Bishop Adebayo Babalola is a rare man of God. He rarely talks, nor gives commentary on political issues. Though a successful legal practitioner, he is more dedicated and focused on winning souls to Christ, as he leads the Flaming Sword Ministry also known as, Chapel of the Overtakers.
In this interview, Bishop Adebayo Babalola takes up issues in Christiandom as it affects the leaders and the led.
As a Bishop in Christiandom, what is the name of your church?
Well… it is not my church, the church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head of the church and he died and resurrected for the church. So, I am just the person that God caught in the middle of my life and decided to have mercy on me and redeemed me. For that reason, I’ve been practicing that which Jesus prescribed, and I am happy for it and I’m not profiteering from it. I lead the Flaming Sword Ministry.
How long has the church been in Lagos Nigeria?
If you mean the ministry, it has been on for more than 23 years in Lagos and in sundry places. Because when God saved me, I made up my mind that I will serve him with all my might without profiteering from it and I began to speak the truth and nothing but the truth concerning the body of Christ.
What can you say about Christianity in Nigeria, has it been progressive or retrogressive?
If we say numerical increase, some people might argue that it has increased numerically, statistics shows that the number is even reducing all over the world, not even only in Nigeria, all over the world. Because the examples that are shown forth by the so-called Christians, is not as encouraging as one would have loved it to be, and for that reason they put a lot of people off and I won’t blame anybody that is discouraged, but I will blame them that they should have looked beyond the practitioner of evil things and put their focus on eternity.
But there has been a continuous proliferation of more churches in the streets of Nigeria. So are there more Christians with better character than before?
You have asked 2 important questions, you are relating the number of people that are becoming Christians, numerical growth. But how about their spiritual growth, we will talk about that one later. About the numerical growth, yes, it is desired. If there are churches everywhere, it is for the better. There are beer palours everywhere, so why shouldn’t there be churches everywhere? They should grow and move, but the issue there is that, churches must not be led by chalatants which some of them are now.
When you say chalatants what exactly are you talking about? Are you referring to the way Christianity is being practiced?
The way Christianity is being practiced is not the issue, it is the fact that some artful dodgers, we call them spiritual artful dodgers have canonised Christianity to feed the gods of their stomach, they use the average citizens, some of them they lead them to hell, some of them they just scam their money and use some strategies to take money from them. They weaponise fear into them to extort them. I think that is one of the first thing I have found out about the Christianity of some church leaders in quote. Whereas the numerical growth is not yielding to the real essence, of being a sacrifice fit enough for the King of Kings. So just attending a church or some churches, does not make you a Christian and being a principled person, doesn’t mean you are a Christian. What have you sacrificed? What exactly have you laid bare, how will people see you, that makes them want to see the Christ that you serve. What I’m saying is that, most people who claim to be Christians are fake! Artful dodgers, con artists, marabouts, they are all over the place!
Do you know about some of them?
O yes! As a true Christian, I am a watchman. At my level, we have the duty to expose some people who are not Christians, they are wolves in sheeps clothing and they call themselves church leaders and they do all sorts of outrageous things all in the name of prophecies. May I suggest the fact that is not even the modern thing to do prophecy now, we are in the period of revelations. Those people that are going into the past to do what they claim to be prophecy, sorry to say, that is not why they are doing what they are doing right now, specifically I have one person, one character called Primate Ayodele and he went as far as to mimic that stain that was put on the LORD Jesus Christ that INRI as his church, he goes on yelling prophecies, negative prophecies of doom and then now giving to people perhaps with the intention of extracting things from them. The reason why I am very angry is what this character did to the late Herbert Wigwe, who was a man of God, he died and when he died this man Primate Ayodele mocked him, that he gave Wigwe a prophecy and after that, he started running away from him. So who gave you the right to give a prophecy? Are you a professional prophet of doom? Prophet of doom giving a real man of God a real prophecy! You said you gave him a prophecy after the man died, when he couldn’t defend himself!
Let me tell you, I never saw or met the late Wigwe in life, but what I’m particularly worried about is that, this man Ayodele has been doing it for a long time and all he seems to do is to put fear into people and make himself relevant.
Have you had any similar anger with any other man of God?
Yes! One of such was Primate Oshitelu, who is now late. He gave a full page article in the Guardian in those days that must have been about twenty something years ago and of course we wrote a letter to the Guardian that what Oshitedu wrote was not intended for Christians, I mean he was an old man then, and if he wanted to meet heaven, he should go to a Bible School and when he does, he will know about the sacrificial side of white garment churches. And the man before he died, I learnt that he was so nice and that he apologized and I don’t know if he went to Bible school though, he changed his ways and his children are now more into that which is Jesus Christ that is christocentric kind of Christianity. I think am satisfied with that one. I didn’t meet the man, I never met Ositelu. But he was a responsible man that I respected. I had to correct him and he changed his ways.
So what you are trying to say now, if Primate Ayodele were to be more focused on Christianity, you will be okay with him?
Of course, nobody is condemned to satanic eternity. Everybody has a chance, if he changes and turns around even Jesus Christ will welcome him. But more importantly, I’m more particularly about that, not only is he a prophet of doom, which is even outdated, but he has moved away from Christianity. How can a man of God start predicting football league, the Premier League in Britain. He said Buhari will die the first term, of course Buhari did not die then he said Tinubu will fall sick and all the rest, the man from what you see is trying to get people’s attention. Tinubu is trying to do well, leave him alone.
Are you against prophecy in any way?
Every man of God is a prophet, first and foremost when you are a born again you become 1) a prophet. you become (2) a priest. And as you grow deeper you become a revelator. So if you are doing prophecy along the christocentric line, nothing is wrong with it, every body needs a pep of hope, eternity and future. But when somebody now begins to tell you the kind of soup that you are going to eat tomorrow, then I think that is making fun of Christianity! More importantly also, if some percentages of your prophecies are not fulfilled, then there is a question mark about your prophecies.
The Bible said if you make a prophecy as a man of God and is not fulfilled, the Bible said that such a prophet should be avoided, or not believed. The Bible is my backing, my standard, my local dependent is the Bible and the bible says we should not respect such a person.
He said there will inflation, do you need to speak to God to know that there will be inflation? Those are what I refer to as political and economic commentary. In fact what people can see, God doesn’t see it as an issue. So if you are now saying what people can see that means you are fake, that’s fake, God only deal with mysteries. So what are the mysterious in the things that he has talked about. He is only trying to hoodwink people. I am not exactly impressed. If he calls himself a seer, I won’t blame him, if he has called himself a witch doctor, I won’t blame him, to say he is a prophet? Prophecy goes beyond that which he is entertaining with. You can’t ridicule Christ and expect that people like me will not talk. God is waiting and watching. Today, he will say Tinubu is doing this, tomorrow PDP will do this or that! Those are not your prophecy terrain as a man of God. Focus on winning souls for the kingdom of God!
I heard he prophesied that army or police will go on strike, is he the one that will lead them on strike? That he also said that there will be fire in Aso Rock, is he the one that will go and put the fire there? What has all that got to do with a man of God. Let me tell you in the bible, when a prophet of God gives prophecy of doom, that same prophet gives a solution! This man never gives a solution, he leaves his prophecy hanging there to cause fear. My God doesn’t operate like that.
Lastly sir, what can you say about the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
The only time the word Christian was mentioned in the Bible, was when it was mentioned by the unbelievers in Antioch. They said that these people behave like Christ and therefore they are Christians. Unbelievers pointed to them! Are Christians now to be behaving like the same unbelievers, begin to fight dirty about what they should not be fighting about? Souls are dying, you know that people die every day in Lagos, people die every day in Nigeria and then. Out of 16 people who die in Nigeria, 30% of them are Christians, what step are Christian leaders taking against this, what crusades are they doing, what are you doing to evangelize and win souls so that they will not go to hell. Rather, the interest is to fight and say that you want to be prigrimage Chairman, Commission Chairman, that you want to visit Governor. Shouldn’t the Governor be the one to come and visit them? They want to go and visit the governor, for what?
Christians should speak the things of God and encourage and give hope to people, the common man. There are greater problems than politics, which is the least of them.
