₦airaland Forum

MY OPEN LETTER TO BISHOP OYEDEPO – FATOYINBO’S RECKLESSNESS

His exact words –

“I dedicated 2 jets before coming here… I told Rev KK that when I’m 40, I’m going to buy a Rolls-Royce… I have 3 right now… some 15 years ago..., we paid $20,000 per night for a hotel room…”

“Poverty destroys ministries… I was studying recently about what Apostle Babalola did… Anointed man… Heavy Duty Grace – BUT! NO MONEY. So all the grace just went like that… Where are his children? I’m sure some of them will hate God.”

2 Timothy 3:16 declares –

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

If indeed God dwells in us, and we in Him (John 4:15), then our speech - especially from the sacred pulpit - ought to be rivers flowing from the wellspring of His Spirit. Our utterances should serve as compass and anchor, as lamp and plumbline, fulfilling the fourfold ministry of scripture: doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

So, I ask without malice but with earnest trembling: in Pastor Fatoyinbo’s opening declarations, which facet of 2 Timothy 3:16 shone through?

Is the “dedication of two jets, the ownership of three Rolls-Royces, and the lavish payment of $20,000 for a night’s lodging” inspired utterance or sanctified boasting?

Can such words be enshrined as doctrine?
Do they pierce as reproof?
Do they mend as correction?
Do they guide as righteous instruction?

Brethren more seasoned in the fine letters of scripture than I, pls lend us your wisdom - where does such rhetoric find its place in the sacred canon?

And why do I write this? What stake do I have in this disturbing sea of controversy?

Shall I begin?

I have read the articulate thunderbolt issued by the CAC - a response so well-forged I feel incompetent to attempt to polish it, in actual fact, it needs no further embellishment. Their arguments stand like granite pillars, unshaken and unshakable.

Yet I write - painstakingly - to the Body of Christ, and in particular to Bishop David Oyedepo, one of the patriarchs of faith in our generation. Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo, along with others of similar persuasion, has long proclaimed the presiding bishop of the Winners Chapel, Bishop Oyedepo as his spiritual father.

I do not just write as one who sometimes identify as a Christian, but I pen this piece as one whose roots run deep into the soil watered by the prayers of Apostle Joseph Ayodele Babalola; as one who walked the very mountains where the Apostle, like Saul on the Damascus road, encountered the blinding call of God. Ikeji Arakeji, Osun State, was not just my academic dwelling - it was my holy backdrop, my living testimony to the footprints of a man who carried “Heavy Duty Grace” without flaunting it in the marketplace of vanity.

Shall I Begin?

WHO WAS APOSTLE JOSEPH AYODELE BABALOLA?

He was not merely a preacher; he was the blazing torchbearer who lit the Pentecostal flame in Nigeria. The revival fire of 1928–1930 that birthed Christ Apostolic Church was not just a spark - it was the very dawn of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, West Africa, and among the earliest tremors on the entire African continent.

And then came the 1930 Oke Oye Revival in Ilesa - led by none other than that apostolic colossus, Joseph Ayo Babalola. That revival did not just stir hearts; it rattled the very earth. Thousands trekked mile after weary mile, driven by a hunger no bread could satisfy, in pursuit of the one true God. And they found Him - in healing that dissolved infirmities like morning mist, in deliverance that shattered chains of ancestral spirits, in salvation as pure as spring water gushing from the rock. Idolaters, witch doctors, and sorcerers - once lords of their dark arts - came kneeling, laying their fetishes at the feet of Christ, and surrendering their lives in total abandon.

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Babalola carried, in his time, the undeniable and majestic presence of the host of heaven. When he entered a town, he did not need to hold a crusade before the sick recovered or the bound were freed. His first act was to bless the local stream, wielding his God-given authority so that those too far or too weak to see him in person could still meet God through water sanctified by prayer.

History - echoed even to this day - brims with testimonies of those who bathed in, or drank from, these streams. To the natural eye, these waters were muddy, unfit for human consumption, the sort that would make doctors clutch their heads. Yet, instead of cholera, the drinkers testified of healing. Instead of sickness, they spoke of salvation. And I, yours truly, am counted among such living witnesses.

“These signs shall follow them that believe…” - that is the Great Commission, issued by the risen Christ in Mark 16:17–18. Signs and wonders, healing for the sick, deliverance for the oppressed - these were His charges. Nowhere in that divine dispatch was there mention of private jets.

To take the roaring tide of the 1920s revival, the thunderous waves of 1930, and the very birth of Pentecostal expression in our sub-region, and reduce it to Naira and Kobo, is more than ignorance - it is sacrilege. It is not merely an embarrassment to the Abuja-based pastor who dared such a statement, nor just a slap in the face to the Christ Apostolic Church, nor even only an insult to Apostle Babalola. It is an affront to the body of Christ itself, a mockery of the divine essence of the Almighty.

While delivering the famous 'Sermon on the Mount', Jesus issued a warning sharp enough to pierce stone: “No man can serve two masters.” He made it plain that split loyalties lead to inevitable betrayal - you will cling to one and despise the other. And He named the rivals: God and MAMMON. (Matthew 6:24)

Mammon - drawn from the Aramaic mamona - is not just wealth. It is the lust for it, the relentless, greedy pursuit that blinds the eyes and hardens the heart. Jesus’ warning was not casual counsel; it was a barricade against the erosion of the gospel itself.

So, if one were to overlook an insult to Apostle Babalola, remembering that even the best of men are still but men, how can one overlook an insult to the gospel itself? To drag the selfless sacrifice of Jesus - the celestial King who stepped down from divinity to wrap Himself in fragile flesh, who bled and groaned under the weight of the cross, who died in excruciating agony and rose triumphant on the third day - down to the level of filthy lucre? That is a trespass too grievous to ignore, a profanity that must be met with unflinching, unambiguous condemnation.

3.

WHY THIS ADDRESS TO BISHOP OYEDEPO?

First, it was Bishop David Ibiyeomie - standing in the grandeur of his historic 120,000-seater “Five Fingers of God” cathedral of Salvation Ministries in Port Harcourt. With the might of the sound system at his back, his words rang out: “Adam’s sin in the garden was because he ate his tithe.” In a single sentence, the awe-inspiring engineering of creation’s story was stripped down and stitched into a patchwork of financial obligation.

Then came Rev. Korede Komaiya, thundering from the pulpit of The Master’s Place International Church in Warri, declaring to his congregation: “Money problems led Christ to the Cross.” Again, the sacred mystery of the second member of the Trinity was reduced to a balance sheet of debits and credits.

At this rate, I fear it is only a matter of time before such men proclaim that heaven is the exclusive estate of the wealthy, while the poor should abandon every dream of joining the rapture on the last day.

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These men - all of them - have openly professed themselves as sons of Bishop David Oyedepo. And in unity, they carry forth a gospel stripped bare of the Cross, dressed instead in the glitter of gold. Their prosperity message, in its extreme form, is a dangerous distortion - a gospel that measures the worth of a soul by the weight of a wallet.

If indeed a tree is known by its fruit, then Bishop Oyedepo must call his sons to order. Otherwise, the world may conclude that their message is but a mirror of what the Bishop himself believes. And yet, as one who has long been an ardent listener to the Bishop, I can attest: his teaching on prosperity is almost always wrapped in the linen of Matthew 6:33 - seek first the kingdom of God - and success, when defined, is tethered to justice, decency, and moral bounds. If this is so, then one must ask: from what well are these sons drawing their extreme doctrines?

Meanwhile, there are missionaries today scattered like seeds across violent and hostile lands - preaching the gospel with their very lives at stake. Their days are marked by danger, their nights by uncertainty. Many have paid the ultimate price for the kingdom. They may never be known beyond the dusty paths they tread, never be immortalized in glossy biographies, and never be hailed in the chronicles of church history. Yet in heaven’s ledgers, they rank no less than the overseers of mega-churches. But to Fatoyinbo and his ilk, these soldiers of the Cross are invisible - dismissed as unworthy of divine notice simply because they are not billionaires.

A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15).

I close with this: true legacy is not etched in marble mansions or measured in fleets of luxury cars. In the economy of the kingdom, legacy is weighed by the depth of our relationship with God and the faithfulness with which we execute our divine assignment.

“…let not the rich man glory in his riches:
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth…” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)

Joseph Ayo Babalola left this world in 1959, and yet in 2025 - sixty-six years later - his name still rolls off tongues with reverence, his life still testifies to the raw power and heavenly grace he bore. The Christ Apostolic Church may today be splintered into countless fragments, each with its own overseers and principles, yet all still proudly trace their spiritual ancestry to the Great Revivalist and that extends to all denominations that carry the Pentecostal mantle.

But this enduring testimony is not guaranteed for many modern founders, especially the merchants of prosperity gospel. Their messages, shallow as a puddle after the first drizzle, may glitter under the sun but will evaporate long before the noonday heat. Many will yet draw breath while their ministries lie cold and forgotten - because what is built on Mammon cannot withstand the storms of time.

Shalom

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Image123:
https://x.com/LegendaryJoe/status/1956762782843682908?t=Nct29gY_iLxMaDc9jZCpXQ&s=19[/quote]This is my take home..."But this enduring testimony is not guaranteed for many modern founders, especially the merchants of prosperity gospel. Their messages, shallow as a puddle after the first drizzle, may glitter under the sun but will evaporate long before the noonday heat. Many will yet draw breath while their ministries lie cold and forgotten - because what is built on Mammon cannot withstand the storms of time".

splendournoni:
Poverty isn't holiness and prosperity isn't sin.
If you want to be poor that's on you, but don't demonize what God blesses.

He gives power to get wealth and takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants...

Now tell me which Bible you are reading...

Shalom!!!

Image123:
Same way prosperity is not holiness and poverty isn't sin. Focus on what was corrected on the recklessness of the preacher.

Image123:
It's been a while you've being severally deceived and tossed about na. No news here.

Image123:
i made similar observations a couple of days ago.
https://www.nairaland.com/8497999/cac-responds-pastor-biodun-fatoyinbo/2#136458407

Image123:
Good response. i just wish Bishop Oyedepo and pastor Adeboye would correct these their children more. It is well

atheistconverta:
So says the same person who was deceived by the mammon gospel, that's produced many thieves, rapists, fraudsters, ritual killers and false prophets as Fatoyinbo who consequently had the audacity to compare himself to an Ayo Babalola, lol.

I been think say your eye don clear when same you started calling out the same David Oyedepo after seeing the result of the mammon gospel we've been preaching against since that you've been attacking us for.

But it appears that your spiritual blindness is a special case that requires a miraculous intervention to cure.

jesusjnr2020:
What I know is that the truth will always eventually prevail over falsehoods and lying vanities no matter how long it takes.

We were hated and persecuted by many so-called Christians here and elsewhere for raising an alarm and warning the church of the consequences of the so-called prosperity gospel and her preachers, but gradually the eyes of even some devoted blind followers of such ones (including some of our haters) are now getting opened to the truth.

Long may it continue.

To God be the glory.

God bless.

https://www.nairaland.com/8499596/say-im-rich-ive-prospered#136484105

Image123:
You're clearly hallucinating. Are you in a fasting programme?

FIRDAUS3:
Prosperity preachers often use verses that emphasize wealth and success as signs of God's favor and blessing. These preachers often highlight themes of abundance, positive confession, and claiming God's promises for financial prosperity. However, these interpretations often distort biblical teachings and focus too heavily on material gain, potentially leading to a misunderstanding of God's true will and purpose for believers.

splendournoni:
Poverty isn't holiness and prosperity isn't sin.
If you want to be poor that's on you, but don't demonize what God blesses.

He gives power to get wealth and takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants...

Now tell me which Bible you are reading...

Shalom!!!

Dtruthspeaker:
Did you not hear that it is written that the rich will never make it?

Plus, Peter cursed the person who requested that he should sell the power God gave him, yet these pastors sell grace for thousands of dollars and pounds and you say that they have not sinned.

splendournoni:
Please read your bible well and don't follow social media or pastors who have allowed money to buy them confuse you...

You can be righteous and still prosperous there re so many scriptures in the bible to back this up.... God's plans for us is not to be one poor for us to enter heaven but for us to be prosperous in what so everything our hands find doing

Dtruthspeaker:
That is because you are thinking that prosperity and great riches are the same thing.

Meanwhile prosperity refers to just being successful in a thing. But you fallaciously and hopefully think that all successes must lead to riches.

But life shows us that many people are successful but not rich.

Meanwhile, we all feel and see that those who are rich have all done something wrong for them to acquire it, hence why God Said the rich can never enter His kingdom

splendournoni:
What do you really call prosperity as a Christian maybe you start there your thinking will change

Dtruthspeaker:
If you pay attention to the bible and if you truly have a heart of understanding God you would see that prosperity means success in the work of your hands.

Then, there is another word the Bible uses in addition.

But nowhere do you see the the Bible promise stupendous riches and extreme wealth

Rather it warned "seek not to be rich"

splendournoni:
What do you call stupendous riches

Rockefeller was once the richest man on the world and he was a committed Christian... There are low key billionaires today on the world who live like they are in heaven here on earth and that's God's plan for us but most times we had this mentality of wealth as of it exposes us to evil but they was all false