SOMETIMES in 1988, a young man stood in his cosmopolitan Lagos, Nigeria neighborhood, pensively shaking his head: Booming voices of pastors, loud singing and clapping were blaring from multitude of churches around him. Imams' voices were thundering from mosques scattered in between the churches, calling for evening worship.

Loud singing and clapping have been keeping him up all night into the wee hours of the day. Loud calls for worship from mosques at dawn have been waking him up every morning!

What’s the point of this cacophony?

He had just witnessed a lady being robbed of her jewelries; snatched off her neck and arms in broad daylight right in front of everyone. A group of hooligans in a Molue public bus; he had just witnessed threatening to use the forehead of the fare collector to extinguish a smoldering Indian Hemp when he dared to ask them for the fare.

What’s the point of it all?

Burglary and robbery were so rampant; wealthy people seemed to be living in prison yards with their houses encased in high walls topped with spikes and barbwires. Crimes everywhere!

What is the point of it all?

Isn’t religion supposed to make a better person of us and the nation at large?

Things are bad: thought the young man.

Some few years later, he came across a golden opportunity to emigrate to USA and he seized it. But then he returned from New York in 2018, stood on the same spot he was in 1988 and surveyed his surroundings.

“And I thought things were bad then!” he exclaimed.

Ear shattering singing and incessant, loud clapping were blaring off loudspeakers in churches seemingly in every other house along the streets.

All around him, streets were lined with imposing billboard and posters: all bearing grandiose faces and full portraits of preachers in designer suits and shoes, their wrists and fingers adorned with Rolex, gold watches and matching rings respectively. These billboards and posters were all embossed with screaming announcements of crusades, revivals, church services promising anointing, miracles, prosperity, etc.

Wow! We have gone from subtle announcements of hidden agenda to open advertisement of pastors and their supposed power to draw prosperity from heaven on to their followers! said the young man to himself.

Meanwhile countries all over the world were advising their citizens to be especially careful when they travel to Nigeria or not to go at all.

Nigerians in diaspora only go home when it is absolutely necessary. Some, as a necessity have to engage the services of trusted security guards when they are in Nigeria. If they are not robbed, they may be kidnapped for ransom.

The walls around houses in Lagos have gotten higher with longer spikes and stronger barbwires while the number of pastors grows exponentially.

That was the experience of a young man when he thought things were really bad.

Now in this digital age, these preachers are all over us, spread all over the world with messages, posts and sermons all over the web forcefully calling for First Seeds, Tithes, Offerings etc., and promising prosperity in return as if they can allot such.

Surely as Christians: followers of Christ, we are to follow the Teachings which issued out of Christ Himself. Where did He teach that one must bring one’s first earnings of the month to the church as a donation? First Seed, they call it.

Lay your treasures in heaven, He taught in the Sermon on the Mount, expressly teaching that one must keep one’s gaze on His Father’s Kingdom, Paradise. Wherever one’s treasures are there obviously lies one’s love.

A simple thought suffices to tell one that the Lord was not talking merely of material things here, for material things cannot be laid as treasures in heaven. But He spoke of that which is more lasting: that which issues out of: pure thoughts; words and deeds that are noble and good which cannot but accord with the Will of the Almighty. Thus, in His Teachings Christ expressly enjoined: In your thoughts, words and deed, focus on that which keeps you connected to your spiritual home, Paradise. We cannot lose sight of this over material donations.

Surely material donation is important, but we cannot place it above thoughts, words and deeds that accord with the Will of the Almighty. And surely Christ Himself associated with the rich when He was here on earth, but He only accepted what was absolutely necessary for His Work and His Message.

He never lured with promises of prosperity. The miracles He performed were never undertaken with the purpose of showing off and drawing attention.

No doubt He was and still IS Divine Power and Wisdom in person but in His power, He showed an unparalleled humility.

Every word He spoke points to the Kingdom of His Father. His Whole Message was geared towards guiding us back to His Father’s Kingdom.

Prosperity preaching shifts man’s gaze away from the spiritual to the material. It stands completely in opposition to the Teachings of Christ.

Through the Grace of the Almighty Father, we now have a knowledge on earth which vividly describes what happens as a soul departs this world. In it one understands that at the point of earthly death, the more attached one is to material things, the harder it gets for the silver cord which attaches the soul to this material body to sever itself, consequently the longer and the more painful the death struggle for such a departing one.

Moreover, a departing soul’s attention is strongly drawn to that which he loves most or longs for: for the one attached to the material that obviously would be his or her material wealth instead of directing his gaze onto the spiritual home. Such a soul can be earthbound for centuries; neither here nor there.

In this, one indeed sees the Divine wisdom lying in the commandment::

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” which Jesus gave us.

Obeying this commandment cannot but keep one’s gaze on the Kingdom of the Almighty and strengthens one’s connection to It. Prosperity preaching does the opposite. It keeps the followers focused on the material, more so when there is an underlying promise that the more one donates, the more prosperous one becomes. And with the routine being that these donations are loudly announced to every ear, the tendency is for the congregants to race against one another on who donates the largest. Thus, with time, the congregants become increasingly focused and attached solely to the material. Herein lies the great, terrible misdeed of Prosperity Preaching.

A true shepherd leads the flock of sheep back to the stable after grazing and strengthening not leaving them bonded onto the grazing field.

These Prosperity Preachers are not doing themselves any good either.

They may think that they are having it good now but in the immutable Justice of the Almighty, they are not free from the effects and consequences of their false teachings, misdeeds and misleads. Exploiting a natural phenomenon in which human beings on earth are at different levels of spiritual maturity cannot but come to hunt them sooner or later.

Not only are they misleading the congregants, they are also encouraging a strong dependence of their followers on them and their deceits. Thereby acting in direct opposition to the Lord’s wish of free human beings: human beings free and unimpeded in their decisions, free to make their decisions and mature through the consequences. No one can ascend without atoning for his or her misdeeds.

Of course, one cannot hold the preachers as the sole guilty party in this, for it only requires these congregants to reject these teachings for legions of these prosperity preachers to disappear.

How does one explain a scenario where a preacher gleefully announced while preaching that he bought his third private jet at the height of  COVID-19 outbreak, that he was praying for the pandemic never to disappear and the congregants busted into a wild applause, clapping joyfully? Life was so good, no stress, the preacher laughed out loud.

How can they still sit, applauding wildly at this?

Some have referred to the adherents of Prosperity Preaching as: unintelligent, morons, etc.

Are they really unintelligent?

No, on the contrary, some are of high intellectual abilities but no doubt needing to wake up from their spiritual lethargy; for intellectual activities is not the same as spiriual activities. A spiritually awake individual would indeed see through these false doctrines.

For one who is spiritually awake, the intuition, the voice of the spirit having its origin in the Truth is forever ready. It would surely guide one to the recognition of the Truth when called to action.

Those who are spiritually awake and attuned to the Truth cannot but sense the Truth when they see or hear it.

                                                                                     Leo

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 In the Land of Prosperity Preachers