By Adegboyega Adeleye
Popular pastor and founder of Power City International, Pastor Abel Damina has challenged the doctrine of giving to the church as an avenue to financial prosperity, noting that there is no scriptural proof that guarantees riches and prosperity in exchange for giving to God.
In a video that has gone viral, the clergyman dismissed the doctrine, saying that giving with such a mindset leads to poverty and wretchedness rather than financial prosperity, as claimed in many Nigerian churches.
He said that the conditions make Christians deluded and to believe that financial prosperity is determined by how much they give to their pastors and religious institutions.
“There’s no scripture in the Bible that says when you give to God, you’ll be a rich person. There’s no such scripture. Nobody prospers by giving. When you give, you lack. Because when you give, it leaves you, and there’s a vacuum. Then you have to work again and give it time to recover what you gave. And sometimes you never recover it,” he said.
Damina referenced the story of a man he encountered who had donated all three of his cars to his church on the promise of divine financial reward, only to be left with nothing, grumbling, and contemplating collecting one of the cars from the church.
“Somebody told me he gave his church all three of his cars, and he has been trekking since then till when I met him. He said, I was thinking of going back to collect one. I said, I think so too. Because if you gave three and the only one you want to collect is one out of the three, you try. You’re never asking for the three,” the prominent pastor said.
The clergyman, who has in recent years become controversial for his unorthodox theological standpoints, said the belief that giving to the church produces billionaires lacks evidence in the scriptures.
He insisted that wealth is a product of education, labour, and enterprise, not religious offerings.
“I never saw anybody who, because he tithed, became a billionaire. Even those who said they became billionaires because they tithed — it’s because they don’t know. It’s because they had jobs and businesses. That’s why they became billionaires. Not because they tithed,”
“The reason why people can excavate the ground and meet oil wells is that God put the deposit. The reason why we can get to the rocks in Nigeria, go to the gold belt that travels right through Minna, Niger and right to Plateau, all those rocks, explore, break the ground and meet diamonds, golds, sapphires and
tourmaline is that God put them there.”
“So because God has blessed the planet, all we need to do is go to school, learn what to do to get into what has been blessed and turn it into commercial property. We go to school, we go to market, we engage to make money,” he added.
Watch the video here:
Vanguard News
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