Prosperity Gospel is Heresy.

 As we spent the evening together browsing YouTube - there was nothing worth watching that particular evening on either of the BBC channels, neither does commercial TV grab our interest either - we tuned onto a video of this young Christian couple exploring Eilat. And I was disappointed with their footage. His wife, already in the sea and using a waterproof video camera, filmed him leaping off the pier to dive-bomb into the turquoise sea. True enough, where they filmed, it was at a location further south along the coast to where we were two decades earlier. Yet, we were still intrigued as we watched him plunge into the sea bum-first over and over again, so close to the Egyptian border.

Coral Beach, Eilat, taken October 2000

Eilat is situated on the most southerly tip of Israel, where one of the two "fingers" of the "arm" of the Indian Ocean floods into the rift valley separating Israel from Jordan, the Gulf of Aqaba. Eilat is right at the "fingertip". The other "finger" branching out to the west is the Gulf of Suez. Both are extensions of the Red Sea, itself the "arm" of the Indian Ocean. The landmass between the two "fingers", the southern tip of the Negev Desert, is a mountainous area, believed by many to be the Mt Sinai where the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, was delivered to the Hebrew nation from Heaven. 

The resort of Eilat was the furthest location we had ever travelled as a couple, and despite being so far from Jerusalem, Galilee and the Mediterranean coast, (where all three we had already visited) it was possible to spend several hours there on a day trip by bus from Jerusalem. As Alex was nearly twenty weeks pregnant with our first daughter, she felt a little too cautious to snorkel, but having hired the equipment from the hotel kiosk, I enjoyed the full experience of subtropical coral reef wonders while she relaxed at the pierhead, keeping her eye on me.

The tranquil beauty of the reef, with little fishes darting to and fro, either unaware or unafraid of the human hovering just above them, it was a fulfilment of my dreams, also an echo of the Great Barrier Reef snorkelling experience just three years earlier, when I thought back then that I would be a confirmed bachelor for life.

Therefore to watch someone divebombing over an area where marine life is so precious, I have found unnerving. I can imagine any fish swimming peacefully in the vicinity instantly vanish at the moment of impact. Whether both are graduates I can only guess, but going by their more serious set of presentations elsewhere, I tend to think they are. But who am I to judge them over their apparent lack of concern for the delicate semitropical marine life?

The Red Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, even the black basaltic outcrop of the Lanzarote coast plunging into the Atlantic, forming a natural underwater cove brimming with life, I have got to admit how I was incredibly fortunate to see such marine splendour through glass goggles and breathing through a tube. And all such experiences are further enhanced by using a cheap underwater camera, its cardboard structure sealed in a transparent plastic case, at all three destinations. I was somewhat surprised that even with trashy equipment, the resulting underwater photos are good enough to grace any enthusiast's album. 

And such beautiful thoughts and memories, laced with a dash of disappointment, filled our heads and our hearts as we watched the video. Indeed, I consider all these experiences as undeserved privileges, although one can argue that by working hard and saving up hard, I deserve them all.

In Proverbs 16:9 Solomon writes that although man may devise in his heart, it is God who directs his paths. His father David also wrote that although I may reach to heaven, you are there. If I were to make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I was to rise on the wings of the dawn, you are there. If I were to settle on the far side of the sea, even there your right hand will guide me (Psalm 139:8-10).

As far as I'm aware, how can I prove that there was no Travel Agent near to where he lived and reigned? The hint of prophecy, if that was intended, was certainly accurate! As he had also written,

Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then I would fly away and be at rest. - Psalm 55:6.

Had that always been my wish? Although King David had only dreamed of travel, how fortunate I am to actually fulfil his prophecy. It's as if God had wanted to show me His glory of creation, allowing me to fly away like a bird to see such distant wonders, such dramatic beauty, both land and sea alike, as well as the stars in their full glory from the bottom of the Grand Canyon in 1995. The purpose of all this is to glorify God.

The reef at Coral Beach, Eilat, taken 2000.

If I have something to boast about, then allow me to boast in the Lord. What does it mean, "boasting in the Lord?" It simply means giving God the credit and thanks for allowing me to make such trips.

Indeed, I can look back and acknowledge that God has blessed me well. And I certainly didn't deserve it! As one who by nature always sees the glass as half-empty rather than thank the Lord that there is some water in it, and tend to ask why God has blessed some more than others, here I will say that God has blessed me well without trying to make myself worthy of these blessings. Instead, they came by God's grace.

A psychologist once wrote in a newspaper that personal experience is more fulfilling than owning possessions. I fully agree with him. Here I'm not talking about whether owning a television, a cooking stove, and a washing machine as all luxury goods. These are essential to our modern way of living. After all, with shorter working hours than in Victorian times, a television will help alleviate idleness and boredom. A cooking stove saves us from having to roast meat on a spit in cold and wet weather or to boil vegetables over an open fire. And a washing machine is certainly labour-saving - another burden for the Victorian housemaid lumbered with a stack of dirty linen. And we need a bank account to meet all our needs. But whether there is enough money in the account to meet all one's needs or aiming to stack up millions is another matter.

Or the car, wristwatch or even a bicycle. Surely, there is a difference between owning a Skoda and a Lamborghini! Yet both serve the same purpose - to take the owner from A to B. I could own a £20 digital wristwatch bought from Argos catalogue store, or I can work hard to buy a Patek gentleman's watch for £100,000 from one of London's top jewellers. But both will tell exactly the same time. Or with a bicycle, I can buy a second-hand runabout from someone's private garage for £30 or I can go to a specialist bike shop and come out with an S-Works Shiv Disc triathlon bicycle for more than £10,000. Yet both would get me from A to B by pedal power. The snag is, I have no problem locking up the cheap bike in the street. But I have yet to see a Shiv locked up in the street - as if I ever will.

Or, for that matter, leave a Lamborghini parked overnight in a rough estate? Or even wear the Patek wristwatch whilst walking through a dark alley?

By now you must get the gist. Prosperity. And there is, what seems to me to be strange teaching going around in some churches. It often referred to as the Prosperity Gospel. If I have got its meaning right, then it basically means that prosperity and wealth will follow everyone who walks with God. And if a Christian is struggling with his finances, then he is either not walking entirely within God's will or he needs to "claim the blessing" which may include "rebuking the poverty demon" which is afflicting the believer's life. Again, Jesus does not seem to side with the rich man throughout his ministry.

On one occasion, a young man who is a ruler of a synagogue came up to Jesus and admit that even obeying the Commandments has not reassured him of eternal life. The young man asks, What do I still lack?

To which Jesus replied, Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor and come, follow me, and you will have riches in heaven. The rich man walked away sad, and watching him go, Jesus then declared how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Indeed, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. No wonder his disciples asked, that if that was the case, then who can be saved. To which Jesus answered, What is impossible with men is possible with God - Luke 18:18-30.

Or the rich fool of Luke 12:13-21. It begins with the younger of two brothers asking Jesus to arbitrate for him concerning his older brother's inheritance. According to Jewish law, it's the eldest son who receives the greater from his father's will. This fellow did not believe this was fair.

To which Jesus tells the story of a rich farmer whose field produced abundantly. Figuring out that his present barn is too small to store his abundance, he decides to tear it down and build a much bigger one. After this, it's a life of ease, eating drinking and being merry. But God called him a fool and that night his soul will be required of him. Then who will inherit his wealth?

Yet supposing this man was a lot wiser and fell to his knees and thanked God for the abundance of crops, then asked Him on how he can distribute to the poor and share in his abundance to those not so well off. Would have died that night? Very unlikely. Rather, his life would not only have greater fulfilment but he would be highly regarded by the community.

The young rich ruler walks away sad...

Prosperity Gospel is a subject my Creationist friend Andrew Milnthorpe and I have been discussing, after having left a church which taught such heresy. If only we all realise that we cannot take a single crumb with us when we die. But I believe we will take our memories with us. I believe that once in Heaven, all bad memories will be eliminated, completely wiped out. But I believe that good memories will remain, and be a talking point among redeemed saints. 

Of course, God wants to bless us. To me, God has given me the tremendous privilege to live in a hostel right in the heart of Jerusalem Old City, the City of the Great King, and to walk through its streets. All this to bolster my faith in Him and to assure me that the Bible is true and also to gain a better understanding. Then all the natural places God has shown me, such as the mangroves in Australia, palm trees and tropical and Mediterranean vegetation in Singapore and Australia, Israel, southern Europe and the USA, the dynamic Niagara Falls in Canada, the majestic Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, the magnificent view of the stars in full glory from inside the Canyon, the coral reefs and marine life of Eilat, the Great Barrier Reef and Lanzarote. Yes, I have a lot to thank God for.

But as for material blessings, God may indeed bestow such on a person or family. But it's not to be stored away in barns but to share with the less fortunate.  Praise God for the death of Jesus Christ on the cross to atone for our sins, His burial, and His Resurrection to give us a new life with imputed righteousness credited to us, turning us from sad young men and greedy rich farmers into benevolent saints of God.