The Kyiv Post reports…
“The Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said that he hopes the head of Embassy of God church, Pastor Sunday Adelaja, will not break his pledge not [to] leave the country.
“He will not be able to leave Ukraine. The responsible authorities will not let this happen,” the minister told the press in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The minister hoped the pastor would not even try to leave, as “he might bring down punishment on himself for that.”
Lutsenko also denied Adelaja’s claims that he is being persecuted by the police for religious reasons.
“It’s not true, the case is on financial fraud,” the minister said.
As reported, The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has accused the pastor of the Embassy of God, Sunday Adelaja, of defrauding citizens of money. Adelaja was accused as part of the investigation into a criminal case on the financial group King’s Capital opened in January 2009. Part 4, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, under which he has been charged, envisages five to 12 years of imprisonment, along with confiscation of property.
On November 24, 2008, Kyiv police officers arrested the leader of Kyiv-based financial group King’s Capital, Oleksandr Bandurchenko, on suspicion of large-scale fraud. Vice Speaker Mykola Tomenko earlier asked Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to investigate the activities of King’s Capital due to reports about the group’s doubtful activities, and in connection with this, the company’s refusal to pay funds to its depositors.
Lutsenko reported the involvement of Adelaja in organizing the activities of the King’s Capital financial group on November 25, 2008.
On March 14 the pastor signed a pledge not to leave the country.”
Deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine Igor Popov is disturbed at the Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko’s actions against Sunday Adelaja
What will Lutsenko choose: politics or law?
4th, May a deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine, Igor Popov, held a chat-conference on Internet resource “Glavred”.
He answered to numerous issues of the day related to today’s political processes in Ukraine. One of the questions was about the senior pastor of the Christian church “Embassy of God”, Sunday Adelaja, and about public charges of the Minister of Interior Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko against Sunday Adelaja. Igor Popov’s answer was the following:
“I am neither a judge nor a politician. That is why I do not accuse people without having sufficient information and court’s decision. Unfortunately, representatives of some law enforcement bodies use their status for political struggle. Instead of pursuing criminals they speak in mass media.”
Let us mention that accusing an honest and world-respected pastor with fraud, the minister Yuriy Lutsenko broke the main Law of Ukraine, which is the Constitution of Ukraine. Particularly, article 62 of the Constitution prohibiting accusing a man without proving his guilt in court was broken.
“Unfortunately, in most cases such statements are not resulted in any other steps to punish the guilty”, – deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine, Igor Popov, added.
Indeed, the like official violations have become a practice of some Ukrainian politicians. However, these violations of law enforcement bodies can be equated with a crime, because mentioned agencies are to protect the law and the nation.
These events show that Ukrainian society cannot come back to the past. There is no place in politics for officials who ignore the principles of democracy.
We would like to believe that the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, as a guarantor of the Constitution will react to the actions of the minister Yuriy Lutsenko against pastor Sunday Adelaja in order to avoid the like violations against citizens of Ukraine and guests of our country.
Political Scientist Olexandr Doniy, from the same party as Luzhenko believes Sunday Adelaja has never been involved with King’s Capital
There are groundless public declarations made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, J. Luzhenko, which have occurred in Mass Media for the last several months. J.Luzhenko dared to slander the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God church accusing him in criminal involvement and activity of the financial company King’s Capital, accusing him in the fraud specified in paragraph 3, article 37 and paragraph 4, article 190 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Thereby he broke the Law of Ukraine as presumption of innocence is valid in our country until judgment in court, which means that a person is considered not guilty or innocent until the court decision of guilt.
Sunday Adelaja personally objects all charges, declaring that he has nothing to do with the building, activity, and administration of King’s Capital. He considers it as the political strategy of some politicians whose path he has crossed not once.
Recently political scientist Olexandr Doniy, the deputy of the Parliament’s group “Our Ukraine is the National self-defense” in hard talk said: “Logically it is not worthwhile for the pastor of the most influential church (per se timeless project) to risk his authority getting involved in a financial pyramid (its quick and huge profits end up by escape of the founders or general managers)”.
Olexandr Doniy, who is from the same party as J.Luzhenko, declared that he did not see any documents proving accusations of Sunday Adelaja, and he also added that personally Pastor Sunday Adelaja with his members of the church have the right to find out in the Ministry of Internal Affairs on what actual grounds afore mentioned accusations are brought. As experience shows (the case of Boris Kolesnikov) in most cases such accusations are not proved. In 2004 the Ministry of Internal Affairs with J.Luzhenko incriminated to Boris Kolesnikov acquisition with shares extortion of the business center “White Swan” (Beluy Lebed). The politician spent several months in pre-trial prison. As a result lawyers strived for a discharge of Boris Kolesnikov closing of the criminal case in the absence of crime in the act.
History of the Ukrainian justice shows that criminal cases widely spread by politicians through Mass Media at the beginning and often during the prejudicial inquiry were closed even without court. So it is possible to forecast that this criminal case incriminated by mister J.Luzhenko against pastor Sunday Adelaja will not be proved legally in court.
Sviatoslav Piskun: Lutsenko has broken the Constitution in case of pastor Sunday Adelaja
April, 29, the press-conference on the topic: “Law is one for everyone!” was held by the General prosecutor, national deputy of Ukraine Sviatoslav Piskun.
The previous General public prosecutor of Ukraine expressed his position as to the absurd accusations addressed to pastor Sunday Adelaja by the main policeman of country.
It is known that the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine – Juriy Lutsenko publicly imputed a crime to the senior pastor of the God’s Embassy Church, which was unproved, baseless and illegal as the Constitution of Ukraine provides presumption of innocence before a court’s sentence.
Sviatoslav Piskun strongly objects the accusation, which was brought against pastor Sunday and declared: “We cannot talk about the issue of the pastor without adducing any proof. Moreover I consider the fact that many politicians getting to the TV point at him saying “He is villain” is wrong. It is a straight violation of the Constitution, in which it is written that until guilt is proved in the court (even not during the investigation, but in the court) no one can be recognized as guilty”.
“After all where was this practice taken from? It seems to me that this practice came from 2004, when everyone came out to Maidan and said: “Prison to bandits!” So who are those bandits? They are whoever we point at…” – Mr. Piskun added.
First of all before you name someone a villain, you should prove their guilt. Having received the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs and after all revolution slogans Juriy Lutsenko opened numerous criminal cases, though many of them were not taken to the court, because they were not confirmed in pre-judicial investigation.
There was no court’s sentence for pastor Sunday, but the populist declarations of Mr. Lutsenko are deceiving Ukraine. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine makes Ukrainian nation lose faith in the power of law and equality of everyone, including officials before the Law.
The General persecutor of Ukraine considers all actions of Lutsenko to be a violation of the Main Law – The Constitution, but the current General persecutor O. Medved’ko does not react to illegal accusations against pastor Sunday accordingly to his responsibilities, and that shows that some internal institutions and certain politicians are joined against the pastor and are not interested in finding the truth in this case.
However it is the Minister of Internal Affairs Juriy Lutsenko who should answer for his consciously planed illegal actions against pastor Sunday Adelaja. Satisfaction has not been abolished in Justice yet.
The Minister of Justice does not support Lutsenko’s accusations against Adeladja
The Ukrainian Minister of justice, Mykola Onischyk took part in a press conference on Internet Portal “Obozrevatel” on April 7. The main Ukrainian lawyer expressed his position about the accusations against Pastor Sunday Adelaja and legality of the actions by the country’s Head Police officer.
Among the questions addressed to the Ukrainian Minister of justice was one concerning the accusation brought publicly by the Ukrainian Minister of MIA, Yuriy Lutsenko against the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God church, Sunday Adelaja.
On the question whether you think pastor Sunday Adelaja is an offender or not, the Ukrainian Minister of justice, Mykola Onischyk answered the following: “For Ukraine as a country to achieve democracy, it is necessary to keep the principle presuming innocence. It means that a person can not be considered guilty or be accused of committing a crime until the verdict of “the accused” is passed. That is the reason why I have to refrain from making comments on this. Also I would like to take notice that any governmental body must adhere to this constitutional imperative. It is possible that the investigation of this criminal case has already possessed certain materials indicative of signs presence of crime, but this information usually is a secret investigation and can not be spread. We have to proceed from that until accusatory sentence is passed and a person considered innocent”.
As it is known, there is still no accusatory sentence against Pastor Sunday Adelaja, but Lutsenko’s loud speeches lead people astray. It is not understandable why the Ukrainian Minister of MIA makes public addresses about Sunday Adelaja before the eyes of the whole country, Ukraine and thereby breaks the Ukrainian Law.
To date the principle of presumption of innocence is known to every student, but as we can see, the Head Police officer does not know that. Provoke indignation that the Ukrainian Minister of MIA who has to watch over the Law breaks it himself. Is it really so, that after all, Lutsenko’s speeches are outright racist manifestations and political orders about Pastor of the Embassy of God church, Sunday Adelaja?
Very nice…
Thanks Sikstrom for this. Very informative. God bless!
LUTSENKO SENT IN HIS RESIGNATION
Yuri Lutsenko (the one who has falsely been accusing Sunday Adelaja) has sent in his resignation from the post of the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine and pleads the parliament to consider this matter in his absence.
According to a reporter of the Ukrainian National News Agency this news was announced during a meeting of conciliation commission by the chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine Vladimir Litvin, who read the corresponding letter of Yuri Lutsenko addressed to the parliament.
Lutsenko made a blunder at the Frankfurt airport recently, when he and his son was very drunk, there are articles about it on the internet. And the political pressure has been high on him, so now he has left his post, see previous comment.
Additionally, his son has now got some form of incurable cancer. So today at the leadership school that Pastor Sunday Adelaja held, we prayed for his son to be healed and for God to bless them. Just as Jesus taught us, to pray for those who do evil against us.
It is dangerous to go against anointed men of God that live righteously, but we hope that this will lead to their salvation and that God will be glorified through all this.
“It is dangerous to go against anointed men of God that live righteously”
…Sound familiar?
When someone goes against righteous men of God, this person risk his/her protection from God. Better to live pure, bless all your enemies and do good to all people.
Sikstrom, could you clarify something for me? Are you suggesting that Mr. Lutsenko’s son is ill because he “went against men of God that live righteously?”
Sikstrom, when Ps Sunday Adelaja came to Sydney, where I live, friends of mine thought his preaching was wonderful. They also appreciated his attitude towards giving – apparently he rebuked the church leadership here for pressuring people to give. Since then, I’ve been curious as to what Ps Adelaja teaches regarding giving, and have looked up his church websites but not been able to really find out. Can you tell me if Ps Adelaja teaches that all Christians should tithe their income, or does he encourage generous free will giving from the heart, without a tithing message attached? (Or both.) Does he teach that receiving financial blessing from God is dependent upon giving to the church?
Thanks for your help!
Petra: No, but maybe God would have protected their family from that if they had not gone against an anointed one. The Bible clearly warns from doing such thing against God’s anointed (Ps 105:15).
Pastor Sunday encourages to give both tithes and free will offering. He teach that receiving “financial blessing” depends on knowing and applying the laws of money and wealth, not necessarily giving tithes. Giving tithes gives spiritual blessings and protection, not necessarily financial blessings. In our church it’s a joy to give. We show love and thankfulness to God and people through giving, “God so loved the world that He gave…”
Also, if we don’t give we cannot receive as well; it’s the law of “giving and receiving”, or “sowing and reaping” that we shouldn’t violate. For example: Bill Gates gave the world a good computer operating system and organized it well to deliver it as a good product that many people need, so he receives back according to the value he gave to the world. People who does not receive, have generally not given anything to the world. This law is unbreakable, it works like this sooner or later, either we know it or not, either we like it or not.
Pastor Sunday does not like when pastors tell people “give more money to my church/ministry and then you will be rich etc.”, because in reality it’s the pastor that says like that who becomes rich, not the people that give. Instead it’s the responsibility of the pastor to teach his people about the laws of money and wealth and how to apply them in life and through doing this, the people will be financially blessed and then they will freely be able to give more to the church and others that have need.
O dear. Groan. thanks.
Thanks so much for your reply, Sikstrom. I think Ps Adelaja must have preached on the subject of your last paragraph when he was here, because I understand that later the Sydney pastor told the congregation that Ps Sunday’s message re giving to church shouldn’t be taken seriously. (Or words to that effect.) But the congregation members I heard from found it very refreshing!
It sounds from what you are saying that Ps Sunday accepts tithes if people want to give them, but doesn’t teach that you ’should’ necessarily tithe. For example, if you have a single person on an income that is liveable for them, maybe they tithe, but a family of six living on that same income may find themselves unable to give 10% and still eat or pay their bills, so perhaps they’d freely give, but give less than 10%. But if they are doing so with a generous heart in their circumstances, that’s OK. Is my understanding right?
Also, does Ps Sunday encourage giving to one another in need, as being as ‘blessed’ as giving to the church organisation? For example, if a brother was going through a hard time, and someone chose to give directly to that brother, instead of to the church that week, so that the brother could cope with their situation, would that be as OK as giving to the church? Or would people be expected to give to the church first, and to others in need after that was done?
Also, does Ps Sunday teach that God can sovereignly bless us anyway, even when we’ve done nothing to earn it, as an act of pure grace in our circumstances?
…runs out the room looking for something to kick.
I think your understanding is ok, but the people should do something about their situation so that they will be able to give 10 %. It’s a good practice to set aside the 10 % first, before paying for anything else. If we wait to do it after paying bills etc., it’s so easy to waste the money during the month and have nothing left.
If you want the windows of heaven to be closed for you (Mal 3:10), then don’t give tithes. If you’re situation looks hopeless financially and it’s seems like God is the only one who could help you, then tithe. God is a very good partner that expects only 10 %, that’s much less than the government expect in taxes. If you are thankful for being saved and having received eternal life, then tithe. Remember the widow that Jesus made notice of that gave more than all the others; she gave even having almost nothing.
To give tithes is about being disciplined. A person that cannot manage/increase his resources to be able live on 90 % will unfortunately probably never increase his financial level. If someone uses everything for expenses, there is nothing to invest and multiply (one problem in today’s society is that some people live on 110 % or more, i.e. their debts are increasing by time). First step to become financially disciplined is to give 10 % (the majority of wealthy people, unbelievers included, practice this even before they got wealthy). Next step is to begin to set aside minimum another 10 % that should never be touched under any circumstances and only used for investing.
Remember, the Lord rebuked the one that received 1 talent and only hid it. Notice, that he didn’t even use it for expenses (i.e. he gave 100 % back, not 10 %), still he was rebuked for not multiplying it as the other ones. To spend 100 % is not good.
I think it’s better try our best to give to both church and people in need. Pastor Sunday advice to set aside 10 % to church, 5 % to additional offerings (to some other charity or ministry), 5 % to bless other people in need and then 10 % – 30 % for investing. It means to being able to live on 50 % – 70 %, and we can achieve that if we plan it step by step.
Thanks very much for taking the time to explain what Ps Sunday teaches. While there are some things in common with what we are currently taught here in Pente churches, there are also some interesting differences.
I have not heard that kind of advice from any Pentecostal pastor in Australia – generally (in my experience only), they teach tithing as something that you should definitely do if you are really a committed Christian in their churches, either in order to be blessed or cursed as per the Malachi verses, or as an Abrahamic principle. I have been to one Pentecostal church where they never preached on tithing at all – the pastor believed in the principle, but believed that God would provide without him preaching about tithing. (And God did – the budget was always met; the church grew and birthed other churches.)
I have never heard a pastor give guidelines about what percentage should be aimed for to do each thing – tithing, other offerings, other people, AND, investing. I do know Christians who have given so much away that they never invested in anything, even their own home, which in Australia is a normal thing for many people to aspire to own, over time. These people felt guilty about investing, so Ps Sunday’s advice in that area would have been helpful to them.
For myself, I believe we are free to give freely and abundantly, wherever that is – to our local church, friends/family in need, other causes, and I believe that when we abide in God, we will give as a natural outworking of that, whether it be money or non-monetary things. It is an act of love. I believe that Jesus set us free from any kind of ‘law’, and is the fulfillment of the law. So when He is in us, we go well beyond what the law would accomplish. Because we have His love in our hearts, we don’t need law, whether it be Old Testament law or new traditions taught like law. But we might choose to give 10% or whatever, and this amount may change, or where it goes may change, depending upon how we are led and our circumstances at the time.
I have both tithed and not tithed in my life as a Christian; both attended church and not attended church at different times; but have trusted Jesus through all this. In my own experience, God has blessed me regardless of what I do – He has looked after me through everything. Nothing I can do can make Him love me more, and He approves of me because of Christ – not because of anything I have done or now do. I am like the prodigal son, who is astonished at our Father’s grace, because nothing I have done merits that love or that blessing. He loves me. He is patient with me. He never curses me – though He could have for my behaviour. He has redeemed me through Christ. I receive by faith because of God’s grace, and sometimes when I don’t even know I need to – not because of any action. That doesn’t mean my actions (hopefully) aren’t a result of my faith, its just that they are the result of my salvation, my being blessed, rather than the cause of that or the security of that.
I hope that makes sense.
God bless you on your journey, Sikstrom.