Alongside other Christians in North America, I celebrate Christianity’s explosive growth in Africa and South America in recent generations. And yet I realize that wherever the harvest is plentiful, weeds show up. Such is the case on both continents, where media and missionaries have imported an American-style prosperity gospel that has taken root and flourished.
It might be easy for those in traditional denominations to write off Christianity’s demographic shift from the Global North to the Global South as purely a Pentecostal phenomenon, and then assume the growth is fueled by bad or shallow theology that fails to do justice to Scripture or uphold classic Christian teaching about God. A more careful assessment of the wide range of views that fall under the umbrella of Pentecostalism will dispel that notion.
Jonathan Black’s excellent addition to Kregel’s 40 Questions series (40 Questions About Pentecostalism) distinguishes clearly between classic, Trinitarian Pentecostal beliefs and the prosperity gospel and word of faith theologies that often infiltrate Pentecostal and charismatic circles. Black isn’t the only one who wants to make those dividing lines clear. Fifteen years ago, Femi Adeleye, a Nigerian based in Ghana, issued a heartfelt plea to other Africans to reject the “strange gospel” that creates “strange Christians”—clearly delineating between “the man God uses” and “the God man uses.”
Drawing the Line on Distortions
This summer saw the release of the Africa Statement on Prosperity Gospel and Word of Faith Theology in Swahili, English, and Amharic, and signed by notable pastors and church leaders across the continent.
The preface frames the prosperity gospel as one of the most serious doctrinal dangers facing the church today. It begins by reminding readers that “the most dangerous” threats to the church have always come from within (Acts 20:30), through false teachers and deceptive doctrines. Just as the early church was called to vigilance, so the 21st-century church must remain discerning to protect “the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all” (Jude 1:3).
The statement identifies prosperity theology and word-of-faith teaching as a “constellation of mutually self-reinforcing doctrines” that falsely claim health and wealth are guaranteed to Christians through Christ’s atoning work. This movement, the preface laments, has “crept into many congregations” across Africa—even those with strong historic confessions of faith—and undermined their stated beliefs.
Because the poison has infiltrated all denominations, names like Presbyterian, Anglican, or Baptist no longer guarantee doctrinal fidelity, and that’s why the authors call for a clear, formal declaration to distinguish between biblical teaching and prosperity distortions. They stress that the purpose isn’t needless division but clarity: “Our hope is that many will sign off on this statement and work to safeguard God’s people from this plague—for the Triune God’s glory alone.”
What the Africa Statement Affirms and Denies
What follows is a series of affirmations and denials that paint a picture of the serious and numerous distortions present in prosperity-tinged congregations and the leadership dynamics often in play. (I’ve noticed some of the falsehoods countered in this list showing up in non-prosperity-gospel circles as isolated errors that lead to other theological aberrations.)
- God’s Gifts: Health and wealth may be blessings from God, given freely to enjoy. They are not guaranteed to every Christian, nor marks of true faith.
- The Cross: Christ’s atonement secures justification, sanctification, and future glorification—including perfect health and provision in glory. The cross doesn’t promise riches or perfect health in this present life.
- Scripture: The Bible must be interpreted in context, with an understanding of grammar, genre, and general continuity with the true church’s historic understanding. No “hidden revelations” are reserved for special “anointed” teachers.
- The Old Covenant: God did promise material blessings to Israel under the Mosaic covenant. Those promises don’t apply in the same way to Christians today.
- Curses: Christ bore the curse for us on the cross. Christians aren’t subject to generational curses or bound by ancestral sins.
- Altars and Locations: Christ is the true temple, the meeting place between God and man. No church building, altar, or ritualized “spiritual portal” guarantees blessing.
- Suffering: Suffering is normal in a fallen world and often used by God for good. Suffering isn’t always the result of weak faith and cannot be overcome through some kind of ministry payment.
- Giving: Generosity is a biblical discipline that brings spiritual fruit. Money cannot purchase miracles or ward off divine curses.
- Words: Our speech has real influence and should build up others. But words don’t create reality the way God’s Word does.
- The Image of God: Every person has dignity as God’s image-bearer, called to steward creation. We aren’t “little gods” with supernatural creative power.
- Faith: Faith is God’s gift by which we trust him and his promises. Faith isn’t a force to manipulate reality or shield from suffering.
- The Mind: Christians are to renew their minds through God’s Word. But “positive visualization” isn’t a God-given means to health and wealth.
- Leadership: God appoints elders to shepherd his flock under his Word. But no pastor holds ultimate sway over a believer’s destiny.
- Our Purpose: Humanity’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God must never be used as a means to health, wealth, or worldly gain.
Global Concern for the Church
The Africa Statement isn’t an isolated protest. Leaders at the Fourth Lausanne Congress in South Korea sounded the same alarm. Their Seoul Statement included several warnings about the dangers of prosperity distortions. When Jesus announced the kingdom, the statement reads, “the blessing he pronounced was not wealth or health but God’s own life as the transforming power of new creation.”
The Seoul Statement also lamented “prosperity and fame-based ministries where some even make claims to possessing divinity,” contrasting them with Christ’s model of humility and sacrifice. And it called believers to ensure “all manifestations and practices are to be weighed against the apostolic witness to the gospel and Scripture so that no one is deceived by a false gospel.”
I’m thankful for the Africa Statement on Prosperity and Word of Faith Theology, and I pray it’ll be useful not only for African brothers and sisters committed to the unchanging gospel but also for believers in other parts of the world where these distortions are present. May God raise up a new clear-eyed generation determined to safeguard the church from teachings that substitute worldly gain for the true riches of God’s grace.
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