“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.
Source: Daily Sun
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