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Says Christians Can Smoke Or Drink If They Like
The founder of Abel Damina Ministries and Power City International, Pastor Abel Damina, has shocked the entire Christendom again. And this time, the highly controversial man of God is not taking on any man of God or condemning the doctrine of any Christian denomination. This time, he has actually done the unthinkable by saying emphatically that it is not a sin for a Christian to smoke cigarette or take alcohol! In other words, he believes if they can do so sensibly, then they have committed no sin at all!
But, even before the controversial cleric dropped this bombshell, he had actually stunned the congregation listening to him when he questioned the belief that Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden was caused by eating fruit from the forbidden tree.
Damina stated this during his New Year’s Eve sermon on Tuesday. He said, “Adam and Eve ate nothing. Adam and Eve didn’t eat anything. Were you there? You were not there. So how do we know whether they ate something or not? Jesus was there. Was Jesus there in the Garden of Eden? Yes. Can Jesus explain to us what happened? Yes.” Referencing Mark 7:18-21 in the Bible, Damina went on to argue that it is not what a person eats or drinks that makes them a sinner.
He added, “Do you not know that if Adam and Eve ate something, they would not be sinners? It is not what people eat that makes them sinners. It is not what you eat. You cannot be a sinner by eating or drinking something.”
Damina also stated that smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol are not sins, saying, “I’ve told you alcohol is not a sin. I’ve told you cigar is not a sin. If you like put it on newspaper headline, I said it.” He, however, made it clear that he wasn’t encouraging such behaviours. “Am I saying you should smoke? You should have sense from your father’s house to know that cigar will cut short your life,” he said.
“Am I saying you should drink alcohol? You should know that if you drink alcohol, you will lie down inside a gutter. Your shirt and trousers will disappear. You should have the sense to know that.”
According to Pastor Damina, it is not the act of eating or drinking that corrupts a person, but rather what resides within their heart. “If they (Adam and Eve) ate, it’ll go to their stomach. It’ll digest and go to toilet. They’ll be free,” Damina said. He added, “There’s nothing a man eats that enters his heart. It’ll go to the digestive system and it’ll go out somehow. “It is what comes out of a man that defiles a man not what goes in. What makes you a sinner is what you’re thinking not what you’re eating.”
The controversial man of God was once asked why he chose to be controversial. He explained that he didn’t choose to be controversial. Hear him: “The truth is that I can only seem controversial to those accustomed to hearing lies. When someone used to lies hears the truth, it will sound different. When falsehood becomes an institution, truth sounds like rebellion. My teachings are not really controversial because they are from the same old Bible that has been used for thousands of years.
When it comes to biblical teaching, just like it was in the days of Jesus, the Pharisees and Sadducees were already teaching the bible before Jesus appeared in the four gospels and differed from the way they taught the Bible.
It was said that He sounded very different, controversial, strange, spoke mighty words, and with authority.
The reason is that the Bible is an ancient material written in a word review that is not our review word, in a language that is not ours, written in a culture that is not our culture, and in a vocabulary that is not our vocabulary.
The Bible was written by 40 authors, spans over 1500 years, and is in three languages – Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or Aramaic.
The Bible was also written on three different continents. When it was collated, it had only one message. In John 5:39, Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
So the entire Bible is the testimony of Christ; it has one message, one character, and one emphasis.
So we say the Bible is a Christocentric material that carries with it a Christ-centered emphasis. Tible is a theology and the theology of the bible is Christology and the mission of Christ is Soteriology, which is salvation.
So once a preacher’s emphasis is not Christ or salvation, anything I am saying will sound controversial to him and his congregation. So, it is not controversial, it is just that what the people were fed before is not what the message of the Bible is. Now that we are preaching the message of the Bible, which is Christ and salvation, it sounds controversial to those not used to hearing them.”
Pastor Abel Damina has always been in the news. He made headlines by calling out several clerics, questioning their beliefs and doctrines that he insists are either totally wrong or fraught with inconsistencies. To say the man drew the anger of many prominent men of God is saying the obvious. He also embarrassed quite a handful of them and they, in turn, have drawn the battle line with him. Apart from his personal issue with Pastor David Enenche, over claims that he ordained him (David Enenche) Abel Damina is embroiled in several other battles with other top men of God. This is on account of the fact that he has made several controversial statements that displeased respected clerics asuch as Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Ibiyieomi, Pastor David Enenche, Pastor Jerry Eze, Apostle Joshua Selman and several others.
He was not originally a man on the war path with his colleagues in the vineyard. He also preached prosperity and embraced every other belief that the others propagated. But, suddenly, after what he called a divine encounter, his perspective changed and he became a completely different man of God. He no longer embraced prosperity preaching and contested several other beliefs held by men of God such as tithing and others. And since his much-celebrated change from the prosperity spell, Damina has embraced yet another gospel that seems appealing and sometimes stirs controversies.
Born on August 29, 1960, in the northern part of Nigeria, he spent most of his early life with his parents
His name is prefixed with Dr., an indication that he is well-read. Speaking on the genesis of his church, Damina said he received a vision for the ministry when God told him to feed the hungry sheep, and in 1992, he started his church, Power City International. A year after he launched his church, he hosted what happened to be the first apex service in the Apex Cinema Hall, Akwa-Ibom. This helped in the growth of the ministry.
His style of teaching endeared many to him, but this was short-lived as many started seeing his teachings as heretics.
The first set of clerics to fault his style of teachings included the Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church, a.k.a Winners, Bishop David Oyedepo, and Apostle Joshua Selman Founder of Koinonia (Eternity Network International).
