The Pastor of the Household of God Church, Oregun, Lagos, Rev Chris Okotie has finally broken his long silence, with his renewed challenge to the authority of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to speak for Christians, an opinion he has always canvassed.
In a statement released yesterday, Okotie stated that CAN is an amorphous organisation sustained by a Christian appellation.
“It is bereft of any authority to speak on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ. Arrayed in Episcopalian vestments, they are the modern day Pharisees who arrogate divine honors to themselves.
“They have a form of godliness and yet hobnob nicodemusly with enemies of the Lord Jesus.
“The true ministers of the sanctuary must recognise CAN’s treachery and reprehensible Phariseeism.
“That which a man spits against heaven shall fall back upon his face. We shall not bow to the idol called Corona Virus. Jesus is Lord”.
Okotie has also condemned CAN’S proposed recommendations of social distancing in the seating arraignment in churches as “blasphemous infidelity” and desecration of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Reacting in the statement issued through his media Adviser, Ladi Ayodeji, Okotie made it clear that he was in full support of social distancing and other safety measures ordered by the government to contain the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic.
However, the Pastor rejects the extension of social distancing to churches because it compels the reordering of seating arrangements, and the determination of the size of congregational worship per service for fears of the spread of the deadly virus.
Okotie argued that to accept such arrangement is to nullify the redemptive work of Jesus, which involves healing.
