Lere Olayinka
From my inbox was a message this morning – Why can’t you leave Men of God alone? Do you even know Prophet TB Joshua in person? Bla Bla Bla…
Let me start by saying that I have no issue with any Man of God. Rather, I am only doing my duty as a journalist and a Nigerian to inform, educate and entertain Nigerians on issues of interest.
It is not for me to determine who is a Man of God and who is not. Matthew 7:16-20 is very clear.
As for knowing Late Prophet TB Joshua in person, yes, I did. I knew him in person before he died. I had interactions with him and I interviewed him too.
Despite warnings by many people then, I ate in his Church Restaurant and drank water produced in the Church Water Factory.
As a journalist, I was also one of the A-LIST guests at some point.
Those who know Synagogue Church very well will understand those guests that will be taken straight to the SUPER MARKET where Super Eagles Player, Daniel Amokachi was the ATTENDANT in the early 2000.
TB Joshua was the first Cleric to maintain an organized MEDIA, having what was referred to then as “Synagogue Church Correspondent.” He will buy thousands of copies of any newspaper or magazine that publish positive stories about his church and the copies formed part of the souvenirs given to visitors to the church then.
The first time I visited his church (at the old site in a swampy area of Ikotun, Lagos), my conclusion was that he had a certain power, either from God or from other sources. That was in 1993.
That day, I saw people falling the moment he came out – ME I DID NOT FALL O…
In early 2000, I witnessed some of his MIRACLE SERVICES too, some in the night.
Also, I am aware that he had young people, mostly girls running errands for him. They were the ones who will inform him of the presence of guests and usher in the guest when it was their time to see him.
When I was to get married in 2003, Prophet TB Joshua was among those I gave invitation to and he even requested that I bring my wife before the marriage, which I never did.
So, I knew Prophet TB Joshua. He was a humble and kind person – at least, from his PUBLIC INTERACTIONS.
On scandals surrounding him and his church, it did not start today.
Pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church once had public altercations with him. Then, Okotie called TB Joshua the WIZARD at ENDOR, and described his church as the FAKE CHURCH, the COUNTERFEIT CHURCH where people go like King Saul out of desperation.
“They are not interested in knowing Jesus and Him crucified, they are not interested in doctrines, they are not interested in all that pertains to life and godliness; they are looking for temporary solutions to eternal problems, immediate gratification; that is why the place is an Endor and he as the superintendent of that place is the Wizard at Endor,” Chris Okotie said.
There was also the Kola Olawuyi saga. Olawuyi (now late) was a popular Yoruba Radio and Television presenter who did series of expose on TB Joshua then.
Even the Christian bodies in Nigeria never accepted TB Joshua. Both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) rejected him. To them, he was simply an exorcist or a charmer and so on.
The likes of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria (RCCG), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Bishop David Oyedepo and many others rejected TB Joshua until his death.
Adeboye, in 2009 said he would never go to Joshua’s church to minister.
He was quoted as saying in the Vanguard newspaper when asked whether he could worship in Joshua’s church, “No! Definitely not! If he wants me to come and minister in his church, we will sit down; we will discuss the issue of salvation the way I understand it, according to the scriptures.
“If we agree on that and he now wants me to come and preach the same message of salvation in his church, then I will go.”
To Adeboye, TB Joshua was never born again and so, he could not associate himself with him.
Also, the PFN and its members dissociated themselves from him, saying they did not believe that his was a ministry of God.
Pastor Wale Adefarasin, PFN National Secretary said then, “when somebody says he is as Christian, pastor, minister, you ask him when did he become born-again. Most people know when they get born again, when they confess Jesus with heir mouth. But T. B. Joshua said he was converted from his mothers womb. And we know that is not possible.”
On TB Joshua, the PFN made it clear then that “members who fraternise with him will be suspended until they repent.”
Then, the only major ally TB Joshua had among the pentecostal pastors was Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy. It was even speculated that it was through TB Joshua that Oyakhilome got “occultic power.”
In 2013, Ghanaian Bishop Isaac Owusu Bempah, Founder and Leader of the Glorious Word Power Ministries International, labeled both TB Joshua and Chris Oyakhilome as “partners in winning souls for the devil.”
Owusu Bempah said they were not “true men of God”, but leaders of occults, winning souls for the devil.
This claim, according to Owusu-Bempah, was based on God’s revelation to him in a vision as well as his own analysis of the scripture, works and conduct of the two popular heads of two religious organisations in Africa.
Therefore, for the BBC, the documentary was just a continuation of the questions that have been asked for years even when TB Joshua was alive.
Those seeing it as witch-hunt, should rather ask themselves when and how the questions will stop.
In the past, Pastor Adeboye of the RCCG and other clerics in CAN and PFN raised same posers raised by the BBC documentary. Kola Olawuyi raised same posers. It is not about BBC, it is about persistent questions being asked.
However, as for me, my conclusion the day I saw Prophet TB Joshua has not changed. He had certain power(s). It is the source that can be contested.
Methinks questions about these powers will continue to be asked until answers are seen to have been provided.
My name is Lere Olayinka. I am still here on the topmost part of Oke Agbonna in Okemesi Ekiti, chopping life with the Irunmales. If what I write or do is paining you, in the voice of Emefiele, come here and fight.
Peoplesmind
