Sylvester Ofori is what happens when church is in the wrong
hands. His recent apostasy has become a common thing in the church. The now
prominence of the new age and the very large gnostic door it opens while not a
new thing, has now reached its crescendo. Those who understand the church know
that from its very inception, it has been battling strange ideas and distorted
views. A large chunk of the Apostle Paul’s work was around contending for the
faith and clarifying its truth and he indeed admonished us in Jude 1:3. There is a two thousand year
history behind the church and it has to be understood by its leaders in order for
them to help believers navigate the treacherous waters of religion and heresy. This
is the reason why inadequate training is extremely dangerous when it comes to
leading a church.
I know nothing about Sylvester
Ofori and his Church. What appears to be true however is that he murdered his
wife in cold blood. It seems also that it was premeditated and followed a
recent altercation that came out of a pending divorce. It seems also true that
while wearing the title of prophet, he had founded and pastored a church for
some 5 years which he has now led into apostasy. While I have no knowledge of
his background, level of training, and theological position, his use of the
title “prophet” and the nature of the church he pastored gives a good enough
indication. He belongs to the Charismatic fraternity where there is a distorted
Christology and a very low view of Scripture. The movement is also
anthropo-centric in nature if one examines the nature of the message preached, the promises made, and even the prayers.
On the lower end of The charismatic spectrum rests the prophetic churches whose regard for Scripture is
nothing short of disheartening from the biblical Christianity perspective. The
core teaching primarily revolves around the subjective experiences of the
god-like prophet who often sits on a huge throne, dresses outrageously
glamorous, and is consulted for everything by the sheep he literally owns. It
seems that Prophet Sylvester Ofori operated within that space. This observation
is based on videos from the church’s YouTube channel where services have been
broadcasted live and archived as well as social media comments by people who
claim to know him and his church.
In a video that showed him in
fisticuffs with his brother-in-law over his separation and the impending
divorce, his brothers-in-law was heard calling him an occult pastor.
In another video, a fellow who claimed he was good friends with him and
had in fact preached several messages at his church suggested that Sylvester
had veered off the path of Christ and have started reading strange books that
were bound to shake the foundation of his faith as a Christian. The friend also
mentioned that Pastor Sylvester had been seen in an event with the chief progenitor
of the all-inclusive gospel movement, bishop Carlton Pearson—a man who has over
the years come to epitomize the very word apostasy within the evangelical
community of the USA. It was clear from the videos and comments that Osofo
Sylvester Ofori had departed from the true teachings of the bible and was
following a new spiritual path. He was in fact heard proclaiming that there are
errors in the Bible.
The final video that triggered
this article and confirmed everything that had been said came from a fellow who
claimed to be the champion of what he called “expanded consciousness”. He had
apparently been brought by Sylvester Ofori to articulate the transitioning of
the church into an expanded consciousness Church (so to speak). His comments
suggested that he had become some sort of a spiritual mentor to Sylvester Ofori
except the prophet had not told him all the truth about what had been going on
in his life. While this article does not capture everything said in the videos,
the points above paint a good enough picture of the scenario within which the
crime was committed. Friends of Barbara (Sylvester's wife) have also said that
her reason for wanting a divorce had everything to do with the new spiritual
path that Sylvester had taken.
Sylvester Ofori is the perfect
example of the young pastor that seems to dominate the church today especially
in the Charismatic community. Having been involved in church for a few years or
perhaps all his life, he sees through the charade and buys into the pyramid
scheme. He makes outrageous claims about revelations from God just as his
senior pastors have done. He has no fear of God because his Christology is
unclear and his view of scripture is abysmally low. He does not understand what
he really believes and has not the slightest clue what fundamental Christian
doctrine is. He sees the Bible as a book one can cherry-pick from to validate
some nice ideas. Consequently, he is always on the hunt for interesting ideas
with which he hopes to dazzle his vulnerable congregation. Every time he hears or
reads something interesting, he goes to the bible, finds some text to validate , and preach it. He succeeds in gathering miracle seeking and prophecy devouring
pseudo-Christians who care very little about what the Bible actually says as
long as they can be fed with drama and gimmicks. The two are a perfect match
and have come to represent to most what church or Christianity really is.
Such pastors even if they mean
well are easy prey for the enemy. Any encounter with other spiritual ideas that
appear advance leaves them breathless and confused. Very quickly they buy into new ideas
especially if it explains Christ differently and promises more drama and
experience. The most common is the new age movement that has now succeeded in
creating its own version of Christianity. The likes of Sylvester Ofori are
guaranteed to swallow its ideas hook-line-and-sinker. He does not know better
as he has not understood true biblical Christianity, its simplicity and power, and its historic relationship with unbiblical Christianity. He has no idea of
the danger that follows these supposed new ideas and their sources. He has no
understanding of the history of the church and its relationship with other
religions from the early days. In fact, he does not see any difference between
the two and now perceives that Christianity is just another of the many
spiritual paths out there. This latter point is the new thinking being
peddled all over the world and is consequently rapidly shrinking the size of biblical Christianity. It is not new and its old name is gnosism.
Sylvester Ofori’s story is a natural outworking of this
situation. And while it is among the worst cases, there are many more going on
even as you read this. Miracle staging, the abuse of congregants, and the many
scandals we see on our TV screens and hear about on our radios are slowly
becoming a part of the church. Such pastors epitomize the idea of church in the wrong
hands. But perhaps that statement itself is an understatement.
But why would church be in the
wrong hands? To answer that I must remind you about a certain young man who
calls himself Avram Moshe. He is Ghana’s loudest anti-church evangelist who
calls himself a thinker. He claims to have served for years in the SDA church and
planted many churches. He believes he was as Christian as could be before
seeing some kind of light. He now preaches what he calls errors of the bible
and challenges pastors and church leaders in debates he supposedly wins. In one
of his many escapades, his attempt at articulating what the Christian faith is
really about exposed him quite badly. By the end of his presentation, he has articulated
a works view of Christianity. Not surprising given he was a member of the SDA
church. Per Christian standards, Avram was not a saved individual and had no
clear relationship with God. Yet he planted and led churches. One only has to
look at the zeal with which he has amassed a following he calls common-sense
movement, the energy, and confidence with which he speaks falsity and the low quality
of his arguments. The latter is at its lowest for a man who claims to be a thinker.
He appears to have a warped unclear worldview and really should not be speaking
in public on such matters. This is why planting churches around a faith he does
not understand well is easy to understand. So when a man like that decides that
the Bible is full of errors and therefore does not believe anymore, there
really is no surprise. He didn’t know what he was doing in the first place. He still
doesn’t.
The Sylvester Ofori case has many parallels with that of the self-proclaimed don of common sense. Both men were running false churches; preached false gospels, misled people, and did not by any stretch of the imagination promote salvation Christianity. The chasm between that and false religion is a narrow one straddled by a rather wide bridge tilted enough to force an exaggerated slippery slope. Prophet Ofori had been on that slope even before he ran into the pope of inclusivism. It was the natural progression towards the occult. No wonder then that, when he threatened during the altercation with his brother-in-law that he was going to kill his wife, he carried it through even after a 24-hour space that afforded him an opportunity for repentance. Saved men are not necessarily perfect people but anyone indwelled by the holy spirit, fears God enough, understands the work of Christ on the cross and the fact that he had been formed to serve as a vessel through which God is to do His will, would not make such a pronouncement. Even if they do, they would have repented by morning and gone to the Lord for forgiveness. Only certain people have the will to carry it through. Only a special breed would go as far as shooting another bearer of God’s image they claimed they loved at their place of work; throwing all caution to the wind. Was it really a throw-caution-to-the-wind or is there something else at play? Have the two of them been sacrificed in broad daylight? Time will tell.
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