HEALING MINISTRIES IN NIGERIA: A THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

In these latter days there has been a proliferation of ecclesial communities popularly known as Pentecostal Churches, healing homes and ministries.  This phenomenon to any sincere devout Christian must be a cause for great worry.  The reason behind this in most cases is not necessarily the love for God, but using religion as a means to wealth and material acquisition.  This is why the founders of these denominations cling to personal revelations which sometimes are hallucinations and misapprehensions and there is no way these can be verified since it is private and personal.  This is the reason why some of them water down the gospel and preach only prosperity, crossless Christianity, and miracles which are often integrated with the African traditional religious approach. This paper discusses healing ministries in Nigeria from a theological perspective. The findings of this paper reveal that motives behind the foundations of these ministries are largely economic, material and are bereft of spiritual contents. This work recommends Christianity in spirit and in truth. This will not only obey the will of Christ but will curb the scandals caused by a divided Christianity. The methodology employed in this work is  historic-descriptive, which implies that healing ministries in Nigeria were carefully studied and evaluated in the light of their implications to the future of Christianity in Nigeria.