Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is the owner of Believers Love World Fellowship which metamorphosed into Christ Embassy International Ministries. This Church has a regular membership of over 3 million in Nigeria alone and fans of over ten million people who belong to other denominations but see Pastor Chris as their alternative pastor. Inadvertently Pastor Chris Oyakhilome controls over twelve million people in Nigeria especially the youth and middle aged. His telecast is still the most viewed among Nigerian Christians including Roman Catholics,

Anglicans, Methodists and Pentecostal brethren.

This Pastor recently stirred the hornets’ nest in the month of February 2012 when answering a question on how to overcome masturbation said thus ‘’masturbation in itself is not a sin against God. Satan uses it in oppressing the mind and make them feel ineffective and inefficient in the sight of God. But once you understand that it’s got nothing to do with God, its about you and your own body…’’ When people thought that his position was a slip of tongue, He defended it in another telecast weeks later and called it a habit which has nothing to do with God.

The same pastor weeks later added that alcoholism and smoking is not a sin, rather it is just a habit.

This theory of masturbation not being a sin is not biblical. Masturbation is a besetting sin. A besetting sin is a habit that sticks to someone as though it is normal. A sin that has become a habit is called a besetting sin. Some people call it entangling sin because it entangles a person, thereby making escape difficult. . In Hebrew Chapter 12 verse 1-2 the scripture says that ‘’ wherefore seeing we are also compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith’’ In Nigeria now, corruption has become a besetting sin, our religious leaders encourage it and release anointing for the corrupt Congregationalist to escape the arms of the law. However, this does not remove the fact that corruption is evil in the sight of God.

Smoking of Cigarettes, Indian Hemps, Cocaine, Marijuana or whatever are besetting sins. They are normalised anomalies. Masturbation is one of them. In Nigeria today, fornication has become so rampant that it has a besetting sin. People now discuss their sexual escapades with different people as a status symbol.

The Bible has a standard. In Matthew Chapter 5 verse 8 Jesus Christ said that ‘’ but I tell you that whosoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart’’ This implies that sin starts from the heart. Masturbation definitely involves constant lustful imaginations which the victim indulges in as a means of vitiating sexual pressures. Students of demonology have discovered that those sexual images which follow masturbation are actually pictures from the marine world juxtaposed on the persons’ sub-conscious and he begins to imagine some sexy looking man or woman. Some persons get initiated into the company of a spirit husband or wife after orgies of masturbation. In addition, a masturbator will definitely get tired of the self indulgence and would want to experiment with actual sex, leading to fornication or adultery.

Smoking of cigarettes has become a fanciful habit which a lot of persons want to break away from without success. The late minister of health Professor Olukoye Ransome Kuti said that he quit decades of smoking the day he was appointed as Minister of Health by Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. All his previous attempts to quit the bad habit failed until he made a resolution that as the chief health officer of Nigeria he cannot be a bad example, which was how he secured his freedom. If those referred to as unbelievers want to quit smoking, how can a Born Again Christian justify feeding on what pagans, atheists and animists are struggling to quit. The producers and hawkers of cigarettes warn that the substance is dangerous to health.

Alcoholism is an intoxicant which persons use to feel good and fight depression. A lot of sicknesses are directly related to it and the manufacturers will always warn that it is not for those below the age of eighteen. A lot of family breadwinners have expended all their live savings on alcohol while the wife and children are left unattended to.

Therefore for a pastor who directly influences over three million persons in Nigeria and indirectly influences another twelve million fans that belong to other churches to encourage these habits, the end has really come.

The implications of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s open cheque is that many young men and women running into millions will join the league of masturbators, fornicators, adulterers, smokers of cigarettes, Indian hemp, cocaine and consumers of different brands of alcohol; Whisky, Schnapps, ‘Sapele Water’, ‘Kaikai’, Akpuru-achai’ etc. In these trying seasons for Nigeria and Africa, this pastor has led his congregation and that of others astray. Apostle Paul said in Galatians Chapter 1 verse 8-9 says ‘’ but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse ! As we have already said now I say again: if anyone is preaching a gospel other than the one you have accepted, let that one be under God’s curse’’

Influential pastors are now blessing masturbation, drunkenness and smoking. Soon others will bless watching pornographic materials, same-sex marriage and marriage to pythons, cobras, dogs, baboons and horses. Later they will begin to sanction occultism, human sacrifice, flying in the night and astral projections in the church. In the height of it they will remove Christ as the centre piece and replace him with the man of sin, the Antichrist, who will exalt himself as God in the temple of God as illustrated in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, Verse 3-8.

This appearance of the man of sin will precede the second coming of Jesus Christ. The level of hero worship that Christian faithful give their leaders is a dress rehearsal of the level of worship the antichrist will receive in the church when he finally arrives. Replacing the views of God as outlined in the scripture with the views of the Senior Pastor or Archbishop who is prone to mistakes and fallibility could lead a sincere faithful to hell fire while the errant pastor might repent at the last moment and escape to heaven.

This constant replacement of scriptural truth with the doctrines of men is as old as Christianity but somehow the Church have always found its way back to the path. The early church was moving in the right direction, preserving the faith the Apostles until Emperor Constantine and Co-Emperor Lucinius passed the Edict of Milan in 313 which proclaimed religious tolerance for all religions in Roman Empire, signaling the end of the era of brutal persecution of the church. Constantine the Great became a Christian and his conversion made Christianity fashionable and a lot of pagan converts clung to all manners of practices and theories which formed part of their former religion.

These paganistic practices quenched the fire of the early church, leading to a lot of schisms, heresies and apostasies and eventually ushered in the period known as the dark ages of the Church.

The situation so much deteriorated that the church had to suppress the growing schisms with ecclesiastical proscriptions, anathema, imprisonment and in few cases execution. This schism was so intense that in 1378 a group of Italian Cardinals elected Urban VI as Pope while later in the same year another group of French Cardinals elected Clement VII as Pope who established his seat of papacy in Avigon, France. The two groups were excommunicating each other from the church.

The Papacy in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation restored the rights of the laity to possess, read and translate the Bible. Therefore the views of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome are a modern day replica of the gradual introduction of strange ideas in the early church which nearly suffocated the spiritual efficacy of the church.

The silence of the mainstream Pentecostal leadership towards this theory is dangerous. Our Christian leaders have suddenly lost their voices while a false doctrine is circulating among the church. Other matters are currently occupying their attention. Whether these ecclesiastical authorities condemned it or not is immaterial, what matters is the word of God. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 Verse 19-20 ‘’ do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit who is in you whom you have received from God, you are not your own: you were bought with a price, therefore honour God with your body’’. 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 Verse 18 say’’ flee from sexual immorality.

All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whosoever sins sexually, sins against their own body’’ while ‘’Isaiah Chapter 5 Verse 11 says’’ woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink, that continues until night that wine inflames them’’ and verse 22 says ‘’ woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and .men of strength to mingle strong drink’’

Therefore it is obvious that a Christian has a duty to honour God with his body and not to resign himself to habits injurious to the health of man and the laws of God. These habits and besetting sins are part of why Jesus Christ came, to take away sins and give us power to overcome all these desires. Power over self and sinful habits is more important to the Christian than acquisition of all manners of fame, female and finance but modern days Christianity have elevated prosperity to heights inconsistent with the scriptures. If religious faithful cry unto God for deliverance from bad habits the way they fast and pray for political appointments, marital breakthrough and the death of all their enemies, these besetting sins and habits will leave them and get back to where it came from.


http://www.nigeriafilms.com/news/17608/56/pastor-chris-oyakhilomes-theory-of-alcoholism-and-.html

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all dat long story dis hot afternoon?.

rubbish!

While there is a truth to what he is saying. . . . .it is however tricky to spread this message as people's minds are mostly twisted

Do these pastors need to tell us they smoke weed just before they perform miracle? SMH

How can anybody sit down& read such long essay?

All these pastors, and their myopic theories...

Who's a born again, and who isn't?

Give me one reason why I should be BORN AGAIN - when I can GROW in spirituality, and my relationship with God (my maker)?

Going to church to listen to these pulpit-pimps, and their tomfoolery is off-putting..

But hey, who am I to judge?? It's a free world - each to their own..

God shall judge all

He has his targets,aim and objectives so he's doing it to suit himself and as an able 'MOG' he's sheep's have no right to questions but nod amens and say aal iz well....

WHERE IS JOAGBAJE?

God has the final say

IM NOT SURPRISED AT ALL.... HE IS A CONFIRM MEMBER OF ILLUMINATIC SO WHAT DO U EXPECT. I ONLY FEEL FOR HIS FOLLOWERS. BULLSHIT.

GOD WILL JUDGE YOU.

...the prophecy is being fulfilled...

M nt suprised at all, is it nt this same pastor that said masturbation is nt a sin as well, very soon INCEST too will b an habit and not a sin. Beautiful nonsense.

all dat long story dis hot afternoon?.

This is one of the best article i've so far read here.if i can cram this words for words,i'l be happiest person this year.

9-zeros:
all dat long story dis hot afternoon?.

Can you imagine?

We are simply in the endtime.The Bible is our final authority not man no mata how great or anoited they may claim.Anyone who teaches outside the Bible should be considered a baby antichrist and there are many already in the world now(1 John4:1-5)

I used to be happy; then I stopped smoking.

Thank doG i still drink.

In not holding brief for anyone, l like to ask this question: if Pastor Chris said that smoking is not a sin and u don't smoke, will u then start smoking? If he said that drinking alcohol is not a sin, will u then start drinking if don't? Let's be very clear on what he said, he was expessly asked if self service is a sin and he answered no, but did not say it is right. There was a follow up to this issue as a result of the reaction it created, which nobody have mentioned. If we go by the bible, cigarette smoking was not mentioned and cannot be called a Sin, but does it make smoking right? No! Is it okay to eat food? Yes. Can eating of food becoming a sin? Yes (when one turns to a glutton).

There are certain things that cannot be openly said about God and the bible, in order not to mislead pple, but can be said to those that have received salvation, because they now inderstand and will not go back and start doing that which they weren't doing simply because they now understand better. Can a Pastor drink beer? Yes! Can/shd he drink beer publicly? No! Not because he is pretending, but because the unsaved won't understand.

Pastor Chris' messeage on self-service, alcoholism, smoking etc are primarily directed to his members who understand/shd understand and knw how to tackle such questions when faced by them outside. It wasn't a green card to go and practice them. Jesus was asked if it was right to pay tax, He was able to answer with wisdom because he was a Man of knowlege. That said, l believe everyone's purpose shd be to knw God personally and He will guide u on what is good or bad. He will dwell in u. Thanks.

When the goes down, I will comment/reply

Sorry.... Tis for penta"cost"-all's. Catholic dnt see smoking and drinking as sin... God turned water into wine... Wine is alchohol.... Ha ha ha !

The Bible said, The day is coming in which Goat will be separate from sheep. If he think, he can use the power of English to deceive people, God is wiser than him. And it can only happening to them which gods of this world hath blindfolded their eyes.
Pls don't follow any pastor, seek the face of God, He will surly direct you.

It's clear, @OP, that you don't like the bloke.
Smoking, like drinking and masturba.tion, are habits that are not, anywhere in the bible, expressly written as sin. Fact: your Jesus turned water into wine.
Habits, especially ones like smoking and drinking, should be moderated. Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows that.

doctokwus: How can anybody sit down& read such long essay?

I have followed the 2 stories and have this to submit. No 1 issue in life is righteousness. I believe giving so much to sin is sin itself, it is called sin consciousness, how about being righteous conscious. Christ has given the righteous eternal life.

To backup
Mat_25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Joh_3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
1Jn_5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. many more scripture to come.

If you have this eternal life in you, then you will not be sin conscious. I am not saying the one without sin should cast the first stone, we are of God, we have our body and all things are edible. But if this things be in you...... ( you will not drink, self service) and if you do; quickly come back to the father. These are my submittions.

this is a sublte way of criticising the pastor. as if this is the only message he had ever preached. talk abaout his passion for the gospel and all the good work hes been doing and stop picking holes like a crab, if you seek holes in peoples message you will surely get them . don't make yourself editor in chief of MOGs they are responsible to God.

i dont see drinking and smoking as a sin.......everybody lets shayo.

i also think wot oga said is fairly tru concerning smokin n drinking,coz d good book it self taught abt light drinking 4d stomah even though medicaly a little alcohol wl do d body some gd doctors in da house cn bear witnes to ds.wot is a sin,a habit,a sinful habit ?a sin is a bad habit while a bad habit does not nid be a sin,pls dnt judge me!ts jst dat a man of god shld be careful hw he responds to complex matters.

What makes smoking and drinking a sin? Who is interested in heaven anyway