If I see Adeboye I will prostrate before him- Sunday Adelaja…says I have no issues with top Nigerian pastors  

By Gbenga Osinaike

Founder and Senior Pastor of the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations in Ukraine, Dr. Sunday Adelaja; has said he has a lot of regards for top church leaders in Nigeria while also insisting he has no issues with them personally other than some of their doctrines

He made this known in a recent online video while answering a question on what he would do when he meets the church leaders in Nigeria. In the video, Adelaja said he cannot deny the impact some of these leaders have made on his life.

He said of the top pastors, “I love them. They are my leaders. Though I have disagreement with them; that does not negate the fact that they are my leaders. I don’t have issues with any of them.”

On Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, he said, “If I see Pastor Adeboye today I will prostrate for him. I will honour him. Apart from being an elder and the fact that he is knowledgeable he has been a great blessing to me. When I got born again it was the books of Adeboye that I first read. He has been a huge blessing to me. Apart from being a man of God, he has accomplished a lot. He has built a humungous Church. I respect him for being able to build one of the largest Christian organisations in the world. I remember when I was in Nigeria when he just became the General overseer the church was low key and was not as big as anything it is today. Even if I don’t respect him for anything I should respect him for his age. He is a professor of Mathematics. Those of us who did Mathematics in school know how difficult it is.”

Adelaja who looks quite temperate in the video stressed further, “If I would meet any of the top church leaders in Nigeria I would prostrate before them just to honour them and to tell them anything I do has nothing to do with their person but some of the doctrines they preach.”

On Bishop Oyedepo, he says, “I respect Bishop Oyedepo because he is a man who has my kind of temperament. I like his tenacity and audacity. But I do not like his doctrine. But if I see him I will honour him and respect him. I respect Bishop Mike Okonkwo.  He is fatherly. He has been a blessing. I have been blessed by Bishop Wale Oke he has impacted me a great deal. He is one of the best teachers of the word in Nigeria. I respect Pastor Williams Kumuyi, I got converted through him. I will honour him. No respect lost. I love Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor who has demonstrated great skill and has also been a blessing. I love the fact that he never went to the university but he speaks English the best among them.”

He expressed regret if his method of correction communicated bitterness saying he has no reason to be bitter with any one of them. Quoting Matt 5v22 he said, “If I am angry I am not mature because that will qualify me for hell. What Jesus is saying is that if we demean people we are qualified for hell. I have no intention to humiliate these men of God.

“Why does Jesus say you don’t have to kill to be qualified as a murderer? Killing is eliminating. You don’t just kill by killing the body physically. When you hate you also want to eliminate somebody. You don’t want to see them. You want to cancel them. As much as you have the attitude to remove them from your memory you have committed that sin of murder. I know the gravity of what it means to be angry. I can be emotional but I don’t live in anger.

On why he uses the word foolish and stupid on some of the men of God, he said, “Some people have heard me say foolish and stupid. Yes I have done that but the context is different. Jesus used the word foolish too but he did not use it in the context of wanting to eliminate. You could say somebody is foolish not because you are destroying them but because you re describing them. When Jesus says anybody who says raca it connotes that you are trying to make people nonentity. It’s not the use of the word but the intent. It is not enough to sleep with somebody for instance it is the intent of the heart. If it is in my heart to eliminate them, then it’s a different thing.”

He said further that his love for the men of God does not stop him from loving the people under their deception. “The only way I think I could show my love is to speak in a way to show the problem with their messages. I do not have any anger. I am not even bitter against those who have done worse things against me in Ukraine. I have fought communism and the elite of communist countries. I have had people who had betrayed me and those who had wanted to kill me and I don’t hate them talk less of the great men of God in Nigeria who have impacted me.”

He reasoned that many Nigerians are angry with him because of the cultural orientation in Nigeria particularly the Yoruba culture “We see challenge as a quarrel in my community back home. But my own orientation of confrontation is not quarrel but taking a step to correct the wrongs.”