By: Festus-Hector Ijebor
Good day everyone. I read a post recently on the following link (www.naij.com/608766-jesus-died-money-popular-pastor.html) about an American Pastor (Creflo Augustus Dollar) who said that "Jesus bled and died for (Financial Prosperity) so that we can lay claim to the promise of financial prosperity" and his so many sermons centered on financial prosperity backed up with wrong interpretations of scriptural messages. What a heretical statement, wrong ideology and misinterpretation of the scriptures! The Scripture says; "Seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and every other thing will be added to you" ((Matthew 6:33). This is the teaching of Christ. Financial Prosperity was never the sermons of Jesus Christ, neither did our Lord's life style reflect it. Jesus' sermons were based on Love, repentance, conversion, God's Kingdom e.t.c. Christ's suffering and death on the cross was for man's salvation. Jesus' coming into the world was primarily for the salvation of man which was made possible by the DIVINE LOVE OF GOD. Salvation here, implies that man be saved from sin and death and inherit the Kingdom of God after life here on earth (which is the key important aspect of Christ's coming ). I begin to wonder why the so called "Man of God" would limit Christ's death on the cross to the promise of financial and material gains. Jesus didn't die on the cross for us because he wants us to be rich or wealthy. It is a misinterpretation of the purpose of Christ's death on the cross. This is a very wrong ideology or explanation of the scriptures.
Christ died for us in order to set us free from sin and from the grasp of satan and to inherit God's Kingdom. It is rather so unfortunate that most pastors or men of God deviate from preaching the Gospel of God's Kingdom and His righteousness to preaching financial sermons or breakthrough. The Gospel of Holiness, has been replaced with prosperity sermons, financial breakthrough, and the likes. Is that what our Lord mandated us to do? Dear friends, please do not be deceived by these prosperity preachers and their "money centered sermons". The mandate given to us by Christ is to preach the Good News of God's Kingdom, Baptism, Holiness, Repentance and the message of salvation which all culminate into the salvation of man. That is why the scripture says in 1 Timothy 2:4; "it is the will of God that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth; more so, Luke 15:7 tells us that "there will be much rejoicing in heaven over a repentant sinner...." As children of God therefore, it is our responsibility to preach Christ to others and win souls for God and not to focus our homilies or sermons on material gains or financial breakthrough.
Often time, we preach about prosperity and the likes and forget about the message of "THE CROSS". Let's take a brief look at the following passages, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23) "And He said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me". (Luke 14:27) "And whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple". These are the teachings of Christ. We neglect this vital and important aspect of our Christian journey and focus on material gains. In this present generation, there is now a chasm between Christianity that is Real and Christianity that is contaminated with the contagion of its time."This difference is so huge and can be easily differentiated by the ways and manners some so called Christians live their life. We should note that Christianity that is decayed or contaminated never speaks of the Cross except to scream against it and this is very much seen in the actions of some so-called men of God whenever they mount the pulpit and even their life styles depict it. In other words, a contaminated Christianity never speaks of the Cross rather it tries to refine the message of the Cross to suit itself-fish interest and it is very unfortunate that this kind of so called "Christianity" has huge number of followers.(This is an abuse of Christianity). In this present era, many speak of Jesus Christ but they know nothing of His Cross and Passion. They think they are talking about Christianity but they are not. They preach a "tribal religion or religion of prosperity" that uses Christian words, a form of humanism, a glorified ideology, bits and pieces they have gathered from the rubble of Faith. They do not really believe in Jesus Christ because they do not look to His Cross. Dear friends, we should know that when we reject Christ's suffering and death we reject Him".
Often time, we preach about prosperity and the likes and forget about the message of "THE CROSS". Let's take a brief look at the following passages, (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23) "And He said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me". (Luke 14:27) "And whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple". These are the teachings of Christ. We neglect this vital and important aspect of our Christian journey and focus on material gains. In this present generation, there is now a chasm between Christianity that is Real and Christianity that is contaminated with the contagion of its time."This difference is so huge and can be easily differentiated by the ways and manners some so called Christians live their life. We should note that Christianity that is decayed or contaminated never speaks of the Cross except to scream against it and this is very much seen in the actions of some so-called men of God whenever they mount the pulpit and even their life styles depict it. In other words, a contaminated Christianity never speaks of the Cross rather it tries to refine the message of the Cross to suit itself-fish interest and it is very unfortunate that this kind of so called "Christianity" has huge number of followers.(This is an abuse of Christianity). In this present era, many speak of Jesus Christ but they know nothing of His Cross and Passion. They think they are talking about Christianity but they are not. They preach a "tribal religion or religion of prosperity" that uses Christian words, a form of humanism, a glorified ideology, bits and pieces they have gathered from the rubble of Faith. They do not really believe in Jesus Christ because they do not look to His Cross. Dear friends, we should know that when we reject Christ's suffering and death we reject Him".
It is true that we need some of these material possessions but that shouldn't be the center of our Christian calling.The Center of Christianity is the Cross of Christ and we can not run away from this "Truth". We may claim to ignore it or suppress it but it can never be removed from our Christian life. As Christians, our focus should be on God and not on the benefits of material gains. He definitely knows we need them but let's worship Him in Truth and in Spirit and He will bless us with every other aspect of our needs. Thus, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness should be our priority. Let's be focused in worshiping God not because of financial gains but because He is God, our Father, and our Creator. Shun any so called man of God who centers his homily or sermons majorly on prosperity. He is not to be trusted because he has deviated from the REAL MESSAGE of Jesus Christ. "He is a follower of the contaminated Christianity". Don't be deceived. This is my humble submission.
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