THE SOCIO-RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE ABUSE OF PROPHECY IN THE 21ST CENTURY PENTECOSTALISM IN NIGERIA

Itoro Ime Matthew

Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria

Abstract

There has been so much shift in the prophetic tradition of the church in the 21^st century Pentecostalism in Nigeria. These include a number of ritual practices and symbolisms that are totally deviant from the biblical Pentecostal standard. This appears disheartening, confusing and threatening to the Pentecostal Christian community. This research adopts a historical and survey methods to access these issues, and gathered data through various ways including interview, participant observation, books and online publications. The paper discovered that some of the neo Pentecostal prophets in Nigerian prophetic ministry are using prophecy as an ambience of extortion and commercialization, using simony to gain their desires. They use some obnoxious matrixes to capture the psyche of the unsuspected clients for their aggrandizement. This result in tears and sorrows rather than comfort, edification and exhortation for which prophecy was meant. This paper recommends proper hermeneutical engagement to salvage the church from this ignorance that is detrimental to the belief of the church on the death and the subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Keywords: Pentecostalism, Prophecy, Church, Abuse, Implications.