WHICH GOD IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THESE HOLLY CARNAGE?

To an average believer it sounds bizarre to associate God with anything related to bad omen knowing that He is benevolent and a compassionate God, who created us in His own Image and likeness. But any secular person that reads the Bible with open mindedness will understand that the notion of associating God with all the events that happens on earth including the good, bad and the ugly have one common source “God”.

In Isaiah 45:7 it says " I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things". This Bible verse clearly placed the responsibility of Good and evil on God without any form of equivocation. And to strengthen this proposition the Bible equally made it clear in Lamentations 3:38 that “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? And finally in Amos 3:6 states thus “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

And as for somebody like me who no longer believe in the inerrancy of the Holly Bible, I still find it difficult to believe that a perfect and all knowing God will create an imperfect Angel Lucifer. And this singular act laid the foundation for all evil which God acknowledged in the above Chapters that He is responsible. 

The Bible equally provided a succor to alleviate this excruciating provisions by making it known that “ I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11

The reason for this piece is never to burrow too deep into the litany of Bible quotations but to express my utmost concern about all the Holly Tragedies that I can personally say that it is supervised by God in His own Holly Land and worship places.

On 25th December 2011, a bomb went off inside a Catholic Church in Madala, Abuja Nigeria, and killed more than 70 people and mangled some bodies beyond recognition right inside the Church. I was totally enraged and devastated knowing that all powerful and all knowing God will be watching helplessly as Boko Haram terrorist group who can be said to be challenging His existence, carefully and successfully planed the attack in God’s worship center on Christmas day. God did not even pity the worshipers knowing full well that they gathered that morning to celebrate His Son’s birthday. This kind of attack in Churches is predominant and if I go into giving details of other similar events, it can make up an encyclopedia and yet God is watching!

One of the most popular disasters in Nigeria in 2014 happened when the Guest House of Prophet T.B Joshua collapsed and killed more than 115 people, and injured innumerable worshipers and passersby. This Holly Carnage is too remarkable not only because of the humongous number of casualties but equally because of the spiritual panache and sheer camaraderie in The Synagogue Church of All Nations as clearly orchestrated by their spiritual leader T.B Joshua and the apprentice “Wise Men”.  This is the same T. B Joshua that has an unusual knack and divine mandate to know the mind of God in prophesying about Plane Crashes, Football Matches, Election results, the type of food some visitors to his Church ate before coming to Church, and even the last time they slept in a Hotel. But on that fateful day he could not predict that His own guest house will collapse and kill 116 people mostly South African pilgrims.

What aggravated my annoyance about the building collapse was the official statement by the Church on the cause of the incident. The Church blamed the accident on a strange aircraft hovering so low above the building, without showing us any evidentiary nexus between the strange aircraft and the building.  I personally demand an apology from the Church for offending our sensibilities with brazen impunity.

And ever since then, the Church is working assiduously to stall, disrupt, delay, and stop the investigation into the main cause of the accident, T. B Joshua even went as far as sharing brown envelopes containing N50, 000 to journalists (apologies to Nicholas Ibekwe) thereby giving room for conspiracy theorist to suggest that the collapse might be a grand sacrifice to shore up more powers from the pit of hell. I am a Secular Christian and I don’t believe in nonsense, I see things the way they are without making any unreasonable reference to juvenile delusions. So, let the Law run its full course and whoever contributed in whatever means in orchestrating this Holly carnage must be accountable and bear the consequences.

The act of Holly Carnage is never the exclusive preserve of the Christian God, but virtually across every religion, especially the Islamic faith. In November 28, 2014 at the Central Mosque (Grand Mosque) in Kano, Boko Haram terrorists attacked the Mosque and killed about 120 people and injured more than 260 people. And just like in the Christian God scenario, The Almighty Allah was helpless in protecting His worshipers from harm. And this kind of savage killings happened so many times in different places, and Allah was watching and supervising the Holly Carnage as it rages!

Allah equally made it clear in Quran 40:68 that “He it is who gives life and causes death. And when He decides upon a thing He says to it only: "BE!" and it is”. With this Quotation we can all understand why I am asking which of the God's is responsible for all these Holly Carnage?

This woeful and Holly disaster is not restricted to mere Churches or Mosques and within the last three month we have witnessed massive deaths of genocidal proportion in one of the holiest places on Earth, Mecca the birth place of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). On the 11 September 2015, a crawler crane fell down in the Grand Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia and killed more than 110 people and left many injured all under the supervision of Allah who gives life and causes death.

Some of us complained about this incident on why must the Almighty Allah desert His beloved followers at the time of need, but we did not know that the major accident was just few days away. And on the 24 September 2015, a stampede happened killing more than 1453 pilgrims during their ritual of stoning the devil in Mina Saudi Arabia, leaving countless pilgrims injured while many are still missing. And I think it is plausible to suggest that the Devil could not bear the barrage of stones thrown at him by more than 2 million pilgrims and probably retaliated by causing the stampede. Or it may as well be possible that the Christian God and the Islamic Allah are competing to know which one is the only true God, by allowing the devil to cause havoc to believers to either of the God’s believers.

I made reasonable effort to seek for proper clarifications from the believers on why calamity befall Christians, by listening to Dr. Chidi Okorafors Preaching titled “Behold He Cometh” And he said God allowed the Earthquakes like the one that happened in Japan "for us to look up to Him, because we are looking down too much". So, does it mean that there is no other way that the Almighty God can make us to look up to Him other than allowing natural disasters to kill innocent people whom He purportedly created in His own image and likeness? And all I can say with due respect is that this defense did not worth the effort. God must assume responsibility for causing and supervising the Holly Carnage.

On the Islamic part of why Allah allows evil and natural disaster to happen to his people, I read the comment of Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer Chairman Quran O Sunnah Movement Pakistan and he pointed out thus:

 “1.Natural disasters are punishment of Allah for those people who are either disbelievers or cross His limits.

2. Natural disasters are warning for those who are sinners

3. Natural disasters are test for those who are believers."

This ridiculous proposition and mundane defense with due respect created a leeway for Allah not to be responsible for all these Holly Carnage under His divine plan and supervision, because in any event you can place the reason on any of the three categories and Allah will be free and blameless.

Finally, I have noticed that both the Christian God and Islamic Allah have many things in common, they are not interested on the affairs of Men and all the things credited to them in the Holly Books runs contrary to what we experience in our daily lives. And whatever happens to us we must look for a way to exonerate the God’s thereby creating a vacuum on who will be accountable and responsible for all these Holly Carnage. And until we lift the Holly Veil and apportion blames to the appropriate God, all the Gods will still be angry with us, and continue to stand aloof while we suffer in pains.

By Ozor Ozoduru I. C