The founder of Abel Damina Ministries and Power City International, Pastor Abel Damina, has challenged the traditional belief that Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden stemmed from eating fruit from the forbidden tree.
Speaking during his New Year’s Eve sermon on Tuesday, Pastor Damina questioned the interpretation of the biblical account. “Adam and Eve ate nothing. Were you there? You were not there. So how do we know whether they ate something or not? Jesus was there. Can Jesus explain to us what happened? Yes,” he said.
Referencing Mark 7:18-21 in the Bible, Damina emphasized that sin does not originate from what a person eats or drinks. “It is not what people eat that makes them sinners. You cannot be a sinner by eating or drinking something,” he argued.
The pastor also extended his views to controversial topics like smoking and drinking alcohol, stating, “I’ve told you alcohol is not a sin. I’ve told you cigar is not a sin. If you like, put it on a newspaper headline, I said it.” However, he clarified that he was not endorsing these habits.
“Am I saying you should smoke? You should have sense from your father’s house to know that cigar will cut short your life,” Damina remarked. “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.”
According to Damina, sin stems from the heart rather than physical actions such as eating or drinking. “It is what comes out of a man that defiles a man, not what goes in,” he explained.
He concluded, “If Adam and Eve ate something, it would have gone to their stomach, digested, and been expelled. What makes you a sinner is what you’re thinking, not what you’re eating.”