After personally coming to Christ and living as a believer for some time, a former Muslim woman realized that many famous preachers lack the substance of the whole Gospel message.
In Islam, God's oneness is an absolute and believing in a Trinitarian God like Christians do violate that belief. Though they accept Jesus as a prophet, they refuse to acknowledge him as God's Son.
So, when Hedieh Mirahmadi, a Christian Post columnist, heard one preacher refer to Jesus as God's Son, she was perplexed. She said she came across this preacher after seeing a tweet from a woman she didn't know, who said his preaching "healed her of her emotional trauma."
With her interest piqued, she listened to the pastor preach about the "healing and redemptive power" of coming to Christ and making Him Lord and Savior.
"It was like listening to a Christian Tony Robbins seminar, filling me with hope, motivation, and the desire to learn more about the Jesus of the Bible."
She listened to the pastor's teachings for more than a month and began praying for God to show himself.
"I heard the audible voice of Christ say, 'Hedieh, it's Me.' At that moment, my life changed forever. The Lord Jesus Christ had answered my prayer, and it was not long before I was baptized and became a Christ-follower," she wrote.
Mirahmadi went to North Carolina to get baptized at the megachurch of the preacher she's been watching on YouTube. After that, she was surrounded by a group of believers who helped her through the emotional turmoil of informing loved ones and close friends that she had turned her back on Islam and became a Christian. They also taught her the value of prayer and Scripture reading and how to listen to God's voice and live a life that reflect His Holiness.
After some time, she discovered that what her church mates were teaching her was not found in the pastor's sermons. Instead, they urged her to become closer to God's word and follow the example of the disciples, who taught about what it means to live a faithful Christian life.
"Our pastor was charismatic and led me to explore what Christ had to offer, but eventually, I needed more," Mirahmadi explained.
She was also concerned about the lack of discussion of repentance and turning away from sin, as well as the warnings about false teachers and the extent of deceit that would occur before Christ's coming. She also noted that sermons sometimes simply cover one or two Bible scriptures. She realized all these after attending Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
"Had the Lord not led me to seek out true teachings of the Bible, I would have stayed in the megachurch that was the 'cool place to be' but left me without the relationship to Christ I needed to withstand the storms of life," she said.
"All of this is to say that as a Muslim convert, the crisis of many megachurches is beyond the hypocrisy of celebrity pastors who preach what they do not emulate," she continued.
The trap of self-glory as a minister
According to Mirahmadi,"many celebrity pastors fail to teach the whole counsel of the Gospel." Their pursuit of fame and wealth, she said, leads to "an intentional omission of the hard truths of Christ's message."
Repentance and turning from sin, refusing to conform to the patterns of this world, and experiencing persecution for one's convictions, on the other hand, are recurring themes in the Bible.
"Without these truths to guide our behavior, a church body ends up more like a self-help group or a social club than a place of discipleship," she commented.
Her recommendations:
"As a community of believers, we must do everything in our power to prevent corruption in the Church," she said while outlining what the Scripture already said about how Christians should live.
- Pursuing maturity and growing in discernment, as per the apostle Paul in Hebrews 5:12-14.
- Recognizing the truth that the enemy plants "tares" among the "wheat" and being discerning of it, as per Matthew 13:24-30.
- Following God's standards in the Bible, not corporate America's.
- Watching out and guarding against false teachers, particularly those who look and sound like they're authentic Christ followers but are in reality "wolves in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15).
- Lastly, she admonishes that those who go to church must be "focused on drawing near to God, not idolizing a preacher and his hip sense of style."
Mirahmadi, who started Resurrect Ministry noted that while these principles are true, Christians cannot dismiss the fact that God can still use some celebrity pastors to draw people to Him, just like what He did to her. Those who are drawn to God through these preachers, however, must seek to go beyond the hip and stylish preacher and pursue God Himself.
