Prosperity Gospel and Dispensationalism

Scholars have not been able to find the theological basis for the prosperity gospel, for it does not have one. But the closest theology may be the classical dispensationalism, which tends to interpret the Scriptural passages literally. Old covenants are still alive and in effect today in a literal sense. The covenantal promise given to Abraham more than 4,000 years ago, for example, is to be fulfilled literally, so that the land will be given to Jews as promised. Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, will flock to the land and occupy it. This will happen (or is happening) when the Israelites (their descendants), who were scattered to the four corners of the earth, return to the nation Israel and the nation is fully restored in the end. A kingdom, modeling after the Davidic kingdom, will be established on the earth. This will all be done when Jesus comes again, and the kingdom will last for a thousand years. This will be the Millennial Kingdom.

The tendency to read the Bible literally without "overspiritualizing" the texts has paved the way for the prosperity gospel. The followers of the trend focus on the covenantal promises that sound all too appealing. Christians, the descendants of Abraham, will inherit the blessing given to Abraham in a literal sense. If God promised material blessing to Abraham, so shall it be realized to Christians. There is not much to spiritualize. The covenantal promise, which is indeed material, is one that Christians are to receive.

While taking the literal meaning of the covenants, they ignore the teachings of Jesus concerning wealth and material possessions, or tend to alter their meanings. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25). This remark of Jesus is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels identically. Jesus gave this discourse in the context in which a rich young man was unwilling to give up his wealth required to follow Jesus and turned away. Jesus also spoke that one "cannot serve both God and money" (Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13). These discourses cannot be interpreted other than the single nature of serving and following the Lord: one has to give up the desire to accumulate wealth and actual possession of wealth.

One has to spiritualize the OT covenants. A literal interpretation leads to wrong ideas and one of them is the prosperity gospel. As a Covenantal theologian once said, the dispensationalists tend to "harmonize" the interpretation of the Old Testament and the New Testament, instead of making the New Testament as the final say or an "anchor" for the interpretation of the Old Testament. This is a definitive statement that drives a wedge between the spiritual understanding of the Old Testament covenants and the literal interpretation of them. The Abrahamic covenant should be understood spiritually, and the promise referring to a spiritual blessing given to believers.