Church Celebrities Versus The Gospel of Salvation.

By Ninyo Omidiji

I am not a fan of any celebrity religious leader. I am not, because I do not believe that Jesus went to the cross for you and I in order to make celebrities of us. 

Check out His life and ministry and that of His apostles and you will not see anything suggesting that they promoted a celebrity lifestyle. No doubts they were impactful in their own ways but they weren't celebrities. You don't have to be a celebrity to live a life of impact. 

Strictly speaking, a celebrity is someone who is famous in the entertainment business. A celebrity is loved by the world because the world loves entertainment. In other words, unless a preacher has turned to an entertainer of some sort, it is unlikely he turns out a celebrity. The word "celebrity-preacher" in itself is self-contradictory. 

Friends, being a celebrity is the way of the world, not the way of the kingdom. The lot or the portion of the believer in Christ is to be hated and persecuted by the world around them. This has not changed. This will never change. 

Jesus said:

Matthew 24:9 NKJV 

[9] “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 

Jesus was not a celebrity. But the present-day church system preaches and promotes a  celebrity Jesus. They preach another Jesus. This is why the gospel that they preach is alien to what the early church preached. 

Jesus was self-confessed that the world hated Him. While He was preparing His disciples for things to come, in John 15:18-20 NKJV, Jesus said to them:

[18] “If the world hates you, you know that IT HATED ME before it hated you. [19] If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. [20] Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 

But nowadays, we have young preachers whose vested interest in ministry is to become famous and wealthy. They want to become celebrities. They use their pulpits to promote this ambition. They sell the same idea to their listeners. 

And from where did they get this notion? It's from the people that they call faithers-in-the-faith. These so-called fathers have modelled wealth, fame and the celebrity lifestyle as rewards of their ministry and these young preachers are hooked like someone who is hooked on hard drúgs. 

This is why I am convinced that one of the biggest Satanic onslaughts against the church is the wide acceptance of what is considered the "prosperity gospel" into her fold. It is the biggest promoter of the lust for fame, power and wealth among churchgoers. It is the undercover operation of the spirit of the world inside what is called the church of today. Satan knew it would be tough to drag the church into the world so he deceptively dragged the world into the church and got zealots to promote it. 

When Satan came to tempt Jesus, he showed Him all the glories of this world and promised to give them to Him if only Jesus would bow to him. But what Jesus rejected from satan has become what preachers promote today. Can't you see it? 

In one of his epistles, John wrote:

I John 2:15-16 NKJV

[15] Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world." 

Friends, I am convinced that no celebrity preacher is serving Christ. He is serving his lust and he is polluting  and corrupting the lives of the younger generation and weakening their genuine faith in the Lord.  

No genuine servant of Christ will use the promise of the glories of this world as the reason to come to God through Christ Jesus. No genuine servant of God will bait you with the promise of fame and wealth. 

I will keep harping on this same thing, as I have done for a couple of years, in hopes that one or two persons who are "in the valley of decision, as I was years ago, will read and get delivered from the trap and deception of satan that is carefully camouflaged as church of today. *****************************************

Ninyo Omidiji is a medical doctor from Nigeria, a hardline gospeller, teacher, father and a devoted husband.