Bridgetania:
you're right. This are the real enemies of the cross..devils in disguise.luring lost souls to hell.and awaiting the great condemnation of the most High if they dont turn away from their evil ways and repent

oludyke:
THE GREATEST THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY IN NIGERIA
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1. Introduction
The greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria today is not the Muslims, neither is it Boko haram, nor is it any other non-Christian religious body. It is not even the devil. The greatest threat to the church today in Nigeria is those Paul the apostle describes in Philippians 3:18 as “the enemies of the cross of Christ”. These are people who do not walk by the rule set by our Lord Jesus Christ [Philippians 3:16-18]. These are the false teachers, pastors, bishops, apostles etc in Nigeria. They are the group of people the Bible teaches us to beware of, avoid and have nothing to do with [2 John 9-11; Ephesians 5:11; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 5:11]. They are very dangerous because they are agents of the devil and act out scripts of the devil in our churches and are leading many people in our churches astray and out of the Christian faith. They are agents of darkness masquerading as angels of light in our churches [2 Corinthians 11:14]. Many of them lead congregations that run into millions of people.

2. Persecution of the Christian Faith is not new
It is very important to note that persecutions against the Christian faith by non-Christians have never been and will never be a threat to the growth of Christianity in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. There has never been a time since the advent of Christianity in the world when believers were not persecuted. In fact persecution, trials, temptations, afflictions are described in the Bible as part of our Christian experience and walk with God [Mark 10:29-30; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 2:3, 11-12]. Christ teaches His disciples that the world would hate them because the world hated Him; the world would persecute them because they persecuted Him [John 15:18-20]. Paul says in Acts 20:23 that the Holy Spirit tells him that bonds and afflictions lie ahead of him in every city but what he says in the next verse will amaze you and I. Verse 24 "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

Paul was saying that those persecutions and afflictions that he had faced and those that are awaiting him mean nothing to him as long as he is able to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and finish his assignment. In fact he describes those persecutions and sufferings that he was going through as light afflictions. 2 Corinthians 4:17 "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". Peter, John, other early apostles and the early Christians saw it as a privilege to suffer afflictions for His name's sake. Acts 5:40-41 "And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

The sufferings and persecutions of the early Christians did not deter them from preaching and teaching the Word of God. Acts 2:42 says that "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Brethren, believers may be chained but the Word of God can never be chained. Paul the apostle wrote some of his epistles while he was in prison. His last epistle which is 2 Timothy was written while he was awaiting execution by emperor Nero. In this letter [2:9], he reminded Timothy that although for the Gospel's sake he has been chained like a criminal, but the Word of God cannot be chained.

Although the first translator of the Bible drawn into English directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, William Tyndale was killed in 1536 by the powers that be at that time, that never hindered the English translation of the Bible from getting to us today. If the Jews in the days of the early church or the successive Roman emperors and governments of years gone by could not hold back the spread of Christianity, is it the Muslims or Boko haram or other religious sects that will be able to do it? Of course not. Never. God forbid.

Brethren, persecutions; tribulations; afflictions; trials; temptations; killings and maiming of Christians by governments and unbelievers are nothing new in Christendom. They have always been there and will always be there, but one thing that is sure and certain, is that they have never and will never hinder the preaching of the Gospel and the salvation of souls.

At no time did we read in the Bible that the believers in the early church prayed for the death of their persecutors. They didn't because they did not (and that rightly so) consider them as threats to the growth of Christianity. Rather than hating Muslims, Boko haram and members of other religious bodies, the Lord Jesus Christ expects us to love them and pray for the salvation of their souls [Matthew 5:44-45; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 4:12-13; Acts 26:28-29]. We have seen persecutors of Christians repenting from their wickedness and accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. Saul who later became Paul the apostle is a very classical example [1 Corinthians 15:8-10].

3. The greatest threat to the Christian Faith

i. Brethren, the greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria are pastors, teachers, general overseers, bishops, archbishops, apostles, evangelists etc who preach prosperity messages. Prosperity messages like we have always said on this platform, based on the Word of God are not messages that can be regarded as the Gospel message. They are heresy. The preaching of material prosperity and acquisition of wealth will never save souls, but rather will send them to hell. Prosperity messages because they are not of God lack the power of God to change lives. This is the reason we have many who claim to be Christians but their lifestyles fall short of God's expectations for His people. People who attend churches of prosperity preachers are at best church members, but not citizens of God's Kingdom.

ii. The pastors who deceive their members to sow seed with money in order that God will give them more money are the real threats to the existence of Christianity in Nigeria. Those first fruits promoter pastors who tell their members to give to the church their first salaries in a new year, or the first salaries in a new job, or the differential increment in new salaries earned through promotion or salary increment, in order for God's abundant 'blessings' to be showered on them are the serious threats to Christianity.

iii. Those pastors and bishops who use their members' tithes, offerings and first fruit offerings to open universities or higher institutions of learning in the name of the church, while the children of most of those members are unable to attend such schools, not because they don't want to, but because such members cannot afford to pay the fees of such schools are the greatest threats to Christianity in Nigeria.

iv. The greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria include those pastors who make merchandise of their members and live very extravagant lifestyles and are very wealthy such that they are worth hundreds of millions of dollars (not Naira), while we have in their churches people who can barely have three straight (not square) meals.

v. The greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria is those pastors and general overseers who lack integrity and are covenant breakers. They are the ones who will refuse to retire at the mandatory retirement age set by their denominations but are prompt to retire other members of their ministry who attain such ages, notwithstanding that those retirees are younger than these pastors. I wonder what moral grounds such pastors have to lead other believers or to talk about integrity and keeping of agreements or obedience to constituted authorities. Can we now see why we have a lot of insincere believers in our midst?

vi. Brethren, the most dangerous threats to Christianity in Nigeria include pastors and apostles who sleep around with their members. Some of them like we saw recently on the social media are party practitioners. They use their church's money to shower gifts on their mistresses in order to satisfy their uncontrollable and insatiable appetite for the daughters of Eve. They abuse their positions of trust and never repent of their wickedness and the grievous pains they cause their spouses and members. Rather than come out clean, they lie and promise robust response to accusations levelled against them, which never comes. Brethren, mark these types of pastors, they are very dangerous and deeply into occult.

vii. The greatest threats to Christianity in Nigeria are clergymen who receive very large donations, tithes, offerings etc from their members without asking for the source of such monies. Most times, these pastors know the sources but pretend not to know. Rather than calling such members to order, they keep quiet and instead of disciplining them, they promote such members to higher positions in their church's echelon.

viii. The greatest threats to Christianity in Nigeria are those rich and mighty jet owner pastorpreneurs who occasionally appear on Forbes and other celebrity magazines because of the size of their wealth and earthly acquisitions. They love and live extravagant lifestyles.

ix. The greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria are those pastors who practise sin and lawlessness and have through their unrighteous lifestyles and conducts driven most Nigerians away from the GOD of the Bible.

Conclusion
Brethren what we have written in this article is just a mere scratching of the surface. The evils committed by these false ministers are endless. What do we say about pastors who in the pretence of conducting endless deliverances for people extort money from them and in some cases sleep with the women that they are supposed to be delivering? Or of pastors who have turned themselves into models and see the social media platforms as avenues to showcase their handsomeness, beauty and how connected they are with people in high places and the advanced countries of the world? What do we say of those who continually manipulate, intimidate, coerce and eventually are controlling the lives of their members such that these members can hardly think rationally? Or those who have made themselves gods unto their members and have become gods of men? What do we say about those pastors who have turned their church altars and platforms into circuses where comedians come to entertain and blaspheme the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in the guise of jokes? or those who have turned praise and worship sessions in church services into disco parties where supposed Christians dance all sorts of dance steps including but not limited to makosa, skelewu, dabbing and twerking?

The biggest problem and by implication the greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria like you would have seen as you read this article is not the Muslims, neither is it Boko haram, nor any religious group who at worst are able to destroy only the body. Rather, the greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria are clergymen who distort the Gospel of Christ and are through their preaching and teaching of falsehood destroying souls and sending many into hell on a daily basis. Brethren, these are the real enemies and threats to our dear Christian Faith. Run away from them.

We have written this article to remind or inform us of those that constitute the greatest threat to Christianity in Nigeria in order for us to know how to redirect our prayers and the need for us to live holy lives in order to confront this onslaught against the body of Christ in our generation. God's hands are never shortened, neither are His ears dull of hearing [Isaiah 59:1-2]. When the people who are supposed to be leading the people of God aright follow their pernicious and evil ways, thereby leading the sheep astray, He allows the enemies of the church to have the upper hand.
Psalm 81:13-14
"13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

Brethren, God is not mocked. He knows those who are His. Every man will reap whatever he has sown. The LORD will definitely judge these wicked pastors who are profaning His sanctuary and teaching the people ungodliness.

Let me remind these pastors, apostles, evangelists, bishops, archbishops, etc that God is watching you. One day you will give account of your stewardship to God. But it’s never late if you repent of your wickedness and deceit and ask God for forgiveness.

He that ears to hear, let him hear [Matthew 11:15].

Remain blessed in JESUS' name, Amen.