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10 Signs of a Prosperity Gospel Scam

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It might be a prosperity scam when. . .

#10 The donation button is bigger than their logo

Being in marketing for a few years has taught me about conversion rates. When you have a website, you identify your #1 objective and make sure that your content and website layout all point to the goal you want your customers to accomplish.

#9 Everything is about sowing seeds

I am not sure what the obsession is with the sowing seed idea, but somehow it seems to be prevalent all throughout the prosperity gospel circles. My guess is that they want you to get your mind off of immediately seeing returns when you give them money. It could take ten or twenty years to see that acorn turn into a magnificent oak tree. So a seed now, but don’t expect anything immediately in return.

#8 You have to pay for their paraphernalia to learn the “simple” steps to prosperity

All the books, pamphlets, audio, videos, workbooks, trinkets, seminars, and classes just to explain the “simple” steps to prosperity? Yikes! All of that helps the preacher be prosperous. Whatever happened to hard work, good ideas, and investments to build prosperity?

#7 The website is colored green and gold

It’s so cliché, but it’s true. The prosperity gospel’s top color choices are green and gold. It’s one of the most hideous color combinations on the planet too.

#6 Receiving God’s blessings sounds like a sales pitch

If they are coming at you like an aggressive car salesman to convince you that God wants to bless you, then it’s time to reconsider sticking around any longer. God doesn’t need your monetary sacrifice to bless you financially. A farmer works hard in the field to grow crops. The hard work pays off and that’s where the blessing comes from. The amount of seed the farmer plants and the costs for the seed are minuscule to the amount of harvest that comes from it. Giving shouldn’t be painful, it should be cheerful.

#5 They display people showing off their bling

If you feel that you are on a casino or gambling site, but it turns out it’s supposed to be about the gospel, then you’ve found yourself a prosperity gospel scam. Playing the lottery doesn’t make you rich. The gospel isn’t associated with FanDuel. Feeding the flesh is not at all what we should be looking forward to.

#4 The usual prosperity preachers are on there

Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Benny Hinn, Paul Crouch (both), Janice Crouch, Creflo Dollar, Rod Parsley, Freddie Prince, Joel Osteen, Mike Murdock. . . and the list goes on. I get it – I don’t think preachers should promote poverty or living your worst life. Both sides of the poverty vs riches argument are wrong. Saying you should be somewhere in the middle is wrong. How you live your life and how God blesses you for it is not our focus. We are not in a contest about how much we gain or how much we give away. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s not about glorifying and enriching our lives. The more I focused on myself, the more I felt secluded in life.

#3 They say the Bible contains the secrets to wealth

It’s not a secret, is it? Work hard, build good relationships, and make good decisions. What’s so secret? Many religions and cultures use idols and icons in their homes as a charm to bring good fortune. The gospel is different. There is no lucky charm, prayer, or buried secret that will turn poverty into riches. God is not a slot machine or genie waiting for you to rub him the right way so he can grant your three wishes.

#2 They sound like a QVC commercial or liquidation event

If they need your money now, or if they sound urgent for you to buy their latest trinket, then it’s a scam. When I lived in Pensacola Florida, for six years the same furniture company stood out on the corner of a busy street holding a sign that said, “Going out of business/liquidation event.” For six years this went on. That was 17 years ago and I wouldn’t doubt they’re standing there right now.

#1 Prosperity preachers talk about money and happiness more than the gospel

The two words – prosperity and gospel should not be in the same sentence. It’s a prosperity message. The gospel is something else entirely different. Content entirely about your lifestyle, parenting, work, relationships, finances, etc. may have its place in our lives. We need wisdom, encouragement, hope, and inspiration in all areas of our lives. When God’s people come together to do what God purposed – to worship him; but instead find themselves focusing on worshipping the needs of our own lives, I see a problem.

Prosperity Gospel on Skid Row

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An article from Christianity Today shows the recent developments of the false prosperity gospel teachers. Click on the link to read the whole article.

• In Fort Worth, Texas, a review board ruled December 7 that Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ $3.6 million jet did not have tax-exempt status. The ruling came after the ministry, whose 1,500-acre campus includes a $6 million church-owned lakefront mansion, refused to release the salaries of Copeland, his wife, and others.

• In suburban Atlanta, Georgia, a sheriff’s deputy served an eviction notice November 14 at Bishop Thomas Weeks III’s Global Destiny Church. Court documents indicate the bishop, the ex-husband of televangelist Juanita Bynum, owed half a million dollars in back rent. The church has lost roughly half of its 3,400 members since Weeks and Bynum’s 2007 fight in a hotel parking lot, in which Weeks was accused of pushing, choking, and beating his then-wife.

• In Tampa, Florida, Without Walls International Church—which once attracted 23,000 worshipers—has shrunk drastically after co-pastors Randy and Paula White announced in 2007 they were divorcing. The church faces an uncertain future after the Evangelical Christian Credit Union began foreclosure proceedings November 4 and demanded repayment of a $12 million loan on the church’s property.

• In suburban Minneapolis on November 18, Living Word Christian Center pastor Mac Hammond won the first stage of a court battle with the Internal Revenue Service to keep his salary private. Yet in 2008, he was forced to put his private jet up for sale and cut Living Word’s hour-long television show in half to save money amid falling contributions.

Meanwhile, Copeland and the Whites are among six televangelists whose large organizations have been targeted in a Senate Finance Committee investigation into allegations of questionable spending and lax financial accountability. All six preach some form of the prosperity gospel.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/february/2.12.html

What else can I add that I haven’t said already?

Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists

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Well, it looks like the senate committee in the national government is getting more involved in the matters of the church. CBS news talks about this story here.

I have been saying for some time that this was going to happen. If the church doesn’t put itself above reproach then the government will find any reason they can to mettle in the matters and control the Church. Ministries and lifestyles of Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, just give the government an excuse to investigate.

I am so frustrated at the opportunity that these ministries have given the government to mettle in the matters of God’s children. What do you expect the governmental world system to do? Sit around and let these obese ministries be swept under the rug? I don’t care if you have the Christian liberty to be rich. I don’t care that God has given you the freedom to prosper. I don’t care that your ministry is following the laws of the IRS. I don’t care! I don’t care! I don’t Care! Do you think God looks at these ministries and smiles just because they are staying within the bounds of the tax code?

The only people that can destroy the freedom of religion is religion itself. I’m sick of it! The investigation of these ministries are just the tip of the iceberg in the near future. The government will be more involved, and regulate the church more and more with laws in years to come. These ministries make me sick! Maybe not the ministries as much as the personal lifestyles of these evangelists. These ministries have no right to point a finger at the government and complain about their invasion privacy, because it’s actually the devil at work here destroying the governmental safety net that these ministries have. Also, part of the investigations is a warning from God, saying, “watch out, straighten up, because the government is only going to make it harder and harder for the church to practice their liberty”.

How can any non-profit ministry have the audacity to squeeze a few tax dollars out of the federal government, and then call themselves a charitable organization while sitting their fat butt on their obese estate. Wasn’t it Jesus who said in Luke 3:11, ““He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” But here are these evangelists not only do they have 5 or 6 luxury cars sitting in their enormous garage, but they are flying around in jets.

These ministries have given the government every reason to go in there and investigate. How dare these ministries just sit there with the nose up and lifting their clean hands, without being humiliated.

Children of God, why aren’t you humiliating these people? Why do you support them? You are destroying our liberty! If you gave your child an inch and you saw them stretch it out to a mile wouldn’t you enforce newer laws to limit their liberty? This is exactly what the government will do with the church.

Am I alone in my thoughts here?