“Offering time, blessing time!” So goes the chorus
from members of the congregation whenever it’s
time to give offering in most churches. To most Christians, the offering time is, indeed, a
time of immense financial blessing. But recently,
the offering time turned into a moment of hot curses
in a Lagos church when an already used condom,
dripping with semen, was discovered inside the
offering box after the Sunday service. It was like a weird dream, according to the former
Chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN),
Ogba Zone, Prophet Tobi Okonkwo, who witnessed
the incident. The cleric said he couldn’t believe his
eyes when a discarded condom, with stains, was
discovered in an envelope in the offertory box of his former church.
When Pope Paul VI warned on June 29, 1972 that
the smoke of Satan had entered the church, not
many Christians took the warning seriously.
With this recent incident, Okonkwo admitted that the
agents of darkness had infiltrated the churches in large numbers and now occupy high-ranking
positions in the gathering of God’s children, where
they wreak untold havoc on the unwary flock.
Okonkwo, who is also the General Overseer of
Living Word Prayer Assembly, Agege, Lagos, wept
over man’s ingratitude to God during a recent monthly thanksgiving programme of the church,
tagged Manna from Heaven.
Although the service was a joyful moment where the
shepherd distributes food items and other gifts to
his flock, his startling revelation brought a hush of
silence on the congregation. His words pierced the hearts of the worshippers, as
he explained how man had become ungrateful to
divine benevolence. His several instances of the
atrocities committed in hallowed places pointed to
the fact that messengers from hell now walked
about freely in hallowed places. “It is really bad. It has got to a point where some people come to the
church to mock God. They are anti-Christ but they
still go to church. You could imagine how somebody
came to the church and decided to give a used
condom in an envelope to God.
You can see how wicked man has become,” he said. Okonkwo said the giver of the abominable gift
refused to confess his crime, even when the entire
church rained curses profusely on whosoever was
responsible.
He said, “A curse was laid on the person. Even
before the people laid the curse, God had already seen the abomination committed in his house by
someone, who pretended he came to the church to
worship God.” The former PFN leader warned other members of
the church of the reality of the anti-Christ, whose
reign would usher ungodliness in the world. He
lamented that prosperity message has taken over
the pulpit at the neglect of the gospel of repentance,
which had enslaved many hearts in pleasure and love of the world.
According to him, most Christians hunger for
sermons that promise easy wealth, while rejecting
teachings that encourage chastity, discipline,
endurance and faithfulness.
“The style of the anti-Christ is to mock Jesus. Many Christians today are crucifying Christ a second time.
It’s really sad and unfortunate,” he said. The cleric
decried the approval of same s*x marriage by
different countries, describing the constitutional
recognition accorded to such couples as an
indication of the reign of anti-Christ in the world. Rather than milk his members dry, Okonkwo said he
introduced a programme, Manna from Heaven, to
feed the flock of Christ with the little he could afford.
He said the programme involved sharing of bags of
rice, noodles and other foodstuff on equal measures
to all the members to inculcate in them the love for sharing and concern for their suffering neighbour.
Okonkwo also berated some pastors who, according
to him, start Christian ministries and involve
themselves in dubious things all in a bid to acquire
wealth and fame. He said such ones worship money
as their god. “For them to get money, they end up preaching prosperity.
Salvation messages are not often on their lips. The
church is not supposed to be a business but most
people have turned it into a business.
It is quite unfortunate,” he said. Aside the sacrileges
committed in churches, Okonkwo, who had earlier predicted the emergence of Jonathan as President
during the ailing days of late President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua, also frowned at the various scandals
rocking political offices and other sectors of the
economy.
He said most Nigerians have lost the sense of sanity, citing the many cases of corruption in the
country. According to him, no day passes without
the disclosure of one fresh set of financial scandal
or the other.
He lamented that the financial blood of the country
was being drained by some thieving elite with no interest of the masses at heart. Although Okonkwo
foreclosed the chances of possible disintegration of
the country, he warned corrupt leaders to repent or
face the wrath of heaven.
According to him, only selfless leaders would bring
the nation back from the brink of monumental crisis and repair the ruins caused by corruption and bad
leadership in the country.
Comment on this Article
