December
13 saw traffic around parts of Ikoyi, the race course and all the main
bridges linking Lagos Island and the mainland completely closed for
about two hours, because our President Jonathan was on his way to attend
the Holy Ghost Congress organized by the Redeemed Christian Church of
God headed by Pastor Enoch Adeboye at the Redemption Camp.
This type of disruption of traffic is reminiscent of the period when
Lagos was still the federal capital and residence of Presidents and Head
of states, before the movement to Abuja, during civilian regimes.
Notorious traffic at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, when the Redeemed Christian Church of God is holding their camp meeting is well known and deserves no comments.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God is one of the biggest
Pentecostal Churches in the country with membership running into
thousands, if not millions. It is therefore expedient for the president
to fall into the temptation of choosing the venue both to worship and
doing political business, by killing two birds with one stone. After
all, this is not new. Pastor Adeboye welcomed President Obasanjo with
the same fun-fare and prayer sessions.
Both Pastor Adeboye and President Jonathan have a lot to gain. While
Pastor Adeboye may be guaranteed adequate funds through offerings for
the church, the president on the other hand will have political
membership support especially as it is rumored that the president is in
the running come 2015. This political manoeuvering does not deserve a
comment.
People witnessed on television the president kneeling and Pastor Adeboye
praying for his success in the business of governances after which the
President delivered his prepared political speech, promising to solve
the nation’s problems.
Pastor Adeboye in his usual style gave a motivational sermon
bordering on a miraculous story about a journey he was involved in. The
story I am told had been narrated a number of times previously.
Pastor Adeboye was coming from Onitsha during the petrol crises when he realized he needed to buy
petrol, but there was no petrol in Onitsha. He decided he would try
Asaba, but found out also, there was no petrol in Asaba. Continuing his
journey, he hoped to buy petrol on reaching Benin, but to his amazement
also found out there was no petrol station open for business in Benin,
Pastor Adeboye undaunted finally thought he would find petrol to buy at
Ore.
By the time he reached Ore, the next
stop, his petrol warning light came on, indicating that he was then on
reserve supply. At this point Pastor Adeboye said God told him not to
look at the petrol gauge, but to continue his journey. Following God’s
instruction, Pastor Adeboye continued his journey from Ore, without
looking at the fuel gauge, until he got to his residence in Surulere in
Lagos.
This is a very moving account of the supernatural, and the very
intervention of God himself in making what seems impossible, possible.
In other words, this is a miracle, a wonderful and an amazing thing,
an event in the natural world but out of its established order, possible
only by the intervention of divine power.
Pastor Adeboye’s narrative of his ability to drive a car with only
reserve petrol left from Ore to his residence in Surulere – falls very
neatly under this miraculous experience. In other words, God supplied
him miraculous quantity of petrol to achieve this.
However let us subject this claim to analysis and scrutiny.
God created a horse or camel for motion and God can make a horse or
camel run independently for 1,000 miles without stopping, or tiring just
by His word, as all things are possible with God. One could say same
for a car as well. But there is a difference.
A car is designed by man and designed for propulsion to run on an
energy source such as petrol or gas by a system of carburetors or fuel
injection. It is designed by man, after taking into consideration all
external God or Natural Laws governing the earth gravity, velocity or
motion, etc.
Pastor Adeboye said God told him not to look at the petrol gauge when
the gauge warning light came on, before leaving Ore, driving to
Surulere in Lagos. He decided not to tell us the full story: he should
disclose the following facts that will convince everyone there was a
miracle.
·What was the make and model of the car he was driving?
·What distance did he cover between Ore and his residence in Surulere, Lagos?
·What is the capacity of his car’s reserve tank by the time the warning light comes on – how many liters are in the tank?
·How many kilometers per liter does Pastor Adeboye car do?
Apart from the distance covered, all these questions or information
could be supplied by the car manufacturers if the type of car is known.
It is well known also that there are cars that have two reserve tanks
and these tanks have varying capacities. There are other factors that
occur in the running of a car that could alter its function. The fuel
gauge warning indicator may be faulty or can come on prematurely giving
the impression that a driver is on reserve petrol.
Pastor Adeboye is alleged to own a private jet designed by man as
described previously to operate a system of propulsion and flight by the
use of aviation fuel. It could be assumed or inferred that while flying
the private jet, there was insufficient aviation fuel, and the guage
ignored, because with God all things are possible; Pastor Adeboye could
not avoid a crash.
Unlike a car, the measuring instruments of an aircraft are better
calibrated and more precise. From the above information to determine
whether a miracle occurred between Ore and Pastor Adeboye’s house in
Surulere, a decerning mind will conclude. There was no miracle, as the
car in question must, have just conformed with the specification, it was
designed to do.
I understand Pastor Adeboye was a mathematics professor before he was
called to do God’s work. He must have had some knowledge in scientific
data, and this could have influenced his narrative of miraculous petrol,
a story he had repeated a few times. But our society is backward and
most Pentecostal Church preachers take advantage of this ignorance.
It was amazing to me that a few people I would consider knowledgeable
and enlightened could not see the flaws in the miraculous content of
Pastor Adeboye’s story. This exposes our knowledge of what a miracle
really is. This writer is a very strong believer in miracles, and
miracles happen all the time but Pastor Adeboye’s claim could not stand
the scrutiny of believers in the Western World. It would be classified
as a spurious claim.
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