Gospel Preachers or Pedllers?
The Bucks County and New Hope PA in the U.S, have some things in common with Oyingbo in Lagos, Nigeria. They have Peddler’s villages. In New Hope is a village housing about 100 peddlers, while the peddler’s village in Bucks County is perfect for shopping, dining, and lodging. It is described as “a spectacular year-round destination” — for people who need some chill-out moments out of their busy schedules — feeling good at the end of the day after patting with some dollars!
Also at Oyingbo are peddlers — countless of them — in shops and on the streets advertising and calling on passers-by to buy their wares. What do they have in common? Peddling! They peddle their goods for money.
The modern-day churches — driven by transactional leadership — also have many things in common with the peddler’s villages in Pennsylvania. They are one with them in messaging and in their goals. They peddle the gospel!
They are in multiple brands— adopting different tactics. Some, like trained gymnasts, dramatizing and entertaining their congregants; Some are damn good communicators (motivational speakers if you will) taking Scriptures out of context and manipulating their congregants to empty their pockets. Others engage in downright hypnotism, casting spells and faking healing with prearranged “sick people.” The motivation is the same — the bottom line.
Recall Simon Magus? — Simon, the sorcerer (Acts 8:9–23).
A note on Simon Magus:
Simon was a Samaritan, one of the people brought into the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians following the exile of the ten tribes of Israel in captivity. The Samaritans had brought from Babylon the ancient Babylonian mystery religion, which Simon mixed with Greek philosophy and Judaism.
Acts 8:9 introduces him:
“a man named Simon had practiced in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.”
Scripture continues,
“When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:18–19).
The apostle Peter replied:
“May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God.”
Simon Magus identified with the Hellenized Gnosticism of Samaria. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him as the “Samaritan Messiah” and the “father of all heresy.”
I think we have in our country, many apostles of Simon Magus spreading his brand of “the gospel.” But we need not be surprised: 2 Corinth. 11:14–15 says: “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.”
In the words of Paul, “they need to get their hearts right before God” lest “their end will be what their actions deserve.” (v.15b).
The apostle Paul writing to Corinthian Christians said,
“But thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing (2 Corinth.2:14).
Paul was aware that the message was not about him, nor was he up to the task of spreading the message on the enemy’s territory all by himself. He was simply obeying orders as a captive in Christ’s triumphal procession following Christ’s victory over authorities, powers, and forces of darkness in the heavenly realm.
Having, like obedient captives, delivered the gospel of salvation to all, it’s up to individuals to accept or reject the pleasing aroma translating to salvation for those who accept it and death for those who do not.
Christ’s mandate to his followers is “make disciples” of all nations — not “make wealth” out of nations or be the “ruler of nations.” They are to call men and women out of the world to follow in the steps of Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for each of his followers in his coming kingdom.
Making disciples involves the Gospel proclamation and the teaching of all that the Lord had commanded. Spreading or preaching the good news is bound to provoke different reactions from people and cultures.
Xochil Dixon of Our Daily Bread shares his mother’s reaction to him when he became a believer and shared the gospel with her. He wrote:
“Instead of making a decision to trust Jesus, as I expected, she stopped speaking to me for a year. Her bad experiences with people who claim to follow Jesus made her distrust believers in Christ.”
But because Xochil did not give up praying but kept reaching her with the truth of the gospel, his mother took ownership of Christ’s redemptive work and became a Christian.
Paul drew a distinction between himself and other preachers of his day in this way: “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” (v.17).
Sure, there will always be a difference between those sent from God and those sent from men — between those who peddle the word of God for profit and those who are committed to the message of reconciliation.
Paul declared:
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer….All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:” (2 Corinth. 5:16, 18).
There is also a difference between the products of “other gospels” — peddlers, and the products of the gospel of God’s kingdom — and their impacts on society.
Our studies of Genesis reveal that there have always been two groups of people since the Fall: those who fear God and those who rebel. Those who live in the way of Seth, and those who live in the way of Cain: The righteous and the unrighteous.
True gospel preaching produces saved, spirit-filled believers, perpetuating the righteous seed that comes with Christ, while gospel peddling produces fake, Simon Magus-type converts, and attendant collapse of defining virtues of believers.
And here is what Scripture says about gospel peddlers:
“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their belly and their glory is their shame” (Phil.3:19).
Let us pray for God to have mercy on them; open their eyes to see, and deliver them from error.
