Biodun Fatoyinbo and the Gospel of Prosperity
By: Deji Yesufu
Biodun Fatoyinbo has been largely out of national news for several years now. The last time I saw a picture of him, he was recovering from a health challenge – a possible stroke. It appears he is fully recovered now and also rebounded back to preaching the faulty, erroneous, and heretical Prosperity Message he has long been known to preach. In my theological tradition, Reformed Baptist, when a person is visited with a hard providence, such as an accident, an illness, or a loss of some kind, it is an opportunity to reflect on one’s life and reform one’s ways and message. It appears to me that Biodun Fatoyinbo learnt nothing from that brush with death.
Nigeria is a nation I like to call “One week, one drama”. We had just recovered from Ibom-Air-Gate when social media became inundated by a rejoinder from the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) media team. They had a reply for Pastor Fatoyinbo. In a clip that had been circulated on social media, Mr. Fatoyinbo is seen extolling the ministry of the late Evangelist Ayo Babalola. Babalola is a foremost missionary with the CAC, and he is still regarded as one of the greatest influences on Christianity in South-West Nigeria. Fatoyinbo said essentially that despite all the anointing Babalola possessed, he did not have money. He added that if Babalola had money, his children would be prominent people in Nigeria. But because their patriarch left them no money, no one knows them today. The CAC rejoinder made it clear that their church is not a prosperity preaching and seeking a local assembly. They also said that Babalola’s children are well and alive, serving in the various congregations God has put them in. To save face, Fatoyinbo published a statement yesterday, where he apologized for his words.
It is not likely that this generation will appreciate the damage that the message that has rightly been termed the “Prosperity Gospel” is causing in Nigeria. I hope that historians and sociologists will someday document it, and help us to see how much harm this message is doing to the average Nigerian mind. But until this is done, some of us will continue to remind the reading public of the evil of the gospel of prosperity. Occasions like these also afford us the opportunity to tell the public what this message is, and to warn people to separate themselves from it.
The gospel of prosperity is a message that teaches that Jesus Christ died to make Christians healthy and wealthy. The orthodox Christian message teaches that Jesus Christ died to save people from their sins alone (Matthew 1:21, Luke 24:46-47, Ephesians 1:7). The word “alone” is important to this definition because it is the distinguishing mark between sound and false doctrine. My Christian tradition loves to extol the stories of the 16th-century reformers. Martin Luther, a German Monk, while translating the Greek New Testament to German, added the word “alone” to Romans 1:16-17, where scripture had said that “the Just shall live by faith”. Luther concluded that sentence with “alone”, to emphasize the facts emerging from the reformation that right standing with God could not come through fidelity to church traditions and works. In a similar vein, the word “alone” must be employed to separate orthodox Christianity from prosperity Christianity.
As we labor to provide a definition for the Prosperity Gospel, we should also remind readers of the reach of this very perverse message. It is surprising that the Christ Apostolic Church will make a public rebuke of Biodun Fatoyinbo. One would think that the code of silence that many Pentecostals employ in dealing with disagreements would have been employed here. But, alas, it appears that when a revered personality in their tradition was touched, they felt duty-bound to defend him. Because I had always felt that there was little or no difference between what Christ Apostolic Church teaches and what Fatoyinbo espouses. At the root of Pentecostal theology is this: Jesus can make your life better. Ayo Babalola is revered today among CAC folks because of their many testimonies of healing that followed his ministry. Fatoyinbo has only continued this “better life” Christianity, except that he has only chosen to emphasize another aspect of it: wealth. The earlier the better, the Christian churches realize that Jesus Christ did not die to make people healthy and wealthy, the earlier we begin to make a gospel impact upon our land and people.
As we appreciate the errors in the gospel of prosperity, we need to return to examine its overall impact on the Nigerian nation. A few days ago, another video emerged of Rev. Isaac Omolehin, where he was lamenting the fact that of the ten richest pastors in the world, there are five Nigerian men there. But of the ten richest churches in the world, there are no Nigerian churches. In other words, Nigerian pastors, through the false gospel of prosperity, have succeeded in cornering church finances into their pockets. What should belong to the organization, the local churches, these men have succeeded in directing to their bank accounts. It is their sons and daughters who are today telling us that to be a Christian who will make an impact in your day, your bank account must be brimming with money. Another impact that we must keep in mind with regard to the effect of the prosperity gospel in Nigeria is that while the pastors grow richer, the congregation grows poorer. Not just that, the social impact of the gospel of prosperity is not felt on the streets in Nigeria. Nigerians are still poor, and they are still sick. When we point these things out to the prosperity preachers, they tell us that they are not the government. When you ask them how the messages they preach from their pulpit have compelled the government to do the right thing? They become numb with silence.
Let us make it very clear: the gospel of prosperity is a message of hell. When the Reformation hit Europe, it brought about the enlightenment and then the industrial revolution, which has led up to the modern times, with the internet age, etc. The true gospel revolutionizes society. It makes society better. It was the Reformation and the thinking that came with it, that brought an end to monarchies in our world and introduced us to constitutional governments. If a message has been preached in Nigeria for fifty years, and only the preachers get richer, while the people get poorer, that message is not a message from Jesus. Biblically, Christian ministry is not the place to go and make money. Ayo Babalola and other pioneers of Pentecostalism in the mid-20th century understood this. Everything changed with Benson Idahosa, David Oyedepo, and Enoch Adeboye in the late 1970s and 1980s – a discussion for another day. For now, please understand that the message that Biodun Fatoyinbo preaches is not a message from Jesus Christ.
Be blessed.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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