ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
Let us take off with the information that I am one of the strongest believers in genuine miracles and I believe in God, and in His capacity to wrought all kinds of unimaginable miracles and wonders. I am, for one, a living example of miracles, and I would be silly to deny its existence. I also believe in many contents of the Bible as true records of ancient history and the foundations of the Christian faith, which I officially identify with. However, I am not a churchgoer or a believer in organised religion. But that doesn’t say that I do not think there could be wonderful spiritual benefits from identifying with and worshipping with a church, patronising ministries or even seeking spiritual guidance from those who might be more knowledgeable in spiritual and scriptural matters.
Of course, I believe that anyone who says there is no God, is a f**l and nothing better describes one’s gullibility than being led to agree that there are no superior forces beyond us and our own comprehension. Even science has continued to prove the existence of alien forces without accurately pinpointing them to a particular location. God exists, Jesus Christ came, the Holy Spirit exists and miracles happen.
The problem with today’s mercantile churches and ministries is that it is becoming more difficult by the day to differentiate between true churches of God and scam centres. Even in our own Catholic Church, which has its history directly from Christ and has rules which should have shielded her from the corruption of modern day mercantilism and outright fraud. Either as a way to avoid the massive loss of her members or the helplessness of the Church leadership, the Catholic Church is beginning to condone many of the loose practices and money-conscious methods of Protestantism. Today, except for a few unavoidable liturgical peculiarities of the Roman Catholic Church, you may find it difficult to distinguish between Catholic worship and the normal showboating style of modern day Pentecostal and worship centers. This notwithstanding, I still prefer to identify as a Catholic than the best Pentecostal Church, if I must identify with a particular church.
The best way to distinguish fake from original is by going back to history to know how the first practitioners of an art or craft went about it. While Christ Jesus was not officially a Christian during his time on earth, it is without argument that Christianity is his commission and those who wish to be Christians must seek to imitate Christ. Christian clergy, Prophets and whatever they choose to be called by, must follow the styles of Jesus Christ or at least, ensure that they do not completely deviate from the styles he approved and adopted.
Our Lord Jesus Christ performed a number of miracles and healings while he was on earth and his Apostles, starting from Peter to Paul and those who succeeded them also performed miracles, healed the sick and gave prophecies that were recorded to have come to pass. However, none of them performed miracles for money or political influence. When Jesus Christ was approached by some Jews to be crowned King because of the good works he was doing, he ran away and told them that; “My kingdom is not part of this world”. Jesus and his disciples never flaunted wealth, nor were wealthy, in the worldly understanding of wealth, and they never even advertised miracles and wonders as the primary focus of their ministries on earth. Salvation, Repentance and Righteousness were their key messages, miracles and healing were things that came as an addition to those who came across them. Christ and his disciples understood that if they hinged their ministries on miracles, financial breakthroughs, wealth, and all those deceitful things on which most of the modern day preachers build their trade, people would not be so enthused about working for eternal life on earth or in Heaven, which was the major focus of their ministry.
Also, miracles and wonders performed by Christ and the earlier disciples had proofs. Even in the Catholic Church today, before a Saint is canonized, there must be empirical and medical evidence of miracles performed due to their intervention. Today’s mercantile preachers and miracle workers are all very good at publishing videos and stories of audacious claims of miracles, while anyone can hardly point to individuals around them that have directly benefited from these miracles. Recently, someone threw a challenge for anyone that had seen a blind, deaf or cripple person healed miraculously by any of these preachers to come forward. Instead of taking up the challenge like those in the days of Jesus Christ would have, many of the victims of this fraud rather took to insulting that person. This is a clear evidence that most of the advertised miracles and healings are fake and or stage managed.
Another reason to doubt and even avoid having any dealings with any of these showboating miracle performers, whether they claim to run ministries or own churches is the ostentatious lifestyles they lead which are 100% funded by their gullible victims. The Bible is clear about the fact that those who show off their wealth or even advertise their good deeds are not of him, but of the world or even of Satan. God has not changed His rules about how those who believe in him and work for him should behave, and anyone who lives differently from Christ and his earlier apostles is either a conman or a trader exploiting the name of Christ Jesus as a franchise rather than as a saviour for their personal gains.
MAY GOD BE PRAISED!