Joshua Selman: What is Biblical Prosperity?
By: Deji Yesufu.
When historians write the account of our time, they are very likely going to mention that in the year 2024/25, a Nigerian pastor, by the name of Apostle Joshua Selman, was the leading Christian voice in Nigeria. They are also going to mention that while his predecessors in ministry, individuals like David Oyedepo and Enoch Adeboye, had captured the television and radio waves; it was Selman who opened the door to internet broadcasts – particularly the use of YouTube to reach countless devotees not just in Nigeria but all around the world. Those of us who have made a career from criticizing Joshua Selman may be increasing the man’s popularity. I came to this realization right inside my house – inside my bedroom.
As a writer, I do a lot of work in the dead of the night, when my children are asleep and the Mrs. of the house is not demanding one thing or the other. I used to enjoy a lot of quiet until I discovered that my neighbour was a Joshua Selman devotee. In the past week, it has become increasingly difficult to concentrate on my reading because the never-ending sound of “…amen…” keeps interrupting my thoughts. Selman can be heard in the background giving some hocus-poccus “prophetic word”, and my neighbour, a giant of a man, along with his baritone voice, will be saying “…amen…” My neighbour is nearing sixty years old, and so anyone who thinks that the Selman phenomenon is limited to the youth is very wrong. Joshua Selman’s false doctrine is a household commodity in Nigeria. For those who might be wondering why I dare to say that Selman is teaching false doctrine, kindly look up the first and second articles that I have published on him. Today, I simply want to write about what true prosperity consists of. But before I do that, I must share one more anecdote with you.
A friend shared something that happened in his parent’s home recently. My friend’s mother is a devotee of David Oyedepo. The father is a committed Deeper Life member and holds some of Oyedepo’s doctrine suspect. My friend and I led the campaign against tithing in 2013 up till 2017 before Daddy Freeze made the matter popular. My friend’s mother is unhappy with him because he no longer listens to prosperity gospellers. She is equally unhappy that he has taught his younger ones to be suspicious of these preachers. Then one day, my friend’s younger brother, who is a banker, arrives at the family house for a visit. He then hears Mama shouting “amen… amen…” to a Jerry Eze’s YouTube broadcast. He turned to his mother and explained to her that he had only recently processed 400,000 dollars which YouTube paid into Eze’s account. He told her that he handled the transaction himself. Mama was silent. While their devotees shout “…amen… amen…”, these men are cashing out big time. This brings me to the heart of my discussion. What does true Christian prosperity consist of?
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One of the blessings of being human and possessing the ability to think is that we realize very quickly that to be human is to be imperfect – it is only divine beings that are perfect. Our imperfections are often pointed out by our conscience. Man’s conscience is every man’s measure of good and evil. When our conscience smites us, it is our inner moral barometer that tells us that we have failed, and we could do better. The human conscience is not the voice of God – like many people erroneously teach. The human conscience only becomes the voice of God when it has been taught by the word of God what the standard of good and evil is. Now, having lived with our conscience all our lives, and hopefully having gotten our conscience enlivened by the word of God, the first thing we discover about our humanity is that we are irrevocable sinners. Irrevocable in the sense that we sin over and over and over again. Every one of us are liars. We are full of pride – even the humility some of us vaunt around is disguised pride. We are selfish. We are full of lust. We are greedy. We are self-centered. If we happen to observe the glorious Ten Commandments, which are God’s eternal standards of what is right and wrong, we discover too quickly that alongside all these sins, we are idolatrous also. If we have learnt any lesson from our humanity at all, it should be that we have discovered that every one of us is a wretched sinner. We are spiritually poor and we are all heading to an eternity without God and without his Christ – including those false teachers who tell you that your sole aim of living is to be rich and healthy. This brings me to what true prosperity is.
If we would catch a glimpse of genuine prosperity, we want to look at the life of Jesus Christ – the central figure in the Bible. In the Old Testament, one of the ways God shows Israel he is happy with them is that he makes them prosperous. When evil begins to come upon the land of Israel, they get a feeling that God is unhappy with them. So, we see that many of the patriarchs and kings of Israel were stupendously wealthy. Men like Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon were men of means. When you see such a picture, you want to conclude that there is a close relationship between right standing with God and worldly wealth. To reach such a conclusion, however, is to have a myopic view of scripture. First, many other godly men in the Old Testament were not wealthy. Second, the Old Testament account is not complete until you look at the lives of Jesus and his apostles. It is safe to say that in God’s revelation, the New Testament did not begin until Jesus rose from the dead. Therefore, most of the accounts of the lives of Jesus were also Old Testament and there is no account anywhere that Jesus or any of his disciples had the kind of money Job or Solomon had. This brings me to why I think Jesus did not come to this world a wealthy man.
First. There was very little reason why Jesus should come to the earth swimming in riches when many of the people his message must appeal to would be the poor and the oppressed. Second. The concept of the humiliation of Jesus Christ is that he must leave his glories and riches in heaven to partake of our wretch. He took our poverty so we might have his riches. Third. The wisdom of the ages has proven that people with wealth are not usually the people with the greatest wisdom. Finally, I believe that the reason why Jesus did not come to the earth flowing with riches was because he needed us to understand that spiritual riches, the ones that he planned to give the redeemed, are far superior to worldly riches. With this, we must return to the man who has been honest enough to realize that his imperfection is not mere “weakness” but sin. It is a blessed day indeed when we discover that we are sinners in need of a Saviour and that the true riches are the spiritual realities that the born-again life brings.
Enters the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who hitherto had been pronounced to be the one to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). I like to mention here that that scripture did not say he will save them from poverty or ill health; rather, it said he would save them from their sins. And numerous other scriptures teach the same thing (Luke 24:46-47, Ephesians 1:7). The question therefore is simple: do you know true biblical prosperity? Have you been saved from your sins? Do you have the confidence to draw near to the throne of grace and ask God to forgive you your sins? Do you know the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? Do you have any sense of the security of your salvation in Jesus Christ? Are you assured of the fact that if you breathe your last this moment, you will open your eyes to Christ in heaven? Are you still afraid of dying? Do you have an eternal hope? Do you have that keen sense within you that you are a child of God? If your relationship with Jesus Christ is measured only in naira and kobo, you very likely do not have a relationship with the Lord. True biblical riches is a born-again life. A life that is hidden in Christ in God. A life that understands that his sins are forgiven, and covered, and knows that God will not hold iniquity against him (Romans 4:6-7). This, my reader, is true biblical riches. This is what Paul meant when he taught that we are blessed with all spiritual riches (Ephesians 1:3). Amen.
I must end this essay with an imprecation of the ministry of men like Joshua Selman. May his ministry not prosper in Nigeria again. May God grant that Nigerians will have eyes to see that by following men like him they are being deceived. May more and more young men, like Ezekiel Temitope Isaac, a student of the University of Ilorin, who discovered that Selman was a fraud – May God increase the tribe of young men like Ezekiel in Nigeria. And, may God grant that all my readers understand what true spiritual riches are. May God grant that you find your sins forgiven in Christ and hidden away under the blood of Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO. He can be reached via [email protected].
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