General News of Tuesday, 31 July 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2018-07-31
Rev Isaac Opoku is the founder and Leader of ‘In Him is Life Church International’
The founder and Leader of ‘In Him is Life Church International’ Rev Isaac Opoku is calling on the Christian and Pentecostal Council as well as the National Chief Imam to as a matter of urgency call to order prophets and Mallams whose actions and inactions cause fear and panic in the country.
According to him, activities of some religious leaders especially the prophets should be regulated in order to enhance national development instead of being involved in giving prophecies concerning untimely deaths of public figures and other stakeholders in the country.
“In recent times, religious leaders, especially some Prophets, have been involved in giving prophecies concerning untimely deaths on public figures and other stakeholders like Presidents, Vice Presidents, Journalists, Artists and others in the nation which, in my opinion, puts the target people into fear of death and I think such conduct from those Men and women of God needs to be regulated.
At a news conference in Accra yesterday to raise these concerns, Rev Opoku outlined four key recommendations he would table before the Christian Council and the Chief of Staff at the Presidency for action to be taken.
According to him, “Our Prophets should be able to contact such Public figures and stakeholders through their respective Public Relation Officers or their Managers and confer with them how best to seek divine guidance to avert such occurrences if the need is, and avoid putting such prophecies in the public domain.”
He added that “the Authorities in our various institutions like the Christian Council, the Pentecostal Council and another religious body should be up to the task to address some of these concerns.
He also explained that “the authorities in our Radio and TV stations should find a way to examine the preaching of our Religious Leaders and Pastors before giving the media platform in order to bring sanity to messages that come on the public domain.
While acknowledging that any conduct or behaviour that puts fear and panic on individuals in the nation bothers on security issues, he called on the “National Security in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service and other security institutions in the nation take certain measures to address and regulate some of these issues.”
Summing up his presentation, Rev Opoku said “we have Biblical records to show that God has been involved in national development through various Prophets at different times in the history of several nations.
The General Overseer in the area of Politics said God used Prophet Samuel, Kings Saul, David, Solomon and others in ancient Israel. God also used Joseph in the area of finance in Egypt. We appreciate our leaders and Prophets who contribute to enhance the progress of nation-building, but it is expedient that our work should be guided in such a way as to contribute to enhancing the progress of nation-building, but the expedient that work should be guided in such a way as to contribute positively rather than retarding the national development.
Rev Opoku who has 30 years experience in the prophetic industry said if nothing was done after this recommendation the next step would be to organise a demonstration to protest against these actions.
He lamented however that, Ghana has witnessed several spectacular impacts that leaders from all walks of life have made in terms of national development from the time of independence until now.
“Ghana is gradually moving into the realm of superstition where prophecy seems to take the centre stage of almost all our endeavours especially in the area of Politics and this has ramification effect of retarding the progress of the entire nation in one way or the other.”
“We are surrounded by Pastors and Prophets in other neighbouring Countries but we scarcely hear of such religious mishaps among them. We should not forget how His Excellency Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda recently took a bold step to close down about 6000 Churches and with the assertion that Pastors must attain degree in Theology before they can practice as Ministers of the Gospel of Christ.”
“This line of action taken by the Government of Rwanda hinges on measures intended to regulate the activities of religious bodies to operate within legally accepted standards in the nation.”