Pastor Abel Damina, founder of Abel Damina Ministries and Power City International, has questioned the belief that eating fruit from the forbidden tree caused Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden.
Damina stated this during his New Year’s Eve sermon on Tuesday.
“Adam and Eve ate nothing. Adam and Eve didn’t eat anything. Were you there? You were not there. So how do we know whether they ate something or not? Jesus was there. Was Jesus there in the Garden of Eden? Yes. Can Jesus explain to us what happened? Yes.”
Referencing Mark 7:18-21 in the Bible, Damina argued that not what a person eats or drinks makes them a sinner.
He added, “Do you not know that if Adam and Eve ate something, they would not be sinners? It is not what people eat that makes them sinners. It is not what you eat. You cannot be a sinner by eating or drinking something.”
Damina also stated that smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol are not sins, saying, “I’ve told you alcohol is not a sin. I’ve told you cigar is not a sin. If you like, put it on the newspaper headline. I said it.”
He, however, made it clear that he wasn’t encouraging such behaviours.
“Am I saying you should smoke? You should have a sense from your father’s house to know that cigar will cut short your life,” he said.
“Am I saying you should drink alcohol? You should know that if you drink alcohol, you will lie down inside a gutter. Your shirt and trousers will disappear. You should have the sense to know that.”
According to Pastor Damina, what corrupts a person is not eating or drinking but rather what resides within their heart.
“If they (Adam and Eve) ate, it’d go to their stomach. It’ll digest and go to the toilet. They’ll be free,” Damina said.
He added, “There’s nothing a man eats that enters his heart. It’ll go to the digestive system and go out somehow.
“It is what comes out of a man that defiles a man, not what goes in. What makes you a sinner is what you’re thinking not what you’re eating.”
