Why are so many people fooled by some "televangelists" and "pastors"?

Proverbs 27:7 provides the answer to this question-

“A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet."

People are hungry for the Truth that makes free but what is being preached in some places of worship brings neither life nor freedom. Rather, it brings a fear (of God's wrath) that beats churchgoers into submission to false doctrine preachers who claim to know how to avert this wrath. It is the same seemingly good doctrine that Satan preached to Eve in Eden - one which promotes the attainment of godliness (be like God) by human striving.

Many televangelists preach the true gospel: God's saving Grace who is Jesus Christ Himself as it is written in Titus 2:11-

"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone.”

But others are simply using different tools of the same root (the attainment of godliness by human effort as Satan preached to Eve) to keep helpless churchgoers who are yet to see God's saving Grace in either one of two conditions-

• smug in their (self)righteous works of the law like the religious Pharisees, Eve who thought she could be godly by her own power and Peter when he thought the sin of denying Christ was beneath him; or
• fearful and striving for godliness by human effort like Judas Iscariot who sinned and tried to restore himself into God's good graces with his futile human attempt at restitution as demanded by law.

Both Peter and Judas committed similar sins of betraying Christ. Unlike Peter whose failure made him see the folly of trusting in himself (arm of flesh) for the attainment of godliness, Judas plodded on in his (self)righteous attempt at doing things to put himself in a place where he would be good with God and get His blessing- the theme of the message of many televangelists.

For all his striving, Judas ended up depressed and suicidal.

What do we think is the major cause of depression and suicide even among non-believers? It is guilt for sins, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and sorrow in the heart for sins aka not measuring up to particular standards - no different from what happened to Judas who was full of remorse and blamed himself for his sin. The word "sin" is translated from the Greek word Hamartia- literally "miss the mark."

Because many churchgoers are yet to know Grace Himself - the Truth that makes free indeed; because many are afraid that bad things will happen to them because of their sins (that Christ came to save us from) or if they don't do what pastor prescribes (afterall, he is supposed to be God's spokesperson,) they are forced to submit to televangelists and pastors who position themselves as modern-day Levite priests that the people go to for a list of things to do in order to get atonement for sins and escape God's wrath. Such threaten helpless sinners with God's punishment for the same sins that Christ came to save us from as it is written of Him in Matthew 1:21-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

God's word says in Romans 5:9- "And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

But check out some preachers and you will find them levying the flock with the threat of God's wrath/punishment (lack, sickness, poverty, car accidents, earthly ills in general) that God FREELY sacrificed His own Son to save us from...unless they sow a mighty seed.

For example, there's the very popular situation where a TV preacher puts you on edge with time-bound donations, makes you feel like you lost something and are now prey to the devil because you missed a special anointing service or asks you to "sow a seed right now" so that God can owe you a job or a house. People actually borrow money in order to comply with their timelines. With their bank details flashing on TV screens, such preachers usually say things like:

"There's a special window open for anyone who gives or pledges such and such amount of money right now. Now. Right now. The window is about to close now so hurry. You don't want to miss God's goodness and mercy at this special time. Going, going, gone!"

But wait a minute! The popular Psalm 23 says “…goodness and mercy shall pursue me…” when “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and not when we sow a seed! You who cannot pledge their very specific amounts feel like you have missed an opportunity for God to bless you and are now prey to poverty. In essence, they lie that God blessing you depends on your own ability to give or do certain things by your own strength. While this may apply to people that are under the law of Moses, it isn't so for we who are in Christ (under the New Covenant of grace) where, because of Christ, we receive all things FREELY from God and not because we did things to make us deserving. Romans 8:32 says:

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Yet this does not foster laziness.

The “give now, or else” situation is akin to a parent letting her child spend the night alone in school and without care because the child was not in the place where they agreed for her to be picked up. If the mom cannot find her child, she will turn the school upside down until she finds her to take her home — goodness and mercy in pursuit of the lost! Her priority is her child's well-being and happiness. Plus, the child's ability to be at the right place and at the right time is dependent on the kind of training she is receiving from her parent. To us, Christ says in Matt. 7:11—

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Even parental love in its pure form does not breed laziness, waiting for handouts or trying to foist your parents on others as “the only good parent.” Neither does it breed discriminating against others because they have refused to leave their own parents and beliefs for yours as many think believers are wont to do. Childen do not adopt parents. God adopted us as His children in Christ. If we really want someone to be a part of the family that God has called us to be a part of, we ask our Father to make the will of that someone agreeable to His adoption so that when we speak, they listen. A child that knows that she is loved will study hard to get good grades and do her best to come out tops in everything to make her parents proud too. Even employees that know that they are loved are likely to put in their best effort at all times. Recall God's word in 1John:

We love because He first loved us.

In Christ, we get wisdom and diligence to make the right decisions in our family, career, relationships, etc. - not a question of sitting idly and waiting for an angel to drop the keys to a Bugatti in your lap because you made a donation. That's also an erroneous teaching that is making the rounds today on some TV screens.

So many erroneous beliefs that clearly contradict God's word are being peddled from some pulpits that it is a wonder to many that people still visit such “places of worship.” I see those weird actions as Satan's attempt at making Christians look foolish, gullible and self-righteous. Nobody in their right mind would want to be a part of such a group of finger-wagging, money-gobbling hypocrites. They do not represent Christ.

I read about a woman who got a loan of N100,000 from her friend to start a business. Her pastor insisted on getting 10% of the loan so she went back to the lender for another N10,000 and explained why the money that she had left was no longer sufficient for her business venture. Don't laugh. The woman must have been convinced by her pastor that the money that she borrowed would "spoil" if she did not give 10% or that the foundation of her business would be wobbly if she didn't secure it with her donation from the loaned funds. Notice no finished work of Christ in these transactional equations of salvation?The idea itself seems irrational to us because we are not experiencing the woman's specific oppression and pain. Proverbs 27:7 says:

"A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet."

Many of us are not "hungry" for wisdom in this area of life so we might not understand her pain. For example, when I was giving birth to my first child, the pain was so great that I would have gladly let someone cut off my leg if they promised that it would lessen the pain. Cutting off my leg would have brought more pain and killed me faster, but I was blinded by my painful circumstance so any promises of relief would have been welcome, even if they were fake and utterly stupid.

Churchgoers like the person that paid 10% in order to secure the foundation of her new business as well as others who attempt to throw money at God and do all sorts of works in order to get Him to bless are hearing a false and Christ-less doctrine. Notice Christ in whom God gives us all things FREELY is missing from their equation of salvation from sin as well as death and its symptoms (earthly ills are “death begun.”) It's no longer about what Christ has done. It's about what man must do by his human effort (arm of flesh that will fail) in order to get God's blessing aka law-keeping. But the letter kills. As a result, many are experiencing a kind of pain that makes any ridiculous suggestions that "pastor" prescribes very attractive, a pain that we do not know. Their actions show that their pastor has been pouring weevils inside their brains and they accept it because they are blinded by the pain of their circumstances.

So many people are living in darkness (sins, bondage to law tithe collectors, whatever). Just switch on the Light and the darkness will disappear. Unveil the love of Jesus Christ the Light of the world to everyone in this kind of bondage to antichrist pastors and they will be free indeed.