Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of the Living Faith Church aka Winners’ Chapel, says it is wrong to keep the churches in Nigeria closed due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic when markets have been reopened.
He said there could be ulterior motives for the development, insisting that there was no tenable reason why the churches should not be allowed to meet for at least two hours if markets could open for six hours.
Punch newspaper reports that Oyedepo spoke during the Covenant Hour of Prayer on May 6.
Religious and social gatherings have been banned in most parts of Nigeria to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
“There is something wrong. For people to be allowed to be in the market for six hours and can’t be in church for two hours, it is an upside-down way of looking at things,” Oyedepo said.
“Which one is more orderly? The market or the church? I can smell a rat. The Lord spoke to me on it so strongly yesterday. I can smell a rat. Behind all this, how do we stop the church from exploding. The people involved don’t know it.
“The voice of darkness is influencing people at various levels, targeting the church because the growth and expansion of the church is the greatest headache of the devil. But the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The devil and all his agents shall surely pay for this.
“I don’t know what hospital that records the kind of healings that the church of God records. And now hospitals, where people die every day are open, but the church is closed because the oppression of the devil has no medical cure.”
Oyedepo’s view came days after his counterpart in Believers’ Love World, also called Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, berated Nigeria pastors for complying with the government’s ban on church and other gatherings because of coronavirus.
According to Premium Times newspaper, Oyakhilome said in a telecast to his members, such leaders were not genuine Christians since they did not ask the government to be allowed to pray and consult their congregations.
Oyakhilome said the swiftness with which churches, including his own, complied with the ban was the reason Nigeria is yet to “see the hand of God.”
The cleric noted that the men of God that discussed the issue with the government did not behave like true Christians, as according to him. They never thought about going to pray about it.
He said, “As ministers of God, you are called for such a meeting and you couldn’t say give us a few days, then you call all the ministers and say this is what we just heard from a government representative, we need to pray.
“Then you would have seen the hand of God. But you were not thinking about the Father’s house. Do you know what it means to shut down the congregation of the lord? Do you know what it means? It never meant anything to you.”
Oyakhilome alleged that the government would soon start to classify churches in accordance with their compliance level.
He also decried the planned vaccination against the pandemic, saying “What they are using to test, do you know what it is? Do you know why it can show positive and negative? Do you know? A virus they told us they are still studying, why don’t they study it first? They are still studying it and they already have a vaccine that could be ready in July for a virus they are still studying.
“Pastors and ministers have been sending strong warnings to others not to venture into the church because of the virus. That’s because Christ has never truly been your Lord, you’ve been the master of your life all these years. You’ve never truly known him.”
Some weeks ago, Oyakhilome claimed that the 5G network and not coronavirus was what was killing people. He said the lockdown was ordered to allow the federal government to install 5G in Lagos and Abuja.
He was however criticised by some pastors for the claim though he later backtracked. The pastors are Poju Oyemade, Sam Adeyemi, and Matthew Ashimolowo.