Pastors Must Lead Exemplary Christian Lives

Wonders, they say, shall never end, and indeed, wonders are happening in Christendom in Ghana, as men who wield the holy book – The Bible – have reportedly neglected their faith in the God they are serving, and have rather resorted to consulting juju men for powers to win more members.

The Chronicle, on Friday, August 19, 2016, published an interesting, but implausible story, which quoted a supposed spiritual man based at Suhum in the Eastern Region, as saying that many pastors come to him for juju.

Under the headline; “80% of Pastors use juju… Suhum based spiritualist alleges”, the story said a Suhum-based powerful spiritualist, Togbe Huntehunu Vigbedor, claims 80 percent of pastors in Ghana are not true men of God, but rather they are using various forms of voodoo from spiritualists to perform wonders.

Vigbedor bragged that he is the spiritual godfather for many notable men of God in Ghana. He continued that these men of God are given items such as water, oil and handkerchief among others, and are advised to chant certain words, as if they are speaking in tongues, when they (the men of God) want to perform miracles.

The spiritualist further noted that many of these pastors, who seek juju from them for their churches to flourish, pretend to launch attacks on them (spiritualists) during their church services, just to convince their members in particular, and Ghanaians in general, that they were genuinely working with powers from God, when, in fact, the opposite is the case.

The juju man is reported to have vowed to expose any pastor who had come to him for powers to run his church, and yet, go round and attack spiritualists.

Though one may be tempted to dismiss Togbe Huntehunu's assertion and treat it with all the contempt it deserves, The Chronicle is tempted to recall what the Bible said in Matthew 24:5, that “For many will come in my name, claiming ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.”

1 John 4:1 states: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

As a newspaper, we know that not all our readers believe in Jesus Christ, and we do not intend to discredit their faith. The paper respects everybody's faith, but those who believe in the bible will agree with us that the conduct of some of our so-called pastors is the fulfillment of the scriptures, as captured by the above bible quotation.

Knowing very well that a large section of the Ghanaian population is religious, some of these 'pastors' have taken advantage of them to perpetrate, in most cases, absolute fraud on them. The way they conduct themselves on our television screens, clearly suggests that they are hiding behind the name of God to do ungodly things.

Unfortunately, because the constitution recognises the freedom of worship and association, it becomes sometimes a herculean task for the state to intervene in some of these matters.

If it is true that these pastors have been going to spiritualists for magical powers to perform miracles, it completely defies God's admonition to his people, with regards to idol worshipping, or better still, the need for Christians to stay away from bowing to other gods.

Christians must, therefore, be wise as the serpent to detect the evil ways of some of these so-called men of God, before they lead them into the ditch, or, as the Bible says, into Hell fire.

What is going in Ghana now, in the name of religion (Christian faith), is appalling and the true Christians themselves must devise ways and means to quell the menace.