All Hail Lady-Bishop Funke Felix-Adejumo
By: Deji Yesufu
Opinion piece writers are not rabble-rousers. They are agents of change in society that mould a people’s worldview towards fostering better socio-economic cohesion. Opinion writers need not be right always, but they must not be cajoled against expressing their ideas. The world is a marketplace of ideas. What makes for a functional society is when ideas are shared, and a majority buy into it. Even when an idea is not popular, it should not be denied expression.
The ideas I champion on my blog are religious. My ideas have a double edge. In one hand, I wish to see Christian churches be genuinely biblical in doctrine and practice. My argument is that righteousness is always profitable: both in this life and in the life to come. Whatever may become of Western societies tomorrow, the fundamental worldview they were founded on was Christian. Whether it is their work ethics, sports, journalism, politics, etc – the fundamental principles underlying the United States and Europe today is Christian. Now if these societies are working, you want to imitate the principles that gave them these results. So my ideas are both biblical and pragmatic. It is in defining what is biblical, that I often find myself at loggerheads with many Christian traditions – particularly Pentecostals. My object of angst today is Mrs. Funke Felix-Adejumo and her recent coronation as a Bishop.
The last article I wrote on madam Adejumo was concerning her “simony”. I showed how her penchant for raising money from church people, in the name of seed sowing, is patently unbiblical and historically faulty. Simony is named after Simon Magus who gave Peter money so he also could possess power to do miracles (Acts 8). When Madam Adejumo asked people to donate a thousand dollars to reap a blessing, I was accusing her of simony. That article made it into my top one hundred articles in the last decade, which has now been published in my book, HUMANITY. Today, madam Adejumo is in the news again. She has been crowned a Bishop. To understand the root trouble with this “coronation”, we must return to the Bible and locate the biblical counsel towards women pastors or Bishops. We find the following:
1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach…
1 Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 14:35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1 Timothy 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
If we must obey Scripture, we may want to ask madam Adejumo is she is a “husband of one wife”. If by any chance or delusion, she happens to be one, we might wish to ask her what she understands about “women being silent in church”. If by some miracle she evades this question, you also want to ask her what she understands about women “learning in silence”. If by some gymnastics, she can jump over these three biblical injunction, you must then agree that this woman and those who have ordained her into ministry are being disobedient to God’s commands. Those who have a love for their souls will need to distance themselves from individuals like them.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to inform you that God’s word does not permit the ordaining of women to ministry – whether that ministry is at Pastoral level or even as a Bishop. The impression we get from scripture is that the vast majority of church people will not be preacher – be they be male or female. Most of us will remain evangelists – using our platform to share gospel truths, and living these truths out to our unbelieving neighbours. In church, however, a few men will occupy positions of leadership as pastors and deacons. Among the pastors, a few will be teaching elders. That’s the biblical model. So, when we say women cannot be preachers, we are not saying they cannot be evangelists. Negatively it means most church people will not lead churches or preach. Positively, it means all of God’s people are his witness to the nations.
I feel I am gradually outgrowing criticising Pentecostals. Their errors are so obviously plain, it appears committing time to writing on them is a waste of valuable energy. I realize, however, that a few people read these articles and benefit from them. For their sake, I keep at it. Funke Felix-Adejumo will not be un-ordained because one person criticized her. However it will be on record that at least one person held the matter to the microscopic lens of scriptures and found it wanting. There is no space in this article to mention that those ordaining her Bishop themselves have long been disqualified from ministry. You find then that when a disqualified minister ordains a woman, you have two wrongs making a horrendous error.
Ideas make society. Once I took a trip from Ibadan to Lagos, and I sat next to a naval officer. He spoke to me that while the streets of Lagos are lined with churches, the Nigerian navy spends billions purchasing equipment from Germany and other European countries. He couldn’t fathom it. I told him that while religion made the West, our own kind of religion is destroying ours. If we live out biblical theology in its true form, it will affect our learning. We will improve in our sciences, arts, and even politics. The sign that the pervasive religion of our time if faulty is in the backwards of our country. For fifty plus years, Pentecostals have been promising Christians an Eldorado on earth. It is yet to materialise. The only people that are benefiting from it all are individuals like her royal “bishopress” – Lady-Bishop Funke Felix-Adejumo. Perhaps she deserves a hailing.
Deji Yesufu is the Pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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