By Dr. Segun ‘Tremendous’ Oshinaga
Heresies in the name of deep mysteries have presently overtaken the modern Pentecostal movement. There are presently popular, young and dynamic preachers loose on the body of Christ preaching thinly veiled heresies and sounding like sorcerers and diviners under the cloak of New Testament Charismatic influence and reinterpreting the gospel and the Bible as new revelations that are eagerly, though ignorantly swallowed as though they are newly baked bread in heaven.
I just listened to one of them. “John the Baptist died cheaply because he veered off his prophetic blueprint.’ Another said “Apostle Paul didn’t hear God and his epistle are not to be taken serious.” Others are praying ‘fall down and die.’ Many are prayer contractors to politicians stealing the country blind.
We are truly in the days the Bible told us about – 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
Despicable political characters now cleanse their dirty souls by donating large sums to our Churches to earn our praying for them in the guise of praying for the nation. We can barely distinguish between us and Babalawos, diviners and fortune tellers.
The craze for having the largest Cathedrals; living large and feeling important has robbed us of spiritual sensibility and dulled our sense of purity. We have lost our moral high ground in our pursuit of material abundance.
A prominent politician in Nigeria was asked by some eminent Statesmen who wondered how he keeps religious leaders quiet and cooperative, his response was – “They are in my pocket.” We have become cheap articles to be bought by ungodly and immoral men.
We have gained what the early Apostles didn’t have or craved for and we have lost what they had. “Silver and gold we have not” is no longer relevant to us. Silver and gold we have aplenty. The moral authority, supernatural capacity and purity they had, we have traded for a messy pot of porridge.
Every man/woman who can pack a crowd is anointed. Every man/woman who performs a miracle is now a man of God. Our overriding philosophy is – the end justifies the means.
Just like a successful preacher told me more than 30 years ago – “Segun, if you’re successful, you can get away with murder.” He is a Prophet. Every letter of his prophecy has come true. Every single word. Another used to say – “Fake it till you make it.” This is astonishingly the reigning philosophy of ministry and life today.
Mammon taken over
Nobody today respects you for your character, moral principles and purity.
Respect is solely reserved for those with ‘visible results.’ This is an unmitigated tragedy whose consequences will impact the coming several generations unless God raises a new righteous army who will become the ‘Moral Majority’ in this land.
Yes, we need that moral majority because what we call revival today is nothing but a fluke. If there is any revival in many of the Pentecostal church it is definitely a mammon revival where the cross is no longer a graphic metaphor for the suffering and sacrifice but has become so ‘heavy’ that it needs common to carry it. It is a revival of glutton, greed and shameless indulgences.
A true revival will bring back values of honesty, purity,sacrifice and contentment and not the celebration of vanity and inanities that we have become known for today .
Let me end this treatise with a song-
For I’m building a people of power
And I’m making a people of praise
That will move through this land by My Spirit
And will glorify My precious name
Chorus
Build Your church, Lord. Make us strong, Lord.
Join our hearts, Lord, through Your Son
Make us one, Lord In Your Body
In the kingdom of Your Son
Build Your church, Lord. Make us strong, Lord.
Join our hearts, Lord, through Your Son
Make us one, Lord In Your Body
In the kingdom of Your Son