A clergyman, Apostle (Dr.) Bolaji Akinyemi has said that the continued closure of places of worship was an attack on the essence of God.
According to him, the fear of the pandemic which prompted the government to order churches and mosques closed shows the low level of understanding of the people in government.
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Akinyemi who is the President of Voice of His Words Ministry in Lagos said ”beyond looking at the disease, individual protection especially in a country like Nigeria with low testing capacity, God has been in charge of the people’s protection”.
Daily Trust reports that places of worship in Lagos have been closed down for the past four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
The state government earlier fixed June 19 and 21 for the reopening of mosques and churches respectively but it was suspended indefinitely.
It was however learnt that there has been pressure on the government to reopen worship places.
In a chat with Daily Trust, Akinyemi insisted that it was wrong to close the church for whatever reason.
He said, “It is wrong to order the church closed for whatever reason. In the book of Hebrew chapter 10 vs 25, the bible expressly commands that we should not forsake the coming together, the gathering together of one another.
“That means the bible saw this day coming, that means as we draw close to the end of the age, there would be strategic attempt by the pit of hell to ensure that we don’t come together. Of what interest is our coming together to the pit of hell?
“We have to go back to Genesis when God created man. What was the purpose of creation? The bible recorded that God will always come together in the cool of the Evening to have fellowship with man. The coming together in worship is what makes God, God.”
He said just like in Christianity, the coming together in Islam for the weekly Juma’at prayers shows the essence of God.
“Now why is the Juma’at prayer, the congregational prayer of essence in Islam? Because of the background of Islam and Judaism coming from the loin of Abraham. Now the tradition is that God is seen as God in the gathering of these people. What makes God God is when he is presiding over the gathering of his people.
“Any attack at a gathering or the gathering together in worship is an attack on the essence of God beyond the people,” the cleric added.
He stated further: “It is important for us to understand it within that context and for us to fight and rise for it. You really will not blame the people in government because they are limited in understanding.
“They have just been looking at the disease but beyond the disease, you and I know that safety is of the Lord at the end of the day. When you look at the information available regarding Coronavirus, you would agree with me that God is the wonder that has kept us safe thus far in Nigeria because the people who are saddled with the management of the situation in Nigeria have failed woefully.
“How many people have been tested? When this thing started, I proposed then and have some letters written to the government on the need to increase testing because what we needed to do at that time is to separate the infected from those not infected and if we know the infected, it will help us to control this thing effectively but how many people are they testing in a day?
“Kosofe Local Government where we lost a Senator and House of Assembly member, they are testing 15 persons a day.
“The Bible says when two or more people are gathered together in my name, the name of Jesus is the mace of authority over the Assembly called Church.
“So when you say there is no gathering, you have illegitimized the concept called Church. So that is the bottom line, that is what we must understand.”
