We do know that it is not because someone has prayed a certain “prayer of faith,” or performed any act, followed any formula, recited any mantra. The teaching of the so-called “prosperity gospel” or “health and wealth” groups is an unbiblical fabrication. God is sovereign and is not held captive by people who think that they can wring financial or any other type of blessing out of God by the use of manipulation through words or actions.
Why does God seem to give so much material wealth to some people and less or none to others?7/16/2016
God alone knows the answer to this question. He is perfectly wise, all-knowing, and works out his eternal plan with absolute precision in this, his world, and has not chosen to give to us all of the details as to why he gives any particular thing to some and not to others. It is really none of our business why God does this or that. The Bible says that he distributes his gifts “as he wills.”
We do know that it is not because someone has prayed a certain “prayer of faith,” or performed any act, followed any formula, recited any mantra. The teaching of the so-called “prosperity gospel” or “health and wealth” groups is an unbiblical fabrication. God is sovereign and is not held captive by people who think that they can wring financial or any other type of blessing out of God by the use of manipulation through words or actions. I understand that though this question is almost always asked as a sort of “gotcha” question, there are many cases where it is asked out of deep, compassionate concern for a loved one who is suffering, or perhaps borne out of our own suffering. In answering this, Christianity begins with the premise that we must not try to be wiser than God. Job asked, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil.”
The Bible teaches that God is the giver and the taker of life. It is he who determines the length of man’s days, and it is not our place to try to usurp God’s position by taking the life of another, except in specific circumstances; the government, for example is given the authority to take life for life in capital punishment. We are also permitted to act in self-defense. Otherwise, we are not permitted to take life. It is a monument to the arrogance of Americans, both in and out of the church, that many believe that somehow the God of the Bible is our country’s own national God. But we should be clear, the United States of America is not mentioned in the Bible, nor hinted at in the Bible.
The Psalmist says “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,” but that certainly does not describe the United States. God does not prefer any geographical-political entity to any other. However, he does have a people; chosen, called, redeemed, and beloved by him; a people who are united to his son by faith, and are variously referred to as Israel, the Children of Abraham by faith, the Israel of God, and the Church. It is this church, gathered, defended, and preserved by Christ who are the apple of his eye, not any country of past, present, or future. |
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