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PROSPERITY GOSPEL PREACHING ON NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY
PRUDENT JOSHUA
If effect is viewed in terms of its meanings as result, outcome, end product or consequence; it then
indicates that it is in two forms of either positive or negative or the two together.
As such one expects
to see the good and the ugly sides of the effects of prosperity theology on national development. In
fact, Kituase from the result of his research found that prosperity theology and its tool, that is,
prosperity preaching has challenged endemic poverty through its emphasis on spiritual and economic
empowerment programmes of the prosperity purveyors which is engendering remarkable social,
economic and spiritual transformation in the Nigerian society.
Looking around the country today,
one would see a number of universities that have sprung up under the proprietorship of these
prosperity preachers. This can be considered under national development since as many people who can afford their cost go for them. On the spiritual level also, it is very glaring that majority of
their adherents have learnt to trust and look up to God for their needs.
This is a great achievement in
the confirmation and fulfillment of Karl Marx’s axiom that religion is an opium. There are other
handful pieces of engagements such as providing employments members in church activities. These
have helped to cater for the welfare of these members who otherwise would have resulted to begging
or violence on the streets and thereby solving, at least, some economic and psychological problems.
There are however two ways to the negative aspect of this prosperity theology and preaching.
One is the theology of giving and the other is the theology of expectation of be false hope.
On
the former, the prosperity preachers’ undue or over emphasis on giving (now popularly called
sowing of seed) as an investment for future prosperity backed up wrongly with misinterpretation
or manipulation of the Scriptures by the same “holy men of God” is resulting to misinformation
and misapprehension of people about prosperity and this has had and continues to have negative
influence on a wide scale of the Christians families and churches financially, socially
and spiritually to the sole advantage of the preachers.
On the later, recent trend of things in the world that there seems to be a gradual pattern swing or paradigm shift in the orientation
and inclination of people from hard labor to idleness and from holiness to worldliness just
because people are now being taught to expect much fruit from little labour or no labour at all in
the name of miracle. There is no longer emphasis on hard work to profit and gains or reward.
This is happening to verse majority of the Christian population, especially the many jobless
graduates and other able-bodied youths who should otherwise be self-employed or gainfully
employed in industries or production sector of the economy but looking around churches
for or expecting miracles. It is disheartening to know that it is now on the pulpit that such
negative, deceitful and fruitless encouragement are being proclaimed and propagated. One would
expect otherwise.
If there is any fitting place and occasion where truths of life and nature is to be proclaimed one
would look straight to the pulpit. This theological trend has not in any way encouraged national
development.
About these massive young able-bodied but jobless people filled with false hope,
what can one say, ‘behold your glory being slain upon the mountains. If one should cast
a glance at the special programs and outreaches organized by these prosperity churches, one will
discover the emphasis is not on righteousness or the kingdom of God. Instead, banners, posters,
handbills and radio jingles proclaim “Unceasing Showers of Blessing,” “Twenty Four Hour
Miracles;” or “Stupendous Breakthroughs."
None of them would ever say, Take Your Cross and
Follow Me. They are all full of promises they cannot deliver. Jesus does not promise us a rose
garden in this life. Instead he tells his disciples: “In the world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer. I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). One should ask whatever happens to
such maxims as “no pain no gain” or “no cross no crown." This generation of young (even
elderly) Christians created by prosperity launchers does not believe in suffering or struggle
before victory.
It is very disheartening that these prosperity preachers, would not
allude to models and likes of Anthony Elumelu, Dangote, Alakija who are successful tycoon, or
Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, Tiger Wood of the world of sport. They won't talk about Steve
Jobs, Bill Gates or the young people in Silicon Valley reshaping our world ever new inventions
and innovations.
They won't talk about young American scientists spending endless hours in
search of a cure to diseases killing in the Tropical African region; or talk about Wole Soyinka,
Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Ben Okri of the literature world or academic
world; or the many young men and women who have defiled all odds and became successful
through hard work, creativity and dedication... and neither would they ask members to emulate
the spirit of these individuals.
They would rather talk about one Sister Faith who got a job she
was not the most qualified because she prayed and fasted; or Brother Prosper who became an
instant millionaire because he sowed seed with his salary; or Mr. Miracle who after anointing
two of his children got admission into the university or Mama Esther whose business boomed
everywhere after paying her tithe even without a business plan.
To these prosperity preachers,
the only way to prosper is by paying tithe and sowing seeds. So, they will never talk about those
who have through hardworking and dedication placed themselves in the world map or Guinness
Book of Records. It is as if Your Church has a different God, one who only blesses the first thirty
people that rushed to the altar to drop N1bn as seed. It is like God remunerates only those who sow seeds and make
offerings as well as those who blab the loudest "I am a billionaire" or “I claim it” on Sundays in
the Church and do nothing but rest for the rest of the week.
It is only in your Church one expects God to come down and help his creature to do what they can do or what use the talent He already
gave them and still Him to bless them because they go to the church to shout "Daddy, I receive
it." This kind of mentality has led to a new breed of mentally lazy and derailed young people
who mistake God as a rewarder of mediocrity. This is the greatest disservice to national
development.
The average believers of the prosperity theology and preachers have reduced themselves into
jokers or laughing stock and mudding the name of the Christian religion simply because they
have refused to see they are indolent, reluctant or sluggish enough or not even ready at all to use
their commonsense, brains, hands and other faculties accordingly.
Consequently, majority
continue to experience no transformation in their lives but remain in their abject poverty while
the preachers smile to the bank every Monday morning or receive alert on their bank accounts.
Rather than people working and developing the economic and social structure of the nation, they
are waiting for miracles. Hence, the pace of development in the country is slow. Minds and
abilities are not developed. May be, it will take an angel to come from heaven to tell them that
irrespective of one’s creed, faith or religion, blessings and favours follow the one who uses his or
her talents and become useful to him/herself and to the society.
The effect of this on the nation is
the negative, many of the nation’s human resources and potential are wasting away. It will not be
wrong, in view of this, to conclude that despite the recognition of some positive progress
experienced in the prosperity gospel trend the impacts on the other hand are more damaging than
beneficial in Nigeria as many more people are embracing this mediocrity mentality and
becoming less productive.
In a fractured World, where ethnic group is pitted against ethnic group, race against race,
corruption abounds almost everywhere, people against government against private enterprise,
women against men, the church is looked up to in reorientating minds positively in
collaboration with the government for a revamp and not to take undue advantage of the situation.
No other ministry of the church is greater than this. But the reverse is the case as prosperity
teachers are taking advantage of the situation to amass wealth. They are preying on the gullibility
of the ignorant congregation to skin and scrape them to the bone. They milked their poor (as well
as the rich) congregation to the point of nakedness only to enrich themselves and earn fame as
the richest preacher.
On record, it is common to see the names of our prolific preachers
competing for who is the richest and not who is the holiest or who has impacted most on the
nation. Yet, majority of the members of the church whom they collect tithes and donations from
find it difficult to feed well or pay school fees of their children. Meanwhile, the children of the
preachers even think it is an insult to study in their country like "Nigerian schools". They are too much for that. One
will wonder what the message they preach about humility and contentment and prudence is .
How can a nation grow under such a legacy?
There is no doubt that the values of Christianity in World in the last four decades have
experienced serious damage because of the different gospel preached by these prosperity
preachers. This, by extension, has negatively imparted on the moral value of people and when
the moral level of a society become decadent, it will, by extension, affects other forms of development. No doubt, this is playing out in the world today as one can see not only in the
spiritual, but also, most affectedly the socio-political and economic sphere. Spiritually, the
content of prosperity gospel as proclaimed has played down the importance of holy living in the life of believers.
Material satisfaction rather has replaced heavenly values and love of neighbor.
Self-love or selfish love has replaced the spirit of communal living or engagement where one
lives for the other or for his/her country.
It is however unfortunate that the Nigerian Christianity today is blemished by superfluous
theologies and ideologies and most Christians are living below the biblical standard while the
faith is now made to be superficial and wobbling because it is based on prosperity alone.
Evangelical Christianity, according to Tozer, is now tragically below the New Testament
Standard. Worldliness, as he said, is now an acceptable way of live and it is rated high above the
Gospel values. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual.
We have lost the art of
worship, carrying out religious activities after the model of the modern advertiser. Our
literatures are shallow and scarcely anyone appears to care. Many have been perverted by the
new doctrines of this faith movement. Christian successes are now being measured by the types
of car one has and rides, the type of house one dwells and clothing put on. Being poor is now
seen as an effect of sin and lack of faith, (a kind of recession into the Old Testament mentality
that Jesus condemned in the New). One can agree no less with the warning of Tozer that the
sooner we redeem or have a better kind of Christianity within another half century, we may have
no true Christianity at all.
Most Christians like in Nigeria today are lacking spiritually, having wrong concept of God and that
of themselves; yet multiplying the number of half Christians is not enough and proliferating
demigod preachers and religious leaders would only continue to swell the evil. Just as many of
our political leaders are guilty of voracious want of money, many of our religious leaders and
especially the prosperity preachers are equally guilty of unappeasable want of money in the name
of propagating the gospel or in the name of God.
The spiritual leaders, who are supposed to
support the efforts of political leaders to lead the country to greatness and where possible show
the way, are themselves guilty of the same sin. The truth is, genuine Christianity builds the
nation because it encourages hard work, dedication, creativity and productivity not mediocrity or
patchiness.
Socially, mention has been made of certain positive contributions of these faith movements to
national development. But as good as these social contributions may be, it would not yield the
desired fruit if it had no spiritual values to the people and the nation. It remains at the level of
“Social gospel.”
Even if it is presumably agreed that the aim of the prosperity gospel preachers
is to improve the society, but it cannot be achieved when the Christian values of dignity of
labour, good conduct and relationship with others are not encouraged. This perhaps may account for the crimes and other social problems we have in Nigeria today. 28 The Nigerian situation is
that, the rich are becoming richer, while the poor are growing poorer by the day. The complete
and genuine gospel teaches help for the poor. For Jesus, genuine concern for the poor and the needy of the world is real Christianity. Regrettably, the fact remains that the concern for the
poor, a major biblical theme, has not received adequate attention by the churches. This
theology encourages prosperity but there is little or no emphasis on helping the poor, perhaps
because they are seen as sinners.
Psychologically, the prosperity gospel trend has affected the way people think. Most Nigerians
now, especially young people believe they have to be rich by all means. According to Folarin,
the very problem of the message as advocated by David Oyedepo and others is that “it is the
gospel that defines poverty as sin.” According to him, two points sum up this definition:
It is
exclusively financial, and it neglects the spiritual well-being of the people.
This conception has
greatly affected the church on the sort of Christians she now produces.
A good sign that shows
that the Christian psyche of many Nigerians is getting more and more derailed is the way and the
rate members run from one denomination of faith to the other seeking prosperity or freedom
from sickness, demon oppression, and poverty. Although, some of the times, these preachers
have recorded some breakthrough, however, it should be frankly said here that solutions to these
problems lie more outside the church.
Where then is the solution?
What is to be done?
What is To Be Done?
It is high time Nigerians began to look for solution to their problems at the right place at the right
time. Trooping to the church at every slight is discomfort as if preachers and religious leaders are
medical doctors, technology experts, political actors or economy gurus. While one may not
dispute that in any of these a religious leader could be gifted and assist but his calling is
predominantly to show the way in celestial matters while terrestrial matters are secondary. The
way out should be seen in other nations put the right peg in the right hole.
Advance civilization
would rather seek solution in researches in medicine, advancing technology, boosting
agriculture, profitable and veritable educational system, industrial revolution which invariably
create more jobs and engage the youth, create enabling atmosphere for innovation, creativity and
critically and positively engaging the psyche of the youth. Rather than seeking solution to the
Nigerian problems in the church alone, government should engage creation of feasible economic
policies and programmes and monitoring such to a good end or the goal intended. There should
be less talk and more actions. The church should stop or should be stopped from the act and art
of deceiving and extorting innocent people in the name of God.
Proper social and religious regulation should be enacted to guide the activity of churches
especially those who take from the sweat of the helpless people and give nothing back to the
society but only to service their own selfish ego. Stop preaching fears and stop focusing on what
the devil or witches did, does or would do. Instead they should preach positive news and focus
on the community such as hard work, dedication, creativity, commitment, perseverance and
responsibility. The church and its message should not just focus on tithing and sowing of seeds
breakthrough, miracles and wonders. Religious leaders can encourage and promote good
communities’ initiative such as cooperative societies, creativity and innovations instead of
waiting for government to what they can do for themselves.
The church and her preachers should
be preaching the gospel of hard work, encourage production of goods and services, stimulate in
their members critical thinking analysis, strategy, visibility plans, system building, market and
customer analysis and the process involve in production of goods and services. When the church
encourages this, it helps in creating noble wealth.
It is high time the Nigerian society through a conscious and concerted effort began to re-orientate
the derailed and misguided psyche of the precious youth by the manipulative prosperity
preachers and dubious political elites. Not to tackle this is to ask for more chaos and less national
development. Churches should stop glorifying riches which is required through miraculous
sources. Christianity has played a big role to the fall of Africa today but that is not what it is
intended. Spreading messages of instant success have met with generation of people who are just
in for instant result, immediate relief and effortless profit.
Take for example, during the outbreak of Ebola disease in Nigeria, imaging if all Nigerian could
do was going to church pray, then expect miracles, what would have happened? Prayer without
work is useless. Prayers alone do not heal diseases and one should know that you do not need the
pastor’s blessing to create wealth in life. Wealth and developed cities don’t come by miracle or
magic in life. Religious superstition such as the shout of I received it, and loudest shout of Amen
are not enough to neither put food on the table nor fulfill one’s wishes.
Conclusion:
Nigeria does not need an angel to remind her that prayer without work is emptiness. This is a
Christian axiom of which truism is proven. True Christianity must and can only produce
productive youths. For Nigeria to be globally competitive, education alone is not enough, as one
can see in teeming thousands of jobless graduates. The nation needs to nurture creativity,
innovations and good governance.
True Christianity must produce productive youths. Any
country that builds more churches than industries, school, hospital, research institutes is bound to
fail. Any nation that invests more on churches than it invests on her youth is bound to experience
mediocrity and endure restiveness from which even the church cannot rescue her. Nigeria should
invest more of her resources on human, capital and practical projects which will save her future.
Spending billions to build religious edifices (like in the recent case of Akwa Ibom state building
an international worshipping centre worth of N24bn) when thousands of the indigenes are
without jobs and outstanding workers’ salaries have not been paid for months is nothing but an aberration. God does not need such a project when his children: lacking families, the widows,
orphans and the lakes are going hungry. Building morality and inculcating the sense of value into
the mindset of Nigerians should be restored. A nation that is beset by moral decadence and
bedeviled by loss of values cannot stand the test of viability and development. The brothers who
became a millionaire by simply sowing a seed does not help build a better community and the
message of such success should not be spread and showcased.
Instead, the applause should go to
someone who has succeeded by hard work and perseverance. It is time to stop glorifying corrupt
church leaders (or politicians) who fat feeds on the sweat of the poor or gains of corruption. It
should be frankly stated that Nigeria is not setting her priorities rightly. Too many evils are being
perpetrated and condoled in the name of God or propagating the Gospel.
If this present trend by
the prosperity theologians and preachers should continue into the next three decades without a
check or without being curtailed or contained, Nigeria stands two risks: one, what is indeed
called Christianity will be no more and two, national development as far as Nigeria is concerned
would only be read on the pages of history books.