At last, the highly respected Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye has broken his silence over the incessant attack on Christians, their homes and places of worship by the Boko Haram, an Islamic sect in the North Eastern part of the country.
Several homes and churches had been burnt and Christians have been killed in their hundreds by the sect and the most unforgettable one was the attack on the worshippers at a Roman Catholic Church in Mandalla, Niger state where no fewer than 48 lives have been confirmed dead.
The Cleric,? who is the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has read a Riot Act to the sect warning its members to stop attacking? Christians, their homes and churches or face the consequences. “We are not allowed to burn mosques or kill people of other religious beliefs but d Bible says we are allowed to Defend ourselves, churches, homes. ‘Be gentle as a dove but Wise as a Serpent’”, Adeboye posted on his Face Book wall yesterday.
This position tallies with the resolve of the Christian leaders in the North who met recently in Abuja where they vowed never to attack anyone but tasked their members to defend themselves, their homes and the churches against any further attack.
At the meeting a fire-spitting cleric (name withheld) whose church is located in Area One, Abuja was asked to teach on the position of the Bible on religious intolerance.
The Pastor, according to an eye witness, took his audience from the Old Testament to the New where he cited how Christians were able to defend themselves against any unprovoked attack.
“We need to remind these murderers that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, is both the Lamb of God who took away our sins and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the Lamb to us but Lion against our foes. And more importantly, the roaring of a lion is purposely for the territorial protection. We used to run before but henceforth we run no more,” the Pastor decleared.
“We used to run away before but henceforth we would stand to defend ourselves, our families and the church of God against any attack. No religion has a monopoly of violence. They were asking us to quit the North, to where? Do they think all the Christians in the North are non-indigenes? We are going nowhere, every church has been asked to provide adequate security to its members during the hours of worship and they leaders were charged to protect their families wherever they are located, “the Abuja based pastor who was at the meeting? disclosed.