Prosperity Gospel
When it comes to the prosperity gospel, the Book of Job will both shake and shape you. When I first read it, I found it troubling . It didn’t seem fair. Job was a righteous man. But over the years, this story has helped forge my understanding of God and my theology of suffering. It has taught me that God himself—not anything he gives me—is my greatest treasure. Years ago, a colleague mentioned what he had learned from Job. I was surprised to hear that his study had yielded a markedly different conclusion than mine. In his words, “Job got everything back and more for his suffering. He was blessed with more children and more money than he ever had before. That’s what the story shows us—doing the right thing always brings blessing and prosperity.” While the first part was true, I disagreed with his conclusion. He subtly was echoing the message of the so-called “health, wealth and prosperity gospel”—that God’s goal for us in this life is perfect health, total happiness and financial gain