On today’s Equipping You in Grace show, Dave Jenkins and Costi Hinn discuss his personal involvement in the prosperity gospel, the history of the prosperity gospel, and how to respond to it and warn people about it, along with his new book, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel: How Truth Overwhelms a Life Built on Lies (Zondervan, 2019).
What you’ll hear in this episode
- What precisely the prosperity gospel is.
- The history of the prosperity gospel and how it came into being.
- Why warning people about the prosperity gospel is essential.
- The proper response to the prosperity gospel.
- The importance of understanding the sovereignty of God.
- How the prosperity gospel teaching is at odds with the sovereignty of God.
- What Costi’s background growing up the nephew of a famous televangelist and his father in pastoral ministry was like.
- When Costi first began doubting the prosperity gospel.
- How the prosperity gospel uses media to advance its message.
- The need for expository preaching.
- How Christians should respond to suffering in their lives.
- Why questioning the teachings, Costi grew up with was so hard for him.
- The danger of a “performance-based” mindset in the Christian life and the prosperity gospel.
- The importance of the home to ministry.
- When Costi realized that the lavious lifestyle he and his family were living was supported by people who didn’t live anything like he and his family did.
- How for Costi meeting his wife helped changed the trajectory of his life from being in the prosperity gospel and thinking ministry was a higher priority than marriage to a more biblically balanced view.
- Costi’s relationship with his family looks like today.
- The importance of Christians getting in a solid local church.
- The importance of serving in a solid local church for the Christian life.
About the Guest
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Thanks for listening to this episode of Equipping You in Grace!
Dave Jenkins is happily married to his wife, Sarah. He is a writer, editor, and speaker living in beautiful Southern Oregon. Dave is a lover of Christ, His people, the Church, and sound theology. He serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine, the Host and Producer of Equipping You in Grace Podcast, and is a contributor to and producer of Contending for the Word. He is the author of The Word Explored: The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy and What To Do About It (House to House, 2021), The Word Matters: Defending Biblical Authority Against the Spirit of the Age (G3 Press, 2022), and Contentment: The Journey of a Lifetime (Theology for Life, 2024). You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or read his newsletter. Dave loves to spend time with his wife, going to movies, eating at a nice restaurant, or going out for a round of golf with a good friend. He is also a voracious reader, in particular of Reformed theology, and the Puritans. You will often find him when he’s not busy with ministry reading a pile of the latest books from a wide variety of Christian publishers. Dave received his M.A.R. and M.Div through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.
