The Church has always experienced dissent, usually from conflicting interpretation of the faith or inconsistent understanding of the faith. We remember Arius and Nestorius. Closer to our time, we are still battling with the consequences of Martin Luther's break from the Catholic Church. 

One thing is quite clear, these people didn’t advance their teaching for any material or financial gains. In fact, one of Luther’s objections was against the sales of Indulgence.

Today, pastors after pastors have invoked inspiration as their motivation for ministry, yet many have succumbed to the lure of being called “Father founder” because of the attendant glamour and financial largesse. 

It would thus not be out of place to assert that the faith has grown not so much because of faith issues, but because of the financial gains available.

Yes, God still does his work, because he can use anyone and any situation. But truth be told Churches continue to proliferate because pastors are trying to exploit the financial opportunities available in the field of faith.

Yet, Jesus told us that “You cannot serve both God and mammon”. Our pastors have become agents of Mammon, they are ruled by the demon of greed and the more money they are given, the more they want, and the more people they see, the more people they desire to manipulate for their own selfish motifs.

Purported miracles are being debunked every day, bringing into disrepute not the gospel of Jesus but the pastors. Now that many pastors are being exposed, the gospel is also suffering. What a shame!

Too many pastors have allowed pecuniary influence to dictate the direction of the message when they have been called to preach the truth of Christ that saves and not to do it for sordid money.

Ordinarily most Christians trust their pastors and often take their words as gospel truth, but the events of the past one year involving Dr. Abel Damina and his critiques of fellow pastors have not only opened people's eyes, it has the potential of disrupting growth in faith and the necessity of faith in general. 

With Covid -19 in the climate of restrictions, many believers were forced to stay at home and worship. Suddenly Churches rediscovered the faith of the early Christians who practiced house worship.

Hence, when restrictions were lifted, many chose to stay at home and found peace doing so. Some people will even remind us that the richest people in the world are often atheist. Pastors are yet to respond in a meaningful way to this.

The only example of success or blessing they can show is the example of their children that they have enriched and set for life from money exploited from the people.

Suddenly pastors are fighting for tithe when they would want laypeople to believe that money is the root of all evil. Here, they are right. Their inability to make money secondary has exposed them to the clutches of the evil one whom they now serve.

The proliferation of false doctrines and teaching in the Christianity practiced in Nigeria is a threat to orthodoxy, it is a grave danger that may lead many astray.

How will a pastor say that Job lost his wealth because he was not a tither, that his wealth was not secured? Prophet or Pastor Jeremiah was even bold to say that the apostles were enemies of Jesus, singling out Thomas for doubting, Peter for denying and Judas for selling his master. Were this true, what becomes of Christians today who have done far worse things?

Would it still be possible to call ourselves children and friends of God? What this is doing to Christianity in Nigeria is to grow a pool of doubters and many antagonistic to the faith but not to God. 

Many are now moving away from people dictating how their tithes would be spent. This in itself is not bad, we may gain many more cheerful givers. But some are beginning to feel the Church is a scam, remember Karl Marx who a long time ago said that “religion is opium of the masses”. When religion is sentimentality consumed without reason, anything goes and religious practices and beliefs become meaningless. 

For insurance, irrational people are still propagating the necessity of tithe, when it was only condoned by Jesus. No wonder, someone said “Nowadays, people don’t defend what is right, they defend who they like”.

Many pastors have captured the imagination and thinking of people that these befuddled Christians no longer follow Christ, they do the bidding of their Daddies and GOs.

God still doing miracles and indeed wonderful are the works of God. We must let him do his work in his own way and at his own pace, that’s the problem with today’s pastors. They conjure miracles at will to bamboozle their followers. For those who believe, miracles are not needed, but for unbelievers. This is the type of followers we have today.

Hence, religion cannot but be transactional and pastors can only be businessmen and women fighting for tithe and selling Jordan water and water of success, soap and oil for promotion at ridiculous amounts and the likes.

Yes, in this climate, Church has become a business and like many businesses it is bound to go through troubled waters. Some will collapse and some will emerge, purified and faithful to the Lord. Find the true Church and stay rooted in God because only God is trustworthy and worthy of our surrender, no one else.