The founder of Port Harcourt, Rivers State-based Salvation Ministries, Pastor David Ibiyeomie has stated that Jesus Christ detested poverty and deliberately avoided entering poor people’s homes while he was on earth.
Ibiyeomie, while addressing his congregation on Sunday in a video that later went viral on X (formerly Twitter), cited the cases of Zacchaeus and Lazarus referenced biblical accounts to argue that Jesus never visited any poor individual, suggesting his divine disdain for poverty.
According to him, it is wrong to remain poor after coming to Jesus.
He stated that Christ’s mission on earth was beyond salvation, suggesting that it included deliverance from poverty.
According to Ibiyeomie, continuing to live in poverty after embracing Christianity indicates ignorance about spiritual insight.
“Jesus never visited any poor person in his house. Check your Bible. That means he hates poverty. When he visited Lazarus, they were not poor; they were giving him food.
“He visited a sinner called Zacchaeus, who was rich. Tell me one poor man Jesus entered his house. He hates poverty, that is the meaning. He hates people who are poor. He died for you not to be poor. How can you now come to church with some kind of mentality?
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“You can come poor but you’re not permitted to remain poor. Nothing wrong with you coming to Christ as a poor man, but it’s wrong for you to remain poor. It is wrong,” he said.
Reacting to the statement, Reverend Dr. Rotimi Ashafa of Christ Kingdom Baptist Church in Ogun State, faulted Ibiyeomie’s claim that Jesus hates poor people.
Ashafa said, “The statement that Jesus hates poor people is not right. Maybe he wanted to say Jesus hates seeing people poor. Jesus was a friend of poor people, he came for the downtrodden and the downcast.
“Whenever he saw a sick person at the temple, he healed such. Even those who were hungry, he fed them. So why should he say Jesus hates poor people?”
On the claim that Jesus never visited any poor person’s house, Ashafa recalled that Jesus visited Peter’s house, where he healed the disciple’s mother-in-law, as written in Matthew 8:14-15.
The passage reads: “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.”
Ibiyeomie’s claim sparked outrage on social media as many shared different Bible verses to prove him wrong.