Poverty and sickness are not the anti-Gospel
Loss of material wealth and physical health should not be seen as evidence someone is not a Believer.
Those who preach the heresy known as the “health and wealth gospel” (HAWG) can cite verse after verse of God’s promises, but we should recognize that the HAWG heresy is built on doctrinal truth. God does indeed love to give good gifts to His children. The Bible is filled with promises of good things from God. After all, He is so loving that He sends the rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) so that their crops will grow.
But what of Christians who suffering? Has God broken His promises? When a Christian is suffering, does that mean he is not actually saved? Does a Christian losing everything mean he is not Elect? Absolutely not.
The most obvious example from Scripture is the book of Job, where God allowed Satan to take everything from this upright man. His children were killed, his wealth was lost, and ultimately his body was ravaged by boils. Job’s friends assumed he had sinned in some way, but ultimately this test proved Job’s faithfulness. Servants of God – especially His prophets – were persecuted, slain, and sawed in half. This theme continues in the New Testament, where Jesus tells us in John 15:20 that if the world hates Him, they will hate us also. The Apostle Paul cites a litany of his sufferings in II Corinthians 11:23-27, and all the Apostles suffered violent deaths at the hands of the pagan Roman Empire.
To be sure, there are temporal consequences for our sin. This is clear from Scripture, and suffering can be a wonderful opportunity to repent of our sin. But we live in a superficial time where it is easy for HAWG to slip into our thinking, especially since we live in the wealthiest nation on earth at the wealthiest time in human history. But the danger of that is we could see the opposite: Suffering, instead of being a normal part of life as seen through all of human history, is seen as evidence of God’s judgment or evidence that we are not saved at all. While wealth and health are the gospel, poverty and sickness are seen as the anti-gospel. We must reject this mentality, because it is rank heresy. Do not allow earthly suffering to crush your spirit. Have faith and love God.