Pastor Ibiyeomie Is RIGHT

Dr. Jarlath Uche Opara
Jarlathuche@gmai.com

For days the comment of Pastor David Ibiyeomi , the General Overseer of Salvation Ministries headquartered in Port-Hacourt has been making waves on social media. A couple of persons taged me before now seeking for my views. Initially I never wanted to comment on it because of some obvious personal reasons. But at a second thought I decided to lend my two cent views.

Before I go further in my response, I would want to say with my full chest , no matter whose ox is gored that Pastor David is RIGHT. I would equally want to state unequivocally that for the fact that he is RIGHT does not mean that some men of God both in the Penticostal and orthodox churches do not by their actions, disposition, inclination and predilections subscribe to the comments of Pastor David which I have with my full chest endorsed as RIGHT

For clarity on what I am dissecting and for the benefit of those who are not social media freak and possibly may not have watched or read it. Pastor David said that Jesus Christ hated poverty, never visited the poor while on earth. He went further to chronicle some of the persons he visited which by his calculation were not poor. For him, food is a sign of richeness.

Lazarus and his siblings offering food to Jesus means that they are not poor? He went further to say that the primary purpose of Jesus coming to the world was to deliver us from poverty. Poverty of what exactly ? I wouldn’t want to go further than this, at least I have tried to establish the basis for this discussion.

Try to look at your Pastor, Priest, Man of God etc through the lenses of this mentality of Jesus not visiting the poor, does it ring a bell? Does it in any way covertly or otherwise reflect the disposition of some Pastors or Priests towards their congregation?

Do they really visit the poor in their congregation? Do they know where they live? Is the fraternal relationship that we often seen them develop around the rich, does such exist with the poor?

They may not have had the courage to speak out so boldly in the manner of Pastor David, but their actions aligned with such Reckless Inglorious Generational Heretical Teaching( RIGHT) of Pastor David.

Assuming without conceding that Jesus visited only the rich, what did he go there to do? Hob -nob as many men of God, Pastors, Priests etc would do for personal indulgence and gratification?

The two cases Pastor David cited( Lazarus House and Zacchaeus House) were purely ministerial. His visit to Zacchaeus house brought salvation to his household. His visit to Lazarus’ house was with no less reason and effect. Remember when martha complained of Mary’ in disposition to chores and preparation of food, his response showed what he was doing at that point( breaking the word of God) which he said Mary chose the better part.

If only the numerous visits our Pastors, Men of God, Priests etc make to the homes of their rich and wealthy congregants would be as evangelical and conversional like Zacchaeus’, the compromise, the indulgence, the corruption etc that have become an entrenched lifestyle in the society and church would be diminishing in geometric proportion. Sadly such visits bring no concrete evidence of metanoia

As good as living a good and decent life is, the dead of Christ on the cross can’t be reduced to such ephemeral and trivial purpose. The death of Jesus brings light into dark souls of iniquity, hatred, corruption, godlessness etc pulling them into the light of God’ presence, love and deliverance.

It is good to be rich, prosper and have the good things of life at ones beck and call. However, reducing the death of Christ to such transiency, a vapour etc is the most Recklessly Inglorious Generational Heretical Teaching( RIGHT)

Pastor David is absolute RIGHT trust me. If this is not corrected, our generation and beyond would be fed with doctrinal limitation and chaff. This teaching and mindset of Pastor David is the bane of the spiritual laxity and ministerial merchandising that have become the inglorious signature of many churches, men of God and their followers.

Say no to this Pastor David’ RIGHT!!