Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s wish for the Church in South Africa is for it to repent and to speak out with one voice against wrongdoing in its midst.
Speaking after the launch of the first ever Judicial Accountability Session in SA, Mogoeng said he believed the Church has become “lukewarm at best”, if not “very cold”. in that it allowed the commercialisation of faith, which paved the way for possible external interference in church governance.
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United stand
He urged church leaders to take a strong, united stand against false prophets in order to deliver the Church from those who seek to regulate her, and to play a vital role in helping SA and the nations of Africa to realise their divine destinies.
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“The church, barring exceptions, has focussed more on self. People boast about the size of their congregations; the important people — so-called, — who are members; how much offerings and tithes are received; how many powerful vehicles gather at their services; how many of the congregants have private jets.
Listen to interview audio of Chief Justice Mogoeng speaking on the Church
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“There is a focus on money, on materialism with a result that holiness is no longer preached; love is no longer preached. There is a disgraceful amount of self-centeredness and greed that has been left to flourish by the c=Church of God. So my wish is for the Church to go back to the fundamentals,” said Mogoeng.
Early church
He pointed to the success of the very early church being built on the principle of making disciples of men based on the Gospel. He drew from Scripture on how Jesus dealt with commercialisation in God’s house and said Christians had to speak up for what is right.
He listed practices that he believes are corrupting the Gospel: “Selling holy water — whether it’s holy or not, I don’t know. Selling vaselines with the pictures of people, selling all sorts of elements and instruments — saying that they have power.
“These days, where prayer is sold, you can buy prayer for half a million. There is prayer for seven thousand, there if prayer for five hundred. That’s absolute corruption of the Gospel. We’ve got to be so sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God that we pray individually and corporately for God to expose, uproot, and destroy those End-Times false prophets — the antiChrist masquerading as disciples of Christ.”
Headlines
In SA, a number of churches have made headlines for reportedly feeding congregants anything from snakes to insecticide.
The impassioned chief justice spoke out vehemently against those who “feed people with snakes and rats and ants and petrol and diesel, just to be seen to be relevant, just to be seen to be different, just to be seen to be gathering huge crowds just because of the melodramatic approach to matters spiritual.”
He called on the body of Christ to not shy away from condemning such practices and to become united in the process.
“We’ve got to be so sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God that we pray individually and corporately for God to expose, uproot, and destroy those End-Times false prophets — the Antichrist masquerading as disciples of Christ.”
According to Mogoeng, the Church has only itself to blame for being pursued.
“I think if the Church of God can be proactive in ensuring that the right thing happens and speak out against wrongdoing, then those who are inclined to clip the wings of the Church of God would retreat because then we would be united and they would know, since the majority of the citizens of this country are Christians, that if you touch them united as they are, you might not get the vote that you want if you regulate them in a manner that does not accord with their preference as inspired by the Spirit of God,” he said.
“We need to pray urgently for love to set in, caring to set in, holiness to set in, and obedience to the commandments of God to set in. That way we will be able to become that critical force that is needed, especially now, in South Africa and Africa to have the dream, the vision of God about these nations to come to pass.”
Wonderful! Let us respond to this call!
The world needs a Bible loving and holy and truthful church.
We need leaders like ou chief judge.
So true. The Church as a Body is quiet and is lukewarm. Lone voices such as Uncle Angus, Afrika Mhlope and a few others are wonderful to hear…. but not enough… the Body as one must stand up and be heard
So agree and resonate with our Chief Justice’s OT like prophetic call and warning. May the true, authentic church stand up at this time, unite with one voice and vote for righteous government in all spheres of society. Ministers Fraternal s need to hold churches accountable in their communities. Imagine the impact if we all united with FOR SA to take on the challenges in SA. May God’s Kingdom come…..
I can’t agree less with what the Chief Justice has said. We need to do away with selfish ambitions under the pretext of preaching the Gospel. Let’s be part of the Minister’s Fraternals in our regions and provinces. The sooner we do that the better communication and unity is envisaged so that we can speak against all evil doing whether in church or community.
I am longing for the day when the church rises up to fulfil her end time role. To make a difference in our communities and our nations and our continent. This will not be achieved through silence and indifference and fear or lack of action. We should not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Refreshing to see others speak from conviction. Unity is the key and starting point of the church.
I thank God for you Chief Justice! Yes indeed we need to refute false doctrines taught by false prophets! The problem is the church has defile her self with the spirit of jezebel
I have been teaching on this subject for some tine and am so glad to hear there are people in the body of Christ still abiding by the true teachings of word of God. We must refute all evil and false prohets from our pulpits across the nations. Jesus is coming back soon and we have prepare to meet Him. Its so sad that even some so called pastors are not going to make it. God bless all servants of Gid who preach and teach the undiluted word of Gid without compromise. Anen