Cultism: Why gospel ministers practice it, the grave consequences by Francis Bola Akin- John
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed“. Galatians 1:6-9
He was involved in the occult after his ministry failed at Ibadan due to his immoral escapades in hotels. He was told to repent, but he refused, saying that he has gone too far into the occult. Well, he became sick and died! After his death, his burial shows that he fathered children from many women
For those who truly study church history, they will discover that there is a thin line between the true worship of Christ and religious cultism, especially with institutional churches. In the institutional church, it’s not strange to resort to rituals, rules and dogmas to help their religious order.
Use of images, spiritism and idolatrous practices are subtly encouraged by the priests and laity in their nocturnal services.
That was what repulsed Martin Luther to break out of the institutional church and started the Protestant church with the leading of the Holy Spirit,- a new church protesting the freedom in Christ from the ritualistic, idolatry Practices and “jujulised” dogmas of most institutional churches and priests.
But the wonder today is that even Evangelical, Pentecostal churches (who are offshoot of the Protestant church) and their pastors, Reverends, ministers and bishops are subtly going back to the once forsaken dogmas of institutional churches!
Today, there is subtle revert back to cultism, traditional, idolatrous practices and attachments to faith, such as oil, rod, cloth, sacred spots, sands, baths, comb, and all kinds of esoteric objects for prayers and prophetic connection.
Today, Jesus and His gospel power is no more enough, but we must add broom, sword, water, honey, perfume and demonic rituals to the faith of people for quick miracles and solutions.
Today, there is gradual shift away from Jesus to man and objects for quick prayer answers.
Today, there are pastors who are herbalists in collars, with iPad. Pastors and priests visit herbalists, witches covens and witchcraft manipulations for power to perform miracles and get involved in cultism for fame and numerical growth of their ‘churches’
Cultism: Why Evangelical and Pentecostal pastors are gradually moving away from the simple gospel of Christ
- Don’t know God -There is the newspaper story of a pastor recently that went back to become an Ifa- deity priest, so as to make money and ephemeral things of this world. In the story, it shows that he never encountered Christ personally, like Apostle Paul on the Damascus road, while in ministry. So, if you are in the ministry without personal encounter with Christ, first, you will seek occult power to perform. Once you don’t know God in a personal way and not saved from sin, you will seek satanic power to do ministry. That’s what’s happening now in Pentecostal, evangelical and institutional churches. The said former pastor even asserted that some big name pastors always come to him to help them with his Ifa-deity to grow their churches numerically!
- Uneducated- In so many Pentecostal and evangelical denominational churches, their half- educated or largely uneducated ministers do Practice and secretly use occultic power to do ministry for respect and promotion. Uneducated ministers do struggle with low self-esteem in ministry and therefore get involved in cultism, so as to be highly regarded in the denomination.
- Scriptural ignorance- Because they never went to sound and solid Bible school to be trained and prepared for ministry, many Pentecostal ministers do display hollow knowledge of the Bible in the way they run their churches. They teach esoteric doctrines and do revert back to erroneous Practices for church growth and sustainable ministry. They DONT have biblical Tenets of faith to preach from, thereby preaching nonsense and humanistic errors most of the time.They twist scriptures and misinterpret the plain truth of God’s word to justify their religious practices in such crucial areas like Salvation from sins, marriage, obedience to leadership, rapture, holy and godly Christian living, grace, premarital sex, restitution and finance.Because they never submitted themselves to be properly taught and grounded in the balance scriptures, at the onset of their ministry career, they now teach others out of their personal opinions and private ”revelations”, which most times are from deceptive spirits thereby leading many astray from Jesus Christ into religious dogmas.
- Out of divine callings- Without any iota of doubt, lack of divine calling has made many to dabble into erroneous Practices. Of course, Gods calling has been bastardized and taught against by few of such cultic ministers in the past. Yet, the scriptural truth remains that you can’t function well with God’s powerful backing if He hasn’t called you into His work! And some have definitely gone into another calling and would need other powers to back them up to function well there! Like, if you are called as a pastor, yet you want to function as a prophet, you will need esoteric powers to function there, because God’s power and backing is only for what He has called you into!
Once you are into all these, then you are preaching ANOTHER GOSPEL according to the book of Galatians quoted above. And once you are doing that, your judgement might not be quick, but it will surely come in fast and furious ways, except you repent truly and make restitution.
Read also: I have disappointed God enough, I have hurt him enough- Benny Hin:https://churchtimesnigeria.net/benny-hinn-prosperity-gospel/
The jealousy of God will not allow Him to permit mixing the gospel of His dear Son with other things for long! A certain popular preacher died in Lagos few years back. He was involved in the occult after his ministry failed at Ibadan due to his immoral escapades in hotels. He was told to repent, but he refused, saying that he has gone too far into the occult. Well, he became sick and died! After his death, his burial shows that he fathered children from several women! His so called church went down and only trying to recover now by his son! The lesson? Another gospel will ruin you here and hereafter!
