Ever wondered who the fake pastors in Nigeria are? You are not alone. Everywhere we go, in the streets we live in, there are tons of them. The problem now is how to identify them.

Even the bible confirms, in Matthew 24: 11, that in the last days many false prophets will rise and mislead many.

Note that in Matthew 24: 24, the bible went ahead to say “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible.”

Now, if we are to go by what the scriptures say, the fake pastors in Nigeria will not come to you in the name of a false god, but rather in pretence.

Which means, they’ll act like they are working for God whereas they are indeed working for their pockets and the devil.

Bearing in mind that they come pretending to be doing the work of God, it’ll be extremely difficult to discover them. And that’s why the bible indicates that the false prophets would deceive ‘even the elect’.

In other words, it would take the grace of God to escape the webs of these so-called men of God who are out to deceive the elect.

In a bid to reduce the burden on you, we decided to compile a list of some of the things to look out for while trying to discover fake pastors and fake churches in Nigeria.

7 ways to discover fake pastors in Nigeria:

1. Extorting from church members

Any pastor, prophet or so-called man of God who demands for outrageous sums of money for holy water, holy oil, healing or whatever is a fake.

In Matthew 10: 11, when Jesus sent out the 12 disciples on a mission, He said this to them: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” In other words, don’t charge a dime for the Miracles you do, because you didn’t pay any money to get the power.

In Nigeria, many fake pastors use their abilities to perform signs & wonders as an opportunity to extort from their faithful members. Remember, signs and wonders are not always indicative of the spirit of God. So, you shouldn’t let them deceive you.

2. Deviation from the word of God

To put it simply, fake pastors deviate from the word of God, albeit in a stylish way. Which means, they include certain lies that are hard to detect.

In early Judaism and Christianity, the churches adopted reading out of scrolls word-for-word. The reason being, people have a tendency to add and subtract while trying to teach you without adequate references.

In Revelation 22: 18, the bible says: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book.”

That said, modifying the bible in any way is a sin and will attract punishment from God.

But like I said, they do it in a stylish way, so you may find it difficult to detect. In any case, you must equip yourself with enough studying of the word of God; you must not go by everything you hear a man of God say; do your own findings to make sure it goes in line with the scriptures.

3. Neglecting the poor, elderly and needy

In early Christianity, churches were places where the poor, needy and elderly were catered for. In the book of Acts chapter 5 — in the events surrounding the death of Ananias and Sapphira — you’ll notice that the people sold their belongings willingly, and brought to the church in order to help the people in need.

Take note of the word “willingly“!

Nowadays, fake pastors and prophets in Nigeria use the money gathered from their members’ donations to meet just their personal needs and maybe allow crumbs to fall down to the needy.

The Holy Bible strongly prohibits neglect of the poor, needy and elderly. Therefore, any church that doesn’t conform to that is a fake church and ultimately has a fake pastor.

4. Condoning some degree of sin and worldliness

The utmost goal of the fake pastors in Nigeria is to win and mislead as many members as possible. As a result, they condone some certain level of sin, worldliness, and ungodliness in their churches.

Many fake churches and pastors in Nigeria condone indecent dressing. In some of those churches, the way the members dress is a lot worse than what many higher institutions in Nigeria kick against.

A church is a place open for sinners willing to be saved, but not a place where sinners feel comfortable in their way of life.

5. Preaching more on prosperity & the things you love to hear

On the contrary, Christians are not supposed to live poorly. For Jesus said: “I was poor so that you will be made rich”.

However, earthly riches shouldn’t be the centre of a pastor’s preaching. It shouldn’t be the main topic of interest.

Many fake pastors pry on the fact that there’s a high level of poverty in Nigeria; they continually prophesy financial breakthrough and urge their members to go on shouting thunderous “Amens”.

It wouldn’t be wrong to do all that if it is given secondary preference. The basic and most fundamental duty of a pastor is to ensure the salvation of the members under his care. Not the other way round.

6. Placing more priorities on miracles, signs & wonders

Those who think signs and wonders are indicative of a true man of God are absolutely wrong.

In Nigeria, fake pastors go to the extent of using juju powers to perform magics, which of course people love to see. And those who don’t have access to those juju powers go as far as staging miracles to deceive the miracle lovers around them.

One thing to note with such pastors is that they are always eager to exercise their powers, and may even demand for money for that.

7. Lack of organization & transparency

Many fake pastors take advantage of the weaknesses in government policies. In Lagos, you could notice as much as 10 churches in the same streets; some of them even use the same buildings.

A church should be an organized institution, with a proper constitution (gotten from the bible of course).

However, these days any person who so pleases could wake up one day and say he/she received a calling from God to set up a church.

Right now, many people see setting up a church as a very lucrative enterprise.

A major factor that encourages this criminal activity is the extravagant lifestyles of some of the top men of God in Nigeria.

Pastors with the sole aim of extorting money from their members set up their churches in such a way that no one will be able to discover or question their activities.

You’ll notice the following signs with them:

• No financial reports for income and expenditure
• No committee of independent elders or accountants to manage the funds.
• Lack of well-documented constitutions.
• No fixed salary for the pastor; he takes from the church savings — as much and as often as he pleases — without refunding it.

We are not going to provide the names, pictures or a list of the fake pastors in Nigeria. The reason is, there are thousands of them flocking the country and duping millions of unsuspecting victims. Therefore it’s extremely difficult to create a list that contains all of them.

Nevertheless, we believe with the information you have now, detecting who the fake pastors are will not be much of an issue.