by
Jonathan Ekene Ifeanyi
 |
| Mbaka |
“But
woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who
are full now, for you will be hungry...” (Jesus Christ: Luke 6:24-25).
Early this month, I travelled to
Eastern Nigeria for the burial of my late cousin, Chief Ignatius Chukwuemeka
Uzoewulu, which took place in Ukpor, Anambra State. As usual, one of my ugliest
encounters was to see the way spiritually blind Novus Ordo priests are ever
increasingly messing up the Catholic Church in Eastern Nigeria. Put simply, the priests here — too demonic — are specialists in MONEY or WEALTH. Here, everything
about the Faith is being sold. It’s horrible!
Of course, the people themselves — that
is, the lay “faithful”, followers of these “priests” — are, like their
“priests”, also massively blind spiritually, so as always almost all the people
are not even conscious of what is happening; and these evil priests are not
being resisted — the people don’t really know that these demonic priests are
leading them to nowhere by hell-fire itself!
However, one of my old sisters,
Amechi by name, was different. She knows these “priests” for exactly what they
are.
“The Catholic Faith brought to us
by the European Reverend Fathers exists no longer”, she lamented during our
discussion. “Our people — Igbo priests particularly — have sold it”. I was
happy to know that there is, at least, someone who sees what I’m seeing, so I
pressed her to say further. Then she exploded: “Look at what happened at
Ozubulu recently. These devilish priests and the bishop knew that the young man
called Aloysius Ikegwuonu did not make his money genuinely. Yet, they allowed
him to build a “Catholic Church” and we all witnessed the tragedy that happened
at that “Catholic Church”. It happened because Our Lord did not accept that
Church (even though these money-loving priests and the bishop did) because it
was built with blood money. ...Look at what people like Father Mbaka and Father
Chidoruo are doing in the name of our Church and people are keeping quiet. Just
buy their cassettes and listen to the abominations coming out of their mouths. Now Father Chidoruo collects three million
naira (N3000000) to say mass for each
rich man. During his "prosperity mass" you hear of the donations and "Ndi ga'egburu Jesus Ehi" (i.e. those who will kill cow for Jesus). Rich men (many of whom are cult people, drug pushers and others who did so many terrible things to make their money) would line up and start donating. They start donating millions of naira! This Satanic priest doesn't talk about the sins of these people, no. Rather, he tells them that the more they donate, the more God blesses them. There is also the one they do with recharge card. The more you
recharge, the more God blesses you! And then the tithes! Do you see that? And the bishop allows
these “priests” to operate FREELY! But Jesus does not accept such a mass
because you simply can’t sell the mass. It’s unacceptable. ...The fact that nobody
cares to challenge these devilish priests is the reason why there are different
calamities in our land, because God is not happy with us.”
Amechi also mentioned one other
priest (I’ve forgotten the name) who, like Fathers Chidoruo, Mbaka and others,
was collecting money from the people and was believed by them to be a miracle
worker until he recently impregnated a woman. “After that abomination many of
his followers realised that he was fake, so they stopped following him”, she
said. “Yet, they are still following the likes of Fathers Chidoruo and Mbaka.
Well it may be too late for them if they are waiting for these ones too to also
impregnate women before they open their eyes, because that may not happen”.
I agreed perfectly with Amechi, and
added that as far as people continue to do all this evil in the name of Christ
more sufferings will come to Nigerians — especially money-worshipping Igbos —
and many people will die.
Well, I have already written about
this sad situation — this “prosperity gospel” — in my article, NIGERIAN “PASTORS” AND THEIR PROSPERITY “GOSPEL”. As I stated there, formerly prosperity
gospel was peculiar to the “Pentecostal Pastors”, but today even many “Catholic
priests” — like “Father” Mbaka and many others — have joined the race. So many
of the lay “faithful” have also joined the race — having been corrupted by the
modernist Vatican II Church which is simply going crazy with anything worldly!
Today, following the Vatican II Revolution, the love of God has simply vanished
from many hearts, and replaced with the love of selves. So many people, who
still bear the Christian name, love themselves and their “possessions” above
all things. This comes in different forms — many love their wives more than
God, others their husbands and others even their beautiful cars and houses. How
can men and women with such a mentality know anything about our poor Christ who
makes it very clear that to follow Him one must put God first in all things,
and carry his or her cross DAILY?
Today in Nigeria, at least over 90
percent of the entire “Catholic priests”, just like the Pentecostals, pollute
the churches EVERYDAY with prosperity gospel. They are demonic. Whether you’re
in the East, in Lagos or Abuja, they’re just the same. What they studied in
the Satanic seminaries is just how to exploit the Church. And they're simply skilled
in this act! In Lagos for instance what is reigning now is “renovation” of (the
spiritually empty) churches. Try listening carefully to that
your parish priest and you will see that what he spends more time preaching
always is about “projects” — about building or renovating this or that Church
and NOT about salvation of souls. Suffering is simply not for these men, as they seek comforts at all costs and can do
anything — anything — to get these
comforts. In Lagos almost all the churches are now air-conditioned! In some
Pentecostal “churches” if people can’t get comforts (like air-condition and
things like that) they simply won’t go to “church”. That is exactly what these
devilish priests have turned the Catholic Churches into. Of course the devil
himself brings these comforts in order to reduce the spirituality of people — because
the more the physical comforts, the less the spiritual commitment of people. Churches
like Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church (located at Victoria Island)
and Church of the Assumption (located at Falomo in Ikoyi) are now worse than
Pentecostal “churches”. During mass in these places you can even see lovers holding hands and caressing
one another, others talking and chatting and doing all sorts of rubbish. But we
know that these are not Catholic
gatherings, because in a Catholic gathering — first and foremost — men and
women are separated, and people don’t come to Church to seek comforts but to
pray and ask for God’s forgiveness of their sins and those of the world. Look
at the Muslims! Even the worst sinners among them don’t go to the mosques to
seek comforts but to pray, and once they’re there, you see absolute respect — absolute respect — for Allah! When you
see their women — the way they dress, the hair well covered, etc. — you see Our
Lady! Quite contrarily when you see most Catholic women today you see harlots. Of course, this attitude of the Muslims was actually the attitude of the early
Christians, but today if you dare try it in Novus Ordo Churches it is the
priest himself who will be the first to mock you.
When we
compare the “prosperous” lives of these Nigerian “priests” to those of the poor European Reverend
Fathers who brought Christianity to Nigeria, you will weep! As I wrote in the article, Mbaka: A Man Of
God Or Just An Impostor? (2), “prosperity
gospel” preachers “like Ejike Mbaka will always utter rubbish in order to dupe
gullible people and get away with their crimes only because there are no true
prophets in Nigeria, because there are no true Elijahs who can slaughter them
just the way Prophet Elijah slaughtered the false prophets of Baal, and because
those in government are equally spiritually blind. This spiritual blindness is
simply responsible for the reality that “churches” (like Mbaka’s Adoration
Ministry which is not Catholic) and mosques are expanding exponentially in
Nigeria, yet the country is paradoxically at rock bottom in morality. It
rankles that Nigeria is ranked as the most religious country in the world and
contradictorily ranks among the top dogs too in the corruption index.”
No need of writing a new article on
their prosperity gospel. The following excerpts — which demonstrate without reasonable doubt that Nigerian
“Christians”, “Catholics” or Pentecostals, serve the devil — are taken from my
article, NIGERIAN “PASTORS” AND THEIR PROSPERITY “GOSPEL”:
...As
St Paul puts it, “If we have died with Him, we shall also rise with Him”. Jesus makes this very clear as we see in
several places in the Gospels. First of all, we see His response to those who
wished to follow Him, in the Gospel according to St Matthew (8:19-22):
“Then
a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You
go”. And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”. Then another of His disciples
said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father”. But Jesus said to him,
Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead”.
Again,
He makes us know that His true followers would be very few, who would follow
the thorny road that leads to heaven, as we read (Matt.7:13-14):
“Enter
by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult
is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”.
Here
our Lord remarkably indicates to us that this way of suffering is what many
will never accept, but only a very few — even as we witness in today’s world,
in Nigeria.
Again,
in the Gospel according to St Mark, we see the drama that took place when Jesus
taught His disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected,
and finally, be killed — immediately, Simon Peter, like modern “Christians”,
took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, as we read (Mark 8: 31-38):
“And
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be
rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and
began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples,
He rebuked Peter, saying, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the
things of God, but the things of men.
When He had called the people to Himself,
with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after Me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the
gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world,
and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For
whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His
Father with the holy angels”.
The cross, which the Lord talks about in the above
passage, is a symbol of suffering, a suffering which the Master Himself first
endured. The way of this cross, He tells us, is the very way that leads to
eternal life. In fact, from the biblical point of view, anyone who claims to
have accepted the Christian Faith, while rejecting this cross, cannot be
saved.
Thus
when Peter rebuked Him for saying that He would suffer many things, Jesus did
not waste time to call him Satan. Tragically, this Satanic attitude of
rejecting the cross while claiming to be Christians, is what today rules
millions of “Christians”, millions of Nigerian “Christians”!
In
Nigeria, David Oyedepo, Matthew Ashimolowo, Ayo Oritsejafor, Chris Oyakhilome
and Chris Okotie are perfect examples of “powerful pastors” who have been
materially blessed and who can joyfully boast of these blessings. But St Paul
contradicts them. ‘‘…God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ’’, he writes, ‘‘by whom the world has been crucified to me,
and I to the world’’ (Gal.6:14). Again, ‘‘I have been crucified with Christ; it
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me’’ (Gal. 2:20).
Can
there be any real fellowship between the man who makes these kinds of
statements and the ‘‘pastors’’ just mentioned above?
Again,
on paying of tithe, which today is being used by “Catholic” priests and
Pentecostal “pastors” to rub the poor, Our Lord speaks, prophetically to the
modern clergy (Luke 11: 42-44):
“But
woe to you, Pharisees, because you tithe mint and rue and every herb; and pass
over judgment, and the charity of God. Now these things you ought to have done,
and not to leave the other undone. Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the
uppermost seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market place. Woe to
you, because you are as sepulchres that appear not, and men that walk over are
not aware.”
The
Greek word “ἀποδεκατοῦτε”
(apodekatoute) means ‘you take tithe from’, ‘you tithe’. The Pharisees, like
today’s Catholic clergy, neglected to talk about judgment, and the true charity
of God, but preached extensively about paying of tithes. The idea of using
tithe to dupe the faithful was copied by the Catholic clergy from Pentecostal
“pastors” — who promise their victims that after paying their tithes, their
sufferings would be over and God would turn them into millionaires!
“Pentecostal
Pastors” (and demon-possessed “priests” like “Father” Mbaka) claim to be
Christians, and shout the name of Christ everywhere, but, in reality, they are
sworn enemies of the Christian Faith. Their Christianity is all about the
enjoyment of the present world, and nothing can prevent them from this
enjoyment. In fact, were Jesus to come back to this world to preach the message
of the cross, these “Christians”, unlike the Jews, will not crucify Him just
once, but indeed, a million times.
St
Paul already spoke about them in the first century (Phil. 3: 17-20), as we
read:
“Be
ye followers of me, brethren, and observe them who walk so as you have our
model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping),
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction;
whose God is their belly; and whose
glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ”.
In
other words, true Christians must always look up to heaven, where “our
conversation is…”, says St Paul. They must have nothing to do with the enemies
of the cross of Christ, “whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly;
and whose glory is in their shame…”
Nigerian
“Pentecostal Pastors” (and Novus Ordo “Catholic priests”) do not look up to
heaven. On the contrary, they are completely earthly-minded. For example, in
the posters and sign boards they display about their “churches”, it is always
all about them, their wives, and their wealth, not Jesus Christ! Of course, Christ’s words are simply
prophetic, for we read again, in St Luke’s Gospel (Luke 14: 26-27):
“If
anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his father and his mother, and his wife,
and his children, and his brother, and his sister, and even his own life, he
cannot be my disciple. Anyone who cannot carry his cross and follow Me, cannot
be my disciple”.
Is
Christ addressing these words to the Catholics who believe in a Christianity of
suffering or the Protestants and false Catholics like “Father” Mbaka who
believe in a Christianity of enjoyment?
In
the entire New Testament, from the Gospel of St Mathew to the Revelation, there
is no place where either Jesus or His Apostles promised riches to those who
would accept the Christian faith. Even in the Old Testament, a man like Solomon,
the richest man in Jerusalem, became rich only because he never prayed for that
but for the gift of wisdom. It was
Solomon’s faith — his asking for wisdom instead of wealth — that attracted
God’s attention to him and made Him to bless him, just as Abraham’s faith
attracted God’s immense blessings. Again, St Paul contradicts these lovers of
money who now claim to have Abraham’s blessings. He writes (cf. Gal. 3: 7):
“Therefore
know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached
the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
‘‘In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are
blessed with believing Abraham’’”.
The
few rich people we see in the Old Testament — Solomon, Job, etc — were all men
of faith. Solomon sought first the wisdom of God and God then decided to enrich
him materially. But the same Solomon, at the end of it all, tells us that even
his wealth was all vanity upon vanity. It was the same wisdom of God which
never departed from him that led him to realize that. We now invite him to
testify for himself:
“I
said to myself, ‘‘Come now, I will make a taste of pleasure; enjoy yourself’’.
But again, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, ‘‘It is mad’’, and of
pleasure, ‘‘What use is it?’’ I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with
wine — my mind still guiding me with wisdom — and how to lay hold on folly,
until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few
days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards
for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of
fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing
trees; I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my
house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had
been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the
treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and
delights of the flesh, and many concubines”.
“So
I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my
wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I
kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and
this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had
done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a
chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun”.
Thus,
like Christ, Solomon, the richest man is Jerusalem, here tells us that it was “all vanity and a chasing after wind, and
there was nothing to be gained under the sun”.
The
Gospels, as we have been demonstrating, are full of Christ’s admonitions to His
followers about the deceitfulness of the riches of this world. In these
Gospels, He teaches us that, what God wants from all human beings is not really
to be successful, but to be faithful.
In
the story of the rich young man, for instance, we read (Mark 18:18-25):
“Now
a certain ruler asked Him, saying, ‘Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, “…You know the commandments: ‘Do not
commit adultery’, ‘Do not murder’, ‘Do not steal’, ‘Do not bear false witness’,
‘Honour your father and your mother’” And he said, “All these things I have
kept from my youth”. So when Jesus heard these things, He said to Him, “You
still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”. But when he heard this,
he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he
became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to
enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.
Here
we notice carefully that Jesus does not say that all rich people will go to
hell, no. But He makes it clear that it will be very difficult for them to go
to heaven. This is the core message of Christ in this passage — despite the
false interpretations given to this passage by modern fake pastors. Of course
there are many rich people who are more righteous than some poor people. But
here Jesus is not talking about that. What Our Lord attacks, rather, is the
main virus ‘‘rich’’ or ‘‘wealth’’ — for there is actually something sinful even
in the mere desire of it. If all Christians are meant to be rich, as Satanic
preachers tell us today, why did Christ, the Master Himself, choose to be poor?
Where on the face of this earth can we find a master who wallows in abject
poverty while his servants wallow in wealth? Certainly, a typical “Pentecostal”
will answer that Christ chose to be poor in order that we might be rich. Excellent!
But if so, what about His early followers? Can we find a single man among them
who, having accepted the Christian faith, did not embrace poverty for the sake
of Christ?
In
fact, we need not dwell so much on this topic. We see Christ’s teaching on how
a Christian should live in this world in the Gospel according to St Matthew (6:
25; 31-34):
“Therefore
I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing? ...Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after
these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own
trouble”.
The
above teaching corresponds with what He taught us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give
us this day our daily bread”, not “give us these days”! Protestants, of course,
do not say the prayer this way. In their famous King James Version, this verse
of the Bible is simply translated as “Give us day by day our daily bread”!
(c.f. Luke 11: 3) The Greek passage of the same verse reads: “τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δίδου ἡμῖν τὸ
καθ' ἡμέραν.” The word “τὸ καθ' ἡμέραν”
means “this day”, not “day by day”! In the Latin translation what we have is “Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.”
Here again the word “hodie” simply
means “this day”, or “today”, not “day by day”! Who inspired Protestants to
change the word of God from “today” or “this day” to “day by day”? How can Our
Lord, who asks us not to worry about tomorrow, recommend such a prayer?
Christ,
in the Gospel according to St Mark quoted above, said to the rich young man,
‘‘Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow me”. Did He say that merely because the man loved
his wealth more than the things of God, as modern preachers now interpret
it? As we pointed out above, what our
Lord attacked was only the virus ‘rich’ or ‘wealth’, the very root of all
evils, not the individual rich people. Now, Christ counters these prosperity
preachers by repeating (and in fact, emphasizing more on) the same statement in
the following passage in the Gospel according to St Matthew (6: 19-21):
“Do
not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
Again,
(in verse 24), He says,
“No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and Mammon”.
The
word ‘‘Mammon’’ is from the Greek word Μαμωνᾷς
(‘’Mamona’’), which in the New Testament is begun with the Greek small letter mu, ‘‘μ’’ (‘‘μαμωνᾷ’’). ‘‘Mamona’’ in the New Testament is a personification of
wealth and greed as a false god, used in opposition to the Almighty God (cf.
Luke 16:13). In some Bible versions it is translated as simply ‘‘money’’, but
that is not exactly accurate. Originally, Mamona
or Mammon is the name of the Syrian god of riches who is also the god of the
underworld. The Latin counterpart is Pluto, god of the dead, the husband of
Proserpine. The Latin counterpart of the Greek Hades, Pluto — in Roman
mythology — assisted his two brothers, Jupiter and Neptune, in overthrowing
their father, Saturn. In dividing the world among them, Jupiter chose the earth
and the heavens as his realm, Neptune became the ruler of the sea, and Pluto
received as his kingdom the lower world, in which he ruled over the shades of
the dead. Believed to be the bestower of the blessings hidden in the earth,
such as mineral wealth and crops, Pluto was also known as Dis or Orcus, the
giver of wealth.
The
word ‘‘riches’’ or ‘‘wealth’’ in Greek means
πλοῦτος (Plutus). From plutus (πλοῦτος) came the English word
‘‘plutocrat’’ — a person who is powerful because of his wealth, and
‘‘plutocracy’’ — government by the richest people of a country, or a country
governed by the richest people in it.
From
πλοῦτος (plutus) came the Greek god Πλούτος (Plutus), who is a
personification of wealth. The Greek counterpart of the Syrian Μαμωνᾷς (‘‘Mammon’’), Plutus (Πλούτος) was the name of Hades, derived,
as stated above, from πλοῦτος meaning
‘’wealth’’, ‘‘riches’’, because corn, the wealth of early times, was sent from
beneath the earth as the gift of the god. In the earliest times, various
polytheistic gods had their various functions. Plutus (Πλούτος) or Mammon (Μαμωνᾷς),
was simply the name of the god responsible for making people rich. Hence when
Christ says, ‘‘οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ’’
(‘‘You cannot serve God and Mammon’’), He means that we cannot serve the true,
living God, who is mainly after our righteousness and salvation, and the pagan,
Satanic god, who promises riches as a way of enticing men and holding them
captive. Since the word also means ‘wealth’, ‘riches’, we can also translate
the passage as simply ‘‘You cannot serve God and wealth’’. The Greek passage
reads:
“οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν:
ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου
καταφρονήσει: οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ’’.
Translated:
“No
one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and Mammon”. (ibid. verse 24)
Jesus’
teaching can be summarized in His following words, written in St John’s Gospel
(Jn. 12: 25): “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in
this world will keep it for eternal life.”
The
early Christians, many of whom are saints today, hated their lives in this
world, and hence passed through sufferings.
After the ascension of Christ into heaven, they did not selfishly assume
that the Lord had done it all for them; and that all that remained was for them
to enjoy themselves, or that “It is finished” meant suffering was all over. On
the contrary, they remained faithful enough to remember His words, “A disciple
is not above his teacher. If they persecute Me, they will also persecute you”
(Matt. 10:24). Hence Stephen was brutally stoned to death by the Jews for
preaching and practising the Christian faith; Simon Peter, the first Pope, was
brutally crucified; St Paul was beheaded—and so on. Apart from these earliest
followers of Christ, down the centuries, there are countless cases of faithful
men and women — all Catholics — who simply sacrificed their lives for the sake
of Christ’s Gospel. Also, we have countless number of cases of rich men and
women who abandoned their wealth and chose poverty, all for the sake of
Christ’s Gospel — something simply unthinkable even to the “holiest” Christians
in today’s world. Contrary to the Protestant error that Christ has suffered in
order for us to be rich, our Lord Jesus
Christ expects us to imitate Him in all things—His life of holiness, His zeal
in doing good, His rejection of worldly riches, His choosing of poverty, and,
in fact, even His martyrdom for the salvation of His brethren!
Indeed,
what some call “the gospel of prosperity” is simply not in the Bible and people
who preach that are purely serving their master, the devil. From the Gospel
according to St Matthew to the Revelation, nothing like that truly exists. In
fact, rather than blessing the rich people of His time, as modern false teachers
do, Our Lord spent a great deal of time and energy denouncing them. We end this
topic with one of such — blessings and woes addressed by Christ Himself to the
rich and the poor:
“Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are
hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will
laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile
you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap
for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their
ancestors did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have
received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when
all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false
prophets” (Luke 6:20-26).
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