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].
My parents nearly pulled me back into the prosperity gospel when everything in my life and to turn out like Job’s … Their attempts are still ongoing but God is by my side. Joshua Selman and Jerry Eze are their current favourites, they’ve been to conferences, they berate me for not going to conferences by “anointed men of God”, all my problems are because I didn’t pray enough or speak in tongues.
When I was listening to Jerry Eze Bible verses contrary to what he was doing kept interrupting my mind (that holy communion at the end of his service? ), basic human discernment had me suspicious when he would cry and whip people into an emotional frenzy just before asking for financial donations.. Joshua Selman.. he whips people into frenzies where they keep remembering the material things they don’t have and makes them agitated that their health and wealth have not happened yet, “get angry”… He’s a very good speaker and had nice life lessons… He could be a wise atheist lecturer at any uni. I kept turning down my mind, saying it’s because of all these doubts that I won’t receive my blessings… I read too much of the Bible so I was just seeing too many lies, but emotion kept me there… In real life I attended a reformed church that I randomly found without knowing it was reformed, but I recognised the teaching as biblical, for example not glossing over suffering or making a random excuse to fit the idea that God’s will is that we’re so materially successful, so I kept going there. Eventually I stopped watching these people after a second deconstruction.
Everyday my parents pray for God to remove the spirit of rebellion in me for not going to their church. They parrot things they’ve heard like “Jesus says the poor you’ll have with you always, but not me… That means Jesus didn’t consider himself poor”…
I have been dumbfounded by a lot of the things, now in my early 30s, that I hear my parents say. I am reluctant sometimes to believe they believe this… It seems like a sin to ponder the thought that they’re gullible or exceedingly vain… or that they truly believe this is the message of the cross? They’re such smart people… One thing I have to say is that only the eloquent prosperity preachers fool them, the ones that dress like old money instead of new money, speak near to perfect English. I think my dad likes Joshua Selman because of his eloquent use of words as well. I am so shocked they idolised material success this strongly… I didn’t take them to be so worldly, some people unconsciously believe in the prosperity gospel and value material things highly, but my parents actively say things like the “Jesus wasn’t poor because he said…” Message above.
It’s true that God must be the one that sheds light into the darkness of our hearts, because human wisdom is still not enough to not believe in the prosperity gospel. They pray so much and are so zealous… For health and wealth? I’d been discerning and sensing emptiness behind their prayers even though I saw all this sincere zeal…I was puzzled about why, sometimes I wondered after all those hours daily and weekly praying serving… Why do I sense no love, is it because I don’t really know what love is myself?
Turns out Zeal and sincerity is not a replacement word for Truth.
Oh well, as long as I am for God, even if human authority says I’m a rebel, I’ll treat it like the Pharisees chastising the disciples. Please pray for me so I don’t fall for it again in a dark moment, I did a failure analysis on why I fell for it even though I knew about the prosperity gospel since my early 20s, it took advantage of a weakened state of mind where it seemed like the world was collapsing, finances, health, enemies etc, and combined with this, must be people constantly in your ear everyday telling you that it’s because you don’t have such age such solution, because you sinned, because you’ve not at this altar where God is, those two things must happen at the same time. In fact, my dad went deeper into this gospel when something similar happened to him… Those men offered him hope. 99% of his library is full of the typical names from Americans to Nigerians. He eventually came out of the situation, he gives the credit to the teaching, the same way false religions continue because it’s believers recieved something good whilst in that religion. I can’t be proud though, we would be very similar, if not for God himself showing me the poison it is.
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