Alleluia Ministries slams ‘biased’ reports, plans to ‘take action’

In a long statement on Wednesday, Alleluia Ministries International defended their head pastor, Alph Lukau, from what they have described as “an unwarranted and sustained attack fuelled by bias, speculation and … a blatant refusal to accept certain irrefutable facts”.

Lukau has recently hogged the headlines for having apparently “resurrected” a man, identified only as Elliot, in a coffin on Sunday at his church. Since then three funeral parlour companies have accused the church of having staged the whole thing and of dragging their brands through the mud by association.

However, Lukau’s church says they have been misunderstood, and have been victimised by the event themselves. They said that although they believed in the power of God and that it should be possible to bring people back from the dead – adding that people who can perform miracles are not “celebrated” enough – they denied that Lukau had ever in fact claimed to have resurrected a dead man.

According to them, Lukau had simply confirmed that the man was alive to start with and he had merely added the final touches to get him back on his feet and having a quick meal at the church before leaving.

They said that in the video footage “it is clearly stated that when the mortuary vehicle arrived at the Church premises there was already movement in the coffin; prior to even praying over Elliot, Pastor Alph states that Elliot is in fact breathing; the facts surrounding Elliot’s death were presented to Pastor Alph by Elliot’s family (as seen in the video footage) and these were then reported as such; during the service Pastor Alph clearly states that the extent of the miracle needs to be verified and that such verification should include interviewing Elliot’s doctor and interviewing everyone in the mortuary.”

They claimed the media had disregarded these points and that no one had sought comment from the pastor or the church before “publishing their biased and misguided views”.

They denied any truth to media reports that the church had ever made a “U-Turn” on the miracle, stating that their position on the matter has always been consistent.

“This is not the first time that the Church and Pastor Alph have had to deal with media, individuals and entities (which reference will now include the funeral parlours who have stated, wrongly, that the Church was involved in a complex scheme relating to the hiring of vehicles) who have thought that the Church and Pastor Alph would stand idly by and allow their faith to be vilified. To this end we confirm that we will, this week, be taking action, as we have in the past, to ensure that the appropriate sanctions are meted out to those who have sought to defame the Ministry and Pastor Alph and attack our faith.”

They claimed that they “had no knowledge/dealings or interactions with Elliot and his family prior to their arrival at the Church on 24 February 2019. In addition, and in order to dispose of the incorrect reports that a cameraman depicted in certain photos with Pastor Alph on social media is in fact Elliot (who has now allegedly been arrested) this is not the case and the cameraman (who is not Elliot) is still employed by the Church; they have not engaged with any funeral parlours as is alleged.”

Meanwhile, another pastor known for his miracles, the self-proclaimed Prophet Mboro Motsoeneng of the Incredible Happenings Church, said in a statement on Wednesday that he planned to visit Alleluia Ministries “to demand answers from Pastor Lukau, to demand an apology on the misrepresentation of the gospel, and most importantly to plead with Pastor Lukau to abandon his devious ways and turn to the Lord”.

“No bona fide religious leader, in his right sense of mind and driven by the spirit of our Creator, can attempt to pull such an antic for the sake of quick fame and cameras. And that trick has immediately backfired, with many civil society group denouncing Lukau, and other church leaders.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.