A 63-year-old South African pastor, Jacob Jafta was reading from Samuel Chapter 1, verse 21, when suddenly an angry congregant pounced on him last Sunday.
According to Daily Sun SA, there was a serious tussle as the church member set about tearing Jacob’s Bible into pieces. Pages were flying in the air and fists flew as Jacob tried to save his Bible.
The pastor clenched it in both hands as he was dragged to the floor.
The pastor of the Lebohang Uniting Reformed Church in Evaton, in the Vaal, found himself seeing stars as he was being strangled with his own tie. He was gasping for air when a church member came to his rescue.
Daily Sun SA reports that Jacob said the congregant who was trying to strangle him was a woman!
“The woman is from the split group which wants the fired pastor of the church to be reinstated,”
said Jacob. “They were against me preaching and the woman tore my Bible, saying I was not going to preach.”
He said the group backing the axed pastor locked Jacob’s group in the church and took away the keys.
“We had to call the cops to come and rescue us.”
The cops arrived and ordered the church members who took the keys to give them back.
Jacob said his “sin” was to preach.
“It was my turn to preach and I was exercising my rights, but some church members did not like it.”
The church war has been going on for months after the former pastor, Moswedi Bikitsha (65), was removed by the church council for bringing the church into disrepute.
Jacob said the pastor has since been refusing to leave.
“He still thinks he calls the shots and he is misleading other church members to take his side.”
Daily Sun spoke to the former pastor, who said he was there when the incident happened.
“It was a shame. There are some people who want positions in church,” he said.
