by Olumide Goodness Adeyinka
THE contemptuous and reckless daring, the intrepid boldness, the nervy, brazen-faced
impertinence, the brassy insolence and the saucy delivery with which the preachers of prosperity messages brandish their gospel of greed and avarice, in sure contrast with other sincere messages of the gospel of TRUTH is amazingly burdensome. Nothing has challenged me more, as a person, a follower of Christ and a preacher too; than the cunning craft and the deceptive crookery by which contradictory doubleness of speech and actions are seemingly balanced by the messengers of error. How they are able to maintain a float in the whole episode of reading the Bible everyday along with their massive followership all over the world, without sounding distorting and confusing enough to endanger their audience with their very unsound doctrine and seriously erroneous sermons? The simple answer is their mastery of the game of assertive aggressiveness along with the mechanism of mind-control in deep audacious command! They appear like a Dove but with an underlying belly of a Snake!
Their look as always presented them as saints, but their underlying intention and lifestyle has pitched them with the ungodly. The Bible said and I quote;
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Corinthians 5: 16).
We have always known them by the flesh of their simplicity in conduct on the pulpit, their piercing ‘holy’ walk in the corridors, their gentle whisper of prayers after every greetings from the pew, the confession of the love they have for members, their verbal outpour of concern and feelings, their far-distant relationship, and the ‘glory’ of followership identity with anything around them. That, and many more have fooled many in defining men of God! What we have failed to do is so much, and that is where the confusion and deception feeds from. We have not dared to see them beyond what they say into the probe of why they say it. We have not dared to look closely on how they live and the departure it has from the scripture they preach. We have not dared to ask questions on who they live with and source information on how they lived with them. We have failed to ask about the spirit behind their message and have only assumed it comes from God since He is mentioned regularly. We have failed to ask questions about the vast materialistic possession they acquire and why, and what for. We have refused to probe into the source of their wealth and how it grows. We do not want to know so much about them as much as we always want to hear them instruct us how to fund their lifestyle of vanity.
I then came to the conclusion that the pew is as guilty as the pulpit!
Let us look at a scripture that has become the foundation upon which prosperity message are built in the last 50 years. It is a larger than life message of blessing to the entire mankind but turned to be ‘fishing net’ for spoils of economic gain for the pulpit. Humanity has lost the blessedness of that scripture because of the intended abuse and the obfuscation of its derived emphasis in meaning and applications. I had already written on the abuse of Abrahamic sacrifice as a scripture to milk the people of God in my last essay. Please find it and read.
“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done . 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”
The story around this scripture is so clear and had no ambiguity in it. Noah was favored to build an Ark that will save humanity at a perilous time of disobedience to God. Noah did, and after the episode of the flood all the men and women with the animals that were preserved in the Ark came out to a new earth. The first thing to understand is that when God brought the flood, all natural laws were suspended. Noah and the rest were locked up for a year, and none of them saw a day or night. They were shut off. Now it becomes pertinent for God to restore the laws of life on earth back to its originality in order for Noah and the people and animals to live successfully. Noah came out, and traditionally offered God a sweet smelling aroma of offering, and God was appeased. Then God issued out a decree to restore life. Now, the decree of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night are to reestablish an order of the laws of creation so that man and the creatures can live on earth. It has absolutely nothing to do with giving money or treasures of life to God. Here, God gave man another opportunity of dosage of blessings, the curse on the ground was lifted and blessings pronounced. Why would such a clear unambiguous passage of the scripture become so abused and used to abuse so many people all in the name of serving God? Why and how did we get here for God’s sake?
The elements of life were ordered to go back to position and make life suitable for man, but the ministers of their own belly had turned it into a resource for pillaging and pilfering the reward of people’s labor. What a travesty!
So a message of seedtime became a mantra for the prosperity-Christian world. Seed is expected every time they gather, and it has to be in a measure of the harvest you envisaged. That is another part of the puzzle that still troubles my sanity as a believer. They ask you to sow in millions and thousands so you reap in bounties. My knowledge of Agriculture teaches me to sow two corn seed and get about 2 full cobs of several hundreds grains in return. That principle has not failed till date, but my people had sown many seeds, and are still sowing more, yet have not reaped the harvest of one sown a while ago. Shouldn’t people be asking questions? They have turned a love-doing into a lawful-effort at twisting God’s hands to bless people. God has more than made a lie out of such ungodly principles because it is not rooted in truth, yet my people will not yield to wisdom. I know many pastors who are my friends before who will not want to have anything to do with me again because, according to them, I am ‘fighting’ the gospel. I have adopted the attitude to be with God in truth of His word than be friends of vanity or Mammon!
Please do not be confused that I am against the Godly act of giving. No! I am against the treacherous compulsion and threat that have been built around it. The threats on tithes and offerings are all over. Statements made to ruffle your feathers and force you to give because there is a need of somebody’s ego to be met. Giving is recommended by the Bible as an act of love to others who are in need. That is the only reason anyone has enough or more, the poor. When it comes to the need of the ministry, it has to be voluntary, willing and without any compulsion. Prosperity preachers play around that, force you by default and threat of poverty, and turn around to tell you it should be willing. They take advantage of the weakness of man’s heart, and they know it.
No better portion of the scripture drives home my point than the passages in Luke chapter Twelve.
The Bible said in various places in that chapter how
man should trust God enough for everyday provisions. An example of the cheap Sparrows was made on how God so care for it, yet we are worth much more than they. I will like to read a portion of it.
“And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Takeno thought for your life, what ye shall eat ; neither for the body, what ye shall put on .23The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.24Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap ; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?…. Sell that ye have , and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old , a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth , neither moth corrupteth .34For where your treasure is , there will your heart be also”.
The Laws of sowing and reaping has nothing to do with giving to your Church or Pastor. For the work of the ministry, it has to be without compulsion so no law is established. It must be willing. The natural law of reaping what you sow is a general law of life. When you give to the poor, it is a command, not a willing thing. It is a must to do. However, the present Church of Prosperity has taken that law beyond its confines to steal from the people.
In the above passage, Jesus made it clear that sowing will never be a means of getting blessed. You do not need to sow to live or make God remember you. God never forgot about you in the first instance. Let no one deceive you, sowing your money is an exercise in futility if it is not to the poor. It has no Biblical principles backing it. What God wants you to sow is your love and care to the brethren and the poor. Seeding or sowing is as strange as sacrificial offerings. Make up your mind what you will give to assist your Bible-believing and Bible-preaching Church, but do not let anyone cajole you by any threat of the book to give in expectation of God’s blessings. God is not a thrift manager.
The beauty of the teaching in Luke is the latter part above, where we are advised to sell all we have (which means provide with all with thy might) and provide alms to the poor because he that gives to the poor actually lends to the Lord. Here is what Apostle Paul has to say
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully . 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly , or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:9 (As it is written , He hath dispersed abroad ; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever”. (II Corithians 9: 6-9)
Let no one deceive you, bountiful and sparring sowing has nothing to do with size of the seed. It is not talking about how big you sow or how much but the spread and reach of your giving. It is a natural law of harvest. You do not clump up the soil with your seed, but you spread it evenly within the abundance of space you have. You have no business giving to all these overfed and spoilt belly ministers, there are others all over the place that you can sow you seed to – they are called the poor! By the way, the abounding offerings gathered by Paul here were distributed to all brethren from Jerusalem to Asia, to those who are working tirelessly for the kingdom. The lie some people tell you about their lives as a fertile ground for your seed is a deception. It is a lie. It is arm-twisting stealing!
Olumide Goodness Adeyinka can be reached at nigardgroup@yahoo.com