Pastor Jerry Eze, our wives and the virus that took hold, By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

A new era of Pentecostal prosperity preaching dispensation is upon us. Move over, Pastor Enoch Adebayo. Move over, Pastor David Oyedepo. Move over, Apostle Johnson Suleman. Move over, Bishop Mike Okonkwo. Something new has arrived.

A changing of the guard is taking place in our eyes. Sometimes we have to walk away and get a drone-generated view of the area before we can understand the transition. The days of Apostle Johnson Suleman hypnotizing us with one scandal after another are over. Even his usual 3rd ranked Nollywood women understood that they should be more stylish than what the man offers. Gone are the days of Pastor Enoch Adeboye tempting us with stories of driving from Ore to Lagos in a car with no gas, an empty tank. In today's N500/litre petrol market, this miracle would have been a pay-as-you-go opportunity had he patented it and delivered it on demand. Gone are the days when Pastor David Oyedepo slaps troubled little girls who come to his church for healing, and the congregation applauds him. He goes up to the pulpit to read a satire written by Olatunji Dare. He tells his confident, non-questioning audience that the story of President Buhari being a clone of Sudan is God-inspired reporting.

These are the dark ages of Pentecostal prosperity preaching.

The new age is here, and miracle preacher Pastor Jerry Eze owns it. It emerges with a simple twinkling line - what God cannot do does not exist.

What God Can't Do Doesn't Exist is the most honest one-line description of God ever devised. And that's why it is very effective.

“It attracts women, our women,” a friend told me. He said, “Our women's ability to compartmentalize makes it easy for them to avoid looking at the other side of the coin – that God who can do anything doesn't just do good things; that God also does bad things and allows bad things to happen under his watch. »

My friend's wife wakes up in New Jersey at 2 a.m., what in the past we called ungodly hours, to listen to Pastor Jerry Eze's live prayer and declaration broadcast on YouTube. This means she sleeps early so she can wake up at 2:00 p.m. And most nights she wants to keep her body and soul clean for hours of prayers, so no action for my friend.

He made me watch the spectacle that was once the prophetic prayers and pronouncements of Pastor Eze.

It was out of this world. The performance was comparable to that of a rock star like Michael Jackson. He makes the preaching of the Adeboyes and Sulemans of this world look like a funeral service.

40-year-old Pastor Jerry Eze has been in the spotlight during the COVID-19 lockdown. While Pastor Chis Oyakhilome was busy scaring people and sewing up conspiracy theories, Pastor Eze told CNN he went online to give people hope.

“It was not a goal to reach the world,” Eze said. “During the (peak of) COVID, there was palpable fear everywhere, and I noticed a lot of my church members were very scared to come around church. So every morning my wife and I will be connecting to encourage people.”

Three years later, he owns the most popular online gospel channel on YouTube, beating Brazilian preacher Bruno Leonardo. The numbers for the daily reach of his online ministry are out of this world. In the past three years, it has had over 240 million views. It now holds the record for the most viewed daily Gospel channel in the world. With over...