{"id":5612,"date":"2015-08-17T14:08:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5612"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:08:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:08:55","slug":"is-redeemed-still-a-church-or-is-it-now-essentially-a-business-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5612","title":{"rendered":"Is Redeemed still a church or is it now essentially a business concern?"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\"Redeem\"<\/a>y Femi Aribisala: Recently, a friend took me to the jewel-in-the-crown of the Redeemed Christian Church of God; a glitzy parish called \u201cCity of David\u201d in Victoria Island, Lagos. Displayed resplendently on a wall in the church-office is a design of their current building project; a 14 storey architectural extravaganza titled \u201cTrinity Towers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Redeemed still a church or is it now essentially a business concern? The Trinity Towers project shows the lines are now totally blurred. Jesus warns: \u201cNo one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money.\u201d (Matthew 6:24). Nevertheless, this Tower of Babylon being built with
\nchurch funds is designed both for the worship of God and for the worship of money.
\nThe project is an appeal to crass commercialism; a blatant celebration of wealth. In this poverty-stricken Nigeria, the foundation of the building alone is expected to cost over 2 billion naira. Side-by-side with a 5,000 seat auditorium for church services are high-brow restaurants, cafeterias, indoor swimming pools, cinema halls, gymnasiums, retail shops, games arcades, lawn tennis courts, relaxation spots, and a helipad as the crowning glory. Of what relevance is all this \u201csupermarket\u201d in a church?
\nAnointing for carnality
\nA church-member, overwhelmed by the grandeur of it all, buttonholed me in the hallway. I did not know him from Adam, nevertheless, he held me hostage as he waxed lyrical about how the Redeemed Church was, to use his words: \u201ctaking over.\u201d \u201cWe have already got the vice-presidency,\u201d he said. (The vice-president of Nigeria is now a Redeemed pastor). \u201cNext we will get the presidency,\u201d he continued; \u201cand then we will get DSTV;\u201d (a South African satellite television network).
\nThe anointing for this pride of life flows right from the top. The General Overseer of the Redeemed Church is Pastor Adeboye. A few years ago, he decided he needed a billion naira without which his \u201cwork of God\u201d could not be done. So he confounded the Christian faith by establishing a \u201cmillionaire\u2019s club.\u201d To be a member, you had to hand over a million naira to him in Jesus\u2019 name.
\nThereafter, he upped the ante by calling for a \u201cbillionaire\u2019s club.\u201d He announced that he would be building an auditorium that can only be described as \u201cfantabulous.\u201d It would be a ginormous three kilometers in length and three kilometers in breadth. This project is clearly more designed to get Adeboye into the Guinness Book of World Records than it is to get the members of Redeemed into the kingdom of God.
\nDeclared Adeboye on that occasion: \u201cWe need 1 billion naira from ten people. If you are one of them, please see my personal Secretary after we finish today.\u201d Who are those likely to have this kind of money to give in the Nigeria of today except those who have cornered public funds? Thereafter, an announcer sought to know the members of the church who were \u201cwilling to join hands with our Father in the Lord to build a new auditorium to God\u2019s glory.\u201d
\nVanity upon vanity
\nThe proposed auditorium is not to the glory of God. The proposed auditorium is to the glory of Adeboye. Adeboye\u2019s project is reminiscent of Saul\u2019s, who built a monument to himself. (1 Samuel 15:12). Nowhere in the entire New Testament was money ever collected for putting up a building. Money was only collected for the poor. The temple of God is no longer a physical building. The temple of God is now Jesus Christ.
\nPastor Adeboye is getting increasingly carried away by vanity. I have a tape of a question-and-answer session he had with his church-workers a number of years ago in which he boasted that the time would soon come when, before anybody could aspire to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he would first have to talk to Redeemed Church. Nothing in the scriptures can be construed as suggesting this as one of the stated objectives of Jesus Christ.
\nA Redeemed church-member told me of another meeting he attended captioned: \u201cA Day Out with the G.O.\u201d It was a dinner for financial sponsors of one of the annual \u201cHoly Ghost Festivals.\u201d Pastor Adeboye boasted tongue-in-cheek on that occasion that the time would soon come when the Queen of England would plead to join Redeemed in order to work as an usherette. The audience reportedly responded with wild applause and shouts of \u201cAmen.\u201d
\nRicher than Bill Gates
\nAt the just-concluded 63rd Annual Convention of the Redeemed Church, Adeboye declared that he is now richer than Bill Gates; widely acknowledged as the richest man in the world. He said: \u201cI have houses in at least 188 countries in the world, where we have our churches, so I am richer than Bill Gates. Each time I visit these countries, my children would be struggling and saying daddy, come and stay with me.\u201d
\nThese \u201chouses\u201d don\u2019t belong to Adeboye; they belong to Redeemed church. Knowingly or unknowingly, Adeboye distorts the gospel. Jesus says: \u201cAll who have given up home or brothers and sisters or father and mother or children or land for me will be given a hundred times as much. They will also have eternal life.\u201d (Matthew 19:29).
\nHowever, Jesus words are spirit. (John 6:63). Therefore, his \u201chouses\u201d are entirely spiritual, while Adeboye\u2019s are physical. Jesus does not make his disciples richer than Bill Gates. Instead, he says: \u201cGod will bless you people who are poor. His kingdom belongs to you! But you rich people are in for trouble. You have already had an easy life!\u201d (Luke 6:20\/24).
\nAdeboye continued: \u201cIf I announce here that tomorrow morning, I need a car to travel to the new auditorium, how many cars do you think would be made available to me by you my children? Those of you that do not have a car of your own, very soon, God will give you your own cars. So, I am appealing to you to become an incurable soul winner before you leave this convention ground and your cup will overflow.\u201d
\nAnathema to Christ
\nThis is nothing but the enticing word of man\u2019s wisdom. Believers don\u2019t preach the gospel in order to receive cars. We do because God commands that we do so.
\nJesus had neither chariots nor horses. He had no lands and houses. Indeed, he warned a prospective disciple who wanted to follow him they would not be staying at the \u201cSheraton Hotel:\u201d \u201cThe foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.\u201d (Matthew 8:20).
\nJesus does not speak like Adeboye. He says: \u201cA disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.\u201d (Matthew 10:24-25). Jesus\u2019 example is anathema to Adeboye\u2019s declaration that he is now the richest man in the world.
\nThis is the word of Jesus the Adeboyes of this age choose to ignore: \u201cIt\u2019s terribly hard for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven! In fact, it\u2019s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God\u2019s kingdom.\u201d (Matthew 19:23-24).<\/p>\n

Written by Femi Aribisala<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Femi Aribisala: Recently, a friend took me to the jewel-in-the-crown of the Redeemed Christian Church of God; a glitzy parish called \u201cCity of David\u201d in Victoria Island, Lagos. Displayed resplendently on a wall in the church-office is a design of their current building project; a 14 storey architectural extravaganza titled \u201cTrinity Towers.\u201d Is Redeemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[423],"class_list":["post-5612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-redeemed-christian-church-of-god"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Redeem.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1sw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5614,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612\/revisions\/5614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}