This morning I came across an article in the CNN news “Believer bitter over prosperity preachings.” The article basically lays out the history of other church’s prosperity gospel… or in simpler terms… the principle that if you pay money, God will bless you with riches. A couple of thoughts:

1. This is just another example of how Satan takes a pure doctrine and twists it. Yes, God will pour out the blessings of heaven when we pay our tithing.¹ So Satan twists that and has people paying money (notice, NOT tithing) to PEOPLE… not the church.

2. There is this misconception… even within the church… that if we are doing what is right we won’t have any trials. Yes… we will be blessed, but blessings sometimes come in the form of trials.

3. Paying money to get the blessings of heaven… hmmm… isn’t that the basic premise of Martin Luther’s Reformation in the 16th Century?² When are we going to learn? We can not buy our way into heaven.³ We have to do our best, and then Christ will make up the rest.⁴

1. Malachi 3:8–10[↩]
2. Wikipedia Article – Indulgences Controversy and the Start of the Reformation[↩]
3. Acts 8:20; 1 Timothy 6:10[↩]
4. 2 Nephi 25:23[↩]