Pastor Damina is often viewed through the lens of controversy and known for stirring the hornet’s nest with doctrines that many consider to be at variance with true biblical teachings.
Speaking in a recent interview, the pastor said: “The truth is that I can only seem controversial to those accustomed to hearing lies. When someone used to lies hears the truth, it will sound different.
When falsehood becomes an institution, truth sounds like rebellion.
My teachings are not really controversial because they are from the same old Bible that has been used for thousands of years.
When it comes to biblical teaching, just like it was in the days of Jesus, the Pharisees and Sadducees were already teaching the bible before Jesus appeared in the four gospels and differed from the way they taught the Bible.
It was said that He sounded very different, controversial, strange, spoke mighty words, and with authority.
The reason is that the Bible is an ancient material written in a word review that is not our review word, in a language that is not ours, written in a culture that is not our culture, and in a vocabulary that is not our vocabulary.
The Bible was written by 40 authors, spans over 1500 years, and is in three languages – Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or Aramaic.
The Bible was also written on three different continents. When it was collated, it had only one message.
In John 5:39, Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
So the entire Bible is the testimony of Christ; it has one message, one character, and one emphasis.
So we say the Bible is a Christocentric material that carries with it a Christ-centered emphasis.
Bible is a theology and the theology of the bible is Christology and the mission of Christ is Soteriology, which is salvation.
So once a preacher’s emphasis is not Christ or salvation, anything I am saying will sound controversial to him and his congregation.
So, it is not controversial, it is just that what the people were fed before is not what the message of the Bible is.
Now that we are preaching the message of the Bible, which is Christ and salvation, it sounds controversial to those not used to hearing them.”