Bad Theology & Suffering: What God is NOT Doing in the Midst of Our Hurt

"Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?  Where were the upright ever destroyed?"     -Eliphaz 

"If we have a bad day, we have missed something somewhere because God has made provision for us to enjoy His blessings." -Gloria Copeland

     Whether they know it or not, prosperity preachers have managed to make a belief system as rigid and depressing as “retribution theology” incredibly appealing to modern audiences.  How does one do this?  Focus only on the “divine reward” section and take the “divine” part out of “punishment,” leaving it as something man brings on himself.  Now, God is limited to bringing about only “good” things like success and wealth.  Well-known prosperity preacher Robert Tilton has done nothing more than re-name the “law of retribution” to something more appealing: the “law of compensation.”   The framework of the Prosperity Gospel’s “success formula,” touted as a “universal or cosmic law,” is that “financial success will come to those who have the faith to believe it and who are themselves a giving people.”   Define “success” in terms of the worldly treasures and God becomes a cosmic ATM machine, only dispensing those things that we ask for to make us happy.  This distorted view of “blessings” also creates a distorted view of “suffering,” which can no longer come from God.  Things like sickness, pain, and poverty can only come from Satan or man’s own foolishness, because God does not allow or cause those things for His children.   “If we have a bad day, we have missed something somewhere because God has made provision for us to enjoy His blessings.”   In other words, if you are not receiving Gloria Copeland’s definition of blessings (health, wealth, and success), it’s your fault.  

       This part of prosperity teaching is the same retribution theology espoused by Job’s friends.  Eliphaz, in Job 4:6-7, asks.  “Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?  Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?  Where were the upright ever destroyed?”  Bildad is a bit blunter when, in 8:2-4, he rebukes Job’s claims of innocence: “How long will you say such things? You words are a blustering wind.  Does God pervert justice?  Does the Almighty pervert what is right?  When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.”   Worse than blaming Job, Bildad places causality in the hands of Job’s children.  Much like Jesus’ apostles in John 9, retribution theology and Prosperity theology center on causality, or identifying the source of suffering.  As Job reflects on his “bad day,” prosperity preachers can only remind him, “If we have a bad day, we have missed something.”  What stinging words of hopelessness and despair in the midst of such tragedy!  Yet this is exactly what retribution theology and Prosperity teaching offers in such situations.

Far from the Bible’s portrayal of God as caring for the oppressed and the downtrodden, Prosperity preachers can offer only a guilt-centered solution: get right with God.

       It is important to note here how retribution theology, and thus Prosperity teaching, works “in reverse.”  If God always rewards the righteous with success, and poverty and sickness are always a result of man’s refusing to follow Him, then a man like Job, in the throes of despair and suffering, can only be looked down upon as “unblessed.”   God has not brought this upon Job; Job has brought it upon himself.  Retribution theology and the Prosperity Gospel unfortunately share a terrible view of the poor and diseased: they have brought it upon themselves.  Far from the Bible’s portrayal of God as caring for the oppressed and the downtrodden, Prosperity preachers can offer only a guilt-centered solution: get right with God.  The words of W. Edward Glenny in his analysis of retribution theology, “…this doctrine becomes a reason to reject people who are hurting (…) [because] suffering is seen as the judgment of God for sin and wickedness” echoes both J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu’s criticism of Prosperity teaching when he proclaims that “these churches make little room for the poor” and the AJET Editorial’s remarks that “the Prosperity Gospel victimizes the poor.”   In the face of suffering, instead of pointing people to God, the Prosperity Gospel, like retribution theology, points people back to themselves.   Creflo Dollar says that “every failure in life is a prayer failure.”   God’s sovereignty as seen in His ability to use suffering to benefit and strengthen His people is taken away, leaving “the poor, the marginalized, and those who have not succeeded without any grounds for faith in God.” 

The above article is an excerpt from my term paper, "Retribution Theology, Sunny-Side Up: Examining the Prosperity Gospel through the Lenses of Job."  If you would like to read the entire paper, email me at grego [dot] parks [at] gmail [dot] com.

References:

Sarles, Ken L. "A Theological Evaluation of the Prosperity Gospel." Bibliotheca Sacra 143, no. 572 (October 1, 1986): 329-352.

Hollinger, Dennis P. "Enjoying God Forever : An Historical/Sociological Profile of the Health and Wealth Gospel." Trinity Journal 9, no. 2 (September 1, 1988): 131-149.

Calvin, Jean, and Knox Bucer-Beza. "The real prosperity gospel: God's ways may be hidden, but his purpose for us is not." Christianity Today 53, no. 4 (April 1, 2009): 58-318. 

Copeland, Gloria. Blessed Beyond Measure: Experience the Extraordinary Goodness of God. Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 2004.

Withrow, Lisa R. "Success and the Prosperity Gospel: From Commodification toTransformation: A Wesleyan Perspective." Journal of Religious Leadership 6, no. 2 (September 1, 2007): 15-41.

Glenny, W. Edward. “How Well Do You Know God? The Dangers of Retribution Theology.” Searching Together 23 (Spring 1995): 13-17.

Asamoah-Gyadu, J Kwabena. “Did Jesus Wear Designer Robes? The Gospel preached in Africa’s new Pentecostal churches ends up leaving the poor more impoverished than ever.” Christianity Today 53, no. 11 (November 1, 2009): 38-41.

Gehman, Richard J. “The Prosperity Gospel: An AJET Editorial.” Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology 20, no. 1 (2001): 1-2.

Ross, Bobby, Jr. "Prosperity Gospel on Skid Row: Difficulties of high-profile pastors may reorient movement -- or reinforce it." Christianity Today 53, no. 2 (February 1, 2009): 12-13.

Dollar, Creflo. Eight Steps to Create the Life You Want: The Anatomy of a Successful Life. New York: FaithWords, 2008.