Nigerians have lauded the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, for always being a source of calm. Nigerians praised the pastor while reacting to the message he gave at his virtual service this Sunday, April 19. They stated that the man of God is always calm whenever he gives his sermons. They took to the popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to praise him. They noted that Adeboye was also calm while talking about the coronavirus pandemic.
Adeboye, a former lecturer, who superintends over one of the largest churches, with millions of members across the globe, in a televised broadcast on Sunday, said “the return to normal living will commence in a matter of weeks”.
Scientists have argued that it would take months for a vaccine to be developed for coronavirus and many nations may have to curtail social gatherings and employ stringent social measures to ensure the virus does not do more damage.
Since the lockdown in Nigeria, many church leaders, including Mr Adeboye, whose church headquarters is in Ogun, one of the states under a federal government-initiated lockdown, have held online services with their members since public gatherings have equally been banned.
Ogun, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory have been under a complete lockdown for over three weeks.
Mr Adeboye had, in the wake of the emergence of the virus in Nigeria, revealed how God told him the world would experience a ‘compulsory holiday’.
‘‘I have good news for you. The return journey to normalcy has begun,’’ Mr Adeboye told members on Sunday. ‘’Very soon your pastors will return to their duty posts. I have perhaps one more Sunday to spend with you (televised broadcast), then everything will return to normal.’’
‘’I also advise the government that in the future when they are setting up their committees, men of God should be included,’’ the cleric said. ‘’I am not talking about small boys like me. I am talking about chief imams, arch bishops, others, so they can help them with the spiritual aspect of this warfare. I sincerely hope that we would all know at the end that it is not by our wisdom, our abilities, our planning that has given us whatever victory that we have already gotten. We need to return all the glory to God because as the elders will say, the rain can send you into the same hut more than once. We need to give the glory to God because we don’t want the victory we have won so far to be reversed.’’
Mr Adeboye also said a relapse in the scourge of coronavirus, even after it recedes, is possible.
‘’If you ask any doctor, he (she) would tell you that the most difficult cancer to handle is the cancer that relapses,’’ he said. ‘’We don’t want a relapse of this scourge. Like I said before, this coronavirus, by the grace of God, will recede. But don’t let anybody deceive you. It is not going to disappear 100 per cent. Flu came about a 100 years ago. It receded. Ebola came. It receded. You know very well they have not died completely. Let’s give all the glory to God that He will see that our victory is complete.’’
‘’God will give us (in Africa) victory first before it extends to other parts of the world,’’ Mr Adeboye said. ‘’Even after the lockdowns end, any journey outside the country, except it is very essential, postpone it.’’
Mr Adeboye, however, said the coronavirus season would soon end globally and the world would heave a sigh of relief.