Recently, one of the false prophets in Uganda by the names Elvis Mbonye made his followers kiss his shoes (feet) for blessings. I have been reading and listening to all sorts of commentary about the incident and all that is said is about blaming and accusing Elvis Mbonye. The man has been castigated as if he was the one kissing the shoes. Am not sure we are right in blaming Mbonye. Mbonye is already a problem by posing as a prophet and yet he is not.
He is an imposter just like 90% all the so-called Pastors, Apostles, Bishops, Prophets, Reverands etc. Uganda is filled with people who pick up the Bible and make it say what they want it to say. So to point at Mbonye as the culprit here is wastage of time. There is nothing right about the brother apart from the good clothes and nice cars he has. The real culprits are the people. The followers who kiss shoes for whatever reasons.
The Baganda people do the same to their Kabaka (king). They fall flat on the ground and kiss the ground as they greet him. The Catholics kiss the ring and fingers of the Pope. And many more idol worship forms. So what Mbonye and his followers did, is something we see everywhere and this is not to mention what happens in some families, workplaces and other sociologies altogether. It is an abomination with us.
However, according to me, it is not the WORSHIPED that is to blame but the WORSHIPERS themselves. These are people who go to church to get rich and yet they hold Bibles in which Jesus asks people to sell all they have and give to the poor (Mathew 19:21). These are the people who see no verse in the Bible advocating for the sale of holy water, holy rice etc. but go ahead and buy these things from these con-men in white gowns. Apart from the simplistic answer of sin as the cause of these rampant false prophets, the most efficient contributing factor to this social menace is the people themselves.
There is a way people have switched the procedure of acquiring wealth, healing and all sorts of solutions. It has become characteristic of the population to always get the problem wrong and by default, get the solutions wrong. It is biblically wrong to have rent dues and hit the church to pray for your landlord instead of paying his money. It is theologically wrong to go to church and pray for your children to pass exams by all means.
This would mean involving God in the business of cheating in an exam if he supplies answers to your child which he never revised for or actually learnt. It is Biblically wrong to pray for people going for a job interview to pass the interview by all means regardless of whether they qualify for the job or not. There is nothing like miracle money in the Bible. Even the wilderness manna was timely and could spoil in case people did not wake up to pick it in time.
Friends, the role of God in your life is to do what you cannot do yourself. It makes no sense standing in the church and testifying about the wonders that God has done in your life while those who do not worship the same god you are thanking have more materialistic wealth than you have.
I have been in these Pentecostal churches and one thing is for sure. THERE IS ALWAYS A RIGHT CHOICE BEHIND EVERY TESTIMONY. This is what I mean; the people who always come to church on Sundays and are genuinely testifying about what God has done in their lives, are the very people who are hardworking and are doing what they are supposed to do.
On the other hand, the Pentecostal churches are filled with lazy, ignorant people who do not leave the church and as I type this, churches under settings like 77Dogs, P5, etc. are filled with people who have been there for months (day and night) without change. God will not do anything in your life until you start doing what you are supposed to do. There is no one in the Bible that God blessed if he/she did not take responsibility.
It is idol worship to go to church to get rich instead of going to work. It is idol worship to go church for a healing of physical ailments instead of going to expert physicians. Am not saying God cannot heal you of any ailment, but he has never said that his healing geography is restricted to the church and under the surveillance of a pastor. Idol worship is when people worship God FOR WHAT HE CAN DO INSTEAD OF WHO HE IS.
When you see educated people kissing shoes of illiterate so-called men of God then get to know that there are two possibilities:
- These men are possessed by demons that have deflected them from reading the Bible themselves and blinded to follow mere statements of these conniving false teachers. Or
- These people are greedy, and because of their greed they are willing to do anything. It is because of this greed that a medical doctor kisses the shoe of his prophet. And it because of this greed that even God has given these people over to be deceived. This is what the Bible says:
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts and greed of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25).
When people start worshipping THINGS instead of the CREATOR of things, they end up kissing and praising shoes. While the Apostles over 2000yrs confirmed that: “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29), this generation has confirmed that: “we must obey man rather than God”. The Bible therefore says:
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.” (Roman 1:28).
Friends, until we cut the DEMAND (which is our greed), the devil will not stop the SUPPLY of false prophets who make us kiss their shoes. Until we understand that God has placed systems of operation and production in place, we cannot defy these natural systems and expect him to be on our side. God created man in a perfect world but still put him to work (Genesis 2:15).
Let’s go and work, let’s do what we are supposed to do and God knows what he is supposed to do. Am a pastor who does not entertain prayers where individual negligence is dominant. True Biblical Theology does not teach that you can pray for a miracle and when it happens it remains a miracle. Miracles are not prayed for nor asked for, they just happen. So if you are at a miracle centre, then be worried for you are about to kiss the shoes.
God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH
Am Pastor I.T.WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 