Religious Entrepreneurs
Recounting all the great prophets and teachers of the word of God who ever lived, names like John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Paul, Elijah, Ezekiel and others come to mind. They spoke the word onto people for the remission of sins, they healed the sick, prophesied to people about greatness or sorrow that was yet to come their way. As far as know, all these were done in an atmosphere of total submission to the orders of God and they never accepted any material reward for all the great things they did in the lives of many. But in all, they gave glory onto the name of the highest God.
Jesus Christ when giving the twelve their mission in Mathew 10:5, the instructions were; “as you go, proclaim the Good News, the Kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and cleanse the lepers. You received without payment, give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts”. There is no ambiguity in these instructions of Jesus Christ to his followers. He however mentioned that but in all these, the laborers deserve their food. I’m yet not a guru of the word of God, but I think food was necessary for their sustenance.
After many years since Lord Jesus gave these instructions to his followers, many are the acclaimed prophets, teachers, healers of now who have simply forgotten of these instructions even though they read about them every day in their line of duty and have amass wealth with impunity. Could it be that another interpretation is given to these clearly outlined instructions of Jesus Christ? Do you think so? I do not think it is the case. They have simply become nothing but entrepreneurs of religion. The world today has given other names that seem less a crime to other wise things that are prohibited by the Word of God. Stealing has become fraud and lust has become an attraction. Our spiritual leaders today seem to be towing this phenomena and it bothers me so much.
In my country today, people pay for anointing oils, water that has been blessed and others in order to get healing from their various afflictions. Why must there be anointing oil before some one is healed, Jesus and his followers just spoke words of faith onto believers and they were healed. I see the sale of anointing oils by some church leaders as a way of making money. This is a market of Christians who are convicted by their beliefs and will always buy these oils no matter the price. Surprisingly, the amount of money one gives in exchange for these oils is commensurate to the healing he/she gets. But I think men and women were healed by their faith and not the amount of money given in the times of Jesus and please do not tell me time has changed because the word of God never change.
Some ministers portray that they heal by their own power. This could be true and I would not have had a case with them if their sources of power were declared. But if they claim that their healing does come from God Almighty, why then will a man take glory and payments for it? But this is what is seen from every temple that is springing up. Interestingly their focus is on healing and prophesying because these are the things Christians of today will pay for. What has happened to word ministration to the lost? People have succeeded in making themselves entrepreneurs of religion and have made/making it big in the industry. This is the very motivation for the springing up of churches and temples every where. Just recently I was walking down Prempeh II Street in Adum and there was this preacher man with a loud speaker announcing for ten people to give him One Ghana cedi each to justify their entrance to heaven. This is how far the “Enterprise” has come.
