Instant Success Attracts Imminent Fall

In developing nations, the prosperity gospel is attracting the preachers like a magnet.  I can only speak from the Indian sub-continental experience (though other parts of the world are not immune to it) where it has become a fashion for the upcoming and young preachers to preach instant success in such a way as if they want to outdo the “American Dream”.  Their sermons and social media interactions are filled with quotations and references from the Mega-Church Moguls and the Televangelist Tycoons; for them, the biblical texts become useful only for the footnotes.  Becoming rich and famous at any cost appears to be their ultimate goal in life; ministry provides them a noble mantle to hide their beguiling image.

In talking about the prosperity preachers, there are methodological differences among the preachers from the affluent nations and the developing nations.  The major difference is in the area of the source of their prosperity.   In the affluent nations, these preachers have to be experts in selling their ideas of success to their followers.  They have to be the masters of human psychology and marketing system to be able to sell their sermons, books, and lifestyle.  It is a tough job to be a prosperity preacher in the affluent nations; one has to be a genius in making money by deceiving people.   That is why the media is never short of stories of mega-preacher failures.  Only a few prosperity preachers die with their honor intact but most experience the “fall from grace” sooner than they would have liked.

But the job is not so tough in the developing nations because here you don’t have to sell your ideas of prosperity to the local Christians; you sell the local Christians.  The job is so easy that the local Christians hardly know that they have been sold.  These proverbial buyers of the local Christians are also absolutely oblivious of the fact simply because they live in distant places or simply don’t bother to know what happens to their donations.  If the preacher is unable to market on his own, then he will look for a collaborator in the form of a person or an organization.  Often, there exists such close collaboration between the prosperity preachers from the developing and affluent nations; out of such collaborations, both parties get to reap the dividend by deceiving the donors with exaggerated statistics, inflated numbers and falsified reports.  The one from the developing nation supplies the raw materials of these statistics, numbers, and reports.  And the one from the affluent nation turns the raw material into the final product by convincing the donor base to continue to fund the projected items.

Thus, the amazing advantage for the preachers in the developing nations is that they do not have to convince the local Christians to buy their product or give money to their ministry.  Rather, they promise to give something to the local Christians if the local Christians would play along with them in their dramas.  Used clothes, child/elderly care, free medical camps, educational facilities, hosting of short term mission teams, pastoral/leadership seminars, conferences, church planting, and plethora of such social and ministerial works become the goldmine with dual purpose; attract the local crowd and impress the distant donors.  Poverty is such a curse that if one can find some relief from it, he/she does not care who takes advantage of him/her.  Preachers who are determined to become rich and famous find it very easy to make millions by playing the cards of ministry and social work very cleverly. 

In a short period of time, many young and dynamic preachers of the prosperity gospel in my part of the world appear to have made it to the top of the ladder while still maintaining their noble image of a man or a woman of God.  In the impoverished neighborhood, they drive imported luxury cars; their villas are their pride and their seat with the prosperity preachers from the affluent nations is their glory.  In poorer nations that are hostile to Christianity, these preachers use the power of the money given to them for the ministry to buy political power and social status tarnishing the image of the church as a corrupt institution. 

In any international Christian gathering of any short, they want to be there promoting themselves at the expense of everything because that provides them the leverage to deceive their innocent donors in the affluent nations.  These preachers despise any words of advice from seasoned and battle hardened servants of the Lord Jesus Christ; any concern is branded as criticism against them and they go on despising their well-wishers as being jealous of their success.

Unfortunately, their glory does not last.  Their fall comes quicker than their success and soon they find themselves wrapped up with the filth of human pride, sexual immorality and financial embezzlements.  Failing to keep up the man or the woman of God image, they abandon the ministry and then turn to businesses and politics because these are the avenues that fit them best in nations that are known for corruption and dishonesty. 

Some of these preachers began well, but along the way they got attracted to the allure of the prosperity gospel that promised them instant success but shipwrecked their faith.  They despised the wondering of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldean to Egypt, Job’s sufferings, Jacob’s flight from home, Joseph’s hardships in Egypt, Moses’ wilderness, David’s run from Saul, Jeremiah’s lamentations, Daniel’s exile, Jesus’ crucifixion, Apostles’ martyrdom, and the agonies of great many men and women of God.  Had they taken the time to go through their period of refinement and allowed the Lord to guide their steps, they would be preaching the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ until the end of their days on earth; still be enjoying the God-given prosperity he grants to his faithful Children.  But sadly, within my life-time, many have fallen.

If you are reading this and find yourself attracted to the instant success promised by the prosperity gospel, it is my prayer that you will allow God to satisfy the desires of your heart instead of seeking after money, name and fame.  If you are driven by these things, one day you will wake up at the feet of either financial corruption or sexual immorality because these two are sure to come when you become proud of your success without God.  It is my prayer that you remain a faithful preacher of the gospel until the end of your days on earth!