Topic: God, Greed, and The Prosperity Gospel (Part 1 of 2)

GUEST: Costi Hinn, pastor and author

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3

It’s big business, complete with tens of millions of dollars in “revenue”, charismatic leaders with worldwide influence and luxuriant lifestyles, and a message that “God will make you healthy, wealthy, and prosperous if you just sow a seed of faith” (i.e. money).

The show in-person or on television is as well-crafted as a Broadway production, complete with manipulative speakers working the stage, emotional music to entrance the audience, staged healings and miracles, claims of direct revelation from God, speaking in gibberish (i.e. tongues), “anointings” of the Holy Spirit, promises of “breakthroughs” over whatever is troubling you, etc., etc.

The Prosperity Gospel movement runs a wide gamut, including less charismatic leaders like Joel Osteen, pastor and author of Your Best Life Now (the title says it all), to the white-jacketed charlatan Benny Hinn. Others like Oral Roberts, Robert Tilton, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Copeland, Reverend Ike, Kenneth Hagin, and Joseph Prince, and Paula White are other well-known prosperity preachers.

This weekend on The Christian Worldview, Costi Hinn, the nephew of Benny Hinn and author of the new book God, Greed, and The Prosperity Gospel, will tell us about his first-hand experience growing up and working in the prosperity gospel movement and how he was saved out of it. He will also explain how the movement’s errant theology and practices are impacting evangelicalism.