My advice to the G.O. and the other clergy preaching restitution is for them to continue praying for God’s forgiveness for going against His orders
Sina Adedipe
I was shocked to the marrow the day a member of one of the three foremost Pentecostal churches in the country told me of the restitution policy of their General Overseer. By his doctrine a husband and wife who had divorced and are married to new partners are told they can only remain members of his church, if they returned to their original spouses.
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The prelate, who is both one of three most educated and globally popular clerics in Nigeria I am told does this because he says Almighty God is against divorce. As a result, such people have to correct the mistake they had made to get the sin they had committed to be forgiven by the Lord.
But pray, when such couples leave their second husbands and wives to return to their first spouses, are they not carrying out another divorce and thereby committing another sin? When I heard of the General Overseer’s restitution policy the questions I asked were, was he really called by the Heavenly Father and is he a true servant of His? Because the restitution he is teaching, preaching and enforcing in his church is against what the Lord said on divorce and remarriage in Deuteronomy 24: 1 – 4.
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In the passage, the Ancient of Days commanded the Israelites that a man shall not take back a wife who had remarried, even if her second husband had divorced her or had died. In either case, the man should consider her defiled and that it would be an offense to Him if he married her again. Warning: “You are not to commit such a terrible sin.”
Of course, till today, the Ten Commandments and the other laws of the Lord in the Bible still apply to all Christians the world over. The impression I have for the General Overseer acting against God’s directive is that he is yet to read the Holy Book up to Deuteronomy 24: 1 – 4. Because I do not believe that any sane or sensible Christian would knowingly or deliberately disobey the Most High. Given the punishment he meted out to the Israelites and the other people in the Scriptures and knowing that there is a Day of Judgment in the hereafter.
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My advice to the G.O. and the other clergy preaching restitution, if there are, is for them to stop doing so. And until they die to continue praying for God’s forgiveness for going against His orders in the Bible and misleading people to commit sin on the matter.
I am also recommending that those who had obeyed and acted on their advice and had taken back their wives who had remarried, should also pray for forgiveness. Because as adults who had been Christians for 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years they are expected to have read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation, at least once. Consequently, they cannot escape culpability, pleading they were misled by their pastors.
Given the fact that Almighty God in Joshua 1 verses 7 – 9 said that people should not only read the Book of Law (the Bible), but also study it day and night and make sure that they obey everything written in it. It is therefore unfortunate that there are Christians, especially the priests, who had not read the Holy Book from cover – to – cover and are preaching and acting against the Lord’s injunction in the scriptures.
Next week: Passages in the Bible where God endorsed polygamy and gave laws to men with two or more wives on how to treat their spouses.
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Phenomenal matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade – Ojos & others (14)
IN December 1994, General Olanrewaju who was then the General Officer Commanding the 3rd Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos, told me to bring my curriculum vitae because General Sani Abacha was going to reconstitute his cabinet in March 1995. But the invitation came at a wrong time, because by then the Heavenly Father had entered into a covenant with me and two others, as He did with Father Abraham in Genesis Chapter 15: 1 – 21.
He told us that day that it took 25 years before He fulfilled His promise to Abraham and that we would go through a test of faith like Father Job. But He did not tell us that day how many years his lasted. He only told us that if we could endure as Job and Abraham did that from the time of His blessings we would smile to the end of lives and make His Kingdom after death. As I had cause to disclose late last year, it was on Saturday, January 13, 2007. The Ancient of Days told us Job’s sufferings went on for 30 years. Ours is now 24 years and only He knows how many more years we have to wait.
So, there was no way the Lord would have allowed me to be appointed a minister in 1995 to earn a huge salary and live in opulence for three, four or more years. When my two other colleagues would be going through excruciating hardship.
If not for this, after late High Chief Bolanle Adedipe from December 1964 – January 14, 1966 and High Chief Olu Falae in 1990, I would have been the third descendant of our legendary Ilara – Mokin matriarch to have served as a minister at the federal level. I am not in a position to know if two of the descendants of another patriarch or matriarch in the country have been appointed into a federal cabinet from 1951 to date. But I doubt if any other family has surpassed us.
Next week: As at the federal level most of the political appointments made by the Ondo State Government or the parliament in Akure since creation in 1976 – to – date have also come to the Adedipes.
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Ebenezer Babatope, the great (15)
Apart from being journalists and columnists, Ebino and I also have common interest in music, especially in juju and highlife. We are both full of regret that the latter brand has become moribund. And we both hope it can still be saved from going into extinction.
Ebino is more into melody than me because he was an active musician in his boyhood years. When he was in Igbobi College, Lagos for Higher School Certificate (HSC) course in 1964 – 65 he was the lead vocalist of the Swing Stars Orchestra, the school’s band led by Yinka Bada.
He also played with the Cool Cats Orchestra at 40, Abule – Nla Road, Ebute – Meta in Lagos led by Kobina Biney.
To be continued next Wednesday