Divine Healing in Christ Apostolic Church

Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) which is an important Pentecostal church in Nigeria traces its root partly to Precious Stone Society, a prayer group that began in Southwestern Nigeria in 1918. This article identified the tenet of faith of the church on divine healing; located the tenet of CAC in the context of global Pentecostal theology; and compared the initial understanding of the concept in CAC with the way it is perceived today by the church members. Primary sources of data for the work comprised the Bible, editions of CAC constitutions, articles written by founding progenitors of the church, questionnaire, and interview. Secondary sources of data comprised Bible commentaries, books, journal articles, and Internet sources. Combinations of theological, historical and phenomenological approaches were adopted for the work. The findings were that CAC held to divine healing of believers, the belief of the church on divine healing locates CAC at the centre of Pentecostal theology, and the view of divine healing held by the church members today has changed from the one held by progenitors of the church. The work has added to materials to the study of Pentecostalism in Nigeria for higher institutions.

Divine healing, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), use of drugs, sanctified water, anointing oil, divine sovereignty

Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) did not manufacture its tenets. Many “royal battles” were fought by theologians and some other church leaders in the early part of church history before several doctrines were clarified. These theological clarifications were outcome of the attempts to faithfully interpret the Scripture and summarize its teachings in the light of the experience of the church with God. The clarifications became very necessary in the face of onslaught of strange teachings which introduced confusion into the church and misled undiscerning church members.

The 12th tenet of CAC states, “We believe and hold: ‘Divine healing through obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in His name and merits of His blood for all sickness, diseases and infirmities.’”[1] The articles of faith of CAC are its tenets. A tenet is an “[…] opinion, principle, dogma, belief, or doctrine, which a person holds or maintains as true.”[2] Simply put, a tenet is an article of faith supposedly built on the correct interpretation of the Scripture. Because church tenets are at best human interpretations of divine truths, they may sometimes be wrong. This is particularly possible if particular theological tenets are built on faulty exegesis and poor hermeneutics.[3] Bernard J. Otten puts this issue thus, “[…] revealed truths are objectively permanent and immutable … (but) their subjective apprehension and outward expression admits of progress.”[4] Morris therefore cautions, “[…] when … tenets are taken to an extra-biblical extreme, or when modified by the assimilation of non-biblical nuances, the result is a distortion of orthodoxy.”[5] This is why church tenets need re-visiting, re-evaluating, and re-working at intervals to make sure that they are better conformed to objective interpretation of the Scripture.[6] The term “tenets” is used in this write-up for CAC dogma or doctrines accepted by the Church to guide the religious practises of its members.

Of the three constitutions of CAC (1961, 1970, and 1998)[7] only the edition of 1998 has divine healing as a tenet. The claim of the late General Evangelist of CAC, David O. Babajide, that, “[…] lati owo Emi Mimo …ni a ti fi awon ilana ati eko ijo CAC le awon baba wa ninu igbagbo … l’owo”[8] (Translation: CAC practices and doctrines were handed down by the Holy Spirit to our founding fathers”) is questionable. The current research shows that CAC shares its tenet on divine healing with the Pentecostalism that existed before it. Some other tenets it holds in common with other Pentecostals are Baptism of the Holy Spirit with signs, government of the church by apostles; prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers; and the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church.

The belief in divine healing is common in CAC but the church did not originate it. In fact, it is a doctrine which the church has in common with other Pentecostal churches. Candy Gunther Brown observes that divine healing is “an essential marker of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity as a global phenomenon.”[9] Some other scholars on Pentecostalism do agree with Brown[10] that “divine healing” and not “[…] speaking in tongues or prosperity most characterises Pentecostalism as distinct from other forms of Christianity.”[11] According to Cox however, that Pentecostals agree on the practice of divine healing does not imply “a singular theology of healing. Pentecostal, and Charismatic believers along with them, admit to a variety of views on healing.”[12]

Divine healing though has always been recognised and practised in Christianity, with the emergence of Pentecostalism, it became more important. According to Vinson Synan,

While tongues came to the fore in 1901 and 1906 with the ministries of Charles Parham in Topeka, Kansas and William J. Seymour in the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906, the emphasis on healing goes back to the mid-Nineteenth Century when efforts were made to restore New Testament signs and wonders to the church.[13]

In Europe, healing in answer to prayer was probably first taught by Edward Irving in London in 1830, Johann Christoph Blumhardt in Germany in 1843, and Dorothea Trudel in Switzerland in 1851. These men developed a “theology of healing which was to affect many in America and lead to the Pentecostal doctrine of divine healing ‘as in the atonement.’”[14] The first person that popularized healing in America was Charles Cullis in 1870. “By the 1880’s Cullis was conducting annual healing conventions in Old Orchard.”[15] It was however Adoniram J. Gordon that first included divine healing in the atonement of Christ. He argued that in his book published in 1882.[16] John Alexander Dowie on the other hand was the first person to divorce divine healing from medical treatment. He had “a strong antipathy to surgery and medicine”[17] and argued that medical doctors were agents of Satan.[18] Synan comments on Dowie’s ministry thus, “Dowie’s stern position against all medicine and doctors … took root in many sectors of the Holiness movement and became the majority view of the Pentecostals when the movement began in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas.”[19] This shows that divine healing without the use of drugs predated the emergence of modern Pentecostalism, was inherited from earlier holiness movements, and was made popular by early Pentecostal movements.[20]

Both Charles Parham and William J. Seymour, regarded as fathers of modern day Pentecostalism, held to divine healing without the use of drugs.[21] As at 1906, “The Apostolic Faith” church had started to teach that there were three blessings in atonement. The church identified these blessings as forgiveness of sin, sanctification, and healing of human bodies.[22] Literature on divine healing without the use of drugs was produced in abundance and distributed widely following the influenza epidemic that broke out after the First World War (1914-1918).[23] From that time on many Holiness and Pentecostal churches began to canvass for complete reliance on the power of God to the exclusion of the use of medicine to heal the epidemic and other sicknesses in the Western world. It was around this time that the Western part of Nigeria experienced a similar epidemic against which Western medicine was generally ineffective. This was also the time when the prayer group that later became known as the Precious Stone Society emerged. Its emergence provided an effective response to the epidemic.[24]

According to R.A.N. Kydd, two major healing models developed after the emergence of Pentecostalism. The first is called “Revelational model” (1907). The model is described thus,

Practitioners of the revelational approach came to expect that God would give them special knowledge. He would show them what needs were present or who was being healed … God reveals information upon which the healer can act.[25]

Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman (1907-1976) is an example of this model. She started healing ministry in 1947 and her ministry became popular almost immediately it started. She became a leading proponent of healing evangelism in 1960s. She explained that she had nothing to do with the healings in her ministry. She insisted that “God performs the miracles according to his purposes and plans about what she knew absolutely nothing. The Holy Spirit revealed to her only what God had done.”[26]

The second is called “Soteriological model.” This model states that Christ has paid for Christians’ healing through his atoning work. According to Kydd, this model “… [locates] the attack on illness within the doctrine of salvation (soteriology).”[27] One of the model’s most able proponents is Granville Oral Roberts (1918-2009).[28] His healing ministry began to be popular from 1947. Oral Roberts’ theology of healing built and then improved on the theology of healing that existed before his time. Taking over the theology that healing is in the atonement of Christ, Oral Roberts added two more important poles to the theology of healing. The two added poles are called “certainty” and “sovereignty” by Kydd. Oral Roberts is quoted as expanding the concept of divine healing to be, “more than spiritual, more than mental, more than physical – it is that and more.”[29] To Roberts, the first pole called certainty is the state of the mind of the patient where the sick is convinced that God is able and willing to heal “now.” The second pole, sovereignty, though painful and disappointing to Roberts, refers to the prerogative of God to decide who, at the end of the day, is healed. Jennifer Anne Cox recently makes a similar observation with Roberts, “Why particular people are not healed is a mystery of God’s sovereignty.”[30] This soteriological approach to healing has arguably influenced many modern day Pentecostal approaches to healing. Again, Oral Roberts was the first Pentecostal that uniquely combined faith healing with use of drugs in his Oral Roberts University Hospital in Tulsa. The hospital was designed to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process and the project succeeded in doing that for some time before it suffered financial crunch. His approach has greatly influenced many Pentecostals to view prayer and medicine as partners in the process of divine healing.

The first popular healer-prophet in Nigeria was most likely Garrick Sokari Marian Braide of Obonoma (1882-1918). According to Norbert C. Brockman, “Braide had a gift for healing, and beginning in 1908, people came to him for cures and prophecies.”[31] Quoting Tasie (1978) with approval, Onah Augustine Odey states, “He made tremendous successes in prophetic healings, accurate revelation and display of social gifts.”[32] His ministry in Delta predated the rise of the Precious Stone Society in the Southwest of Nigeria and there are numerous reports that he led many people to Christ. Unlike the practice in the Precious Stone Society where water and oil were used as “means” in healing, Garrick Braided was reported as employing only prayer and fasting in his ministry without the use of “means” to effect healing. Healing ministry in the Precious Stone Society however predated that of Moses Tunolase Orimolade’s ministry which gave birth to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church. The results of field investigation on the practise of divine healing in the CAC which claims its root in part to the Precious Stone Society conducted by the current researcher are presented below.

Item 1 on table 1 reveals that almost every church member understands the view of CAC founding fathers and mothers to be that God can and did heal without drugs in CAC. From the Northern region, 98.2% (n = 110) and South-western region, 98.8% (n = 170) people affirmed this position. With the total of 280 (% = 98.6) people affirming the position, the view of only two (% = 0.7) respondents who disagreed with that position is hereby regarded as insignificant. The view of the remaining two (% = 0.7) respondents who volunteered no response is qualitative and is therefore not considered. Item 2 on table 1 shows that 65 of 112 (% = 58.0) of the respondents from the Northern region and 112 of 172 (% = 65.1) from the South-western region remembered vividly that CAC used to discourage the taking of drugs for treating sick church members. In all, 177 (% = 62.3) of the 284 agreed that that was the position of the CAC in those days as against the view of 42 of 112 (% = 37.5) respondents from the Northern region and 48 of 172 (% = 27.9) from the South-western region. The view of the 17 of 284 (% = 6.0) that gave no response is qualitative rather than quantitative and so is not reckoned with. Finally, Item 3 on table 1 shows that opinions are slightly divided on if CAC traditionally viewed the use of drugs for healing of members as a sin or not. While most respondents from the Northern region (77 of 112 = 68.8%; cf. 26 of 112 = 23.2%) were of the view that the church used to view the use of drugs for healing by members as a sin, respondents from the South-western region (79 of 172 = 45.9%; cf. 81 of 172 = 47.1%) disagreed that that was the belief. The addition of the views from the two regions however shows that while 156 of 284 (54.9%) agreed that the church traditionally regarded the use of drugs for healing as a sin, only 107 (37.7%) of the 284 respondents disagreed with the view. The view of the remaining 21 of 284 (7.4%) respondents that volunteered no answer was discarded.

Item 4 on table 1 on the contemporary view of CAC members on the use of drugs for healing indicate that majority of them no longer view the use of drugs for healing as wrong. Responses from the Northern region 56 of 112 (50%) and South-western region 115 of 172 (66.9%) show that majority of the contemporary members of CAC do not see the use of drugs for healing by members as wrong. From the Northern region, 42 of 112 (37.5%) and from the South-western region 46 of 172 (26.7%) respondents still see the use of drugs for healing by church members as wrong. When the responses are totalled, it is discovered that majority of CAC members 171 of 284 (60.2%) as against 88 (31.9%) no longer view the use of drugs as wrong.

In sum, field study on the view held by the founding fathers and mothers of CAC reveal the followings. First, that church members believed and practised divine healing without the use of drugs. Second, that the church discouraged members from using drugs whenever they were sick and, third, that the use of drugs for healing was largely regarded by the church as a sin although there is significant dissention of opinion to this view. The research also found out that the view of the contemporary members of CAC is that the use of drugs by church members for healing is not a sin. A logical conclusion from the findings above is that while CAC members today do believe that God does heal without the use of drugs, he can as well heal with the use of drugs. He may or may also decide to heal with the use of sanctified water, anointing oil, or medicine. The important thing is that God is ultimately the healer of his own and is sovereign with the approach he takes. Pentecostals all over the world will involve God in their healing theology: “For by his stripes you were healed!” (Is 53:5 cf. 1 Pet 2:25).[33] A critical study of the development of healing theology in CAC is presented below.

In Nigeria, the Precious Stone prayer group was formed in 1918.[34] In that year, a school teacher in an Anglican school near Ijebu Ode, Sophia Odunlami, claimed to receive a divine call as prophetess.[35] While myth and reality are difficult to separate in stories about her, nearly all scholars who ventured to conduct research on her concluded that her ministry against the ravaging epidemic was effective and that her call was genuine.[36] Samson A. Fatokun explains thus,

A significant development … was the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon a nineteen year old female member of the church in a nearby village called Isonyin. This was believed to be an answer to the group’s cry for spiritual renewal and divine healing from the bubonic plague. Sophia Odunlami … had a spiritual experience which resulted in her divine empowerment as the first evangelist and prophetess of the group. Sophia was herself one of the victims of the influenza for five days. But it was during this period when she laid dying in a weak body that she received an ‘outpouring of the Spirit from on high’ which revived and transformed, not only her life, but as well made the entire town to witness, for the first time in its history, a vivid demonstration of the Pentecostal power with sign followings.[37]

Odunlami in particular emphasized the power of God to heal. She introduced three things to the concept of healing which are continued, how-be-it in modified forms, in CAC till date. The first was condemning Ògùn síse (Translation: doing traditional medicine) and Ògùn lílò (Translation: using medicine) because nwon lódì sí ìfé Olórun (Translation: they are against the will of God).[38] Her concern in the prophecy thus appears to be with Christians relapsing into traditional religious remedies for healing of the ravaging epidemic that defiled Western medicine rather than totally forbidding the use of drugs. This interpretation tends to agree with J.B. Orogun’s explanation on why the early fathers and mothers of CAC forbid the use of drugs in his address to the CAC Sunday School workers in Ilorin in 1982 when he said that at that time, available hospitals were few and they were often far from the people, the Western medicines were not working for the epidemic, and it was difficult to distinguish the herbs and concoctions upon which demonic spirits were conjured from those upon which incantations were not pronounced.[39] Secondly, Odunlami delivered another oracle to her audience that they should use rain water and, blanched oil sanctified with prayer for healing.[40] Ademakinwa explains the issues involved thus,

We first heard of water being used [for healing] for the first time in 1918 when the Lord first showed … Sophia Odunlami … that rain water if used for bath will heal all who used it as they were told. … From the same lady came using blanched palm oil as body lotion. … Why we were not surprised about using oil [for healing] when Omotunde brought it to our midst in 1940 was because it had been used by … Odunlami in 1918, when she used blanched oil and rain water as directed in a vision.[41]

George O. Folarin, Olusegun A. Oladosu and Stephen Y. Baba trace Odunlami’s recommendation that rain water be blessed and used in the cure of the 1918’s epidemic as an important background to the practice of using sanctified water in CAC. They argue further that Joseph Babalola’s use of blessed water for healing further popularises its use as a “means” of healing in the church. It is noteworthy also to point out here that the church leadership at no time officially approved or disapproved the use of water for healing in the church.[42] While the use of water for healing is entrenched in the culture of the Yoruba people of the Western Nigeria, water was also a means of healing in the Bible.[43] The use of water for healing thus resonates well with the African and every attempt to discourage its use in prayer by some well-meaning members of the prayer group that led to CAC has failed. Again, the use of blanched palm oil in paying for the sick later encouraged the use of olive oil in healing prayer especially among CAC prophets.

Healing with the use of sanctified water assumed a new dimension in Joseph Babalola’s ministry. Adewale Ogunrinade traces the use of water for healing to “the encounter that Prophet Ayo Babalola had in 1928 when he saw Christ in a revelation giving him a bottle of water and telling him to drink.”[44] But David O. Olayiwola and Ogunrinade are mistaking to attribute to Joseph Babalola the first use of water for healing in the tradition of CAC.[45] Many writers acknowledge that Joseph Babalola used sanctified water copiously for healing throughout his ministry. For example, in Omu-Aran, he prayed on water, gave it to a woman who had delayed pregnancy for four years and after drinking the water, she gave birth to a living child.[46] Other prophets in CAC also do use sanctified water for healing. Daniel Orekoya was an example of such. According to Ade Alawode, in 1930 in Oke-Bola, Ibadan, the corpse of a woman who had died from smallpox for four days earlier was taken to the revival that Daniel Orekoya was conducting. When

[…] the dead woman was carried to the venue of the revival, Prophet Daniel Orekoya … prayed and sprinkled water on the dead woman [and] commanded her lifeless body: ‘rise up.’ But at first nothing happened. The prophet unperturbed continued with his ministration. He later returned to the dead body … [and] sprinkled on the body and commanded: ‘I say rise up.’ Almost immediately the whole congregation noticed that the body began to move and she sat down at first, later she stood up on her feet. She later after some weeks delivered a living baby.[47]

There are many other stories of how God worked with sanctified water to heal in CAC. The extensive use of blessed water for healing in the church[48] has been documented by Folarin, Oladosu and Baba (CAC Oke Itura, Akure),[49] Adewale (CAC Agbala Itura, Ibadan),[50] and on CAC prayer mountains (Oke Aanu in Erio Ekiti, Ori Oke Ajinare in Ido-Ile, Ori Oke Babalola in Odo Owa and, Ori Oke Ikoyi near Ikire)[51] among others by Adeoye Shittu. There is a sort of continuity in the use water for healing in the traditional African religion and the CAC. While the uninformed members of and outsiders to the church do sometimes mistake the water to be the healer for the healer, the informed members of the church realise that God is ultimately the healer and not the water.

Many great prophet-healers were raised by God in CAC. They included David Olulana Babajide, Samson Oladeji Akande, Timothy Oluwole Obadare, Godwin Nwoye, Patrick Abu Ayewo Egabor and, Ezekiel Olatidoye Babalola. Evangelist D.O. Babajide became the second General Evangelist of CAC after the translation of Joseph Babalola. Two of these prophet-healers discussed below are Ezekiel Olatidoye Babalola and Timothy Oluwole Obadare. They are representative of others.

Ezekiel Olatidoye Babalola, also known as “Baba Agric,” was also an influential CAC healing prophet. The base of his ministry was Osogbo in Osun State, Nigeria. In the 1980s, a boy, Lukman, who had no mouth opening was taken to Ezekiel Babalola. Before then, his mouth had been operated upon severally to create an opening but each time that was done, it sealed up again. According to the findings of Moses O. A. Oluwaniyi, “Babalola prayed and applied olive oil on the mouth and the mouth opening remains permanent till date. … The prophet made use of this opportunity by preaching Christ to the people.”[52] Saibu A. Owoeye comments that Ezekiel Babalola was used by God to heal several mad people. “Ailments bothering on hypertension, ulcer, diabetics, coughs, asthma etc., were cured.”[53] One of the methods which he used in healing is what Owoeye calls, “Hydrotherapeutic.” In the method, the prophet would pray over water and would give it to the ailing patients. “It was believed that any sick person who drinks from the water will receive sufficient power to be healed from whatever ailment that took him or her there.”[54] In an interactive discussion on the ministry of Ezekiel Olatidoye Babalola, E.O. Gbadegesin confirmed from his personal encounter with the prophet that by means of prayer and with the use of anointing oil and blessed water did many miracles particularly in Osun State, Nigeria.[55]

Prophet Timothy Oluwole Obadare was another great prophet/healer of CAC. He used water and anointing for healing in his crusades and church programs. According to Saibu Owoeye, God first directed him to dig a well for healing in 1969 and, he obeyed.

Prophet Obadare … [did heal by the use of] divine water from Koseunti (meaning “Cannot fail”) well. Many barren women had been relieved of their sterile curses and many are … made fecund by the prophet through water. He would pray for them and ask them to fetch water from the well for drinking purposes. Meanwhile, he would strictly charge them to eschew other form of medication be it orthodox or traditional if they want their prayers to be answered.[56]

The CAC of course condones the use of sanctified water for healing. Some church members do cite Bible texts such as 2 Kings 5:1-19 and John 9:1-11 in support of the practice. Second Kings 5:1-19 is on Namaan the leper who washed in River Jordan and was healed in the Old Testament, while John 9:1-11 is on the blind man who washed in the Pool of Siloam and was healed in the New Testament. Water, after been sanctified with prayer for miracle becomes what Yoruba people call, Omi ìyè, that is, “water of life” or, “water that gives life.” This term adequately captions the idea behind water as a divine means of conveying life to all forms of deadness caused by sickness, demons, poverty, or/and insecurity. In CAC like in other African indigenous churches, Omi ìyè is used for bathing, drinking, washing, and sprinkling. Such water is sometimes blessed in private by the individual church member, sanctified for them by pastors/evangelists in church services or on revival grounds or on mountains or in prayer camps, etc. Containers often used by church members for water to be sanctified include buckets, bottles and recently, sachet bags. Sometimes water in rivers, streams, and wells are blessed for curative purposes. Samson Akinsulure rightly notes, “[…] this practice is gradually fading away in many of CAC assemblies in towns and cities, it is still very much in vogue in the rural areas and, in prophets’ churches.”[57] But for too long, CAC has officially ignored the practise of using sanctified water for healing probably because those who employ it do claimed prophetic authorization. A major problem currently facing the church is that the use of sanctified water has been routinized and ritualized by those who do not have prophetic authorization to use it. It is apparent that many people in CAC now abuse this “means of grace.”[58] It is therefore legitimate to ask if it is not time for the church to out-grow this practise. From hindsight, it is clear that Ademakinwa’s expectation that “…these things would end … [w]hen we … [have] a better understanding of the word,” has remained elusive as he acknowledges later, “some people brought them back.”[59]

Both Z.O. Ogunwole and Olusegun Ayodeji Alokan venture into CAC’s use of fasting and prayer, blessed water and, hand bell for healing in their research works. Ogunwole notes that CAC uses,

Olive oil, prayer and fasting [and], hand bell …. In using … [Olive oil] the Pastor, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit instructs his members to hold their olive oil and pray on it in faith. It is believed that the Holy Spirit has entered it. After this, the church members rub their body with the olive oil believing that the evil spirits tormenting them will be driven away completely.[60]

First, Olusegun Alokan agrees with the findings of Ogunwole on CAC’s use of anointing oil in healing the sick.[61] Second, the church also uses church hand bell while praying healing. Joseph Ayo Babalola was credited with introducing the use of hand bell in prayer to the church.[62] Ogunwole comments,

The church hand bell … has been sanctified by late Pastor Joseph Ayodele Babalola during his life time. … It is believed to possess the spiritual power of their leader to effect prompt healing. … The Pastor prays for the sick person with the jingling of the bell to scare away the evil spirits.[63]

Olusegun Alokan discovers the same thing in his doctoral research work on CAC. He comments,

The prophets/prophetesses will jingle bell at the commencement of the prayer. The same process of prayers continues with jingling of bells believing that there is power of healing and breakthrough in the bell. The prophets/prophetesses will call the name of Jesus three times and … pronounce as follows: In the name of Jesus, the living God … receive healing …; and the bell will be jingled. … At times, when the sickness is getting complex, the prophets/prophetesses pray on water, pour it inside the hand bell and give it to the sick person to drink. The belief is that once such water is drunk, the sickness will disappear immediately. This to some extent has worked for those who believe in it.[64]

Olusegun Alokan’s account quoted above is clear and needs no further clarification.

Moses Orimolade claimed earlier than Joseph Babalola that God gave him a prayer staff in his dream.[65] His church, the Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S), accepted the vision and prophets in the church till date are given staffs as prophets.[66] To the C&S church members the staff is a symbol of authority.[67] In the CAC however, it was Joseph Babalola who introduced prayer staff as an instrument of healing. This rod was compared with the rods of Moses in Exodus 4:1-4; and Elisha and Gehazi in 2 Kings 4:29. Joseph Babalola claimed that the use of the rod was to shatter evil forces and set free those who were held captive by demonic forces.[68] But he lost it under some unclear circumstances and God allegedly replaced it with non-physical power. Although CAC adherents took Joseph Babalola’s prophecies as next only to the Bible, most CAC members shunned the practise of using prayer staff and the practise gradually died out. One Isaac O. Olanrewaju, a former Provost of CAC Theological Seminary, Ile-Ife, briefly re-introduced the use of prayer staff to the church which embarrassed many church leaders and followers of CAC. While he was not sanctioned, at least publicly, for the practice there is no record that anyone followed his example. If some prophets/prophetesses in CAC still use prayer staff today, then they are insignificant in number and the practice is dying out. This is one instance where Joseph Babalola’s vision was silently rejected.

Before 1990, healing without the use of drugs was not a tenet of the church although it has always been an important practice of the church.[69] It was however only in the 1990s that the belief was elevated in the church’s constitution to a “tenet.” The tenet on divine healing was included as the 12^th article of faith in the 1998 constitution of CAC. The tenet states that the church believes in “divine healing through obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in His name and merits of His blood for all sickness, diseases and infirmities.” It cites James 5:14-18 and 2 Kings 1:2-4 for support. The new official web-page of the church reads,

This belief was developed prior to 1930 when the founding fathers had association with Faith Tabernacle of Philadelphia. This faith together with the belief in salvation from sin, and reliance on God for all needs form the three pillars on which CAC faith rests. Members therefore rely on God for healing.[70]

That description is not entirely correct. The practice of divine healing among the founding fathers and mothers of CAC predated the merger of the Precious Stone Society with the Faith Tabernacle Church of Philadelphia. At the end of World War I (1914-1918), in 1918 to be precise, a terrible epidemic broke out globally and the southern part of Nigeria was seriously affected. The epidemic killed many people particularly in the southern part of Nigeria and many public institutions and churches were closed down. Many professing Christians returned to traditional religion for cure.[71] It was at that critical point in the life of the church that some members of St. Saviours (CMS) Church in Ijebu Ode formed a prayer group for divine intervention. Since the Anglican Church in Ijebu Ode had been shut in conformity with the advice of the then Colonial administration, the group members gathered for regular prayer in front of the church. The prayer group was led by one Joseph Shadare.

As testimonies of divine healing in answer to the prayer of the group began to increase, more people joined the group.[72] Christ Apostolic Church later inherited and improved on the group’s practice of divine healing. The situation that led to Odunlami’s prophecy against the use of Ògùn is adequately captured by Aiyegboyin and Ishola when they explain that the epidemic led some people “to put the Christian religion behind them and … go back to the traditional religion.”[73] Her prophecy in that context was therefore primarily to discourage afflicted Christians from returning to traditional religion with its medicine for solution to the perplexing epidemic. The group then added abstinence of orthodox medicine to its meaning of divine healing and that abandonment contributed in a major way to the final split of the prayer group from the Anglican Church. At last, the group was expelled from the Anglican Church in 1922 because it held to healing without the use of drugs, emphasised dream and vision as means of accessing divine revelation, and opposed child baptism. Richard Ogunleye adds “abstinence from dancing, drumming, drinking of alcohol, gambling and mixing with non-Christians” to the things that led the Anglican Church to expel the prayer group.[74]

The second part of Odunlami’s prophecy regarding Ògùn lílò (Translation: use of medicine) forbidding the use of orthodox medicines gives no the reason for the sanction. It could however be due to the ineffectiveness of orthodox medicine against the epidemic devastating the community. Did she by that prophecy intend to forbid permanently the use of orthodox medicine by Christians? That was probably not so. The reason for Odunlami’s prohibition could be similar to the one which an angelic messenger gave to Joseph Babalola on why he too should discourage the use of medicine for healing: because “medicine… provide(s) only temporary solution …” to the people’s problems.[75] Locating this prohibition in the context of what was happening among other Pentecostals in other paths of the world one discovers that they too held to Christians’ use of drugs for healing around that time as sin. Unlike the Pentecostals in the West however, neither the Precious Stone Society nor the CAC in later years ever designated the use of drugs as sin. The closest the church pronounced on this were that believers in Christ were not taught to consult doctors or use medicine in sickness and pregnant women were disallowed from visiting hospitals for check-up or child-birth. The Christ Apostolic Church (Worldwide) Constitution and Doctrines presents the issues thus,

Christians are not expected to invite doctors or even use medicine for any ailment … but to accept faithfully the healing power promised by Jesus Christ in the Gospel …. Expectant mothers of our church shall not go to any hospital/maternity home either for check-up or child-birth since the Bible has promised us good care and safe delivery ….[76]

Truly, some members of the church individually did interpret visits to doctors and use of drugs as sin but there is nowhere the church officially designate such as “sin.” Some interpreters do imply from that the stipulations against the use of drugs for healing is officially regarded as sin in the church. That was indisputably the view brought to the Nigerian church by the Faith Tabernacle Church of Philadelphia and it persisted throughout the time the Nigerian church changed its affiliation from the Faith Tabernacle of Philadelphia to The Apostolic Church of Brussels till the church in Nigeria split to two, The Apostolic Church and the CAC. But from the time the World War II ended, the wind of change began to blow among the Pentecostals in the West on re-defining the concept of divine healing to include the use of drugs. Today, nearly all if not most of CAC Faith Homes, that is CAC Maternity Homes, have medical doctors as consultants. There is a working relationship between them and hospitals to which stubborn cases are referred whenever the needs arise. Likewise, cases suspected of demonic involvement are sent to CAC Faith Homes or CAC prophets as necessary in a symbiotic relationship. One of the things certain today is that CAC like other Pentecostal churches still holds tenaciously that God is ultimately the healer. Another is that if God is sovereign in all issues as CAC believes then he may heal through the use of drugs, water, or anointing oil, he can heal all the sick brought to him at any particular time, and he can decide not to heal anyone at any given time. One vital factor in the healing ministry of the CAC is the need for constant prayer and fasting.[77] This is supported with Jesus’ statement in Mark 9:29, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”[78]

Like Odunlami, Joseph Babalola was also directed divinely to use blanched oil for healing. John Odunayo Ojo explains that “He was … under instruction to bless fried palm oil for the anointing of the sick ….”[79] The use of blanched oil by Odunlami and Babalola is comparable to the use of anointing oil for healing in James 5:14, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (ESV). Again while Sophia Odunlami introduced the use of “anointing oil” for healing to the Precious Stone Society, Babalola consolidated and popularised its use among the church’s prophets in CAC. It is used in the contemporary times profusely in prayer centres (e.g., Efon Alaye), on prayer mountains (e.g., Ori Oke Ikoyi),[80] in church assemblies (e.g., CAC Agbala Itura, Ibadan),[81] and in revival programmes. Recently, the use of anointing oil has been expanded beyond healing. Resulting from influences of neo-Pentecostal churches, the use of anointing oil for break-through, promotion, prosperity etc., is now common in CAC. Persons, cars and bicycles, biros, houses, tools among other things are being anointed[82] contrary to the practice of the founding fathers and mothers of CAC. The fear now is that not sanctified water only but anointing oil also are being abused in the church. These “means of grace” are now being used magically as if they possess power in themselves to heal.

Despite the fact that the use of anointing oil for healing especially by prophets is widely accepted in the church, that use has no official approval. It is only allowed for healing by the CAC because certain respected prophets claim that they were told to use it thus by God. The use of olive oil for ordination of church ministers is the only one that is officially endorsed. It is stated in the church’s order of service for the ordination of Pastors thus, “[…] we anoint you now with oil and separate you today for the work of a Pastor in Christ Apostolic Church, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[83] The same endorsement is given to the use of olive oil in the ordination of Evangelists.[84]

Despite the importance of J.A. Alokan’s work on the history of CAC, his presentation of Joseph Babalola’s mission mainly as healing is baffling: “[the] core of … [Babalola’s] mission [was] reliance on divine healing. He was … commissioned to call the people to stop using any kind of medicine traditional or foreign.”[85] S.G. Adegboyega makes a similar claim when he states that Babalola “… believed, preached and practised healing in answer to prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.”[86] This raises the question of Babalola’s main preoccupation in ministry: was he primarily a local “doctor” or an evangelist, a healer of the body or that of the soul, was he commissioned by God to primarily heal the physically sick or preach the gospel of eternal salvation to the lost souls? M.A. Adeoye insists that Babalola was called and commissioned primarily into the preaching of the gospel of salvation from sin.

To Adeoye, physical healing was only the evidence of divine endorsement of Babalola and his ministry and so was secondary.[87] The first major publication edited by E.H.L. Olusheye (1936-2017) which brought him to limelight in 1969 contains 18 articles written by different fathers of CAC. Only one of the articles is on “healing,” one on “prosperity,” one article on faith to claim miracles, and the remaining 15 articles are on different aspects of holy living. The article on healing was written by Joseph Ayo Babalola, while the one on prosperity was written by J.A. Adedeji. Isaac B. Akinyele wrote on “Ododo So Wa Di Oga L’ori Ibi Gbogbo” (Translation: “Righteousness Places Us Above all Forms of Evil”). Akinyele argues that once Christians can stand boldly before God in righteousness, nothing on earth can overcome him.[88] David O. Odubanjo wrote on, “Igbeyawo ti Olorun Da S’ile” (Translation: “The Marriage Established by God”). His focus in the article is on monogamy.[89] Elijah T. Latunde’s article is on “Ikore ti K’oja” (Translation: “The Harvest is Past”). His emphasis in the article is that the end of all human labour is at hand and that everyone should be prepared for God’s harvest of the world. It is a call for self-examination of the believer.[90] J. A. Medaiyese’s article is on “Oro L’ori Adura ati Awe” (Translation: “Discursion on Prayer and Fasting”). His emphasis in the article is on the importance of prayer and fasting in spiritual discipline.[91] J. B.Orogun’s article is on “Ijoba Orun tabi Ijoba Olorun” (Translation: “The Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God”). The article challenges its readers to desire the immediate establishment of God’s Kingdom among men.[92]

In another article, J. D. Sanya wrote on, “Igbe Aiye Isegun tabi Gbigbe Aiye Asegun” (Translation: “Life of Victory or Living a Victorious Lifestyle”). Sanya’s challenge in the article is that Christians mortify their bodies to be victorious.[93] I. D. Degun wrote on “Ese” (Translation: “Sin”). His argument in the article is that sin is the cause of all human sufferings and that when human beings overcome sin, they would also overcome sufferings.[94] In his own article, “Opin Igbokegbodo Eniyan L’ori Ile Aiye” (Translation: “The End of Human’s Sojourn on Earth”), David O. Babajide argues that the human would be recalled by God from the earth to account for his stewardship and that would be very soon so mankind should be prepared to give account of his/her life to his/her creator.[95] A.O. Olutimehin’s article is on “Sise Ara Eni” (Translation: Self-denial”). He emphasises in the article that the “self” be mortified. J. Olu Ashaju is on “Iberu Olorun” (Translation: “Fear of God”). The writer explains that when the human fears God, his anger would be assuaged.[96] N. E. Udofia’s article on “Kikun Fun Emi Mimo” (Translation: “Infilling of the Holy Spirit”) challenges its readers to be filled with the Holy Spirit according to Pentecostal interpretation.[97] P. A. A. Egabor wrote on “Pipe tabi Mimo Onigbagbo” (Translation: “Perfection or Holiness of Believers”). The article is a call for sinless perfection of Christians.[98] J. O. Aoko wrote on “Mimo Olorun” (Translation: “Knowing God”). The article is on what is called, theology proper. It attempts to deepen the knowledge of readers on the person of God.[99] Timothy O. Obadare wrote on “Enyin Ayanfe, Kini Agogo Lu Nisisiyi – Iran Osan-Gangan” (Translation: “Beloved, What sayest Thy Time? – An Afternoon Vision). The article is on eschatology. It warns that the end of the world is at hand.[100] E. H. L. Olusheye himself wrote on “Ihinrere” (Translation: “Gospel”). In the article he focuses on the challenge to evangelize the world.[101]

The articles in the book, Letter Mimo Si o, are representative of articles and sermons of the elites among the founding father and mothers of CAC. Failure to properly discern the primary focus of Babalola and the CAC at large has led many contemporary ministers in the church to shift their emphases. George O. Folarin discovers in a research carried out in 2005 that CAC has largely shifted uncomfortably from emphasising the salvific issues which the founding fathers and mothers of the church were known for to therapeutic issues.[102] This was not caused just by the socio-economic depression plaguing Africa but also by the inability of the church prophets and pastors to clearly recognize the primary from the secondary emphases of the gospel message.

The reason why Odunlami discouraged the use of medicine for healing could be discovered by critically studying the situation that obtained at the time. Aiyegoyin and Ishola say that the failure of orthodox medicine to cure the epidemic plaguing the affected people in the South-western Nigeria at the time led many to backslide to traditional religion for cure. This reason was informed by the belief of Africans that incurable sicknesses were caused by malevolent spirits and that no drugs could cure those infected by such sicknesses. The Yoruba name for these spirits is Ajogun. Segun Gbadegesin defines the Ajogun as “forces of evil which afflict unprotected human beings.”[103] The Ajogun are believed to cooperate with witches[104] to cause human beings misfortune and calamity. When they are responsible for any misfortune, it is believed that such can only be assuage by appeasing them with sacrifice or by fighting them by means of a more superior power which the Christians believe that is available in Christ Jesus. Christ Apostolic Church members, with their belief that all forms of problems including sicknesses are caused by evil spirits,[105] therefore hold that medicine should not be used to cure sicknesses. The logic here is that if the sicknesses were caused by demonic forces, injection or any other medicine would not be able to cure them. This could explain why in the 1918 episode, those who had not gone back to the traditional religion for help to cope with the epidemic were told to depend wholly on God since medicine was ineffective in the situation. It is in this same light that Babalola’s reason for discouraging the use of medicine is reasonable: because the effect of drug is temporal.

Joseph W. Williams puts a similar issue taking place in America around the same time thus,

Early Pentecostals proved no friend of the medical profession at the turn of the twentieth century. In a “Questions Answered” section of a 1908 issue of Apostolic Faith, the flagship periodical of the early movement, the editor responded to the direct question: “Do you teach that it is wrong to take medicine?” The answer, most likely penned by the early revival leader William Seymour, was simple and to the point. “Yes,” he wrote, “Medicine is for unbelievers.”[106]

In Heather Curtis’s review of J.W. Williams’ book on Spirit Cure: a History of Pentecostal Healing Curtis notes that it was only after the Second World War that “most Pentecostals abandoned their initial hostility toward the medical profession and the use of ‘means’ in the healing process.”[107] This implies that as at the time The Precious Stone Society emerged, most Pentecostals globally regarded the use of drugs as wrong.

The CAC’s interpretation of Odunlami’s vision on the use of drugs for healing as a sin was most likely an influence of the Faith Tabernacle Church of Philadelphia. “The Precious Stone Society” was exposed to the teachings of the Faith Tabernacle Church on the use of drugs through D.O. Odubanjo who had access to the church’s magazine.[108] S.G. Adegboyega succinctly puts the issue thus,

[…] we were not using the Bible as we used the Sword of the Spirit. The resultant effect of reading, studying and meditating on these literatures … was a vindication and confirmation of our belief and stand on the vision of divine healing which we had hitherto accepted and embraced as divine revelation given to us by God since 1918. … We can safely and boldly say … today in matters of faith in divine healing … depends largely on the inspirational teachings inherited from Faith Tabernacle Congregation and which had been attested to by our experiences in the past.[109]

The Faith Tabernacle Church in Philadelphia holds till date that the use of drugs for healing is a sin[110] and so the interpretation of divine healing as without the use of drugs by the Precious Stone Society was likely an influence from the Faith Tabernacle Congregation in Philadelphia. If so, then divine healing without the use of drugs located the Nigerian group at the centre of Pentecostalism at the time. Therefore while the interpretation of the doctrine of healing without the use of drugs was unquestionably accepted by the Precious Stone Society because it agreed with the encounter of its founding members, the society did not originate the belief.

In 1930 there was still contention among the members of Faith Tabernacle Congregation in Nigeria on the rightness or otherwise of the use of drugs for healing. A meeting was called for 9 and 10 July in Ilesa to discuss the report sent to the leaders of the church on one Pastor J.A. Babatope accused of teaching the church in Oyan that the use of drugs, local or foreign, is right, the view which was contrary to that held by majority of the church members. Olayiwola’s comment on the thing that transpired in Ilesa is brief and clear,

The representatives began their meeting and on the agenda were twenty-four items. The first was the validity of baptism administered to a man with many wives. The second was the issue of divine healing because some of the members believed in the use of drugs like quinine to cure malaria fever. … ‘The concilatory talks at Ilesa were going on, when suddenly a mighty sweeping revival broke out … with the raising by Babalola of a dead child. …. This attracted a large number of people to Oke-Oye to see the prophet.’[111]

This miracle led the leaders of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation in Ilesa to assume that God disapproves of the use of drugs for healing in the church. The meeting did not return to the question on healing after the miracle. In that meeting, no decision was adopted, but those who were canvassing that divine healing should be understood to also include the use of drugs temporarily suffered a setback. Orogun admits this fact about 50 years later when he writes, Koiti to adota odun (50 years) ti a bere ti a si wa da bayi. Ijo wa wa di Ijo ologun, ero Hospital (Translation: It is not yet 50 years that we established our church that we have turned to this. Our church has become a drug using one, our members – patients of hospital”).[112]

Benjamin A. Adedapo summarises what finally led CAC to accept the use of drugs for healing is succinct.[113] First is the change of leadership brought to the CAC Maternity Training Centre in Ede by the CAC authorities in 1958. When Mrs Oladiran who was a nurse trained in orthodox medicine in London was made the head of the Faith Home in Ede (i.e., where church midwives were trained) there began a “shift in paradigm” in divine healing in CAC. Because of many complications which resulted from deaths in the CAC Faith Homes, “[…] litigations and rancour that normally ensue[d] from incidences of mismanagement of health matters with regards to the handling of delivery and sicknesses” the church leaders saw it necessary to make a trained nurse from the West to head the church’s midwifery training home.[114] Second is what Adeleke said, quoting E.H.L. Oluseye that Joseph Ayo Babalola did not forbid any anyone from using orthodox medicine for healthcare.[115] This second point is questionable as the writings of Joseph Babalola suggest otherwise. Third is that the sanctified waters used in healing were bastardised by some of questionable moral behaviour. According to Adedapo “[…] some leaders … [began to sell] miracle waters, exploiting the people and, enriching their pockets from … [it].”[116] This practice allegedly discouraged several members of CAC from the practice of healing without the use of drugs. The fourth is that many people are of the view that healing through prayer takes longer time than in medical homes. The fifth is that many members of CAC are well read and as such are critical of what they do. Many things that were initially regarded as demonic now have convincing scientific explanations and in many cases, technology has simplified healthcare delivery. So some issues which many in those days would run to the church for no longer command such reaction. Today, many see the need for healing without the use of drugs only when they are absolutely certain that it has demonic involvement.

Reading through the writings of its early leaders, one discovers that the understanding of most members of the Precious Stone Society and the Faith Tabernacle Congregation was that the use of drugs by Christians was wrong. Early after the founding of CAC, the church stipulated that a pregnant woman “[…] shall not go to any hospital/maternity home either for check-up or childbirth.”[117] The constitution attached a stiff sanction for the violators of the regulation: the offenders would be suspended from participating in the sacrament of Holy Communion for six months.[118] This is just a step from designating Western medicare a sin.[119] The constitution also addresses other church members when it states that any church member who “denies divine healing” by visiting or/and dying in the hospital would not be buried by the church.[120] Two reasons are given for this: the first is based on myriads of Bible passages such as Genesis 20: 17-18; 2 Chronicles 16:12-13; 2 Kings 1:2-4; Psalm 107:17-20; Mark 16:17-18; James 514-15 etc.

J.A. Babalola contends that sickness is a punishment for sin and that with the forgiveness available in Christ’s atonement, sin and sicknesses would be removed from the lives of the Christians who claim the benefit.[121] With this Joseph Babalola supports the view common among the Pentecostals that there is healing in the atonement. Arguing this furthermore, Joseph Babalola points out that a Christian who benefits from the healing in Christ is to in turn become a healer of others.[122] In one of his comments, Joseph Babalola states, Oluwa “fihan mi gbangba pe ona oogun sise ki ise eyi ti enia le rin de odo Oun, nitoripe ona tito Olorun miran lehin ni” (Translation: The Lord “showed me clearly that the way of ‘doing medicine’ is not the one a person can take to him because it is the way of following another god”).[123] It would be remembered that Odunlami had earlier used the same term, “ogun sise” (Translation: doing traditional medicine) as Joseph Babalola here uses it. It is possible that the two of them use the term for the same thing, consulting traditional religious priests for cure. While the purpose of Joseph Babalola in his article intends to discourage the use of drugs for healing, if he had wanted to forbid the use of drugs, a better term to use in Yoruba would have been “ogun lilo” (Translation: using medicine) not “ogun sise” (Translation: doing traditional medicine) In a reported prophecy of Joseph Babalola, Ojo writes,

[T]here are three things that that spoil or destroy a church …. They are (i) the snatching of women from their rightful husbands in the church; (ii) borrowing or embezzlement of money from the church coffers; (iii) the use of charms or patronage of herbalists by church members.[124]

If Ojo’s record above is correct, then Joseph Ayo Babalola did not promote the use of orthodox drugs, his crusade was really against the use of traditional/cultic medicines and the entrapment they pose to Christianity.

J.B. Orogun argues that CAC was founded on three things: faith in God alone for healing without the use of drugs; faith alone in Christ for salvation without depending on human work; and dependence on God alone for provision without borrowing from others.[125] He notes that CAC differs from other denominations in its emphases on divine healing and Holy Spirit.[126] These two claims of his are not correct because beliefs in divine and baptism of the Holy Spirit are common to all Pentecostal churches. Although more daring in his approach than Joseph Babalola but along the same line, Orogun argues that the use of drugs for healing in CAC is “a great sin, a disobedience to Jesus and a rejection of Jesus.”[127] Yet his argument in the article does not support his conclusion. Like several others of Orogun’s persuasion, sickness is presented as exclusively resulting from the patient’s sin and that repentance from the sin ultimately leads to healing. Orogun’s argument is obviously simplistic and only partially true to human experience. The argument wrongly assumes that the righteous are never sick and that good health is the evidence of divine approval. Clearly, some but not all sicknesses are caused by sin and true repentance in cases caused by sin can lead to forgiveness and healing. There are however other sicknesses that are caused by ignorance, infection, weather/pollution, over-work, old age, etc. There are many innocent people whose sicknesses result from other’s errors or/and wickedness. There are also sicknesses caused by demonic attack. Olusegun Alokan’s summary statement on CAC’s position on the use of medicine is more cautious and salutary, “… the CAC [only] largely forbids the use of medicine in any form.”[128]

The church needs to be thankful to God for the gift of healing made available in Jesus Christ and encourage its members to aspire for divine intervention in issues of their health. From sombre reflection however comes the realisation that nearly all God’s generals finally succumb to one form of sickness or the other before they die. Samson O. Akande and Timothy O. Obadare died with blindness. Daniel Orekoya died of skin burn caused by a gas-lamp explosion.[129] J.A. Babalola had his sore. I.B. Akinyele was briefly sick before his death. Like Paul who learnt to live with his thorn, God’s saints are not deterred by temporal pains which God may decide to remove or allow in the exercise of his sovereign will. They do say with Paul, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Rom 8:35).

In conclusion, the 12^th tenet of CAC on divine healing which states thus, “[in] obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in His name and merits of His blood for all sickness, disease and infirmities,”[130] is vague and burdensome. It is vague because it can take the meaning of healing with or without the use of drugs as long as God is acknowledged as the ultimate healer. It is burdensome because it places the burden of having faith for healing on the sick that is already overburdened. The followings are important to constructing a balance theology of healing in Pentecostal churches, CAC inclusive. First, while healing is an importance focus of Pentecostalism, it should be put in its proper place and not made to take priority over salvation from sin. Second, God’s sovereignty should not be compromised even while encouraging healing, for it is not true that God wants to heal all the sick at all times. Third, whatever Pentecostal theology produces condemnation rather than joy and comfort such as making sin the only cause of sickness and good health the reward of righteousness, such theology should be questioned and rejected. The observation of Cox is frightening that Pentecostal churches do not welcome the disabled in their midst because they are regarded as demonstrating the failure of the Pentecostal theology of total deliverance from sickness.

Attempt was made in this article to subject CAC interpretation of divine healing to critical study with the aim of promoting objective study of Pentecostal practices in Nigeria. The study has exposed the apparent contradictions found in the propagandist interpretation of the tenet of divine healing in the church. The discovery in this work is not unique to CAC. The findings can be duplicated in the interpretations of divine healing in other Pentecostals churches at least in Nigeria. The belief on divine healing in non-Pentecostal churches was not the focus of the present study. Research on them would affirm or deny if their interpretations of divine healing is perfect. For Pentecostals there is chance for improvement. This study would deepen understanding on Pentecostal doctrine of healing and provide more materials for the study of Pentecostal doctrines from Nigerian higher institutions.

Endnotes

[1] Christ Apostolic Church Constitution (Agege: Christ Apostolic Church, 1998), 12.

[2] “Tenet,” NETBible, n.d., retrieved from http://classic.net.bible.org/lexicon.php?word=tenet, on 22 March 2017, n.p.

[3] R.A. Morris, “A Biblical and Theological Analysis of Specific Tenets of Word of Faith Theology: Pastoral Implications for the Church of God,” A PhD Dissertation submitted to South African Theological Seminary, Bryanston, South Africa, 26.

[4] B.J. Otten, A Manner of the History of Dogmas (St. Louis, Richmond Heights, 1922). Otten’s comment here was on “dogma.” which involves “an opinion determined by authority, a decree or an edict or a precept.”

[5] Morris, “A Biblical and Theological Analysis of Specific Tenets of Word of Faith Theology: Pastoral Implications for the Church of God,” 33.

[6] G.O. Folarin, “The origin, development, and a brief appraisal of the doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria,” HTS/Theological Studies, 69(1), Art.#1333, 2013, n.p.

[7] Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrines (Ibadan: the Supreme Council, Christ Apostolic Church, 1961); Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrines (Ibadan: Christ Apostolic Church Missionary Headquarters, 1970); Christ Apostolic Church Constitution (Agege: Christ Apostolic Church, 1998).

[8] D.O. Babajide, 1980, Iwe Ibeere ati Idahun Ijo C.A.C (Ilesha: Self Published, 1980), 1.

[9] Candy Gunther Brown, “Introduction: Pentecostalism and the Globalization of Illness,” Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing (ed) Candy Gunther Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 26. (3-28)

[10] Jennifer Anne Cox, “A Re-examination of Faith and Healing in the Gospels: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Healing and Disability,” Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research, 2017, retrieved from, http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj24/cox.html, vol. 24, on 10 September 2017, n.p.

[11] Candy Gunther Brown, “Introduction: Pentecostalism and the Globalization of Illness,” 3.

[12] Cox, “A Re-examination of Faith and Healing in the Gospels: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Healing and Disability,” n.p.

[13] Vinson Synan, “A Healer in the House?” Hope-Faith-Prayer, n.d., retrieved from, https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/word-of-faith/a-healer-in-the-house-vinson-synan/, on 1 August 2017, n.p.

[14] Synan, “A Healer in the House?” n.p.

[15] Synan, “A Healer in the House?” n.p.

[16] A.J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1882).

[17] “John Alexander Dowie,” n.d., retrieved from, http://shawcorp.com/kathy/john_alexander_dowie.htm, on 1 August 2017, n.p.

[18] Alexander Dowie, “Doctors, Drugs and Devils, or, the Foes of Christ the Healer, Physical Culture, April, 1895, 81-86.

[19] Synan, “A Healer in the House?” n.p.

[20] “Introduction the History and Significance of Early Pentecostal Theology,” A Reader in Pentecostal Theology: Voices from the First Generation (ed) Douglas Jacobsen (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 8-9.

[21] “Charles Parham,” A Reader in Pentecostal Theology: Voices from the First Generation (ed) Douglas Jacobsen (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 31; “William J. Seymour (1817-1922),” A Reader in Pentecostal Theology: Voices from the First Generation (ed.) Douglas Jacobsen (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 46-47.

[22] “William J. Seymour (1817-1922…),” 46-47.

[23] “The Deadly Various: The Influenza of 1918,”Regional History from the National Archives, retrieved from, https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/, on 2 August 2017.

[24] J.A. Ademakinwa, Christ Apostolic Church: the Faith of Our Fathers (Grand Prairie: Christ Apostolic Church, 1971), 15; cf. J.A. Omoyajowo, Cherubim and Seraphim: The History of an African Independent Church (Lagos: NOK Publishers, 1982). Omoyajowo holds, “Daddy Alli and Sophia Odunlami … had seen visions about the healing powers of God and the efficacy of prayers in 1918 – these visions led to the establishment of the “Precious Stone” in Ijebu-Ode.”

[25] R.A.N. Kydd, “Healing in the Christian Church,” The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (eds.) S.M.Burgess, E.M. van Maas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 708.

[26] Kydd, “Healing in the Christian Church,” 709-710.

[27] Kydd, “Healing in the Christian Church,” 710.

[28] Kydd, “Healing in the Christian Church,” 710-711.

[29] Kydd, “Healing in the Christian Church,” 710.

[30] Cox, “A Re-examination of Faith and Healing in the Gospels: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Healing and Disability;” n.p.; cf. Henry H. Knight, III, "God's Faithfulness and God's Freedom: A Comparison of Contemporary Theologies of Healing," Journal of Pentecostal Theology 1 (1993) 2:66-67, 74-77.

[31] Norbert C. Brockman, “Braide, Garrick Sokari Marian,” Dictionary of Christian African Biography, n.d., retrieved from, http://www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/braide1_garrick.html, on 24 August 2017.

[32] Onah Augustine Odey, “Prophet-Evangelist Garrick Sokari Idaketima Marian Braide: The First Revivalist in Nigeria, (1882 – 1918),” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3 (2013), 17:288.

[33] Although this text has been applied to physical healing, the primary concern of the Isaianic text is to healing from the sickness of sin as most Bible commentators justifiably argue. The text has however taken up new significance to the African Christian who interpret sicknesses that defy medication as resulting from conflicts caused by spiritual forces which are to be engaged by in spiritual warfare..

[34] S.O. Omidiwura, “African Church Independent Movement,” Religious Periscope (1999), 123; cf. A.R. Ogunleye, Elimination by Substitution: Christ Apostolic Church and Indigenous Faith Interplay in Nigeria,” European Scientific Journal, 9 (2003), 11:183.

[35] “Aladura Churches in Nigeria,” Harvard Divinity School Religious Literacy Project, 2017, https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/aladura-churches-nigeria, 4 August, 2017, n.p.

[36] Deji Ayegboyin & S. Ademola Ishola, African Indigenous Churches (Lagos: Greater Heights Publications, 1977), 67; cf. Adewale Ogunrinde & Friday Ogbole, “Christianity in Africa: African Indigenous Pentecostal Movements in Nigeria and Ghans,” Christianity and African Society: A Festschrift in Honour of Pastor (Dr.) Gabirel Oladele Olutola @ 80 (ed.) Samson A. Fatokun (Ibadan: BW Bookwright, 2013), 58.

[37] S.A. Fatokun, “‘I Will Pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh:’ The Origin, Growth and Development of the Precious Stone Church – the Pioneering Indigenous Pentecostal Denomination in Southwest Nigeria,” 2010, retrieved from, http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj19/fatokun.html#_ednref14, on 4 August 2017, n.p.

[38] J.A. Ademakinwa, Iwe Itan Ijo Aposteli ti Kristi, Nigeria (Agege: CAC Publicity Department, 1971), 15; J.A. Ademakinwa, Christ Apostolic Church: the Faith of Our Fathers (Grand Prairie: Christ Apostolic Church, 1971).

[39] J.B. Orogun,, “History of CAC,” an unpublished lecture delivered at the 5^th CAC National Sunday School Conference, Ilorin, 19 June 1982. This appears to be a change from his earlier position presented in J.B. Orogun, Eko Nipa Iwosan Lai Logun (Ibadan: Loyola Printers, n.d.), 14.

[40] Ayegboyin & Ademola Ishola, African Indigenous Churches, 57; cf. “Aladura Churches in Nigeria,” Harvard Divinity School, n.d., retrieved from https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/aladura-churches-nigeria, on 30 July 2017, n.p.; cf. S.A. Fatokun, “‘I Will Pour Out My Spirit Upon All Flesh’: The Origin, Growth and Development of the Precious Stone Church – The Pioneering African Indigenous Pentecostal Denomination in Southwest Nigeria,’” CyberJournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research, 19 (2010), n.p.

[41] Ademakinwa, Christ Apostolic Church: the Faith of Our Fathers, 111.

[42] George O. Folarin, Olusegun A. Oladosu & Stephen Y. Baba, “Re-Interpreting the ὕδωρ ζῶν (‘Living water’) Metaphor in John 4 & 7 in the Context of the South Western Yoruba in Nigeria,” Ilorin Journal of Religious Studies (IJOURELS), 2 (2012), 2:19.

[43] Folarin, Oladosu & Baba, “Re-Interpreting the ὕδωρ ζῶν (‘Living water’), 18-20.

[44] Adewale O. Ogunrinade, “Predilection for African Indigenous Practices in the Pentecostal Tradition of African Indigenous Churches with reference to Christ Apostolic Church Agbala Itura,” Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research, No. 18, (2009) retrieved from, http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj18/adewale.html#_ednref75, on 7 August 2017, n.p.

[45] D.O. Olayiwola, “Joseph Ayo Babalola 1904-1959 Christ Apostolic Church (Aladura) Nigeria,” Dictionary of African Biography, n.d., retrieved from, http://www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/babalola2_joseph.html, on 15 August 2017, n.p.; Ogunrinade, 2009, “Predilection for African Indigenous Practices in the Pentecostal Tradition …,” n.p.

[46] Folarin, Oladosu & Baba, “Re-Interpreting the ὕδωρ ζῶν (‘Living water’), 19.

[47] Ade Alawode, The Lifestyle of a Performer and Reformer- Pastor Abraham Olukunle Akinosun (Ibadan: CAC Publicity Department, 2015, 2016), 25-27; cf. S.G. Adegboyega, Short History of The Apostolic Church in Nigeria (Ibadan: Rosprint Industrial Press), 1978, 19.

[48] Taiye Adamolekun, “A Historical Account of the Advent and Growth of Christ Apostolic Church in Akoko Nigeria,” British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 8 (2012) 1, retrieved from, http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx, on 7 August 2017, n.p.

[49] Folarin, Oladosu & Baba, “Re-Interpreting the ὕδωρ ζῶν (‘Living water’), 18-20.

[50] Ogunrinade, 2009, “Predilection for African Indigenous Practices in the Pentecostal Tradition …,” n.p.

[51] Adeoti Shittu, “5 Prophetic Mountains CAC Founders Established,” Nigeria Newspapers, 2016, retrieved from, http://breaking.com.ng/nigeria/5-prophetic-mountains-cac-founder-established/, on 7 August 2017, n.p.

[52] M.O.A. Oluwaniyi, “Impact of Miracles on Church Growth: A Study of Selected Christ Apostolic Churches in Osun State,” an Unpublished DMin. Dissertation submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, ECWA Theological Seminary, 2014, 114.

[53] Saibu A. Owoeye, “Prophet E.O. Babalola and Healing Revivalism in Yorubaland,” Science in the Perspective of African Religion AFREL0, Islam & Christianity (ed) S.A. Oyewole et al. (Ilorin: Local Society Initiative: Nigerian Association for the Study and Teaching of Religion and the Natural Sciences, 2010), 164.

[54] Owoeye, “Prophet E.O. Babalola and Healing Revivalism in Yorubaland,” 165.

[55] The interactive discussion took place in the Postgraduate Seminar Room of the Department of Religious Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on 7 August 2017.

[56] Saibu A. Owoeye, “African-Healer Prophets in Selected Independent Churches in Yorubaland, 1963-1998,” Unpublished PhD Thesis submitted to the Postgraduate College, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2000, 174.

[57] Samson O. Akinsulure, “Biblical Leadership Styles: Implications for Christ Apostolic Church’s Administration in the South Western States of Nigeria,” an Unpublished PhD. Dissertation submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, Ahmadu Bello University , Zaria, 2015, 67.

[58] The current writer witnessed a church program in a CAC assembly in Modakeke, Ile-Ife, in 2010 when in an early morning service, a revivalist told his audience to slit open their sachet water bags, add salt to the water, and go home and birth with the water. Such a practice is, of course, not condoned by the church but it does happen in situations unknown to the church authorities. This is just one of the ways and occasions in which the use of sanctified water is abused in the church.

[59] Ademakinwa, Christ Apostolic Church: the Faith of Our Fathers, 111.

[60] Z.O. Ogunwole, “Healing Practices among African Christians: a Case Study of two Indigenous Churches in Nigeria,” Review in Social Sciences 3 (2003), 1&2:78-79.

[61] O.A. Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” Unpublished PhD Thesis submitted to the Postgraduate College, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2012, 122.

[62] Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 115.

[63] Ogunwole, “Healing Practices among African Christians: a Case Study of two Indigenous Churches in Nigeria,” 79, 80.

[64] Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 114-115.

[65] “A Biography of St. Moses Orimolade Tunolase,” n.d., retrieved from http://csmchurchitire2.org/img/newest/bio.pdf, on 24 August 2017, n.p.

[66] O.P. Aluko interviewed by George O. Folarin on 25 August 2017. Aluko is a Wo Leader in C&S Movement.

[67] Oluwatoyin O. Oluwaniyi, “No More Glass Ceiling? Negotiating Women Leadership Role in Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim,” Journal of Pan African Studies, 5 (2012), 2:136.

[68] See Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 115.

[69] The Supreme Council of Christ Apostolic Church, Christ Apostolic Church 1990 Year Book (Lagos: CAC Publicity Department, 1990), 8.

[70] Christ Apostolic Church, “The Tenets of CAC,” retrieved from http://cacworldwideonline.org/cac_tenets.html, on 29 July, 2017, n.p.

[71] Ayegboyin & Ademola Ishola, African Indigenous Churches, 65-66.

[72] Ayegboyin & Ishola, African Indigenous Churches, 7.

[73] Ayegboyin & Ademola Ishola, African Indigenous Churches, 66.

[74] Ogunleye, “Elimination by Substitution: Christ Apostolic Church and Indigenous Faith Interplay in Nigeria,” European Scientific Journal, 9 (2013), 11:183-184.

[75] J.A. Alokan, Christ Apostolic Church @ 90 (1918-2008) (Ile-Ife: Timade Ventures, 2010), 35.

[76] Christ Apostolic Church, Christ Apostolic Church (Worldwide) Constitution and Doctrines (Ibadan: CAC Publicity Department, 1995), 42.

[77] See Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 101, 118-119.

[78] CAC builds on the reading of Jesus’ statement which includes, “and fasting” as found in KJB, HCSB, and ISV. The versions that skip the phrase such as in NIV, ESB and NASB contain the preferred reading which, come from the oldest available manuscripts. The addition of the phrase, “and fasting” is apparently a redactor’s addition.

[79] John Odunayo Ojo, The Life and Ministry of Apostle Joseph Ayodele Babalola (Mushin, Lagos: The Prayer Band Publications, 1988), 26.

[80] Shittu, “5 Prophetic Mountains CAC Founders Established,” n.p.

[81] Ogunrinade, “Predilection for African Indigenous Practices in the Pentecostal Tradition,” n.p.

[82] Sampson M. Nwaomah, “Anointing with Oil in African Christianity: An Evaluation of Contemporary Practices,” Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 5 (2009), 2:50-64.

[83] Christ Apostolic Church General Executive Council, Order of Services of the Christ Apostolic Church (8^th edition; Agege: CAC Press, 1994), 75; Eto Isin Gbogbo ti Ijo Apostoli the Kristi Nigeria ati Ghana, 7^th ed. (Agege: CAC Press, 1973), 93.

[84] Christ Apostolic Church General Executive Council, Order of Services of the Christ Apostolic Church, 78; cf. Eto Isin Gbogbo ti Ijo Apostoli the Kristi Nigeria ati Ghana, 96.

[85] J.A. Alokan, Christ Apostolic Church @ 90, 35.

[86] Adegboyega, Short History of The Apostolic Church in Nigeria, 21.

[87] M.A. Adeoye interviewed through phone by G.O. Folarin on 29 July 2017.

[88] I.B. Akinyele, “Ododo So Wa Di Oga L’ori Ibi Gbogbo,” in Letter Mimo Sio (Akure: Miracle Revivals, 1969), 10-11.

[89] D.O. Odubanjo, “Igbeyawo ti Olorun Da Sile,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 22.

[90] E.T. Latunde, “Ikore Ti Koja,” Letter Mimo Sio, 32.

[91] J.A. Medaiyese, “Oro Lori Adura Gbigba ati Awe,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 38.

[92] J.B. Orogun, “Ijoba Orun tabi Ijoba Olorun,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 41.

[93] J.D. Sanya, “Igbe Aiye Isegun tabi Gbigbe Aiye Asegun” in Letter Mimo Sio, 45.

[94] I.D. Degun, “Ese,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 52.

[95] D.O. Babajide, “Opin Igboke Gbodo Gbogbo Enia Lori Ile Aiye,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 66.

[96] J. Olu Ashaju, “Iberu Olorun,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 83.

[97] N.E. Udofia,, “Kikun Fun Emi Mimo,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 90.

[98] P. A. A. Egabor, “Pipe tabi Mimo Onigbagbo,”in Letter Mimo Sio, 102.

[99] J.O. Aoko, “Mimo Olorun,” in Letter Mimo Sio,109.

[100] T.O. Obadare, “Eyin Ayanfe Kini Agogo Lu Nisisiyi? – An Afternoon Vision,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 115.

[101] E. H. L. Olusheye, “Ihinrere,” in Letter Mimo Sio, 120.

[102] George O. Folarin, “Contemporary State of the Prosperity Gospel in Nigeria,” The Asia Journal of Theology 21 (2007), 1:77-78.

[103] Segun Gbadegesin, African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy and Contemporary African Realities (New York: Peter Lang, 1991), 102.

[104] Josiah Adeyinka Olanrewaju, “The Biblical Concept of Victory over Evil in the Great Controversy between Good and Evil in Yoruba Contest,” Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry, 3 (2009), 134.

[105] Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 100.

[106] J.W. Williams, “The Transformation of Pentecostal Healing, 1906-2006,” Unpublished PhD, submitted to Florida State University, 2008, 16.

[107] Heather Curtis, “Joseph W. Williams, Spirit Cure: A History of Pentecostal Healing,” History of Religions, 56, 1(2016), 139-141; cf. Grant Wacker, “The Pentecostal Tradition,” in Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions, (ed) Ronald L. Numbers & Darrel W. Amundsen (New York: MacMillan, 1986), 524-525.

[108] “Aladura: Nigerian Religion,” Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d., retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aladura, on 30 July 2017, n.p.

[109] Adegboyega, Short History of The Apostolic Church, 6.

[110] David Mekeel, “Understanding the Faith Tabernacle Congregation,” 2017, retrieved fromhttp://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/understanding-the-faith-tabernacle-congregation#.WX3uvOFRFPY, on 30 July 2017, n.p.

[111] Olayiwola, “Joseph Ayo Babalola (1904-1959),” Makers of the Church in Nigeria 1842-1947, (ed) J.A. Omoyajowo (Lagos, CSS Bookshop, 1995), 142; cf. Adegboyega, Short History of The Apostolic Church in Nigeria, 124.

[112] Orogun, Eko Nipa Iwosan Lai Logun, 13.

[113] B.A. Adedapo, “The Healing Ministry as a Catalyst of the Growth of Christ Apostolic Church in Southwestern Nigeria, 1943-2000,” A PhD Dissertation submitted to the Postgraduate College, University of Ibadan, 2014, 101-119.

[114] Adedapo, “The Healing Ministry as a Catalyst of the Growth of Christ Apostolic Church in Southwestern Nigeria, 1943-2000,” 110-111.

[115] Adedapo, “The Healing Ministry as a Catalyst of the Growth of Christ Apostolic Church in Southwestern Nigeria, 1943-2000,”113.

[116] Adedapo, “The Healing Ministry as a Catalyst of the Growth of Christ Apostolic Church in Southwestern Nigeria, 1943-2000,”113.

[117] Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrines (Ibadan: The Supreme Council of Christ Apostolic Church, 1968), 42

[118] Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrines, 42.

[119] G.O. Folarin, “The Organization and Administration of Midwifery in the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Maternity Home, Agbokojo, Ibadan (1979-1988),”Unpublished MEd Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, 1989, 76-77.

[120] Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrines, 52.

[121] J.A. Babalola, “Iwosa Lail’ogun,” in Leta Mimo Si O, 6.

[122] Babalola, “Iwosa Lail’ogun,”in Leta Mimo Si O, 7.

[123] Babalola, “Iwosa Lail’ogun,”in Leta Mimo Si O, 9.

[124] Ojo, The Life and Ministry of Apostle Joseph Ayodele Babalola, 208.

[125] Orogun, Eko Nipa Iwosan Lai Logun, 5.

[126] Orogun, Eko Nipa Iwosan Lai Logun, 5.

[127] Orogun, Eko Nipa Iwosan Lai Logun, 14.

[128] Alokan, “The Place of Revelations and Healings in the Practices of Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, 1930-1994,” 101.

[129] Adegboyega, Short History of The Apostolic Church in Nigeria, 18-19.

[130] Christ Apostolic Church, “The Tenets of CAC,” retrieved from http://cacworldwideonline.org/cac_tenets.html, on 10 September, 2017, n.p.

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