₦airaland Forum

These Pastors Did Not Begin Well

By: Deji Yesufu

In the light of the latest Biodun Fatoyinbo saga, I was in a discussion with a sister and it veered off to the reasons why pastors are falling into grave scandals of sexual immorality and financial impropriety. She was of the opinion that many of these pastors started out well in ministry but due to increased wealth, popularity and the allure of the world, they have gone off their calling and are today doing something God never called them to do. I disagreed with her. I felt many of these pastors never started well. Many of them are not Christians. I would be spending the rest of the essay to show why and I hope to make a strong case for this point.

The nature of the Christian life a person possesses is premised ultimately on the message that that Christian believes. A careful study of the New Testament shows that the Apostles of Jesus Christ were concerned with two major things in ministry: they sought to propagate the gospel of Christ and they ensured that the true gospel was preserved from distortion (Matthew 28:19; Acts 20:30). In fact propagating the gospel, bringing the message of redemption to a sinful world, appeared to be a lot less challenging for them than preserving the gospel from distortion by false teachers from within the church. And a careful study of church history reveals that the Christian Church was troubled a lot more by false teaching within its ranks than persecutions from outside.

The reason why the preserving of the gospel message is important is because the message you believe would form the Christian you would be. If you believed the true gospel, you would be a true Christian. If you believed a false gospel, you would be a false Christian. Today the overarching message that many call a Christian gospel is one that teaches that God exists for the well-being of human beings; it knows nothing of the sovereignty of God. It teaches that Jesus Christ died to make man healthy and wealthy; it has distorted the doctrine of salvation from sin alone. It teaches that the sole duty of the Holy Spirit is to wrought supernatural miracles in the life of Christians, so that we may live as super-men in this world; it does not know anything about the Spirit that sanctifies.

When the Protesters invaded Biodun Fatoyinbo’s church in Abuja last Sunday, some newsmen were on ground to hear the opinions of his church members. All of those interviewed said that Biodun Fatoyinbo is a true man of God because ever since they started to come to his church their lives had gotten better. Some said they had no jobs and now they have jobs. Some claimed they were living irresponsibly on the streets but now they are men and women raising families in a responsible manner. No one talked about how they had been delivered from a life of sin and have come into a life of holiness. No one talked about separation from the world and devotion to God. Religion for these folks, as it is for millions of other professing people all around the world, is a means to get from God. The great Christian is not the holy Christian but the rich and powerful Christian. What a shame.

Biodun Fatoyinbo, Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Enoch Adeboye and thousands of other so called ministers of the gospel do not have a beginning in Christ because the gospel they claim to preach is not the Christian message. A health and wealth gospel cannot convert sinners. It means that these men and many of their followers are still in their sins and heading to an eternity without God and without Christ. Some of them may pretend and claim to be sanctimonious but the likes of Fatoyinbo cannot pretend any longer. Their hidden sins are coming out and are being exposed daily for all to see. It is indeed the mercies of God to Biodun Fatoyinbo that his sins are revealed now and he can repent and believe in Jesus Christ, and thus be saved. Those who are genuinely to be pitied are those have succeeded in covering up their sins in this world, only to have them unveiled in the presence of Christ in the life to come.

The Christian message is this: that Christ died and rose again to offer up redemption for the sins of the world. Thus God calls all men to believe the gospel: to believe that Christ alone can offer refuge to men from the coming wrath of God upon sinners. The gospel tells us that in Christ we can exchange our sins for the righteousness of God. We can know justification from all things.

The gospel teaches the concept of two Adams. The first Adam was the first created man. He is our first parent. Adam sinned and lost paradise. He was banished from the presence of God. The awful reality of having Adam as our parent is that Adam bequeaths sin to every man that is born of a woman. We inherit his sin. Because we born of the flesh, we have Adam’s sin imputed on us. Theologians refer to this as original sin. Every person born into this life is a sinner in need of redemption.

The second Adam is Jesus Christ. Christ was not born of Adam; he was born of the Holy Spirit. He was born of God. For this reason, Jesus Christ does not possess Adam’s sin. When we are therefore born-again, we are born of the Spirit. We are born of God. We are born of Christ. We take up Christ original righteousness – in the same way we took up Adam’s original sins. Christ’s original righteousness therefore stands as our justification before a holy God. Christ becomes our substitute. Our righteousness. Our redemption. Halleluyah!

This is the Christian gospel and it must go beyond mere words and become a reality in our hearts. This is the message that Biodun Fatoyinbo and other ministers like him in Pentecostal assemblies do not preach. They do not preach it because they do not have these realities in their hearts – a man cannot give what he does not have. They have no foundation in the true gospel. Their foundation is in a false gospel and of a necessity a false gospel would yield a hypocritical Christian life that would only lead to the type of scandals that we hear of today.

This is the reason I am convinced that these pastors never began a Christian walk with Jesus Christ at all. They have all along believed a false gospel. And it would be important, in the light of scandals like these, that those who look up to them examine their own hearts and faith and be sure of what they have believed. A false gospel cannot yield a Christian life. A false gospel would yield essentially what we are seeing today – scandals.



Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/these-pastors-did-not-begin-well/

Fatoyinbo, Dakolo: A Foundational Problem

By: Deji Yesufu

I usually keep my phone off the internet every morning so that I am not distracted from my early morning work by social media notifications. The moment I managed to access the internet late on Friday morning, I received a message. It was a video from a friend from Jos: “You may want to watch this…” In the subtitle, I saw Biodun Fatoyinbo and Dakolo. I have written on the drama between these two in the past, and yes I would like to see the video. The only problem was that I still did not have the time to watch. Eventually, at midday, I accessed the videos off YouTube and what I heard were simply confirmation of things that I have long written about in the past...

Concluded:

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/fatoyinbo-dakolo-a-foundational-problem/

Deji Yesufu Cancels the GOFUNDME Project.

VBCampaign is Deji Yesufu's Nairaland representative.

Deji wishes to express dismay at many comments on this thread which seem imply that the whole broadcast by the Dakolo's was a means to make money off the public.

Deji wants Nairaland E Warriors to know that the whole idea of a GOFUNDME was wholly his idea and not those of the Dakolo's. Deji started the campaign on his Facebook page and after receiving quite a number of positive response, decided to extend the idea to Nairaland. Thankfully the management of this forum saw it fit to put it on front page.

Already, there are private moves to extend funds to the Dakolo's on this matter to help them against a monstrous clergy system in Nigeria that has used funds reaped off hapless Nigerians to again oppress them.

All those who are interested may reach the Dakolo's directly themselves.

Recently, Kemi Olunloyo got into a similar legal tussle with a well known pastor in Rivers State. We all know that it was money that was used to oppress that poor lady.

The Dakolo's should not suffer twice. Send your help to them. Deji hereby jettison the call for a GOFUNDME.

kitaatita:
I'll contribute.

Thank you

Gospel writer and social media enthusiast, Deji Yesufu, has joined the campaign to support Timi Dakolo and his wife, Busola, against the legal threat that Biodun Fatoyinbo has instituted against them.

Deji asks Timi and his team to put forward a GOFUNDME account to raise money for the project.

The Pastor, a Man and a Fuel Gauge

By: Deji Yesufu

One Dr. Olusesan, with the monicker “Son of David”, published a story on Twitter of a Pastor who sacked the leader of the men’s fellowship of their church. The Pastor had told the congregation a story of how he drove his car from Agungi to Lekki Phase 1 without petrol in it. The Pastor explained that his car fuel gauge was reading empty and just about that time the car stopped working. Pastor prayed and switched on the ignition and the car roared back to life; taking him all the way to Lekki Phase 1. At a men’s meeting one Saturday, following the narration of this story, the leader of the men’s team made a presentation to his fellow men titled “Car Fuel Tank Reserve and Their Sizes.” Son of David tweeted:

“He showed in the slides, the owner’s manual of the pastor’s car. That when the car fuel ‘empty’ light blinks and the engine stops, it is a warning that the car has switched to its reserve. That the fuel reserve still holds 15 liters, which can take anyone from Lekki to Sagamu, without prayers.”

Mr. Pastor, who was in the meeting, was thoroughly embarrassed. He ensured the subsequent removal of this man as the head of the men’s fellowship.

I did a screen shot of the tweet and put it up on my Facebook wall. The reactions from that post is what has elicited this essay. Some people were of the opinion that this man should never have done what he did. If he had issues with the pastor’s narratives, he could have sorted it out with him in private. Others said this man did the right thing and regardless of the result, pastors would be more careful with selling bogus stories to church people in future. Most other people were in the middle.

What actually elicited my posting these tweets on my page were the reactions of a friend of mine to this incident. My friend is a pastor and a banker. He is usually very cool and collected in his words. His Facebook articles almost always go viral. But on this issue, my friend actually lost his cool. His was so animated in condemning the actions of this men’s fellowship leader. His point, like those on the far right I mentioned earlier, was that if this guy had issues with the pastor he should have reached him privately. “How do you disgrace your spiritual leader in public?” My friend seemed to be saying. I had a totally opposite reaction to his position but because of my love and respect for my friend, I did not express them on his wall. I have rather chosen to write about it here.

In my essays, I have long complained about how Nigerians seem to be very religious but have little morals. This mindset is also expressed in our tendency to want to rely a lot on the miraculous while we shelve our individual responsibilities. So when a Pastor sells us a story of miraculously driving on either low fuel or no fuel at all, we rejoice. But when we are shown the practicality behind the incidence, we take umbrage. A few years ago, a church here in Ibadan reported how a woman in her fifties had her first child, ever They did not report that this woman did IVF. When I did a little investigation and then added that bit of information to my reportage, people were offended. They would rather that we keep the miraculous and ignore our responsibility.

The whole idea of driving a car without fuel may actually have been broached by no other person than the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Churches (RCCG). Many years ago Pastor Adeboye shared the story of how he drove his car from Ore to Lagos without fuel in it. His church members may have believed it but not many people outside the church bought the tale. Mr. Pastor in our original story may actually have gotten his ideas from the Adeboye story.

I wish to make the point that God requires that Christians have a high sense of responsibility. We tempt God when we leave to miracles what we ought to be paying attention to or what we should be doing ourselves. Personally, I do not joke with the matter of fuel in my car. I have a point that my fuel gauge must never fall below before I re-fuel. In the six years that I have owned a car, I may have seen my fuel gauge light come up only twice. And it is not because I have all the money. I simply ensure that I calculate my fuel usage into my income and I give the car what it is due every week. I would never need a miracle to drive my car.

Now, if after I have done what I ought to do and there are things I cannot do, I then trust God for a miracle. And in this God has not failed me once. I am saying essentially that miracles are reserved for those who do what they are supposed to do.

The Nigerian Christian community needs to wake up and stop thinking that everyone who offers a word of critique on them is an atheist. I am genuinely concerned that many Christians in this country are no longer thinking all because they have sold their thinking faculties to their pastors. Son of David’s tweets has only helped us see that there are people thinking in churches and not leaving their brains at home on Sunday mornings.

Last week, I published a review of Ese Walter’s book “NAKED”. Ese wrote the following account in her book:

“A few ladies shared stories of affairs they had with their pastors. One of them was a teenager who said her mother took all the children to be deflowered by their pastor. She said she knew something was wrong with that experience but she had never been able to share her story because she was afraid and confused.”

Now, how do you explain that? I thought nothing could ever shock me about Nigerian churches again but that story Ese told shocked me and even as I write I am yet to get over it. Clearly this story tells us that a mother is not thinking, their father is not in the picture and a pastor has bewitched a people. Guess who is thinking in this story? A child. Unfortunately she is also the victim here.

When the white man brought the gospel to Nigeria, one other thing they brought with them was education. They were confident that the Christian religion was light that would dispel all darkness of evil, superstition and backwardness. The religion that does not encourage healthy thinking, wholesome debates and loving critic of each other in the church is not a religion that Jesus Christ authored. And what happens to these pastors, when they are left unchallenged, is that they go from bad to worse.

The time has come for Christian pastors to be men of knowledge and who show forth what they know in a spirit of holiness and godliness. The church can become a place where the nation can come to take its moral compass from. We can become a voice in the nation that would dispel the darkness of corruption from our nation Nigeria. But if pastors are at the forefront of defrauding people with bogus stories, we should not expect to come out of this darkness even many years from now.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/the-pastor-a-man-and-a-fuel-gauge/

Timi Dakolo

Biodun Fatoyinbo

Ese Walter’s Naked

By: Deji Yesufu

I did not know that Ese Walter had written her book. I learnt of the book from a discussion on a Whatsapp group I belong to where people were discussing the latest brouhaha between Biodun Fatoyinbo, Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assemblies (COZA), and Timi Dakolo, a Nigerian musician. Dakolo had published a post on Instagram, complaining bitterly that it seems the consistent testimony of Biodun Fatoyinbo in all the churches he serves in is that he leaves a blood trail of broken hearted and used women in these places. Without mentioning names, Dakolo called out the COZA chief executive and challenged his supporters to ask some salient questions concerning their pastor.

As usual, many of these people were not interested in doing so. A member of Fatoyinbo’s church responded to the allegation on Facebook by stating that most people in COZA know that their Pastor did what he was accused of. They however have forgiven him. He went on to state that Fatoyinbo’s wife has now provided “sexual security” around her husband. Since the Ese Walter matter broke, the woman screens all the ladies that work with her husband in the hospitality unit of the church where he used to find all the “COZiness” he needs besides his wife.

Six years ago Ese Walter published a series of posts on social media revealing a string of dalliances that she had had with Biodun Fatoyinbo. She mentioned how the two of them went to hotels in foreign countries and had endless sexual rendezvous. At some point the whole thing came to an end and Ese, now in guilt and almost losing her sanity, had to come out to the public to reveal it all. In her book, Naked, Ese explained that she did this to retain her sanity:

“As a church-worker, I was close to the pastors and one time I had an affair with a pastor. I couldn’t get over the guilt for a long time… I also thought that if the pastor could stoop so low as to have an affair with me, then maybe God didn’t care all that much about the things we said God cared about. I asked the pastor a few questions about the implication of our affair but what I heard was something about a level of grace available to me that I wasn’t aware of. The pastor decided he was going to teach me about that grace but something in me thought it was better not to know the grace than know it and live a double life forever. For a long time, I carried the guilt of having an affair with a pastor like a wet blanket. I thought leaving the church and burying what happened was going to save me but it didn’t it…”

Eventually Ese let the cat out of the bag and the whole country was plunged in another Pentecostal Pastor’s story of sexual immorality. Ese explains in her book that she had had to rewrite the first draft of the book because her publishers saw hate written all over them. She had to remove names and do a great deal of editing, so that the final work did not carry the name of Biodun Fatoyinbo. But for those who had followed the saga closely when it first broke out, we all knew that the pastor in question was him.

The book, Naked, is a well written memoir of a girl that discovered herself after a deep personal tragedy had befallen her. When I began to read it, I could not drop it until I was done. Ese’s story is one that every young Nigerian should read; however, I am convinced that every person that reads the book should do so with a certain lens; a certain understanding. I am of the opinion that Ese went only from one error to another. Although I am willing to accept that the latter error is a safer one. This error is the universal error of self-discovery. It is a discovery that when taken to its logical end results ultimately in atheism or agnosticism – the very state of mind that Ese is in at the moment. My thoughts on Ese’s book therefore lends credence to my often made remark that the Pentecostal religion is the leading producer of God deniers among young people in our nation today.

Ese was honest about what led her to church. She had gone to COZA and other churches because she needed God to bless her academic endeavors and help her to graduate. Thankfully, and even as the church people had said it would happen, she passed her law exams and became a lawyer. But with a benefit of hindsight, Ese was able to identify the false basis for her going to church. She wrote:

“It is clear to me now that I created a god based on the transactional manner in which human beings tend to treat each other. ‘Scratch my back and I scratch yours’. I also decided to subject my life to an illusion that my actions were judged, and that they determined whether God would be kind or wicked to me. By the time I graduated from law school, I figured it was time to fulfil my promise of serving this God that had helped me come this far…”

Ese would eventually discover the falsehood behind this transactional Christianity and with time she ditched religion altogether. Today, Ese is a worshipper of her own self.

The hues and cries that I have made against the Pentecostal religion, particularly the Prosperity Gospel that many of them propagate today, is that they have failed to represent God correctly to those who hear them. When you teach people that by doing good, or by tithing, or by going to church, you would earn certain approbation of the deities and thereby draw forth blessing from them, you are essentially teaching people transactional Christianity. It is the same religion that our pagan fore-fathers practiced with their animism.

The Christian message is not transactional. It has never been and it would never be. The Christian message speaks of God’s gracious actions in Christ that led him to come to the earth and die for the sins of the whole world. If anyone would believe in this gracious act of God, their sins are forgiven. There is nothing transactional there. The work of redemption is a done deal and it is given free of charge to all who believe.

The doctrine of grace, which the like of Fatoyinbo have perverted, teaches essentially that God’s blessings are free. In fact the whole world, including those who are in rebellion against God, are partakers of his grace daily. God sends the rain, the sun and many manifold gifts to men who curse him every day. This is grace. But the greatest of these graces is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us and graciously called us into covenant with God his Father.

The Christian is therefore not a person who does whatever he does in Christianity to earn God’s approbation. Rather, a Christian is one who responds to God’s grace in worship, holiness and various acts of godliness. Whatever the Christian does, he does in respond to what he is already enjoying. We give out of what God has given us. We love because we are enjoying the security of God’s love. We present the gospel to sinners because we were once sinners who are today partakers of God’s mercies. We never give to get (the prosperity gospel is an accursed message!); we rather give because we have been given so much.

Ese Walter’s Naked is a revelation of the state of the Christian religion in our nation Nigeria. I do sincerely hope that those who have read the book can come away with a strong sense of how much religion has deteriorated in our clime and why the church is in desperate need of revival premised on the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/ese-walters-naked/

imagrg:
My Personal Encounter With Jesus

On the 8th of June this year, last weekend precisely, I composed a write-up titled "Stop Calling Jesus God" which I intended posting on Nairaland but because there was no network at that instance, I had to leave it on my notepad pending when network would be back.

My intention was to prove to the world, using my own misconstrued ideas, that Jesus was a mere messenger of God and not God Himself; what stopped this publication was beyond my imagination: my Samsung Galaxy Tab A suddenly became so hot like it never had been. So terribly hot even without putting on the internet.

I began to wonder what was really happening.
It later occurred to me to wipe off the write-up. Behold! When I deleted the piece, my tablet that was previously so hot returned to it normal state. This led me to believe that my opinion could be wrong. My new position now is that 'JESUS IS LORD!'. I now have no doubt about that!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Jesus is God.

If however you only came to this conclusion by such a subjective experience and not by the clear testimony of the Bible, then when next another spurious experience comes up you just may find yourself calling the Devil God next.

Deaths in My Neighborhood

By: Deji Yesufu

A little over a decade ago, while living as a single man in a neighborhood here in Ibadan, I was woken up by a loud bang on my door. It was a Saturday morning and I had hoped to sleep a little longer before waking up to tidy up my house. But the knock on my door had now ruined everything. After two or more banging on the door and this “assailant” appearing to be so sure I was at home, I opened the door to see a neighbor in the same rented compound we shared staring at me.

“Mr. Yesufu, we are required to be at the landlord’s meeting.”

“But I am not a landlord and you know I don’t attend these meetings.”

“Ah, this one is compulsory o. They say anyone that does not come would be arrested by the police.”

Reluctantly, I put on a shirt and followed him. It must have been around 7am. We marched on through some houses in the area where we lived and arrived at a gathering of men; there must have been about a hundred of them standing there. I was a bit taken aback. Then I began to follow the discussion because the lead discussant was just opening his remarks when we arrived.

There had been a robbery in the neighborhood and a number of people were killed, including, if my memory serves me right, a pregnant woman. Therefore all men in the area had been called out this early morning, when they were sure most people would not have left their homes, to come and swear to Ogun or one of these other Yoruba gods. We were to swear that we had no clues to the robbery and did not harbor thieves in our houses. The process of swearing would include putting a dagger in our mouths, eating kola-nut and jumping over a mysterious object. The native doctor performing the whole ritual was seated and watching, as if trying to discern who the thief was among us.

My mind began to race. Wetin concern me and Ogun, abi na Sango ni?! I am not a thief, I do not harbor thieves in my home – I lived alone – and I do not swear by small gods. I do not even swear by God the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I am and whom I serve. But I understood better than to protest. All these men were looking for was for just one person to protest the ritual and they would come down hard on such a person. The memory of the dead persons was still fresh and emotions were frail. I did a silent prayer in my heart and by a strange act of God, I had peace on what I was going to do next.

When it was my turn to do the ritual, I stood before the native doctor, collected the kola-nut, ate it; put the dagger to my tongue and jumped over the strange object. I said to myself: shey it has finished abi? I went home. I do not know whether or not the persons harboring thieves in their homes were eventually found. I however knew that I was living in a very backward part of Ibadan and I needed to leave the place as soon as it was financially possible. I believe that was my last year in that house.

A little less than six months ago, now a family man, I arrived home with my folks and found the road to my house littered with dead goats. Goats of varying sizes, male and female. The sorry part of it all was that some of these goats were pregnant. There were no less than ten goats dead that evening. It was an obvious case of poisoning. I walked to the house of the secretary of the landlord association and told him about what I saw. He apparently had seen it too but he chose to be quiet about it: it appeared to be a case of “see no evil, hear no evil.” So I left it at that. By the following morning, all the goats had been evacuated. I was told that the owners of the goats had taken their animals to bury. Besides the high number of goats that were dead, something else bothered me. I discovered that no less than three families lost their animals that day and no one said anything about it. No one let out a cry; no one swore; there was just this death silence. A few weeks after this incidence, I still saw another goat dead. Still no one said anything. That goat was also evacuated and buried.

I am not the type to be quiet about a thing like that, so I asked questions. I was told that one Mr. A (not real name) had arrived from the United States many years ago to settle down in Nigeria. His family still lived abroad, from what I gathered. Mr. A built a small four bedroom flat in my neighborhood and was living out his retirement in this house. He lived alone, except for a young boy that must be his house help who lived with him. Mr. A is a pleasant man. When I am returning from watching football matches, I would often meet Mr. A at the entrance of his house and we would spend time discussing football. Mr. A was however unhappy with people’s goats coming around his veranda and littering them with poo. Mr. A complained about the matter to the people who owned the goats. When they would not do anything about it, he took the matter to court. The courts ruled in his favor and some of the neighbors withdrew their goats. But with the passage of time, the goats were back to littering the area.

Mr. A, now at his wits concerning what to do, confided in people living around that he was going to poison those animals. With his American bravado, I was told that he even warned the owners of the animals that if they did not keep their goats well, they would regret having them. A little over a year after Mr. A gave those warnings was when I arrived my house to find the roads littered with dead goats. So, everyone knew Mr. A may have killed those goats. And Mr. A did not deny it; neither did he say anything about it anymore. Again there was just this dead silence.

Yesterday, as I got ready to go to work, my wife told me: Mr. A is dead! What?! I exclaimed, what killed him? She said the boy living with Mr. A said that one day his boss woke up in the middle of the night complaining of pain in the neck and head. He was rushed to the hospital at midnight but gave up the ghost by 2am the same day. I am about the last person in the neighborhood to learn that Mr. A had died. He had died two week ago. When I shared the story with colleagues in the office, no one appeared surprised. They all said Mr. A had met with powers greater than him.

When I ate kola-nut and jumped over fetish matters over a decade ago, I did not give much thought to what was happening. But after Mr. A’s death, I began to realize that African people have more control of powers of darkness than many of us could give them credit for. I could only wish that they would channel those powers to constructive means and not towards destructive ends.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/deaths-in-my-neighborhood/

D_Bowler_Catherine_a_201005.pdf

A Crash Course on the Prosperity Gospel

By: Deji Yesufu

Two weeks ago I published an open letter to Daddy Freeze. In the letter I mentioned that the Prosperity Gospel was heresy. I still have not changed my position on that. I also mentioned that if Freeze was interested I could send book references to him to learn about the gospel of Prosperity. I did not get a response from Freeze. A friend forwarded his number to me and I reached him on WhatsApp. He told me he had no response to my letter. I suspect he was not happy I made the letter public. In spite of that little set back, I got a number of emails and requests from people asking for those book references on the gospel of Prosperity. The truth is that there are a tonne of materials in the public on the gospel of Prosperity that people could find and read up. But in this write up, I would be giving out references to books that I have read and I’ll show how they have helped me come to an understanding of this message. I would be listing five books that can be downloaded free from the internet and I would be listing another five that people can buy. We can consider this a crash course on understanding the Prosperity Gospel. I am convinced that if you are a true seeker of truth, you would find these materials very helpful.

First, I begin with a book simply titled “Blessed”. Although I have been researching the gospel of Prosperity since 1999, I did not encounter this book until very recently. It is written by a lady, Kate Bowler. It is a draft of her doctorial thesis, where she took time to understudy a number of Pentecostal churches in the United States of America and then wrote out her experiences; along with explaining the core of the message of the gospel of Prosperity. The reason why I recommend Bowler’s book is because it is the most winsome discussion on the subject that I have read. I doubt she ever called the gospel of Prosperity “heresy” in her book, like some of us would; but she did show where many of these preachers have gotten it wrong. You can obtain a free copy of this book in a PDF file by clicking on the link below:

D_Bowler_Catherine_a_201005.pdf*

The second book I would wish to recommend on this crash course is a book called “Kingdom of Cults” written by the late Dr. Walter Martin. This book took time to discuss popular cults in the world that would usually bear the name Christian. He clearly labelled groups like Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Christians Science as cults. Dr. Martins, himself a Pentecostal, wrote extensively about other cults too and I find this book a worthwhile literature to be owned and studied by Christians so as to beware of falling into cult groups especially in these days of the emergence of overnight reformers who have no biblical roots anywhere. After Dr. Martins passed away, this book was reviewed and published again by his associates. They considered it wise to include in the Appendix of the book a short study on the Word of Faith movement. This study remain the soundest explanation of the Word of Faith movement that I have ever come across anywhere. They gave five elements that can be found in a Word of Faith teaching. I heartily recommend this book to you. You may download a free copy from the link below:

Kingdom of Cults (PDF) by Walter Martin*

The third that I would recommend to you is actually two in one. It is a book called “Churches that Abuse” and “Recovering from Churches that Abuse” written by Ronald M. Enroth. These are actually two separate books discussing the same subject: the matter of Christians being abused in churches. When I read this book, it was as if a scale fell from my eyes. I dare to say that 99% of churches in Nigeria abuse their members. It is a must read. Enroth decided to write the sequel because he discovered that a lot of Christians, after reading the first book, realized that they were being abused. The sequel then pointed them to how to find non abusive churches. The books tell stories of Christians in abusive churches. What I discovered to be most shocking about these stories was that they happened to people living in “enlightened” America. I kept saying to myself: if this would happen to Americans, what about lowly Nigerians? When many people leave abusive churches in Nigeria, they either renounce Christianity entirely or they simply stop going to church. These two books help you to understand your state and help you to recover properly. The two links below lead to free download of the two of them:

Churches that Abuse: http://www.reveal.org/development/Churches_that_Abuse.pdf

Recovering from Churches that Abuse (PDF) by Ronald M. Enroth*

The last on the list of my free downloads is a book that I wrote myself. It is called “Half a Millennium”. Half a Millennium is a short history of the 16th century Protestant Reformation and a discussion of the reformed theology that emerged from it. From my study of church history I came to an understanding of why the 16th century reformation is quite relevant to every reformation effort in any country. In my letter to Freeze I asked him what he knew about the first ever Reformation of the Church in the 16th century. In my book, I try to state all these in a logical manner. I then ended the book by showing the clear distinction between the kind of religion of our forefathers practised and the one we call Christianity today. You can download a free copy of that book from the link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6f_Mblr_QcDM0tRcF9zemlvYV9JakF1MkdQbDU0UThFZE1B/view?usp=drivesdk

This brings us to other books that I have read and that have helped me grasp the Prosperity Gospel better. I would just list them below.

“Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse” written by Jim Bakker. This was the first book I read on the subject of Prosperity. It was written by a former Word of Faith minister, who rose to the heights of prosperity; commanding such monies that would dwarf whatever David Oyedepo has. Jim Bakker fell from grace to grass and went to prison. In prison he had sufficient time to read the Bible and came to the conclusion that he was wrong. He came out of prison and repented of his former preaching. He wrote that book to warn others of the dangers of the gospel of Prosperity.

“Messenger: The Story of Missionary S. G. Elton” and “Heritage: A History of Christianity in Nigeria” are two books written by a young Nigeria called Ayodeji Abodunde. The latter gives us a history of Christianity in Nigerian from the 1830s to 2010. It is a solid book and the summary of it all is that the kind of Christianity we practise today is a novel thing. The missionary who brought the faith to us knew very little of what many preach today.

The second book is about a Pentecostal Missionary, S. G. Elton, who helped disciple many after the 1950s revival of Joseph Ayo Babalola. He would also mentor Benson Idahosa. The book chronicles how Idahosa left orthodox Christianity and how Elton ceased associating with him until his death. It is unfortunate that it is the same Idahosa that has become an example to many in ministry today.

“Defining Deception” by Costi Hinn. Costi is the nephew of Benny Hinn. Costi writes about how God saved him from the heretical teachings and lifestyle of his Uncle Benny Hinn. I have not read this book but it comes highly recommended by many who have read it.
“Strange Fire” written by John MacArthur Jnr. This book is arguably the soundest book ever written on the Prosperity Gospel and the Charismatic movement on which it thrives. It is a book you must read.

I do not have links to free copies of these books online but you may purchase them from Amazon or any reputable Christian book store around you. These books are clearly not the only materials written on the subject of the Prosperity Gospel. There are many others. But these are the ones I have read and which I recommend to you.

Today, I am worried that the new wave of overnight reformers that have inundated the social media are going to do worse than what the Pentecostal churches are doing right now. These neo-reformers, like their prosperity counterparts, are not well taught. They seem to have just grasped some insight into scriptures and are then running all around social media teaching what they do not understand.

The Bible warns against many people seeking to be teachers of the word (James 3:1). And if at all you feel called to be a minister, you must go through the rigour of being trained for ministry. You should also have people over you who can call you to order and who would also recommend you to ministry. Ministry is hard work and one of the things ministers must do is to study.

The books that I have recommended here are only a few materials that one should have just to understand the subject of the Prosperity Gospel alone. Clearly to be called into ministry, we would not only be lifelong teachers, we must also be lifelong learners. This, unfortunately I do not see in these neo-reformers.

I do sincerely hope you can lay your hands on these materials and hope they help you understand the depth of error we are having to combat in the Christian churches.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

*: You can obtain these books via Google by simply searching for the given titles

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/a-crash-course-on-the-prosperity-gospel/

Since Timi Dakolo restored Fatoyinbo to our consciousness

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Another Andrew Absconds

by: Deji Yesufu

He is a young and upcoming Nigerian professional. Smart young man with a small family. Very well educated. He has worked in this country, faithfully contributing to the uplifting society, for close to a decade. Unfortunately he has been a victim of our nation’s insecurity, poor medical institutions and general backwardness. I learnt, just two days ago, that “Andrew” has ditched Nigeria. He simply took his young family and left. Another loss to Nigeria and an addition to other working economies.

I have criticized persons who stow away from this country in the past in my writings. I have made high sounding statements about those of us who choose to stay behind to fix this country, while at the same time insinuating that those who leave are not man enough. Well, I withdraw those statements today. There is nothing wrong with those who leave this country; instead there seem to be everything wrong with this country. While I still do not have a strong reason to ditch Nigeria, I can no longer criticize those who do.

A discussion between a friend and I led to the conclusion that most corrupt persons in Nigeria are faceless individuals working in the Nigerian civil service. Some of them may be reading this right now. My friend tells me of how civil servants circumvent the Nigerian system and load themselves up with revenues that ideally should go to the government coffers for the country’s development. Chris Adetayo posted a conversation he had with his civil servant friend in the early days of the Buhari government. How this person had finally realized the paltry sum he receives as salary, since for a long time he had lived off illegal funds from government coffers. I’m told that people like this guy have since recovered and are back to stealing the country rotten again. Once we were told that there was a new Sheriff in town. Nigerian civil servants have since rendered this Sheriff clueless.

No country advances with this sort of organized corruption. A nation’s wealth is meant for all and not for a few. One factor of a truly working country is the attention its government pays to the weak. Somebody once spoke on radio and told the story of how his late father, who had fought for Britain in the second world war, was still receiving pension up till the time he died. His allowances were always sent to him in Nigeria. Nigeria treats its retirees like scum. It has no social security for the poor. If one happens to be disabled in this country, you are finished. Our under five children still die en-masse. Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Our elderly people have no homes to live in when their children have fled the country. And you say Andrew should remain?

Despite how gloomy the picture appears, some of us are constituted to remain and fix this country. We can get it right. We can start right from our families and begin to do the right things. We can begin to teach our children right from wrong. Then in our offices, we can choose to be different. We can choose not to partake in the rot. Then our religious houses can begin to teach the true tenets of their faith. Christianity and Islam, the two prominent religions in this country, teach sufficient moral lessons to end this suffocating corruption in our body polity. We can fix this country!

The good part about remaining in Nigeria is that, as a developing country, Nigeria offers immense opportunity for many to make it straight and square here. In developed economies, the best a foreigner can be is a second class citizen. But Nigeria offers immense opportunity in the sciences, literature, arts and business sectors for its people. If our young people can endure the harsh realities of the country, this is the place to really make it.

But I understand that a second class citizen status, in another country, is all that most Nigerians need. At least there will be food, consistent power supply, security and a dependable health system. You cannot blame them too much when they leave. We hope by some act of divine mercy Nigerians will rise up to fix this country or else this country will fix us.

Right now my mental constitution says not to criticize Andrew anymore. It also says to remain and fix the nation. But you can never say what tomorrow will bring. Whatever it does, I will be sufficiently updating you here in my column. Even if it means sending out an article at the very moment I’m boarding the plane and exiting this country like other Andrews have done.

So help us God.

By the way..

Andrew was this guy in an early 1980s TV advert. In the clip he’s seen complaining to a friend about the state of Nigeria: “… there is no water, no light, no… men, I’m checking out…” Then someone says in the background: “Andrew…”, and urges him and other Nigerians to remain and fix the country.

Article was first published in 2017 on Facebook. It message appears still relevant today though.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/another-andrew-absconds/

Please I need a one night accommodation in Lagos. Help:

https://www.nairaland.com/5209610/need-one-night-accommodation-lagos

I am in need of accommodation in Lagos that would allow me stay one to three nights. I do not have the money to rent hotels and I come into Lagos quite often each year.

I am hoping to get a place of no more than 1,000 to 3,000 a night. It can be a one room apartment, or a BQ to a main building, or a room within an apartment.

Please if you offer such facility, especially in the mainland area of Lagos, preferably Ikeja, kindly leave a response to this thread.

Thank you.

For the Glory of God

By: Deji Yesufu

Modern Church history reveal that one way God has reached his elects and edified the saints in our time has been through annual conferences that orthodox Christian groups have held consistently through the years. These conferences have been used by God to call sinners to living faith in Christ, to build up the body of saints in the church and to establish networks and fellowship among believers. Following this tradition, the Crown Reformed Assembly, #23, Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos, is holding a youth conference, under their annual 1:21 Conference series, themed: “Soli Deo Gloria” – which is “to the Glory of God” in Latin. Writing in a recent church bulletin, the church stated:

“The 1:21 conferences is an outreach of the Crown Reformed Assembly and serves as an umbrella for our bible conferences and seminars. The 1:21 conferences consist of two tracks: the 1:21 youth conference and the 1:21 Bible Summit. The bible summit is focused on the broader body of Christ, while the youth conference is primarily targeted at the youth, the single and the unmarried.

“As a growing church in the metropolitan city of Lagos, a city teeming with youthfulness, we noticed an eerie absence of Christ-centered and theocentric gospel witness from the Church especially as it pertains to the increasing confusion and anxiety among teenagers and youth on the issues bringing glory to GOD in dating, singleness and marriage.

“We firmly believe that the situation calls for Gospel cogency and clarity and we have set our anchor of hope for our city and for our country in the Crucified and Risen Christ. The name ‘1:21’ is culled from Philippians 1:21; “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. We are convinced that this truth must be weaved around every aspect of life”.

This year’s conference would be holding at St. Thomas Catholic Hall, UNILAG, on the 8th of June, 2019. Time: 9am. Speakers at the event would include Olamide Falase, Samuel Odesola and my humble self. Those who may wish to join the free transportation made available for people coming from Ibadan can reach me through my email at the end of this essay for further details. Please consider this as my invitation to you.

This year’s “1:21 Conference” is coming on the heels of a dire need among Nigerian young people. Never in the history of this country has the spate of suicide reached such a height. It is such an emergency that the Nigerian government is being urged to consider banning the insecticide called Sniper. Life has become increasingly meaningless for the Nigerian youth. After laboring to get an education, many proceed into the labor market with very little prospect of getting a job. Yet, these same youths have to contend with some of their mates who have the connections to get good jobs and they also have to meet the high expectations of their parents that have invested into their education. In the midst of these, there are also the false hopes being sold to these young people by false religious faith peddlers.

Does the 1:21 Conference have answers to these issues? I believe it does.

Too many times in pursuing answers to life issues, human beings seek solutions in the human self. So we have modern enough self-help institutions around our cities today. This conference will be seeking to redirect our minds to God and not ourselves. As we pursue God and his purposes, we will begin to find answers to why we are here on earth and what God has called us to do. When we do this, God is pleased; God is glorified; and we, his creation, will find fulfilment in whatever endeavor we are pursuing. We find the essence of living when we begin in God.

This and many more truths will the speakers at this year’s conference be passing across to attendees. I do sincerely hope that you can make it.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/for-the-glory-of-god/

Shepherd00:
Yes, everyone has the right to take their stance and fight for their convictions. He, like everyone out there. But, when you do that twisting scriptures which are clearly against to support your points, that is why will continue to shout him down.
One day you'll support abortion you mean? Will you be backing whatever you'll be saying with Scriptures? If so, prepare your barrage of scriptures which will swallow 'Thou shall not kill' up. And, like MuttleyLatff, Will you force us to accept that God never forbade murder hence, all the scriptures against it are not saying what we read?

I am pro life and anti Abortion

Shepherd00:
MuttleyLatff huffed and puffed ran off for good. next he'll appear in another thread beating his chest claiming Superman. He'll tell the world how he finished Shepherd and TV and all the anti-homosexual Christisns.

Some people no get shame.

MuttleyLaff never runs. He'll be back.

I don't support gays nor LGBT. But like Voltaire says "I might not agree with you on something but I'll defend till death your right to say it". Let's hear our brother out and let's give him the freedom to air his views.

One day I'll write on Guns, Homosexuality and Abortion. One day...

No matter how you cut it, MuttleyLaff remains my biggest alley on Nairaland. I'm greatly indebted to his contributions to my threads from way back.

MuttleyLaff it seem you found your match ^^^

My hand no dey o... Make I face my Prosperity Preachers o jare

MuttleyLaff:
Wise men speak because they have something to say, so do not waste your candle when the sun is here. Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.

Thank you VBCampaign for this serious and sincere warning about Suleiman etcetera to Freeze, I know him and Tastebuds habitually read posts here.

Thanks MuttleyLaff. I hope they get to read it too.

Dear Daddy Freeze

I had tried to reach you privately with this letter but when you did not respond I decided to make the letter public. I had raised some questions in the letter that I considered salient to the ministry of anyone who may be engaged in some kind of reform of religion in a country and I feel that if you do not have the time to respond to the letter, perhaps some of your followers would be able to write a rejoinder. I am trying very much not to come to certain conclusions on you that might make one regard your campaign as self-seeking but if I am still not able to get answers to my questions, I would have no choice but to conclude so. Then one would have to warn those listening to you to beware of being deceived.

I am Deji Yesufu. I live and work in Ibadan. I have written articles on you before and I am grateful for your sharing some of them. I did a talk with TV Continental sometimes ago, where I mentioned you and the video went viral. That was the days of campaigning against tithing and so on.

What has occasioned my writing this letter to you this time is the recent associations you have been having with Apostle Johnson Suleiman. I watched the video you made about your reaching out to him and I saw the video he also made on you too. I noticed from your words, and some of the responses that I have been getting off the internet, that a lot of people in your movement are unhappy about your association with Suleiman and they feel you have let them down. You responded by saying that Suleiman showed sincere love to you and that out of respect, you needed to give him a hearing. I understand that both of you are talking a lot now and discussing doctrines and all of that. Please permit me to react to this matter first.

I think you are totally belittling the person of Johnson Suleiman. I remember that at the heat of your campaign against tithing, Suleiman made veiled references to you and used some very strong words against you. I hope you know that there was no “love” in his statements then. Today, because you have quite a following and influence, it behooves Suleiman to treat you with respect and thus the so called “love” he is displaying to associate with you. I think, and this can be disputed, that Suleiman is simply living up to his nature: he is a deceiver and he is deceiving you. The Bible tells us of false prophets who come to us as “angels of light”. This is what I believe Suleiman is and I would request that you beware of him. He would not come to you as the monster that he is; he would suck you in with deception and spit you out. The so called love he claims to be relating with you on, to say the least, is deceptive.

Second. The Free the Sheeple Movement have used the wrong parameters to judge Johnson Suleiman. Suleiman and others in the Pentecostal/Prosperity Churches are not deceivers because of scandals like the Stephanie Otobo case or because they buy private jet. They are deceivers because they preach a gospel that is not Christian. It is my hope that you have studied what many have written about the deceptive Prosperity Gospel that is prevalent in Nigerian Churches. If you have not, I have book references I can send to you. You need to know the history of these teachings and how many of the preachers, that teach it in our country, got to the point they did. The gospel of Prosperity is a message of hell and this is what makes them, primarily, deceivers. The way they live, the sins they cover up, their lavish and ostentatious lifestyle, is only an offshoot of the false gospel they believe.

At this point in this letter, I am compelled to ask you Daddy Freeze: what do you believe? If you do not have a well-structured and orthodox belief about Christianity, then the possibility of being blown around by every wind of doctrine abounds. You are essentially what you believe. Therefore, what do you believe? As a movement, do you have a list of doctrines you hold as beliefs? Do you have a creed? I understand the evolving nature of the movement and this is why it is important that the movement, and you as its leading figure, come under proper guiding light. And there is no greater guiding light in Christianity than the Holy Bible. But we also cannot separate what we believe from whom we learn the doctrines of scriptures from; God uses men to guide us into biblical truths. In Acts 18, Apollos came out as an individual able to refute the Jews’ false teaching. But he needed a Priscilla and Aquila to guide him to a more successful ministry. They taught him and he became an effective vessel in Christ’s hand. Every one of us need such guidance.

Freeze, there has been a Reformation in the church before. What do you know about it? What do you know about Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin? What do you know about how the Reformation affected Europe? What do you know about Dutch Reformed Theology? What do you know about men like John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, C. H. Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones? These were men whom God used to reform religion in Europe, England and America. What do you know about their ministries? If God would use you as a reformer today, do you think he would do anything different from what he did through these men in the past? The reason historical theology is important is because whatever we are debating and fighting today in Christianity, has occurred in the 2,000 year history of Christianity. Wise people simply study the past and replicate the lessons learnt. What do you know about reformed churches there in Nigeria, who are working underground to bring people to faith in Christ? I am saying, dear sir that you need to learn. It would help you in your work.

The problem with Christianity in Nigeria is more than what people do. It is essentially what people believe. Nigeria Christianity is a strange mixture of animism and Christianity. Thus, the result is that the churches are filled with false converts. This is how it affects you: In all my listening to you, I have not heard you make a personal statement of how you came to believe in Jesus Christ. Freeze, are you a Christian? Do you understand the core of the gospel? Do you know that more than social welfare, God’s ultimate desire is that all men may come to living faith in Christ? Is this the propelling force in your movement? You cannot give what you do not have. If you are not a Christian, you cannot see a reason to sell Christ to people. You may sell “reformation” and maybe even “aluta”, but only a converted heart knows that the most important information for a world reeling in sin is the gospel. I would like to hear you, one day, state how you came to living faith in Christ and I would want to see you make the gospel the underlying theme in your movement. When this happens, the people who hear you would not only shove off what is wrong; they would receive what is right: which is Christ Jesus himself.

With that, I wish to bring this letter to a close. Please you may reply this letter via my e-mail newdejix@gmail.com. I would be glad to hear from you and I do sincerely hope that by reading this letter you have not been offended but rather challenged to seek a more effective route to freeing God’s people from Nigerian deceptive Pentecostal movement.

Thank you.

Deji Yesufu.

Ibadan.

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/dear-daddy-freeze/

NSNA:
It would have been heavy fine into Billions if not fixed

There are hundreds of such roads not fixed in Ibadan. This is one of a kind