By SAM EYOBOKA & JOSEPH ERUNKE
The birthday gift of a private jet presented by a member of Word of
Life Bible Church, Warri and chairman of the committee of the
procurement of the jet, Kevin Nwachukwu, to Pastor Ayodele Joseph
Oritsejafor, the head of the church and the national president of
Christian Association of Nigeria, on Saturday, November 10, has
generated a lot of controversy. In this interview, Oritsejafor tells the
story of how the jet was acquired.
There is a huge gap between spirituality and actual faith in God.
There is the belief that the love of money has taken over Christendom,
rather than the preaching of undiluted gospel of salvation. Why do you
think there is a shift towards prosperity?
First of all, as somebody who has preached the gospel for 40 years, I
know that the gospel is a total package—it is for the spirit, mind and
body. What has happened through the years is that in every dispensation,
there is emphasis that becomes stronger than the others and such
emphasis does not reduce the format but add to the format.
For example, Martin Luther was the one who searched the scripture to
see how the Word of God could change the human being. But as time went
on, we started seeing the Baptists. The reason why we call them Baptists
is because the founder laid a lot of emphasis on water baptism; that is
why today they are being called Baptists, not because they don’t
believe that you need to accept Christ and be saved and go to heaven.
What happened was that the founder had a revelation and a very deep
understanding and conviction in the area of water baptism and he
emphasized that.
Again, today, when you give your life to Christ, there is a big
emphasis on salvation; that is accepting Christ and walking in the
knowledge of Christ. Now, the revelation is progressing; as that went
on, there are people who through inspiration and the study of the Word
have more understanding in the area of prosperity and so started
emphasizing on prosperity.
The problem is that there are those who preach and their whole
understanding is in the area of prosperity. I think that is not good. I
believe there should be a balance. I don’t believe you should not preach
prosperity, but I don’t think you should preach prosperity and neglect
the preaching of salvation, because we are still going to heaven at the
end of everything.
This world cannot be a permanent place. If you live very long,
according to scripture, probably you will live for 120 years but, at the
end of the day, you will still die and go, so where are you going? So
it is important to emphasize on salvation, knowing Christ and going to
heaven.
Now, what will eventually happen is that, with time, these things
will level out and those who place emphasis on prosperity will realize
that prosperity cannot be the main thing. The main thing must still be
holy living and going to heaven. So this is basically what is going to
happen.
I will say what I have always said that we must emphasize on the area
of living for God. That is why Nigeria has problem today. People who go
to church, especially those who, one way or the other, are privileged
to be in certain positions, forget the basic thing of God, which is the
fear of God and all they want is money, they forget about really serving
God.
They don’t take God to their work place, they don’t bring God to the
positions where God has put them, but I believe that, eventually, these
things will level out and the right thing will take its place.
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| Oritsejafor and wife |
For 40 years, you have been in the pulpit preaching the gospel of
God, during which there have been miracles, touching lives and all that.
But there are certain things that some people don’t know about you and
this has to do with your calling. How did you get the divine call?
