Sunday Adelaja, Nigerian pastor of Largest Church in Europe, Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations in Kiev, Ukraine; for many months have been having a running online battle with many Nigerian pastors whom he describes as being paganistic and materialistic. In this online interview with Church Times Nigeria, the Ogun State born cleric bares his mind on his grouse about the pastors.
You left Nigeria when you were 19. What was the circumstances that made you leave and what kind of experience did you have coming to know the Lord?
I left Nigeria when I was 19, that was in 1986 but before then the Lord helped me in receiving Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. The year before that, my elder sister Olaide Adelaja had spoken to me about the Lord, she was studying in Abeokuta and got saved in the government college and then left for our village, Idomila near Ijebu-Ode where I was studying and living. Even though we were Anglicans, we didn’t know what salvation meant. I understood the message and it changed my life.
But, a real change happened in my life when I decided to listen to W.F. Kumuyi on television. There was a rebroadcast of his 1985 Lagos National Stadium crusade on television. I really got touched and it was after this I could confirm about my born again experience. I totally gave my life to Christ that day after listening to W.F. Kumuyi that day.
six months later, I left Nigeria on a scholarship to study abroad. So, I travelled to Moscow, Russia and from there I left to study in Belarussian University and the rest is history.
Since you left what has been the connection between you and Nigeria?
I have my relatives and families in Nigeria still. So, I used to come once in a while to visit my family and a few times I used to come to minister in Nigeria. I have been invited for ministrations by Bishop Idahosa, Bishop Wale Oke, Pastor Adeboye at the Redemption camp and different Redeemed Churches, visited Bishop Oyedepo as a personal guest and ministered with Pastor Sam Adeyemi, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Bishop Abraham Olaleye, Dayo Olutayo, Tony Rapu, Dr. Francis Akin John, and a lot more all over Nigeria. Although my ministration were not too often and intense, but I have been able to minister in these places.
I am familiar with the Nigerian Church and I had always come to bring the message of correction since what I see in the Nigerian church doesn’t fall in line with my opinion of what the New Testament church is and how it ought to be.
If you recall well what was the state of the church before you left?
Before I left the country, I was only a Christian for 6 months, I got born again officially, March 1986 and I left the country in September so I didn’t get to know much. I just watched Pastor Kumuyi on television, then attended the Ijebu-Ode branch for about six months but I was able to read a few books and heard some stories of Christians. However, the impression I had of Christians was that of Scripture Union, Student Union in the universities, NIFES, Deeper Life church, The RCCG which was quite like Deeper Life then. These were the churches I knew and I viewed them as worthy churches. They made people value their faith. There is a major difference between the church we had that time and what we have now.
Who were the servants of God you admired then and why?
Before I left Nigeria, the only man of God I really knew a little about was Pastor Kumuyi because I was saved through his ministry so I respected him a lot. I also read books by Pastor Adeboye who had just become the General Overseer of RCCG, so I had a lot of respect for him as well. Then, I read a few books from Paul Jinadu, so I had some respect for him as well. These were the few ministers I knew before I left the country. It was in Europe I began to hear of other Nigerian ministers.
Other ministers I respected who were not Nigerians, Kenneth Hagin for instance. At that point, these were the few ministers I had knowledge of.
You have been in Ukraine all this while. It is noteworthy that you got there in the heat of communism. How did you manage to breakthrough in that land?
I got here 32 years ago before communism fell and it was very difficult to serve God in that situation. You were either going to be a real believer or backslide. So, I think that training and the need for survival under communism had helped me a lot. There was a time I contemplated leaving the former Soviet Union for America because I was offered a scholarship by Kenneth Hagin Rhema Bible College. This was the point God spoke to me and said that he has different ways of raising up his generals, and when He wants to do something new He takes his generals to the wilderness and that He has decided to raise me up in the wilderness of communism and I wouldn’t need to go to any Bible school. This is like the case of Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ. God spoke to me that He doesn’t want the message that He would entrust into my hands to be polluted by any man or denomination. That is how my training went in communism because during communism there was no church, no pastor. So, we had to survive in the underground church by sheer faith and courage, risking our lives to serve God.
During the wilderness of communism, I was able to learn to walk with the Lord and to build my personal relationship with him. God helped me to recognize the fact that serving God must be as personal intimate relationship with Him. There must be no pastor nor church in-between. So, during communism, there was no church or pastors to stand in between you and God, so I had to walk with God by the word of God, the Bible and by the Spirit of God. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” So that was how I learnt. Now when I come out, I saw the rate at which the Nigerian Christians had been polluted to the extent that they now worship God through the church, I knew that the Nigerian church had been deceived. Then, recently, the craze of calling people papa and praying in the name of the God of their G.Os distance the Nigeria believers from personal relationship with God. So, I knew that God had saved me from deceptions that Jesus himself warned against in John 4:22-24 when he said; “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
I see now that in Nigeria, for you to worship God, it’s almost that you have to go to church. Secondly, you need to have a pastor or man of God that is praying for you or through whom you can easily get to God. So, these are some of the deceptions that have crept into the Nigerian church. I remember back then when I was in Nigeria, even Pastor Kumuyi was addressed as Brother Kumuyi and all other pastors were also brothers. But now, they are now G.Os, Papas and Mamas. The god of men and that’s why God said we shouldn’t call anybody father because they replace the heavenly father. We are supposed to have a personal relationship and be attached to only our heavenly father. So, this experience made me to have an intimate relationship with God. So when God led me to start our church, I could hear him giving me concrete directions on how to have a breakthrough in a foreign land and how God helped us and by 33 I was able to build the largest church in Europe with over 25,000 people as members which 99% are white Caucasians. But there are a lot of other details I could talk about but people who wish to know more could go to the internet and read more about me.
Who are the Nigerian pastors who supported you while you laboured in Ukraine?
The most support I got while I was in Ukraine and in Russia in general from Nigeria would be from Bishop Wale Oke. He had a great influence on me, also Archbishop Idahosa. I also had support from Moses Aransiola, some help from Anslem Madubuko and a lot of help from Pastor Tunde Bakare and Pastor Kumuyi. I would also say I got some support from Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Olaleye, Tony Rapu, Wale Adefarasin.
These would be the main pastors from Nigeria who helped with my work in Ukraine. I might have forgotten a few names but I had quite a number of support.
It is interesting that you are championing a save the Nigerian church campaign. What informed this in the first place?
I would start with some quotations to give understanding to my position and where I am coming from.
Edmund Burke, an American writer said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Then, Martin Luther King Jr. said “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” These are not the only ones.
The book of Isaiah 62:1 says,’ For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.’ The 3rd US President, Thomas Jefferson said,” “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
These quotations and one more quotation which is my favorite by Isaac Newton says, “Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth” better expresses my burden and the reason why I had decided to go against a lot of my friends and the people I respected but to camp with the truth.
I have discovered that the culture of silence in the Nigerian church is killing the Nigerian Church. The culture of silence in Africa is killing our society. That culture that says you shouldn’t talk and pretend as if nothing is happening is a culture of evil; it is a plague. Therefore, I would say the plague of silence is destroying the Nigerian Church and I will say in earnest that the church in Nigeria has descended to the pit that she is in now. I don’t want to be a part of that kind of culture. People hide under the perception and culture that says, respect your elders and never correct your elders to compromise the truth. But in my case, the truth is the highest authority. I would rather sacrifice great relationships and personal benefits to stand with the truth than sacrifice the truth just in the name of being either politically or culturally correct.
So, I personally have decided to pay any price to wake up the conscience of the Nigerian church, no matter whose feather is ruffled. I have decided to speak the truth and rather be in the side of truth than on the side of plague of silence because I know that one on the side of truth is a majority because God is always on the side of truth and one on the side of God is a majority.
That is the reason why I have decided to lead the campaign to save the Nigerian church. The churches in Nigeria has long become paganistic and what is called church especially the Pentecostal-charismatic ones in Nigeria is not more the church, we are now practicing syncretism. So, there is more of paganism and syncretism in the Nigerian church right now than the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Money has hijacked the Nigerian church. Most of our G.O’s and bishops are now serving the god of mammon. It is no more the almighty God we are serving, it is now money but what is even worse is that the money we are serving is at the expense of the poor. We are oppressing the poor to build our own empires and ministries so much that the poor people are getting poorer while the churches, G.O’s and bishops are building their heaven on earth. But in the Bible, it is totally the opposite, when you read the Acts of the Apostles, people brought all their riches to the church and the reason they brought offering, and riches to church is so that the riches would be distributed to those who don’t have, the poor and the needy. The church was created to bring the balance between people. So that there wouldn’t be a group of people who are ostentatiously rich and another group that is living in abject poverty.
However, in the Nigerian church today, the pastors and churches who are very rich still oppress the poor, taking their last kobo and naira to add to their riches which is evil in all ramification and that evil must be spoken against. And if we are the Christians and Christian leaders don’t speak against it, we will push our children out of the church. Our children would not want to have anything to do with this kind of Christianity and atheism will replace faith in Jesus Christ. Atheists will win more people to themselves and from Christ. Other religion like Islam will win the heart of our young people until we show to them that what we have right now is not Christianity at all, it is an abuse of Christianity and it must be reformed and corrected.
Many back home, are not comfortable with your approach. Some think you have gone gaga. How will you react to this?
Well, I think that as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, I shouldn’t burden myself with making people feel comfortable. We are not in a business of comfort and making people comfortable. If a minister just wants to make people comfortable, then that minister is not a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that we cannot please man and God at the same time. James 4:4 said, “… Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” I have decided to be a friend of God, which means the only person I want to please is God. I am not interested in pleasing man.
To say that I have lost my mind or “gone gaga” as they said, is a good complement for me because that was what they said about Jesus Christ also. They said, He was a Beelzebub and he was demon possessed. I guess I am in a good company with Jesus Christ, and not just that but also in a company with Apostle Paul as it’s in Galatians chapter 2 verse 11 “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” So I am doing the same thing, I am withstanding the people who are destroying the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am withstanding them to their faces and publicly just as Paul did to Peter. So, if that qualifies me to have gone gaga, sure that is one of the greatest complement for me.
In that same Galatians 2:14, Paul wrote that “ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” You see that because of the fact that Peter was not straightforward with the truth of the gospel, Paul was forced to rebuke him publicly. I am doing the same thing today. The truth of the gospel must be paramount and supreme to anybody’s convenience. Besides that, in Galatians 1;6-10 the Bible tells us, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 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. 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. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
So, I am in the same company with Paul. He saw that people of God had turned away from the grace of Christ, the same which I see today.
The Nigerian church has turned away from the grace of Christ.
The church in Nigeria is now preaching a different gospel
And the Bible said, if anybody preaches another gospel even if he is an angel from heaven he must be rebuked and actually accursed for preaching another gospel.
The Nigerian church has perverted the gospel of Christ. And the Bible had encouraged us to expose, rebuke and to correct such a situation. This is what the Bible command us to do and I cannot do any other than the instruction of the bible. The bible specifically says, if anyone preaches any other gospel, the person must be accursed and like Paul I will say, what do I do? Do I now please men or God? No Sir, because if I will please men, then I am no longer a servant of God.
So, that is what is informing my method of the reformation and correction campaign that I am leading in the body of Christ. So, if people are not comfortable with that, it’s actually not meant to make people comfortable. Because if people are comfortable, then they don’t change. People must begin to feel uncomfortable so they begin to realize what is wrong in the Nigerian church, and then they can be able to change it. But if we leave the Nigerian Church in the comfort they are in now, then that comfort will kill them. Comfort is one of the greatest enemy of human progress and development. As long as the Nigerian church is comfortable with what they are doing, they would never be any progress and civilization. But if we make them comfortable, we stand a chance of rescuing the African church.
It was cool attacking some of these preachers in south Africa and east Africa. But the moment you began descending on the Adeboyes of this world people feel you are threading where angels dread. What gave you the courage to descend on Pastor Adeboye in that form sir?
Very good question. What gave me courage is the truth. I am on the side of the truth. Nobody can go against the truth. I am a friend of the truth and I have made up my mind to be a witness to the truth. And when you know you are on the side of the truth, you are as bold as the lion. But, if you are not sure on the side of the truth, you might be afraid or concerned. I am not concerned at all because I know I am on the side of the truth.
Even Jesus himself said, he came for this reason to bear witness to the truth. Now if Jesus’s purpose was to bear witness to the truth, then truth therefore must be the ultimate standard for all human conscience and actions. So, truth is the reason why I am doing what I am doing.
We must restore the authority of the truth to the Nigerian church, so much that truth becomes the ultimate reason for our worship. This was why Jesus said “for you shall know the truth and it shall set you free”. We need to return the Nigerian church to the truth. Truth must be elevated above the authority of the men of God. Truth must be elevated above denominations and church buildings.
An error doesn’t become truth just because multiple of people are propagating nor truth becomes error because nobody says it. So, I would rather stand on the side of truth because it would vindicate me sooner than later.
I believe that we should not adjust to the culture of falsehood around us that says we shouldn’t confront what is wrong or correct an elder even if that elder is wrong. I don’t believe we should adjust to that culture of falsehood but rather we have to change that culture through the influence of the truth. The danger of what has happened in Nigeria and the Nigerian church is that when truth collapses, morality collapses which leads to disaster. It leads to economic disaster, family disaster, individual disaster and societal disaster as well because truth is the basis of all morality. If there is no truth, there will be no morals in the society anymore.
So, I believe God is rejoicing at my position and at what I am doing because God is a God of truth and truth will definitely stand the test of time. It is my belief that truth is the only absolute that is the foundation of any societal stability and development.
But in Nigeria, we have a great tragedy in our hands. And that tragedy is that we respect the authority of a man above the authority of the truth. We respect the authority of what we call church over the authority of the truth. That is why Jesus said in John 17;17 “Sanctify them with your truth, thy word is truth”. We need to come back to the basis of truth as the only ground for building the church and society.
In John 4:23, Jesus himself said , “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people”. He is not seeking for church names or denominations but the lovers of truth. In John 8:32, he also said “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” So, my position is with the truth and on these I stand.
Jesus in John 18;37 says,” You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify.” So, I pitch my tent with Jesus.
To continue with the question on what made me descend on Adeboye because it is a place where angels even dare thread. I must thank God I was trained in the wilderness of communism and I don’t have the fear of man like Nigerian people have it. Even though I have the Nigerian blood in me and I am a Nigerian by birth but my upbringing was amongst Europeans but also my upbringing is totally Bible based. I have fought communism, I have fought KGBs, I have fought the Putins of this world, I have lead and participated in National revolution movements like Orange Revolution in the Ukraine. I have the antecedence of standing for truth and I have seen truth vindicate me. The truth would always vindicate me. Even if I die, the truth would come around and speak for me. So, I will rather exalt the truth about my life than to compromise the truth. So, challenging people like Adeboye is one of the easiest thing for me to do because I have done things that are much tougher than that where I am coming from.
You did a series on Oyakhilome and the god of Mammon. Is it that he and his likes are on a satanic mission or that they are ignorant of the truth?
I think both. In the case of Adeboye, I think he is just overpowered by power and desire to build his own empire. To say in summary, the god of mammon has overpowered him. But in the case of Oyakhilome, I think he is compromised with evil forces and diabolical powers. I can say the same about TB Joshua, Joshua Iginla, John Okafor, Johnson Suleiman and people like that. But in the case of Adeboye, Oyedepo, Ashimolowo, I think they are just deceived by their greed for money.
However, both categories have compromised the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and they are doing more harm to the gospel than good.
Sir, the impression here is that you are having challenges with your personal ministry that is why you have taken on the ministry of criticism. How will you react to this?
Well, if any minister or pastor doesn’t have problems, crises and trials in ministry, I will rather run away from that kind of minister because it is not a complement not to have problems in ministry. It is rather a sign of danger. If everything is good in your ministry as a minster of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have been compromised. You are no more a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ because the Bible says, you cannot be a friend of God and be a friend of the world. If you are really a friend of God, the world will always fight you. You would be going from one fight to the other, attack to the other. Jesus Christ himself said, “Woe unto you, if everybody will speak well about you”. No. You have to be in crisis permanently like Jesus himself who was always in a fight when he was on earth. The same thing with any minister that wants to live a godly life must be persecuted. That is the norm.
If you look at the ministry of Apostle Paul, you will see the same thing. In 1 Corinthians 4;11-13 “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.” So this is the way the gospel is supposed to be but in Nigeria, we almost don’t know what it means to suffer for Christ anymore, we don’t know what it means to suffer for the gospel anymore. We have been accepted by the world and we have become the same as the world. So, we now see it as strange when anyone is going through a challenge or any crisis or persecution. Jesus said we should rejoice when we face persecutions. Persecution should be the norm for Christian ministers but today it is almost the norm not to persecuted as a pastor or church because we have become the same thing as the world.
We have become darkness; we are no more shining as the light. We have become comfortable in darkness which is why darkness is not disturbing us. This is another problem with the Nigerian church. So, to say that It is because I have attacks and challenges in my ministry, that is why I am now criticizing others is to be naïve. With that logic, let’s assume that I have crisis in ministry, if anybody has crisis and is concerned about it, what would be natural thing for him to do? Of course, the natural thing for him to do is to be looking for ways to get himself out of the crisis. If somebody is in crisis, he will only be self-engulfed in his own crisis, he will not have time for another person. He will rather say I have enough personal problems.
So, if they say that it is because I have crisis and that is why I am creating other crisis by criticizing people who could do me more harm than good, then why should I do that? It is not normal. If I were driven by crisis, I would be headed to seeking for solutions and not to put my nose into another man’s business whatsoever.
So, it is not logical that my problems are making me to look for more problems. No! I am doing what I am doing and starting a campaign to correct the evils of the Nigerian church because of my love for God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Nigeria, Africa and all over the world. I am disregarding my own problem. I am closing my eyes at my own challenges and going to do what is very risky for me whereby I am having to sacrifice everything that I have and doing something that is costing more than any human could imagine so that I will please God.
It is because of my love for God and for his church that I am doing what I am doing, not because I am in crisis and I want other people to have crisis.
How will that help me to get out of my own crisis if that is the reason? No! To think like that is to be very myopic.
You are a Yoruba man. It is believed that you are not being a Yoruba man in the way you are attacking elders. How will you react to this?
First of all, I must say that I am not attacking the personalities of elders. I am not attacking the individuals that I am mentioning. I think I must point this out that I am not attacking people. I am not attacking Adeboye, Oyakhilome or any of the people’s video I have showed. I am correcting the wrong doctrines they are preaching and practicing. I am just correcting the doctrines.
Now why is it that I am doing it publicly. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:19-20. “Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. So, I am bringing my judgement against their doctrines and practices publicly, not just in the presence of 2 or 3 but in the presence of the whole world. But then I must also point out that what I am doing is not rebuking at all. I am not rebuking the person of Adeboye or any of these pastors, I am just correcting the wrong that is being practiced in these churches.
In 1 Corinthians 14: 29 “29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.
So this is exactly what I am doing. I am judging exactly what God wants us to judge. All of us must judge the wrong practices and doctrines being preached in churches. Not the individual pastors but doctrines.
Yes, I will say I am a Yoruba man and I believing in honoring and respecting people. But in Yoruba land, honor and respect has been taking to the extreme. I believe what the Yoruba culture and Nigeria in general is practicing now is more of subservience. We are producing more sycophants who are men pleasers than honorable men. What we are doing is not honoring others when we can’t tell them the truth. We are actually disrespecting them. We are worshiping them and we are not helping them. So, we have sycophants right now all over our society, and this is the biggest problem we have to fight as a nation. I don’t think what I am doing is the problem. I think the sycophancy of our people is a bigger problem than the correction I am bringing to the body of Christ.
Have you met these pastors one on one before your media outburst? What were their reactions?
For those people who know me who have been following my ministry over the years, if they want to tell the truth, they would agree that I didn’t start this journey of correcting the wrong practices and doctrines of the Nigerian church today. I have spoken about these things in smaller meetings, private conversations and I have discussion with a number of leaders of the Nigerian church over the years. I have personally met with Bishop Oyedepo to express my concerns about his doctrines and practices. He was very kind and polite to have hosted me in his house. I have also expressed my concerns with Bishop Francis Wale Oke. I have talked extensively with Bishop Abraham Olaleye. I have spoken about this with the leadership of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) most especially the Redeemed Church in America, Europe and Nigeria as well. I have also spoken at length with Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Tony Rapu, Sam Adeyemi and a lot of others.
I have also addressed my concerns in church settings. The thing that has made this different is that we are now living in a world of information technology and because of the viral nature of internet that is what is making this to look like it is a new thing that I am doing. But if you will be kind enough to listen to some of my messages on the internet from 15 years ago, you’ll discover that I have always been a lover and a speaker of truth.
So what was their reactions?
Well, when I spoke to Bishop Oyedepo one-on-one about the wrong doctrines that he is practicing; what he told me personally is that these are his own personal revelations, things that God told him to do personally and that he is not making other people to practice it. Well, since it is his own revelation and he has the right to propagate his own error, so I also I have the right to propagate the truth.
Then, the people in Redeem that I spoke to were just telling me, yes Pastor Adeboye might be wrong, but just leave him alone or don’t touch him because you will die or he will pray for my death. But, I will rather die than to compromise the truth. But, Pastor Adeboye doesn’t have the power of life and death. He doesn’t have the power to kill me. Truth will defend me. Truth will speak for me so I don’t need to bother about that.
Then the other people I spoke to, they all seem to agree with me but they are too afraid to speak, so nobody wants to speak. But I feel I have been prepared differently. My preparation has given me the audacity and the boldness to be able to stand on the side of the truth. They have been prepared in a different way. Their own preparation maybe has not allowed them to do that, so I would not blame anybody but we are responsible for the truth that we know and I am responsible for the level of truth that God has given to me.
The Bible says we all know in part. Don’t you think you also have your doctrinal minuses?
When it comes to doctrines, nobody should have his own doctrines. The way Christianity is designed is that nobody should have his or her own doctrines. This is a Nigerian reality and occurrence when every church has their own doctrine. It shouldn’t be in Christianity. In Christianity, truth must be paramount. Truth must be absolute and universal. The doctrines of Christianity are supposed to be the same everywhere, either in Greece, America, Brazil, Iceland, South Africa, Japan or Libya. Christianity is supposed to be uniform and the same. We shouldn’t be saying everybody has his own doctrine. So, that is the problem we are having in the Nigerian church. Every G.O. is his own Jesus Christ, lord and savior bringing his own doctrine.
This exactly is what we must correct. So, the things I am talking about are not unique to me. The doctrinal errors that I am correcting are not my own opinion. Rather It is what Christianity had stood for from the beginning of ages, before we all were born. Now, even in Nigeria the things I am talking about now used to be the norm. When I was growing up in Nigeria in the 70’s and 80’s, the born-again Christians those days were not like this. Go back and examine what the SUs used to believe. They never had G.O’s. Even when I got born-again in Deeper Life, Pastor Kumuyi was called brother Kumuyi. Everybody was a brother and sister. Even people like Kenneth Hagin was called a brother. There was an equal ground for everybody. No superman in Christianity. The more God uses you, the more humble you become. So that is the Christianity that is still obtainable all over the world. Go to other countries of the world and confirm. Don’t just use Nigerian reality to judge Christianity. We have love Christianity in Nigeria. If you want to know what Christianity looks like, go back to the 80’s and remember what the Christians used to look like. That is Christianity, but what we have today is a departure and error. It is paganism. It is syncretism. We don’t have Christianity again in this country.
So, we all have to raise our voices and correct this aberration in the Nigerian church.
To be continued
9 comments
Jesus i don’t know what to think
Pastor Sunday Adelaja is pulling a small thread on the garments of the GO’s; it’s just a matter of time before they are exposed to everyone.
For those who know the truth stand with the truth.
Jesus Christ will set us free. Amen
Good talk hope those concerned are listening and making the necessary corrections,however hope pastor Sunday will not relent in this campaign of telling the truth until the necessary changes are made in the mega churches in Nigeria.
It is truly sad to hear all these but the question Sir is Who made you an Overseer of the the in Nigeria ? I Believed that you have more to do with the Congregation God Gave you in Europe . Sir I say to you By the Spirit its Time to be Focus on your Calling and Leave Others Alon for the Servant Falls before his Master and his master Alon . You did not Call any of these Men of God neither were you there when they were called . You affirm you have your own Ministry internal issues ,Focus on that . and if you must correct the wrongs in the church in Nigeria then do it Privately and with Dignity .Stop Scandalizing the Church . Better Still Pray and effect changes on your Kneel. I believe that Jesus Chris is the owner of the Church and he still hears and Answer prayer. You keep Quoting Paul whereas ,he was always uniting the church and spoke openly to the churches he Pastored and also Gave counsel ,instructions and opinions in the Epistles . Do not make the Salvation of Man that was Paid for with the precious blood of our lord and Saviour Difficult to be accepted by all
Pastor Effiong,
It is very sad to read your reply, you sound like one of those pastors that are bitter and feel they are too big to be corrected. Who made you too the spoke man for these Pastors, GOs papas, mamas, apostles and whatever name they go by. Do you know how many people the Lord has used Pastor Sunday Adelaja to deliver from false/erroneous doctrines? Are you aware that it is not only Pastor Adelaja that is speaking out against what these pastors and GOs on the evil they have done to Christians and Christianity in Nigeria? This was the same issue that Gary Maxey and Peter Ozodo addressed in their latest book titled “Seduction of the Nigeria Church”. The only difference is that Pastor Adelaja is using a common and popular platform accessible to many while it is only those that take their time to read Maxey and Ozodo’s book that will know about it. Nigerian Christians in general do not spend time to read other enlighten books including the Bible that is why false doctrines and practices have been able to thrive in the country.
You said Pastor Adelaja should spend his time to pray. I have a question for you…How did Jesus drive out the money changers in the temple? Here is the verse in John 2:15… And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” How come you did not accuse Jesus of using physical cords and not prayer and why didn’t you conclude Jesus was dividing the people?
To be true to yourself, has Pastor Adelaja’s teaching started to affect the tithes in your church? Have people started to question your teachings and authority? Has the kingdom you pastors are building for yourselves started to crumple due to Pastor Adelaja’s teachings, I think his teachings have started to bite deep in Nigeria that is why you pastors have started speaking/rising against him. With all the problems in Nigeria….ritual killings, herdsmen, starvation, unemployment, high mortality rate etc, is Pastor Adelaja your biggest headache?
Remember, Jesus said I will build my church … Jesus is building His church while you people are building yours, the house not built on the rock will not stand. If your ministry is built on Christ, on the Truth, there is no need for fear of a man like Pastor Adelaja because he is speaking the truth. Face your ministry, teach your folks and point them to Jesus not to yourself and you will not have nothing to fear. Leave those that will not buy into the culture of silence, hypocrisy or turning blind eyes to evil to do what they think God has called them to do. We will all give account to the Lord on the last day. I will leave you this verse: Hebrews 12: 26-28.
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Please ask yourself this important question…. has the shaking started, the removing of those things that are shaken which are not rooted in the Gospel….. The danger in all of this is that… if many people end up in hell having thought that they are heading to heaven, how sad it would be since there is no repentance in the grave. Let us all serve God acceptably not our pastor man-made way, but God’s way.
Pastor Emmanuel Effiong you are truly a typical replica of what the man of God has been trying to reveal and expose. God will truly heal His Church.
Daughter Zion,God will continue to give you more wisdom.Your response was superb.You have said it all….
God bless…
Pastor us just a title. Nothing like pastor in Heaven. You shall know the truth and truth you know will set you. Brother Sunday Adelaja, well done sir. God bless you for standing with the truth.
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