Preachers hit out at prosperity gospel
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/465852/-/tkafiy/-/index.html
By MICHAEL NJUGUNA, Posted Saturday, August 30 2008 at 19:57
In Summary
Pastor Julius Kimani initiated the scathing attacks on many Nairobi-based churches whose pastors, it was claimed, were preaching the prosperity gospel instead of preaching against sin.
The pastors said that hundreds of Christians were suffering after clergymen formed pyramid schemes that swindled gullible members of various congregations out of millions of shillings.
They also took the opportunity to encourage the congregation with hope and restoration for the country following the post-election violence.
Prophet David Owuor, the man who rose to fame after his predictions that earthquakes would occur in East Africa came to pass, is now creating dissent in the church by preaching against the prosperity gospel, which involves church members being given “formulas” for gaining wealth.
Prophet Owuor’s Repentance and Prayer Ministry organised a three-day prayer and fasting crusade at Nakuru Girls High School last weekend where speakers condemned churches that use “rotten props” to teach the prosperity gospel whose main aim, he says, is to fleece the flock to enrich pastors.
“For we never came with words of flattery as you know, nor with the pretext for greed – God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people,” a pastor from Zambia said, quoting the words of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians 2:5.
Three-day crusade
The Zambian pastor was among others from Kenya, Chile, Britain, Uganda, Malawi, Pakistan, India, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, USA and Germany who preached to tens of thousands of Christians who attended the crusade.
“Some pastors in Zambia were only preaching the prosperity gospel. They teach their congregations to look up to the West for funds instead of looking up to God,” he claimed.
He told his listeners that it was common to see pastors armed with briefcases spending hours on end in cyber cafes surfing the internet for information on how they could link up with financial donors.
During the Nakuru rally, Pastor Julius Kimani initiated the scathing attacks on many Nairobi-based churches whose pastors, it was claimed, were preaching the prosperity gospel instead of preaching against sin.
“The faithful are being made to pay for prayers and miracles. There is a sum for miracles to get a car. Some pastors are asking for Sh10,000 to pray for someone to get a visa. There are fake healing meetings everywhere as innocent people are lured with lies in the name of God,” he said.
The pastors said that hundreds of Christians were suffering after clergymen formed pyramid schemes that swindled gullible members of various congregations out of millions of shillings.
Many of the Christians who lost their money in the pyramid schemes had taken bank loans and most of them will spend many years servicing the loans, he said.
He also commiserated with those who sold their assets and took the money to the pyramid-scheme pastors, saying they are hurting and hoping against all hope that the pastors will repent their sins and return the money.
COMMENT TO THE ARTICLE
Submitted by muthinja1
Posted August 31, 2008 02:42 AM
YES, Pastors, you hit the nail right on the head! We have ''Evangests''and Pastors, all conning poor people, and even going into politics in God's name! If God is love, where has all these talk of 'SEED' come from? What about those who have nothing to sow?
Life and times of Dr David Owuor
http://www.eastandard.net/news/InsidePage.php?id=1144011274&cid=4&
Published on 11/04/2009
By Beatrice Obwocha
His presence is overwhelming and prophecies scary although some have come to pass.
Dr David Owuor pulls huge crowds wherever he goes to preach.
Some of the worshippers spend nights at the crusade venue, praying before the
Prophet David Owuor
arrival of the "prophet".
Thousands flocked his recent meeting at the Nakuru Showground and held prayers for 36 hours.
It was at this venue that he led Prime Minister Raila Odinga to Christ.
At Merica Hotel, his guards kept people away as we sought to interview Owuor, who surprisingly gave us three hours of his busy schedule.
Many people do not know him and there has been speculation about his nationality but he insists he is a Kenyan from Siaya.
Owuor dons a trademark dreadlocked beard but was reluctant to talk about it —when he started growing it and why.
"My daughter you are very young, there are some things you do not question. Do not joke with the Lord," he said.
Naked prophet
Quoting from the book of Isaiah 20:1-3, he said God ordered Isaiah to strip and walk naked and no one asked him why.
Prophet David Owuor with Prime Minster Raila Odinga after the PM confessed and got saved during the Nakuru Showground meeting.
Born to Hezekiah and Margaret Ochieng Owour in 1966 at Goma, Nyanza Province, Owuor is a scientist.
He enrolled at Wambasa Primary School in Siaya but later transferred to St Peter’s in Tororo Uganda, where his father used to work.
The second-born in a family of six, Owuor joined Makerere University.
He could not complete his education at the university owing to unrest in Uganda but later transferred to University of Nairobi where he studied a Bachelor of Science degree.
"It was after I transferred to Nairobi from Makerere, in 1988, that I received Christ," he recalls.
During the unrest, Owuor had to cross over to Uganda to get his papers but the fighting was intense.
"I cried to God asking Him to take me safely to Uganda and back and I promised if I cross over and returned safely I would dedicate my life to Him," he says.
"Well, it was a simple prayer but it moved God. I returned but went back to my normal life," adds Owuor.
After completing the undergraduate degree, he undertook masters in Genetics at the University of Nairobi.
Being one of the leading students, he got two scholarships to Germany and Israel. He chose Israel.
At the BenGurion University, he changed his programme from plant genetics to biochemical genetics.
Upon graduation he returned to Kenya briefly and worked for the United Nations Environment Programme as a volunteer.
He went back to Israel in 1994 for a doctorate in biochemical genetics at Haifa University, where he specialised in DNA sequencing.
After completion, he went to the University of Chicago’s Centre of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in the US and specialised in transduction.
"This is the study of effects of medicine in the human body and very important to the future of medicine as it would help design drugs that have less side effects to human beings," he explains.
He then moved to University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, where he lectured and researched.
He says he was attached to the Cancer institute as a specialist and focused more on researching tumour genesis and how it grows.
He worked at the centre until 2003 when he left and started preaching.
First vision
He experienced his first vision in 1996 while in Israel.
"The Lord, in a dream, called me three times but I did not understand. I had a number of visions but dismissed them as dreams,"
But later when he moved to Chicago, he started getting visions almost daily. The Lord often asked him to follow Him.
"I kept running away and ignoring but you cannot run away from God," he said.
At one time, he recalled, he was involved in a serious accident. He broke his collarbone and blood was flowing from his eyes.
He was rushed to hospital and doctors thought he had brain damage but after examining him, they did not find anything wrong and after a short while he was on his feet again.
In 2001, he says God appeared in a vision and lifted him off the ground and said to him ‘come let’s go’.
From that time, he says he started seeing visions of churches and God would direct him to go and preach there or prophesise.
"I used to spend many hours in the lab at the university but with the new calling, I had to cut down on the hours and go to preach," he says.
It took him seven months of struggling between his work and church until he decided to quit and concentrate on the work of God.
He said God directed him to start the Repentance and Holiness ministry.
"God would show me a certain country and send me there with a message. This is how he showed me Kenya and sent me here," he says.
He says the country had sinned and God was not happy and Kenyans had to repent.
"Even the men and women of God had defiled the altar and His cup of wrath was overflowing," notes Owuor.
He says in October 19, 2004, he was shown the state of the church in the country and had to come and tell the leaders to repent and a national prayer day was held.
"The pastors and bishops were and still are preaching the gospel of prosperity," he says.
The church leaders, he posits, were trapping people by calling for crusades for healing only to collect offerings and enrich themselves.
"They engage in material gospel and this leads to sexual sin and some even abandon their call and join politics," he says.
He warned church leaders to repent but some dismissed him, saying he had no church.
He says the church leaders had become too materialistic and forgotten God is able to provide for them.
"I am an example, we do not collect offering during our meetings but God provides.
"If I were to collect offerings I would become a millionaire instantly but that is not what I was called for," he asserts.
Owuor says he does not worry about his accommodation or transport when he goes for meeting since, as he says, God provides.
When he was going to Nakuru, last weekend, he was informed that his accommodation was taken care of.
"We were making transport arrangements when a friend of the ministry called and said his wife had given him new Range Rover to be used in God’s work.," he says
"Such things show God will always provide and you do not have to con people in the name of soliciting money to be able to minister."
Owuor’s condemnation of local churches and leaders has put him at loggerheads. During his crusade in Nakuru, not less than four armed bodyguards escorted him.
"There have been several attempts on my life but this has not stopped me from saying the truth," he says.
The faithful too, he notes, were sinning in church, even breaking and stealing from the house of God.
Earthquake warning
He does not have a specific church but goes from one town to another, as well as various countries where God sends him.
In February 22, 2007, he again called for repentance and warned of earthquakes but no one listened to him.
In July, the same year, he said he was shown a vision warning Kenyans of bloodshed after elections if they did not pray and repent.
"I asked the leadership to call for national repentance as I had seen bloodshed and women and children trooping to refugee camps but no one listened and there was the post-election violence," he says.
Chose to be single
Owuor, who is not married, says; "In this calling one cannot be able to raise a family because you are always on the move from town to town, country to country".
Having a family, he says, will tie him down and he may not be able to follow the will of God.
He says he has not been able to constantly keep in touch with his brothers and sisters but they attend his meetings.
"God disconnects you, not only from family but the past so that you can be committed to Him and the ministry," he says.
He went home last in November 2004 when he held a crusade in Homabay.
He says before he heeded to God’s calling, he almost converted to Judaism while in Israel.
He says he had a son in Israel and almost married the mother but he moved to the US and the girl’s family refused to let her go with him.
While in the US, he also cohabited but the woman left after he started seeing visions.
"I reflect back and I see this as the work of the devil so that I do not follow the calling by God," he concludes.
