By Straightnews
The Senior Pastor of Power City International Church, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, Abel Damina, has damned Nigerian Supreme Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs (NSCEA) as a “bunch of jokers” seeking relevance.
NSCEA had accused him of preaching “fallacies and heretics, laced with unsound arguments.’’
The Christian group, in an open letter to Mr Damina, dated 15 October, berated him for allegedly preaching gospel messages with an “alarming rate of theological errors and heresies,” noting that his messages constitute “hate speech and cybercrime against the Christian faith.”
“Dr. Abel Damina, you have crossed the line, and you are, therefore, no more a representative of Christianity (The Body of Christ) in Nigeria,” the group said in a letter signed by the secretary of its elders’ council, Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies.
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Mrs Adesanya-Davies, a bishop and professor, said the letter serves as a disclaimer to the “heresy’s messages” spread by Mr Damina.
The letter posted on Facebook and circulated in different WhatsApp groups noted that “Heresy is a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox Christian doctrine and any belief, teaching or practice that explicitly undermines the gospel,’ she added, while citing several Bible passages to support their position.
Controversial message titles
The body highlighted some message titles allegedly preached by Mr Damina, which her organisation has issues with. ‘‘Specifically, we have issues with the following titles of your messages such as: “There is no heaven”, “You don’t need God to Succeed”, “Jesus is not coming back”, “Heaven is scam”, “God is not responsible”, “Jesus Christ is not a Christian”, “Jesus Christ is God the Father and there is no trinity”, “The Bible is not the Word of God”, “No to Holy communion” and “No to tithing, etc.”
Unlike the two main Christian groups – the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs is relatively new in the country, and it is not clear when it was founded.
Two preachers in Akwa Ibom State, Ifiok Essien and Emmanuel Udoatta, told PREMIUM TIMES they had never heard of the name before.
Damina reacts to the allegations
But, in responding to the allegations against him in a live Facebook video, Mr Damina said he had served as the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria National Youth President for eight years and that he had never heard of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
He said the group did not send him the letter directly, but someone drew his attention to it based on his response so that the public is not misled.
“I am not even aware of its existence. It is a situation of notice me by force,” he said.
Mr Damina said the entire group needed to join his discipleship class to listen to his teachings because their conclusions mean they have never listened to any of his teachings completely.
“They are looking at how to malign me. They said I am heretic; therefore, they have decided that I am no more a representative of the Body of Christ in Nigeria. What a laugh – what an effrontery – what audacity!”
Mr Damina refuted the group’s claim that he said “there is no heaven”, emphasising that he never said so.
“I have never said there’s no heaven. I only said the heaven the Bible teaches is not the heaven in the sky. The heaven the Bible teaches is the heaven of the immaterial. So, for this body to say I said there’s no heaven it means this body is a bunch of jokers.”
He also refuted the claim that he said “Jesus is not coming back” and offered explanations to what he said.
“I never said that Jesus is not coming back but I took time to explain the concept of Jesus’ coming back as an appearance. The Bible says He will appear. They who seek for the Lord, the Lord shall appear. We that are with him shall appear with Him in glory and I took time to explain the appearance of Christ which is what we called the rapture or the second coming of Christ,” Mr Damina said.
“They said that I also said you don’t need God to succeed. Yes, I said that but that is the conclusion of the argument and the explanation was that when it comes to material things and material wealth God doesn’t get involved in making people succeed.
“Because when you said it is God who made people materially rich and others materially poor, therefore, it means God is responsible for class in society and we never saw such teachings from Jesus nor did we see such teachings from the apostle.
“They also said that I said heaven is a scam. I never said that. What I said is that heaven at last is a scam. Again, they are quoting me out of context and saying what I never said. They are a bunch of unserious people,” he said.
Open Letter and Disclaimer To Damina
In a letter entitled: Caution against fallacious and heretic teachings of Christian Faith and addressed to Dr. Abel Damina, the body said ‘‘We, at the Nigerian Supreme Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs (NSCEA), have observed with dismay your current preaching and teachings of Biblical tenets and hereby write to express grave concern and caution regarding these your teachings, which have been brought to our attention.”
NSCEA defines ‘‘Heresy as, “a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox Christian doctrine and any belief, teaching or practice that explicitly undermines the gospel.” Heresies are “beliefs or teachings that deviate from established or orthodox doctrine, often considered contrary to the accepted teachings of a religion or faith.”
According to the body, ‘‘In Christianity, these include:
- Arianism: Denies Jesus’ divinity.
- Gnosticism: Emphasizes secret knowledge over faith.
- Pelagianism: Rejects original sin and predestination.
- Donatism: Questions validity of sacraments performed by unworthy clergy.
- Monophysitism: Believes in single nature of Christ.’’
NSCEA pointed out ‘‘While we appreciate your passion for spreading the Gospel, we cannot ignore the alarming rate of theological errors and heresies in your messages, especially as it is now going viral on social media as hate speech and cyber crime against the Christian faith. Please note that, the Bible is not for philosophising, it’s the WORD OF GOD inspired of the Holy Ghost.
‘‘We assert that, most of these your topics are mere fallacies and heretic, while the notions are mistaken beliefs, especially based on generalisations, self interpretation, personalised style, alarming sub-titles, and unsound arguments. For instance, in English, “the notion that the camera never lies is a fallacy.” You also know this, but your preaching style is focused on attracting your audience through content creating hype rather than being correct and spiritual.
‘‘These teachings deviate from the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, contradicting the Holy Scriptures and the historic confessions of the faith. Your interpretations in most cases are also subjective to undermine the authority of Scripture, compromise the deity of Christ, and confuse the nature of our great salvation,’’ it added.
