Nigerian born United Kingdom based pastor and General Overseer of Christ Faith Tabernacle, Apostle Alfred Williams in this concluding interview with Church Times takes a cursory look at some of the practices in the church. Below are excerpts:
Some people say that there is a plot to Islamize Nigeriau. How will you react to this?
That’s another scam. Who says there is a plot to Islamize Nigeria? Let them give us the blueprint on television and show us the plan so that all of us will know there is a plan. Let me tell you this, Ezekiel 22 is the problem and solution of Nigeria. It talks about the godless prophet and government officials and there’s no one to intercede so God said I’ll pour my wrath. So, if they want to Islamize Nigeria, are you just knowing that Nigeria is a member of Organization of Islamic Countries OIC? Did Nigeria not have Christian presidents? Obasanjo was a Christian president, why didn’t he take us out of it? Jonathan was a Christian president, why didn’t he take us out of it? Why can’t church leaders in this country say that we are not Islamic country and take Nigeria out of this thing? So, if they cannot, who wants to Islamize Nigeria? It’s those Christian leaders and all those people who live a life of greed.
What are the things you had to unlearn in your over 30 years of ministry?
One of the things I had to unlearn is dogma. I will tell you issues like things we were raised with, issues like you cannot divorce. When my knowledge increased, I discovered that the scripture didn’t really say that. But in the area of doctrine, there is nothing to unlearn because doctrine is verbatim as written in the scriptures. And also my affiliation in England changed my concept about women, how women should be treated which doesn’t exist in Nigeria. How wives should be treated in the family, which some of the cultures in Nigeria is assassinating. The culture in England, the good part of it has retuned my mind. Also, in the way we look at sinners, in those days when we were S.U, we say if you sin you will go to hell. I recognize that when people sin, we shouldn’t send them to hell, we should show them way out and reconcile them.
What’s your position on the faith element; use of mantle, oil, comb and so on?
All those things are ungodly. I’m teaching ministers now on regards this stuff. Anything a minister can present before people which can become the source to hear prayer or to draw power is idol worshipping which was the sin of Aaron. Nigeria has the most uneducated pulpit runners. When I say uneducated, I don’t mean academic. An illiterate man can be educated while an academician is not educated. By uneducated I mean they are uninformed about God. The churches of Nigeria, the Pentecostal church especially, are the most unregulated institutions in the world. So, anybody can just come today and say I’m bishop this, and that’s it. Who regulates him? Who ordained him? And if you give offering to some big fathers, once they give you credence, a criminal can become a minister. Those are the issues.
What then do you have to say to the body of Christ?
My message to the body of Christ is 2nd Chronicles 7:14, it says if my people that are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and repent from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will heal their land. So the healing of Nigeria is in the hands of God’s people. It will happen only when God’s people repent and then seek God for mercy then Nigeria will be healed. Let me say this, I heard that some people are prescribing that you take helicopter and go up to pray over some principalities, all those are nonsense. I have seen demons. I have been taken to heaven more than 14 times. I’ve seen Jesus several times, I wrote a book about my encounter with the Lord. You cannot trade anything against repentance. The soul that sinneth shall die. If the nation of Nigeria don’t repent, it’s not a problem. The people of God in Nigeria needs to know the true God, who Christ really is. The ministers of God in Nigeria must change their message to righteousness and live the life of righteousness. And when that happens and God’s people in Nigeria pray, you will see mercy from heaven that will transform the whole of this nation. Nigeria has a future, and that’s the only way we can get there.
This controversial issue about tithes and offerings: What is your take?
They came to me in England to ask my position as the father of many people in the UK. I believe that we are in the end time. The bible says in 2nd Peter 2:1 & 2, there were also false prophets among the people just as there were false teachers among you, they will secretly introduce destructive heresies and deny even the sovereign Lord who brought them. So we are living in the last days where a lot of false teachers will come into church. If you look at 1st Timothy 4:1, the spirit clearly says that in the last days, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirit and demonic teachings.
The guy who accused the ministers who are flamboyant is committing the same sin that those ministers are committing. Those ministers are abusing the privilege office which is ungodly, but he himself is derailing people by trying to teach the law he’s not schooled to teach. I have replied him in the social media. If you Google Apostle Alfred Williams and tithe, it will give you everything you need to know. Should Christians pay tithe? Yes. To whom should they pay tithe? To God. Who receives the tithe? The church. What is the church? The church is not general overseer. Who runs the church? It’s not bishops, its good governance, the council of elders, which has nothing to do with the founder.
Founder is subject to the governance of the church and unto God. Because some in Nigeria just abuse the system does not invalidate the truth of the word of God. Malachi 3, if you read from verse 1, you will discover that it is a command to Christians. Tithing, Christians ought to pay tithes, that is what the bible says. And Jesus also said it, and in that chapter 3 of Malachi, He called tithes offerings. If you check the dictionary definition of tithe, it says 10% given to religious order. One of the things I did when I was teaching this is that I help people to understand how language should be interpreted because the guy who spoke is not intellectual and so when you are not intellectual in reading a script, certainly you will have a conviction but your conviction will be unacademic and very misleading. That’s what happened to him.
Are you comfortable with the Nigerian church as it is today and if not what do you recommend?
No, I am not. I prayed one day that I wanted to die and I told my church for three months that I’m going. On the third month, one of them came to me and held and leg and said don’t say that again because God will grant it and we don’t want you to go. Why was I praying to die? I looked at all the people we started together, many have denied God. Anytime I talk about it, it moves me to tears. Somebody who has labored must not end up in hell. They don’t have record with God anymore. God don’t know them anymore, though Nigeria hail them. Their names have been taken away from the book of life. Jesus said if anybody mislead youths, it’s better for him not to be born. I see my friends on the highway to hell. They call them fathers in Nigeria, but they’ve lost eternity. I can’t help them because they will not listen. But God told me He will judge them from this year, bitter judgment. In the church there will be humiliation. God will turn His back against people. God will judge them and their churches will be empty. There will be hunger. Those who really want God will look for the truth. There are people who preach the truth in Nigeria, they are not known because they will not lie. If you want church to grow, if you lie about demons, people will come. The same thing babalawo used to do. My father was a wizard priest. The same principle that they use in wizardry, the churches are using it. That is, you make your clients believe that you are the only one who has power and solution and they don’t. That is not Christianity. Jesus said the things I do, you can do. Marks 16:17, He says this signs will follow all of you who believe, in my name you will cast out devils. Every Christian can cast out devil and heal the sick. In my ministry, God has raised 9 dead bodies. I was in Benin Republic last December, a woman bent over 30 years, before my members, God healed that woman and I tell my members, if God can do any miracle through me, He will do through you too. I tell them to pray for the blind, they will pray for the blind and the blind will see. How can a father say that the children cannot do what he’s doing, that father will answer before God. Let me tell you this, a wind will blow in Nigeria of judgment of God, the nakedness of many will be exposed in a short time, and God will turn the heart of people against them. Some of them will be lynched by their people. Many will leave all these gathering of lies and convocation of sinners and they will look for God. Can you imagine a minister standing before people and saying God is telling me that this number of people should give a particular amount? Is God a beggar? Did He say that in the bible? God is interested in your problem and solving it, He doesn’t have a need that He will tell you.
All those gimmicks and manipulations, another thing they do now, they will go and be putting money on the altar. It came from Satanism. When you go to a Satanist, they will tell you to put money on the ground. And some occultic ministers brought it to the church from America and unfortunately the Nigerian ministers took it like madness. Any time you see what is going on in Nigeria, if you think about it, you will just like to finish your work and leave. But God will judge Nigeria nation beginning from the church, not the government. Mark my words. The church will be judged, then the government will be judged. fering on the altar, God departs from that church because God said to me that if I am God, where is my honour? If you want to give your father money, can you go and drop it on the floor and tell your father to pick it up? God said that they are collecting the money for themselves and they are signing agreement with Lucifer. So there’s a lot going on in the church in Nigeria. if you think about it you will just like to finish your work and leave. But God will judge Nigeria nation beginning from the church, not the government. Mark my words the church will be judged then the government will be judged.
1 comment
Excellent questions. Sound answers. An interview well worth reading.