The clip spread widely online after being shared by Instagram blogger Tunde Ednut, triggering a wave of responses from critics, clergy, and public commentators who rejected the teaching as a distortion of biblical scripture. Within hours of being posted, the video had accumulated thousands of shares and comments across multiple platforms, making it one of the more contested religious discussions of the week in Nigerian social media circles.
“What was Adam’s sin?” Ibiyeomie said in the recording. “Adam was sent out of Eden for touching the tithe. Adam didn’t eat an apple. Adam didn’t commit adultery. Adam touched the tithe, which belongs to God.”
The Genesis account, which forms the basis of mainstream Christian teaching on the subject, attributes Adam’s expulsion to eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not to any act connected to financial giving. Genesis 3:6 specifically describes Eve taking the fruit and giving some to Adam, who ate it, with the expulsion detailed in Genesis 3:23.
Critics called the interpretation “false and manipulative,” with one prominent voice insisting that “there was no tithing in the Garden of Eden.”
Social media critic VeryDarkMan dismissed the teaching as false doctrine, recounting the biblical story of Adam and Eve and arguing that tithing only came into play after humanity had left Eden. His video response, also widely circulated on Instagram, drew hundreds of thousands of views within a day of being posted.
He argued that many modern pastors have twisted the Bible for financial gain, using fear to control followers. “Imagine bending the Bible for your own selfish interest because you want people to pay tithe,” he said.
A medical doctor identified on X as OurFavOnlineDoc also weighed in, saying the statement was “outrageous and heretical” and expressing frustration that some Nigerians would still attempt to rationalize it.
The X post added that no matter how extreme a pastor’s claim, there would always be defenders willing to excuse it, a pattern the commenter described as sad but predictable. The post was reposted over 3,000 times, reflecting the breadth of public frustration the sermon had generated.
Nollywood actress Shan George also reacted to the trending video, joining a growing list of public figures who pushed back on the teaching. George, who has previously spoken publicly about her Christian faith, did not mince words in her response posted to her verified social media accounts.
Ibiyeomie is a Nigerian pastor, author, and televangelist and the founder and presiding pastor of Salvation Ministries, headquartered in GRA, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
As of 2017, Salvation Ministries averaged about 50,000 attendees every Sunday at its Port Harcourt headquarters, making it one of the largest single-congregation churches in Nigeria.
Biblical scholars and traditional theologians hold that tithing as a formal practice appears in Genesis 14, when Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, and later in Leviticus as part of Mosaic law, both accounts occurring after the Eden narrative.
Critics arguing against Ibiyeomie’s position say the timeline alone makes the claim impossible to reconcile with the biblical text, since no tithing instruction appears anywhere in the Eden story.
Ibiyeomie, speaking with passionate conviction in the recorded sermon, framed tithing as a divine principle of immense significance, asserting that Adam’s transgression was rooted in his failure to adhere to God’s directive concerning the tithe.
The sermon arrived at a moment of heightened public scrutiny over tithing doctrines in Nigerian Pentecostal churches. It followed a separate viral clip in which Pastor E.A. Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God had apologized over a statement he made about tithing. Adeboye leads one of Africa’s largest Christian denominations, with millions of members across more than 190 countries.
Salvation Ministries had not issued a public response to the backlash at the time this story was published. The tithe controversy and Ibiyeomie’s Eden claim continue to circulate across Nigerian X, Instagram, and WhatsApp communities.
