Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke is Dead!

[Edoman]

Popular Preacher Reinhard Bonke, a man who spent almost his entire life in ministry on the African soil, passes away on the 7th of December, 2019.

His official page on face has a post confirming the news.

It reads:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019. For the past 60 years he has preached the glorious Gospel of Jesus throughout the entire world. We want to thank you on behalf of him and our family, for your kind love and unwavering support, which enabled him to preach the matchless message of salvation to countless people.

He preached Jesus…

“Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested.”
Revelation 15:3-4

In Christ,
Anni Bonnke and Family

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...0552700257

[Edoman]

Buhari, CAN mourn as Bonnke dies at 79
December 8, 2019

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POPULAR German evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, is dead. He died on Saturday at 79.

His death was announced in a statement signed by his wife, Anni. The statement was shared on Evangelist Bonnke’s verified Facebook page yesterday.

In the statement, Anni said, “Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.

“He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019. For the past 60 years, he has preached the glorious Gospel of Jesus throughout the entire world. We want to thank you on behalf of him and our family, for your kind love and unwavering support, which enabled him to preach the matchless message of salvation to countless people. He preached Jesus.”

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has described the death of the world renowned evangelist as a particular loss for Nigeria and the African continent.

This was contained in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, yesterday evening in Abuja.

According to the statement, Bonnke reached the rest of the world with the message of salvation, and had particular strong impact on the African continent, especially Nigeria.

He, therefore, commiserated with the immediate family of the departed preacher of the gospel, the government of Germany, his associates in the ministry and all associated with him, praying that God will comfort them all.

He said, “President Buhari affirms that Bonnke’s crusades in Nigeria, across Africa and the globe strongly accentuated the message of Jesus Christ, and his vision and zeal for the salvation of souls clearly helped the world in understanding the power of love and kindness as universal language.”

Prominent church leaders also paid glowing tributes to renowned German preacher and founder of Christ For All Nations (CFAN) whose last crusade in Africa, which he claimed God specially instructed him to hold in Lagos, was in 2017 on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson  Ayokunle, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media & Communications, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, described Bonnke as “one of the greatest generals of the gospel of eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ on earth.

“CAN and the entire Christian communities in Nigeria join the rest of Christians all over the world to mourn this fiery preacher and teacher of the Gospel and mentor to several evangelical leaders all around the world today.”

Chairman of the 2017 Crusade Planning Committee, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, told our correspondent last night that Bonnke finished strong and well.

“He had an undying passion for Christ and souls. Since his first crusade in 1985 in Lagos, he has never looked back. He would do anything to win souls for God.

“He lived well. The Lord sent him with a message which he delivered so well and hard. He was easily the greatest ever crusader in Africa.”

General Overseer of Omega Power Ministry (OPM) Auchi, Edo State, Apostle Johnson Suleman, praised Bonnke’s passion for radical evangelism.

“You affected me so much with your radical passion for evangelism. You finished your assignment and in your lifetime handed over to your successor. Rest in peace sir,” he tweeted.

President of Abraham Evangelistic Ministries (AEM), Bishop Abraham Olaleye, who was the chairman of the mobilisation committee for the 2017 crusade, described the deceased as a man with “unquenchable fire for God and souls.”

“He had a passion for souls that he would never trade for anything. He saw the vision of a blood-washed Africa, which he struck to for years.”

The Senior Pastor, Christ Living Apostolic Ministries (CLAM), Apostle Wole Oladiyun, said Bonkke was a great man of God who had lived his life for Christ and “specialised in visiting Africa for evangelism work. I hope African pastors will emulate all his works.”

Also, Senior Pastor, The Vindicated Christian Ministries, Pastor Lawrence Olaniyi, said, “I’ve been reading his books for a long time, he has impacted so much in the lives of people. He spent his spiritual and financial resources for mission works, may his soul rest in peace.”

In his tribute, Rev Victor Basola said the late evangelist “was a light to the continent of Africa. The story of the emancipation of Africa from the shackles of darkness cannot be written without mentioning his name.”

[Edoman]

Funeral for Reinhard Bonnke, German evangelist known as 'The Billy Graham of Africa,' draws thousands

Funeral service for Reinhard Bonnke at Faith Assembly of God church in Orlando, Florida, on Jan. 4, 2019. Courtesy photo by Sarah M. Brown
ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) — Reinhard Bonnke, the German evangelist known as “The Billy Graham of Africa,” was lauded at a Saturday (Jan. 4) memorial service as “a giant and a general in the army of God.”

The Pentecostal pastor died Dec. 7 at the age of 79 in Orlando, where he moved his international ministry, Christ for All Nations, in the early 2000s. He retired as head of Christ for All Nations in 2017, citing declining health.

During more than four decades of mass crusades in Africa, Bonnke preached in 51 of the continent’s countries and claimed to have converted 79 million people to Christianity.

About 2,000 people gathered from around the U.S. and around the world in the sanctuary of the Faith Assembly of God for a three-hour celebration of Bonnke’s life and ministry.

More than a dozen speakers, including a number from African ministries and denominations, lauded Bonnke, for both his zeal and his personal humility. Other Pentecostal leaders, including T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn and Paula White, appeared on the three large screens above the sanctuary’s stage with filmed tributes.

Members of the racially diverse crowd sang Bonnke’s favorite hymns, waving their arms.

A large, red floral arrangement in the shape of the African continent was placed on an easel next to the speaker’s lectern. Along the front of the stage stood sheaves of wheat, symbolizing the harvest of Bonnke’s evangelism.

Between the morning’s speakers, clips of Bonnke’s African crusades, some to audiences of hundreds of thousands, played on the screen.

The best known of these was in Lagos, Nigeria, in November 2000, when an estimated 1.6 million heard Bonnke preach. In 2001, Christianity Today magazine called Bonnke “one of the continent’s most recognizable religious figures.”

In a tweet after Bonnke’s death, Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Nigeria, said the country “joins Christendom at large in mourning the passing of renowned evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke."

Bonnke's death, Buhari said, was “a great loss to Nigeria, Africa (and the) entire world.”

Pia Sebastian, 46, came from Dallas to attend the celebration. In 2013, Sebastian said, she gave up a corporate career to study evangelism at one of Bonnke’s training schools.

“I honor Reinhard Bonnke, and I believe that I’m called to carry the torch and fulfill the work of sharing the gospel,” Sebastian said.

Bonnke was the son of a German soldier who became a minister after World War II. Mesmerized by tales of 19th century European missionaries like David Livingstone, young Reinhard would later say he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say to him: “Africa shall be saved!”

In a Facebook post in 2018, Bonnke cited another role model.

“Billy Graham has inspired me personally,” he wrote after the American evangelist’s death in 2018. “When he preached in a tent in Hamburg, Germany. I always felt connected to him.”

Early in his evangelistic career, Bonnke acknowledged in a 2003 interview, he made a strategic decision that proved controversial. He based his ministry in an all-white area of Johannesburg, South Africa, and did not publicly oppose the apartheid regime. Bonnke said he did make known his opposition to apartheid, but indirectly through his ministry. His associate was a black minister who always traveled with him.

“I had a choice," he said. “To become politically active and oppose apartheid from the pulpit. Or, to preach the gospel and make people find salvation in Jesus Christ.”

"The most remarkable things are happening: blind eyes open, cripples walk, people jump out of their wheelchairs,” he said in a 2003 interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

“I am as amazed as anybody else. It is just too wonderful. But I personally am not the miracle worker – it is Jesus.”

Bonnke's followers claimed that he did in fact perform a miracle. In November 2001, they say, the evangelist raised a Nigerian minister from the dead.

The Rev. Daniel Ekechukwu was twice pronounced dead after a car crash, according to the story, and embalmed – although by African custom his organs were not removed. Three days later, after hearing a prophecy, his wife brought the body to the basement of a church where Bonnke was praying in the sanctuary above.

Reinhard Bonnke. Photo courtesy of Bonnke.net
At the same time, others later told the evangelist, Ekechukwu sat bolt upright and began to breathe again.

“That man was dead as a stone," Bonnke said, although he did not know the man was in the church basement at the time he was preaching above. “There is no doubt about it.”

Christ for All Nations ministry officials investigated the account, Bonnke said, and found it to be “so true, so genuine, so fantastic” that they embraced it as a miracle, and produced and distributed a video on the episode.

Rick DuBose, assistant general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, lauded Bonnke for his decades of missionary work.

Bonnke "literally pushed back the darkness," he said.

Toward the end of his career, Bonnke held his first crusades in the United States, a country he said needed to experience God’s power.

"I have seen whole countries shaken by the power of God," he told Jeff Kunerth of the Orlando Sentinel in 2013. "That experience in Africa has turned me into an incurable believer that God will do it in other parts of the world as well. And I pray for America."

Source:

https://religionnews.com/2020/01/04/funeral-for-reinhard-bonnke-the-german-evangelist-known-as-the-billy-graham-of-africa-draws-thousands/