Preaching in PNG

LATELY, preaching has markedly skewed towards money, prosperity and material life.
This is above the true gospel of salvation – God’s divine love, grace, forgiveness and redemption – and prosperity and abundance in the ‘spiritual life.’
This kind of preaching is called the prosperity gospel preaching.
With the exception of a few of our mainline churches, prosperity gospel is fast becoming popular among the charismatic movement and other local churches.
With the country’s economic downturn that is now making our general welfare extremely challenging, prosperity gospel is seemingly offering a perfect retreat. People like to hear something nice and be comforted with the promise of hope and material prosperity waiting at the next turn.
Prosperity gospel preachers will now start making references to supposed promises in the Bible that promise believers
financial and economic prosperity.
Statements like, “God doesn’t want us to live in poverty” and “God promises to bless you economically if you honour him” and so on, give the impression that Christians should believe for and seek material, financial, economic prosperity on this earth.
We have simply to look at what the Word of God teaches. But before we do this, let us first understand that God doesn’t always work the way we work.

David Lepi
Port Moresby