A Nigerian who claims to be a “holy man” recently locked himself in a cage with three lions to illustrate God’s “divine protection” as in the biblical story of Daniel. But the story has twists, and a European media outlet claims that he is not a man of God at all.
In fact, as the BBC claims, the man is a zoo keeper, and, as a video that went viral across Africa shows, he did not in fact lock himself into a cage with three full-grown lions, but with three lion cubs. The video shows the man sticking his arm in one of the cubs’ mouth.
End Times Headlines wrote: “It appears as though the crazed man of cloth was recreating the biblical story of Daniel, who was thrown into a lion’s den and came out unscathed thanks to the hand of God.”
The website said “he invited members of his ‘congregation’ to the animal park to witness the stunt.”
One man, Kenyan MP Ronald Karauri, offered to pay for the pastor to be sent to the Maasai Mara National Reserve to try the stunt with wild lions after he noticed the viral footage.
“I volunteer to take him to the Maasi Mara please, all expenses paid,” Karauri wrote. “We look for the lions and he can go walk with them.”
The man also seemed to be challenging Mark 16:18, which reads: “They will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them. …”
But he may also have forgotten Matthew 4:7, which reads, “Jesus said to him, ‘It is also written, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”‘”
The same thing happened 32 years ago, but with a much different result. Many media outlets online report that in Nigeria, there was a man named Daniel Abodunrin who believed he was a prophet. He studied the Bible, especially the story of Daniel being thrown into the lion’s den.
In 1991, Abodunrin approached the lion enclosure at the Ibadan University Zoo while wearing a red robe and holding his Bible aloft. He demanded to be left into the lion’s enclosure, but accounts differ as to whether he found a way in himself or one of the zoo employees let him in.
It is reported that the lions pounced on and tore Abodunrin to pieces.
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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