{"id":1908,"date":"2024-07-13T14:31:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T13:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2024-07-19T20:59:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T19:59:32","slug":"nigerian-pastor-denies-saying-non-christians-can-make-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian pastor denies saying non-Christians will make heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Pastor Abel Damina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Controversial Nigerian gospel preacher Pastor Abel Damina, says the statement credited to him that not only Christians will go to heaven was wrongly misinterpreted.<\/span><\/p>\n

A publication, Punch, had reported Damina, founder of Power City International Worldwide, Uyo, in the South-South region, as chiding Christians who believe only followers of Jesus Christ will make <\/span>heaven<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of you think God is a Christian. God is not a Christian. When you finish laughing, I repeat, God is not a Christian. You know, many of you think if you are not a Christian, you won\u2019t go to heaven, lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople went to heaven before Christianity started. Christianity started in Antioch in the Book of Acts. That should humble you a bit, and you should start adjusting your theology,\u201d he said in a sermon during the first service of the church on Sunday, July 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it is unbelievers that gave the name Christianity that you are carrying as a condition to go to heaven \u2013 unbelievers who watch the people who were adherents of Brother Paul\u2019s teachings. After teaching for some time, they saw the transformation that had happened to these people. Before then, they were called believers and almajiris. They were disciples of Paul. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen the people said instead of calling disciples, the transformation we see in them is that they look like Christ, so let\u2019s call them Christians. But before then, many people went to heaven, including the thief on the cross. So, you don\u2019t have to be a Christian to make heaven,\u201d Damina said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was also quoted as saying that God is not a Christian.<\/span><\/p>\n

He further explained that biblical characters like Abraham, David and Jesus Christ did not use the term \u201cChristianity\u201d but instead unbelievers, stressing that they were merely disciples or believers, not \u201cChristians\u201d in the traditional sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbraham was not a Christian; Isaac and Jacob were not Christians. Moses was not a Christian, Abel was not a Christian, Isaiah was not a Christian, and<\/span> David was not a Christian. All the patriarchs were not Christians. Even Jesus was not a Christian,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Denial<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But in a viral video, Damina denied ever saying so, insisting that his statement was misquoted. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the clergyman, Punch newspaper deliberately misquoted him, adding that the story insulted his faith and the gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe never said such,\u201d Damina said during a sermon even as he asked the congregation, \u201cdid we ever say such?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is misleading; this is criminal. This is not of God. I just don\u2019t want to get our lawyers to jump on this. This is not of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never said anybody who doesn\u2019t believe in Jesus anywhere they are will go to heaven. I never said that. What I said is that God is not a Christian. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI also said not only Christians will go to heaven but anyone who believes that Jesus died, he was buried, and he rose the third day will go to heaven.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Damina said the newspaper should have called him or clarified before running the story. He also asked his congregation to go to the link in the story and let them know they lied.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Controversial Nigerian gospel preacher Pastor Abel Damina, says the statement credited to him that not only Christians will go to heaven was wrongly misinterpreted. A publication, Punch, had reported Damina, founder of Power City International Worldwide, Uyo, in the South-South region, as chiding Christians who believe only followers of Jesus Christ will make heaven. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}