Eliminating Men from Divine Worship

Disclaimer: This post will criticize the hard work of some Christians I love and respect.

The intention is not to rubbish their work but to point out a mistake they all make by diluting heavenly gifts with an idolatrous mindset.

They do this out of ignorance, but if everybody leaves the ignorant alone because correcting them would hurt their feelings, the ignorant will never learn.

I know I might get stoned for this, but what is a little stone in the hand of the ignorant compared to the value of the good the truth I bring will do?

The Yoruba race has this culture of turning people who they consider having done great exploits in life into mythological beings. In several cases they immortalize them by naming landmarks in their communities after them and in extreme cases, they deify them and begin a cult or a religion in their name.

Ogun is one of such. He was a human being who led the Yoruba people of his time to victory in battle, technology, and other feats. After his death, the Yoruba people of his town set up a shrine in his name and began to worship him. His worship spread quickly throughout the land, especially because hunters and iron smiths credited him as their eternal leader even from the grave.

Sango is also a creation of this sort of hero worship turned cult and ultimately becoming canonized into divinity by the people who simply wouldn’t let the dead die in peace. They turned Sango into an idol, even though he was a human being who led the people of his time to victory in war and showed them magical powers that they had never seen before.

Oya, the wife of Sango, was given divine status and even got a river named after her which some still worship.

The list is very long. Those who were not deified or canonized into deities become folk heroes and are still celebrated all over Yoruba land.

Bashorun Ogunmola, Bashorun Ga'a, Aare L’atoosha, and so many others according to their level of performance and reverence in their various local areas of influence.

Not all Yoruba folk heroes become idols but many did and are still commanding a following and worship from the grave.

I saw the same trend in Yoruba Christianity, and I find it disturbing because of its spiritual implications.

I grew up in the Baptist church, and such practices as i am about to mention are not practiced in the Baptist church. I do not see the same being practiced in many of the other international denominations that originated from any of the other countries other than Nigeria. The Nigerian Traditional churches however make it a point of duty to idolize their past leaders whom they consider pioneers and trailblazers. This is not a bad thing at all but the fact that celebrating them as folk heroes is something, elevating them to the level of idols in the place of worship is very wrong.

Pastor E. A. Adeboye in the School of Disciples manual wrote it clearly that it is wrong for believers to refer to God as anything but “My Father” because God is always personal to the believer. He said further that it is wrong to say “God of Babalola, God of Babajide, God of this, and God of that” in the place of prayer.

The reason he said this was quite simple. Since these people being Idolized were men who were sent by God to do his will, we know that their story is not complete yet in it’s totality.

To us, as leaders and as their followers, they have fought a good fight and they have completed their course on earth but there is a marriage supper of the Lamb to come and until then, the reward of our purpose and works as given to us by God remains to be judged only by Jesus alone.

Singing, therefore in the name of Babalola, Oshoffa, Moses Orimolade, Sadella, Adeboye, Oyedepo, and other Nigerian religious leaders when praising God or making melodies to God in our hearts is not right.

I came across a song on YouTube recently. I love all the ministers who made that music. I tuned in to listen to it. The pastor started by stating that there is a longing in His spirit to take more and to have all of God.

Another pastor in the ensemble joined in and sang about the longing and the thirst in the heart of the believer to have all of God.

This was all fair until they started saying God should take them to the power room, he took Babalola to and feed them with what he fed Babalola and give them what he gave Babalola to drink. A minstrel joined them, and he began to croon about Babalola, Adeboye, and Oyedepo. The sound was heavenly, but the lyrics were carnal and mundane as it does not take you into the throne room but to the memory lane.

When you hear Adeboye, the picture of a man shows up in your heart, he is a material image that pops up when you call his name.

When you hear Oyedepo, there is a picture in your subconscious that pops up, it is the image of a human being.

When you hear Babalola, there is a picture of one man on a signboard or a banner or a poster that pops up in your heart.

When you hear Oshoffa, there is a picture that comes to mind, and it is not of God

When you mention Akindayomi, Idahosa, and Sadella in a worship song that you are singing unto the Lord, you are committing a big blunder

When you are singing to God and you mention the names of human beings, your attention shifts from divinity to mundanity.

You move from the vertical to the horizontal. You lose the flow of the spirit in its entirety.

You don’t see other nations who had great champions of the gospel making music about them and singing it in the place of worship.

How many songs eulogizing Wigglesworth do you know and sing when you find yourself deep in the place of worship?

How many deep worship songs meant to stir the believer into the higher realms of glory do you know that are full of praise and devotion to the persons of A. A. Allen, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Kathryn Khulman, Thomas Jefferson Bowen, Mary Sclessor, Alma Rohm, Ajayi Crowther and so on?

We must learn to separate our appreciation and adulation of Men of Good standing in faith from the worship of the Lord. It is not only unprofitable it is Idolatry.

PS: The song I have referred to here is Ebinpami, it is on YouTube. (I am not promoting it as a song suitable for worship but if you can listen to it for the purpose of learning and consciously eliminating songs with lyrics like that from your spiritual space, I would have shared a beneficial truth with you on your worship journey)

You can listen for yourself objectively and judge my intentions with an open mind. It is not the only song in that category

CAC churches and other traditional African churches make it a point of duty to milk the spiritual ignorance of Africans while exploiting their traditional values.

I noticed Testimony Jega also using that mindset when he mentioned that the God of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is his Father in one of his songs. If you notice, Testimony Jega is a Yoruba man.

I have also heard a rap in which the singer mentioned Chris Oyakhilome while rapping in Igbo language.

I do not condemn the appreciation of these gospel icons by believers. I do condemn the mention of their names in songs that were meant to stir believers to worship and bask in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit. When we worship, we should see God and the realm of Glory in the depth of our beings, the mention of men or their memory should be far from our metaphysical space.

If our eyes are not single, our bodies will not be full of light.

-GSW-