The Soda Shop Message Boards

Driving yesterday, I saw a billboard that said 'When Americans trust in God, God will bless America.' It had the standard patriotic flag behind it. Thoughts?

The prosperity gospel is what I consider to be a heresy—and I don't use that word lightly. It essentially makes the claim that doing good works means that you will be blessed, but when were we ever promised that? We were told that the world would hate us, and that the rain falls and the sun shines on both the righteous and the unrighteous. Job was a righteous man and yet he was afflicted with many sufferings. As a matter of fact, anyone who believes in the prosperity gospel has clearly never actually read and understood the story of Jesus's life, because if they had, they would understand how ludicrous the idea of "faith in God = INSTA BLESSING" really is.

The problem with prosperity is that they twist the spiritual blessings that we get and turn them into physical blessings. If you do good you get blessed spiritually and occasionally, physically.