THE CHRIST EMBASSY CHURCH IS A CULT

Introduction

I approach this subject of discussion with great trepidation but with genuine concern for the thousands of people, especially young minds, in the Christ Embassy Church. My genuine concern for these people has overcome my fears and has finally led me to open this thread, which I promised to open but had changed my mind on it so often afterwards, until now.

I was hoping I could do a thorough study on the subject, approaching it from the definition of a cult, supplying information on what cult organizations believe and do, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot do that due to some constraints and the fact that most people who read these threads do not have the patience to read long discussions.

So, I will simply state my reasons for concluding that the CEC is a cult organization and I would be looking forward to responding to those who may want to query this position. The young man, Gombs, an ardent CEC member, has promised to grace the thread and I hope that our back and forth discussion on the subject will help shed light on my position.

I again want to emphasize that I do not get any pleasure from criticizing fellow men in whatever stance they have chosen in life. I am convinced they have perfect liberty to do whatever they want under the law of our country. When however what they do in Christ's name contravene the express commands of the God who authored the bible, it is our duty to point these things out. In doing so, we may be able to dissuade those who might find themselves walking into the cult organization or help those seeking a path out of it, escape.

These discussions are not meant to be an attack on Chris Oyakhilome or members of his church. I truly desire they will see it that way. If however they do not, their perception will not stop the project from continuing.

I will be writing on two themes next:

1. The Cultic Connection in the Word of Faith Movement.

2. Why Christ Embassy is a cult.

THE CULTIC CONNECTION IN THE WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT

The first of the two links provided above is a PDF download link to a book written by Dr Walter Martins on cult organizations in Christendom. Dr Martin, died 1989, was considered an authority in cult organizations. Thanks to his research and work, organizations like the Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science and Mormons, are now known as cults among church people. The book also discusses other cult organizations. This edition however composed of some addition to what Dr Martins had written. It has a section in the Appendix that discusses the Word of Faith movement, page 479. Everything that was written in that appendix was simply a confirmation of what trustman, DrummaBoy and BabaGnoni had discussed in a thread on Word of Faith. Find the thread above. The conclusion was that the Word of Faith had cultic influences, even if it cannot be called a strict cult. In my submission next, I wish to argue that the Christ Embassy Church, while teaching WoF, has finally crossed over to being a cult organization and that people need to beware of this.

I refer my readers to the two documents above for a thorough study into Word of Faith and other cults. But I will simply just do a summary on the cultic connection in Word of Faith.

The teachings of Word of Faith can be summarised in the followings, as gleaned from the Kingdom of Cults, page 479:

1. Faith in faith.

2. Confessing to Possessing.

3. The Sin of Suffering

4. Wealth (The Wheel of Fortune).

5. Health and Healing.

You may refer to the above links for a thorough understanding into these five essential false doctrines of the WoF. But here I shall conclude on what exactly is the gospel of Jesus Christ and why the WOF is not Christ gospel.

THE GOSPEL

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not health and wealth. Regardless of how the Word Faith enthusiasts spin scriptures, Jesus did not die so that we all could be healthy and wealthy.

This is why Jesus came to the world and why he died:

Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus came to die to save men from sin. The message of this season, Easter. Nothing more.

The bad news of humanity is that all men are born sinners. God then set in an initiative to save men. He came to the world as Christ and died for men's sins. The reason was because God is a righteous judge and will judge sin. When Christ died, God judged the sin of the world on him. So that whoever believes in Christ can have his sins judged and taken and away on the cross.

The consequence is two folds: Christians will not suffer God's judgement and Christian possess power over sin to live holy. Thus, we may not be able to say you are going to heaven but we sure can see the fruit of your life, holiness, without which no man shall see God.

WoF miss the point of the gospel when they say that in addition to redemption from sin, the cross has secured health and wealth for Christians. The easiest answer to this position is that in Christ we see holiness and heavenliness; however Jesus suffered poverty and identified with the sick in Matthew 25, saying "when I was sick..."; shall we say Jesus was not of God for being poor and sick? In the long run, WoF ceases to teach holiness and heavenliness. Rather their emphasis are health, wealth, success, promotion, motivation, etc.

WHY CHRIST EMBASSY IS A CULT

From my perspective, an organization can be said to be a cult from what it teaches and it's lifestyle. We have seen that the essential teaching of CEC is WoF. While WoF is clearly false doctrine, I hesitate to describe all churches teaching Word Faith as cults because they emphasize certain truths that still keeps them "safe". Example, many of these churches believe in Christ's deity. They encourage a heart submission to Christ's Lordship and encourage holy living. These minimums still keeps them from going overboard. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Christ Embassy.

The following are a quick shot at why CEC is today a cult.

1. Chris Oyakhilome is their god.

While discussing cult organizations, Walter Martins made it clear that cult organization usually refer to a man or woman as their sole authority, not the bible. For Jehovah Witnesses it was Charles Taze Russell . For Christian Science it is Mary Eddy Baker. For Mormons it is Joseph Smith . And for Christ Embassy, it is Chris Oyakhilome. We only need to see how these other cult organization equate the literatures of their founders to the bible, and in many cases, subordinating scriptures to the words of their founders, to agree with me. That's the tragedy of literatures like Rhapsody of Realities, etc, in the CEC.

Chris Oyakhilome is effectively the prophet and god of the Christ Embassy cult. His members consider him infallible and the anointed one, their Christ. I am told by an old member of nl that Joagbaje, a leading CE member on nl, used to refer to Chris Oyakhilome as "Pastor Christ", instead of Pastor Chris, as he fondly called by his followers. This example, and many others like it, point to the cultism that CEC church has become.

2. Sin in the Congregation.

A leading Christ Embassy follower on this forum, mbaemeka, once commented that a brother once left CEC bc he was tired of the immorality going on in their midst. He says that the brother eventually "fell" into a worse sin where he went to. The point he was trying to make was that sin is of men's heart and not environment. The point he passed across unknowingly was that sexual immorality was the order of the day in the cult of Chris Oyakhilome.

There is no greater proof of this than the widely reported divorce case BTW Chris and his wife, Anita. Anita had stated in her appeal for divorce in a British court that her husband was known to have "inappropriate relations" with ladies in church. Those in the know refer this to the endless line of lady pastor that live in the "White House", Oyakhilome residence, in Lagos. Chris has live apart from his wife since 1999 when she left to start the UK Branch of their church. Pastor Chris might require us to believe he has been celibate since then.

A study of Walter Martins work on cults reveals that the leader is usually a sex maniac. Who has unreserved access to ladies in church. They normally have failed marriages.

Sexual immorality is the order of the day among CEC members. They revel in it. My investigations reveal that married people are even known to date other people's wives and husbands in church.

3. Fake Miracles:

Like the Christian Science cult, the CEC is also known for its fake miracles. Thanks to the painstaking work of our own SirJohn here on nairaland, Chris Oyakhilome is now known as a fake miracle worker, with his healing school, a place where the sick and the gullible are reaped off of their resources without getting healed. The story of Kenya28 help seal the fake miracles story of CEC and the more recently discovered case of a man whom Joagbaje claimed to heal of HIV but who was never healed.



 OTHERS

Other proof of the cultic nature of CEC is their violence and hate. There have been numerous occasions in which people have tried to investigate the church and have ended being beaten black and blue. A lady who supplied screen to their recently concluded ministers conference was beaten because she demanded to be paid for her services.

As for hate, readers can just sit back and see the response of Christ Embassy members to this thread. How they very easily dodge issues and aim diatribes at the critic's personality or personal lives. When this is not sufficient, they then begin to rain down curses or resort to cheap spiritual blackmail.

CEC members all talk like Pastor Chris; they dress like him; they copy his gesticulations and style. They seek to be like Chris Oyakhilome and not Christ.

I understand that CEC members read mostly Oyakhilome publications. If they would read anything else, it must be from the error of other Word of Faith preachers.

Members marry only members. There is a perversive demand for money in the church, to the extent that member "sow" all their possessions and money to church. It is not uncommon to find members begging people for money to give for offering. Recently, the church began demanding money for New Year morning services. Stories of people defrauding their companies to give to church abound in the dailies. The atrocities are endless.

The biggest proof of the cult of CEC is the freedom they deny their members. Members cannot critique Oyakhilome. If you do, the threat of a curse is issued. There is a bondage to fit the "successful mold" - the impression that you have made it, so members have no qualms selling all they have so as to give to the endless demand for "pledges".

Conclusion.

It was difficult for me to conclude that CEC is a cult but having read Walter Martins, I couldn't help but do so. Christ Embassy members claim to win souls for Christ but the truth is that they are making these people twice the son of hell that they really are. This is a desperate call to our youths in this church to leave it and find some other bible church to go to.

I will stop here for now.