God And Mammon: An Evaluation Of Some African Christians’ Contemporary Teaching On Wealth In Juxtapose With Luke 12:15.
Nesta Andy-Philip, PhD
Kawama Virgilius,
Department of Christian Religious Studies Faculty of Arts, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Abstract
Jesus was not a destitute. He was not as prosperous as some African Christian wealth teachers make him to be. His home situation was modest. His parents did not have the means to avoid his being born in a stable, and had to lay him in a manger. When his parents went to the temple to dedicate him, all they could give as offering was a pair of doves instead of a lamb as required by the law. His ministry often depended on the resources of other people because he did not have any of his own. He taught from a borrowed boat, rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, ate the Passover meal with his disciples in a borrowed room and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Jesus did not preach or teach a prosperity gospel. In fact, he warned his disciples to “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15). The problem under study is Covetousness in African Church and society and the variant teaching on wealth acquisition by some African Christian teachers in the context of hermeneutical blunders. As its key objective, the study brings to light Biblical principles of wealth acquisition as taught by Jesus Christ juxtaposed with the views of experts on the subject matter through a hermeneutical approach, thereby denouncing inimical variant teachings. Results obtained for the study revealed that this variant teaching namely prosperity gospel has propelled a new attitude of Christians to wealth and its acquisition. This study therefore gives an operational basis for the adoption of Christian education of wealth acquisition in the context of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.