‘In what appears to be his real intention for making the public apology, Adeboye illustrated the story of a man who pledged to give N3.5 million…’
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has apologised for saying that “Anyone who is not paying his tithes is not going to heaven. Full stop!”
Since more than one year when the video clip where Adeboye made the claim surfaced on the social media, Netizens have been criticizing him, not only for that particular claim, but also for other numerous outlandish testimonies he shares which have been viral on social media. For instance, Adeboye had claimed he drinks tea with God, and that God changed winter to summer in Colorado, USA, for his sake, because he doesn’t like cold weather.
Subsequently, many of his severest critics who are pastors that are well-grounded in the study of the Bible had advised him via the social media that the only way out for him and many other teachers of false doctrines, was to publicly recant his false teachings and apologise.
In a dramatic turn of event, the 82-year-old clergy, while addressing a youth congregation on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at the ongoing Youth Convention of the RCCG at the Redemption City, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State, apologised for the false teaching which he described as a “mistake”. He confessed that the Bible says peaceful and holy living are the prerequisites for making heaven.
“I apologise for saying ‘if you don’t pay tithe, you might not make it to heaven.’ I’m sorry, that’s wrong, and it’s not in the Bible,” Adeboye said at the convention, even though he had used the phrase ‘is not going to heaven’ when he made the false claim years ago.
“What the Bible says,” Adeboye continued, “is ‘follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God.’”
Speaking further, in what some analysts have interpreted as an attempt to continue to justify his false teachings while making the apology, Adeboye said: “It is possible to be right and wrong at the same time. I will prove it to you. I’m a scientist so I know that for years we thought that light travels in straight lines. Later on we discovered light travels in waves.
“It is wrong to limit you to 10 per cent (of tithe) when someone is talking of 20, 30, 40 per cent. Ten per cent (tithe) should be for beginners. I believe God will give me an opportunity very soon to give you the details.”
In what appears to be his real intention for making the public apology, Adeboye illustrated the story of a man who pledged to give N3.5 million, equal to the sum of donations of whole congregants during a fundraising at a conference of late American preacher, Kenneth Hagin.
He said he had since been challenged to pay beyond 10 per cent as tithe when upon inquiry the man disclosed to him that “five years ago I started a company with 500 dollars and I said to God you are my senior partner…, prosper the business and I will not insult you with 10 per cent, I will give you 90 per cent. He said five years later my turnover is $50 million.”
“From that day onward I have been increasing my own steadily. I’ve not reached 90 per cent yet, but I’m far from 10 per cent. It’s wrong for me to say you should be paying only 10 per cent,” Adeboye said.
