DAILY GIST reports that the Founder and Senior Prophet of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as T. B Joshua, died on Saturday, June 5th, 2021
The death of Prophet TB Joshua came as a shock to a lot of people, especially his members.
Mr Joshua who before his death was 57year old reportedly gave up the ghost on the way to a hospital. Joshua had earlier in the day participated in a church programme before his shocking death was announced.
His church, Police, Family all confirmed his death but however did not reveal the actual cause as at the time of filling this report.
Though founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Prophet T.B. Joshua is dead, one thing that he took to the grave was that he was rejected in the Christendom in Nigeria.
Despite Joshua‘s exploit, the Christian bodies in Nigeria never accepted him, both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). To them, Joshua was simply an exorcist or a charmer and so on.
Joshua was reputed to have said that he was converted in his mother’s womb.
The likes of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria (RCCG), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Bishop David Oyedepo and many others rejected Joshua until his death.
Adeboye, in 2009 said he would never go to Joshua’s church to minister for any reason whatsoever.
He was quoted as saying when asked whether he could worship in Joshua’s church, “No! Definitely not! If he wants me to come and minister in his church, we will sit down; we will discuss the issue of salvation the way I understand it, according to the scriptures.
“If we agree on that and he now wants me to come and preach the same message of salvation in his church, then I will go.”
To Adeboye, Joshua was never born again and so, he could not associate himself with him.
Oritsejafor, when he was PFN president and CAN chairman said the body would not admit Joshua to its fold because they were not convinced that he was a child of God.
He had said then that before Joshua could even qualify to be a PFN member, he should show who tutored him as a pastor in the first place.
Oritsejafor was quoted as saying that “Jesus did not say by their words you will know them; he said by the fruit you shall know them. If T.B. Joshua can show me his pastor who pastored him before he said he was called into the ministry; if T.B. Joshua can tell me when he got converted and how he got converted, then we would consider him. Anybody who is a Christian is a Christian because he received Jesus Christ at a point.
“I gather he said he was converted in his mother’s womb and I don’t see anybody like that in the Bible. It is a conscious decision you make and it doesn’t happen in your mother’s womb.”
Reverend Ayo Oritsejafor lashed out that TB Joshua’s healing and miracles are not yardsticks and criteria to admitting him into any of the religious group
According to Oritsejafor, “We are not taking T.B Joshua but like I said, he too can repent and be converted tomorrow. T.B Joshua can say I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal saviour; I repent of my sins. Then he can say, come check me out and see what I am doing then we can consider accepting him. PFN is for all; nobody is really excluded.”
But he too preaches the gospel with miracles?
Oritsejafor noted that Jesus did not say by their words you will know them; he said by the fruit you shall know them. If T.B.
Pastor Oritsejafor was undoubtedly among T.B Joshua critics, stating categorically in an interview in 2009 that he did not consider Joshua to even be a Christian and threatening to ‘expel’ any member of PFN who was caught ‘fraternising’ with him.
Oritsejafor’s spiritual father – the late Benson Idahosa – once famously said TB Joshua was ‘below his cleaner’ and defiantly declared he would shortly die. Without jumping to any conclusions, it’s pertinent to note his own passing followed soon after.
There are some controversies that went on about T.B Joshua during his lifetime. The cleric was heavily criticised due to the large number of miracles that happened in his Church during services. He was no stranger to controversies and condemnations all through his life.
For some, the charismatic preacher, who claimed to have healing powers from God, is controversial and fake while many also regard him as a true man of God.
It would be recall that in 2017, popular televangelist, Chris Okotie, accused Joshua of “shamanist practices,” But he did not, however, provide evidence to back up his claims.
Joshua was always seen by fellow pentecostal pastors and Christians as being unorthodox and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) denied the Synagogue Church membership.
In April 2021, YouTube suspended Emmanuel TV channel from its platform, accusing the cleric of hate speech after the T.B Joshua was seen in a video casting out ‘gay spirit’ from his congregants.
