GOVERNMENT UPON HIS SHOULDERS
(Sharing the Vision of CSMN)
Part 2
The conclusion of Part 1 reads as follows:
“The purpose of God is that Christians should bring a kingdom mindset into the public domain and establish for the country God’s moral standard of truth, righteousness and integrity. Unfortunately, Jude 4 caught up with us because we did not comply with Jude 3.”
Part 2 now commence:
Jude 3: “… ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Christians are commanded that they should “earnestly contend” for the faith. “Fight the good fight of faith”. Contending for truth and righteousness in the Church is neither a sin nor an act threatening the unity of the Church.
We need to ask however, why should we “earnestly contend” for the faith? Is it because of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen? Or, is it because of Islamists in Government? No. These are symptoms of a more serious disease in the Church. The Bible identifies a more serious problem within the body of Christ which many Christians are not paying attention to.
Jude 4 reveals the real problem of Christianity and that is what is leading to the defeat of the Church in Nigeria, unless urgent remedial steps are taken:
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, … ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, …” Jude 4
We are commanded to “earnestly contend” for the faith because there are certain people who have no business with Jesus Christ in the leadership structure of the Church. It is because “certain men crept in unawares” that we are commanded to “earnestly contend for the faith.” These are the men who destroy the kingdom mindset in the Church and introduce worldly mindset to weaken Christianity from within. If not for these “certain men”, the Islamists would never have become strong in Nigeria. They would never have been elected in 2015 and they would never have returned in 2019. The real problem is inside the Church.
If the “certain men” were of Christ, they would have promoted the kingdom of Christ. Rather, they promoted and assisted the opposing kingdom.
EXTREME GREED CAUSES EXTREME DESTRUCTION
The Word of God made it clear that these “certain men … turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness, …” The Yoruba Bible translates “lasciviousness” as “wobia”. When the Yorubas call someone “wobia”, it describes extreme greed and covetousness; greed that has gone out of control. (“Wobia” is worse than “ojukokoro” and “okanjuwa”.)
A man has to be “wobia”, extremely greedy, to have witnessed the first four years of a fascist regime that endorsed the shedding of the blood of the saints with impunity and still collect money to support its “re-election”. That is “wobia”; greed that has no control of which many prominent Christians are guilty of. They are lascivious or in Yoruba language, “wobia”.
It is the “certain men” with their spirit of “wobia” (lasciviousness) who entered the Church and replaced raising disciples with raising millionaires. They supplanted the gospel of the cross with the gospel of the cash. Because they are not of the body of Christ, they undermined teachings about the kingdom of God by promoting worldliness. Consequently, we have a generation of Christians who lack the mindset and zeal for the kingdom of God. All their thoughts and ambitions are worldly.
The solution is to raise Christian leadership that has kingdom mindset and teach each Christian to take charge of his environment in truth and righteousness. We must imbibe God’s moral standard of truth, righteousness and integrity and enforce it on our environment.
WATCH THE FRUITS
Currently, the Church is under the influence of these “certain men who crept in unawares”. This must change. Judging by the Word of God, it is clear there are people currently in Christian leadership in Nigeria who have nothing in common with Jesus Christ.
The Lord gave us a good hint: “By their fruits, ye shall know them”.
When “Christian leaders” endorse and participate in lies, theft, fraud, violation of Church Constitution and rigging of election in the Church, are they of Christ? Can anyone in good conscience affirm these are Christlike virtues? Since these traits are not from Christ, where are they from?
This is one reason why the Church cannot take charge in Nigeria. Those in the leadership are not Christlike.
It is not impossible that some may seek to exonerate themselves. However, we should ask how many of the Church leaders did we hear of condemning the evils in the Church? If evil is taking place in your environment and you keep quiet about it, then, you have become part of the evil. Let us wait until the Lord comes.
The Lord commands, “by their fruit ye shall know them.”
It is unfortunate that rather than watch the fruits, as Christ commanded, most Nigerian Christians are watching the tree and the leaves. (The tree is the Denomination while the leaves are the members.) “Oh, the tree is big and the leaves are many therefore, he must be a man of God.” Really?
Christ commanded: watch the fruits – the character.
The character of each man will expose where he comes from. If he is from the kingdom of God, he will produce the fruit of Christ – zeal for the house of God, humility, righteousness, integrity, selflessness, compassion, contentment, and so on.
The more unfortunate aspect is that when some people who understood what was going on in the Church “contended” with these “certain men”, according to the command of the Word of God, ignorant Christians abused them that they were disturbing the Church. No, they were not disturbing the Church they were simply obeying the scripture. There was a clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness inside the Church.
Now, the chicken has come home to roost. Terrible crisis has engulfed the Church and the country and the sons of God have no answer at the gate. Almost everyone has turned into emergency prayer warrior yet, the Church had ample opportunity to build “works” in support of “faith”, for faith without works is dead. Christianity was deliberately undermined by “certain men” in the Church.
For example, in the past three years, Nigerian Church lost N180 billion that God prepared for this season. “Certain men” deliberately frustrated the structure and the process.
Meanwhile, it is an open secret that some Christian leaders place personal selfish interests above the interests of Christ and His Church.
Think about it. N180 billion lost by the Nigerian Church in the past three years. It was meant for this season.
Today, the Church has no centralized pool of resources to do anything. The Church cannot help the persecuted Christians, it cannot build structures to defend and protect itself, even to help Christians against the impact of Coronavirus, the Church appears helpless.
Meanwhile, the provision that God made for His people (N60 billion per annum) was frustrated by “certain men”. But, when the “certain men” were undermining Christianity, their “children” in the Church were defending them.
KINGDOM COMES BY POWER
In Part 1 of this treatise, I mentioned that the Church must redefine its theology of engagement in politics. Before now, emphasis has been on winning souls to the exclusion of Christian participation in governance. It should be clear to us now, that establishing the Government of the kingdom of God is as important as soul winning and it should in fact, precede soul winning.
Some nations ban Christianity as state policy. How were they able to do that? Those opposed to Christ are running their government. If the government should come to those on the side of Christ, those same nations will promote Christianity. Nigerian Christians must learn from examples of Christian nations that were Islamized and place priority on establishing government of the kingdom of God in the country.
It is not too late to return to kingdom mindset. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are disciples of the Son of God. Let us return to pure Christianity and build kingdom mindset.
GOVERNMENT MUST BE UPON HIS SHOULDERS.
Our responsibility is not merely to win souls; it is also to hold Government until the Lord returns. It is not possible to preach the gospel in peace if Christians are not holding the Government. Even in Britain, you are not permitted to preach the gospel in peace because the Government is no longer acting Chrislike. You cannot fulfill the Great Commission without first developing a kingdom mindset. Today, can any missionary safely preach the gospel in northern Nigeria? Why? Christians are not in government. The first thing we are to do is to “occupy” and take charge. The first responsibility of Christians is to hold Government.
If Christians are not in charge of Government, the world will use Government against the Church. We should never permit “certain men” to weaken us again. Because they are not of Christ, in 2015 and 2019, they organized to hand over Government to enemies of Christ. Why could they not have organized to hand government over to a child of God, if they are truly servants of Christ? Jude 4 is the answer. By their fruits, ye shall know them!
Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) is calling every child of God to join in the efforts to build government of the Kingdom of God in Nigeria. A government that will guarantee justice, equality, and fairness for the Common Good of all citizens.
Government must be upon His shoulders if Nigeria is to have peace and progress. He is the Prince of Peace. There will only be peace when He is in charge.
It is time to ask like Moses, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
To be continued in Part 3.
Your brother,
Bosun
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