Jesus never preached the “prosperity gospel”: It’s time to stop thieves in today’s church

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

If you walk into almost any modern megachurch today, the message you hear will likely sound less like the radical, self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ and more like a high-stakes corporate seminar on wealth creation. 

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Somewhere along the line, salvation was swapped for a sports car, and holiness was replaced by a high net worth. 

But if we take an honest, unvarnished look at the foundation of the Christian faith, we are forced to confront a deeply uncomfortable truth: the multi-million-dollar prosperity gospel is not just a theological stretch—it is a predatory scam.

Consider the life of Jesus Christ. 

He lived amongst the poor, walked with the marginalized, and preached a message of profound hope to the destitute. 

Yet, not once in the entirety of the gospel accounts did He promise His followers material riches. 

He did not bless them with financial windfalls or guarantee them real estate portfolios. 

When His apostles carried the torch of the early church after His ascension, they operated in a world teeming with systemic poverty. 

Yet, they never offered financial wealth as a metric of God’s favor. 

Instead, they preached salvation, righteousness, and the hope of eternal life.

Where, then, do today’s self-proclaimed “men of God” derive the authority to peddle their lucrative spiritual guarantees? 

The answer is as simple as it is devastating: they don’t. 

This is not Christianity; it is an elaborate, unchecked extortion racket masquerading as faith. 

What we are witnessing on a global scale is a fleet of conmen in designer suits who have weaponized the Bible to prey on human desperation.

We live in a world fractured by unjust governance systems and broken economies, where millions of people are trapped in the suffocating grip of abject poverty. 

These are ordinary parents, exhausted and desperate, who simply want a way to feed their children, pay for school fees, and secure a decent roof over their heads without a daily battle for survival. 

Instead of offering genuine sanctuary, these religious charlatans exploit that vulnerability for their own personal gain.

The mechanism is brilliant in its cruelty. 

They use fear, guilt, and twisted scripture to convince their congregations that financial blessings are unlocked through monetary “seeds.” 

They strip the few remaining dollars from the hands of the destitute to fund their own private jets, mega-mansions, and elite schools. 

The only people experiencing a financial breakthrough in these churches are the ones standing behind the golden pulpits.

To challenge this predatory doctrine is not to suggest that God desires His people to suffer in squalor. 

Jesus Himself invited believers to ask, seek, and knock. 

But material gain was never meant to be the core of humanity’s relationship with the divine. 

True faith is built on love, devotion, and a deeply personal connection, not a transactional arrangement where God is treated as a celestial vending machine. 

When Jesus famously commanded His followers to “seek first the kingdom of God,” adding that “all these things shall be added unto you,” He was offering a reassurance of basic sustenance, not a guarantee of a yacht. 

To preach that God’s primary desire is to make everyone wealthy is a dangerous distortion of the faith.

The fallout of this theological malpractice is catastrophic. 

When vulnerable believers pray ceaselessly, fast religiously, and give away their rent money in blind faith—only to watch their financial situations worsen—the betrayal cuts deep. 

Tragically, many do not just walk away from the church; they walk away from God entirely, left with a bitter sense of abandonment. 

Modern church leaders have driven more people to resentment and atheism through false hope than almost any secular force ever could.

When Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem and found it overrun by greedy merchants swindling the poor, He did not offer a polite critique. 

Filled with righteous anger, He flipped their tables and drove them out, branding them a “den of thieves.” 

Today, a new breed of thieves has infiltrated the sanctuary. 

It is time we stop hiding behind a passive definition of religious freedom and demand strict regulation of these institutions. 

Freedom of belief must be protected.

But the freedom to financially exploit, manipulate, and rob the vulnerable under the guise of the divine must be stopped.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08