A few days ago I posted on my Facebook wall that Nigerian Prophet TB Joshua could be fake. Oh Lord, you should have seen an avalanche of criticism thrown my way by his followers and those who believe in his voodoo. I was accused of discrediting a ‘Man of God’. I was labeled as one without faith. A heathen, I was called.
This Nigerian prophet has become so popular amongst Batswana. His popularity surpasses that of, yet another overrated entity, Zahara of the Lolilwe fame. Someone please make me understand this. The Bible says we are all equal before the eyes of the Lord and as such I’m inclined to believe if Joshua is a man of God so am I. But then Joshua seems to have a direct link with God so much that for us to reach our God, we have to travel to Lagos and reach God via Joshua. Please take me seriously because I know of people who have sold their property and sourced bank loans just so they could travel to Nigeria and relay their prayers through Joshua.
I know I’m rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way. My friend has begged me not to write this piece of opinion because he fears Joshua will curse me. Interesting! A ‘man of God’ will ‘cast a deadly spell’ on me instead of praying for me to join the bandwagon? Look, If God can listen to Joshua then He should listen to me. If God wants to bless me or forgive my sins, why should He wait for Joshua to submit that request on my behalf? Are we not equal before his Kingdom?
I have always heard of miracles that Joshua is said to perform. I am also aware he has a television channel dedicated to broadcasting his ‘abracadabra’. Dear reader, I am not trying to lessen your faith in Joshua. Dear Joshua, I’m not trying to turn you against your followers. I merely seek to raise my genuine doubts over your authenticity. I don’t know why but something deep down my heart tells me there could be something sinister behind Joshua’s ‘miracles’.
You see, as you watch the likes of Prophet Joshua on television, I on the other end am busy watching investigative reality channels where the deceptions and manipulations of people such as Joshua are exposed. In the case of Joshua, and to make matters worse, just as I had my doubts over him, I stumbled upon a news article raising damning allegations over his ‘manipulation and voodoo acts’. A report by one Solomon Izang Ashoms of the Parable magazine paints Prophet Joshua as a fraud. Ashoms claims in his article that he interviewed a certain Godwin Agomoh Paul who was the deputy prophet to TB Joshua for 11 years. Just as I had thought, Paul confirms that what we see in Joshua’s ‘miracles’ is all brainwash and hypnosis.
It turns out, from Paul’s testimony, people are brainwashed and hypnotized. Joshua apparently even pays journalists and instructs them on what to write and release to the people. Some people are said to make weird confessions during Joshua’s sermons. Women are made to speak in male voices.
Paul has an answer to all that. He says, “What you see on the telecast is hypnotism at its best. When you are filled with that power, if you open your eyes and fixed your gaze on the recipient of healings or whatever, you can see when the person’s spirit will leave the body. At that point, whatever you think in your mind as you fix your gaze on that person is what the person would do. If you want the person to confess that he killed his mother, it shall be so under that influence”.
Paul further accuses Joshua of sexually abusing girls at his church. Also, and still according to Paul, a certain lady by the name of Elizabeth Gardner who had some spinal cord problem and was already undergoing treatments was convinced to lie on a bed as if she was bedridden. During the crusade the woman came on a stretcher and she got up walking. Paul says, “However she walked the same way she had been walking before we met her. No miracle took place. It was a fluke. But her case brought a lot of popularity to Joshua.”
Until I’m convinced Joshua is a man of God who doesn’t pay people to pretend they are bedridden and wheelchair bound, I remain a doubting Thomas, more so that Joshua has failed to rebut Paul’s allegations. Perhaps I should travel to Lagos and carry out my own investigations. And hell no, I won’t be selling my car to buy an air ticket just for Joshua.
