Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua, has dismissed claims that Christians cannot contract the coronavirus.
The popular cleric, while responding to questions from different people on Facebook, said the disease was like any other affliction.
An individual had claimed that many were worried because people they knew as Christians and pastors had contracted the virus and some have died of it.
T.B. Joshua responded: “Capital YES!” adding that Christians should not think they could not be touched by the pandemic.
“God often uses ‘anything’ to preserve us and to strengthen our desire and determination,” he said.
“A Christian can be sick in the body and yet be a friend of God or a candidate for Heaven, so don’t let your situation mislead you and cause you to start doubting your God.
“This should be the reason for you to look deeper, pray the more and dream of other ways you might have ignored the leading of God.”
The televangelist urged Christian faithful not to measure God’s love for them by their situations.
“The rich should not concentrate on their pains or riches and the poor should not concentrate on their pains or poverty because a man may be afflicted or poor and yet be a candidate for Heaven,” he said.
“As a Christian, what you see as COVID-19 or affliction, God may sometimes allow it as a test of one’s faith.
“Often we run from the very things that will bring strength to our lives, such as trials and afflictions of various kinds, all of which are meant for our spiritual benefit.
“They are to test (our) maturity. A true Christian is tested by his ability to face situations and deal with difficulties.
“As a Christian, if you contract COVID-19, don’t begin to misjudge yourself by worrying, ‘Am I really a Christian? Why me?’
“Don’t worry about whatever people say, if truly you are a Christian.
“God wants you to pray more because what we see as a disadvantage in our lives can be turned into an advantage. God is still saying something,” he said.
