Interestingly, I've discovered that it's not only Atheists who are always complaining about Preachers owning private jets, but many of the people complaining about it online are Catholics.
I'm not too surprised. Catholics are raised to hate every Christian who is not a Catholic and to think of them as infidels. That is where the term "Protestant" came from.
Catholics think they are the only true Christians and that everybody who is not in their organization is going to Hell.
Thus, Catholics love to join the world in insulting and discrediting Christian Pastors because, after all, they are not Catholic Priests being insulted. But they are not intelligent enough to see that the world they are joining to attack Christian Pastors makes no distinction between Catholic Priests and Christian Pastors. So when Atheists insult Christian Pastors, they are referring to all Christian clergy and leadership, including Catholic Priests and the Pope.
Catholics who condemn the less than 10 Pastors who own private jets out of the over 20 million registered Pastors in the world fail to note that the Pope owns his own country, his own central bank, his own investments in Microsoft, J.P. Morgan, Airbus (that makes airplanes), stocks in private equity firms, hedge fund management companies, and so much more.
So it's hypocrisy of the highest order to complain about the less than 10 Pastors who own private planes.
Now there are Catholics who say, "Well, the Pope doesn't own these things; it's the Catholic Church that owns them. After all, Popes come and go."
Well, the same argument could be used for any company. CEOs come and go. Founders come and go. Founders die and another person gets to own their stock. So if the Pope owns nothing because he will one day die and someone else will become the Pope, then CEOs and Founders own nothing too because they'll one day die and someone will take their place.
It's funny how Catholics don't use the same logic they use with the Pope on Christian Pastors.
In the same way they claim it's not the Pope that owns all those assets but the Catholic Church that owns them, they should then also say it's not the Christian Pastor that owns the private jet but the Church he pastors that owns it. But I guess Catholics wouldn't say that because they don't see non-Catholic Churches as true Churches or non-Catholic Preachers as true ministers called of God.
Catholics believe Jesus Christ is the personal trademark of the Catholic Church. Everybody else that uses it is not official.
How sad!
Anyway, when it comes to private plane ownership: So what? So Preachers can only own cars but not planes? If it's wrong to own a plane, it should also be wrong to own a car. Or is it only okay if the car is an old rickety jalopy because in your mind God is a God that rewards those who serve Him with poverty?
Jesus wore such expensive clothes that the Roman soldiers, who were highly paid, gambled for His torn clothing. Just the material of the clothing alone was that valuable (Matthew 27:35).
God also made Solomon, David, Abraham, etc., rich. There is nobody whom God called and who also pleased God that remained poor—from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23). If you are in "want," if you are not blessed by God, it is proof there is something wrong with you.
Joshua 1:8 makes it clear: if you meditate on the word of God day and night, you will have "good success." Therefore, the Preachers who don't have good success and are poor do not meditate on the word of God day and night. Their poverty is proof of their lack of commitment to the word of God. It's either that, or the word of God in Joshua 1:8 is a lie—and I boldly say, let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).
The Preachers who have private jets are more submitted and obedient to the word of God than those who don't have private jets. The private jet is proof of God's blessing, so how can God's approval be missing from those He has chosen to bless above others?
No Preacher who has a private jet stole the jet. They are either gifts from sometimes only one church member who came into that church broke but became rich because of the message preached—like in the case of the first private planes of Bishop David Oyedepo and also Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
In other cases, church members choose of their own free will to donate for the church and the pastoral team to have their own private jet, which in the case of an active missions ministry is cheaper than always booking plane tickets for ministerial teams and transporting relief and equipment to where it's needed. Or is church offering meant to enrich commercial airlines and be used only for church buildings and local welfare, but when they buy a plane for the same work of the ministry globally it is now a bad thing? Joker, please!
Poor Preachers should be avoided. Why is the word of God not yielding results in their lives?
Listening to a rich Preacher doesn't guarantee you'll make it to heaven, but listening to or following poor Preachers will certainly guarantee you'll never make the word of God bear fruit in your life in this life or in the hereafter. Poor Preachers can't even make the word of God work for themselves and bring forth results in their own lives. How would listening to them help you? How can they give what they don't have?
Poor Preachers don't really know God. They need to go deeper. They have so much to learn. Their life, which is void of God's blessing, is the proof. The proof is in the pudding. Case closed.
Prayer:
Thank You Father for opening my eyes and making me see that it's foolishness to take advice from a poor Preacher. I will never take advice from the poor. I disconnect myself from taking advice from somebody who is not doing well and expecting their advice to help me do well. Thank You Lord for I am free from foolishness and will never return to foolishness in Jesus' Name, Amen.
Further Study:
(What Apostle Paul thinks About Christians Being Rich Or Pastors Owning Private Jets today):
3 John 1:2 KJV
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
(What Apostle Paul thinks about those who disagree with the gospel of prosperity that he preached):
Galatians 1:8-9 KJV
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. [9] As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.