By Lanre Ogundipe
I have as much as possible tried to not join the frail of the controversy surrounding the tithing issue that has occupied the Christian religious space for some time. Before the issue of tithing assumed the topical position it has occupied today or should I say degenerated to this level, I have had the privilege of discussing it with one of the leaders of Christian faith and the General Overseer of the New Covenant Church, Rev. (Dr.) Paul Jinadu. That was nearly two decades ago. Since I am not here to make our discussion in Budapest in 2006 and all I could deduce from it, a public discourse on this platform at the moment, the details of the episcopal brainstorming session with this erudite Bible scholar would be made public one day. In case you wonder at my drift, my story was necessitated by the import of what Pastor Paul Jinadu said at the session which I have been pondering over and beginning to see it happening in the Christian religious circle of our time.
After the Budapest encounter, I was privileged to sit under brother Gbile, a gifted teacher of the word of God, who has been endowed with grace to wisely handle contentious issues such as the subject of our discussion in a manner that would direct listeners to the core of our faith and God’s requirements from followers of Christ.
This brings me to the issue of the supposed “Public Apology” tendered few days ago by Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, which purports to retract his earlier statement that believers who refuse to pay tithe will not make heaven. The video hit the waves on Thursday night with the caption that “Adeboye has apologised on his tithing gaffes”. A careful watch of the video would reveal the true intent of the GO. Throughout the few minutes of the video, the GO didn’t say anything that conveyed the message of a genuine repentance or remorse for the false or misleading teaching. Rather, what was seen was a skillful and manipulative manouvering to reinforce the GOs tithing or multiple tithing message.
From the beginning to end, the clip was full of manipulative words and self-justification. The goal of this write up is not to condemn or judge the Pastor, rather it is to call the attention of the body of Christ in Nigeria to the need to jettison every false doctrine, religious pretenses and merchandising gospel.
The time has come to show genuine repentance as a body without apportioning blames. We are all guilty as charged. Whether you are orthodox, Anglican, Catholics, Methodist or Pentecostal, we all should return to the original gospel preached by our Lord Jesus Christ, and delivered to us by the fathers of faith, the apostles. At this juncture, let’s remember the story of what the Amalekites did to destroy Israel- Deuteronomy 1:44 and Numbers 14:45 – this biblical account should not be lost on us Christians in Nigeria. We are at the cross road. We need to draw God’s hands down now or never.
The Bible is very clear that the wages of sin is death. Amorites or Amalekites are one and the same, God gave them the chance to repent but they wasted the opportunity to do so for over 400 years unlike the people of Nineveh who read in between lines and yielded in repentance to God. My heart bleeds as some of the “God’s Generals” seem to be ignoring the signals – and the scriptures is very clear: those who do not turn from their sins will eventually fall under judgment. The New Testament Apostles did not understand that reality to have been nullified by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, rather they understood this Old Testament story, and others like it, as: an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” 2 Peter 2:6.?
Few hours after the first video was released, another video followed which was presumed to correct the earlier one.
Again, and unfortunately, it fell like pack of cards as it failed to address the subject matter except to paper the cracks. Said he: I do not say Christians should stop paying tithe, I do not say so. What I meant was Christians should see 10% as minimum and where tithe is rejected, look for another church that collects and drop the tithes there.” This is an indication that Pastor Adeboye is yet to embrace the truth wholeheartedly or understand beyond the amateurish or half-baked interpretation given to the word of God by many of Nigeria’s high flying Pastors . In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God says “if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. This is an explicit statement without any form of ambiguity. Why then the rigmarole? Adeboye and his co-travellers in this transactional gospel should embrace the call to repentance in the manner of David – the Psalmist in Psalm 51:7 – “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God”. The issue is beyond grammar or any other conjecture. Rather, it calls for genuine repentance in humility and not humbleness shrouded in false pretenses and hidden under the cloak of hearing God.
Another cautionary note: If we must experience God’s visitation and fresh revival, Pastors should restrain from twisting God’s words or attaching meanings that bellys Gods mind and constitute impediment to the expansion of God’s Kingdom and his work on earth. It is my prayer that God will have mercy and sanctify his church and return her to the true faith, handed over to the saints.
Lanre Ogundipe is a journalist and an itinerant teacher of the word
