Pastors yet to open churches are not believers – Chris Oyakhilome: Founder of Believers Love World popularly known as Christ Embassy Church has branded leaders yet to reopen their churches because of COVID-19 unbelievers.
Despite the go-ahead of Federal and State Governments for worship centres to reopen after months of lockdown, some church leaders have decided they won’t reopen yet, citing safety concerns.
They include Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly Lagos; Pastor Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Centre Lagos; Pastor Poju Oyemade of Covenant Christian Centre Lagos and Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rock, Lagos, among others.
Oyakhilome said such pastors have denied the faith, stressing they are no longer believers.
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Addressing his members on Wednesday, Oyakhilome said: “If you refuse to open church for fear of being infected, you were never a believer.
“This is a great concern because there were churches that were thought to be churches until recently.
“We find a lot of ministers who were thought to be advocates of the gospel advocating for shutting down the churches because they cannot guarantee safety.
“It is pressure like this that reveals what is a church and what is not. Do they really believe in God, the same God of the patriarchs in the Bible?
“When you get to that point where you are afraid of opening churches for fear of being infected, you have denied the faith. You never believed,” he said.