Prominent Nigerian Pastor TB Joshua has again waded into the contentious issue of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, calling on world leaders to reopen the economy, a constant call by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an interactive question and answer session on his Facebook Page – followed by four million people – Joshua first explained why “ministers of God” were “not praying for coronavirus patients”.
“Coronavirus is an issue of the governments; its real origins have to do with mistakes in critical international research. Since their body language is understood, we have to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s – that is the position of ministers of God,” he stated.
The cleric went further to emphasize his assertions that the outbreak of COVID-19 was linked to an “error in advanced technology”, adding that modern warfare was “no longer about physical weapons”.
“That nature is involved can be no excuse, as this has led to the deaths of many innocent people all over the world,” he continued, adding that it was “an attack on the nature of God – the air”.
Joshua went further to state that nature was “fighting back” and disease would naturally “go the way it came”.
However, he warned of retaliatory actions “in the nearest future”, calling on prayers to “avert this”. The cleric concluded by calling on world leaders to “open up the economy”.
“‘Hardship virus’ is more dangerous than coronavirus… The more we delay in opening up the economy, the more we will face a worse situation afterwards,” the founder of Emmanuel TV somberly stated.
The video of Joshua’s prophecy for 2020, in which he termed it “the year of humility”, has been viewed over 650,000 times on YouTube.
“God would use challenges such as affliction to humble us,” he said, followed by a revelation of worldwide “economic backlash”, leading many of his followers to connect the prophecy with the ongoing outbreak and its global financial implications.
By Ihechukwu Njoku, a freelance Nigerian journalist