Why I Totally Disagree With Pastor ADEBOYE

• What DADDY FREEZE Told City People

The highly respected General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has been one of the most reported and written about Nigerian in the last few weeks. Every word he says is scrutinised. Every line he quotes from the scriptures is dissected and sometimes twisted. And those who know him closely say he is probably the most misunderstood man of God on the planet. In the last few weeks, what has kept him in the news has been the issue of payment of tithe. Some men of God, led by Dr. Abel Damina, have vehemently risen against the mandatory payment of tithe. Some others have insisted, like Pastor Adeboye, that it is biblical and there is nothing wrong with it. And the fireworks have been erupting ever since then. And from the look of things, the controversies surrounding the subject will not go away anytime soon.

But City People can authoritatively confirm that it is not Dr. Abel Damina who first publicly took on Pastor Adeboye on the issue of tithe, and went extra length, even putting his life at risk, to demand that the respected cleric puts a halt on the collection of tithes at the Redeemed Church. The first person to take on Pastor Adeboye and other top Pastors who ask their members to pay tithe is one of Nigeria’s most influential personalities and talk show host, Daddy Freeze, whose real name is Ifedayo Olarinde. This Nigerian-Romanian broadcaster, about seven years ago, had an intensely heated battle with Pastor Adeboye and some of the other big names in Christendom, calling to question several of their doctrines that many of their members had come to accept as biblical standards. But it all started with the issue of tithe. He disagreed totally that Christians are mandated to pay tithe. And worse still, he disagreed with Pastor Adeboye that Christians who do not pay their tithes will not make heaven. Today, about seven years later, Pastor Adeboye just recently apologised for saying Christians who don’t pay their tithes will go to hell. City People reached Daddy Freeze via the telephone and, in his typical manner, bared his mind on both the apology and tithe saga.

“I appreciate his apology, and like I said earlier, I appreciate the fact that he has been courageous about it,” Daddy Freeze said. “ I always knew this was wrong. And I always stood against it. . It is absolutely wrong. Yes, we have talked about this over and over again and it has been proved clearly with the help of the scriptures that it is not acceptable, yet a lot pastors will not stop and turn a new lea. How can somebody 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”. And this is what many Pastors used to defend tithing and my question to them has always been, 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. And where are the old priests today?

So, you insist it is wrong that many Pastors are collecting tithe, we asked him? “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.”

Back then, over seven years ago, Daddy Freeze, who was younger and much more confrontational, had reacted angrily. Reacting to Pastor Adeboye’s sermon, Daddy Freeze took to social media to talk down such teachings when he said; “This is the kind of false preaching that probably plunged us into poverty in the first place!”

The radio personality who is the leader of ‘Free the sheeple’ movement in Nigeria commented further saying; “Paying tithe and giving offering to these guys WONT GET YOUR DUMB ASSES OUT OF POVERTY, there is a huge possibility that it’s what got you there in the first place!”

Daddy Freeze has been involved in a back-and-forth with Pastor Adeboye and Apostle Suleman over the tithing controversy which has lasted for many years and triggered so much heated debate.

Recall that Apostle Suleman (President of the Omega Fire Ministries worldwide (OFM) who weighed-in on the heated argument of tithing said in a statement that Daddy Freeze had no right to attack or argue with Pastor Adeboye over the matter.

In his reply, Daddy Freeze had told Suleman that he was ready for a debate over the tithing controversy while he also noted that Pastor Adeboye was also welcomed to join in the debate as he was ready to take on both of them at the same time.

And even now that the debate appears to have gone down, there is no doubt that it will always come up for as long as these men continue to hold conflicting opinions on the scriptures.