by using ALBERT AFESO AKANBI
"In Covid I bought a jet…the third one, I even have three… i was praying for Covid not to end because i used to be resting…my spouse asked me she said; 'can existence be this candy?' there's a hearsay going round that I even have a laptop that print funds…when you communicate in tongues you are printing cash!"-Apostle Johnson Suleiman, founder, Omega hearth Ministry.
Apostle Suleiman roused emotions among Nigerians on social media, a few days ago, over a video during which he made the above comment. Most people took his phrases to mean happiness over the latest pandemic and all of the ills that come with it.
although the man is not new to scandals(don't forget the Otobo episode and the recent adultery accusation through one more pastor), I believe the person became attempting to make the element that despite a deadly disease, like him, his individuals can make gains too.
but in doing so, he unwittingly passed two messages. He pushed the concept that almost all Christians would trust heresy by using suggesting that 'if you communicate in tongues you're printing cash', and he seemed that materialism mattered more to him and his spouse than the gospel.
here is why I draw this conclusion.
First off, Saint Peter and the different Disciples who knew Jesus first hand, and even Apostle Paul who we're informed Jesus himself seemed to, all encouraged believers to apply "talking with other tongues" within the worship of God and as a way of religious edification. there is nowhere in the Holy Bible that speaking in tongues is linked to funds.
Then, sometimes around 2019, information broke of how the man received his first jet. With phrases of praise like "God's personal Oracle…the Lion of Africa" etc, his participants and admirers flooded the internet with images and video clips of the person gracing the internal of the jet.
Understandably, a couple of Nigerians at that time criticised the movement. Such criticism is expected notably because the country had simply bought the popularity of the area's capital of severe poverty then.
As average, some americans at once rose to his defense. Even Reno Omokri, one-time President Jonathan's Assistant made a reside fb video during which he explained how the man had despatched two very poor church participants to school overseas, how they entire, acquired very good jobs, made so a whole lot funds, and then decided to buy him the jet with out his competencies. Some americans accused Mr. Omokri then of been inspired by the indisputable fact that, in response to his personal words, Apostle Suleiman "…helped me raise funds for the Free Leah Sharibu move"
inner most jets, deepest yachts and the like, are luxuries linked certainly with extremely prosperous americans, so what does a man who, on many events has admonished his individuals to use their resources in helping the needy, want three for?
Some analysts have argued that he got his jets under situations shrouded in opaqueness and that's why he essential individuals and allies to offer explanations for him. but he himself got here out to inform Nigerians that"…when you are complaining about one jet I don't understand what you are going to do when we get 50…load your gunpowder…as a result of we are just beginning."
In response, analysts say for a man who relies on donations from which he's tax-exempt, a person who has no tangible patent to his name, that that was no longer just a conceited response, however one which smirks of delight, anything completely unlike Jesus Christ. Others ask what's so urgent about his message that he mandatory jets to propagate peculiarly with a church whose individuals don't exceed one hundred fifty,000 worldwide, in an age of mild pace web connection. They also say if it became the want for quickly travels that necessitated the jets, ho come his journeys are sometimes to Europe and the us where Christianity got here from and is thriving today, as opposed to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia the place the gospel is urgently needed.
although the Church is doing extraordinary things, however do we continue to pretend not to observe the upheaval the message of some of those pastors is doing to the psyche of our individuals and contributing to the Nigerian circumstance?
What in regards to the message of Jesus that emphasises contentment as towards these wishy-washy teachings that proceed to inundate us with the doctrines of prosperity, albeit, in any respect prices?
He has boasted that God instructed him he would give him 50 jets. however why would God supply one man that a good deal and refuse to repair only 1 of the myriad financial problems that plague the small Auchi community the place his church is domiciled? If a person builds his ministry on financial prosperity, what is going to he do when the donations dry up?
As a pastor, may still not the Apostle, greater than any one else, comprehend that this category of theology, which is so pervasive today in Nigeria anyway, is a distortion of the message of Jesus and doesn't equip Nigerians to take care of the challenges of existence, that are very rampant in our nation these days, above all man-made ones?
If wealth and health are an indication of God's favor, what's going to one do when one loses any or both? this is the query we must all ask ourselves because we are frail people and we are dirt and no matter if believers or no longer, decent or evil comes to each person irrespective of religion. Go to any health facility today, you are going to discover believers and non-believers there.
I suppose the clergy should emulate Jesus who, consistent with God's heart expressed through the Prophets of old, carried on the culture of moderation and defending the terrible. He even advised the church at Laodicea who boast as some have accused Apostle Suleiman of doing today, "You say, 'i am wealthy; I actually have got wealth and don't want a issue. however you do not realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked"
Jesus turned over the tables of moneychangers and drove out those that profited from religion, he referred to as tax collectors to repentance, and mentioned to "store up for yourselves riches in heaven the place nothing can steal or ruin it".
whereas Jesus isn't suggesting that we all reside destitutely, he obviously warned about the first rate risks of a determined quest for wealth, and the power it has to shift the intellect to issues which are ephemeral.
He explicitly warned that man can't serve God and mammon -the god of money. That it's simpler for a camel to go during the Eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter God's kingdom.
He got here all the way down to earth in response to Christian theology, took on human flesh, and dwelt amongst sinful humans within the dust of this world, thereby environment aside his wealth in heaven.
In his nativity story, we see how he turned into born in a overseas metropolis most likely devoid of family and chums around, being placed in a manger, literally a feeding trough for animals, and being visited by means of shepherds, strangers who have been considered by way of most americans in those days to be the outcasts of society.
At his circumcision, saint Luke reports that Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons as a temple sacrifice for Mary's purification as ordered in the Bible publication of Leviticus as a result of they have been too terrible to "manage to pay for a lamb…" which turned into the customized.
despite the fact that Jesus become born into a household that was a part of the decrease economic class, 30 years after, all through his earthly ministry, his material lifestyles turned into not any more suitable. Even he himself commented on his financial fame when he referred to, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, however the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head"
And the Gospel narratives too bear out this testimony after they reported that he preached from borrowed boats, increased borrowed food, rode on a borrowed colt, and become buried in a borrowed tomb.
i can go on and on, but nowadays, it seems we now have some sets of clergymen that, rather than offer protection to the sheep, evangelize the lost and talk certainty to vigour, they are so misplaced in materialism they obfuscate the message of Christ.
The truth is, at the back of this materialistic quest is a kind of unbridled GREED.
Many may also now not see this, however a few of us do. here is why i'd conclude with the prayer of His Holiness, Pope Francis I; "…Lord, please contact the hearts of those people who worship… the god of money …And also touch my coronary heart, so I don't fall into this too, in order that i can see."
Amen.
Albert Afeso Akanbi is a writer, documentary filmmaker and humanitarian. He writes from Abuja. connect with him on social media by means of @Dopplerfilmz
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