Popular Nigerian Pastor Abel Damina, founder of Power City International, has challenged the widespread belief that giving to God leads to financial prosperity.
According to him, there is no biblical basis for the idea that offerings or tithes guarantee wealth.
In a video shared by an X user #ChuksEricE on Monday, Damina criticised what he described as a misleading and harmful teaching that has taken root in many Nigerian churches.
He argued that this doctrine conditions worshippers to think their financial success depends on how much they give to pastors or religious institutions, a notion he insists is not supported by scripture.
“There’s no scripture in the Bible that says when you give to God, you’ll be a rich person. There’s no such scripture. Nobody prospers by giving. When you give, you lack. Because when you give, it leaves you and there’s a vacuum. Then you have to work again and give it time to recover what you gave. And sometimes you never recover it,” he said.
To drive his point home, the clergyman recounted the story of a man he encountered who had donated all three of his cars to his church on the promise of divine financial reward, only to be left with nothing.
“Somebody told me he gave to his church all his three cars and he has been trekking since then till when I met him. He said, I was thinking of going back to collect one. I said, I think so too. Because if you gave three and the only one you want to collect is one out of the three, you try. You’re never asking for the three,” Damina said.
The pastor, who has in recent years become known for his unorthodox theological positions, said the widespread belief that tithing produces billionaires was not supported by evidence, insisting that wealth is a product of education, labour, and enterprise, not religious offerings.
READ ALSO: Outrage As Alleged Royal Rangers Assault Pastor, Wife In Delta Church
“I never saw anybody who, because he tithed, became a billionaire. Even those who said they became billionaires because they tithed — it’s because they don’t know. It’s because they had jobs and businesses. That’s why they became billionaires. Not because they tithed,” he stated.
Damina argued that God’s blessings are not transactional but are already embedded in the earth itself and that the responsibility of man is to position himself through knowledge and hard work to access what has already been provided.
“The reason why people can excavate the ground and meet oil wells is because God put the deposit. The reason why we can get to the rocks in Nigeria, go to the gold belt that travels right through Minna, Niger and right to Plateau, all those rocks, explore, break the ground and meet diamonds, golds, sapphires and tourmaline is because God put them there,” he said.
“So because God has blessed the planet, all we need to do is go to school, learn what to do to get into what has been blessed and turn it into commercial property. We go to school, we go to market, we engage to make money,” he added.