A frontline Islamic leader in Nigeria, Sheik Lawal Olorunseye, yesterday described Prophet T.B. Joshua as a true man of God that the entire world has lost and it would be difficult to replace him. “TB Joshua was love incarnate. He never criticized anybody, he was a tireless helper of the poor”, he said passionately. “I witnessed it in Agege when he went to the beggars’ settlement to distribute rice to them. He helped people in other religions, he never discriminated. Nigeria has lost a major citizen”, he further stated.
The Islamic guru could not hide his sadness and further stated that if we had about two or three T.B. Joshuas in Nigeria, the country would grow and our society would have been better. He prayed for God to raise people like T.B. Joshua in Nigeria and for God to continue to strengthen The SCOAN. He also prayed that people should emulate T.B. Joshua because he personified love.
The cleric who was at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations on a condolence visit also said he foresaw T.B. Joshua’s passing and his glowing triumphant entry to Heaven.
His words: “Like a trance, I had a dream on Friday, 4 June in which I saw a massive garden full of trees and different animals including camels. In the garden were people praying and the entire place was full of light. As I watched closely, I saw many angels in the garden.
“It was as if I was drunk as the revelation came. I saw everything clearly. I saw when angels of God took him gradually into space, as if there was a whirlwind.”
Narrating further, the Ogun State based cleric said as events unfolded in the dream, he heard the angels saying:
“TB Joshua, today you are going back home. Today, you must return home.
“As they were saying so, they held him and started moving into space”.
The cleric said that he was so moved that he was voicing out “Allau, Allau” and he shouted it out as he woke up from the dream in great shock.
He further said that he narrated his experience to his wife who felt it was because of his deep love for the prophet whose Emmanuel TV he always watches even as a Muslim.
According to the cleric: “My wife knows of my deep love for the prophet, though it did not translate to my attending his church and I never ever got anything personally from him. I was terribly shocked that a day after my dream, the prophet left the world.
“I am still in shock. He was a true man of God. He preached only love and unity in his sermons. May his soul rest in peace”, he concluded.
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos State chapter, Bishop Stephen Tunde Victor Adegbite has said that Prophet T.B. Joshua gave his life to humanity through The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations.
Accompanied by principal officers of the CAN, as well as chosen representatives of the five blocks that make up the organisation, on a condolence visit to the church, the CAN leader recalled how the church started with Prophet T.B. Joshua’s sense of commitment, focus and enduring spirit. He said the prophet over the years, “lived for humanity, gave hope to the hopeless, assisted the vulnerable and moved beyond the shores of Lagos to other countries assisting people who needed assistance”.
Bishop Adegbite who is also the Director for National Issues and Social Welfare of the national body of Christians added that T.B. Joshua has “Completed his assignment and gone back to his Maker”. He said further that one who is for Christ, as Jesus Himself said, is not against Him and “our life is worth living because Jesus lives and if Jesus lives and has said to us that your neighbour is not your enemy, we should emulate the same. We have to leave the society better than we met it”.
Speaking further on the legacy of the prophet, the Methodist Bishop maintained that “Whoever likes it or not, T.B. Joshua has left this environment better than he met it. This church was not here before now. This edifice has become a tourist centre – people come from all over the world and the church has members all over the world. These are things we must do so that our names will also be written in the sand of time because all of us have a limited time to stay. Whether we like it or not, we will go one day. T.B. Joshua has done his own part and has served his God and has gone to be with his Maker. We are the blood militants still militating against flesh and blood and sin. We pray that our service would be for humanity. We have to serve our society positively”.
Bishop Adegbite also cautioned the politicians who he said should learn from the church and ensure that the grace that the Lord has given to them should be used for humanity. He said politicians should give people good governance, roads, health facilities, better education and uninterrupted power supply, adding that there is no need for us to fight over religion but must live in peace with one another.
Bishop Adegbite also said Nigerians should allow peace to reign: “Let the demise of Prophet T.B. Joshua bring peace to Nigeria. Let it bring unity and let us move forward in one accord. The church of God must be one because when we get to Heaven, there will be no Methodists, The SCOAN or the Celestial Church. People there are all Christians. It is here we have denominational differences. Over there, it is one body. We pray to be members of that eternal glory.” He concluded by praying for the soul of the prophet and that God should sustain and uphold The SCOAN which he called a “great movement”.
A former Nigerian Minister of Defence and scholar, Dr Olu Agunloye, has said Prophet T.B. Joshua was a man of two personalities for whom he has much appreciation and respect.
Speaking at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations on a condolence visit, he said that the prophet was both an ordinary human being and an extraordinary human being and a true man of God.
As a human being with whom he had closely associated as a senior colleague, townsman and friend, he said he knew T.B. Joshua “as a double person”, one who could act ordinarily like any other human person like sneezing and coughing occasionally and getting tired after having worked and walked for hours. Yet, he had the powerful anointing radiating his being all the time.
In his words, “I knew I was dealing with a double person. The anointing was ever with him”. He added that he was privileged to travel out of Nigeria with the prophet on some occasions and also saw that “he had healing power”.
The statesman and politician also spoke of some salient qualities possessed by the man of God, which endeared him to people all over the world, part of which was his humility and simplicity. He was also strong, and unlike in some other places, he had no special chair in the church. He also touched the lives of people across the globe, “People of all nations come to the church; workers and members are from different parts of the world”. He maintained that the Akoko people are very proud of him, including the traditional rulers and the young. He said T.B. Joshua was a man of great insight going by the choice of the name of the church, The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations, around 1986. He knew long ago what would become of the ministry.
Dr Agunloye, also an Akoko man, said he had personally witnessed occasions when senior citizens and presidents paid homage to the man of God. He added that the prophet pulled some structures down at the mountain only to rebuild them in a new fashion, and would only smile or give brief explanations when asked of the reasons for doing so. He said the prophet was like a professor, an engineer and architect because “he wanted the mountain to be one of the wonders of the world when completed”. He added that the prophet was also a librarian who videoed all his actions, including riding ‘okada’ to site, and kept all records intact and well preserved.
Dr Agunloye said he often told people that T.B. Joshua was a man of three sound families. The first, those made of his wife and children and of course, the people of Akoko. The second, the church family including those from all over the world who have worked and lived with him over the years. And the third group, made up of people to whom the prophet was a father and uncle, some of whom are not members of The Synagogue Church Of All Nations.
The don concluded with a prayer, adding that T.B. Joshua has gone to rest and other people will keep up the flame of the legacy left behind by the revered man of God.