SOMEBODY PLEASE SHOUT HALLELUJAH!!! (PART 2)

Edward Tedson Sesay – London, UK

“Is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?

But you have made it a den of thieves.” Mark 11:17

This bit of “Somebody Please Shout Hallelujah” will look at some of the damage our charismatic churches are causing in our communities. Faith healers who should actually be termed fake healers, are robbing God’s church and the damage they cause is immeasurable.

Diversion of vital church resources and financial loss to victims

The leaders of charismatic churches do not have the welfare of the church goers at heart. They are bent on making themselves filthy rich at the expense of vulnerable people who will believe anything no matter how ridiculous, and such will continue to dump cash into fake healing rackets to enable the racketeers continue flying first class and staying in presidential hotel suites in the name of attending evangelical conferences. If nine out of ten sermons are about sewing seeds in the form of tithe payments, when will church goers be preached about thanksgiving to God? Surely, vital church resources are being diverted to satisfy the greedy hearts and pockets of rich fat cats who call themselves prophets or apostles. Meanwhile, the real work of propagating the word of God becomes secondary.

Carnival or Prayer ?

Anyone who has been to charismatic churches or has watched their televised services would hardly be able to make out the difference between charismatic church services and carnivals. It is not uncommon to observe in these churches expensive hi-tec, top of the line musical equipment and richly dressed choirs comprising guitarists, drummers, keyboardists and “trained” dancers. The music is often loud and the “worshippers” very animated: clapping, swaying, dancing, holding their hands in the air. You certainly would feel you are watching a Brazilian carnival.

Indeed, Psalm 100 asks God’s people to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.” But are our festive charismatic churches not going beyond the Psalm 100 mark? You decide!




Interference with proper treatment of patients

Fake healers organise a few of their followers to give testimonies of healing to entrap thousands of gullible and unwary church goers. A man is often seen walking in front of the congregation with his hands up ready to make a testimony. He hops, jumps and vigorously swings his body from left to right and in his testimony, he tells the congregation, “I have suffered a chronic back pain for over ten years. All the hospitals in the land could not help me. I received my healing from this church.” More often than not, this is false and it could be a man that had never experienced a back pain. The damage done is that many then turn to the false prophet who has no powers to heal even a minor headache. The sick, poor and afflicted are given false hopes. Remember, Man can be fooled, but certainly, not God.

Teaching a wicked generation to look for signs

We belong to a wicked and unbelieving generation. Many do not believe the doctrines of the Gospel because they have not seen any signs or wonders. Our false prophets seek to be seen as genuine and therefore falsely claim to have powers that Jesus had over 2000 years ago. This is why the populations of our traditional churches are fast dwindling and we have a breed of Religious or Denominational “Cross Carpeters”, people who go in search of signs and immediate solutions to their personal problems. Our charismatic pastors claim they can show these signs to their followers. They ignore their blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by imitating gifts.

Confusing an already very confused generation

It cannot be denied that our generation is a very confused one. Life does not seem to make sense to many and it appears God has been taken away from our homes, schools and work places. Christ preached against wealth and greed and made it very clear that “it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” He said in Matthew 10:9-10, "Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food." Yet our gold digging charismatic prophets preach nothing but themes of financial blessings and abundance. I am confused. What about you?

Conclusion

Our new churches specialize in doctrines such as violent prayer, prosperity preaching, so called speaking in tongues and fake healing with the unfortunate result that there is no balanced teaching and discipleship. Such churches multiply by the minute and their members migrate from one denomination to another depending on their areas of felt need.

These church leaders are not called by God and they are ill –equipped to lead God’s true church. They have little or no theological training. They use any foul means such as demonic powers to fake miracles to draw attention to themselves. Filthy lucre is their only motivation.

What next ?

Sanity should return to God’s church and to achieve this, a surgical operation to remove the sore points is required.

The present chaotic situation whereby any brat can wake-up in the morning and establish a church and call himself “Bishop”, “Apostle,” “Evangelist” should be outlawed. National governments should create bodies comprising Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal, Methodist, Evangelical representatives) to regulate the establishment of new churches, and the conditions for establishing a church should not be made that easy.

A similar regulation should be extended to the establishment of Bible Schools because most of the Bible Schools do not even have libraries or qualified teachers and a standard curriculum. Yet they award bogus diplomas and degrees. Graduates from such schools become liabilities or hazards to the church and society.

All faithful church leaders need to pray fervently individually and co-operatively for God to expose those fake prophets who mislead God’s people by faking miracles and to liberate their ‘hostages’ ( gullible followers ) through the light of the Gospel of Christ.

The church needs to preach and teach balanced messages. Heretic teachings should be banned on Radio and Television. In order to enforce this, every church must be affiliated to a main National Christian Regulatory Body recognized by government.

Church leaders should lead by example in their utterances and lifestyles. They should hold themselves accountable to the church and God and they should keep accurate records of accounts and all other transactions of the church.

Finally, I wish to say that there is nothing to stop the church from making an impact and being an agent of positive change in our communities. Those blaspheming against the Gospel will be exposed and the truth shall prevail. Please shout Hallelujah only to the true Gospel and do not let your social problems drag you off the path of true Christianity.