An ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Debo Akinyemi, has taken a swipe at the City of David Parish of the church for the dating site it opened recently, describing the move as satanic.
Akinyemi who serves in one of the provinces in Ogun State, said the decision of the church was ill-informed, noting that no other parish would have dared it without sanction.
The RCCG City of David Parish is located at Maroko Industrial Extension area of Victoria Island, Lagos.
“I am surprised at the move and I think the church has completely derailed. How do we explain a dating site for mature Christian singles? Where is the place of prayer? Where is the place of God’s word? I think a dating site has taken God out of the equation. And that is satanic from whatever angle you want to look at it.”
The RCCG cleric who has been a pastor for over 20 years, explained that God is the author of marriage.
“He (God) gave the template; It then means that singles should go to God, not to any dating site. That is a misapplication of technology. When you match-make people through such a site, who do they take their problem to if they have issues?
“Will they blame God if such marriage turns abusive? Will they blame God if people that don’t know God at all, take advantage of the site to infiltrate the church? I am convinced that it impugns the sanctity of the marriage institution whose sole proponent was God. It was God who saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone and he provided a wife for him.”
Explaining the Bible portion that says, ‘he that finds a wife finds a good thing’, Akinyemi said, “We are supposed to find by God’s leading. The whole idea of the site smacks of exuberance, impetuosity, and poor supervision. No poor parish of the RCCG dare do what the City of David did. Bringing ungodly concepts into the church is unacceptable.”
The RCCG pastor recalled that an RCCG pastor once attempted to invite a fuji artiste to a crusade, “That church was stopped from going ahead. I don’t know why the City of David is now untouchable.” he wondered.
Pastor Akinyemi stretches further, “I dare the pastor of the parish to come and show me how the dating site accords with any of the doctrines of the RCCG or the Bible for that matter.
“Finding a spouse should be by God’s leading. There is so much confusion in the world today. If God is not leading us, we will choose wrongly. It is possible for a man to mischievously exchange love vows with many ladies in different places.
“The dating site furnishes the opportunity to get a partner through deception. Dating Site is like gambling with the future of our singles. It should not be tolerated.
“Any single who is looking for a spouse should do so with his eyes closed and knees bent in prayer and not through a lousy dating site. They must be ready to pray and wait on God’s leading. All those who wanted something from God in the bible waited on God. Abraham waited. Hannah waited. Elizabeth waited. I could go on and on.
“We saw what happened to Saul when he was tired of waiting for God and went to the witch of Endor. So you are making the youths act like Saul when you ask them to push God aside and go to the dating site for partners, The dating site is an ungodly concept and there is little anyone can say in its favour, no matter any parameter of justification.
“The church is for the worship of God primarily. The church is not a market place for singles to come and market themselves to potential partners. If we teach our youth well enough, they would understand the need to look up to God to lead them to those to marry.”
Akinyemi said further, “what has happened is a symptom of the shift from God to mammon. When Jesus warned us against mammon, this was one of the things he saw. Because a church formation has money does not mean the church should be allowed to do what it likes. It is a celebration of godlessness.”
The cleric who described the development as an embarrassment to the Body of Christ, urged the septuagenarian General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, to wade in, and stop the City of David clergymen in their tracks.
Church Times