By Duenna Mambana
Growing up as a PK (pastor’s kid), I learnt a thing or two from my father.
However, it was only last month that I came to understand what he meant when he said,”Salvation is the only miracle the devil cannot perform”.
In light with the recent wave of charismatic churches that has swept through the world, I ask myself if tangible miracles are just a meal ticket for many prophets.
I followed with interest, the news surrounding the September 12 collapse of the guest house belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Nigeria.
Back at home I did the same with the happenings at Pretoria’s Rabboni Centre Ministries.
So the other day, while minding my own business on the internet, I came across an article and video by a London-based white man headlined, “Black African pastor feeds his congregation grass.”
My initial thought was, how dare he make this about race?
Until I asked myself, could he have a point? Afterall, he was right, it was a black man instructing his black followers to eat grass before part-taking in a Holy Communion.
It is disturbing to see people’s disregard for common sense when it comes to the so-called men of God and their miracles.
For me, that begs the question, are we, as the black folk, gullible or just easily manipulated? Does our love and “need” for tangible miracles cloud our judgement of what the Bible teaches?
I was in tears as I watched pregnant women stand in line to have a pastor “play” with their unborn babies. In fact, I was disgusted.
Why are we misrepresenting the gospel? Are we desperate enough to let the so-called men of God have their way with us that we disregard simple biology?
1 Corinthians 12:7 (NLT) states that, “…To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”, verse 10 of the same reads, “He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said”.
My point? Let the body of Christ, which is the church, be complete. We cannot replace God with pastors, prophets, men of God, or whatever it is they may call themselves. Never.
Today, prophecies are used not to edify the church as should be the case, but rather to fill auditoriums and subsequently, people’s pockets.
I asked myself, why is it only the black folk that we see eating grass, flowers and drinking petrol? Why are we the ones to get into debt just so we can attend a church service in Lagos?
Why is it important for us to have prophets tell us what is going wrong in our lives? Don’t our white friends also have problems? But then again, I thought, maybe their common sense is more common and the devil just doesn’t bother them?
Seemingly, I was wrong. White people also have a need for and love of miracles.
What troubled me though, was that as much as they are as desperate, they go about it in a manner that is less shocking and creepy than we do.
My dad always lambasted pastors who thought of themselves as “fertile soil”.
This happens in both black and white churches where people are told to “pledge” a certain amount of money in order for them to receive divine intervention.
I’m not ignorant, I know and understand the idea of seed faith and pledges, but I do question the practice of “selling” miracles.
Black or white, why do we allow men and women to take advantage of us in the name of God. Why do we keep filling these auditoriums to satisfy the greed that has taken over from preaching the word for the greater good.
For the record, my view is that it is incorrect and insensitive to refer to the victims who lost their lives in the SCOAN collapse as martyrs.
My father was right, salvation, which is the saving of the soul from sin and its consequences, is a miracle which many seem to have forgotten along the way.
Afterall, Jesus Himself did say, “Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn”, Mathew 13:30 (NIV).
