“Sowing seed offerings” for entrepreneurs masquerading as “men of God”

Posted by emotan77 on May 19, 2011

This title is not completely original.  The Guardian remains a great Nigerian newspaper but back in the 80s, it was a great literary success whose editorial staff and contributing essayists were comparable to the best newspapers anywhere in the English-speaking world.  To have an essay submitted and have it actually appear in an edition was almost akin to getting a book published.  It was in those heady literary days that a man whose name I will forever regret no longer being able to remember wrote “Religion as entrepreneur”, a beautiful piece about the then growing field of doing “God’s work” as a path to great wealth.

Before the advent of Nigerian Pentecostal movement, most Nigerian Christians belonged to the old churches: Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and theChristApostolicChurch, C.A.C. –  which, itself, came at the end of the old traditional churches.  To become a bishop, etcetera, a man who answered “the call” of priesthood, had to wait in a queue, and to be stupendously wealthy while answering “God’s Call” was unheard of.

EnteredNigeria’s brand of modern Christianity which seemed to have arrived not a moment too soon!  This essay cannot trace the actual entry point of Pentecostalism but by the 1980s, the ground was well-watered for charlatans in the name of religion to find mass followership:  Babangida was on the throne and securing a dozen cans of milk in the SAPed economy was great achievement for a middle class that would soon become almost extinct, no thanks to massive looting that started under Alhaji Shagari’s NPN government (Father of retired General Obasanjo’s PDP).

The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

It’s now a whole new ball game.  Men of God – there must be a few out there who do not belong in the mass category of charlatans – not only pursue wealth but destroy lives, steal, take part and condone fraud and some have killed.  “Rev.” King, who doused a church member in gasoline before setting her on fire is the poster child – or father – of the hell from where the minds of these men I’ve often described as “men ofNigeria’s god” – mammon – comes from.

Next to “chief’, these days, “pastors” and other Christian titles are two a kobo.  The latest evil being preached and profited from by these “pastors” is “sowing seeds”; do not ask me for I know not from where the new interpretation of this Biblical injunction originated even though I’m a Christian.

Anyway, two close relations were sucked into the “seed sowing offering” madness; one lost millions and the other lost direction from the moment she donated her vehicle to her “pastor”; she has never recovered because the seed harvester who reaped where he did not sow followed the Nigerian Pastors’ Guide to Wealth – not a book, though I think it should be – to the letters: let the church member to be taken to the cleaners see why she must distance herself from family members who must be portrayed as not wishing the person to be duped well and your way to owning mansions, expensive autos and even jets – is already under construction.

The tithing that Galatians 6, 7 in the Amplified Bible exhorts: “Tithing keeps the windows of heaving open … while sowing seed offerings …” does not specify or imply preachers of the word – or pretenders to IT – becoming wealthy by creating misery for others but about contributions that are quite different from today’s churches, and especially SPIRITUAL SEED OFFERINGS.  Furthermore, the seeds “grown” and subsequently “harvested” do not imply a back and forth with God as only through His grace we’ve been taught could we be blessed.

Of course today’s Nigerian churches – borrowing from American rich Pentecostal churches- prefer to skew the real meaning and import of this quotation as they tend to do with most Biblical passages relating to offerings  in their own favor:  the more you give, the more you receive from God; or WHATSOEVER you ask for in faith, God will grant it!  Pardon me, I beg to differ but this is not a sermon which I’m not qualified to deliver, anyway but in today’s world with big consumer appetites and bigger greed, how much of our WANTS can God accede to?

If the first of my relations had prayed God to bless the gratuity she received at a relatively young age from her employer, and show her the way to invest it so as to pave the way for her older age NEEDS rather than WANTS, she might not have thrown millions as “seed sowing offering” at a charlatan because God would have met her “at her points of need”.  In the madness of cult-like churches, millions of Nigerian Christians have forgotten that there is only one Advocate – Jesus Christ – whose position their “pastors” now become pretenders to.   These “pastors”, who roam Nigeria in the thousands, already have their roads to hell assured.

By the way, the duped are always women while the DUPErs are almost always men!  End of my story.  Read the following excerpt, a classic story from the evil word of fraudsters who people Nigerian Word Ministry.

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N20m Deliverance Fraud: Pastor Says Victim Sowed Seed Offerings

PM News May 4, 2011.

Pastor Ifeanyi Okoli of God’s Covenant Ministry who was arrested with his wife, Ngozi   has told the police in Lagos that the widow, Theresa Onuorah, who claimed that she was duped actually sowed seed offerings in the church with her late husband’s property for her deliverance.  They were paraded by the police for allegedly duping Theresa to the tune of N20million through false prophecy.

The victim claimed that one of her friends introduced her to the pastor whose wife was also a prophet in their church located at 3, Brethren Avenue, Ejigbo, Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.  She said that they prophesied to her that her late husband who died 15 years ago belonged to a cult and wants to kill her and her children.  They told her that the only solution for her and her children to be alive was to bring all her late husband’s property to the church.

The mother of four said that she hired a lorry and packed all their belongings in their three-bedroom  flat and took them to the church …  Mercedes Benz car, three refrigerators, four electrical fans and a set of dining table … a set of chairs, matrimonial bed and her children’s beds … all her clothes and those of her children, brooms, curtains, carpets and kitchen utensils to the church She said immediately she brought those items to the church the pastor and his family started using them while she and her children have been sleeping on bare floor for two years now. She said that they warned her not to tell anyone about it.

The matter was blown open when they asked her to sell her husband’s land and pay the money into the pastor’s account …  she sold the land for N2 million and they were piling pressure on her to pay the money into the pastor’s account or face negative consequences …It was at the police station that Pastor Okoli claimed that the victim sowed seed offerings for her to get healing…”

Buyers of spiritual nourishment, as buyers of all things, must beware.