Between God And Science: Kumuyi’s Take

 By Banji Ojewale

Dateline: August, 2022, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In a hospital, the fate of a pair of conjoined twins lies in the experience, expertise and exertions of some 100 medics. Dug deep in a duel to divide the duo where they are congenitally cleaved –the brains- doctors put up "one of the most complex processes ever’’ adventured.’’ Finally, after 27 hours in the theatre, preceded by months of trialing initiatives, the 3-year-olds are broken loose. 

*Pastor Kumuyi

For the first time in the world, surgeons across several countries take part in the separation task, wearing headsets to communicate. A "virtual reality room’’ is the ‘command centre’.  Dr. Noor ul Owase Jeelani, who led the team along with Dr. Gabriel Mufarrej, says: "In some ways, these operations are considered the hardest of our time, and to do it in virtual reality was just really man-on-Mars stuff.’’

 Described as space-age feat, it delivered a miracle humanity is applauding as the elusive Eighth Wonder of all time brewed in the recesses of science.

Now there’s another cauldron dishing more shattering deeds. There, God holds court. The Church, (or wherever He is trustingly invoked), is His theatre. Unseen while at work, He is nevertheless evinced when He delivers an incredible cascade of miracles ranging from giving a person a new spiritual personality, the greatest of all wonders, to making the dead live again and healing those with terminal ailments. Dissimilar to the tactics of the medics, God doesn’t dramatize His performance. What the Omnipossible God simply requires is an unquestioning servant who takes His promises literally to call on the lame to walk or the dead to rise. There are no theatrics. Nor are there ‘’trialing’’ stages culminating in a healing.

So, beyond a science seeking to stun society with extraordinary landmarks through an amazing assembly of skilled men and women deploying a yet more mystifying array of stethoscopes, scalpels and a ceaseless flow of ‘elixirs’ from the labs, we have a God Who says He preceded science and its works. He doesn’t disavow the immense achievements of science and technology over the ages. But He condemns a science that contemns Him and His miracles.

He wants us to believe that science is unable to transform a destructive, debauched and dehumanized criminal into a sane and harmless citizen who would cooperate with government and neighbours to build a progressive and peaceful community. The successful Rio de Janeiro operation, like countless others over the years worldwide, can’t address the sublime needs of man. Unprecedented strides in science and technology, with their concomitant sensually-driven, time-consuming and adventure-craving passions, are rather constructing humanity’s tombs. They have been man’s companions for long, such that they have become our tin gods. They haven’t succored us. Instead, they have alienated us from true joy.

But God wants us to take solace in what the world witnesses repeatedly in the ministry of His servants as they call on Him to save man from the miseries of sin, poverty, disease, effete political leadership, corruption in government, juvenile unrest, failure of system of education etc. and not to idolize man-manufactured products.

Therefore, when the other day Nigeria’s revered evangelist William Folorunso Kumuyi presented his new international offspring, Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK, to the world, he spoke of it as a brand designed by Heaven to bring "reprieve…(to) a world in turmoil.’’ He said in effect that his God has severed him from a closet and denomination to now plant "a mustard seed...with deepening roots’’ Pastor Kumuyi says the plant "has spread far and blossomed as the world stands in awe of the mercy and might of God.’’  

Kumuyi comes with empirical figures. He says since its outing, just over a year ago, GCK has hit a record that belies its short span. The cleric says: “Based on statistics and analysis of our media streams…GCK over the past year, has reached more than 150 countries with a monthly average physical audience of between 40,000 and 150,000 and virtual audience of over 3,000,000 people globally. We have documented over 200,000 people across the world who have been saved and transformed during these crusades. More than 30 million people have been impacted globally in the last year through the GCK.’’

Still more: in addition to GCK offering the utmost deliverance, namely salvation of the soul, it has also freed tens of thousands from grave satanic torments like the deadly Covid-19, HIV/Aids, cancer, stroke, blindness, deafness, barrenness, depression  etc. as God heeded the "simple and straightforward prayer of faith, offered in the name of Jesus.’’ There are proven cases of the dead being raised to life during the prayers of Kumuyi at the crusades. In one case, a dead fetus in the womb was restored in Nigeria. In Ethiopia, mortuary attendants were petrified when a corpse became a living soul again during the night as a nurse left behind her device that was playing back the message and prayer of Kumuyi.

As Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, convenes GCK from state to state in Nigeria for six straight days every month, he makes it a non-denominational affair. Its confinement in DCLM caged its volcanic energies. The crusades became the proverbial genie in the bottle. The behemoth could spew forth unlimited powers to bless the entire inhabitants of Planet Earth. But alas, the giant was imprisoned, denied a full flight by the spirit of denominationalism.

In late September, Pastor Kumuyi revealed that his Master has enlarged his field. He has liberated the colossus. The Lord has called him to another level, he said at the just-concluded GCK in Minna, Niger State. He said:  "The Lord wants me to come out of the closed doors of Deeper Life Bible Church, (to) open the door(s) and come to all of you and then take you deeper than deeper.’’

Despising God’s raw miracles to live only by faith in science and power of reason has shipwrecked man. We need to visit the GCK sessions to behold the elemental power God unleashes. As a June 25, 1978 New York Times article put it, the trip shall give us the experience of the astronomer who arrived where God was after a long search through a science that shut out the Bible. He was greeted by ‘’a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.’’

In our day, Kumuyi would be among the men of God welcoming the man of science.

Ojewale is a writer in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.