Pastors’ heavenly tales spark earthly row

Claims by some pastors that they have visited heaven, seen Jesus Christ face-to-face and received divine instructions have divided Christian leaders, with some defending the possibility of supernatural encounters while others warn that such accounts could be fabricated to attract followers and make money.

While some church leaders who spoke with Sunday PUNCH insisted that God could reveal Himself to individuals through spiritual encounters, others argued that extraordinary claims should be scrutinised to prevent the spread of misleading teachings and the exploitation of worshippers.

The controversy followed the circulation of viral videos featuring the founder of Remnant Christian Network, Apostle Arome Osayi, recounting supernatural experiences and encounters with Jesus Christ.

In one of the videos, Osayi claimed that Jesus appeared to him and spent nine hours “crying and complaining” about the state of the church in Nigeria.

According to the cleric, Jesus expressed disappointment that the church had failed to produce the expected results despite the spiritual investment made in it.

In another video, the cleric claimed that Jesus appeared to him after he asked for the power to raise the dead and reverse autism.

According to Osayi, Jesus told him to send five million to a pastor.

I said, ‘Won’t you give me the power to raise the dead and the power to reverse autism?’ He said, ‘Send five million to that pastor,’ and I said, ‘I accept,’” the cleric claimed.

The accounts sparked criticism from other Christian leaders, including the founder of Power City International, Pastor Abel Damina, who described the claims as “wild stories and fables”.

He questioned the consistency of Osayi’s accounts, arguing that pastors should exercise caution when sharing extraordinary spiritual experiences.

The Senior Pastor and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, also questioned claims by pastors that they had visited heaven repeatedly.

Preaching in a video, Suleman expressed disbelief at accounts of people claiming to have travelled to heaven several times.

Revelations or fabricated stories?

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the President of the Nigeria Council for Theological Studies and Christian Education, Prof Olowookere David, defended the possibility of supernatural encounters.

He argued that the Bible contained accounts of divine revelations and that God could reveal Himself to people in different ways.

The cleric also dismissed suggestions that pastors who shared accounts of visiting heaven and encountering Jesus Christ were ridiculing Christianity.

“There was a time I had an accident and I was in a coma, and I saw angels singing. I saw myself in a beautiful place, dressed in a wonderful attire, and I was just singing. I was enjoying the song, and somebody was telling me, ‘It’s not time, let’s go.’

“And I replied, ‘I’m not going back, this place is sweet,’ but eventually I opened my eyes and I saw myself in the hospital,” he added.

Olowookere further claimed that divine revelations helped him learn Hebrew and recover from an illness after he received what he described as instructions to drink water and take antibiotics.

The cleric opposed calls for CAN and PFN to regulate teachings, arguing that revelations remained part of the Christian experience.

The Rector of the Methodist Theological Institute, Sagamu, Very Revd Bamidele Adedeji, said there was biblical justification for claims of spiritual encounters.

He said he would not rule out the possibility of pastors having such encounters, stressing that the more important issue was the message they claimed to have received.

Adedeji said, “I will not rule out the possibility of pastors having a physical or spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ. Rather, it is the message they bring back that we should query.”

Offering a different perspective, an Ilorin, Kwara State-based cleric, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, described some pastors’ claims of heavenly encounters as financially motivated.

He argued that such testimonies could be used to attract followers, boost their public profiles and solicit money from worshippers.

The cleric alleged that some pastors were inventing emotionally compelling stories to attract worshippers and market their religious activities.

He said, “There is a lot of marketing going on right now in the church. I believe those claiming to have such encounters are just creating stories that will be emotionally compelling to deceive people.

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“They are just looking for something to market their products.”

The cleric argued that CAN and PFN should clarify their responsibilities in addressing questionable teachings.

He noted that both Christian bodies were better positioned to intervene than other groups.

The cleric said their failure to address such matters could leave the public without an effective means of challenging misleading religious claims.

“I suppose PFN and CAN ought to have their terms of reference in terms of their essence and their controlling responsibilities. They have their primary responsibilities on matters like that because no other body is set out to play that role than PFN and CAN. Even when they don’t play it, then nobody is going to play it,” the cleric said.

Money, members driving revelations — Cleric

The Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Lagos, the Most Revd Isaac Ayo Olawuyi, identified financial gains and the drive to attract more members as factors behind some claims of divine revelations.

The cleric lamented that some pastors made questionable claims to make money, but said the freedom of expression enjoyed by Nigerians posed a challenge to efforts to regulate their activities.

“So, it’s unfortunate that people come up with all sorts of things just for financial gains. But how can we stop them? How can we regulate their activities? They have the freedom of expression,” he said.

The cleric warned Christians against blindly accepting claims of heavenly encounters, stressing that the existence of biblical revelations did not mean every such claim should be taken at face value.

Olawuyi said, “We know that revelation exists. We can point to the scriptures about revelation, and we cannot say revelation has ceased completely. But when people begin to make claims that they went to heaven, they saw Jesus Christ, they received instructions, all of this, anybody who goes to that level will not be in the physical realm again.

“We have to be very careful about some pastors trying to gain the attention of the people. We have heard of so many fake miracles and all sorts of revelations by some so-called men of God to deceive and mislead people.

“It is unfortunate that some people just want to cook up things just to make people believe and to gain followers and the attention of the people. So, all of these things should be subjected to critical analysis. Otherwise, people will believe fallacies.”

The archbishop also expressed doubts about the ability of CAN and PFN to regulate such teachings, citing constitutional freedoms of religion and expression.

“Some even go as far as saying they drank tea with God. So, if I say I drank tea with God, can you disapprove of it?” he added.

CAN, PFN can’t regulate pastors

Meanwhile, the National Secretary of PFN, Bishop David Bakare, said regulating claims of clerics of supernatural encounters would be difficult because such experiences were personal and could not easily be subjected to general rules.

Sharing his personal view on the issue, Bakare said while supernatural encounters could occur, the experiences and revelations claimed by pastors must be examined against the teachings of the Bible.

“There is a limit to which you can subject such personal encounters to general explanations because we didn’t have the encounter. So, to make a law over it will be very difficult because it’s about individual experience,” he said.

Bakare said personal encounters should not be dismissed outright but maintained that they could not be used to establish doctrines or impose beliefs on other Christians.

He noted that the Scriptures remained the ultimate authority for Christians, adding that any claimed revelation that contradicted its teachings should not be accepted as coming from God.

He explained that Christians did not need to rely on testimonies from people who claimed to have visited heaven or hell before learning how to live according to their faith.

The Lagos State Chairman of CAN, Bishop Stephen Adegbite, said the Christian body could only advise pastors on their teachings but lacked the capacity to dictate what they should say about their personal experiences.

He said the large number of churches under CAN made it difficult for its leadership to monitor or control what individual pastors preached in their congregations.

“As the chairman of CAN in Lagos, do you know the number of churches that I have under me? So, when somebody is preaching in his own church, how will I be there to tell him not to talk about what he experienced or encountered?

“But if there is anyone that is bringing embarrassment to the Church that we are aware of, we normally tell them to tread softly and stop deceiving people,” he said.