The General Overseer of Christ Livingspring Apostolic Ministry, CLAM, Pastor Wole Oladiyun, today condemned the celebration of Valentine’s day by Christians, saying it’s human and against God’s principle.
“Valentine’s day celebration is a human doctrine and so the church should distance itself from anything that’s worldly and against the will of God,” he said.
Pastor Oladiyun backed up his message by reading out the history of Valentine’s day as published on the internet, saying, “Saint Valentine was a priest from Rome who served in the 3rd century.
“Emperor Claudius II banned marriage when he decided that single men made better soldiers and when Valentine felt this was unfair he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.
“But when the emperor found out he was thrown in jail and sentenced to death. During his imprisonment, Saint Valentine raped the daughter of his jailer, Asterius and before his execution, he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell.
The CLAM pastor stressed the need to show love to everyone on a daily basis, saying, “Love is meant to be celebrated everyday and not on a particular day; it’s normal and expected for you to show some love to your spouse on his/her birthday but celebrating love on Valentine’s day is against the doctrine of God and the church.”
Continuing, Oladiyun said “I speak today as the annointed of God that even when I leave this world for his glorious kingdom, this doctrine should remain in CLAM; let it be known that we forbid the celebration of Valentine’s day in this church now and forever.
“As a member of CLAM, I urge you to stay away from anything that’s not ordained of God; if they call you old school, please tell them that your God is an ancient of days,” the cleric added.