SCRIPTURAL SMALL-MINDEDNESS (3)

RCCG members kneel before the G.O.’s (Adeboye) seat after service to offer special prayers

(…continues from part 2…)

3)            The G.O. of RCCG earned my deep respect when he took the RCCG Holy Ghost Night to Lekki Beach, Lagos State in the late nineties. One of the ushers of the night vigil told me that the church was expecting two million people! I was stupefied to hear that. I imagined two whole million Christians raising holy hands heavenwards and getting engaged in the “mamama bababa, eniani wawa kagale gaga sakia” glossolalia! I saw heavenly angels coming down in the participation of divine invocation. I just could not help according E.O. Adeboye a huge respect for organizing such a revival. Millions troop out every Holy Ghost Night at Kilometre 47, Lagos-Ibadan Express Road, Nigeria, to the altar to get born again every month. The Holy Ghost congregants at the Lekki Beach, from what I heard, was six million! Adeboye’s Church has the largest worshipping auditorium in the whole world; yet all of these enormous achievements constitute a ‘mere scratch’ compared to his political governance of the whole world! Phew!

                Pastor S.O., who, in all vehement seriousness, sees me as being too small to find fault with Adeboye sees nothing wrong in the habit of members of the RCCG going to kneel before the G.O.’s seat after Church service to offer special prayers, placing their hands on the seat as a point of divine contact. “I have done that sometimes myself,” Pastor S.O. proudly admits, not knowing that the act proves his spiritual puerility. Does the Bible not record the teaching of, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). You see, spiritual small-mindedness will lead you to your despicable minification. That which makes the likes of S.O. to clothe Adeboye in infallibility, will accord the G.O. supererogatory latria without they being aware of it! Are the ‘dead saints’ of Catholicism not prayed to, with bended knees? It is nothing short of latria!

Apostle Paul of Tarsus

                Pastor S.O. decided to go by the ecclesiastical sobriquet of ‘Apostle’ and why he would decide to give to himself what Jesus Himself personally designates to His ministers tells me of his spiritual state of puerility. An Apostle, going by the New Testament understanding, is not only directly ordained to that position by the Lord Himself, he should know the Bible more than pastors. Apostolic office of the New Testamentary order gives the foundations of local assemblies to the Apostles. The Church of Jesus has grown up to her maturity after the death of the last Apostolic Father, John, the writer of the Books of John and Revelation. As they founded a local assembly, they put a pastor, not an apostle, in ecclesiastic charge of the Church. None, from then, is of a higher ranking minister, in every physical local assembly, than the Pastor. Even the bishop, not to mention the lower ranking deacon, and the evangelist are all under the superintendency of the Pastor in the Church organization: for it is the pastor who appoints these other ministers.

                Now let us look at the theological faux pas of G.O. Adeboye’s actions. Unbeknown to the G.O. his instruction to the praying congregants to focus on a mere staff is an introduction to idolatry. The staff has its history. It was given to him by his spiritual predecessor, Pastor Josiah Akindayomi, the founder of the church, which was originally a ‘White Garment’ church. White garment churches are known for so many unscriptural stuffs. They believe that only the true members in their midst are the white robbed worshippers among them. Angels are empyreal white-stainless-robbed before God: their white garmented justification. They use all kinds of materials in carrying out deliverance services, which include eggs, candles and palm fronds – quite fetish. His right hand minister, E.A. Adeboye, then a university mathematics lecturer, advised Akindayomi to switch the church’s denomination to a more accepted Pentecostal one. The church metamorphosed to its present Pentecostalism. After the demise of Pastor Akindayomi, the leadership of the church went into the hands of E.A. Adeboye, according to the founder’s instructions. My question is simple. Was it Jesus who told Pastor Akindayomi to found the ‘White garment’ church? The staff in question is a product of “White Garment” church setup, where they do not make altar call to get the congregants born again.  

                I have produced series of posts on tithes. A click on these links will take one to them: TITHING (part 1) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/tithing-part-1 …

47. TITHING (part 2) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/tithing-part-2 …

Tithes Revisited (one) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/01/tithes-revisited-on/ …

274. Tithes Revisited (two) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/tithes-revisited-two/ …

275. Tithes Revisited (three) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/12/tithes-revisited-three/ …

276. Tithes Revisited (four) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/tithes-revisited-four/ …

277. Tithes Revisited (five) (link: https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/24/tithes-revisited-five/) hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/24/tit…

278. Tithes Revisited (six) (link: https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/tithes-revisited-six/) hoojewale.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/tit…

                Pastor Adeboye, in his bid to buttress his teaching, quoted Malachi 3:8-9 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9) Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” The G.O. asked his pastors, “How can you steal from God Almighty and expect to make it to the blissfulness of heaven?” the salient question to ask is, “What makes one a citizen of heaven?” Is it not John 3:16; enhanced by the sincere prayer of salvation according to Romans 10:8-10? It reads: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

                What does it say in the New Testamentary order of salvation? John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” And it says unequivocally in John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” It says also in John 6:40 “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”  Let us understand the Greek for ‘seeth’, it is theoreo (the-ō-re’-ō): ‘1. to look upon closely (as a spectator or observer). 2. (by extension) to discern. {literally, figuratively (experience) or intensively (acknowledge)}.’

                The Sonship of Jesus is His Divine quiddity. What many preachers do not know is that His Sonship points to the facticity of Emmanuel stance: God on earth to personally actuate the salvation of Adamic fall. The acknowledgement of Him, as the Lord of salvation, ergo, is all one needs to do. Believing Him from the heart: for that is all that the Holy Spirit wants to see, and you become God’s property forever! Romans 8:1-2 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” The born again Christian, in the divine assizes, is acquitted and discharged from Adamic sinfulness. Read the series of my post titled “Christianity Is Acquittal And Discharge From Sinful Gaol. [1]”

https://hoojewale.com/2022/01/10/christianity-is-acquittal-and-discharge-from-sinful-gaol-1/ Click on this link to read them.

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 2 here

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