LOBE TAHOUE ETIENNE OF IVORY COAST

EX-CELESTIAL CHURCH OF CHRIST MEMBER

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John chapter 3 verse 16)

My name is Lobé Tahoue Etienne. I was born on 30/10/1966 in Côte d'Ivoire. I am Ivorian.

I met the Lord precisely in the year 1999. I was then a member of a sect called the Celestial Church of Christ, where I spent 7 years of my life. And it was by the grace of God that I was delivered from the clutches of the devil.

I had a very difficult childhood as I was subjected to much sorcery attacks. I was sick all my childhood. It was finally at the age of 10 that I could go to a school to receive an education, thanks to a teacher who came to our camp to buy bushmeat. My dad was then a poacher, the teacher came from time to time to the camp to look for bushmeat. He and my father became friends. And then he asked my father why am I not going to school? My father explained everything to him. They made arrangements for me to enroll in school with the birth certificate of my deceased little brother Lobe Dogo Patrice. At CP1, I was the major in the class. At CP2, I was also brilliant. The next year, to my surprise, from CP2, I was allowed to skip one class and be promoted directly to C2. It was there that the enemy was angry. In the middle of the school year, I refused to go to school because I was afflicted with a sickness that blurred my eyes with tears as I read.

I am from a family of 7 children, 6 boys, and 1 girl. 3 of my brothers died mysteriously. My father later died and I became the head of the family because no one came to help us with our needs.

The fight for me now is still rough, because so far all my projects have always fallen to "water." But I'm more than confident because, I know who I believed in, and He has a time for everything. To Him the glory of ETERNITY IN ETERNITY.

I resisted Jesus very much during my conversion, I always wanted to put my interests before Christ, it cost me dearly. I lost a lot of money because I did not want to understand that Jesus has time for everything.

I urge you, my brothers and sisters, to put Jesus first in front of everything. JESUS!

What motivated me to become a member of this sect? It was for the improvement of my condition of life. In 1988, I decided to leave the village to go to Abidjan in order to seek a job interview. The job market is difficult in Ivory Coast, I remained idle for years.

I lived in my cousin's house. Having learned that at the "Celestial Church of Christ" it was possible to find happiness there, I joined this sect. Whoever "evangelized" me said, this "church" came down from heaven to deliver the African victims of witchcraft, and ceremonies are made to find work. These words were enough to convince me! As I was looking for deliverance and the happiness of having a job, I did not hesitate a second.

This "church" had become my home, where I spent more than 6 years! I also participated in the activities of the "church". This "church" building was called St Michael. There are several aspects that brought me out of this sect. It is true that the members of this sect use the Bible, but the practices are not in conformity with the word of God. The practice of sacrificial ceremonies is prescribed daily by visionaries. During the seven years I spent in this sect, I came out as I entered. Nothing has changed except that I have never been hungry, the "sisters" of goodwill brought me food every day. This explains the seven years I spent in this sect. I have never been hungry! I who ate barely once a day, I thought I had met God with food. But I read my Bible a lot, and I also asked the elders many questions.

But I did not receive any satisfactory answer from them. But I could not understand yet, because I was still in the "dark". But while I was reading my Bible, two verses from the Bible caught my attention! And the Lord spoke to me through these two verses. These two passages answered exactly the questions I asked myself. Acts 4: 12, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. This verse enlightened me because it specifically answered the questions I asked myself! The elders made us believe that without the ceremonies: holy oil, candles, assent, fragrance St Michael plus prayers of combat, etc, the deliverance is impossible. I remind you that they also pray in this sect, in the name of Jesus, but always accompanied by ceremonies. According to them, a prayer in the name of Jesus without a ceremony is not effective. Galatians 5: 1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In reading this verse, I said to myself, if Jesus has surrendered Himself to be crucified, we are free from the yoke of bondage.

If we are free from the yoke of bondage, why practice these ceremonial laws which are another burden to us? Other laws in this Celestial Church of Christ include this: when a woman is in her menstrual period, she must remain seven days at home, and on the eighth day she comes to be sanctified and takes a bath with a bucket of water, perfume St Michael, in the water, and a candle in her hand, and a prayer of sanctification. After this ceremony, she can have access to the "holy" place. It's the same for a woman who has a baby! She must have stayed 40 days at home, and the 41st day she comes to be sanctified.

The consumption of pork is forbidden to all members. Most practices in this sect are based on the Old Testament. But there are practices which are not found in the Old, nor the New Testament. For example, every Friday noon, there is a special cult of the "visionary" where each member will bring an egg, a bottle of water, honey to participate in the prayer ceremony. At the heart of the prayer, all the visionaries, and those who are newly receiving the gift of "prophecy" and "vision," are all agitated by a "spirit" that they called the Holy Spirit, and there, begins the "revelations" or predictions of the future.

But my beloved, instead of leaving this sect after receiving the revelation of the errors of this "church" by the grace of God, I helped to set up a branch of this "church" in another city. I was going to join my cousin who served as a constable. He has been newly transferred to an inner city in the north of Ivory Coast called Odiéné. In this city, by the grace of God, I met a "brother" of this Celestial Church of Christ who had also been assigned to the city. He is a maths professor. The joy of meeting him was great! Because it was almost a year since we had not seen each other, and I did not know that he had been transferred to this city. I was pleasantly surprised to see him. In this locality, the "church" did not exist there. However, celestial Christians were in this city. But we had to find them to pray together. That's what we did. The brother professor and I found it very hard to find them but we managed to gather 30 people.

But among us, there was no visionary. So no ceremony. The following days, I exposed the two verses of the Bible to the professor, Acts 4:12 and Galatians 5:1. Together we meditated on these two passages! But the most extraordinary thing happened, we decided to remain as Celestial Christians, but all the time without ceremony. The cult was held by the brother professor, who was also the head of this "church" of Odiéné, and I, the secretary, to announce the programs of worship. But the members revolted against both of us and reproached us for having canceled the ceremonies in this assembly. For them, it is useless to pretend to belong to the Celestial Church of Christ and ignore the ceremonies. (For this time they were right about us). A lively discussion took place on this subject! And the members, without consulting us, took the decision to utilize the services of a visionary, whom they appealed from Abidjan. This happened on the eve of the Passover Feast, where all celestial Christians must absolutely commemorate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus in the cemetery. We have opposed this practice, which we consider useless. The tension was heightened and the discussion was so strong that we split into two groups.

Only three people remained in our group. We stayed, and the other group went to the cemetery. As for me, I went home because I lived with my cousin in the mobile platoon. But when I woke up early, I felt uncomfortable and thirsty for water. From 8 am to 10 am, I emptied the bottles filled with water from the refrigerator, which I drank to the astonishment of those who lived in the house. And I was seized with vertigo as if I was going to die. But by the grace of God, I did everything to go to the brother professor. To my surprise, I found him in an appalling state and he was almost dead. All night he told me, he vomited and had diarrhea. We prayed! And the Lord manifest Himself!!! And he regained his strength.

I almost succumbed to death but I stubbornly held on to life. For 5 days, I did not eat because the food had no taste in my mouth. I suffered a lot because I vomited, had diarrhea and what came out in me was only water. Had it not been for the grace of God, the enemy would rejoice. And around 20h, the "visionary" accompanied by two members came to visit us. They found us sulky but they were not touched or surprised. But they told us to repent and come back from our decision because having a Celestial Church without ceremonies is not celestial. We told them that we are no longer "Celestial" Christians and that we have now accepted Jesus as our Savior. After all these things, I was healed on the eighth day by Jesus Christ!