Lagos – During Anthony’s visit to God’s Will Pentecostal Church (not real name), he got attracted to the section of the service where many were making their way to the aisle to drop money on the altar, when not a time for the offering or tithe collections. Not having witnessed such in the orthodox setting where he belongs; he quickly tapped the friend who invited him over to understand what was going on.
In response, Anthony’s friend, Gil told him that the action was about claiming the prophecies and had to drop their substance in order to claim the prophecies.
Anyone familiar with the Pentecostal church setting will know that it is not an uncommon sight to find members rush out to drop money on the church’s altar when hit by the message of the preacher or by the prophecies emanating from him or her.
There are places in the scripture where offering on the altar is mentioned as recorded in Matthew 5 verse 23-24 (New Living Translation) — “Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” In an interview with INDEPENDENT, which was published last week, an Apostle described the idea of dropping money on the church altar as a form of satanic worship. He said it is an alien practice until recent times in Nigeria after it was imported from America by Nigerian preachers.
“…Another thing they do now, they will go and be putting money on the altar he will,” he said.
Reacting to this, Pastor Gloria Esamah said there is nothing wrong in dropping money on the altar when a word of knowledge comes.
“It is a way of keying into the word that is coming from the preacher. The Bible said we should not judge. God alone is the Judge. So if you need to sample into the misery of God, be careful so that you don’t carry what you don’t know,” Esamah said.
Apostle David Eloh who expressed doubt on the dropping of money on the church altar as a form of satanic worship, told INDEPENDENT that God’s blessing can only be claimed by faith not money.
“Well I cannot say is 100 percent an occult practice, in some cases it is just ignorance on the part of church members and manipulation on the part of some pastors. All the time God Judges our motives and today the biggest contender to God’s altar is the love of money. Jesus said you cannot love God and money the same time.
“Jesus also warned us love not the world neither the things that are in world for if any man loves the world the love of the father is not in him. In Samaria when a magician got converted through Evangelist Philip and Apostle Peter was sent there and this converted magician saw God’s power display he told peter how much will it cost I want to buy the gift of God and peter told him your money perish with you.
“There is no amount of money in the world that you can use to buy God’s blessing, the things of God are received and claimed by faith and not going to drop money on the altar, this is part of the errors from America, what happen to the church members who don’t have money to claim their blessings. The things of God are place by God in a place where any person can reach them and that’s through faith,” Eloh stated.
Pastor Adetokunbo Emmanuel underlined that giving as prescribed by the scriptures should be discreet and not for show nor causing distractions while a sermon is ongoing.
Emmanuel’s comment: “The funny practice of disrupting service and making a show of giving and dropping money and things on the podium during preaching is not reverential to me. Though you can give your offerings anywhere at any time, we were told to be discrete about our giving and not to blow a trumpet when giving.
“But we have gotten to a period where we believe we can’t get it wrong once it is about money and giving, forgetting that it is because we can get it very wrong that Christ gave specific instructions about giving.”
Continuing, he condemned giving with the mind of ‘tapping’ into the anointing or getting something in return.
“Offerings and whatever gifts we call seeds can be given wherever those managing it can reach it. The question is what is calling for the offering. If it is to ‘tap’ into the anointing, then it is taking things too far. We don’t give for the purpose of getting spiritual things in return.
“Some people call it the sin of ‘simony’ after the sorcerer called Simon in Samaria, who offered money to also receive the gift by which people would speak in tongues when he lays his hands. Of course, when we give, God won’t overlook but to give with the basic purpose of getting something back is a sin,” the minister said.
Expatiating on this, he said it is important to clarify the word altar, he pointed out that laying an offering in a wrong place is not a meaningful thing to do.
His explanation: “During the time of temple worship, we had altars in the temple where people offer sacrifices to God. Even to the days of Christ, and Christ gave an instruction to those back then not to offer their gifts if they had issues with their brothers.
“He also spake about how people swore by the gift on the altar and not by the altar. But that was in the temple. Jesus was not a Levite so he could not minister to a large extent in the temple but he ministered more in synagogues.
“Synagogues don’t have altars. Today, what we have as worship or meeting centers are like synagogues, they may have podiums, a raised platform for those who preach, pray or lead service in a way or another but those places aren’t altars even if we call them so. So to put down an offering on such a platform and to think its being laid on the altar isn’t reasonable service.”
He submitted further that the best form of giving is to present one’s body as a living sacrifice unto God.
“Noah built, Abraham, Jacob, Moses (though a Levite) built before temple worship began. Elijah built outside of the temple on Mount Camel. But Jesus Christ didn’t build, whenever He spoke about an altar, He referred to that within the temple then standing.
“The altar we have today is in the temple in heaven where Christ is the High Priest from where the pattern was shown to Moses. That was where he sprinkled His blood on our behalf according to the book of Hebrews. His body and blood were offered for us not on any earthly altar but in that which is in heaven.
“So if we are to recognise any altar, it is that which is in heaven where Christ is the High Priest. It is upon that altar that we are begged to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. It is on that altar that whatever we offer to God is laid before God and not before man. May God help us to know what is right from what is wrong.”
Pastor Hyacinth Anie commented that: “First of all, we need to understand that an offering is a voluntary (free will) gift to God. This is why the Scriptures declares that God loves a cheerful giver, ll Cor 9:7. It should be understood therefore, that as an offering, it does not necessarily have to be money all the time.
“It could be a piece of rug, flowers, pulpit etc. Besides, a good number of Christians have contacted their miracles by simply placing their offerings or placing themselves on the altar. Therefore, there is certainly nothing wrong or demonic in bringing our offering to the altar.
“May I also add that the altar which represents the presence of God is a place of worship and offering is an item of worship. It is unfortunate that today’s worship has been monitised.”
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