“For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets,
and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect”-Matthew 24:24(King James Version). Have you ever been duped or confidently
tricked by some supposed men of God? Perhaps many of us have and do not know we
have been tricked or anything. It appears the time the Good Old Book describes
as the end time is fast approaching and nigh as evidenced by the happenings in
the world in recent times.
Call them crooks and you are sure to have made an understatement,
for some of these supposed men of God deserve very harsh descriptions. Tune in
to any radio station or Television network to get abreast of the day’s news and
you would inadvertently be greeted with prayer and healing sessions or
demon-casting and de-witching encounters, being moderated by men of God.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing, most of these preachers are, I get
confused sometimes when I see the kind of things they do as well as what they wear.
Funky haircuts, finger rings and neck chains as huge as hand cuffs and dog chains,
one would wonder if all of these play a role in driving away demons, perhaps
the evil spirits fear these things so wearing them aid cast the evils out. I
have heard people say that some of these pastors consult and engage the
services of some ritual powers and so they have those chains and rings as
powerful talismans which help them perform miracles and the like.
On television and Radio, all the messages from the
men of God are either [prosperity riches] or [healing +cleansing], and one
would
wonder
if these are all it takes to make Heaven.
But HEY! Wake up dreamers! All it takes to make the Kingdom we are told are
salvation and redemption. It is increasingly worrying that, many of us are so
gullible and as a result fall prey to the whims and caprices of these
charlatans in the view of getting some spiritual services or other.
Cleverly ,they go about their extortive activities,
and get huge sums of money from unsuspecting and innocent church members in the
view of offering them spiritual needs and services.Scandals!Scandals!Scandals!
have bathed many of these men of God in recent times. They get entangled in all
sorts of scandals chief among them sex .There are also
others
who
are
caught using unchristian spirits in their work and some who are consistently
making false prophecies especially after they have eaten heavily the night
before. We recall the issues of the Bishop Daniel Obinim and all the brouhaha
about his alleged sex exploits with some other woman supposedly wife of his
junior pastor not to suggest in any way that he is a false prophet though.
Many of these individuals parading as men of God
indulge in similar or even more terrible acts but are yet to be exposed. These
coupled with a myriad of false prophecies from them has cast a huge slur on genuineness,
integrity, and credibility of men of God these days. We as well vividly recall
the Reverend Owusu Bempah and his prophesy about the President of the Republic,
dying unless some measures only known to him are taken and followed nicodemously
so it could be averted. The Rev.Bempah has since been on the receiving end of
some tough tongue-lashing from his fellow clergy men and some concerned
individuals ,others argued that ,he had heavily eaten some banku with goat meat
the previous night before retiring to bed ,the reason he had mares and misconstrued
them to be prophecies…….hahahahahahaha.
Imagine a pastor telling his congregation there
would be a calamity that would befall some members and until some monetary and
material sacrifices are made to appease God, this cannot be upended. Sounds
like primary school drama lines right? I kid you not , these are real issues
that have confronted our society and is prevalent in the capital.
The issue of false prophecies has been with us since
only God knows when ,at least so I read from some historic literature .Given
that in the early 1970’s,the late David Moses from the United States Of America
,formerly called David Berg and founder of the Religious Group “the children of
God”, for example prophesied that ,a comet was going to hit the earth in the
mid 1970’S,and would destroy all life in the United States. Some forty three or
so years on ,this has not seen reality so we can
understand that the issue of false prophecies did not arise just last night.
In localizing the discussion ,sometime before the
2012 general elections ,it was alleged that some men of God preached victory
for either of the two leading political parties ,which in the long run spinned
in another direction .Who these preacher men were and still are ,and whether or
not these are truisms ,your guess is as good as mine .When confronted times
when they have made[if you like ,controversial proclamations ,they quote heavy
scriptures such as Joel 2:28-29,and Isaiah 38:1-7 as their defense,for want of
a better word ,where it is on record in Isaiah 38 that Isaiah after prophesying
that Hezekiah was going to die so he should keep his house in order,went back
to Hezekiah and told him he was not going to die again citing,God has added
fifteen more years to his life.This was after Hezekiah had turned to the Lord
praying that he be saved from death.And so these supposed men of God argue that
even Isaiah prophesied the death of someone and later went back to proclaim him
alive for fifteen more years,hence how dare we judge them?
Running a church or worship centre in Ghana has
become very attractive a venture and lucrative, so many people are branching
into it.Walk through the nooks and cranny of the capital ,and every three turns
you take, you are likely to locate a church,worship center or other .Even from
where I live[Ashongman] to the community market Madina alone, I once cited
about 20 churches over that stretch .Or wait a minute ,perhaps many more people
have realized the need to make heaven ,since the coming of the Lord is nigh .How
many of these scores of mushrooming churches are genuine and serve the purposes
they are supposed to ,or they are just other ways of making money in the overly
congested capital for the teaming unemployed?
I do not attempt to sound all “holier than thou” and
faultless as Jesus Christ ,but then I seek to increase awareness on the
inflated numbers of pastors and men of God in our communities ,so that we can
pray for the divine fruit of the spirit ,to be able to determine which are
genuine and which are not .For by their fruits ,ye shall know them ,as the Good
Old Book teaches in Matthew 7:15-20.The discussion did not aim to bastardize
the entire body, men of God ,because there obviously are a couple of great men
of God who are genuine ,but instead to basically bring to the fore ,the
extremely worrying phenomena of unsuspecting persons being deceived and duped
almost on a daily basis by supposed men of God.BE
CAREFUL,FRIENDS……..
By Kingsley Komla Adom
Ghana Institute of Journalism.
E-mail;kingsleykomla@gmail.com
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