Prosperity Preaching and the Stockdale Paradox

In his 2009 book The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life, Ben Sherwood describes an intriguing phenomenon known as the Stockdale Paradox (after Admiral James Stockdale, the highest-ranking P.O.W. of the Vietnam War), which suggests a counterintuitive link between optimism and survival:

When [interviewer Jim Collins] asked Stockdale to explain which American prisoners did not survive captivity in Vietnam, the admiral replied, “Oh, that’s easy. The optimists.”

Collins was perplexed, but Stockdale explained that the optimists “were the ones who said ‘we’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go; and then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale went on: “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” (41-42)

Note that according to Stockdale it isn’t optimism per se that leads to heartbreak and despair, but an optimism of baseless expectations for specific and immediate improvement. Although such optimism is always energizing at first, the excitement invariably sours to disillusionment as the optimist is faced with a stark incongruity between the world as it actually is and the world as he imagined it to be.

This lesson, of course, applies as much to spiritual survival as it does to the physical. The prosperity “gospel,” with its promises of material wealth and temporal bliss, leaves its believers vulnerable to the same kind of heartbreak described above. Compare the empty we’re-going-to-be-out-by-Christmas optimism Stockdale recalls from Vietnam with the prosperity optimism preached by the likes of Joel Osteen:

God promises your payday is on its way. If you'll learn to be a prisoner of hope and get up every day expecting God's favor, you'll see God do amazing things. You'll overcome every obstacle. You'll defeat every enemy. And I believe and declare you'll see every dream, every promise God has put in your heart. It will come to pass (It’s Your Time, 16).

Perhaps surprisingly, my issue with these declarations isn’t the ridiculous boldness with which they are announced, for as Christians we certainly do believe that every obstacle will be overcome and every enemy defeated. No, the main problem (apart from their being entirely too "self"-oriented), is the perceived immediacy of these promises’ fulfillment. One doesn’t get the impression from Osteen that the truly faithful may potentially face a lifetime of failure, depression, sickness, or persecution. Rather, the believer will “see” every dream and every promise come to pass—a striking verb to employ, given that the New Testament uniformly pits faith against sight.

Our hope as Christians is much more forward-looking. While we indeed already possess all things in Christ, the same reality is not yet true of us in ourselves, and won’t be until the final day.  Our inheritance is secure, though we do not yet experience it in its fullness.  And the prosperity pushers who teach otherwise—that Christian victory is something to be obtained here, now, “before Christmas,”—are just setting their listeners up for a spiritual death by heartbreak.

Comments

[Malebranche]

Perhaps one day we'll be graced by a lecture series from Osteen entitled, "Hebrews 11:37: How to Get Sawed In Half in Financial Victory."

[Dave]

Having escaped "Charismania" at an early age, I saw first hand the pit falls of the prosperity gospel.

Today I believe it is Witchcraft, that is, conjuring up the spirits, or in this case, the big Spirit, for personal gain.

I now live a secluded but peaceful life of modest means behind the "Arminian Curtain".

[Michael Wharton]

I think that Mr. Osteen would be hard-pressed to find a single hero of scripture who lived the kind of life he preaches. Certainly Paul had a lot to say about that subject in 2 Cor. 10 - 11.

[Sam]

This was a really good post. I have seen people lose faith or have their faith challenged because of their false expectations.

[wcwirla]

Now in Christ; not yet in ourselves. "Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3:2).

Nicely written.

[WisdomLover]

"How to Get Sawed In Half in Financial Victory"

Nice One Malebranche!

Says everything you need to know about prosperity theology in one sentence (plus it made me laugh).

[SJS]

I have seen/ experienced first hand the devastating effects that prosperity theology "churches" have bestowed on their congregants. I lost a loved one to one such church, called the UCKG ( Universal Church of the Kingdom of God). Most of these pastors promote "perfect sacrifices" of monetary value for deliverance from their difficult situations. Of course there are always a few who seem to achieve success/ deliverance by doing so- these cases they use as "testimonies" and promote them all over their websites and pamphlets and such. Keeping the "dangling carrot" out front, so to speak.
How do we rescue those involved and bring them into the rest that Jesus Christ offers us? I wish there were more resources out there on this specific issue within the Christian church. Any suggestions?

[Mike Westfall]

"I said, You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;

.... nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince."

Also, nice to see Pastor Cwirla checking in here.

[RonH]

Better to make the promises unfalsifiable. For sure!

RonH

[Louis Kuhelj]

"The prosperity “gospel,” with its promises of material wealth and temporal bliss, leaves its believers vulnerable to the same kind of heartbreak described above. "

I agree with this and would also add that the same is true of success gospel.

[Sam]

SJS, Robert Bowman has a good book on the subject called The Word Faith Controversy.

[G.Sawlor]

1 Corinthians 10:24 (
Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.

Why is this so difficult for people? Lust perhaps? Renounce it, don't capitalize on it.

[SJS]

Thank you Sam. I will take a look at it, as well as your blog.

[Rob L]

Far too many Christians succumb to unfulfilled expectations of things not promised. I've talked with those on bulletin board forums who are former Christians. They say God didn't do this or they see some supposed contradiction in scripture and this causes them to fall away. In that situation, they expect that Christianity is something where there will be no doubt or it's something that it's not. If you have the expectation that you will know everything in this life or have everything in this life, you'll fall into the trap of unfulfilled expectations of things not promised.

[DM]

The prosperity gospel has got to be one of the worst false teachings of our day. It has created self-focused, materialistic people coming to Jesus for a promise of riches. No dying to self or taking up our Crosses to follow Christ. Now we have Churches filled with a bunch of ignorant, unregenerate greedy people with a handout from God because they send in their dollars for money, sounds like playing the sloth machine.