Volume 2 · Honest HereticsLesson 23About 22 minutes

The Prosperity Gospel

If you give to get something back, is it still giving?

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The center · Luke 6:35

³⁵But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

"Sow a seed." Anyone who has watched Christian television knows the phrase. Give to the ministry, and God will multiply it back to you, ten times, a hundred times. The offering becomes an investment, and the preacher names the expected return. Lesson 10 asked whether wealth proves God's favor. This lesson asks about the deal itself: give to get.

You're not imagining the trick. A message that tells people in debt to send money to a ministry so that God will pay them back pays the ministry first and the believer maybe never. It has taken savings from people who could least afford to lose them. And the man these preachers name told his followers to lend "expecting nothing back."