"Many of life's worst dangers are unsuspected. Where we suppose there is good and blessing--there may be hidden peril. Most of us think of a life of ease, leisure, and luxury--as the most highly favored lot, one to be envied. We are not apt to think of it as one of danger. Yet there is no doubt that a life of rugged toil, hardship, and self-denial, which we took upon as almost a misfortune, is far safer than one of ease.

When we open our Bible we find that a state of wealth, is indeed set down as one full of spiritual peril. It was Jesus who said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And Paul said, "Those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all evil."

It is not the popular impression, that wealth is a condition in which danger lurks. Yet thousands of souls have been lost in the valley of gold! Many a man's envied fortune, is in God's sight, but the splendid mausoleum of his soul." (J. R. Miller, "The Every Day of Life" 1892).

It is remarkable that so many fall for the blatant appeal to our fallen nature for the things it craves most, worldly wealth, which is dressed up in Christian costume. It is unbelievable that so many professing believers actually flaunt this type of prosperity preaching as God's answer to man's dilemma. Have they not read their Bibles? Have they not heard the warning of Jesus? Do they value their bodies so highly and regard their souls so lightly? Their is only one true answer:

They have been duped by the Devil!

Their is no such thing as a prosperity Gospel. The only Gospel in Scripture is one of self-denial. The Good News is that we can be rich spiritually, when we have given everything to Christ!

As one wise man put it: "It is not by our purses, but by our character that we are rich or poor."

Theodore Zachariades.