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A Nigerian pastor, pastor Adelaja had placed the blame for widespread corruption in Nigeria at the doors of Nigerian pastors. He said the church and the pastors officiating in them had contributed greatly to the wild fire of corruption that is presently sweeping through the country. Pastor Adelaja presides over the largest Pentecostal church all over Europe and his church is located in Kiev, Ukraine.  He declared that the cause of corruption can be tied to the notions of prosperity that Nigerian pastors are promoting among their members.

Pastor Adelaja stated that religion and faith are responsible for most of the value systems. He opined that corruption would have reduced drastically if the pastors and the churches have done their works of salvation the way they were sent to do it by the Creator of mankind. He claimed that many of the pastors have introduced what he termed as “corrupt messages” to their preaching and this is fanning the embers of corruption in their members. Consequently, many of the members have taken to corrupt practices in their different places of work and in the society at large.

He put the blame mostly at the door of pastors preaching prosperity. He stated the case of a pastor praying for his church members that they would all become millionaires before the end of the year. If the month is around November and there are about 500 people in the church shouting amen to that prayer, the 500 of them would want to do anything to become millionaire, claiming that it is the plan of God for them for the year. In the process, the gullible members would want to dabble into corrupt practices, using their pastor’s declaration as excuse and mistaking sinful prosperity means for Divine provision.

Pastor Adelaja claimed that the spate of corruption would not have been this rife if pastors have taken time to correct their church members about prosperity notions and counsel them about the truth of the gospel. He declared that corruption will continue to spread from the pulpit right to the society until the pastors caution themselves to curtail their unbridled prosperity preaching. He said church members would continue to translate sinful enrichment as God’s blessing.

He went further by saying such member would even go to the extent of giving testimonies to the “Glory of God” after he had successfully stolen from his place of work. The ignorant members listening to such a gullible testimony too would shout amen out of naivety. They too would want to get rich by all means so that the words of their pastors over their lives can come to pass. At the end of the day, corruption becomes the order of the day.

In conclusion, pastor Adelaja lamented how much the present day church had defected from preaching the salvation message to reaching nothing other than prosperity. He linked what is presently happening in Nigerian churches and churches across the world to the signs of the end time. He concluded by warning Christians to be more wary of the second coming of Jesus Christ and not be carried away by prosperity messages.

Written by:Anthony Olawale Ojo