This teaching has caused a cleavage within Pente ranks—there are some who are vehemently opposed to it and others who are equally fervent in their support of it. We will look at what the Early Church Fathers had to say about it. It may come as a surprise to some that they did indeed give us many passages that deal with the subject (although the actual doctrine itself did not exist in its present form—at least not within the Church).
What would the Fathers have to say to preachers who have homes costing millions of dollars and all the finery of the world? Let St. Clement of Alexandria speak first to that.
The elaborate vanity, too, of vessels in glass chased, more apt to break on account of the art, teaching us to fear while we drink, is to be banished from our well-ordered constitution. And silver couches, and pans and vinegar-saucers, and trenchers and bowls; and besides these, vessels of silver and gold, some for serving food, and others for other uses which I am ashamed to name, of easily cleft cedar and thyine wood, and ebony, and tripods fashioned of ivory, and couches with silver feet and inlaid with ivory, and folding-doors of beds studded with gold and variegated with tortoise-shell, and bed-clothes of purple and other colours difficult to produce, proofs of tasteless luxury, cunning devices of envy and effeminacy,—are all to be relinquished, as having nothing whatever worth our pains. “For the time is short,” as says the apostle. [ANF 2: 247; The Instructor; bk. II; ch. III]
While the particular luxuries have changed over the years, the principle has not. What about the high life that many Christians so desire? Again St. Clement has an answer.
It is sin, for example, to live luxuriously and licentiously… [ANF 2: 361; The Stromata; bk. II; ch. XV]
The Shepherd of Hermas gives us this telling passage.
“Foremost of all is the desire after another’s wife or husband, and after extravagance, and many useless dainties and drinks, and many other foolish luxuries; for all luxury is foolish and empty in the servants of God. These, then, are the evil desires which slay the servants of God. For this evil desire is the daughter of the devil. You must refrain from evil desires, that by refraining ye may live to God. But as many as are mastered by them, and do not resist them, will perish at last, for these desires are fatal.” [ANF 2: 28; Book Second; Command Twelfth]
Minucius Felix writes the following of the Christians in The Octavius.
Thus it is, that rich men, attached to their means, have been accustomed to gaze more upon their gold than upon heaven, while our sort of people, though poor, have both discovered wisdom, and have delivered their teaching to others; whence it appears that intelligence is not given to wealth, nor is gotten by study, but is begotten with the very formation of the mind. [ANF 4: 181; ch. XVI]
Notice how he speaks of “our sort of people,” in other words Christians, as being poor. Why didn’t he rebuke them and tell them to have more faith and learn their prosperity verses? But surely he understands how much good can be done by wealthy Christians. Let’s see.
Are you rich? But fortune is ill trusted; and with a large travelling equipage [baggage] the brief journey of life is not furnished, but burdened. [ANF 4: 196; The Octavius; ch. XXXVII]
Similarly Commodianus tells us in The Instructions
Thou rejectest, unhappy one, the advantage of heavenly discipline, and rushest into death while wishing to stray without a bridle. Luxury and the shortlived joys of the world are ruining thee, whence thou shalt be tormented in hell for all time. They are vain joys with which thou art foolishly delighted. Do not these make thee to be a man dead? [ANF 4: 207; ch. XXVI]
In The Divine Institutes Lactantius tells us about the dangers of wealth also.
For whoever has extended his hope beyond the present, and chosen better things, will be without these earthly goods, that, being lightly equipped and without impediment, he may overcome the difficulty of the way. For it is impossible for him who has surrounded himself with royal pomp, or loaded himself with riches, either to enter upon or to persevere in these difficulties. And from this it is understood that it is easier for the wicked and the unrighteous to succeed in their desires, because their road is downward and on the decline; but that it is difficult for the good to attain to their wishes, because they walk along a difficult and steep path. Therefore the righteous man, since he has entered upon a hard and rugged way, must be an object of contempt, derision, and hatred. [ANF 7: 165; bk. VI; ch. IV]
St. Cyprian gives us the following very explicit passage on wealth in his treatise On the Dress of Virgins.
You say that you are wealthy and rich, and you think that you should use those things which God has willed you to possess. Use them, certainly, but for the things of salvation; use them, but for good purposes; use them, but for those things which God has commanded, and which the Lord has set forth. Let the poor feel that you are wealthy; let the needy feel that you are rich. Lend your estate to God; give food to Christ. Move Him by the prayers of many to grant you to carry out the glory of virginity, and to succeed in coming to the Lord’s rewards. There entrust your treasures, where no thief digs through, where no insidious plunderer breaks in. Prepare for yourself possessions; but let them rather be heavenly ones, where neither rust wears out, nor hail bruises, nor sun burns, nor rain spoils your fruits constant and perennial, and free from all contact of worldly injury. For in this very matter you are sinning against God, if you think that riches were given you by Him for this purpose, to enjoy them thoroughly, without a view to salvation. [ANF 5: 433; treatise II; par. 11]
The following lengthy passage from St. Cyprian’s treatise On the Lapsed is a good summation of patristic thought on the subject of wealth.
The truth, brethren, must not be disguised; nor must the matter and cause of our wound be concealed. A blind love of one’s own property has deceived many; nor could they be prepared for, or at ease in, departing when their wealth fettered them like a chain. Those were the chains to them that remained—those were the bonds by which both virtue was retarded, and faith burdened, and the spirit bound, and the soul hindered; so that they who were involved in earthly things might become a booty and food for the serpent, which, according to God’s sentence, feeds upon earth. And therefore the Lord the teacher of good things, forewarning for the future time, says, “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” If rich men did this, they would not perish by their riches; if they laid up treasure in heaven, they would not now have a domestic enemy and assailant. Heart and mind and feeling would be in heaven, if the treasure were in heaven; nor could he be overcome by the world who had nothing in the world whereby he could be overcome. He would follow the Lord loosed and free, as did the apostles, and many in the times of the apostles, and many who forsook both their means and their relatives, and clave to Christ with undivided ties.
But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty heights, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they possess, when they are rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not lords with respect to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their money. These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he says, “But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and in perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money, which, while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” [ANF 5: 440; treatise III; pars. 11-12]
It certainly does not sound like these writers were Word of Faith prosperity preachers. In fact, they seem to indicate that the things which the “King’s Kids” so proudly proclaim and seek after may indeed be grave dangers to their souls.
