•Reveals Why OSHOFFA Didn’t Wear Shoes
Superior Evangelist Olatosho Matthew Oshoffa the Shepherd-In-Charge of the CCC International Headquarters, Ketu is one of the sons of late Samuel Bilewu Joseph Oshoffa, the founder of the Celestial Church of Christ who died in 1985.
He hardly grants interviews. But recently he visited the City People Magazine office in Gbagada, Lagos to congratulate City People @ 25 and City People Editors got him to talk about the Celestial Church and the many allegations people have levelled against the church founded in 1947.
Tosho Oshoffa is quite knowledgeable about the workings of the church and the activities of his late father. In his lifetime, he was quite close to his late dad. So we got him to speak on so many contending issues, like how he sees the relationship between the Celestial Church and other churches. He revealed that the relationship is Good. He revealed a lot more.
Tosho Oshoffa revealed how members of other churches have been known to be jealous of the Celestial Church because of the many miracles God has been doing in the lives of its members.
He revealed how unhappy he and other members of Celestial Church have been with the General Overseer of the Redeemed Church, Pastor E.A. Adeboye who allegedly spoke ill about their dad and founder. “My dad was a great man in his lifetime”, he explained. “He is still great, even in death. That is why all Cele members pray with his name everyday and they see the Power and The Spirit of God. Up till today, the Power still remains in Celestial Church”.
“For someone to now come out to say we used to hear people say wa ri ogo (glory) lai de Cele. Do you still hear that Ogo again? That is not a good thing to say. Ogo Cele is every day. What we don’t have is that we don’t give Testimonies like other churches. We don’t share Testimonies. If Celestial members should be sharing testimonies every day, the newspapers will be filled with Testimonies about what God keeps doing everyday”.
“My father will never come out to condemn any religion. Those coming out today to condemn Celestial Church and any other religion don’t understand the church. Celestial Church of Christ is in the body of every other Christian organisation. We are part of CAN and OAIC. We are part of the Aladura United Churches. We are part of so many organisations. This means we are not a segregation. We are not a Cult. We in Celestial Church may invite anybody to come and attend our service. But the problem we have with other churches is that they see Celestial Church as a threat. That is what is called ILARA (Envy)”.
“That is why the Celestial Church is not happy with our reverred, Pastor Adeboye. Recently, he insulted my father, SBJ Oshoffa. I am so sure that within himself, he will be saying: why have I said this? There is no way you will come out to abuse a man of God, openly and say so many negative things about him and say the church is no longer waxing stronger. Who told him that? Why say all that? I know that Baba must have realised that what he said was uncalled for. I wouldn’t know why a fellow man of God will be criticising, insulting or even condemning a fellow man of God. Not only that. We are talking about a man of God who has worked and has left a big legacy behind, over 30 years ago. And here you are, still working on yours. And you don’t even know how you will finish yours. We are all still in school here. It is only God that will know who will enter heaven, sir. So, I feel bad that a man of God can come out and condemn openly the work of another man of God who is the contemporary of late Baba Akindayomi. Baba Oshoffa was the founder of Celestial Church of Christ. The same way Baba Orimolade and Baba Ositelu were founders. The same way Baba Ayo Babalola was a founder. My father never condemned anyone of them. He usually calls them his brothers. He will not condemn them, because, only God knows who will go to that heaven. We are all aspiring to go. We are all working towards going. It is like an examination, only God knows who will pass. May God help us, so that we don’t say wrong things, and make mistakes and behave wrongly”.
In Celestial Church, we don’t have room for that. If we do that they will say: do you need to make a show off?
What they don’t know is that it is not show off, people should see that in Cele Church, God is still working. So our relationship with other churches is still very cordial. But there is no way there won’t be Jealousy and Envy for us. There is no way. What many don’t know is that if they are not jealous of us, then we are not of Christ.
They were jealous of Jesus. There is no day that people did not call Jesus. The same way there is no way they will not call the name of my father SBJ Oshoffa, that he was doing this and that”.
“Some people even said my father SBJ Oshoffa did not wear shoes because he could not get his shoe size. Some people even said he didn’t wear shoe because his leg was too big. Haba! How can any one say that? They said that is why he couldn’t wear shoes. Can you imagine such rubbish. It is a lie. Let me tell you about my father. Yes, my father was taller than me. But we wear the same shoe size. I still have his pictures, sitting down and you can see his legs. It’s not about having an over-sized shoe. Noo. It’s a matter of that doctrine of the Celestial Church, that says when you are in this white sutana I am in right now, whenever you wear it, don’t wear shoes. Just like in Celestial Church, we don’t carry dead people into the church. We don’t do that”.
“The Celestial Church has a lot of similarities with Islam. The way of worship is similar. Our God is not a God where you stand up to worship”.
“Let me go back to the issue of Pastor Adeboye. It was also revealed to me by God 6 years ago that if he (Adeboye) does not change before he dies, that he will not see Christ. Why? The reason is that when they are doing communion he is the only one that kneels down, whilst others are standing up. He is usually the only one on the stage. He will say “Thank you Lord”, “Thank you Father” and others will say, Yes Pastor. Yes Pastor? Why? He knows the truth and he has not allowed his people to know the truth. Why is it that he is the only one that will kneel down and millions of people will be standing? He is not capable of carrying the cross of other people. Carrying of the cross is an individual thing and personal. Olukaluku ni o ma ru agbelebu ti e. Ko si eni to le ru agbelebu eni ke ni.
“The problem of many of worshippers is that they worship Man and not God. This is what happens today in many of our churches when people worship Man than worshipping God. When you ask many people today why they go to church, they will give you different reasons, like it’s because their Pastor is powerful, because they allow the ladies wear mini skirt. How many people will tell you, I go to church because of my Salvation, because I want to see God at the end of the day. This is the problem the whole world is facing today. May God in His infinite mercy have mercy on us”.
City People asked Tosho Oshoffa whether if he has the opportunity he will tell Pastor Adeboye the message God sent him?
“Yes. If I have it. I will do that. I will tell him. It’s a message from God. I wish I could meet him one-on-one. So I will just tell him the full message”, he explained.
How come he has not made any move to reach Pastor Adeboye? “I have made moves. One or two Pastors of his that I have met, told me it is difficult. I really wish I could see him and tell him this is the message, that he should make this ammendment today. The Lord told me this thing in 2015. If I have the opportunity of seeing him today. I will tell him, with humility. I will tell him: Baba, please, this is what God has asked me to tell you. Please make all the necessary adjustment now before it’s too late ooo”.
During the interview session, he also spoke laudably about Genesis Prophet Israel Oladele. How does he sees the travails of Genesis Pastor? “It is so sad. At the beginning of this interivew, I said something. I said we should all keep praying to God not to make grave mistakes in life. It is a big prayer. Genesis Prophet is my dear brother. He is a younger brother”.
“He is a member of Celestial Church. We cannot deny that. He is one of the Glory of the church. He portrays the Glory of the church. And he portrays the image of the church. And there is no perfection in human beings. I have said it before, ki Olorun ma je ki eniyan si se. My dear brother, Prophet Oladele Ogundipe (Genesis) is a man of God, who God has blessed with rare gifts. (Olorun fun ni ebun). He has brains. He is brilliant. Nothing can take that away from him. Everybody is gifted in his own way. But once you are gifted and you are full of glory, you should expect attacks. (Nwon ni oni ogo, o ni o fe ni ogun). It is a lie. Once you are gifted, attack must come. And the greater your glory, the greater your challenges. The bigger your GLORY, the bigger the challenges you will face. I faced my own challenges too. I came under a lot of attack then, but I didn’t need to reply anybody. All you need to do is to be focused and to keep moving ahead. So, everybody has his own time of challenge”.
“I had mine 6 years ago. And I passed through it for 3 good days. I knew what I am talking about. But today, once you do not face your challenge, you cannot identify your calling”.
Genesis is a man of God. I respect him so much. He has got brains. He has got the speech. He has got the glory. But I can also say there is no Good man on earth. One way or the other we would offend… But it is our prayer that whenever we offend God we would survive it.
The Bible also said eni ti Olorun ba feran lo ma mba wi, sugbon ko ni gba ko ku. That is the difference. Olorun ko ki pa eeyan to ba bawi. He will only blame him a little and He will pull him closer after. So, he is a man of God. Celestial Church loves him. I love him personally. He is my brother. Everybody has his own challenge. Everybody has his own shortcomings. But believe me, he is a man of God. And wherever we all may have fallen short of the glory of God, may God forgive all of us. I am happy for him that he has been released. We learn lessons from Challenges. I am sure he has also learnt one or two things that will make him to adjust in one or two ways.
Thank you”.
