Church doesn’t forbid the practice of polygamy — Cleric

The son of the founder of the Celestial Church of Christ, Worldwide, Olatosho Oshoffa has shared his thoughts concerning polygamy in the church.

According to him, the church doesn’t forbid the practice of polygamy.

Olatosho who is the shepherd of CCC International Headquarters, Ketu, Lagos, while making a case for his late father’s large family declared that no prophets in the Bible had one wife.

“Can I tell you something… (sic)? You see, in that scripture, Paul was only advising. Tell me in the Bible, which prophet of God had only one wife? Do your research and tell me,” Oshoffa said in an interview with Punch.

The late Oshoffa left 13 wives and 53 children behind raising concern about his lifestyle even as the leader of one of Nigeria’s Christian congregations.

He dismissed such concern, adding that despite his late father already having three wives, God still gave him the vision to start his ministry 76 years ago.

“I am sure in 1947 if there was a better candidate to found CCC, Oshoffa wouldn’t have been chosen.

“But because there wasn’t a better candidate, he was the only one that God found worthy to found CCC, despite having three wives. So those condemning my father should know that he never had any concubine.

“He married them (his wives), and they were all under his roof. But today, the so-called men of God with only one wife will have concubines outside.

“Which one is better? So, I will tell you that if God were to judge by the number of wives before sending a bishop or pastor on a mission, my father would have been disqualified because he had three wives before God called him,” he stated.

When asked how his father was able to keep his large family closely knitted, he said his father never trained the children from different mothers.

“Let me tell you something, my dear brother. Our father, while on earth, used to gather us together and tell us, never say you are a son or daughter to any of my wives. But tell yourself, you are a son of Oshoffa.

“This means he used that girdle of love to tie us together. So we don’t see ourselves as children of our various mothers but as children of Oshoffa. That is the same way we related when he (Oshoffa) was still in this world and has been doing after his demise.

“Even today, the remaining Oshoffa wives that were younger than my mother, I still refer to them as my mother, because of the love that our father (Oshoffa) has used to bind us together. So, we all remain one as SBJ Oshoffa children,” he added.

Speaking on the leadership crisis tearing celestial church, the cleric said such a crisis was expected after the departure of the founder.

Though, he was hopeful that the problems would soon be addressed.

He, however, declared that his eldest brother, Rev. Emmanuel Oshoffa, is the leader of the church

“Now, when the founder of this church departed, the same way Jesus Christ departed, there were troubles among the apostles about who would lead.

“The same way as well that according to history, the Catholic Church at a time had multiple Popes. But today, they have only one Pope after so many centuries.

“This is the same situation with CCC. After the demise of its founder, there was so much trouble. The apostles also faced the same challenges on succession as those of the Catholic Church.

“…But as of today, the most acclaimed and accepted leader in CCC all over the world is the first son of the founder, my eldest brother, Rev. Emmanuel Oshoffa, who is based in Imeko, Ketu, and Makoko, the headquarters of the church,” he added.