Does the Bible promise that God wants you to become a millionaire?  Or does it tell you that money is evil? 

Does it tell you that you will be rich if you tithe?  Or does it tell you that being rich will keep you out of heaven?

Here is my answer to every one of these questions.

“Every time you hear someone say, “The Bible says” about a particular topic, it probably doesn’t.”

“Nothing—and I mean, nothing—causes more hurt and confusion than religion doled out in Bible verses. Too often, Bible verses become weapons to be used against people, to proclaim that women may not lead, husbands must rule, slaves must submit obediently to their masters, and gays have no place in the church.”

“You can find Bible verses that seem to proclaim these rules. But when these verses are put into their own contexts, the strident clarity of the Bible verses turns into something else. The verses become pieces of a larger whole. And very frequently, the Bible verse that is so confidently proclaimed as the very word of God turns out to be a distortion of the original intention behind the Bible verse.”

[This is an excerpt from my article, "Meet Your Enemy: The Bible Verse." You can read the whole article at  Impolite Topics ]

In my previous post, “What Is The Difference Between Rich Christians And Broke Christians?”  I made the claim that one of the most important reasons why rich Christians are rich and broke Christians are broke is that they use different  Bible verses about money. 

Christians who claim that material prosperity is their God-promised right can quote chapter and verse of Bible verses to prove that God wants them to be rich.  Christians who believe that they cannot have both God and money can easily quote a different set of Bible verses.  

Right now, televangelist Kenneth Copeland is the focus of considerable attention because he has gone on the offensive against federal requests for detailed financial information.

One of the tools that Copeland is using to rally public support is a website. His website frames the federal investigations into his personal and organizational finances—and the finances of other prosperity preachers—as an attack on  religious freedom. 

“The site is in response to an inquiry led by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who last November sent letters to six prominent ministries asking that they provide financial records and answer questions regarding their organizational as well as personal finances. The senate probe was prompted by media reports and ministry watchdogs that alleged opulent spending and possible abuse of their nonprofit status.”  Kenneth Copeland Takes Senate Probe Battle to Public

On the web site, there is a rather transparent and self-serving “Parable About Three Sermons On The Mount.” The entire point of the parable is that poor people would much rather hear that God wants them to be rich than poor. 

The reason this parable is so transparent and self-serving is that it simply reinforces the idea that the popularity of a message is equivalent to the validity of the message.  Does anyone doubt that a message of prosperity is more popular than a message of self-sacrifice and poverty, especially if the message is addressed to people who are living in  poverty?

It is obvious that Copeland and other prosperity preachers amass both great crowds and great wealth as they quote Bible verses promising prosperity. However, pointing to the popularity of the message avoids the basic question: Is this promise of prosperity a Biblical message?

And so, I come back to Bible verses and my assertion that “Every time you hear someone say, ‘The Bible says’ about a particular topic, it probably doesn’t.”

Most of the time, when someone quotes the Bible—for any purpose— you will hear carefully selected Bible verses, without any effort to place those Bible verses into any larger context.

The most basic point of Going Broke With Jesus is that “a text without a context is a pretext.”  In my book, I have demonstrated how Bible verses about money often turn into something far different from what the words meant in the original stories.

Bible verses about money become pretexts without context when:

• A Bible verse is separated from the context of the whole story in the Bible book.
• A Bible book is separated from the context of the society in which the book was written.
• Bible verses are quoted without paying attention to the contexts of our own economic and religious system.

When Bible verses are used without context, they become pretexts—whether they are used by gazillionaire televangelists proclaiming that God wants you to be rich or broke preachers standing on street corners proclaiming that God condemns all material wealth, or anyone in between these two extremes. 
 
For a description of how slick televangelists can quote out-of-context Bible verses as part of a powerful sales process, read Televangelists Snicker All the Way to The Bank, by Marsha West.

“‘He went through several Bible references where stones ‘talked’ in the Old Testament. Here Avanzini introduces the stone idea. He strolled down the aisles, his ring winking in the lights, and held out a shiny stone for a woman to hold. Avanzini told the assembled crowd of about 650 people that these stones should be rubbed whenever people faced rising prices or higher prices at the pump. The ushers went down the aisles with buckets of shiny, smooth stones and handed them out.’”

“As I mentioned above, Avanzini uses psychological tactics on Christians who come to hear him speak. As soon as he had the Harvest Church audience in the palm of his hand, he conveyed his real message. Incredibly, he takes Bible stories out of context and misapplies the intended meaning to get people to buy what he’s selling.” Televangelists Snicker All the Way to The Bank.

From my observations, there is nothing incredible about taking Bible stories out of context and misapplying the intended meaning, to make them mean whatever someone wants them to mean. The televangelists use out-of-context Bible verses as pretexts to promise massive wealth to their followers. In the process, the televangelists also amass great fortunes for themselves.

Regrettably, this is what happens frequently when people quote the Bible. The Bible verses become tools for something that misses or distorts the original intention of the words in their actual Biblical contexts.  This is why so many  Bible verses about money become pretexts for something other than the original intention.  The only solution for any misuse of Bible verses about money is to put these verses  into larger contexts. 

This is the solution I have used in Going Broke With Jesus, as I have taken 8 sayings of Jesus about money and put them into the larger context of Jesus’ heroic battle against religious and financial abuse in his society.

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

While some Christians read their Bibles and believe that God wants them to be poor, other Christians read the same Bible and determine that God wants them to be rich.  

A prime example of a rich Christian is Kenneth Copeland, a televangelist who has built a religious empire teaching prosperity.

“Copeland, 71, is a pioneer of the prosperity gospel, which holds that believers are destined to flourish spiritually, physically and financially – and share the wealth with others.

“His ministry’s 1,500-acre campus, behind an iron gate a half-hour drive from Fort Worth, is testament to his success. It includes a church, a private airstrip, a hangar for the ministry’s $17.5 million jet and other aircraft, and a $6 million church-owned lakefront mansion.

“Already a well-known figure, Copeland has come under greater scrutiny in recent months. He is one target of a Senate Finance Committee investigation into allegations of questionable spending and lax financial accountability at six large televangelist organizations that preach health-and-wealth theology.

“All have denied wrongdoing. But Copeland has fought back the hardest, refusing to answer most questions from the inquiry’s architect, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.

“Copeland’s church also has invited an Internal Revenue Service audit, which would keep information private, and has launched a sophisticated Web site, Believers Stand United, to “help set the record straight.” Kenneth Copeland

In this article, my only intention is to demonstrate that Kenneth Copeland uses the same Bible to be rich that other Christians use to be poor. The critical difference between rich Christians and poor Christians is not the Bible, but the Bible verses they use.

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson