By Bishop Dave Chikosi
Proponents of the gospel of lack and scarcity often cite the “Temptation of Christ” as proof positive that Jesus repudiated riches. Because He turned down satan’s offer of the kingdoms of this world, they argue that material prosperity must therefore not be the will of God for man. But nothing could be further from the Truth. This line of argument just goes to show how “a text without a context is a pretext.”
What was the context of Jesus’ repudiation of satan’s offer of the kingdoms of this world?
No Deal with the Devil
First of all let’s make one thing clear. Jesus is not in the habit of cutting deals with the devil. You and I don’t accept donations from a known mass murderer – why would Jesus? American politicians have enough sense to routinely return campaign contributions from donors who later turn out to be criminals. The donation taints you. Satan is a known mass murderer. Even if his offer was with no strings attached, Jesus still would not have accepted it.
But more importantly, let’s not forget how the devil came by those worldly kingdoms that he now wants to trade with Jesus. Those kingdoms were originally bequeathed to God’s Vice Regent, a man by the name of Adam. Adam irresponsibly handed them over to satan. It was trickery on satan’s part, but the transaction perfectly legal. Immoral and unjust, but still legal.
This is how satan became “the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4). He wasn’t always that. Adam was the god of this world. It was Yahweh Himself who, in reference to mankind, declared: “‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High” (Psalm 82:6). And so Adam, lord of the earth, foolishly hands over the keys of the cosmos to the devil. But what was even more tragic was that the human race was at the same time sold into slavery to ‘ole slew foot’.
A Crown Without A Cross
And so in the “Temptation of Christ” satan’s calculation was to offer Jesus a crown without a Cross. The Cross was how God was going to pay the ransom necessary for our release from the jailer and his prison. Satan did not want Jesus to ‘buy back’ or redeem humanity’s freedom from his control. He was going to do everything in his power to stop Jesus from shedding His Blood and redeeming Adam’s lost race.
Fortunately Jesus saw through what the devil was trying to do. The whole thing became a cosmic game of chess, not checkers. And so when Jesus turns down the offer of worldly kingdoms from the devil, it wasn’t because He didn’t want His Father’s lost kingdoms back. He wanted them back. He wanted them back so He could return them to their original rightful heirs. But He wasn’t about to receive them gratis from satan a.k.a “the father of lies.” The devil could always lie and say he was cheated out of something he acquired legally.
The Devil Completely Outmaneuvered
No, Jesus was going to pay whatever price was necessary to get His stuff back. It turned out to be the highest price ever – His life. However His apparent loss was in point of fact the biggest scoop ever. The Cross represents a complete outmaneuvering of the devil by the Father and the Son. The apostle Paul caught a glimpse of this game of wits and fairly shouted:
No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:7-8).
In those three days and nights before the Resurrection Jesus descended into hell. The king of the underworld suddenly saw the King of Glory burst through the doors, akin to US Navy Seals storming Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. The next thing the devil heard was: “Check mate! Its over dude!”
Jesus first roughs satan up (or “crushes the serpent’s head”). Then He stripped him of everything he had taken from Adam, including the keys of the kingdom. Later these keys were to be handed to the Church, giving her the power to bind and to loose.
So contrary to the contention of Mr Learnmore Zuze and others before him, there is contextually nothing in the Temptation of Christ” that suggests a repudiation of worldly kingdoms or material prosperity by Jesus. Yes the New Testament does reject the world’s systems and philosophies, but never the physicality of the world’s kingdoms or our creaturely existence in them.
How King Leopold II Let the Cat Out Of the Bag
I conclude with an insightful letter on how colonialism worked in tandem with the devil in mis-using the Bible to keep Africans poor. The letter was written in 1883 by King Leopold II of Belgium to exhort Belgian Christians missionaries being sent to the Congo for missionary work:
Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots:
The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi, one Nzakomba, and what else I don’t know.
They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else’s wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on dis-interesting our savages from the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that, they get interested in it, and make you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.
Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty, like “Happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven” and, “It’s very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” You have to detach from them and make them disrespect everything which gives courage to affront us. I make reference to their Mystic System and their war fetish – warfare protection – which they pretend not to want to abandon, and you must do everything in your power to make it disappear.
Your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they won’t revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parent’s teachings. The children have to learn to obey what the missionary recommends, who is the father of their soul. You must singularly insist on their total submission and obedience, avoid developing the spirit in the schools, teach students to read and not to reason.
There, dear patriots, are some of the principles that you must apply. You will find many other books, which will be given to you at the end of this conference. Evangelize the niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the White colonialists, so they never revolt against the restraints they are undergoing. Recite every day – “Happy are those who are weeping because the kingdom of God is for them.” (Emphases or underlining mine).
King Leopold could read the Bible better than a lot of professing Christians today. It was common knowledge among Europeans that the Bible is the best success Book ever written. Study and apply it, and your life will necessarily improve spiritually, mentally and materially.
Leopold knew that “it is God that gives you power to get wealth” (Deut 8:18). He knew that it is the “LORD your God, who teaches you to profit” (Isaiah 48:17). He knew that “God is pleased with the prosperity of His servant” (Psalm 35:27). He knew that for the “savage” who fears the Lord “wealth and riches will be in his house” (Psalm 112:3). Leopold knew that “the blessing of the Lord maketh rich (Prov 10:22). He knew that “by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life (Prov 22:4). And the king was certainly aware that if the native was “willing to obey God, he shall feed on the best of the land” (Isaiah 1:19.)
Teach Them To Love Poverty??!!
Despite being aware of these and many other similar Bible verses, Leopold choose instead to exhort the missionaries to selectively “find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty.” The natives were to “recite every day” the virtues of poverty.
In other words create an African mindset that says poverty is God-ordained. Once the mindset is established the poor African was doomed to live in a hovel, eat grasshoppers and run around naked for the rest of his life. God forbid that you empower him economically. Don’t get him financially independent. That’s political suicide. He will get out from under your control. He will use the money to seek an education. Once he gets educated he will come back and try to be his own mining boss. And then he will end up acquiring firearms . . . and you know how that movie ends.
Straight Out of the Devil’s Playbook
Leopold got his strategy straight out of the devil’s playbook. The devil wants to keep Christians broke so that they keep running to the moneylenders. He knows that “the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender” (Prov 22:7). He wants to keep God’s people financially dependent on this Babylonian system of debt and mortgages so that he can rule us and keep us as his slaves.
As long as your house isn’t fully paid for you are at the mercy of the financial institution. If you default on your mortgage they will come and repossess the house. This is very similar to what 3rd century African Bishop St Cyprian of Carthage had in mind when he said: “They (property holders) think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.”
Free At Last, Free At Last
God wants His children financially free. He wants them to be lenders not borrowers. “You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them” (Deut 28:15).
And God is able “to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation](2 Cor 9:8 AMP)
[To see more articles by Bishop Dave Chikosi go to his blog http://davechikosi.blogspot.com/. Also, his book “Dynamics of Heroic Faith” is available on Amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Heroic-Faith-Dominion-Circumstances/dp/0595415369]
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