I Will Worship In TB Joshua’s Church on ONE CONDITION, Says Pastor E.A Adeboye

How would you describe the national honours given to some religious leaders by President Yar’Adua?

It’s a Federal Government palaver, and as long as it is PDP that is in power, it is in the best position to honour any Nigerian with whatever honour. And it is the right of any honoured Nigerian to either accept or refuse.

And if you look at those who were given the honours, they were a mixture of different persons including those who called themselves nominal Christians, Pentecostal Christians and even unbelievers.

First of all, it is expedient to look at the yardstick on which these particular persons were honoured.
One should not also forget that the Federal Government is not a Christian government, so its yardstick might not be based on the Bible.

And so if one should look at it from that perceptive, it (FG) is at liberty to do what it wants but the important thing is the decision of the individual to accept the national honour.

But, personally, I do not agree with various kinds of honours given by whatever government, not only now but even in the past.

Isn’t Prophet T.B. Joshua qualified for such honour?

That someone is picking beggars on the street does not mean he should be honoured. If a robber steals from the nation’s treasury and comes back tomorrow with all kinds of gifts for the poor, it does not make him a saint.

Would you close your eye from the fact that he is a robber? I would rather look at the source of his wealth than what he offers. It only interprets that he is a crook, a liar, a cheat and he must not be honoured.

It doesn’t matter what he does. The one who gives the final honour is Jehovah. I’m not against giving to charity but let us look at this so-called charitable fellow or organisation.

I would rather say religious people should not be included in such honour. As a child of God, it is always good to give glory to God. Every religious leader should learn how to say no to such award. They can only thank the government and reject the honour. That is my sincere advice to the so-called pastors who belong to my constituency.

Government should try and leave Christians out of awards or honours because they are not working for perishable reward.. They can be honoured for other things but not for doing the work of God. Let government stop tempting Christians.

What’s CAN position on this issue?

If you want my opinion, CAN should be dismantled now because it is not actually a Christian dominated organisation as it should. CAN should be dismantled so that what is called church in Nigeria could be restored.

Let every church leader come together and have a standard and well structured constitution based on the word of God that would better the church and the country.

It will interest you to know that there is what we called chosen in CAN which is contrary to the word of God. There is everything in CAN both Christians and non-Christians and as much as you want to know anybody can belong to CAN.

The fact remains that CAN was not founded on Christianity and so it would be difficult to start debating that now.

It was founded during a military regime and that makes it an emergency organisation. It is better if Christian leaders can come together and put up a visible church that would represent the invisible body of Christ which is called the Church and the only head of that church is Jesus Christ.

CAN should resolve to put up a body capable of ruling the nation. I belong to CAN but I have always wished and prayed that one day, it will be pushed apart so that we can have a church in Nigeria.