A Father of Baal Worship in Africa
“It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search their own glory is not glory” (Proverbs 25:27 MKJV).
Benson Idahosa is a spiritual father of many false teachers (False Teachers in Nigeria, Too), exposed here in all his fleshly glory.
Africa’s problem isn’t physical poverty – the problem is what’s causing that poverty. There’s no physical reason whatsoever that every African couldn’t amply have their needs met and more, living satisfying lives of abundance. Africa is a large continent blessed with many natural resources. Their poverty is a spiritual issue.
Enter the deceivers like Benson Idahosa, preaching prosperity in the Name of God, the Father of spirits, teaching men to use Him like a genie rather than honoring Him as Lord. These predators seek power and wealth, their own, and are received by those seeking the same for themselves. But those whose hearts are set on carnal glory and greatness eventually arrive at the opposite destination – dishonor and devastation.
Here’s the answer to poverty given by the false prophet, Benson Idahosa, through his false god:
“In 1973 Idahosa claimed he received this message from God.
‘The world and its people are complaining daily of poverty and want. I have given you the mouth of miracles and blessings to my people. I have asked the cashiers of heaven to be on duty as long as you have a need for my own honour and glory. I shall supply all your needs according to my riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).
‘Begin to bless your people with all blessing; ask them to ask me anything they need, and I shall provide it for them. If only they will honour me with their wealth, I shall make them to be prosperous in all areas of their lives. I shall bless your partners and co-workers.
‘Wake up, go to the Church in the morning, and tell them poverty died last night. What you bless on earth is blessed in heaven. Bless my people, says the Lord, who came to give the good life of abundance.’”
Let’s examine the words Idahosa puts in God’s mouth, beginning with the middle paragraph (I’ve emphasized certain words to make the message clearer):
“Begin to bless your people with all blessing; ask them to ask me anything they need, and I shall provide it for them. If only they will honour me with their wealth, I shall make them to be prosperous in all areas of their lives. I shall bless your partners and co-workers.”
In other words, honoring God with their wealth means giving it to Idahosa (or the organization that exists in his name, since he died in 1998).
Now, if Idahosa was one with the Lord, serving Him and His interests, then giving to him could be honoring God. But if Idahosa represented himself in the Name of God, then he was an interloper and thief.
What does the evidence tell us? Did Idahosa’s ministry bring relief from poverty, as promised in his prophecy?
“The world and its people are complaining daily of poverty and want. I have given you the mouth of miracles and blessings to my people. I have asked the cashiers of heaven to be on duty as long as you have a need for my own honour and glory. I shall supply all your needs according to my riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).”
If we’re talking about Idahosa’s physical poverty, the answer is “yes.” Here’s the bounty he left his wife, who is now considered the 6th richest “pastor” in Nigeria (with the top five among the ten richest in the world, that says something):
“No. 6: Archbishop Margaret Benson Idahosa
Mama Archbishop as she’s popularly called is the superintendent of Church of God Mission Int’l (CGMi) which has hundreds of mega and remote branches round the world. She took the mantle of leadership after the demise of her husband Archbishop Benson Idahosa in 1999. Mama was the first female Pentecostal Bishop in the whole of Africa in 1998, she was also the first female chancellor of a private university in Nigeria, and in 2010, she became the first female archbishop in the whole continent. She pastors the ultramodern 5,000 capacity Faith Arena which is presently the global headquarters of CGMi. She owns Benson Idahosa University (BIU), she is the proprietress of Word of Faith group of schools which has over 108 branches across Nigeria. She lives in a holy world class estate with her exquisite collection of cars, houses, other private investments, clothing and jewelries of course.”
(From https://worldshocker.blogspot.com/2015/05/2015-top-10-richest-pastors-in-nigeria.html)
Not only did Idahosa and his heirs become wealthy, but those he fathered in the false gospel he preached, who have followed in his footsteps in Nigeria, became fabulously wealthy, with five of the top ten richest “pastors” in the world being Nigerians. This article from a Nigerian publication lists the top ten and displays the kind of pride many Africans have in these hometown mercenary ministers:
“These millionaire men of God are known all over the world. Nigeria is blessed to have a large chunk of them.”
Is Nigeria blessed by these rich ministers, who feed the people lies in the Name of God for handsome reward? Since when are a people blessed by believing lies? Lies are the domain of Satan, the Destroyer, and destroy Nigeria he does. (See “Still Broke: Some of the World’s Biggest Countries Have Managed to Reduce Extreme Poverty – Except Nigeria https://qz.com/963465/some-of-the-worlds-biggest-countries-have-managed-to-wrangle-extreme-poverty-except-nigeria/)
Here are some of the deadly lies Idahosa teaches from the video, “The Righteous Shall Flourish,” with his words quoted in red.
The announcer begins by introducing the speaker: “Benson Idahosa – he came, he saw, he conquered.” This is the image Africans identify with in their heroes. They worship at Idahosa’s altar because they hope to attain the kind of wealth and power he did by invoking the faith of self-assertion he preached to them.
Idahosa was “larger than life,” full of the confidence of positive thinking and self-affirmation, which his gullible hearers craved, not because they cared for the man or for God, but what the man represented to them in having power to fulfill their lusts.
James 4:1-3 MKJV
(1) From where do wars and fightings among you come? Is it not from this, from your lusts which war in your members?
(2) You desire, and do not have. You murder, and are jealous, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not.
(3) You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it upon your lusts.
Lie #1
Idahosa starts his sermon with Lie #1: “You are the head, and not the tail. You are blessed, and not cursed.”
The Word of God says His people will be the head when they obey Him. But if His people don’t obey Him, they will be the tail.
“And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them” (Deuteronomy 28:13 ESV).
“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you… The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower… He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes that He commanded you” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 43-45 ESV).
And was Idahosa speaking to the Lord’s people? He only assumed so because they were gathered to hear him preach. The churches of men are full of people who haven’t been called or gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ in truth. Never once does Idahosa speak of obeying the Lord or keeping His commandments. His speech is only about what you want and can get from God and nothing about what He wants and what’s required of you. That’s why multitudes who don’t know or want to know the Lord flock to teachers such as him.
Lie #2
“I began to teach my people to cancel the curse out of their heads because Galatians 3:13 says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law… There is no Christian that is under the bondage of the enslavement that the devil tried to put you in.”
It’s not the Law that’s cursed but those who try to be justified by it without faith.
Galatians 3:11-14 MKJV
(11) But that no one is justified by the Law in the sight of God is clear, for, “The just shall live by faith.”
(12) But the Law is not of faith; but, “The man who does these things shall live in them.”
(13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree”);
(14) so that the blessing of Abraham might be to the nations in Jesus Christ, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
“When we have faith, we don’t live by the Law because we become the Law, reflecting the Character of Christ and fulfilling the Law naturally:
For the Law being powerless, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous demand of the Law might be fulfilled in us, those not walking according to flesh, but according to Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4 LITV).
“Therefore do we nullify the Law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Romans 3:31 EMTV).
All Idahosa can see of the Law is that it restricts him, which he considers a curse. He doesn’t want to be told what to do – no man does – so he finds a way to demonize the Law and replace it with the “grace” to pursue personal wish fulfillment. Carnal men and devils cry, “You’re not going to tell me what to do!”
Contrary to what Idahosa implies, it’s God, not the Devil, Who gave us the Law, and it is good. And the Law wasn’t given to enslave us, but to reveal our enslavement to sin in the light of God’s Holy Nature and Ways:
“So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Then has that which is good become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, working death in me by that which is good; in order that sin might become exceedingly sinful by the commandment” (Romans 7:12-13 MKJV).
How else shall we call on our Lord and Savior except we realize our need of Him and not for houses, jobs, or money – all the things the world seeks after? Those in faith look for His Righteousness, Headship, Presence, and Fellowship with Him. We look to Him to save us from ourselves, this present evil world, and its prince of darkness.
Lie #3
Idahosa calls on his audience to prosper in everything – home, job, etc. “…in the Name of Jesus, say, ‘I AM BLESSED!!!!’”
The Lord told His followers not to worry about being provided the necessities of this world because God always provides for those who walk with Him. In fact, He warned against focusing on physical things:
Luke 12:16-31 ESV
(16) And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,
(17) and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
(18) And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
(19) And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”‘
(20) But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
(21) So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
(22) And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.
(23) For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
(24) Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
(25) And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
(26) If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
(27) Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
(28) But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!
(29) And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
(30) For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
(31) Instead, seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Idahosa preached “in the Name of Jesus” seeking the kingdom of this world first, thereby making a liar of the Lord Who says to do the opposite. Idahosa is all about self, not Christ, as God. “I AM BLESSED!!!!” It is self-seeking and self-fulfillment in service of the flesh, not the Spirit. But oh, how subtle and deceptive is the serpent!
Lie #4
“Then I red Luke 1:45, ‘…there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.’ There shall be a performance, to your dreams, to your expectation – God said, ‘If you believe it, there is going to be a performance.’”
Do you not see the difference, the sleight of hand? Idahosa takes “there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord” and transposes your will for God’s: “If you believe it [YOUR dreams and expectations], there is going to be a performance.”
Here’s the difference: Mary wasn’t expressing or affirming her own dreams and expectations. The angel told her what God would do and she was assured He would perform what was promised her. The initiative and confirmation were God’s, not man’s. To expect God to fulfill your dreams and ambitions is presumptuous, foolish, and wicked.
Lie #5
Idahosa leads the audience on with Lie #5: “Who will perform my dreams?” “God!!,” they shout. “Who will bring to pass my heart’s desires?” “God!!” “Who will give me grace to realize my dreams?” “God!!” again – they’re whipped into a frenzy of faith, not in God’s Word but in Idahosa’s word. The “Pied Piper” leads the children to destruction with his mesmerizing power.
This is Baal worship – man as lord taking charge, presuming authority and acting the part. Idahosa stands before his audience dressed ostentatiously in a gaudy bright white gown, speaking in tones, accentuations and pauses with leading questions to move them emotionally to believe they can take charge, too. It’s man-centric manipulation, perversion of the Scriptures and idolatry. It’s the paths of the destroyer, the works of men.
It is sorcery of the first order, no different in effect from that of Simon of Acts 8:13-23.
“Concerning the works of men, by the Words of Your lips, I am kept from the paths of the destroyer” (Psalms 17:4 MKJV).
Lie #6
Idahosa tells the audience how he red in Genesis that God prospered Joseph in prison. He thought, “What business can a man do in prison? If God can prosper Joseph in prison, how much more me at home?”
This is the speech of a covetous heart! The Lord gave Joseph favor with his captors and prospered his work when they set him over the other prisoners and their activities. Idahosa tells Lie #6, using this as an example of how one ought to expect God to prosper any business his hearers undertake from their homes.
Unaware and unashamed of his naked avarice, he urges his listeners to speak these words:
Lie #7
“Say ‘It’s my turn.’ Say, ‘I’m next.’” He has them repeat this twice more for emphasis. Then he says:
“All things are possible to him that believeth… How many of you are believers?” Everyone raises their hands. “You’ve got the license to begin to prosper.”
If we believe, we don’t need a license to prosper. It’s the will of God and His Law that we prosper in our whole being, starting from within. Faith, not willpower or verbal assent, is the currency of the Kingdom of God.
“Beloved, in regard to all things I pray that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2 MKJV).
Lie #8
“As a matter of fact, poverty is a disgrace to God.”
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man” (James 2:5-6 ESV).
1 Timothy 6:3-8 KJV
(3) If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
(4) He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
(5) Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.
(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain.
(7) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
(8) And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
“And He said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’” (Luke 12:15 ESV).
“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12 MKJV).
“As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:10 MKJV).
“For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some by aspiring have strayed away from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You however, O man of God, flee these things. But pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:10-11 EMTV).
We have only gone through less than a third of the video and could say so much more, but we have also shown more than enough of Idahosa’s false gospel and anti-Christ message. This was not a man of God, but a man supplanting God. And how men praised him! Here’s an example of how Idahosa was and has been worshipped, a hagiography published by his religious organization’s website:
http://www.cgmglobal.org/papa.htm
Some of Idahosa’s international associates are also posted on this site as false teachers:
Hinn, Benny: A Deliberate Liar and Scoundrel
Graham, Billy: How the Lord Exposed Billy Graham
Roberts, Oral: The Bottom of the Barrel: A Motley Crew of Demonic Mockers
“Woe to you when all men shall speak well of you! For so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26 MKJV).
Let those who name the Lord and would see life and true prosperity beware and steer clear of idolatry and self-serving charlatans. For their very lives, let all men flee Baal worship, covetousness, idolatry and fornication.
Victor Hafichuk
July 17, 2017