Arthur Otim

What should be more concerning is that, even if you prove beyond doubt that a certain pastor fakes miracles, and parade all the unchallengeable evidence including parading those have acted lame, sick, or possessed in his church, that pastor’s church will still fill. They will watch all that evidence and still go there. We underestimate the power of psychological manipulation and desperation. In The Prince (1532), Machiavelli taught manipulators that, “one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived”. Sometimes it is circumstances, sometimes it is mental weakness, sometimes it’s because the manipulator is good at it.

I worry that the Church today has become too deep. So deep that we may be losing the simplicity of the Gospel. Material prosperity, spiritual experiences, revelations, and displays of power have increasingly become our measures of spiritual excellence. I sometimes wonder whether the world’s culture of self-interest has quietly found its way into Christianity. So much of our faith now seems to revolve around what we can receive, acquire, and become. But love is outward. It turns our attention away from ourselves and towards others. What happened to being the salt of the earth and the light of the world? What happened to loving your neighbour as yourself? What happened to the Good Samaritan, who saw a suffering stranger and made his troubles his own concern? Our Lord taught us to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Imagine if Christians were vessels of God’s love in the communities around them. If the hungry were fed, the broken comforted, and the needy cared for. Wouldn’t those communities have a testimony of Christ for themselves? Wouldn’t their experience of Christian love speak louder than the accusations made against the Church? Yet today, we can become so occupied with defending a man of God that we forget the very souls we have been called to win. Did our Lord not commission us to make disciples of all nations? Did “all” exclude those who criticize our pastors? Those who insult us? Those who oppose the Church? Have we forgotten that these, too, are souls Christ died to save? Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that even if we possess prophecy, understand all mysteries, and have faith that can move mountains, without love we are nothing. What a sobering measure of spiritual excellence! I fear that we have become so fascinated by what Christianity can do for us that we are forgetting what Christ intended to do through us. What happened to the excellence of winning souls?