Christianity is under siege. Christianity is under attack. Strangely, the biggest part of the attack is not coming from the Islamic terrorists alone, it is also coming from within the Christendom. The rapid emergence of fake pastors, men who have no business mounting the altar much less run a church, has become a huge source of concern for the body of Christ. Every day on social media, stories abound of so called pastors arrested for killing and burying somebody somewhere within the church premises for ritual purposes. Only recently, a pastor was taken to court in Ilorin for raping dozens of his young female members. We hear so many stories of men of God who have shamelessly slept with the wives of their members and also those who have gotten many of their choristers to abort several pregnancies owned by them.
On the other side are pastors whose sole aim is purely to fleece their unsuspecting members ceaselessly of their hard earned money until they are sucked dry and left broke and miserable. There have been cases where members have claimed that their pastor hypnotised them into bringing their land documents, exotic cars, or got them to transfer millions of naira into the pastor’s account as ‘sowed seeds’ while they were under a spell. The cases are endless. A lot of these men barely know the Bible, neither do they even understand the God they profess to evangelise on his behalf, and to be honest, they do not really care. Their target simply is to enrich themselves, live large and enjoy the spoils of their fraudulent ministry, no more, no less.
Without a doubt, these ctivities have brought pain to many spiritual leaders and fathers in the body of Christ. One of such spiritual fathers that is pained and totally heartbroken by the activities of these fake and fraudulent men of God and the shame they bring to Christianity is the founder of Celica Church of Christ Worldwide, His Holiness, Reverend (Dr.) Adetunji Adeonigbagbe. He finds the situation disheartening. What is happening now is a total contrast to how things were done at the time he and his contemporaries went into ministry. For a man who himself was influenced by the likes of great prophets such as Moses Orimolade, Joseph Ayo Babalola and Samuel Bilewu Oshoffa, he is understandably shattered by what is happening now. The Prime Citizens publisher, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) spent quality time engaging this very private and fiercely focused man of God. He bares his mind on the menace of these disgraceful men and shares his thoughts on how they have been able to flourish. Enjoy the frirst part of the engaging interview.
How do you feel, sir,
as a spiritual leader, when you see fake pastors using the name of God to deceive
people all in a bid to make money and enrich themselves? How does it make you
feel when you see a lot of these fake pastors and their churches springing up
in every nook and cranny of the country and hear them committing a lot of
atrocities?
To be honest, it saddens my heart because the name of God continues to be ridiculed by this group of individuals. This is a very sad situation for me. Though it has been written that, at the end time, fake prophecies and fake prophets will spring up, that was the prediction and I knew that someday, it will come to pass because it has been written in the Bible and the Bible never lies. And that is what is happening now.
But, then, even though we knew it has been written and it was going to happen, yes, we knew it was somebody that would betray Jesus Christ, but why Judas? Why not Peter? Why should it be me or you that would become the fake prophet? It is true that somebody had to betray Jesus to fulfil his call, but why Judas Iscariot? Same way the fake prophets should ask themselves, why me? Why do I have to be the one to do this dirty job? I know it has been written but why should it be me? That is the question we should ask ourselves at this time.
Let me share with you something about prophets. We have three types of prophets, the first set is the naturally born prophet, second is the one that has been raised by big prophets and the one that simply wants to be a prophet. This third one may not have been born a prophet or was never raised by a prophet, but he just loves being a prophet and loves the way prophets conduct themselves. But I always tell people that being a prophet is not something you go to learn in Bible school or in any institution, it is not a profession. Prophets are gifts from God, so you can’t just go out there to say you want to learn to be a prophet. You can decide to learn to be a pastor. You can go to school of Theology and choose to be a pastor or an Evangelist, but you can not learn to be a prophet. These days, people mix everything up, from pastor to prophet, Apostle, Evangelist, Bishop, they mix everything together, which shouldn’t be. A prophet is a person born and sent to the world to deliver messages from God. A pastor may have been a pagan or a Muslim but along the way learnt how to preach as a pastor. But a prophet cannot make such transition. They are not motivational speakers. They do not have the ability to sweet talk congregations. If you see any one that calls himself a prophet but talks like a pastor or motivational speaker, ignore him, he is not a prophet. Prophets don’t have such sweet talking abilities, they often go straight to the point and release prophecies or make prophetic declarations. .
A prophet is someobody who keeps to himself, always quiet. Prophets are often introverts. They are rarely seen at public gatherings. They do not jump all over the place, talking endlessly. They are not talkertives. This is why, most times, if you go to the church of many prophets, you will not find a multitude of people worshipping there. This is because the Holy Spirit will always eliminate bad elements from the church. When you go to the church of many pastors, witches and wizards are still operating there, but they cannot operate in a church that is presided over by a prophet. Ritualists can sit comfortably in the church of a pastor but in a place that is run by a prophet, they cannot stay there because the spirit of the prophet will promptly reject them. Even they will not be comfortable there. This is why the church of a prophet rarely grows in terms of followership. The membership is usually small. It is when the church now brings in pastors who can talk very well and do motivational speaking that the church will now start to slowly grow and expand. The job of the prophet is not to sweet talk people but to deliver accurate prophecies and guide their members spiritually. He is not expected to attract people by sweet talking them. A prophet is sent by God for specific purposes.
Look at Moses Orimolade for instance, he was a prophet of God. He was sent by God. If you read about him, you will find that he was a very quiet and focused person. Look at Joseph Ayo Babalola too, he was not a motivational speaker. Same with Samuel Bilewu Oshoffa, he was not even an educated person. If you’re a prophet, God will remove something that is more or less physical from you to mke you a stronger prophet. When I was in schoool, I was good in English and mathematics, but he took that from me and I had to force myself to learn how to speak very good Yoruba instead. A prophet is somebody God has created specially to help people find their divine direction in life.
Let me ask you, sir,
to avoid being part of a church run by a fake pastor, what are the signs that a
Christian should look out for?
Let me answer that question by raising two critical points. Number one, there are different types of Christians in our society. Some go to church so they can take advantage of the opportunities that may be presented to them inside the church. They are hoping to meet people who will offer them opportunities that they desire so they can make it in life. They have not gone there to serve God. Another group is the one that wants to serve God and are worried about the man of God they will meet there. They want to be sure that if they see the pastor, will they see the face of God in him? And the moment they see the poster of the pastor or they see his face, they immediately know that this is a child of God, this is a pastor or this is a real prophet. But the others cannot detect the same thing easily because what they are looking for are the worldly things. They do not care whether the spirit of God moves in the church, all they are focused on is what they can benefit materially, not spiritually, from the church.
A lot of people are actually cajoled or manipulated to join them and they get themselves corrupted at the end of the day. It’s the people themselves that can decide what exactly it is they are looking for. It is also the reason why many fake pastors continue to spring up because they see that other fake pastors or prophets like themselves are successfully deceiving the people and making big money. If I go to a church and do not see the spirit of God moving, I immediately realise this is not the type of church I can remain in. But when you target going to meet rich people and top personalities there, rather than to meet God, at the end of the day, you will lose both ways. The opportunities they are looking for will always elude them and in the end they shift the blame to the church and it is not right. It is all about your intentions, what exactly are you looking for?
The Bible says, by their fruit we shall know them, what fruit did you see before you chose to go to that church? You didn’t see any fruit. You were not even looking for any fruit, rather you were looking for ways to make quick money. You just want to grab something and go away, that’s what many are looking for. They are not looking for salvation, they are looking for money, worldly things. That’s why these fake pastors and prohets easily mislead them and make big money off them to enrich themselves and commit all kinds of atrocities.
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