02/04/2022
A COMPLETE HISTORY OF
MOSES ORIMOLADE TUNOLASE.
Ajagunmokadi
Moses Orimolade Tunolase is the founder of Cherubim and seraphim church.He was born to a family of herbalist and his father was a powerful oracle consultant. His father’s name was Tunolase and his mother’s name was
Abigail Odijoroto, he was the third in a
family of six children with three brothers
and two sisters.
EVENTS BEFORE HIS BIRTH The oracle predicted that the baby in the womb would be an important, powerful servant of God and that the parents should be careful not to stumble through him.
One day, his mother went to the farm to fetch firewood when she knocked her foot against a stone and surprisingly a voice greeted her from the womb. Obviously she was scared and afraid, more so there was nobody around her. As a powerful woman herself, she quickly recited incantations to drive away any
evil spirit around her.After she gathered a large quantity of firewood, more than she could lift up by herself she started groaning calling for help and a voice from the womb spoke out and said “don’t worry, I will help you.”
She asked who was speaking and the
voice said: “I am the baby in your womb.”
As she was getting prepared to carry the
load, the load was miraculously lifted on
to her head. Obviously that was an experience too much to keep to herself,she narrated the incident to her husband who took her to a very strong oracle consultant that confirmed that the baby in the womb was a servant of God and should be left alone to pursue his journey in life.
EVENT AT BIRTH
As soon as he was born, he stood up in
his birth blood and tried to walk. Three
times he did this. The midwife, was scared that she pressed the baby down with force each time and quickly sent for his father – Tunolase. On arrival, Tunolase too was scared (since such a thing had never been heard or
seen), he joined with full strength and
incantations, which eventually overpowered and crippled his legs.
At age 5, he went into St Stephen’s
Anglican Church (C.M.S) -the only church
at Ikare and sang alone. The strange
light and sound in the church drew that
attention of the resident minister who
went to investigate. On opening the door, there was nobody except a young boy,
that sat down and was singing alone- yet
it sounded like a multitude of people
singing. When Orimolade was asked who
was in the church singing – he answered,
“We are.” This incident popularised Orimolade
Okejebu in the town and the minister
asked the young boy to come and teach
the church some songs.
Loke odo jordani
L' a pe mi (2)
Awon Olufe mi to ti lo, to ti lo,
Mo fe lo ba won wole ogo
Aki yo ya mo t**i lailai lailai
Wo sile, wo sile Ife,
iwe Jesu so fun mi pe
Angeli gbe mi lo mo Ayo,
Jesu so mu mi wole e.
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN ORIMOLADE
AND MASQUERADERS
The converts of Orimolade from
paganism to Christianity soon increased
in Ikare while idol worshipers and
masquerades started to decrease. The idol worshippers felt threatened and
mounted a serious fight with cutlasses
and charms against Orimolade and his
followers. With Orimolade in front and his
followers threading carefully behind him,
the idol worshippers were captivated by their own charms, turned against each
other and cut themselves.
The police were drafted in and could not
believe that people in the same group
would fight and injure each other to that
extent. Consequently, the followers of Orimolade that were unarmed physically
were accused of being responsible for
those that were injured. The followers of
Orimolade were arrested and taken to
Kabba – the provincial headquarter at
that time. Moses Orimolade went to kabba and preached that God said that
all the innocent people in detention
should be released. It was at Kabba that
the popular C&S song descended: - “E
funpe na kikan “which means: “sound the
call profoundly “– i.e. for the release of captives. All Orimolade’s followers were
released and they came back to Ikare
together.
This victory meant that all opponents of
Orimolade had to bow down and find a
way to compromise and win him to their side. They then decided to bestow upon
him one of the highest priestly titles in
the town – but being led by the Holy
Spirit, he told them that was not his
mission on earth.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DAYS OF MOSES
1. Orimolade would go to farm with his
brother Peter Omojola but would not
sleep at night; he would sing spiritual
songs from night till morning.
2. He was a very good hunter that would go to the bush alone without a cutlass or
a gun, yet would come back home with
slaughtered animals.
3. He once tried to do business by buying
and selling of palm oil and kola nuts. He
traveled to a town called Oshokoshoko in Northern Nigeria with his friend. On his
way, an angel of God appeared to him
and warned him not to jeopardise his
mission as a prophet of God with
business. He refused to take the warning
and as soon as he got to Oshokoshoko, he fell seriously sick, people thought that
he would die. His friend returned to Ikare
to inform them. His brother Egunjobi was
sent to bring him back home, however
before Egunjobi got to Oshokoshoko,
Orimolade had got back to Ikare, by what means – nobody knew.
4. One day, Orimolade paid his close
friend Garuba a visit. As it was getting
dark, Orimolade bid his friend goodbye
and began to walk home (bearing in mind
that he was crippled and could only walk with the aid of a stick). His friend Garuba
decided to discover the mystery as to
how Orimolade walks about. So Garuba
mounted his bicycle and started to follow
or chase Orimolade but he never saw or
overtook Orimolade along the way. On getting to Orimolade’s house, Garuba
met him at home – Surprise! Surprise!
Orimolade asked Garuba what he was
trying to investigate.
5. Orimolade fasted for three months
after which he called his mother to fetch water and bath for him. Afterwards he
told his mother that he wanted to prepare
a feast for the town and asked his mother
to assemble the pots and be ready for
feast preparation. To everybody’s
amazement including his mother, people started to walk in with loads of foodstuff
as gifts – which exceeded what they
needed.
ORIMOLADE’S MISSIONARY JOURNEYS
Moses Orimoade started his missionary
journey at Ikare around 1916 and he traveled to the length and breath of Nigeria-, which could be likened to the journey of first Apostles of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
He traveled from Ikare to Irun, Ogbagi,
Ayere, Ogidi, Kabba, Abaji, Igan, Ikase, Egbe, and Bida, to the North and back to
Ilorin, Ikirun, Oshogbo, Ogbomosho,
Ibadan, Abeokuta and finally Lagos.
Everywhere that Orimolade went, he
encountered opposition from idol
worshipers and forces of darkness but at all times he rebuked and overcame them.
A few examples as listed below:
At Irun: Irun is a village, a few miles from
Ikare known for its witchcraft practices
and evil masquerade performances. He
also pulled down the image of Osijora- the predominant idol worshiped in that
village.
At Ogidi: He stayed with a church leader
called Olupeka who warned him about a
river in the village that non-relatives must
not go there. The indigenous of Ogidi have worshiped and sacrificed to the
spirits in the river for many years.
Orimolade took his preaching to the river,
prayed into the water and it dried up. The
evil fish -like creatures were exposed and
killed. At Ikirun: Sango worshipers constantly
attacked the Anglican Church at Ikirun.
While Orimolade was in the church, the
sango worshipers conjured lightening
and thunder stone to strike them but
immediately the attack returned and killed the sango worshippers. The Christians at Ikirun were left alone ever since then.
At Ogbomosho: As Orimolade and his
entourage got to Ogbomosho, he
encountered a charlatan young woman who condemned him, and insulted his
entire entourage. Orimolade was
annoyed because of the woman’s remark
and he asked his entourage to leave the
town but before he left he cursed the
town that: “Rain shall not fall in this town again, pregnant women shall not give
birth to new babies and the lady will
surely loose her life.”
At Benin: Orimolade condemned the
practice of human sacrifice. In his sermon
to a large crowd, he said God created man in his own image. By his sermon,many traditional worshipers gave up their charms to be burnt.
ANGELIC VISITATION
An angel of God appeared to Orimolade in a dream and gave him three things:
1. A staff or rod – for victory
2. A royal insignia – authority for prayer
3. A crown – honour and respect from
every individual.
After the dream, he realised that his mission to preach the gospel of Christ was irrevocable. From that time he started to preach the word of God to friends and people around him – to the amazement of indigenes that were predominantly idol worshipers.
IT WAS NOTED THAT WHENEVER
MOSES ORIMOLADE WAS AT THE PEAK
OF PREACHING, HIS NAZARITE HAIR WOULD STAND UP WHICH FRIGHTENED HIS FOLLOWERS. HENCE HE WAS ADVISED TO WEAR A PECULIAR HAT TO COVER HIS HAIR.
In every town he visited, he directed his
converts to existing churches irrespective of their denomination, and where there
was no Christian church he helped to
establish one.
Orimolade went to preach on a Sunday in
the church and he preached for eight hours and read the Bible from Genesis to
Exodus without looking at any book. He
also performed many miracles on that
day which displeased the host minister T.
A. Ogunbiyi, he became jealous.
Everybody in the Church was amazed, as they had never seen such activities before. Archdeacon Ogunbiyi invited Orimolade for a revisit sermon in his church but planted charms at the entrance of the church to harm
Orimolade. Unfortunately, instead of harming Orimolade, the church warden was harmed – he collapsed and Orimolade resuscitated him with prayer.
From there on Moses Orimolade was
called Baba Aladura, which means
Praying father. Ogunbiyi challenged Orimolade to tell them the Bible school he attended and
how he acquired such a versatile
translation of the Bible. Ogunbiyi was
also in disagreement with Orimolade’s
free gift of holy water for healing. Ogunbiyi felt that the blessed water should be a source of income for his church. Eventually Orimolade was sent out of the church and he continued his open preaching in Lagos – emphasising the need for absolute faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, the efficacy of prayers for
healing and the use of Psalms, his
outstanding preaching ability was
reflected in quoting passages from the
bible.
OTHER RECORDED MIRACLES OF ORIMOLADE
A delegate from the town of Ogbomosho
had been trailing Moses Orimolade since
the event that put their town under a
curse. Eventually they caught up with him
in Lagos and begged him to forgive them and go back with them to Ogbomosho to
remove the curse. The whole town had
suffered due to lack of rain and pregnant
ones had failed to deliver.
On the day that Orimolade stepped into
Ogbomosho, he prayed that God should avert the curse. Rain started to fall heavily and many pregnant women delivered on that day.
The whole of Ogbomosho Township
realised instantly that Orimolade was God sent.
Other events in Lagos
1. A boy who swallowed a needle
vomited it when Orimolade prayed for
him.
2. A lady fell into the lagoon and was
delivered back alive after Orimolade
prayed for her to return alive.
3. A masquerader at Obun-Eko, Lagos
sent a message to Orimolade not to
come and preach at Obun-Eko.
Orimolade sent back to him and gave him
the date that he would be there to
preach. On the faithful day, the masquerader was fully armed with his charm. Orimolade with his entourage approached the man-reciting psalms 24 and 91 – but as the masquerade saw Orimolade approaching, he (the masquerader) collapsed and died. On that day, the popular C&S. song descended
Aje nse lasan ni
Kerubu a pa won run
Which means: - witches are doing in vain
Cherubim will destroy them
