Mention the name Daddy Freeze at any gathering and you can be sure that heads will turn in your direction. This is because this outstanding broadcaster has, over the last few years, built for himself a scary reputation, attracting a large following of lovers and haters. Thousands adore him to no end. They respect his views as a Christian, most especially his courage to call out great and powerful men of God, challenging them to show to him where it is stated in the scriptures that it is mandatory for every Christian to pay tithe. In same manner, thousands loathe him. They despise him and everything he stands for. They are also Christians, but they find it unthinkable that one of their own could come out to show utter disrespect to their revered pastors and the church of God. Ordinarily, this intense hatred would’ve bothered anyone. But not Daddy Freeze, whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde, a native of Osun State. But he is not a full blooded Nigerian. He was born in Cluj Napoca in Romania. His mother, Smaranda Olarinde, is Romanian. A couple of weeks ago, City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL and ODION AIBOR met with Daddy Freeze at Cool Fm where he works as a presenter and got the very articulate ‘preacher’ to talk about all of the controversies that he’s thrown up in the past few years. And he gratefully obliged us. Last week, we published the first part of the interview where he talked about his reasons for insisting tithing is not scriptural and his issues with Pastor Adeboye and other top pastors. In this second part, he talks about the problems he has with Nigerian churches and why he’s upset that they have deviated from the original doctrines as presented in the scriptures. Read the Excerpts.
As a much younger man, were you always critical of things around you? When did this whole transformation and crusade begin?
I started off in the Pentecostal Church. I worked in the church. A lot of people find this hard to believe. I preached the gospel on the radio for about 10 years. I was a bit part of the system but it all started when my marriage failed. I went to the church and the church told me to go fix my marriage and I didn’t want to fix my marriage because my marriage had failed. It was a mess. I was coming from depression and all sorts of things, why would you want me to go back there? Why would you want me to be unhappy. And as I was going home that day, I had my doubts. I didn’t think it was the church’s business to tell me to go and fix my marriage. I told the pastor I was suffering from depression and he was looking at me. He said perhaps we should stay apart for a while and I was like, hey, bros, we’re not staying apart. We are done. And I read a scripture that day that ministered to me, John chapter 4, Christ with the Samaritan woman at the well who had five husbands and she was living with her boyfriend. At no point did Christ tell her to go back to her first husband. At no point did Christ tell her to fix her marriage. At no point did Christ tell her to stop staying with her boyfriend. Maybe he did, but it was so insignificant that it wasn’t reported in the scriptures. I had just one marriage that failed, this woman had five and Christ did not call her a sinner. Christ did not tell her she’ll not enter the kingdom of God, in fact because of his interaction with her, he had to stay an extra two days in a town that he did not budget to stay before and brought salvation to a whole lot of people. And he described her as a harvester who got paid good wages. So, this woman who lived with her boyfriend is now all of a sudden a harvester who would earn a good wage, who’s winning souls and then, my pastor here is telling me I will not make heaven if I don’t fix my marriage and I just realized that this man doesn’t know anything. But I was just coming up then. I was studying those scriptures and studying them well. I had to have a proper understanding of it before I realized that I was right, that they don’t know anything. But that’s what woke me up. I’m like, you’re following Christ, right? You’re a Christ-ian, so, If Christ did not do something, why are you doing it? These same pastor gives us Black currant as the blood, Christ gave us wine, you’re giving us Black currant. Christ did not call the woman a sinner, you’re calling me a sinner. You’re not a Christian! Not only that, you’re a non-Christian pastor. So, I just kept seeing that the more I studied the scriptures, the more I realized our pastors were going contrary to the doctrines. It’s like the doctrine is going this way, they’re going that way. And the more I tried to let them see, the more they kept shutting me up. Until I had that explosive video on Linda Ikeji that nobody could deny when I presented the facts to the world. And at that point I expected a turn around, but instead I got a bashing from all the G.O.s and everybody had a response and the response was, don’t listen to that idiot. That was the turning point in my life and I was like, you know what? You need to preach this truth and let the people know what’s going on.
So, how has the journey been so far for you?
Well, it’s been a good journey but it’s also been a very frustrating journey. There’s been a lot of hate and a lot of love. I told you earlier that someone said to me, Daddy Freeze, since you started preaching, words just started appearing in our bible. Words that were never there just started showing up and I thought that was hilarious. Indeed, I drew people’s eyes to many things in the scriptures. A lot of people see me as somebody who hates pastors, I don’t hate pastors, I hate lies. I hate someone who misleads people. We’ve been misled. The church has become, in many instances, a political tool to swing people this way or swing them that way. So, I don’t have anything with anyone, more or less.
Where are you looking to take up your Sunday ministry to? Are you looking to set up a church at some point?
I have set up a church but it’s an online church. 1st Peter 2 vs 5 speaks of us being the spiritual stones of the spiritual temple. In Christianity, there is no temple. No physical temple. Act chapter 7 vs 48 and Acts chapter 17 vs 24 clearly explains to us that God does not live in temples built by human hands. 1st Peter 2 shows us that Christ is the central stone of the temple and we are the other building stones of the temple. So, the temple of Christianity is spiritual. Maybe at a point, we needed physical temples but I guarantee you in 2019, we don’t need a physical temple. Especially not in the poorest nation with the largest number of people in extreme poverty. What are we doing with churches for a hundred and thousand people? And at the end of the day, the people still come to meet us. I told you the story of a young boy who came to us with a serious Glaucoma problem. He had eyesight problem and was managing it 30% until they poured anointing oil in his eyes and it went from 30% to 5 %.
We’ve seen so many people with the greatest miracle ever and that’s medical science, it’s the greatest miracle ever. Let me tell you, in one day, doctors save more people than Christ and the disciples were reported to have saved in the entire scriptures. In one day. Malaria used to be a killer disease that took the lives of thousands of people. Small Pox was eradicated not by prayer, not by laying on of hands, but by taking medication. Today, the disease has been totally eradicated. So, medical science is a miracle and you ignoring it to go to meet your pastor to pour anointing oil on your ulcer, anointing oil on your Glaucoma is negating a miracle that is right before you. That is why that boy’s eye sight went from 30% to 5%. If that church had given him a roll of Igbo (Marijuana) to smoke, it would’ve been better. Let me show you (connects to Google). See, Cannabis reduces the blood pressure in the eye. You’re better off giving somebody a joint of weed than pouring Olive oil in his eyes. Imagine you poured the Olive oil and the person was healed, its a different story. But instead, you made the situation worse and then you tell them they have no faith. There was also another with same Glaucoma case. A very prayerful boy. Glaucoma started, instead of seeking medical help, they asked to pray and fast and before you know it, eyesight finished patapata (completely). Last Sunday, we were having a meeting because people join me for worship every Sunday, a guy said he wants to go to traditional religion. I didn’t know what to tell him. What do I tell someone that the church has failed? That he should still stay there? I was stammering. How do I tell someone who has given Jesus a try all his life to continue to do so? That the Jesus they sold to him was a corporate fraud? A lie! A scam!
A lot of people are often shocked at your astounding knowledge of the bible, you seem to know the bible inside out… That’s because I spent a great deal of my life studying the scriptures.
For how many years did you do that?
I would say about ten years. But the last three years have been intense. But I started studying it in Greek. You have the Greek word and then there’s the Greek transliteration.
I think the part about you that has gotten your critics really confused as to how to come at you is the fact you know just as much as they know of the bible… You know, one of the things that puzzled me initially. I was seeing it like this. It’s like you tell me you’re an Indian and I look at your hair, it’s African. I look at your beard, it’s African, your accent is African, you’re dressed African, you’re in Africa. Because you are a G.O. that everybody respects, I feel that I’m the one that’s crazy, that as I’m seeing you as African, you’re actually Indian and my mind is the one that is wrong. And I realize that I’m not the only one who thinks like that. You see, that’s why I said it’s our mindset. I had that mindset for many years. I saw the truth but I was afraid to challenge it because I felt I could not be right. I was hoping I was wrong. I was like how can I be right and all these people wrong! It’s impossible. I had to be sick. I went through that phase of ‘I must be a devil!’ I must be sick. Then, the more I studied, the more I saw more truths, and more truths, and more truths.
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