How Prosperity Preachers Will Be Punished -Abel Damina

Edith CHUKU, just back from Uyo

Celebrity Pastor and General Overseer of the Power City International Church, Pastor Abel Damina, has brought a fresh dimension to his teachings against merchandise gospel preachers, saying all those who propagate what he calls prosperity messages will be punished at the end of the day.

In a revealing interview with TNN and its sister online broadcast medium, the Goshen TV on Monday at the church headquarters in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Damina said those who followed Jesus were neither millionaires nor materially rich, adding that even Jesus himself was not rich.
Saying that those whose attention was on how to milk their members through enticing words meant to make them give to the church in exchange for more blessings from God were scammers and would be adequately punished by God.

To him, any gospel message that did not cut across every class of human beings-the poor, the rich, the sick and the healthy had nothing to do with the gospel of Christ, insisting that the gospel of Christ must be applicable to everyone in the society.

Damina who is believed in some quarters to be controversial because of his messages stressed that the punishment for any preacher who didn’t preach the truth of the gospel is that his works would be burnt at the fullness of time.

According to him, “the punishment for prosperity preachers is that any preacher who didn’t preach the truth of the Gospel, the Bible tells us that his works will be burnt, he will suffer loss, it will look like he never did ministry. The punishment for prosperity preachers is that they defrauded and misrepresented the character of God.
“The subject matter in the Bible is salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, which means the Bible is a book of salvation majorly; the only thing you will find in the Bible that is accurate is the salvation plan of God for man.

“Jesus is God who became a man to die for man. Before Jesus came, people had money, houses and cars. So Jesus didn’t come to give us cars, house and money. Man had a problem that no man could solve- sin.

“God loves man. God decided to become a man so that he can die on man’s behalf to free man from sin, that’s all Jesus came for. How many people followed Jesus and became millionaires? None. How many people followed Jesus and became materially rich? None.
“Even Jesus himself was not rich. The Bible tells us that he told his disciples that the son of man had nowhere to lay his head because he didn’t come to make wealth, he came to save man from sin and give man an active relationship with himself in Christ Jesus, so the transactional gospel is contrary to the character of God.”

“Christ died demanding nothing from us, he didn’t ask us to sow, he didn’t ask us to give so that he can die and free us from sin. When Jesus sent his disciples on the mission of preaching, he told them freely you have received, freely give.”
• Watch out for the full interview here and also on Goshen TV channel on Youtube.