NIGERIA: MINISTERS OF SATAN ON THE PROWL

Ministers of Satan on the prowl

Written by Joseph Ajayi

Tuesday, 10 September 2013 00:00

THAT the Biblical warning of perilous times at the winding up of earthly activities has begun in earnest is very clear. The speedy rates at which bizarre and mysterious events occur in our society today is stupefying. The most disturbing of the scenarios, however, is the insensitivity or criminal contempt of the self-confessed ministers of God—pastors, bishops, evangelists, prophets, teachers of the word, reverends—to the stern warnings of the Bible as regards the strange events that would herald the beginning of the end to this wicked world. If their brazen disregard for the word they read on a daily basis on this perilous times is worrisome, the alleged involvement or implication of a number of these supposedly holy preachers of the word of God in occultic practices is as much difficult a pill to swallow as it is a painful development in the stomach.

Why these preachments? The reports, rumours some may say, linking some men of God to cultism after their demise leave not a few wondering what has become of Christianity in Nigeria. Some years back, the general public was treated to a ludicrous report of a popular pastor in Lagos whose stock in trade was to beat his church members mercilessly and kill them for ritual purposes. The long arm of the law ‘gripped’ him and he was sentenced to death by hanging for killing devotees of his church. Just last year, another popular Nigerian prophet died and the revelations that trailed his inglorious demise were mind-boggling. So strong were the reports that human skulls were found in his personal apartment that even the Biblical Thomas would have believed the ‘hearsay’ were he to be a Nigerian. In another related development, the social media were recently inundated with reports of the death of a renowned pastor, who happened to be a spiritual father of a famous gospel musician and whose death precipitated heated controversies between his church members preparing for his burial arrangement and members of the Ogboni fraternity who purportedly claimed ownership of his body, saying he was their member.

These, being the highest rebellious acts against God, are the major preoccupation of many renowned men of God in Nigeria today. With the exception of a few, whom even the deaf know are incontestably genuine men of God, the nation unfortunately has misfortune of having diabolic leaders. The situation is compounded by the escalating number of men of Satan in the outward garb of priesthood. Many there are today in Nigeria whose churches have their roots in the kingdom of darkness rather than in God. They deceive members in the name of the Lord and initiate them into their cults without their knowing they have been brought into the coven of darkness.

A young, dying lady was recently brought to a heavily anointed man of God for prayer. On sighting her, the man of God asked her to confess a terrible sin she had committed and she managed to mumble that she had sexual intercourse with the pastor of her church who afterwards wiped her private part with a white handkerchief. Her lethal sickness, she confessed, began immediately after the act. When invited by the prophet, the pastor denied the allegation, but later confessed to the heinous crime when told he would die before seven days should he fail to set the girl free.

In a similar development, a close friend of the writer took her younger sister to a prophet for spiritual solution to her problem. In the course of prayer, his outstretched hand was at the same time reaching for the private part of the lady who yelled while bolting out of the church. It is not an exaggeration that a save-my-soul visit to pastors these days is a riskier adventure than going to the herbalists. Some years back, rife was the news that another renowned pastor buried one of the pastors he invited to his crusade alive right in the altar of his church auditorium. A lady was said to have died under another man of God while having sex with her. He escaped being jailed by the whiskers as his case was painfully allowed to die a natural death. If all these appeared to be concocted fairy tales, what then can we say of horrifying revelations of ritual practices by quite a number of pastors in the radio presentations of the late popular Yoruba presenter and broadcaster, Kola Olawuyi? Could he have relayed fiction for public applause? I do not think so.

While this piece is not a homily with the intent to run down or discredit all preachers of the lofty gospel, its thrust, however, cannot be divorced from an attempt to sound a note of warning to seekers of spiritual panaceas to problems to beware of the places they visit, as many are men of Satan today in godly apparels who are out to deceive, maim, kill and destroy completely. Their marks of identification are clearly noticeable in their passionate defence and preaching of prosperity, wealth, breakthroughs, blessing, among others, without constant messages of repentance and recourse to the Kingdom of God for which Jesus Christ came to the world. And as the clock of this world ticks steadily towards the zero hour, fewer become the churches, pastors, bishops, Christians that hold the doctrine of godliness till the end.

Ajayi is on the staff of the Nigerian Tribune (08107754190)
Last modified on Monday, 09 September 2013 10:55