The revelation is said to have occurred on Willoughby Street in Ebute-Metta, a slum on the Lagos mainland. In 1952, Josiah Akindayomi, then an illiterate peasant, fell into a trance while praying with friends. When he emerged, he saw he had scrawled something on a blackboard, short lines of text he was incapable of reading. He was soon informed he had written the words “Redeemed Christian Church of God.” An entire theology emanated from this event: God had spoken in Nigeria, entrusting its Christians with a special mission and purpose. The RCCG is a “covenant church, working on a platform and precepts designed by God as given by the founding father,” Emmanuel Akoteyon, the manager of the RCCG’s House of Favor church, explained. “It’s one of the end-time churches that Jesus Christ is coming back to meet,” said another follower whom I met near Lagos.

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