The Prosperity Gospel And Moral Decadence In Ghana

Part I

It is generally believed that there is a link between Christianity and ethics. For the goal of spiritual formation is to help individuals and societies to become decent, good, and moral citizens in their communities. This does not mean that all believing Christians are good people, or better than all other people. There are always morally superior individuals in every religion, and even among the atheists. However, faith in Jesus Christ can lead people to live a life of devotion, purity, and kindness. Christ calls us to a life of self-sacrifice to emulate Him. Christians are to have “saved” minds, and saved minds should lead to right thinking which leads to right living. Indeed, those who find Christianity intellectually unconvincing often praise its teachings and practices on the grounds that it provides a strong foundation on which we can build our society’s moral structure.

It is therefore paradoxical that recent increases in the number of churches, and church attendances have not been accompanied by improvements in morality and virtue in the Ghanaian society in general, and the Christian community in particular. There has been a lackadaisical attenuation of obedience, and a lackluster attitude to Christian norms and practices. Our society has lost its moral mooring where ethics has become obsolete. The churches have become breeding grounds for exploitation of the poor by false Bible teachers. These teachers teach unbiblical doctrines and engage in dangerous practices. Ideas have consequences! These men and women who parade through the corridors of the Christian community as ministers, prophets, and pastors teach different gospel from the one bequeathed to the saints. Their teachings and practices can’t be described as anything but skulduggery.

Some people in the Christian community have expressed genuine concern about the loss of values in our society. Ms. Joyce Aryee, recently chastised the Church for shirking its role of impacting positively on society despite its growing membership. She remarks that “despite the over 60 percent Christian population in the country, social vices like corruption, bribery, drugs, immorality, laziness and drunkenness kept permeating every sector of the nation.” On the same day, another Christian, Prof. Ankrah Badu attributes the moral bankruptcy in our nation to the double lives that many Christians live. He laments: "We throng the churches and other religious assemblies at the weekends while we do our own things outside these premises." He expressed concern about the level of corruption in every stage of the society and said it had become a competitive sport. This is true, but a sad commentary on our society in general, and the Christian community in particular.

The question is: What went wrong? What happened to the Judeo-Christian teachings that extol piety and eschew immorality? In this article and others that may follow, I intend to argue that the Christian doctrines that teach modesty, piety, humility, good work ethics, and contentment have now been replaced with “Made-in-North-American Exploitative Gospel” commonly called “Word of Faith,” preached by false and unscrupulous Bible teachers. I plan to explore the problem from both theological and sociological standpoints.

The prosperity teachers who teach prosperity to their adherents without teaching them the lawful means of acquiring wealth are partly responsible for the decline in morals and virtues in our society. Of course, one can’t blame these preachers for all the moral ills in our society. The question is this: Is the prosperity message as preached by some false Bible teachers biblically sound? The prosperity message is biblically unsound, and sociologically and psychologically dangerous. The first problem has to do with these teachers understanding of soteriology – the doctrine of salvation. If a pastor gets this doctrine wrong, then the congregation can expect anything to happen in the church. Wrong understanding of the doctrine of salvation can lead to many aberrations and dangerous practices: For error begets error. It is therefore important for every teacher of the gospel to get this fundamental doctrine right.

There are three aspects of salvation: As a PAST event- I am saved, as a PROCESS-I am being saved, and as a FUTURE event -I will be saved. We are saved from the penalty of sin – the penalty of sin is eternal separation from God. When we believe in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, his resurrection from death, his ascension to heaven, and his glorification at the right hand of the father, and put our absolute trust in Christ, salvation occurs. This aspect of salvation is what theologians call “justification.” This happens once in a life’s time. The second aspect is “sanctification”-salvation from the power of sins. We are sanctified daily by the instruments of grace such as the sacraments, prayers, Bible studies, fasting, worship, and fellowship with other Christians. The second aspect, unlike the first one happens every moment, every day, and every time until we die, or Christ comes. The last aspect is glorification- salvation from the present cursed world, sin, sickness, pains, sorrow, evil, death and Satan. This aspect of salvation also involves the transformation of our bodies, and the coming of the new world. The book of Revelation talks a great deal about this stage of our salvation.

The book of Revelation Chapter 21 verse 1 talks about a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth will pass away. Also, verse 4 of the same chapter says, “And God will wipe away every tear from our eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things will pass away.” The apostle Paul, in 1Corinthians Chapter 15, spends the whole chapter explaining how our glorification will take place. He says, we will receive glorified bodies that can’t experience pains, he says death will be annihilated, because there will be no more sin.

Also, the Apostle in Romans 8: 20-22 talks about the fact that the present world is subjected to futility or frustration in this present age, and it is therefore looking forward to its redemption. That will be the consummation of our salvation. The problem with the false teachers is that they either lump the three stages together or moves people from stage one to stage three- which is a future event, instead of concentrating on the sanctification stage which is the present stage. The result of this bad teaching is the belief that if you are Christian you can’t get sick, and even if you get sick, you can confess that you are not sick, contrary to the physical pains. This is a dangerous teaching that has wreaked havoc in many homes. Many Christians have lost their loved ones because of this erroneous teaching.
Similarly, the idea of every Christian being wealthy is also based on this bad theology: The false teachers argue that we are the king’s sons and daughters so if we are in the kingdom, then we should be rich in the kingdom, because we have the inheritance. The whole idea that a Christian is supposed to have a perfect health, and be wealthy is based on wrong exegesis and hermeneutics. These false teachers take Scriptures out of context to support their bad theology. I will deal with the wealth and health gospel in a separate article.

Another problem that stems from the concept of salvation is the controversy over “justification.” The main question in dispute is whether a person can be saved by embracing Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. The question centers on “faith” and “works.” Does a saving faith necessarily produce the works of obedience? There are two camps in this debate, there are those who rightly believe that “true saving faith” must necessarily and inevitably yield works of obedience to the lord. But, there are others called “antinomians,” who wrongly assert that though faith should produce works of obedience, it does not always do so. These “antinomians” hold the view that Christians are released from the obligation of observing the moral laws. This means that somebody can be a Christian and still live in an immoral or amoral lifestyle and still be saved.

The idea here is that you can be saved from the penalty of God’s future judgment to come without a change in your sinful ways. So, according to antinomians’ teachings, a Christian can be saved and still indulge in all anti-social behaviors: Drug trafficking, adultery, fornication, lying, bribery, and corruption and still goes to heaven. The result of this teaching is that instead of being the salt and the light of the culture, the church has adapted to the spiritual darkness around it. Antinomianism is a dangerous teaching that has undermined the moral structure of the church. Martin Luther says, “We are saved by faith alone, but a saving faith is never alone.” A real faith in Christ has to produce obedience to the Lord’s commandments. The next section of this article looks at the sociological implication of these teachings, especially the teaching of the prosperity gospel.

The American sociologist Robert Merton (1949), in his “Social Structure and Anomie,” talks about the discrepancy between goals and legitimate means to achieve them. Merton borrows the term anomie from Emile Durkheim; but he uses it for crime. Merton was concerned about the means people use to achieve hopes, goals, dreams, wealth, or expectation. He observes that there are cultural goals- things that are widely accepted as worth striving for, especially wealth. Similarly, there are also institutionalized means or societally approved ways of achieving these goals such as training and education, getting normal job, and saving the money that is earned.
But, usually what many people want to achieve are beyond their means. If their commitments to the goals are strong, then they will adopt deviant means to achieve them. In another words, if goals are not achievable through an accepted mode, then illegitimate means have to be used to achieve them. Therefore, too much emphasis on prosperity in the church and not enough emphasis on spiritual formation or biblically means to achieve the goals leads to “spiritual anomie.” The Ghanaian Christian Community is now in a state of SPIRITUAL ANOMIE. For many Christians in the country, there is lack of opportunity to become wealthy; however, the false teachers continue to assure them that they will become rich if only they will give them the little money they have. But, contrary to the teaching of the false Bible teachers, God does not pour money from heaven into Christians’ pockets. The devotees to these teachers have no choice but to use whatever means to get rich. It is therefore not uncommon to hear people who claim to be Christians involved in all kinds of corruptions, fraudulent deals, and many anti-social behaviors in our society. The false Bible teachers raise the expectations of Christians, causing them to use dubious means to fulfill these expectations.
If you dare ask these Christians how they acquire their wealth, they will response with their super-spiritual cliché, “Oh, the Lord has blessed me.” The lord will not bless people who profess His name, but drag that same name through the mud. These people dishonor the name of God, forgetting that the unbelievers judge the genuineness of their faith by their “walk” and not by their “talk”. It was the 19th century German philosopher, Heinrich Heine who said, “Show me your redeemed life, and I might be inclined to believe in your redeemer.” Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added unto you.” But, the false teachers, and ministers say, seek all other things first, and the kingdom of God will be added to you later. Jesus promises us peace amid troubles and trials, but not a perfect world.
In concluding this section, let me assure my brothers and sisters who are genuinely seeking God that Christianity is not solely about money and health; after all, we are all going to die. The death rate is one per person; we will leave whatever we acquire behind, and finally they will be destroyed. St. Augustine in his massive literary work, “The City of God,” notes that religion is about where we seek our happiness. To Augustine, happiness is not about money, but it is about “the seeing of God that makes us happy.” He observes that the church of God is a sojourner in its pilgrimage on earth seeking eternal peace, being happy in its hope, not in present reality. The quest for happiness in this world is never fulfilling, for there is always the fear of losing what we have. So let us live a life that will count forever, for there is still opportunity for us to influence our culture.
Let me recommend these two books to those of you who want to grow in the Lord. They are: “The Holiness of God” by Dr. R. C. Sproul, and “Knowing God” by Dr. J.I. Packer.