Popular teacher of the Word and founder of Peace House in Gboko, Benue State, Nigeria, Bro. Gbile Akanni has revealed that he first embraced and practised Islam before giving his life to Christ in 1970.
He made the revelation on an online platform called Pilgrims Spot, monitored by Church Times.
Akanni, who has often spoken about his idolatrous background, said his initial attraction to Islam was because some of his uncles were Muslims. He added that nobody went to church in his family during his growing-up years.
His words: “I gave my life to Christ about 56 years ago. I came from a very occult background. My father was an herbalist. I was the first to encounter Christ in the family in a very serious manner. Because of that, I had to go through serious persecution. But before then, I had embraced Islam because some of my uncles were Muslims. My father never went to church. Nobody went to church in our house.”
He recalled that in those days, when a child was born in his family, the child would be presented before an oracle to determine what the child would become in life.
“Usually, all the senior herbalists would gather, then they would bring the three-day-old baby so the oracle could discern what the child would become.
“If the oracle said you would serve him, then you would serve him. You wouldn’t go to school. They would simply decide which herbalist the child would learn under. But if the baby were a girl, they would immediately decide that a girl could not be a priest; she had to be the wife of a priest. So they would determine who she would marry. At the age of four, the girl would be given out to the man, even if the man was old,” he stated, adding, “My elder sister was given out like that. “They only allowed her to grow. Once she was 15, she was handed over to the old man.”
According to him, his two elder brothers did not go to school because the oracle determined that they would be herbalists. “I was the one who later trained them how to read and write,” Bro. Gbile said.
Explaining how he escaped the same fate, he said: “When I was born and taken to the oracle, the oracle said it did not know what I was supposed to do. They checked again and said the oracle did not know what I was meant to become, and they could not compel me. So when it was time to go to school, they asked if I wanted to go, and I said yes. I was the one who decided to go to school because the oracle did not know what I was meant to do.”
Alluding to Jeremiah 1:5, which says, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart,’ Akanni said: “I understand what that meant. God prevailed where there was no preacher. I would have been one of the chief herbalists somewhere, but God set me apart.”
