The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adebayo, at the church’s monthly Holy Ghost Service, last weekend, condemned those who hide under the guise of grace to commit sin, warning that sooner or later, according to Numbers 32:23, their sins would find them out.
“If you have given your life to Jesus, His blood will wash away your sin, but if you continue in sin under the guise of grace, as the Lord lives, your sin will find you out,” he said.
Putting his admonition in perspective, Adeboye explained that, “The Bible says you must abstain from every appearance of evil, 1Thessalonians 5:22. The elders say, ‘They want to burn you, you rub yourself with oil and sit near fire, you’ve made the job easy. The elders say, ‘They are calling you a thief, and you are playing with the child of a goat’. The elders say, ‘What you are not going to eat, don’t smell’, avoid every appearance of evil.”
He, however, cautioned that men of God must be vigilant and cautious in dealing with the opposite sex, “because when a woman accuses you of something, nobody is going to listen to you.”
Adeboye, who spoke at the Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway before a congregation of millions of worshippers from different countries, was apparently reacting to the allegation of rape against the Senior Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo.
His remarks came just as the police, reportedly, commenced investigation into the rape allegation after an official complaint at the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Alagbon, Ikoyi, Lagos, by Mrs. Dakolo.
The G.O, as Adeboye is usually called by the congregants, condemned willful submission to sins under the guise of grace, citing scriptural instances against such, and also alluding to traditional proverbial anecdotes.
“I agree I am old fashioned. They called me so, when I said I would never have a female private secretary, because when a woman accuses you of something, nobody is going to listen to you. Nobody! They will listen to the woman. When you ask for witness, the sister will say, ‘do they invite people to such things?’
“The Bible says if the devil comes to you face-to-face, you fight him but according to 2 Timothy 2:22, when you find yourself facing youthful lust/temptation, don’t wait to fight, flee. When you see a sister smiling at you in a ‘koi-koi’ way, run like a terror! Don’t say, ‘I’m a great man of God, I’m highly anointed; ask Samson.”
Adeboye, who said he had been severally accused of failing to speak up against burning national issues, said he often refrained from talking because, “I am under authority of CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) and PFN (Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria) and whatever they say is what I have said.
“But I feel compelled to say some things. To those who are young and upcoming ministers of God, it is written, ‘There’s nothing hid that will not come to the open’, Mark 4:22. You think you’ve done something and it is covered? Then you can throw away your Bible, because the person who said hidden things would come to the open is the Truth Himself; the harbinger of grace.”