ARCHBISHOP BENSON IDAHOSA: THE MAN WHO VIVIDLY PREDICTED HIS DEATH

How Archbishop Benson Andrew Idahosa died on this day in 1998 by first predicting his departure

12th MARCH 1998 MAKES IT 22 YEARS THAT ARCHBISHOP BENSON IDAHOSA 

The 12th day March 1998 makes it 22 years that the icon and ambassador of the Gospel of Christ to the world, Benson Idahosa departed suddenly. He continues to speak loudly even in death. What many do not know is that he actually described in vivid terms how he was to depart when his time was over and that was exactly what happened on the day he died at the ripe young age of 59 years and 6 months.

Leke Beecroft brings together the description by Idahosa in one of his sermons “Benefit of Death” of his death with the day he actually died as documented in The Week magazine editions of 17 and 30 March 1998 for the first time ever in his forthcoming book, as yet another evidence that as controversial as he might have seemed, truly, Idahosa was a man of God.

“I will go when my work is finished; therefore when I am gone nobody should be double-minded concerning the will of God for my death. I am going to go by the will of God, not the will of witches or wizards. No man can kill me. Many have tried to hurt me spiritually and physically to no avail.

“God has not given the key of the vault in which he has hidden me to any man or devil. He did not invest so much in me only to hand me over to the devil to fulfill his dark and unholy idiosyncrasies. I am indestructible by the grace of God, so are you if you know my Jesus. You know, here in Edo land, I do not know about you and where you come from, but here in Edo land, where I am from, when a man dies, the wife is always accused of having killed him.

“I share a beautiful life with my wife Margaret, at least as beautiful as my human nature and God’s grace in my life can make it. She is not dreaming of killing me - she is the flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones, the wife of my youth and the mother of my lovely four children. No, when I go it will be by the will and call of God.

You may ask if I am preparing to die. Not at all! I hope to live for at least one hundred and twenty years. I look forward to when I will hobble into the church with my walking stick and sit back on my big chair to listen and watch my children in the ministry show forth the stuff which God has invested in them through the ministry of God committed to me.

“But, and this is the big But… if the Lord calls me before then, if He calls me NOW, I am ready to answer ‘’Here I am O Lord’’ with joy and expectation because death is gain. Yes, yes! Ha, I see heaven open and the voice that I hear says ‘’Come up hither!’’

“My going will be a Glorious one, I will NOT be sick and be taken from one hospital to the other. Like Elijah, whew! I will be gone before you can say Jack Robinson…

“No. Nobody will mourn me with regret because of a prolonged illness. Nobody will have the pleasure of sympathizing with me because of long suffering; that is one of the gifts which I do not have: the gift of Lo-o-ong suffering!

“When my day comes, I may be sitting with people in the Church and will go when I hear the call like Rev. Gordon Lindsay did. It is a glorious way to depart. I MAY BE WITH PEOPLE AT HOME AND WHILE WE ARE TALKING, I WILL BE GONE JUST LIKE THAT. That will be a precious death”.

How He Joined the Saints

On Thursday, the 12th March, 1998, Idahosa started the day as busy as always. In his office he asked for a cup of tea which he did not drink up. He told one of his staff members; “I am going home”. This was not strange. But when he repeated it unnecessarily, there was a reason to suspect the unusual but no notice was taken of it. Later that afternoon, at lunch with his guests, he spoke about heaven. He asked them whether they believed it was possible for one to walk to heaven like Elijah did. He said he would prefer to be translated like Enoch and Elijah.

He told them he had a heavenly drink in his cup. He took the “pure heaven” juice on the table and drank from it, making a humorous statement about going to heaven. The drink tasted like heaven’s drink he told his guests. His high sense of humour was on parade.

On that day he had received members of an educational foundation team from the USA (from Oral Roberts University and the Christian Faith University) after ministering in church. He excused himself to go to Miracle Centre, his Church office and prayed with different segments of people at the Church Office including the Bible School students before he went back to meet his guests at home.

It was a busy period at the headquarters of CGMII, the Archbishop had just returned from one of his many tours, this time from the UK. Members of the Oral Robert University Educational Fellowship (OREF) were at the headquarters of Word of Faith Group of Schools for the yearly OREF program. They were led by Professor Don Petri, a friend of the Benson Idahosa University and a Professor of Christian Education at the Oral Robert University. He and all the American participants at the conference were guests at the Archbishop’s home. It was an early afternoon and Idahosa and his guests were at the table. A characteristic humour of the Archbishop eliciting laughter and chatter punched with the lunch. It was a sumptuous meal and both local and international guests were satisfied. Then a fruit juice was passed around in packets of which were printed the brand name “pure heaven”.

The caption started another round of conversation. It was about heaven. Then suddenly, there was a hush as the archbishop broke into the good natured conversation and asked - “How many of you are ready to go to heaven right now? You see”, he continued,  “all Christians talk about heaven and its beauty and desirability but not one is prepared to go there straight away. I have news for you. I am prepared to go to heaven right now, is anyone going with me?” Everyone was silent. The mood of the diners changed and the guests went to their rooms.

The Archbishop called for Professor Don Petri to join him in one of the many sitting rooms in the new Benson Idahosa University. He indicated those aspects of the master plan he had implemented and requested the professor to continue from where he was ending. Yet Professor Don Petri did not understand the meaning of the Archbishop’s words. The Archbishop was the symbol of the university. It could not have entered the mind of anybody that he would be translated a few minutes after.

Shortly after he had spoken instructing a deaconess on what the guests should eat for dinner, he began to repeat the words ‘Thank you Jesus’ then suddenly threw his head back on the easy chair and gave up the ghost. Professor Don Petri did not immediately understand until he saw the body slumping off the chair then Don Petri rushed at him calling for help and laying him on the rug. He tried all the resuscitation techniques that he knew but to no avail, they called for help from the Faith MediPlex but the doctors testified that from the moment he hissed that sigh of relief, he had clearly departed. His going was an air of finality which the doctors knew but could not admit. He was not sick. He never had high blood pressure. He was never down. Even the doctors were surprised that he died because he was not sick at all”.

His words earlier had been: “I MAY BE WITH PEOPLE AT HOME AND WHILE WE ARE TALKING, I WILL BE GONE JUST LIKE THAT. That will be a precious death”.

He told me about his death – Oyakhilome

THE founder and President of Christ Embassy Church popularly known as Believers Love World, Rev. Chris Oyakhilome has revealed how father of modern-day Pentecostalism and founder of Church of God Mission, late Archbishop Benson Idahosa inspired him in ministry and told him about his death three months before the incident.

Oykahilome made this revelation when he commissioned a N1 billion faculty of engineering building donated to Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo State. March 12 made it 22 years since Idahosa transited.

Oyakhilome said: “When I gave in to the university, I was taking the opportunity afforded me to say thank you. I am one grateful person, just one among so many, I am grateful for many things; firstly for what and who the Archbishop Benson Idahosa was to me.

“When I was coming here, I thought about the legacy of the archbishop. I count myself highly honoured to have been given the opportunity to be here celebrating. On the 12th of March we will be celebrating 22 years since he transited from here.”

Continuing, he said: “On that day when it happened, Rev. Tom was in Benin and he called me on the phone and said Pastor there is something on the screen I don’t know what it is talking about and I asked, “what is it?” He said, “They are announcing that the Archbishop has passed on”.

“I don’t understand what they are saying but I understood because he had told me. He invited me in December, he was speaking with me in December and he said to me before the 14th of March. He called the secretary and asked her, “Where is your card?” She came with the card and he wrote something on it and said again to me “remember before the 14th of March”, and I said “yes sir!”
Then I thought, does he know why he sent for me? Then he said, “Follow me”, and I followed him.  He took me round and he kept saying just for inspiration and I followed him, we went round and came back, sat down and he talked about what he was doing about the university, he had a picture, a large picture in his hand and he was talking about the university and other things then he said, “Let me pray for you, kneel down”.  I went on my knees and I knew that was the reason he sent for me because years before, the Lord has told me what he was going to do that on a particular occasion, he will call for me and he will do this but I didn’t know when but while I was there, he said, “Kneel down and let me pray for you”. He laid hands on me and spoke words of the spirit.

"It may interest you to know that two years before then I was at a stage in my life, a young preacher just coming into the ministry, thinking of what I was going to do because I don’t just really have any minister who will take personal interest in me.

"It is one of the problems young ministers have so I began to write down the names of the ministers I had thought to contact so I wrote three names down. The first one was the Archbishop Benson Idahosa and I wrote the other two. When I was thinking how can I contact them, I heard Him spoke about three feet above my head, “Don’t contact them, I will contact them for you, I will get them to contact you”.  It was a short while after that I got the message that the archbishop wanted to see me".

He said, “Idahosa changed the face of Christian worship across the world and that he was inspired by pictures of live miracles hung on the lounge of Idahosa’s office where he worked as a teenager “and I would stare and stare and stare because I could see in my bible the miracles but I only use imagination now the Archbishop had the pictures, I could see the pictures.”

According to him, Idahosa taught them praise and worship, prayers, love for God, Soul-winning among other things.

“He taught us to have bulldozer faith so that we can do big things for God. He taught us to dress well. He was the model, he changed completely the definition of the ministry not only in Nigeria but I can tell you throughout the world.

“He taught us to be educated. He showed us education was important and he stressed it, he inspired us about school and he taught us to be relevant to society. He taught us to support the poor and the government and this is an amazing combination to support the poor and the government because the Archbishop thought the government was poor so he told us to support the poor and the government that is why he did things that the government should have done,” Oyakhilome noted.

Bishop Margaret Idahosa visits Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, hands him a great mantle of her late husband

Pst. Chris was being presented a powerful mantle owned by the Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, which is a Bible belonging to late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, which he used all over the world he traveled to, to do signs and wonders, through the working power of God.

These were the words of Bishop Dr. Margaret Idahosa, wife of Late Benson Idahosa:

"Yesterday morning we had an emotional moment as the Idahosa Family as Led by God gave our Son Rev Chris a family Gift.

“We have held on to this gift for the last 22 years after our father Archbishop Benson Idahosa left for glory March 12th 1998, and we are rest assured this our action is Divine.

“In the Red box was the Personal Bible of Archbishop Benson Idahosa, he used it to preach for many years in over 150 countries around the world proclaim the gospel of Christ and bringing healing and redemption to millions.

“We believe this gift will be a blessing to our son, Pastor Chris, and we are glad to be associated with him and his ministry”.

----Dr Margret E. Benson Idahosa.

At one time, Karthryn Kulmann’s praying stool was handed to him.

Archbishop Benson Idahosa's Favorite Bible presented to Pastor Chris by the Idahosa Family