Extreme Pentecostalism and the Rise of Occultic “Pastors”, By Fred Adetiba

Background: What Do We Mean By Pentecostalism?

Pentecostalism is a term used to describe the move and manifestation of the Holy Spirit among believers. The early Church experienced what we now call the Day of Pentecost as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, when the Holy Spirit descended on them, and they all started speaking in different tongues.

All the foundational truths, including the manifestation of the gift of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues that formed the foundation of the early Church, were lost as the world descended into the Dark Ages. These truths were fundamental values and principles upon which the early church was built. In their place we had different and strange doctrines like the idea of purgatory, the selling of indulgence, penance, etc. However, from the 16th century, God began a process of restoring the lost truths back to the Church, starting with the Martin Luther Reformation.

The gradual restoration of lost truths eventually led to the re-emergence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the 1900s through William Seymour. Other truths that have been restored since then include the laying on of hands and personal prophecies; charismatic renewal; demonology (deliverance); discipleship, family life, Church growth; faith message, prosperity word teaching; and global prayer movement. These truths were restored between 1900s to early 1980s. The totality of these truth positions can be referred to as Pentecostalism.

Pentecostalism is therefore a series of restored truths through the movement of Holy Spirit starting from the 20th century. Today, Pentecostalism has become a major landmark in the journey of the Church, particularly after it came out of the Dark Ages. That is why you would see that the different Pentecostal churches we have today focused on a combination of these truths in terms of their emphasis. (You would find more on this in my book, Emerging Remnants).

Extreme Pentecostalism is a term I use in describing the refusal of popular Christianity to move beyond the emphasis on prosperity, miracles, healing, sign and wonders and the likes. While the Spirit of God has moved beyond these manifestations, they have remained the core emphasis of most Pentecostal churches today. This has become their comfort zone because it emphasises meeting their needs and getting them blessed. This paradigm cannot bring God’s purposes to its defined end.

Pentecostalism And Manifestations

The movement of the Holy Spirit has produced and is still producing great manifestations of miracles, healings, deliverance, prosperity and breakthroughs. Unfortunately, while the emphasis in the heart of God has moved beyond these, a lot of people are still locked into this frequency. What people are looking for today is simply what the can get from God in the form of miracles, prosperity, breakthroughs and the likes. The situation has gotten so bad that these manifestations have been turned into merchandise that people buy.

There is nothing wrong with these manifestations (the genuine ones), but they have become our reason for serving God. What was meant to be by-products of our pursuit of purpose have become the object of our worship. Most of the messages that are pouring out of most Pentecostal churches today are about these manifestations. They have now become a bait to lure people to God.

While there is nothing wrong with the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in these different aspects of human life, they are not the reason we should want to come to God. When Jesus Christ knew the crowd was following Him because of these manifestations, He had to address it because it was a problem.

Our Church leaders have now taken these messages to another level. They do not only lure people with prosperity and the likes, the messages are usually tied to the people giving to enrich pastors. Our pastors are becoming stupendously rich as a result, having chains of businesses set up with the people’s money. As if that is not enough, they often display their wealth through their expensive clothes, the cars they drive and houses they live in. They now have more than enough, which they invest in chains of businesses, ranging from schools to real estate.

Manifestations and the Rise of Occultic Pastors

Through these manifestations, the gospel has become attractive. People now see it as a means to wealth, which has prompted those not called by God to start opening churches all over the place. It is now common in our cities to find those scammers parading themselves as ‘Apostles’, ‘Prophets’, ‘Pastors’, and Evangelists”, all over the place. You see their posters everywhere with ridiculous themes and tags advertising all sorts and demanding all manner of things from their followers. Some of them now have access to airtime on radio and TV, particularly satellite TV.

These self-styled pastors are all over the place swindling gullible people who are looking for miracles, breakthroughs and prosperity, instead of a relationship with God. In a society such as ours, where poverty and different types of ailments and needs are rife, these ‘pastors’ are thriving. Their activities were aptly described by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-7, “But realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. 6For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,7always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.

Some of these so called ‘pastors’ now go as far as using all manner of occultic powers to facilitate their miracles in order to draw crowd to themselves. The gospel now pays their bills, as some of them are known to live lavishly on people’s earnings. Some of their operations are very subtle because they look, feel, and sound like the real. Recently, one of them was on radio. After the usual preaching and testimonies of miraculous manifestations that were performed by him, he promised the first 120 people to call his number a private and exclusive meeting. He told them to come with anointing oil and a padlock. What would they be doing with a padlock?

Some of our real pastors caused this when they started preaching a different gospel to the people. There is nothing like the gospel of prosperity or miracles for instance. The only gospel that was preached by Jesus Christ and the apostles is the Gospel of the Kingdom, which emphasises a relationship with the Father. These manifestations are fringe benefits of our faith. I dare to say that if all you hear in your church meetings and programmes are prosperity, miracles, breakthroughs, sign and wonders, then you are wasting your precious time. You can do a self-assessment of your spiritual development, using Christ as your standard. And for those who patronise these occultic pastors, you need to run for your life. You could lose all you have here on earth as well as your place in eternity if you don’t severe yourself from them.

The emphasis of the Spirit today is in equipping the saints to become Christ-like, finishing all of God’s purposes by fulfilling divine intents and making a people ready for the second coming of our King. Ephesian 5:27 says: “… He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

Jesus Christ is building His Church, as declared in Matthew 16:18. The religious structure of Christianity that is popular and all over the place is not the true church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ is the aggregate of believers spread all over the world who are focused on bringing God’s purposes to a finish and are making themselves ready to meet with Christ. If your Church activities and programmes are not making you become more and more like Christ, then it’s time to reconsider your place of worship.

Frederick Adetiba, a HR Practitioner, Researcher and good governance advocate, is Head of HR/Administration/Finance at Premium Times. He can be reached via fredor4c@gmail.com and @fredor4c on twitter.