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A Catholic priest in Nigeria, John Oluoma, has stated that the prosperity gospel is a rip-off and satanic and that Christians ought to discountenance it.
Mr Oluoma, in any other case generally known as Fada Oluoma, said this in a Fb submit on Saturday the place he rhetorically requested why the Nigerian economic system, for example, has continued to deteriorate “regardless of all of the crossover and January prayers, decrees and prophecies”.
“What’s the essence of doing all these religious workout routines if they aren’t working?” stated Mr Oluoma whose bio on Fb says he’s a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
“There’s completely nothing improper with prayers, fasting, prophecies and decrees,” he stated. “There could possibly be all the things improper with the motive and type of prayers, fasting, prophecies and decrees.”
What’s prosperity gospel?
Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the prosperity gospel as “the instructing that religion—expressed by constructive ideas, constructive declarations, and donations to the church—attracts well being, wealth, and happiness into believers’ lives.
“Additionally it is known as the ‘well being and wealth gospel’ or ‘identify it and declare it.’
“Central to this instructing are the beliefs that salvation by Jesus Christ consists of liberation from not solely loss of life and everlasting damnation but additionally poverty, illness, and different ills. Adherents consider that God desires believers to be richly blessed on this life and that bodily well-being and materials riches are at all times God’s will for the devoted. Sickness and poverty are seen as curses that, by atonement, might be damaged with religion in Jesus,” it added.
Prosperity gospel is a world motion frequent amongst Protestant Christianity. It started within the early twentieth century and has continued to achieve floor in numerous elements of the world.
Globally, Joel Osteen, Creflo Greenback, Kenneth Copeland, and Kenneth Hagin are among the many well-known prosperity preachers.
David Oyedepo, a Nigerian cleric and bishop of Residing Religion Church, also referred to as Winners’ Chapel, is among the many globally recognised prosperity preachers.
One other Nigerian cleric, Matthew Ashimolowo, the senior pastor of Kingsway Worldwide Christian Centre, London, can be prime on the listing of prosperity preachers on this planet.
‘Israel’s wealth not from prayers’
Mr Oluoma, the Catholic priest, stated Israel which Christians all around the world check with because the Holy Land “by no means prospered economically at any level by prayers, prophecies and decrees”.
He stated, “The height of Israel’s financial prosperity within the Outdated Testomony interval was the monarchy, it’s the eighth Century BC. They had been so affluent that they turned immoral, and that’s the interval of the rise of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah Elisha, Amos and the remaining. God raised prophets to warn them of the hazard of materialism, to not make them affluent.”
Persevering with, the Catholic priest stated, “How this era of Nigerian Christians purchased the gospel of prosperity and cling tightly to it regardless of the contradictory proof must be probably the most subtle sort of delusion for research.
“Prosperity gospel and its overt and refined corollaries is a hoax, a rip-off and a satanic thought.”
Mr Oluoma quoted some strains from the Beatitudes – “Blessed are you who’re poor for yours is the dominion of God (Luke 6:20)” – and a verse from the Bible, Mark 10:21-25, the place Jesus talked about how troublesome it could possibly be for a wealthy man to enter the dominion of God.
Apparently, referring to Jesus, he stated, “How might the person who stated all these and lived by them make you rich as a result of another person made such prayer and decrees in his identify?
“He by no means made any of his followers financially affluent. These like Mathew who had been rich turned poor by following him. Then somebody tells you at this time that by uttering decrees and prayers in his identify you’ll turn out to be financially affluent and the Naira will turn out to be equal to a greenback, and also you consider? You might be simply delusional and ignorant.”
The priest stated his remark doesn’t imply that Nigerians ought to cease praying.
“Ought to we cease praying? Nope, the consequences of the real prayers and fasts and different pieties we do are exhibiting. The truth that the bulk are nonetheless exhausting working and never resorting to banditry, armed theft, prostitution and different harmful vices to make a dwelling regardless of the hardship is a grace from these prayers.
“The truth that the bulk nonetheless consider in God, love God and other people, and unfold love and hope within the midst of the financial woes are the consequences of the real prayers and pieties supplied right here.
“Real prayers and pieties are working, solely the ineffective ones usually are not. Pretend and false prophecies don’t work, have by no means labored and can by no means work,” he added.
‘It’s hypocrisy to assault prosperity gospel’
Joseph Prince, a 60-year-old Singaporean evangelist and the senior pastor, New Creation Church in Singapore, is among the many world faces of the prosperity gospel.
Mr Prince, in 2021, defended the prosperity gospel. He stated those that had been attacking it had been simply being hypocritical.
“The improper teachings of prosperity that produce materialism, greed, avarice, we’re all towards that. However these which can be towards prosperity as an entire are negating the scripture…
“There’s some hypocrisy right here as a result of a lot of them are prospering. They’ve a couple of automotive, they dwell in costly houses, they ship their kids to the very best colleges, and so they need their kids to succeed. However all of the whereas they’re coming towards prosperity. So, the query I need to ask is who do they offer credit score to for their very own success and prosperity? To themselves, they’re sensible? No, God desires to get all of the glory,” he stated.
Repentant prosperity preacher
A repentant prosperity preacher in Nigeria, Abel Damina, stated a lot of his fellow Nigerian pastors have consistently attacked him for preaching that pastors had been utilizing prosperity messages to extort.
“My drawback started with organised faith the second I stated there’s nothing like seed and tapping by giving cash. All hell broke free – how can Dr Damina say you don’t want to offer cash to be blessed, you don’t want to offer to God for God to multiply your cash? How can Dr Damina be attacking our enterprise empire? How can he be driving our clients away?
“We’ve been feeding on the ignorance of gullible Christians,” Mr Damina, who’s the pastor of the Uyo-based Energy Metropolis Worldwide, stated in a video clip posted on Fb.
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