often painful reflection to untangle those beliefs. But you're not alone in the journey, and I'm so glad you're seeing it more clearly now. There’s something freeing—and healing—in reclaiming a gospel that embraces both suffering and resurrection, not just success. Thank you for sharing this.
As a former Catholic, what you just said, also holds true for Catholicism.
Thank you for your encouragement.
From this piece:
“Material and financial prosperity and health are sometimes seen as evidence of spirituality…”
It was this way in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. Those in expensive flowing robes, making a big show of their wealth, praying on the streets, powerful and influential.
They were “spiritual.”
How hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, said Jesus. And His disciples were surprised.
Thank you so much for sharing this article.
Thank you for reading :-)
Exactly so. I have watched people being destroyed by this heresy for more can 40 years. It is the cancer within the church body. Even so, I still have family who hold to it strongly, even though they are like a person drowning in the ocean grasping on to a life preserver thrown to them by the Prosperity preacher they love and exalt above all, but without knowing that the preacher also threw the other end of life preserver rope into the water and left the area.
Thank you for reading. I, too, am amazed at how many hold to it even when it flounders in the face of sound exegesis, church history, and personal testimony. It's painful to see such adherence. I hurt for all of those affected by it.
Thank you for writing this. I knew of the prosperity gospel but I feel like I understand it better now.
Preach it!
So sorry that this teaching has harmed you and your loved ones so much.
I have also experienced the faith and faithfulness of the Karen believers, in the US and in Myanmar and read with them from the Sgaw Karen and the Judson Burmese Bibles. That was a blessing.
Thank you for your comment!
That's fantastic that you worked in the U.S. and in Myanmar! Do you read Sgaw Karen?
We ended up hosting a Karen church at our church. It was a wonderful opportunity to grow and learn together despite the linguistic and cultural differences.
Their faith, shaped by real suffering and resilience, was a powerful witness—a lived theology that left a deep impact on me.
What made you get connected to them?
I read Burmese better, but I learned enough Sgaw to put some vocabulary lists together.
I met a group of Christians in Yangon, an ethnically mixed group of mostly minority citizens who used Burmese as their common language. The Karen folks in the US were refugees I was doing some support work with. My kids went to school with some of them.
That’s wonderful! May God bless you and your work!
Ever think on "what about arming them?" (Physical weapons)
THANK YOU FOR A POWERFUL TESTIMONY,I QUIT WATCHING MOST OF TBN PREACHERS, SEEING SO MUCH APOSTASY THERE! THE AMERICAN CHURCH AS A WHOLE IS RIFE WITH APOSTASY AND PROSPERITY DECPTION. I BELIEVE ITS A SIGN OF THESE FINAL DAYS WE ARE IN!
Wonderful, clear expose of the false gospels being proclaimed to millions!
Thank you
Thank you for reading :-)
A moving story and wise insights
Thank you! I have followed your work a bit over the years. Your work on the global church has been encouraging and helpful in our own journey. Thank you for the work you are doing!
Even Job had doubts when friends and family said he was doing it wrong.
Sometimes the answer is, use your insurance and see a doctor.
Great analysis. My dad was a preacher and never cared for the “TV preachers.” At that time it was Oral Roberts and others. I’m sorry for the loss of your dad. These erroneous teachings forget that suffering is our lot, it helps bring us to Christ, that Christ suffered on our behalf, and “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7
Thank you so much for sharing this. I deeply appreciate your kind words and your insight. Your dad sounds like a man of real discernment and conviction—something we desperately need more of in these days. You’re absolutely right: so much of the prosperity teaching glosses over the central truth of the gospel—that Christ suffered, and we are called to follow Him, even through suffering.
That verse from Job is such a sobering and necessary reminder. Trouble is part of life in a broken world, but it's in that very place that God's presence becomes most profound. Thank you for bearing witness to that truth.
I have to disagree with your statement, “suffering is our lot.” Yes, we live in a broken world contaminated by sin. Yes, all of us are broken to one degree or another. But there are some of us who have been so oppressed by trauma, abuse, and profound emotional pain that we see the world through that lens. For all too many of us, it becomes our de facto identity, and we can’t get out of our own way.
Are you seriously suggesting that this is how God wanted the human race to live when he created it in the first place?
This garbage is a main reason why the established church in all its sectors does not know how to deal with the emotionally broken.
I have listened to Joel Osteen for the past eight years. I don’t agree with everything he says. I’ve gone to an intense Bible study for the past quarter of a century, so I believe I can discern truth from fallacy. But I will give Osteen credit for this much: he offers hope to people who don’t have it. I’m not talking about material benefits, here. I’m talking about the idea that God loves them more passionately, and profoundly than they can ever imagine, that he weeps with them when they weep.
By the way, I have never heard Osteen or any of his speakers decry people for not having enough faith for their healing. I have never heard Osteen say that people should not go to doctors or receive medical treatment. I really wonder how much some of you know about the man.
Some of the “prosperity preachers“ might ignore suffering. But none of them glorify it, unlike the Catholic Church, which I was a part of for most of my life.
He was; and I wish he was still here but then again, I’m glad he’s at rest.