Nigerians have criticised the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, over his calls for Christians to pay above 10 percent tithe.
While speaking to his congregant on Thursday, Adeboye apologised for “misleading” his flock into paying just 10 percent tithe.
“I need to be apologising for making a mistake for saying that if you don’t pay tithe, you cannot make it to heaven,” Adeboye said.
“Sorry, that’s wrong. That’s not in the Bible. What the Bible said is ‘follow peace with all me and holiness, without which no man shall see God,” Adeboye added.
”It is wrong to limit you to 10 percent at the time when some of you should be giving 20, 30, or 40 percent. 10 percent should be for beginners. Giving should be violently,” Adeboye added.
Reacting to the cleric’s statement, Nigerians berated him for calling for more donations to the church amid the hardship in the country.
In a series of comments on X on Friday, they alleged that Adeboye aims to enrich himself at the expense of his congregant.
“This is just him telling his congregation to give more violently and more than 10%. It’s like playing GG in SportyBet. Massaging your shoulder about not paying tithe with one hand and using the other hand to take your 50% from your pocket, Mr. Xperience stated.
“This preaching is just wrong, and it pains me because I don’t know how I can perfectly say it so you all can understand it. First, science and religion don’t go together. Is it wrong to preach science in the church? Secondly, your 10%, according to the Bible, is proportional to your yearly income.
“So coming out to talk about it is wrong to limit you to just 10%” is false preaching because that was a direct instruction from the Bible and you cannot add or subtract any word from the Bible. The Bible cannot be amended. Is like trying to increase or decrease the Ten Commandment,” he added.
For Chris Ejiofor, he said, “What God will judge is too much. Many pastors are preaching what they want, not what God wants. Do you know how much he made off his members from preaching this in the past?”
Also reacting to the statement, an X user simply identified as Light said, “Your so-called ‘apology’ is an insult to the millions you’ve manipulated and exploited for financial gain. Your actions disqualify you from being a man of God. You’ve weaponised scripture to line your pockets.”
G. Tim, “I hate to do this, but did he just apologise for teaching what was never in the Bible and then go on to teach another instruction that’s also not written anywhere in the Bible? What manner of gaslighting is this?”
Nurudeen Oloyede also mentioned that “This is not an apology; Baba simply manipulated people to pay more than just 10%.”
Maetrix Ogbu described the cleric and his colleagues as “criminals in holy robes. They are now realising that people are abandoning their business introduced to them by colonisers.”
“He is yet to accept the truth. Listen properly; he still wants to exploit by saying the least is 10%. The Bible didn’t teach the believer percentage giving. This man is not sincere.
“But my prayer for him is that he would come to the knowledge of the truth of scriptures. The eyes of his understanding will be enlightened as he yields sincerely with meekness to God’s written word,” another X user, Kingsley E. Ewere, stated.
