By Eddie Ssemakula
Article extracted from The Gospel Coalition Africa
It’s been interesting to see how everyone responds to COVID-19, from WhatsApp conspiracists to self-proclaimed experts. Opinions abound. With them, ignorance. But the people who I desire to hear something from, more than anyone else, are those in the health and wealth movement. Prosperity preachers. Ministers renowned for making inflated claims about this earthly life with promises of material blessing and positive confessions. What will they say? I’ve wondered what an honest prosperity preacher would say when they come to terms with the biblical reality slapping all of us in the face. But no one has, yet. So below is an imagined apology for ignoring what the Bible teaches and our present reality reveals.
An Apology
Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to spoil the party, but this is not the 2020 we promised in December 2019. Actually, it just hit us that God is in heaven and he does whatever he wishes (Psalms 115:3). We have realised that the Jesus we pronounce as someone dying to enrich you was actually a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). He understands our sorrows, even experiencing death. But he died for sins and not cents. So, no more guarantees of him cushioning your earthly life. To be honest, anything looks possible now.
About your Health…
To those who were excitedly anticipating our healing crusade next week, we regret to inform you that it won’t be happening. We just discovered that Isaiah 53 (especially verse 5) means God is most concerned with the “sin disease.” He did something about that. But he did not promise physical health for believers. So we apologise. Yes, God heals. So we should pray that he does. But he responds on his own terms, he is not bound by our timing. We will continue to pray for the sick. But we won’t televise it.
Since we are making apologies, we ask that you also forgive us for announcing the overnight meeting next week. We have decided to obey the government and cancel it because we actually just noticed that the government is given by God (Romans 13:3). Apologies that we initially acted out of gross biblical ignorance, disobeying God by dismissing the rulers he put in place. On a related note, we as the church would like to advise you that we are not competent to tackle this pandemic. Please trust and listen to the health experts and government. Wash your hands, keep social (not relational) distance and stay home. That spirit ‘leading you around town’ is unlikely the Holy Spirit…Keep Reading
