Fr. Barron comments on the Prosperity Gospel

Another part of a video series from Wordonfire.org. Father Barron will be commenting on subjects from modern day culture. For more visit http://www.wordonfire.org/

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Fr. Robert Barron
• Word On Fire
• Catholicism
• Jesus
• God
• faith
• Prosperity Gospel
• Book of Job
• Joel Osteen
• Oral Roberts
• Christianity

[jontv]

Job is a very odd book. Taken literally, God comes off looking bad, allowing Satan to torture Job as a test of faith. Oh -- but in the end, Job gets a new family and fortune (so it's all good, I guess? Tell that to his old family...).

While apologists have found meaning in Job's symbolism, I think it's most interesting for its view into the culture that created it. The Israelites had a very pragmatic view of religion: what can Jehovah do for me? Wealth and protection were the selling points.

[wordonfirevideo]

@jontv The commencement of the book is more or less a way of getting the story off the ground, and the end is a tag-on, probably added after the original text was finished. What is important in Job is precisely the questioning of the Deuteronomistic assumption that right behavior leads to good fortune in this world. The heart of the matter is God's speech to Job in 38-40 wherein all easy "solutions" to the problem are set aside.

[jontv]

@wordonfirevideo That is one hell of a speech. I don't find it particularly illuminating from a theological perspective. Much of it boils down to the "Who are you to question God?" message that you dismissed when capone70 proposed it.

I think my point holds true, that, more than anything else, Job 38-40 tells you about the Israelites and what they found impressive in a deity. It seems like the Old Testament equivalent of a big-budget movie, complete with high-end special effects.

[wordonfirevideo]

@jontv Don't see it as God defending his honor as much as God inviting Job into ever richer contexts of interpretation. A basic Biblical insight is that "your life is not about you." You are always part of a plan whose contours and trajectories you cannot even in principle grasp. Learn to trust in God's will, even when things look, from your narrow perspective, negative or even impossible.

[capone70]

My summation of the book of Job: God - "who are YOU to question ME??" Not my favorite OT book.

[wordonfirevideo]

@capone70 Friend, you have to give the book of Job a deeper look. There is a lot more to it than that.

[5355vbxjbj76rvn]

@wordonfirevideo

It doesn't help that St.Paul defends his message about predestination in Romans 9 with a variant of ""who are YOU to question ME??""- "Who are *you*, o man, to contradict God ?" No doctrine that has to be defended by brow-beating of that kind looks good. The ethics implied is too close for comfort to "command ethics", which is pre-Christian, & not informed by Christ. I think Job is about God's Hiddenness - even the heavenly prolog is hidden from Job & friends

[fantom58]

@CarcharodonMeg What is that? Tea Party theology?

[fantom58]

The Book of Job makes no sense.As an active Roman Catholic, I cannot believe it is divinely inspired,unlike Proverbs and Deuteronomy which contradict the Book of Job entirely. The essence of man's relationship with God is bascially a quid pro quo. We believe in the Triune God, we worship Him,obey His laws and Commandments, and we will prosper. Not become fantastically wealthy, necessarily, but get by alright nonetheless. Those who do not do these things will not prosper. Job contradicts this

[roryscanlon]

The Prosperity Gospel, and on the other side, the Vatican document on One World Financial Authority--two sides of the same abuse of God's promises to fit our own demands.

The whole "imaginary" of capitalism and socialism fall into this break---if I can be so reckless about it: ....It is God (or nature, or reason or...) Who makes me rich! It is God (or history, or fairness...) Who gives me power!

The Book of Job demolishes these alternatives.

((It shouldn't be vivisected!))

[Strefanasha]

the thing about Job is that he was rebuked by FOUR friends. but only THREE of them were condemned by God, and it was the narrative, not the expressed opinion of Elihu (the 4th friend) that said Job has become self righteous.

BUT, yes, the prosperity we are promised is the fruit of the spirit, love joy and peace.

the prosperity teachers have subverted what God gives, bypassingrepentance to receive joy in favour of wealth from magical invocation called faith.

PG is heretical. good vid!

[godfather89]

Father Barron, what is your opinion on CG Jung's "Answer to Job"? I am a Catholic but I was wondering if you could comment on Jung's Answer to Job.

[voyagersystem]

I was in a small church in my local area and the congregation were reciting The Lord's Prayer. Knowing that a demon was listening, I deliberately emphasised the line, "Deliver us from evil". When I got home the demon had sent me an email. The header said, "Deliver her to pleasure." Many are delivered to pleasure and prosperity. It reminds me of hiefers being fattened up before the slaughter.

[fantom58]

@capone70 Not my favorite book, either. It portrays God as a mercurial sadist. Hard to believe that the Book of Job is divinely inspired.

[fantom58]

@capone70 Not my favorite book, either. It portrays God as a mercurial sadist. Hard to believe that the Book of Job is divinely inspired.