The debate about reliance on divine healing or medical therapy will remain on the front burner until the end of time. Former Ondo state’s First Lady, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, added more oxygen to the discussion during the week in a media interview when she spoke about her spouse’s struggle with cancer. Her husband, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, who governed Ondo state for a full term and a half, answered his final summons on December 27, 2023, after battling hammer and tongs with the killer ailment for months......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
Betty Akeredolu argued that if her man had listened to her not to bank on spiritual healing by one hundred per cent, she would have escaped the widowhood. She strongly believed that if her late husband had prioritised medical treatment over spiritual practices, his life could have been prolonged.
She queried: “What came out of their mountain climbing, blessed handkerchiefs, holy water, olive oil, etc., from the GOs and all the noisy prayers like people possessed by demons? If Aketi had listened to me, I wouldn’t be a widow.”
The former First Lady, a breast cancer survivor, detailed how her understanding of cancer biology and early detection led her to establish the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria (BCAN) in 1997. She emphasised that cancer should be viewed as a medical condition and not a spiritual attack, asserting that breast cancer or any cancer at all, cannot be prayed away.
About nine years earlier, a high-profile Nigerian and a thorn in the flesh of counterfeit drugs warlords, Prof. Dora Akunyili, lost the battle against uterine cancer in faraway India, precisely on June 7, 2014 at the age of 50. In the course of the prolonged battle, Prof. Akunyili was sucked in by the miracle workers and divine healers swarming all over the place. According to an account by one of her children, Hon. Obumnaeme Akunyili, she went to a number of popular Nigerian religious leaders in a bid to get well when she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer but many of them used the opportunity to milk her while giving her false hope. He described what the men of God did to his mother a “divine hustle”.
“The spiritual hustlers saw the opportunity offered by a dying woman, who was buoyed by her stubborn faith to live, and decided to explore her mercilessly,” he had lamented.
Hon. Obumnaeme further revealed that his mother spent a lot of money and sowed all manner of seeds with guarantees by the religious leaders that she would be healed. The late amazon was carried away by the empty promises and assurances and fought to live because, according to her son, she believed her work here was not done.
He recalled one of the visits to a prominent Lagos-based pastor where she spent a whole week undergoing divine treatment. Upon returning home, she requested to be taken for a scan in the belief that God had healed her. The son further revealed that his father was crying when he was taking her to do the scan because he knew what they would see. When the scanning was done, revealing the mass of the cancer that had grown larger than before, the ailing victim slipped into despair and became a shadow of herself within three days!
The experiences of Prof. Akunyili and Arakunrin Akeredolu were examples of what many dyed-in-the-wool believers in divine healing have gone through with many of them not being alive to regret their actions. I am not here to rubbish the claims that divine interventions exist under the sun. The Holy Writ is replete with accounts of divine healings… both in the Old and the New Testaments. It is recorded in 2 Kings 13:21 that a dead man sprang back to life when the body came in contact with the skeleton of Prophet Elisha. The bearers of the cadaver had hurriedly hurled the corpse inside Elisha’s sepulcher to escape a war. Before that, his mentor, Prophet Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath as recorded in 1 Kings 17.
Jesus Christ whose name the present-day pastors employed to heal or perform all manner of healings Himself raised the dead. An example was Lazarus who was brought back to life after three days despite the stench from his decomposed body hanging heavily in the atmosphere. However, some modern-day Nigerian pastors, apostles, bishops, etc., have claimed to smash that record by raising cadavers of more than 10 days!
Reliance on spiritual interventions for physical challenges is not peculiar to the rich Christians alone. In fact, the practice is common among the adherents languishing in the nether region of penury. Driven by poverty and high costs of medications, many poor Christians turn to spiritual solutions to escape all manner of ailments such headache, malaria, typhoid, cold, cough and even catarrh…not to speak of life-threatening ones like high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, tuberculosis, among others.
There are several instances of adherents who have thrown their lives away while their relations attribute their deaths to acts of God or that they were fated to go at the time. In most cases, the pastors are the encouragers of these avoidable deaths among their followers. There was his wealthy businesswoman in Abuja who collaborated with her pastor to answer her final summons for migraine attack. She decided against going to the hospital to see her doctor, but went to see her pastor for prayers. Perhaps, she was brainwashed into believing that the condition was authored by a business rival. After the so-called man of God laid his hands on her and rubbed anointing oil on her forehead, she claimed her healing and went home. However, later in the midnight, her head began to pound you would think a caterpillar overran her skull. She was not even in a position to ask to be taken back to her pastor. By the time they got her to the nearby clinic, she was declared dead on arrival.
However, a family friend who was due for delivery of her baby by caesarean section but was advised by her pastor not to go under the knife because the operation would lead to her death. He assured her of normal delivery and that he would pray and fast for her. Curiously, she did not believe her and eventually headed for the theatre where the surgery was successfully carried out. While they were wheeling her to the theatre, a call came from the pastor, warning her again against going under the knife. But she told him thus, “Pastor, as I am talking to you now, I am being wheeled to the theatre.”
The problem is that these prophets of doom have no shame. Even when their claims blow up in their faces, they will behave as if nothing went wrong, and carry on with their business as usual. A story is also told of the founder of Christ Apostolic Church or CAC who was involved in a ghastly motor accident in the late 60s or early 70s. He lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital for medical attention. When he came around, he asked to be discharged immediately because his church forbade medical treatment. And that his stay in the hospital would shake the faith of his followers. In the CAC, members of the sect rely on prayers, holy water and anointing oil to treat all ailments.
His request was granted. He left the hospital with fractures and other wounds. His prayer warriors took over from where the medical team left off. However, his condition began to deteriorate. The wounds festered, infections set in and the broken bones were not healing. Eventually, he gave up the ghost. I really do not know whether his followers got the message or they simply dismissed it as God’s time for him to depart to the heavenly home.
In the biblical days after Christ had gone, His disciples continued from where he left off. The shadow of Apostle Peter was healing the sick, while aprons from Apostle Paul were working wonders. However, the truth of the matter is that most of our own jet-set men of God are charlatans who use the name of Jesus to swindle their gullible followers. Most of these followers flock to them like ants on sugar in search of solutions to their problems at a cost. Nothing is done for free as demanded by the scripture that says freely ye receive and freely ye should give.
Christians are strongly advised to seek medical attention for their health challenges in addition to exercising their faith in God. Everything He created is for our own good, including all the ingredients for making medicines and the medical personnel themselves.