Henry Akubuiro
Chris Christian is the cerebral Shepherd of Locust Army International, Lekki, Lagos. A preacher with a calling for the pen, too, he has written over 180 books, and is regarded as Nigeria’s most prolific author. The Sun Literary Review chatted with him in his Lagos office where he explained the underlining factors that spurred his writings. He has a new discovery, contained in a new book, Jesus Won’t Come Back, that goes contrary to what many Christians believe about the Second Coming. Interestingly, too, Christian discloses how he was invaded by dead people while writing a recent book on the dead.
How do you combine preaching and writing, considering that both are time demanding?
The mandate of the ministry helps me reduce my schedule. The vision is to raise an altar for the Capital Messiah in the heart of Africa. It is an apostolic church. There are different kinds of mandate. This [mine] is a book work. So I try to centre on the purpose. There are many things I don’t do at all. I don’t travel regularly, because I have to write. We have just finished 40 days fasting, and, for these forty days, I didn’t travel; I made four new books. I was writing every day for forty days because of the nature of the ministry. It is a book ministry. So the mandate of the ministry constrained me to have what I must invest my time on. Today, I resumed a new book of twelve chapters. I will be writing every day until am through.
How long does it take to do a book, for you keep churning books on regular basis?
It depends on the urgency. Sometimes I make two chapters a day. But if it is not urgent, I make one chapter daily. I sit day and night. If I want to write a 14-chapter book, it can take me like 10 days.
The last time I interviewed you, you had written over 120 books. How many books have you written now?
I have published 185 books now. I am making eight new books as well. I do just writing (laughs). A dark man, a preacher who is not intelligent, who doesn’t have access to God’s secrets, cannot be used to achieve much. It is like a farmer going to the farm with unsharpened tools.
You said something like having access to God’s secrets. Is it different from what is contained in the Bible?
The Bible is not the end of secret. It is quite unfortunate that the revelation of the Bible has lasted 2000 years. If the revelation is 2000 years old, are they saying that, since then, God has not said new things? God has been saying new things. He says people have to pay. In life, people will pay. Apart from people paying, God chooses who He reveals what to. There are so many channels He reveals things to His people. He can inspire. He can give you vision. He can give you also interpretations for reading Bible. There are many channels of accessing secrets. He can enlighten your eyes from the original scroll. As you are reading the Bible, He can reveal your eyes to a particular secret.
Which other preachers cannot get?
Yes, he can give you access into it. Like in African society, because of the nature of Africans, we oppress. There is a lot of witchcraft activities. So it causes distractions. Africans don’t really have time to pay attention to spiritual work.
Who read all these books?
The books spread. I have readers round the world who wait for new titles. I am a preacher, so I have people, like what you call platform. I have churches in Nigeria and parts of Africa and, in some parts of the world, I have followers. So when the books come out, pastors round the world take them. The pastors, in turn, have their own followers, and share them to them. So other people who are not directly under me also get from them. Just like the Bible, the word gladdens the soul. For Self-discovery and Identity, I have done five reprints. It is one of my bestselling books. It was first published nine years ago.
Tell us some of your latest books. 16 of them just came out.
I wrote on The Storehouse in Africa. I took from what happened in the time of Joseph’s dream and Pharaoh from Genesis, looking into God’s prophetic agenda in the famine that is before us, the famine of this last millennium. So I try to compare the famine before us and the famine in the days of Joseph, telling people, through the agency of this book, to prepare for both the physical famine of economic crisis and famine of the world.
I also have The Millennium Temple, which talks about the Jewish Temple to be built in Jerusalem. I am trying to enlighten the eyes of the Jews on what they need to know about building the temple, doing the right thing, because the Jews have been trying to build the temple. But God doesn’t want a temple of the Law to be rebuilt. He wants a millennium temple.
What’s the difference?
A Millennium Temple is the temple of the Lion of Judah. It is a temple of Day of Vengeance. But the Jews are trying to go back. You know, the Law has produced the Church, and the Church is going to produce Jesus in the Second Coming –that’s the coming of the Lion of Judah. But the Jews are still saying that temple is the Temple of the Law. Through the agency of this book, I am saying that it is not the temple of the Law that should be there but a messianic temple. So I use the book as a binocular to guide the Jews in this prophetic time. I also have a book on Jesus Will Not Come Back.
That sounds controversial…
Yes, it is controversial. Here, I want to enlighten the Church to understand how spirit returns –the workings of spirits. Many people don’t know the workings of spirits. A lot of them are believing Jesus will come back. Actually, Jesus won’t come back again. We are expecting the coming of the Lion of Judah, not the Lamb of God.
You mean Jesus won’t come back physically again to this world?
He can’t return through any means. It is another coming that we are expecting. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah when people were expecting the return of Elijah as written in Malachi, Chapter 5 and 6 on Elijah returning before the coming of Jesus. Actually, Elijah didn’t come. John came in the place of Elijah. So what I am advocating is that somebody will come in the spirit and power of Jesus to fulfil another assignment, and then we call Him the Lion of Judah. But the mistake the Church is making is saying Jesus will return physically. The issue is that Africa is a continent in prophesy at this particular time. The journey of God started here. It will eventually end here. The first man created by God was an African. It came from African soil. He came from this peninsula. Civilisation started from Egypt. God hasn’t forgotten. I have also a book on The Third Testament.
Do you think you have written your best book so far?
No, I haven’t written my best book, but I have tried (laughs).
I understand that, while writing one of your recent books, dead people came to visit you. How did it happen?
The title of the book is God Makes Promises to the Dead, because the dead are still part of destiny; they were not forgotten. There is a plan of God for resurrection of the dead. When I started making that book, one day, dead people came to me and said I should find out what killed them.
In dream?
No. They came right here as I was sitting down. They would come in a cloud. I am used to them. They wanted me to talk about their future. Some people believe they have gone forever, but they only lost their body. So their spirit and soul are with them. They are part of us. Back to the encounter with the dead, they said they learnt I was doing a book on them, that I should find out what killed them, like wounds, for all dead people are wounded. They are wounded through spiritual blindness. They told me to prophesy the light of revelation. So I started writing on what should be said to them so that they can come back. So I wrote it. They also told me to write about the healing of the wound.
2015 was one of the first time I made a remarkable encounter with the dead. I was singing to preach, and I saw one old man in the midst of congregation cough. When I was watching him, I discovered he was a dead man who came for the meeting. I asked him what killed him, he said tuberculosis, and came from the grave, and still coughing up till now,; that he needed healing, that he knew I was going to talk about him. So I started preaching on Living with the Dead.