TB JOSHUA ……..THE AFRICAN FANATISM
Now in that city there was a man named Simon. He was practicing occult arts and thrilling the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest paid close attention to him, saying, “This is what we call the great power of God!” They paid careful attention to him because he had thrilled them for a long time with his occult performances.
But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. Acts 8:9-11
This write-up or article does not intend to judge or exonerate Prophet TB Joshua, but with a carefully thought and analyzed preservative, my goal in all this is to expose this whole concept spirituality in Africa. The scripture above is indicative of an ancient situation that has resurfaced in our times and if we are to take the scripture in its literal sense as a Judge, then this current church generation is guilty in every aspect before it. The scriptures have found us guilty and we are deserving of Judgement. One of the waste qualities this generation has exhibited is a low-quality distinguishing what is false from what is true. We call this function discernment.
Disclaimer! This article intends to expose the false spirit masquerading as the Spirit of truth and it is intentionally designed to offend the masses with truth.
The audacity to write this motivated by the bible which has wildly discussed the issue of the subject on false prophets and therefore, I will be failing my conscious if I do not discuss this issue.
I have not been surprised, with recent news that came from the BBC concerning the Late TB Joshua with wild allegations concerning his abusive relationship his followers. I say so because this is not a new headline on the man, there have been men and women who have tried to expose the prophet’s private life, but this have met great resistance from his followers, alleging that these stories are designed to tarnish the image of the “man of God”. Is TB Joshua guilty of these allegations of sexual abuse on his followers? My quick answer is I don’t know, but one thing I say is let’s get out of this bubble that the “man of God” is innocent and that the western media is on an agenda to discredit Africa. That’s utter nonsense. We need to look at this issue from a sober perspective and get to the truth, we can’t be dismissive of everything that comes to light because it hurts us in some way.
I am not surprised at the reaction given to this horrific news of alleged sexual and other abuses on those who appeared on the BBC documentary. The reaction has been natural and mostly to forces of politics and religion. Politics because of this heavily perceived western imperialistic propaganda channel in the name of the BBC. Religion, because of spirituality of signs and wonders and the philanthropy that accompanied the ministry of the “man of God”.
We don’t know the truth, but that doesn’t mean we can’t ask questions, and that the BBC investigative team has produced about 30 witness who claim to have experienced horrific things by the TB Joshua. This is damming on the “legacy” of TB Joshua and the unfortunate part is that he is not alive to defend himself of the wild allegations levelled against him.
Was a TB Joshua a man of God? I don’t know, but one thing is that I never agreed with him both in spirit wise, practice and doctrinally, but he was never my occupation. I have good friends who loved him and I wont judge them in anyway. I first learned about TB Joshua in 1999, when his VHS videos were out on the market, those with good memories will remembers those explicit videos of the people of with “hanging conditions” which many felt that it was too extreme for public viewing.
Later on, we saw the airing of the Emmanuel tv on many terrestrial television platforms such dstv and free to air channels which made TB Joshua the most watch personality in the continent, thousands if not millions of people would be clued to Emmanuel TV, we saw a lot of Pentecostals churches loosing out on membership, we saw alot of pilgrims to Nigeria to see and experience deliverance from the man of God.
Again, I will say this, I did not agree with the man in my spirit, I didn’t agree with him doctrinally, but there was a time I almost gave in to the idea of following at a distance that didn’t work for me. There are things I didn’t buy in, such as how he got born again, the explain, I never saw him lead people to Christ, I didn’t agree with the use of water and rosary [ prayer beads] and many more. Anyway, away from my position on the man.
My concern is how in the world has the dead man attracted so much support against the allegations leveled against his legacy? I am busy thinking, did the man have everyone in his private life? This is a man who was always on TV preaching, helping the poor, healing the sick, prophesying and casting out demons. Does he not have a family? No social life? No friends? we are told that he didn’t share the same house with his widowed wife Mama Evelyn. The energy I have felt of late in defending a man they hardly intimately know. I have seen people defending the man in the name of the good things he did, come on can we be deeper. Many of you think am being malicious, but what would be my gain in this? I have studied people’s reaction to this BBC documentary and non has convinced me of why they are supporting.
This has nothing to do with church, I say so because he was not a Christian. How did I arrive at that conclusion, simple! his salvation story is enough evidence. This whole issue has revealed to us on how the spell of sorcery has captured the entire continent to believe and defend what they don’t;
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Galatians 3:1
Yes, Africa is under a heavy spell, just as Galatia was under real witchcraft, so are we, and this why there is no genuine power in the church today, because we have accredited magic to be God’s power. Again, the bible has a lot to say on testing men and women who claim to have come from God, we are to test the spirit operating behind them, we have to approve them according to the scriptures;
Dear friends, don’t believe all people who say that they have the Spirit. Instead, test them. See whether the spirit they have is from God, because there are many false prophets in the world.1 John 4:1
The test of genuine prophetic ministry is not the accuracy of the prophecy but the container in which the prophecy is coming from, even false can manifest prophetic accuracy;
One of your people, claiming to be a prophet or to have prophetic dreams, may predict a miraculous sign or an amazing thing. What he predicts may even take place. But don’t listen to that prophet or dreamer if he says, “Let’s worship and serve other gods.” (Those gods may be gods you’ve never heard of.) Deuteronomy 13:1-2
We remember the girl in the book of Acts 16, her revelations were accurate about Paul and his ministerial team, but the spirit behind was the spirit of python, [divination]. God needs to help us break the spell of spiritual deception. BBC has nothing to gain or loose on this, they are doing their job. No right-thinking person will even try to drag the true church of Jesus Christ in this drama. I am shocked that we are not even taking time to look into this whole issue especially with those who claimed where abused, we have just thrashed their claims in the bin without giving interest in their plight, this is not spirituality but religiosity, its in religion where cult leaders are exonerated from evil acts by their followers, giving them the pedestal of some divinity. According to the millions of his followers, the man is a divine, immune from sin, he is THE PROPHET of our time. According to His followers he is untouchable, but I am very sure about this, the spirit of deception is at work;
Even him, who’s coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 2Thessalonains 2:9-11.
Finally, let us learn to reason, let us analyses things from the light of scripture, we can’t be defending people as if we know them from A to Z, no matter how great one becomes, they are still human, they are prone to sin, error and even be heretic. TB Joshua is a human being like each one of us, we can’t use philanthropy as a yardstick, miracles and prophecy as a measure of one’s greatness. I just pray that that the truth prevail in all this, someone wise said to me…don’t follow a man too closely so that you see what you need to see.
Herbert Es