Article by Cameron Spink

 

Boy our Australian dollar has been doing well recently, hasn't it? It's even beating the greenback, which makes me feel a little proud inside to be one up on America in the way we value everything. Because that's what money is, the most implemented value system in the world. Scientists may apply their technical values but they receive their funding from grants. It's what keeps Universities, businesses and a huge amount of the western world going. In fact, the way we realise others are in trouble is because they don't have any money.

 

Twenty-eight years ago Roger Waters ironically sang about everyday opinions concerning money. Watch the clip here:

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This idea that money is an integral part of life has worked its way into the Church. There are now churches which regularly preach a belief called the prosperity doctrine. That is, formulated justification that God provides His faithful servants with material blessings, usually in the form of money. To see examples of this type of preaching watch:

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It is not unexpected that prosperity theology was established in America. What is staggering is the amount of churches this has infiltrated. It is, after all, both biblically indefensible and counter-intuitive to God's covenant to His people. It also fails at a more practical level. For instance, how does one determine if they are prospering? Is it by comparison to others or is it my reaching a self-realised amount of money? By comparison I am both rich and poor, although, if we were to line all the humans on earth in order of their wealth, myself, you reading and any proponent of the prosperity gospel would fall at the top spectrum of the line.

 

Jesus spoke out many times against hoarding wealth. His advice to the rich young ruler is "sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Luke 18:22). With this one commandment Jesus undermined the young man's faith and exposed his real love.

 

In the early Church everything was seen as combined wealth. Property and possessions were regularly sold and given away to help those in need within the Church (Acts 2:44-45). Paul praises the Macedonian churches for their "rich generosity" despite their extreme poverty (2 Corinthians 8:1-2). There are further overwhelming depictions and proverbs of wealth leading to idolatry and sin, but for the time being, you get the picture.

 

We claim to know all the dangers that wealth presents yet we don't always live this way. For most of us money is a priority and how we act, what we see and how we dress are all determined by our money status. We are driven to working long hours for money and, more recently, we have developed a tendency for hoarding after the effects of the global financial crisis. Our planning, in particular, is heavily influenced by money. We look ahead and estimate when we can buy a house, upgrade our car, afford a child.

 

Sometimes we forget what Jesus us warned us that "if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." We are told in Ephesians and 1 Timothy that our suffering is for our glory.

 

The idea of suffering is unfathomable to the prosperity doctrine. Suffering would require that the person is out-of-step with God's plans for them. This may well be the opposite of the truth. The members of U2 may be some of the wealthiest in the world but even Bono realises the dangers of chasing a money-shaped hole:

 

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