By Olatokunbo Odunuga
[ Let us now see the lot and the orientation of the disciples who were at the forefront in the New Testament]
¶ “Do not store up for yourself treasures on the earth,……” -Matthew 6: 19,
¶ “Do not be anxious for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink…..” -Matthew 6: 25
¶ “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God” -Mark 10: 25
¶ “But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation in full” -Luke 6: 24
¶ “And He [ Jesus ] said to them ‘Watch and guard yourself against all covetousness, for no one’s life is in the abundance of his possessions’
” -Luke 12: 15
¶ “In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not forsake all his possessions cannot be my disciple”-Luke 14: 33
¶ “No household servant can serve two masters… ..You cannot serve God and mammon [ the bank (Message) ]-Luke 16: 1
¶ “But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I have, this I give to you….” -Acts 3: 6
¶ “And having called the apostles to them, they beat them and charged them not to speak based upon the name of Jesus….” -Acts 5: 40
¶ “And they threw him [Stephen] outside the city and stoned him….” -Acts 7: 58
¶ “……exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God”-Acts 14: 22
¶ “….three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked,….in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers,…. in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea,.. ..in labour and hardships,.. .in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness…” -2 Corinthians 25-27.
¶ “But having food and covering [ shelter, NET ], with these we will be content” -1 Timothy 6: 8
¶ “And indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”-2 Timothy 3: 12
¶ “Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you fall into various trials…..” -James 1: 2.
Now having given the general profile of the modalities of the Old Testament and the New Testament covenants, the divergence in their moods are obvious. But I need to mention that not everyone in the Old Testament was as prosperous like Solomon or Jacob and not everyone in the New Testament is in an economic strait like Paul or John.
It is obvious that none of the apostles, disciples and people that God zeroed on in the N.T. can touch the hem of the garments of the likes of Solomon, David, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. in terms of prosperity. People who could lend to nations were among them. Even some of the prophets were in high esteem before the kings.
At the same time, none of the people that God zeroed on in the O.T. could even see the tail lights of the likes of Paul, John, Peter, Stephen, James, etc. in terms of adversity. Virtually none of them was held in high esteem by the Roman emperors. All the apostles died violent deaths, except John who was fried in boiling oil before banishment to the Island of Patmos.
My observation over the years is that prosperity preachers draw over 90% of their arsenals from the Old Testament and less than 10% from the New Testament. But apparently, the scriptures taken from the Old Testament are either non-contextual or unrelated to the Christian dispensation as a matter of general applications. And the New Testament scriptures are generally misinterpreted or subtly manipulated. That’s why I often plead that we discard our Thessalonians mentality and embrace Berean orientation. The frequently used arsenals of prosperity preachers are mostly those listed from the Old Testament scriptures above, and drawing inferences around Solomon, Jacob, Abraham, etc as building blocks for the message and plaster with a few New Testament scriptures such as John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 9: 6, 8, 3 John 2, Luke 6: 38.
For a start, let us please consider Deuteronomy 8: I8 where ‘it is God that giveth thee power to get wealth’ is often stressed. The intent of this verse can only be grasped of the passage is read from verse 1. God opened the eyes of Jim Bakker, who was one of the very topmost founding fathers of prosperity preaching about 50 years ago, and he later wrote a 641-page book titled “I Was Wrong”. The book was available in our bookshops about 15 years ago but it suddenly became off all shelves, because I personally combed virtually all major Lagos bookshops for it. The book is unparalleled as an eye-opener in the manipulations, deliberately or otherwise, of prosperity preachings. I don’t know whether to believe it or not, but it was the supervisor of a major bookshop who told me then that there was a conspiracy to halt the inflow of the book.
So I had to obtain my copy by ordering from the USA. I don’t know whether it is now available locally. The book is so precious that the Rector of a Seminary keeps his copy under lock and key. In the book, Jim Bakker explained that Deuteronomy 8: 18 became clear when read in context from verses 1-18, “We realise that what God was actually saying to His people in this passage is ‘When I bring you out of Egypt into the Promised Land and you are enjoying the blessings I have given to you, don’t think that you have been successful in your own strength. Don’t say that it is your own power, that you did all this yourself…..All God was saying was, ‘When you get into the Promised Land, don’t forget who brought you there and gave to you everything that you have”-