One of the most unreasonable questions that bestrides Christendom in Nigeria is the phenomenon of what Church does one attend. And i wish to describe such a judgemental phenomenon as belonging to misguided “churchism.” Where some Christians play church, transform themselves overnight to pharisees and go to the building because today is sabbath day. Some denominations i will not name here do not care if their members come for the desire to worship their creator or wanting to be born again as John 3: 1-21 stipulates, they should just come and fill the spaces because its a commandment. Looking at the verses quoted above it would be worthless going to fill benches and go home without any connection with our creator. This is because the founder of our faith warns that our righteousness is like a filthy rag before His father in heaven.
Again, the response of Jesus Christ to Nicodemus in the context of John 3 was apt enough for him to know that without going through the process of being born again he was a mere religions man. And just being religious could not give him entrance into the kingdom of God. As a matter of fact, with the burden of mere religion after the birth of Christ and still stealing billions of public funds for instance, does not make us better than the pharisees.
But why should the genre of church one attends be of importance to anyone except if one discovers that he or she is in the church of the anti Christ or the latest one they call Church of Satan? Why are the orthodox and African congregations so fixated about their traditions instead of salvation? Nigerians dropped orthodoxy for practical Christianity since the sixties and seventies when caricatures of judas was displayed and beaten in public for instance at times like this. We flew kites in the seventies as kids during Easter to celebrate the risen Christ but is that relevant today? The answer is no. Those who used the vehicle of Judaism to drive to heaven lived by traditions and the law. But we don’t we live by his grace and shall drive to heaven by the vehicle of his salvation. The message of salvation was all over the country by the early eighties. Why then should anyone be fixated about traditions and the celebration of cathedrals in the millennial age instead of praying to make heaven? There is some form of relativity in the Bible hermeneutics which talks about the difficulty of a Carmel passing through the eye of a needle but the sum total of the message is the same especially if our hearts do not become like that of little kids noted the founder of Christianity.
I agree that if one discovers that he is in the church of Satan, he should run away or as the good book describes it flee. The church of satan is already in Nigeria and young people who are not afraid of hell fire are already attending the place. Sadly some of them have read Rebecca Brown’s book “He came to set the captives free” yet are not afraid to experiment the dark kingdom because of the false gifts of the illuminati. They think those free gifts are really free. But does the devil really give anyone anything for free?
Church goers and their anti-Christ mentality
One feels sorry for such people when they ask funny questions as what church do you attend because they look at you in a judgemental way as if it is the Cathedral they attend that will take them to heaven. I was talking to some of their ilks, mostly young people in a platform recently and they asked me what was wrong in mixing their African spiritual traditions with their belief in christ. I said everything was wrong with that and they never liked my response. Because i let them understand that one cannot serve two masters and yet make it to the third heaven where the Ancient of Days live. We do not worship cathedrals because they do not have the power to take anyone to heaven. Neither should we worship “Sundays” because we are supposed to be above Saturday or Sunday with the ability to command Sunday to vomit our blessings as we do to other days every day we wake up from our sleep. The implication of this is that we are no longer tied to the Sunday Sunday tonic of going to church. A practicing Christian within or outside the congregation connects with his creator on a daily basis and shows love to all which is the summary of the Christian phenomenon that started in Antioch. That is what makes us slightly different from the Hindu, Bahai or over a thousand other religions in the world who have their own ways of reaching out to their gods. A practicing Christian asks how hot or cold you are and not what church do you go to or why did you not go to church this good Friday. No one can be in between, you are either hot or cold for the Lord. Those who do not want to be found in between sometimes abandon the cathedral completely and end up worse in the realm of apostasy.
Adherents of Islam in Nigeria however hardly ask such nonsensical question about which mosque their neighbors attend before accepting them as brothers in Islam but will walk into any mosque and worship with their neighbors when it is time for prayers. What matters to them is brotherhood of their beliefs.
Sometimes I wonder why so called Christians display such gross ignorance when it comes to Christianity which should be a way of life other than a mere religion. Sadly, such practices are the exact opposite of what is expected from our Christian brethren who tend to “love religion” more than “Jesus Christ” who is supposed to be the author and finisher of our faith. Because someone was into spiritism during his life time in the church doesn’t mean he understood what Jesus said to Nicodemus about being born again. Such people when they transit from this world will love to be called religious people but they have their rewards for misleading many into the dark kingdom of masonry or the illuminati which has become the second largest religion in the second Babylon.
People keep asking which church you go to such that they do not know that there is a generation of young people who now go to the latest anti christ Malian churches created by the evil one himself. So many questions cross my mind when i see Christians who go to church in a mechanical way like some of us used to in the 70’s when we were growing up in the orthodox traditions. In those days you are flogged if you do not go to church on Sunday as if Sunday was the only day meant to worship God. It was the orthodox phenomenon brought in by the white man who never knew anything about eternal salvation yet they were insisting that everyone must come to church on Sunday so that they hear from them and collect their tithes.
In the sixties and seventies, Christianity was a mechanical machine movement. People went to church like zombies as Fela will call them without even knowing why they were going into the building. Sadly, some adherents still follow after that pattern in a dangerous and dogmatic way without knowing that practical Christianity has stopped being a religion with fixated traditions. What they fail to realize is that, traditions such as are spelt out in the Torah has nothing to do with salvation long ago. There is nothing wrong in going to church on Sunday but that is not the only day to worship God as far as practical Christianity is concerned. If Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith we must worship him daily and not one fixated day as ascribed in the Torah for those who believe and practice Judaism till this day. A large chunk of jews do not believe in Jesus the Christ of Nazareth even though he came through their race but they will surely get to know what we know one day when the messiah returns to this earth. Some Church doctrines are so fixated that they are now reversing the thinking of their followers from Christianity to the good old Judaism where only the laws matters above grace which is freely given by God. I mean from the city of Antiock back to the days of relying on the laws as stated by Moses in the Torah. Going to church is not what makes people Christian but practicing what christ stands for. When a young man of about the age of the late musician Majek Fashek begins to take drugs and follows after occult people then the church is loosing it already. And this should bother us. We should all try to dump too much emphasis on religion at this Easter period for practical Christianity which is a way of life. Let our way of life portray christ and let love, long suffering and all the good attributes outlined by the new testament guide us as we celebrate this Easter wherever we find ourselves. Happy Easter in advance to all of us.
