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.
Vanguard Nigeria
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