Oyedepo: Love Always Delivers Success & Prosperity? -

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. – 1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV) This Sunday morning I awoke to the loud sound of a sermon by David Oyedepo coming from my neighbour’s house (beside ours). I heard him commit a spectacular “despoil of scripture” during the sermon and felt the urge to share this as a good example of how these men wrongly divide the word of truth and use it to teach destructive delusions as Christian doctrine. I also want to reach out one more time to those out there who claim to be Christians but have given themselves over to the very unchristian habit of swallowing everything they’re taught hook line and sinker, with no efforts at all to check it up against God’s rightly divided word of Truth. There really is no excuse for your unchristian behavior. Whether because its coming from your MOG and you trust him and believe he cannot be wrong or lie to you, or because you’re too lazy to act like the Bereans in Acts 17 or the Ephesians in Revelation 2 whom Jesus commended for their diligence. Or maybe because they consistently tell you what your itching ears want to hear. Whatever your reason for being complacent, you urgently need to repent, take out your bible and study. Now back to the sermon by the Bishop. As usual, his entire message was to say the least, very questionable in light of scripture and he did say a bunch of other funny stuff (as he always does) which I’ll overlook but here’s the part that got me fuming so early this morning. Bishop Oyedepo speaking: Very importantly this morning he said “come and see my zeal for the Lord”. As we open this next veil, which is part 3 of “Unveiling the win-win covenant secret of life” – The ever winning covenant secret of life. 1st Corinthians 13 and verse 8 said “charity never faileth”. [I’ll] Like you to underline the word “never”. That means it is failure proof. It guarantees victory. It guarantees success. It guarantees prosperity. It guarantees peace and tranquility. It guarantees the endless flow of signs and wonders. Charity or Love never faileth. It will always deliver. It will always deliver. You can count on the efficacy of this virtue. Any day, anytime and anywhere. The love of God. Charity never faileth. Just so our resident NL WolF love-vendor @JoeAgbaje doesn’t come here and say that that was not what he said or that I didn’t hear him well, I immediately sent my brother to go to our neighbour and ask him for the disc so I could get the title and hear it again, just to be sure I’d not “misheard” him. The title of the video is COME AND SEE MY ZEAL FOR THE LORD: Unveiling The Win-Win Covenant Secret Of Life Part 2. When I heard him make that statement this morning I couldn’t help recalling another one he made in one of his books (I think the title’s something like “Exploits in Ministry”) in which he said that it was Jesus himself who first called God’s work a “business” (based on Luke 2:49) so they (current ministers) were not doing anything wrong by regarding and running churches as such. After reading that comment in the book some years ago, one of my pastors concluded that Oyedepo must be one of the most biblically illiterate preachers around. After hearing him spew out that crap about Love being a sure-fire tool for success & prosperity, I think I agree with my pastor on this. Now let’s get this straightened out. In this part of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he talks to them about gifts of the Spirit but then goes on to explain the “supremacy” and “permanence” of Love compared to the gifts of the Spirit in chapter 13, which I guess the Corinthians were having issues with at the time so he had to address it. Below is the entire passage in 1 Corinthians 13 (up to verse 10). Please try to read it calmly from verse one all the way down to the end of the chapter if you can. I cut it down to verse 10 to save space. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. - 1 Corinthians 13:8 (RSV) Just in case you still don’t get it, here’s that verse again: …as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. Paul was simply saying here that there will be a time when prophecies, tongues and knowledge will cease but Love will never end. Love will always be. Here’s how the NLT puts it: Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! At first I thought it was just that the Bishop misunderstood the KJV rendition of that verse but then I looked it up and sure enough, the verse, even in the KJV, clearly portrays what Paul was talking about and leaves no room for any such excuse or justification for the idea that love brings or guarantees prosperity and success: 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (KJV) Again, the context of that verse alone (not to mention the entire passage), even in the KJV translation is clear about what Paul meant. And there’s nothing there that even remotely suggests we can somehow use love for our own selfish gains like he so boldly asserted. This has me wondering whether these fellows are reading the bible backwards. My Plea I’d like to plead with BEG everyone who claims to be Christian to begin to pay more attention to the things being taught as the Gospel in our churches today, regardless of who’s doing the teaching. Not even what you’ve read in this article should be taken without carefully checking out the scriptures on this issue. Dust your bibles and make out time to read it study it and do so properly and objectively. If not, you’ll continue to take in falsehood dressed up as truth and will be in danger of having run for nothing, if you ever were in the race at all. No, the gospel is not about worldly success. No, Christianity has nothing to do with earthly riches and prosperity. The bible tells us not worry about even our earthly, genuine needs (Luke 12: 27-31). These men teach us to earnestly desire worldly success, riches and comfort – they call it being “blessed”. The bible tells us to be content with such as we have (1 Timothy 6:5-11), these men tell us to lust for more and go out of their way to twist every verse in the bible to teach this poison - even a verse on love. My pastor once told us about another very popular minister who in some of his teachings aired on TV (I think it was a series), systematically used every single one of Jesus’ parables in the gospels to teach about money, in church. To supposed Christians. And I ask, how long will this continue? When will we start to ask the right questions? At what point will we stop and think? When do we get to study our bibles, for ourselves? When will we get to learn what Christianity really is about, for ourselves? When will we get to know this Jesus, for ourselves? When? 3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths. - 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NLT)