Pastor Abel Damina, founder of Power City International Church, has criticised the doctrine of tithing as a pathway to wealth.
According to him, no scripture in the Bible guarantees riches in exchange for giving to God.
In a trending social media post on Monday, seen by THE WHISTLER, Damina described tithing as a dangerous and unscriptural mindset that had been deliberately cultivated in Nigerian churches.
He said that the conditions lead worshippers to believe financial prosperity is tied to how much they give to their pastors and institutions.
“There’s no scripture in the Bible that says when you give to God, you’ll be a rich person. There’s no such scripture. Nobody prospers by giving, when you give, you lack, because when you give, it leaves you and there’s vacuum. Then you have to work again and give it time to recover what you gave, and sometimes you never recover it,” he said.
The pastor further recounted the story of a man he encountered who had donated all three of his cars to his church on the promise of divine financial reward, only to be left with nothing.
“Somebody told me he gave to his church all his three cars and he has been trekking since then till when I met him. He said, he was thinking of going back to collect one, what do I think? I said, I think so too. Because if you gave three and is only one that you want to collect out of the three, you try. You’re never asking for the three,” Damina said.
He further stated that the young man gave out his three cars because he was told that he will be instantly rich if he gives out his car, he then decided to give out the three and to get richer.
The clergyman, who has in recent years become known for his unorthodox theological positions, said the widespread belief that tithing produces billionaires was not supported by evidence, insisting that wealth is a product of education, labour, and enterprise, not religious offerings.
“I never saw anybody who, because he tithed, became a billionaire. Even those who said they became billionaires because they tithed, it’s because they don’t know. It’s because they had jobs and businesses. That’s why they became billionaires. Not because they tithed,” he stated.
Damina insisted that God’s blessings are not transactional and that the responsibility of man is to position himself through knowledge and hard work to access what has already been provided.
“The reason why people can excavate the ground and meet oil wells is because God put the deposit. The reason why we can get to the rocks in Nigeria, go to the gold belt that travels right through Minna, Niger and right to Plateau, all those rocks, explore, break the ground and meet diamonds, golds, sapphires and tourmaline is because God put them there,” he said.
“So because God has blessed the planet, all we need to do is go to school, learn what to do to get into what has been blessed and turn it into commercial property. Is no more God’s work to go school for us, we go to school, we go to market, we engage to make money, God has already blessed the land,” Damina emphasised.
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