In Defence of RCCG Pastor Enoch Adeboye

By John Adebayo Abolarin

Let me start by saying that I am not a member of the Redeem Church of Christ but a distant admirer of Pastor Adeboye.

Needless to say, the critique against Adeboye is nothing but comical propaganda and unfounded, false accusations designed to malign Adeboye’s character.

The man of God and his staff members would rarely consider it necessary to respond to trivial irreverent satire that has no practical effect on Adeboye’s status.

In all probability, most RCCG members would likely casually dismiss Adetayo’s article as part of the devil’s works designed to cause unnecessary distractions.

The truth is that Adeboye does not need defending by anyone. The work God used him to accomplish is what speaks volumes for him.

At the last count, RCCG in Nigeria alone has a membership of 14 million people, out of which about 2 million attend the monthly Redemption Camp Meetings along the Lagos Ibadan expressway.

In the last RCCG Annual Convention that ended yesterday (13/08/2023), over 11,000 new pastors were ordained! Yes, 11,000 pastors.

There are currently about 195 countries in the world. RCCG has representations in virtually all the countries in the world. Adeboye is only a pastor of an independent, nondenominational Church and a private citizen in Nigeria. Yet, he is reputed to be one of the Top 50 most influential people in the world.

The point is that by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, he reached where he is today in less than 50 years of meritorious service in the vineyard of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. I want to submit that it is impossible for any human being to achieve all these through human efforts and activities alone.
It can only take God’s power to do things like these.

If we check the idolatrous backgrounds of 14 million Nigerian members of RCCG, virtually all of them will have a story to share of servitude and spiritual bondages of one kind or the other in their ancestry. Even Adeboye himself has an idolatrous background. Who among the Yorubas has no idolatrous background?

Adeboye could never have delivered himself. It takes the power of Christ to set people free. In a nutshell, that is the story of the Redeemed family. Redemption is a story of slaves bought back and made to go freely.

If we can be honest with ourselves, please, which of the Yoruba deities or Irunmoles had any achievement and global outreach close to what God did through Adeboye? Is it Ogun, Oya, Sango, Ifa or Obatala?

Adeboye does not have to control, manipulate or exploit 14 million Nigerians, as made out by Adedamola Adetayo in his critique. If, for example, the 14 million Nigerian RCCG members are willing to attend Church services every day of the week, it is not because Adeboye can personally compel the people to do it. It is a free-will service borne out of genuine love and gratitude to God for what Christ did in their lives.

The alternative to the influx of Redeemed people in our society is to have an influx of cultists and ritualists in our educational institutions, civil service and the public generally. You may wish to make a choice between the two.

In conclusion, let us take a cursory look at the life and person of Pastor Adeboye. He married in 1967 and thereafter obtained a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Lagos in 1975.

According to the history of his conversion, he had an undisclosed personal problem that led him on journeys consulting one Babalawo after the other. He narrated how on several occasions, Babalawos
demanded goats and several other items from him in an attempt to resolve his personal problem, but all to no avail.

Then in 1973, while he was a Mathematics lecturer at the University of Lagos, a friend invited him to a local Church led by the late Pastor Josiah Akindayomi, who was then uneducated.

Can you imagine what a university lecturer would be doing in a local Church where the Pastor could not read or write? However, surprisingly, Adeboye found peace of mind in that environment. He met the Lord and became converted in the same year in 1973. Soon enough, the problem that took him to Babalawos left him. In time, he started to assist Pastor Akindayomi in interpreting his Yoruba messages to the English Language. Adeboye was ordained as an RCCG pastor in 1975.

Although Adeboye relocated to the University of Ilorin as a Mathematics lecturer, shortly before Akindayomi died in 1980, he invited Adeboye to let him know that God revealed to him that he should hand over the leadership of the Church to him. In 1981, Adeboye resigned from his lecturing post to take over the mantle of leadership of the Redeemed Church of Christ.

Now, let us take another look at this very short history of Pastor Adeboye’s conversion, lecturing career and his resignation from lecturing to taking over as a full-time pastor in the Redeemed Church.

I imagine that having a PhD in 1975 is not a mean achievement. I can also imagine the embarrassment and curiosity his attendance at a local Church led by an illiterate Pastor would have generated among his co-lecturers, his extended family members and student community at the University of Lagos at that time.

In 1975, Pastor Adeboye was only a 32-year-old young man. At that age and with the prestige of having a PhD, that would be a time that most people of his age and status would be counting in dozens the number of women they conquered and took to bed, especially in a university environment.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Adeboye was willing to pull away from womanising, night carousing, binge drinking and all sorts of worldly pleasures to follow Christ in such a lowly place.

It does not end there. If his mother was alive in 1981 when Adeboye left his lecturing position at the University of Ilorin to become a full-time pastor in a relatively unknown Church, consider how much she would have cried and wondered what she did wrong and why her enemies managed to confuse her son to the extent of making him leave a stable and prestigious work to become a common pastor.

That is the humble beginning of the global RCCG that we know today, and that is the story of the making of a man that God uses.

I am not saying that all men of God should aspire to own a private jet, but given his personal circumstances, would that bother you if Adeboye chooses to own a private jet?

I hope you will faithfully send this rebuttal to the platform where you imported Adetayo’s article against Dr Enoch Adeboye.