SNARES & SCARS OF GREED (PART I)

“Who Wants To Be a Kingdom Billionaire?”

By Akin Ojumu

Prosperity preachers, as well as the victims of their scam, like to throw up names of Old Testament saints such Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Boaz as important worshipers of YAHWEH who were extremely wealthy. In the New Testament, they often refer to Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia the seller of purple, Philemon, and others as examples of wealthy people who believed in Christ.

Because there are these wealthy individuals mentioned in the Bible who believed and worshiped the LORD God Almighty, messengers of the health, wealth, and success gospel consider this as evidence that God wants all Christians to be wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. They’ll tell you that God wants you to be stinkingly rich, period. It’s as though to stink is something to be proud about.

Of course, this type of argument is based on extremely flawed theology about which I have written several commentaries. But I’m going to repeat how flawed they are anyway.

First of all, it’s important to understand that, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is all about one man, the Lord Jesus. In its entirety, it points to Jesus and Jesus alone. Take the Old Testament, for instance. It is full of types and shadows of what was to come. Every chapter in the Old Testament, in a variety of ways, tells the story that culminates in Jesus the Messiah. 

Every room in the Old Testament, from the lavish chamber of Eden to the sacred cubicle of the Holy of Holies, is opened by a single key. That key is the Messiah, the fulness and fulfillment of God’s Word. Christ is the key, and He is the content. In one way or another, every narrative, every prophet, every psalm, whispers his name and winks about His mission (Source: Christ Key).

JOHN 5:39

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!”

The material wealth of the Old Testament saints is symbolic of the spiritual riches that the Messiah was going to bestow on those who would believe in Him. Temporal blessings of the Old Testament are types and shadows of the Eternal blessings that we have in Jesus.

You may be asking, “What about New Testament believers such as Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia the seller of purple, and Philemon? How do you explain their wealth? Doesn’t their being wealthy mean that Christians are supposed to be wealthy too?”

Well, here’s what you need to know about these three wealthy individuals in the New Testament. They were all already wealthy before they became Christians. Not one of them was drawn to Christ with the promise of getting temporally richer. And it wouldn't be farfetched to argue that many of them gave all they had away upon getting saved. 

Let me take a pause here and tell you what actually prompted this commentary. Like a few of my other laments, this is actually a recapitulation of an exchange I had with someone on social media. This person had shared a video of Emmanuel Olumide in which the guy who calls himself the “Common Sense Guru” was performing his usual, “Money is honey, Sonny,” schtick.

Emmanuel Olumide and his gospel of mammon, by the way, are not unfamiliar to me. I know the guy as someone who has a peculiarly disturbing disregard for the fidelity of Scripture. There’s no Biblical text he won’t mangle to advance his false gospel of money equals honey. He is such an inveterate corruptor of God’s Word, there’s nothing he says that surprises me anymore.

What provoked me about this particular video was not so much the things Emmanuel Olumide said, as preposterous as they were. I was gnawed by the inscription on the t-shirt the man had on. 

Emblazoned across the front of the t-shirt were the words, “KINGDOM BILLIONAIRE,” Just seeing that, plus the face cap Emmanuel Olumide had on that says “JESUS,” a righteous indignation erupted in me. I couldn’t help but give the video a piece of my mind, as polite and courteous as I could.

I wrote:

“Kingdom billionaire? Really? Which kingdom exactly? How many of the Apostles of Jesus, the people who actually laid the foundation of the Christian faith, were billionaires? How many of them were millionaires? How many were thousandnaires? How many were hundrednaires? How many were even kobonaires? This shallow and hollow, ear-scratching mammon gospel will only keep you on the broad road that leads to destruction.”

Infuriated by my criticism of his hero, the person who posted the video fired back at me. Using the tried-and-true technique of straw man argument and red-herring fallacy, the poor bloke mounted a feverish defense of Emmanuel Olumide’s mammon gospel:

“Money is a tool. Being a millionaire doesn’t equal evil. And poverty doesn’t equal righteousness. A million dollars in the hand of an unrighteous man is a weapon of distraction. But the same money in the hands of a righteous man is a weapon to help the poor, the needy, and also spread the gospel. Being rich and being greedy/being ruled by money, the two are not the same. If being rich was a sin, then God will be a sinner, because our God is rich. He is the definition of richness.”

Tune in next time for my response to this individual’s scatological gobbledygook.