We have to face up to the truth;
the truth about Christian fundamentalism. The church today has been sculpted in
the image of extremists and demagogues – men who arrogate to themselves the
power of life and death. They pronounce perdition on those who step on their
testy ego and deploy the bloodhounds of hell against those who differ with
them.
These men are the people Jesus
the Christ dismissed as “brood of vipers”. They have taken the word of God and
revised it to fit into their foibles and weaknesses. They make themselves god
and instruct their followers by a mundane canon. They make God in their own
image. It is either their way or the thoroughfare to hell.
Really, we have a “Boko Haram
problem” in the church. Love, grace, temperance, and compassion have taken
leave of the synagogue. Some Christians, if given the latitude, will fight and
kill for their pastors. They lost the logic of the gospel and have become
mammonised by mammon-seeking pastors. They defend man but not God.
First John 3:10 puts a picture to
these children of nemesis. “By this the children of God and the children of the
devil are obvious: anyone who does not practise righteousness is not of God,
nor the one who does not love his brother and sister,” the Bible says.
Pastor David Ibiyeomie of
Salvation Ministries, by his unrighteous paroxysm of attacks on Ifedayo
Olarinde, better known as Daddy Freeze, has taken the chief table among the
Pharisees Jesus condemned. He let off a
volley of abominable invective against Daddy Freeze because the broadcaster
differed with Bishop David Oyedepo. Ibiyeomie said Daddy Freeze insulted his
“father” – Oyedepo – so, he would “kill and tear” him.
Obviously, this is Beelzebub
speaking, not God.
Ibiyeomie’s words: “Insult me; I
won’t comment, but insult Oyedepo …that bastard…. any day I hear you talk about
him… Do they know his (Freeze’s) father? Does Daddy Freeze have a father? Who’s
his father?”
“That half-caste who is born by a
Somalian? The day I hear him insult Oyedepo, I’ll deal with him. Oyedepo may
not talk, but I can’t be alive and you’d insult my father. I can’t take it.
I’ll tear you to pieces, bastard. People who have fathers don’t insult fathers.
He’s insulting him because he has no father. Does he (Freeze) look like a
Nigerian? Somebody they gave birth to on the ship.
“I curse the day he was born.
Tell him. This should be the last time he’d talk about Oyedepo. A man who is
not married; he has no wife. He can’t take care of his home but he’s coming to
talk on TV. If he has one, let him show us his father. Somebody that is a
broadcaster, does he have a good job? I will never be alive to see someone
insult my father. You’re not born! I’ll kill, arrest him.”
What could be more ghastly from
an aperture that supposedly preaches the Bible and praises God, and from the
altar of God? How is he different from those seeking the death of a singer in
Kano for simply making music they put a slant on?
Here is what Jesus the Christ has
to say to Ibiyeomie in Matthew 23: ‘’They (Ibiyeomie and his ilk) pile heavy
burdens on people’s shoulders and won’t lift a finger to help. Everything they
do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing
Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels for
everyone to see. They love the best seats at banquets and the front seats in
the meeting places. And when they are in the market, they like to have people
greet them as their teachers.
‘’But none of you should be
called a teacher. You have only one teacher, and all of you are like brothers
and sisters. Don’t call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same
Father in heaven. None of you should be called the leader. The Messiah is your
only leader. Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. If
you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble
yourself, you will be honoured.”
Really, by this singular
egregious act, Ibiyeomie has failed in his calling as a preacher of the gospel.
But there is room for repentance in Christianity. As someone who once trained
as a pastor myself, I suggest that Ibiyeomie publicly apologise to Daddy
Freeze, put on sack-cloth and retreat into fasting and praying seeking the face
of God. The Lord is merciful; He will blot out his unrighteousness.
Ibiyeomie is now ICHABOD.
Fredrick Nwabufo is a writer and
journalist
Twitter @FredrickNwabufo
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