Alma 10

(September 20, 2015)

                We have, in our culture, a prosperity gospel that sometimes threatens to replace the Gospel.  In the prosperity gospel, we see people that are successful in their chosen profession, and we believe that they must be particularly righteous.  This, of course, is in contrast to the envious gospel, where we see someone successful and we believe they must be particularly evil.

                In reality, of course, wealth is really only tangential to our worth as children of God (so small of an impact as to be negligible).  It only becomes more meaningful when it becomes associated with pride, greed, envy, and other negative spiritual characteristics (or with sacrifice, charity, and other positive ones).  But this chapter makes it expressly clear that riches – even when those riches are acquired through industry – are not synonymous with righteousness.