I had to investigate claims of some of the popular health-and-wealth evangelists (also called prosperity gospel evangelists). The more I dug into Scripture, the more wild passages jumped out! There are many passages against the thinking that God is supposed to make all believers rich and perfectly healthy—and passages against some of the sound bites those teachers toss out on other topics. I’m not detailing all that here, just giving a taste to trigger your own further research.
Lamentations 2:14 is about false prophets’ false visions/oracles… and that those prophets also failed to help people repent. Look what the old Matthew Henry commentary (first published 1710!) says: “Their visions were all their own fancies, and it is most likely that they themselves knew that the visions they pretended were counterfeit…. Prophets should tell people of their faults, should show them their sins, that they may bring them to repentance, and so prevent their ruin; but these prophets knew that would lose them the people’s affections and contributions”!
On “most likely” knowing their visions “were counterfeit”: The evangelists I’ve been researching pull tiny phrases from Scripture and misapply. I can’t help wondering, Do they KNOW they’re doing that? If they study the Bible all the time—as they seem to convey—they’d have to know. For example, I’ve heard them quote the Deuteronomy 7:15 phrase that God “will keep you free from every disease…” and then tell the crowd, “That’s for you!” As if all believers can avoid (be healed from) all disease. But the context of the chapter is specifically that if ancient Israel would obey the Lord in the ways outlined, they can avoid the diseases of the land they left (Egypt) and the land where they’re headed (Canaan). The pagan practices/immorality of those nations brought on certain diseases; and sometimes God punished a group in order to bring them to their senses. Either way, it’s not teaching that all believers in all eras need never have an ailment.
And on bringing people to repentance: I’d noticed with certain evangelists that there’s typically no talk of repentance, confessing our sins, sacrificing for the Lord, staying in the Word to stay in his will—only on claiming what you want (some say “what you deserve”).
Big picture, it’s a red flag when messages feature a lot of SELFISM (like Kenneth Copeland commanding his hair to have “no more gray”) and SORCERY (like, if you eat “apostle” Makananisa’s anointed birthday cake, you’ll receive your heart’s desire). This “Selfism and Sorcery” post may connect a few more dots for you.
I also began to see patterns in these teachers’ lingo: “anointed,” “impartation,” “point of contact,” “activate,” “God wants,” “God is telling me now,” “I see [sense] an angel on this side of the room.” They will also “sense” that someone in a certain area of the room has a specific illness/problem. Those last are kind of psychic (occult) skills. Think about it—why must they “sense” the presence of an ill person? Just ask anyone who is ill to come forward.
Jeremiah 23 is largely about false prophets. Note verse 30, where the Lord says: “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.” This could mean that the false prophets imitate the language of the true prophets. But maybe it’s also the false prophets copying the other false ones. Or both, which some of today’s evangelists do. Either way, they’re doing what seems to be working with listeners. The apostle Peter criticized false teachers, saying, “In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (2 Peter 2:3). Back to the Matthew Henry quote, these methods apparently gain, not lose, “the people’s affections and contributions.” Whoa!
In Matthew 7:15, Jesus begins a warning about false prophets. In verse 22 such people claim to have done various wonders “in [Jesus’s] name.” But Jesus doesn’t consider them legit.
Acts 2:22 says Jesus was “accredited” by his miracles. When people saw what he could do, it was corroborating evidence that he was who he said he was. This brought the crowds to repent and get on board to follow him (verses 36-47).
John 15:18-25 conveys that seeing miracles, along with hearing Jesus’s message, should’ve made people repent and get on God’s path. But Mark 6:5 says Jesus did only a few miracles in Nazareth because of people’s “lack of faith.” The TV evangelists I’m referring to accuse listeners of not having enough faith to be healed or become wealthy: “Just declare and believe!” But looking at multiple Scriptures, perhaps the idea isn’t so much that Jesus’s crowds didn’t believe he could heal. Rather, it seems they wanted only what they could immediately get, only the physical healing of that moment. But when that occurred, they didn’t step into faith in the entirety of who he was and become a true believer.
So perhaps some healings and other miracles by way of Jesus and his apostles weren’t an end in themselves but were evidence/confirmation, accrediting that he was Lord.
There are—and always have been—false prophets/apostles/teachers working from the inside. What a chilling description Paul gives of anyone who comes in and preaches “a different gospel” instead of truth: “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Corinthians 11:5, 13-15).
“Watch out that no one deceives you” (Jesus speaking, Matthew 24:4).
