Introduction: A Voice Filling the Screens — Do You Know Who Put It There?
You have likely seen him on television or the internet: a preacher walking the stage in an immaculate suit, shouting with total confidence: «God wants you rich! God wants you well! Discover your faith and take what God has promised!» Testimonies and figures pour in, phone lines open for donations, and toll-free numbers are distributed to those who want their "turning point." This is the "Prosperity Gospel" — or, as its proponents name it: "Positive Faith," or the "Kingdom of Health and Wealth," or the "Gospel of Seed and Harvest."
But one question no one asks before those cameras is: who put this teaching here, and where did it come from? Was it born in the pages of the Bible as its teachers claim, or was it born somewhere else — in human philosophy and pseudo-science — and only later dressed in the garment of Christianity?
This article does not attack sincere believers who have fallen into this trap. It places in your hands a surgical instrument: documented history, specific sources, and a judgment from the Word of God that admits no evasion — so that you know what you hear, test every spirit, and hold fast to the one unchanging Gospel of the apostle of God.
The Contaminated Root: E.W. Kenyon and the Philosophy of "New Thought"
The story does not begin with Kenneth Hagin or Kenneth Copeland. It begins with a far less famous but far more dangerous figure: E.W. Kenyon (1867–1948), an American preacher who spent his formative years at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston in the 1880s — a school saturated with followers of the New Thought movement, a quasi-religious philosophical movement teaching that the human mind possesses creative power, that thoughts produce reality, and that words spoken in faith attract health and wealth. From this same movement sprang Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, as well as the Unity School and Religious Science.
You may ask: was Kenyon a sincere Christian who believed he was serving the Bible? Perhaps. But good intentions do not purify a corrupt source. For Kenyon built his theology on two pillars imported from New Thought:
The first: the principle of "confession" — that man's faith possesses a "physical force" that brings about what he declares, and that the tongue creates reality just as God created the universe with His word. Kenyon wrote in his book The Hidden Man (1970, p. 98): «What I confess, I possess.» This is not a biblical verse — it is a New Thought slogan in Christian dress.
The second: that salvation includes physical healing and material prosperity now, in this present life, without exception — because Christ "purchased" health and wealth for us in His atonement. This is a grievous distortion of Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2, as we shall see in subsequent articles.
The evangelical scholar D.R. McConnell documented these roots in his 1988 book A Different Gospel (first presented as an academic thesis at Oral Roberts University in 1982), establishing what had long been suspected: that the modern Word of Faith movement carries genetic material from philosophy, not from Scripture.
The Theological Thief: Kenneth Hagin and the Documented Plagiarism
If Kenyon was the theorist, Kenneth Hagin (1917–2003) was the marketer — and the proven plagiarist. Hagin transformed Kenyon's teachings from books for a niche readership into a popular wave that swept through churches, placing his name on what was not his. McConnell's 1982 Oral Roberts University thesis placed texts from Hagin alongside texts from Kenyon and proved verbatim copying.
One example suffices for twenty: Hagin's article "Christ Our Substitute" (The Word of Faith, March 1975) copies nearly word for word from Kenyon's What Happened From the Cross to the Throne (1969, pp. 44–45). Kenyon's own daughter, Ruth Kenyon Houseworth, said of the Faith teachers: «They've all copied from my dad… they couldn't even change the wording.»
But more serious than literary theft is doctrinal theft: Hagin did not merely copy words, he copied the corrupt ideas and expanded them. He wrote — and his disciples repeat after him — that the born-again believer has become «as much an incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth.» Of faith he said: it is a "physical force" that works like electricity — direct it with your words and it produces what you desire. This is not the biblical faith that is the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1) — it is sorcery wrapped in religious language.
Hagin died in 2003 leaving behind RHEMA Bible Training Center (Tulsa, Oklahoma), which graduated the second and third generations of prosperity gospel teachers.
The Chain of Contamination: The Disciples Who Inherited and Amplified the Error
If the tree is Kenyon and the trunk is Hagin, the branches are these men — each of whom has stated explicitly that he owes his teaching to Hagin:
Kenneth Copeland: The most widely broadcast face of the prosperity gospel. He said on a recorded tape titled "The Force of Love" (No. 02-0028): «You don't have a god in you, you are one.» He wrote in The Laws of Prosperity — his foundational book — the famous declaration: «You must realize that it is God's will for you to prosper.» And he announced on TBN with breathtaking audacity: «When I read in the Bible where He says "I am," I just smile and say, "Yes, I am too."» This is not a doctrinal error — this is direct blasphemy against the oneness of God.
Creflo Dollar: He wrote online what summarises the entire movement: «Jesus bled and died for us so that we can lay claim to the promise of financial prosperity.» He asked his followers to contribute 300 dollars each toward 65 million dollars for a private jet (2015) — because "the ministry requires it."
Jesse Duplantis: He requested 54 million dollars from his donors to purchase a private Dassault Falcon 7X jet (2018), justifying this by saying: «If Jesus was physically on the earth today, he wouldn't be riding a donkey.»
Oral Roberts: The inventor of the phrase "seed faith" — the idea that your giving of money is the "seed" that will produce a financial harvest for you from God. He wrote in his magazine Abundant Life (July 1980): «Solve your money needs with money seeds.» He founded the City of Faith Medical Center — which went bankrupt and closed in 1989.
What these men all share: each is fabulously wealthy, each built his wealth from the pockets of the poor who believed him, and each is presented as a "servant of God."
Benny Hinn and the Arab World: The Closest to Our Hearts
Among all these figures, Benny Hinn deserves special mention in this article, because he is the link most closely connected to the Arab world. Toufik Benedictus Hinn was born in 1952 in Jaffa, to a Greek father and an Armenian mother, and grew up in a Greek Orthodox Arabic-speaking environment in Beirut. In other words: he is a son of the very region he addresses, and this is one of the secrets of his influence on Arab audiences.
Benny Hinn is not merely a "charismatic" preacher — he combines the Pentecostal movement with the prosperity gospel. He solicits money as "seeds" and promises "the anointing," healing, and money, preaching that "the blessing of the Lord makes rich." In one of his services in Trinidad, soliciting a hundred-dollar "seed," he declared: «God will take the wealth of the sinner and put it in your hands. You are the next wealthiest person.» The Al-Shifaa ("Healing Channel") — the Arabic arm of Paul Crouch's TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) — broadcast his dubbed services in Arabic, alongside the charismatic Coptic priest Father Makary Younan, who instructed television viewers to place their hands on the screen to receive the "blessing."
Hinn has repeatedly declared his intention to evangelize the Arab world and Muslims before his death. This means that the teaching arriving in his familiar Arabic-tinged voice, carrying a shared past, is capable of infiltrating the hearts of Arab believers more quickly than any other voice. It is precisely for this reason that this article had to be written.
An important note: in 2019, Hinn stated that he was "stepping back" from the financial prosperity teaching — but those monitoring his ministry's crusade practices say that fundraising campaigns tied to promises of "blessing" have continued. Let us be faithful to the truth: we examine his documented and recorded teaching, not his stated intentions.
The Corrupt Tree Is Known by Its Fruit: What Has It Produced?
The Lord Jesus Christ did not say "know the false teacher by his words" — He said:
So what are the fruits of the prosperity gospel? Let us examine them:
The teachers' own fruits: Copeland possesses a fortune estimated in the tens of millions, a fleet of private jets, and a private airport on his church's grounds. Dollar solicited 65 million dollars from his donors. Roberts demanded eight million dollars from the public in forty-eight hours in 1987, threatening that "God would take him" if the sum was not raised — a documented exercise in spiritual extortion.
The fruits borne by the victims: The poor who give "seeds" and see no harvest fall into depression and are accused of weak faith. The sick who refuse treatment "in faith" and then die. Families bankrupted by "faith giving." Believers who assumed every financial difficulty was proof that they did not know how to believe — their confidence in themselves and in God simultaneously destroyed.
The apostle Paul went directly to the false teachers when he wrote to Timothy:
What Does Scripture Say About Wealth That Cannot Be Taken?
There is a striking contradiction that Scripture directs squarely at the teachers of the prosperity gospel: the wealthiest man in the Old Testament — Solomon — wrote these words about money that align in no way with "health and wealth":
He also wrote: "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver" (Ecclesiastes 5:10). As for the Lord Jesus Christ, He never affirmed material prosperity as an indicator of faith — rather, He described wealth as making entrance into the kingdom of God "hard": "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). And He made plain that true wealth is wealth in God, not in banks: "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:21).
This gains deeper force when we recall that the great men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 — the chapter everyone calls the "Hall of Faith" — were described as those who "wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented… And these all, having obtained a good report through faith…" (Hebrews 11:37–39). Were they lacking in faith? On the contrary — God Himself testifies to their faith. Yet they lived in want. This single text demolishes the prosperity gospel at its foundation.
The true biblical wealth that cannot be taken from a believer is not in a bank account — it is in the apostle Paul's declaration: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). The very presence of God — that is the wealth no weakness of faith can diminish and no failing economy can reduce.
The Scripture Speaks: A Different Gospel That Deserves the Curse
You will find no sterner statement in the Bible than what the apostle Paul wrote in response to any who preach "a different gospel":
"Accursed" — the word anathema. The apostle Paul repeats it twice in successive verses so that no one might suppose it was a slip of the pen. And this standard applies literally to those who preach the health-and-wealth gospel: for this is "a different gospel" — because the biblical Gospel proclaims the salvation of the soul from sin and eternal death, not guarantees of health and money in this present life.
The apostle Paul adds in his second letter to the Corinthians:
"Another Jesus": the Christ of the prosperity gospel is not the Christ of Scripture — the Christ of suffering, the cross, and humility. He is a wealthy Christ who wants you wealthy, a perfectly healthy Christ who wants you well — a Christ invented by men to satisfy their appetites, not to transform their hearts.
When we read of "grievous wolves" entering the Church, we are reading about this teaching by name:
A Question the Believer Asks: "But They Quote the Bible!"
This is the first objection raised by the sincere believer when he hears a critique of the prosperity gospel: «But they read biblical verses! How can it be wrong if it is built on the Bible?»
The answer is simple and terrifying at once: the devil himself quoted Scripture when he tempted the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness. He cited Psalm 91 word for word and asked the Lord to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, since the angels would catch Him. Was the Scripture wrong? No. But the quotation was torn from its context and used for a purpose diametrically opposed to God's intent.
And this is precisely what the prosperity gospel teachers do:
They take "with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5) and declare it means guaranteed physical healing now. But the context speaks of the righteousness of our souls, and the apostle Peter himself quoted this verse and clarified its meaning: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree… by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray" (1 Peter 2:24). The healing in the verse is the spiritual healing from straying — not a guaranteed absence of all sickness.
They take "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health" (3 John 2) and turn it into a "divine promise of wealth and health for all" — when it is a personal letter from the elder John to his friend Gaius, exactly like what we write in our letters today: "I hope you are well and in good health."
The golden rule of interpretation: a text without context is a pretext. What the prosperity teachers do is take pretexts for purposes the Scripture never intended.
Tools for Discernment: How to Recognize the Prosperity Gospel Wherever It Appears
The prosperity gospel does not always appear with the same words. Sometimes it comes softly and quietly in the teachings of "positive thinking," "energy," or "financial blessing." Here are six tools for recognizing it:
Tool One — Money: Every ministry that makes financial giving a "seed" for a financial "harvest," promising specific multiples of return ("it will come back to you thirty, sixty, a hundredfold"), is practicing the prosperity gospel regardless of the teacher's attire.
Tool Two — Words: Every teaching that says "your words spoken in faith create reality" or "do not say you are sick because your words will bring the sickness" is positive confession — but it is not from Scripture.
Tool Three — Guarantees: Every teaching that presents health and wealth as guaranteed rights of believers in this present life, rather than gifts given according to God's wisdom.
Tool Four — The Teacher's Luxurious Life: This alone does not prove error (Abraham was wealthy), but it becomes evidence when that wealth is funded directly by donations from the poor who believed promises of "harvest."
Tool Five — Blaming the Victim: When anyone who was not healed or not enriched is told "your faith was not sufficient" — this is the black heart of the prosperity gospel: it makes the person responsible for every suffering that befalls him, and robs him of the last thing he had: trust in the love of God.
Tool Six — Absence of the Cross: In the prosperity gospel, the cross is the gateway to wealth and health. In the biblical Gospel, the cross is the gateway to forgiveness and the path to eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). "Taking up the cross" does not mean wearing gold jewellery — it means a path of humility and suffering in following Christ.
The Fundamental Difference: What the Biblical Gospel Teaches About Money and Health
Lest our response appear to be merely negative, we must present the complete picture: the Bible does not despise money, does not call for deliberate poverty, and does not deny that God cares for the material needs of His people. But it places these things in their proper position.
The Bible teaches: that God cares for His children and may bless them with abundance ("The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich" — Proverbs 10:22), that contentment with godliness is true wealth ("Godliness with contentment is great gain" — 1 Timothy 6:6), that healing is possible through the prayer of faith (James 5:14–15), and that daily provision is assured for those who seek first the kingdom of God ("Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" — Matthew 6:33).
But the Bible never teaches: that wealth is a guaranteed right for every believer in this life, or that poverty is evidence of weak faith, or that sickness is evidence of hidden sin (John 9:3 — "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents"), or that financial "seeds" obligate God to give you a hundredfold return. God the Sovereign is obligated by no one — not by our words, not by our money, not by our "faith."
The difference is foundational: the prosperity gospel makes the believer the master of God through "faith" and "declaration." The biblical Gospel makes God the absolute Sovereign who gives according to His wisdom and love, while His people trust Him in abundance and in want alike — exactly like the apostle Paul: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound" (Philippians 4:11–12).
A Prayer for Protection and Discernment
O God Almighty, our holy Heavenly Father, we lift our voices to Thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost. Thank Thee for giving us a complete and sufficient Word, and for promising that Thou wilt remain with us unto the very end.
O Lord, guard our brothers and sisters who have fallen into the trap of the prosperity gospel — most of them sincere in their search for Thee, yet deceived by honeyed words and false promises. Enlighten their minds so that they return to Thy Word as the Bereans did, testing all things by the standard of Scripture. Guard Thy churches in the Arab world from this teaching that has impoverished the poor, burdened the sick, and attributed to Thee what Thou didst never promise. Give us the wisdom to speak truth in love, and the courage to reject error without confusing the error with those who have fallen into it. We pray all this to Thee, our Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Amen.
Conclusion: Return to the True Gospel
The prosperity gospel promises you health and money. The biblical Gospel promises you what is immeasurably deeper and more enduring: the forgiveness of your sins, peace that passes all understanding, and eternal life without sickness, death, or sorrow — in the world to come, with the Lord Jesus Christ. And this promise God placed in one Book, confirmed by prophets who suffered (Job, Jeremiah, David), and by the apostle Paul who wrote "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11) from inside a prison — not from an imperial media platform.
Moreover, it is important to understand why this teaching appeals especially in the Arab world: economic hardship, the difficulties of daily life, and widespread illness all make human hearts thirsty for a word of relief. And one who comes with a confident voice, proof-texted verses, and definitive promises finds open ears. But the honest physician tells the patient the truth even when it is bitter — he does not comfort his patient with a false diagnosis. This is what this article does: it speaks the truth in love, and presents the true biblical remedy in place of the counterfeit vaccine.
What is required of you is not hatred of these teachers — God does not command hatred. What is required is to "try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1) by the standard of the Bible — not by the standard of feelings or admiration for a personality. Test every teaching on the rock of the Word of God — and what does not hold must be set aside, however beautiful and moving the voice that spoke it.
When you know where this teaching came from — from New Thought philosophy, not from the Bible; from documented theological theft, not from divine inspiration — your decision becomes far easier: do not sell the true Gospel for a false gospel, and do not exchange the biblical Christ for "another Jesus" invented by men for financial purposes.
The true biblical Gospel requires no financial seed from you. It requires no magic words learned in a course. It requires only a broken heart and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose for your sins:
Glory to God in our Lord Jesus Christ, for ever and ever and ever. Amen.
An Invitation to Receive Divine Salvation — Accept The Lord Jesus Christ as Your Personal Saviour
Dear reader — if these words have touched your heart and you have recognised that you are a sinner in need of a Saviour, know that God is calling you to Himself in this very moment. You do not need a priest, or a human mediator, or a holy place, or rituals or works. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the full price on the cross, and the promise of God is certain and clear:
What saves you is not the words of this prayer — but the faith in your heart that the Lord Jesus Christ died for you and rose from the dead. But if you want to express your faith in sincere words, read this prayer with a humble heart as though you are speaking to the living God:
The Prayer of Salvation
"O Great, Holy, and Loving True God,
I come to You now with complete humility, confessing that I am a sinner. I have broken Your commandments many times in my thoughts, in my words, and in my deeds. I know that my sin deserves eternal death and eternal separation from You. I have no good work I can offer that is able to redeem my soul, and no righteousness of my own to cover my nakedness before Your holiness.
But I believe with all my heart in the testimony of Your Word that Your only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sins — bearing in my place the punishment I deserved. I believe that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead on the third day, alive and victorious over death and the grave, and that He is alive now unto the ages of ages.
In this blessed moment, I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. I trust in Him alone — not in my works, not in my religion, not in rituals or any person or angel or saint. On the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and on His precious blood shed on the cross, I build the hope of my eternal salvation.
I thank You, my Father, that You have now received me in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have forgiven all my sins, and have given me eternal life as a free gift by Your grace. I thank You that You have sent Your Holy Ghost to dwell in my heart, bearing witness to me that I have become Your child. Give me grace to know You more day by day, and to live the rest of my life for Your glory alone.
I pray all this in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen."
After You Have Prayed — What Now?
If you prayed this prayer from a truly believing heart, the greatest miracle in all your history has happened in this moment: you have passed from death to life, from darkness to light, from the kingdom of sin into the kingdom of the beloved Son of God. You have become a child of the living God, and God's own promise guarantees this to you in His trustworthy Word:
Notice the power of this promise: "gave he power" — a settled right, guaranteed, not a wish or a possibility. And notice "them that believe on his name" — not "those who performed great deeds," not "those who completed rituals," but simply "them that believe." You are now one of them — with absolute certainty.
Here are five simple steps to establish you in your new life with the Lord Jesus Christ:
First — Read the King James Bible every day. Begin with the Gospel of John, then continue through the rest of the New Testament, then the Psalms and Proverbs. God speaks to you through His Word as a father speaks with his son. Do not read quickly — read with meditation and prayer. "The holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15).
Second — Pray every day. Speak to God as a loving Father — not with memorised words, but with words from your heart. Share with Him your joys and sorrows and questions and fears. Prayer is the breathing of the Christian life. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Third — Join a Bible-believing church. Do not walk this road alone. Faith grows in the fellowship of believers, where the Word is preached faithfully and baptism and the Lord's Supper are practised according to the King James Bible. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25).
Fourth — Be baptised according to the King James Bible. Baptism is not a condition for salvation, but it is the first step of obedience after faith. It is a public declaration that you died with the Lord Jesus Christ and were buried with Him and rose with Him to a new life. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16) — faith first, then baptism as its natural fruit.
Fifth — Witness to others about the Lord Jesus Christ. What you have experienced of salvation and love cannot remain hidden. Begin with your family and friends. Tell them simply and honestly how the Lord Jesus Christ changed your life. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (1 John 1:3).
And finally, remember always that your salvation is not built on your feelings or on any work you perform — but on the unchanging promise of God:
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life."
— 1 John 5:13
Notice: "that ye may know" — not "that ye may hope," not "that ye may wish," not "that ye may wait in anxious fear." But that ye may know with complete, unshakeable certainty that you have eternal life. This is the difference between all the world's religions and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ: religions say "work and perhaps you will be saved" — and the Word of God alone says: "believe and know that you are saved."
✉ Share Your Testimony of Salvation
"Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." — Luke 15:10