According to social media posts, an unnamed pastor in Africa invited members of his congregation to a zoo, where he entered a lion's den to reconstruct the biblical parable of the prophet Daniel.
The video circulating on social media depicts an individual, believed to be a preacher, calmly sitting alongside three lions, appearing to interact with them playfully.
He teased all the three lions in their cage thus allegedly demonstrating to his congregation the existence of God's power bestowed upon him like it happened with Daniel.
The legend says that a king once threw Daniel into a den full of lions. Miraculously, the Lord found Daniel innocent and saved him from being torn apart by the animals.
The video of the man calmly petting lions fascinated and amused social media users. Some commenters suggested that people like him and such a behavior may be the reason why religion is not taken seriously by many people.
"And you’ll wonder why most people don’t take Christianity serious. Cuz people like this would be making it look like a joke," one netizen wrote.
Other online users suggested that the lions were simply not hungry at the time, allowing the "pastor" to interact with them without any negative consequences. One of the users urged the alleged preacher not to mislead his followers by such actions.
"Please do not mislead your followers into tempting the Lord God!" the netizen said.