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Popular Online Personality, Daddy Freeze
There are not too many on air personalities that are as brilliant and as controversial as Daddy Freeze.He has proven over the years that very few on air personalities can hold a candle close to him, His impeccable knowledge of the bible and sound understanding of topical matters, including economic policies of European countries and other parts of the world have really stood him out from the rest of the pack. But many will remember him mostly for his scathing criticisms of pastors who collect tithes from their members. He is still very passionate about this matter.
Daddy Freeze whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde, a native of Osun State. He was born in Cluj Napoca in Romania. His mother, Smaranda Olarinde, is Romanian. Daddy Freeze, one of Naija’s biggest influencers still feels very strongly that pastors have no business collecting tithes and he is always often backing this up with his astonishing knowledge of the scriptures. He shares with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) his reasons why he insists pastors should no longer collect tithes.
You still do not want to let go on the issue of tithing, it’s obviously you seem very passionate about?
Because it is wrong. It is asbsolutely wrong. Yes, we have talked about this over and over again and proved clearly with the help of the scriptures that it is not acceptable, yet they will not stop and turn a new leaf. How can somebody, a G.O., tell you that if you don’t pay your tithe you won’t make heaven? Let’s remember the thief on the cross with Christ, Christ said to him, “today, you will be with me in paradise.” He didn’t say, “German soldiers, unlock him, I want him to be with me in paradise but he has not paid his tithe. Let him quickly go and pay his tithe.” Remember the parable of Lazarus the poor man, he was so poor dogs used to lick his sores. He used to eat from the table of the rich man. He made heaven. Nowhere was it said that he paid tithe. No disciple ever collected tithe. Christ in Mathew chapter 23, verse 23, New Living Translation (NLT) he said, “Woe unto you teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are careful to tithe even the tiniest income of your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the Law – justice, mercy and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things”. This is what a G.O. used to defend tithing and my question to him was, question one, Christ said you should tithe, to who? To him? To his disciples? Who did he say they should tithe to? It’s to the Levites. The old priests. Where are the old priests today?
So you think the Pastors are in no way entitled to take tithes?
Exactly my point. Listen, Levites were the descendants of Levi, son of Jacob and Leah. Nobody becomes a Levite by revelation. It’s just the same way, you, Wale, cannot become the Ooni of Ife, neither can your son become Ooni because you’re from Ondo State and not from the royal lineage in Osun State. You have to be born into the family of Levites. Even Christ, if you go to the book of Hebrews, it spoke about the origin of Christ as a priest. We know where priests come from. They come from Aaron, they come from Levi, which one is this son of Judah calling himself a priest? So, he had to explain his priesthood according to Melchizedek, a priest that lives forever, so his priesthood lives forever. So, Christ is our new priest. The Law of Israel was for the Israelites, it wasn’t for the Palestinians, it was for nobody except the Israelites. But Christ priesthood is for the world. You can’t put yourself under the Law for Israel because you’re a Christian and that Law itself is dead. Let’s look at this same scripture again. It says, “You’re careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens.” Let’s go to King James, it says, “You tithe your mint and cuming.” What are those? Herbs. There was money at that time. The Israelites were in Egypt for four hundred years. Before those four hundred years there was Jacob who gave birth to Joseph who went into Egypt. Jacob had a father, Isaac. Isaac had a father, Abraham. When Abraham wanted to bury his wife, he bought a field with money. So, there was money from the time of Abraham.
But was tithe really about money back then or there were other ways you could pay what was then known as tithe?
That is where a lot of pastors miss the point. Tithe was never money. Tithing was not about giving money to the Levites, it was the annual feast of the tithe. First year and second year were feasts of the tithe, but the third year, the money is given to, in equal measure, the Levites, the orphans and the widows. Let’s read the scripture further, it says, “At the end of every year, at the end of third year, bring the entire tithe of that year’s harvest and store it in the nearest town. Give it to Levites who receive no allotment of land among you.” Okay, so Levites are not allowed to have land, but all your pastors have land so they are not even qualified. Let’s go on, “As well as to the foreigners living among you, orphans and the widows in your town, so they can eat and be satisfied, then the Lord your God will bless you in all your work.”So, in the third year, you’re supposed to give everything that year to be shared equally by these people. Now, one very intelligent G.O. said, in those days, they used to work every year, but these days we work every month. No, Christ, in the book of John chapter four said it’s four months between planting and harvest, but tithe was still paid annually.
What it meant was you gather what you need to gather and you bring it to the Lord at the end of the year. It was an instruction, it wasn’t monthly. If you want to pay tithe according to Melchizedek, because that’s the latest one that they’re trying to do, because Melchizedek in the book of Genesis 14 collected tithe from Abraham, then read Genesis 14 very well. First of all, Abraham paid tithe from the spoils of war. It happened only once. Now, how did he pay this tithe? He took ten percent and gave to Melchizedek and guess what he did with the 90 percent? He returned it back to the king of Sodom where he collected it from. So, if you want to pay tithe according to Abraham and Melchizedek, first of all, no Nigerian pastor qualifies to be a Melchizedek. From where? How? The scripture says Melchizedek has no beginning and has no end. Don’t your pastors have beginning and end? Okay, let us agree your pastor is Melchizedek, when you give him the 10 percent, you must return the 90 percent to your employer. It is an honour system, that’s what those fine boy pastors always say. So, they take portions of the scripture that favour them and they make doctrines out of them.
So, you also do not believe Christians should sow seed?
Of course, I do not agree with it. I do not believe in it. Seed sowing is ridiculous. There is nowhere in the scriptures where seed was money. Seed was what it was –seed! Grains. Christ was the one who sowed seeds, seed was the word of God. Some seeds fell on the bush path, some seeds fell among thorns. Some fell in good ground. He explained it himself, he said the seed is the word. Sometimes, it gets choked by money and the worries of life. He even said that was a dangerous thing for the word of God because it chokes it. But, no, we’ve thrown the word of God away, the seed is now money, bring it and let me multiply it for you. This is absolutely ridiculous.
How about those who say tithing works for them and do not see any logic in your argument?
My answer to that is very simple. Whatever works for you and it’s not in the scriptures, is Satanism. And it might seem like it’s working for you now, but on the long run it’s not working for you. You’re creating a poverty that you’re going to suffer from. Let’s imagine that you’re a Christian, you’ve been paying your tithe and you’re not among the extreme poverty class, each day, more armed robbers are born. Yahoo boys are born, more prostitutes are born, there’s no work. The more these people fall into poverty, the more they become the problem of the society. And the more the chances you have of being robbed. Every day in Nigeria there is robbery. So, you say your tithe works for you, the armed robbers missed you, is that really how it works? Now, your G.O.s are conniving with politicians, we see the pictures, or do I need to mention names before we know who we’re talking about? You say Nigeria’s problems are really politicians, not pastors, can you really draw a line that clearly separates politicians from pastors in this country? Didn’t you see how they were praying for our former president Jonathan so that he could win the elections?
