THE bus was going from Lagos to Benin and it was waylaid by highway
robbers. They got on the bus brandishing automatic weapons. “This is a
stick up,” declared the leader of the gang in a menacing tone designed
for maximum effect. “Is there anybody here who has been paying his
tithes? If you have been paying your tithes raise your hand.”
A few passengers raised their hands sheepishly. He told those who did
to move to one side. Then he declared: “Those of you who have not been
paying your tithes are thieves and robbers. You have been robbing God.
Therefore, we are going to rob you.” The robbers then carted away the
money and other valuables of those passengers who had not been paying
their tithes.
Forgers of lies
You might not have heard this story before. But, in all probability,
you might have heard a similar version of it. Different versions are
common in the churches. Those who tell it insist it really happened. But
every time you hear such stories know for a fact they are fiction. They
are no more than the figments of the imagination of money-grubbing
pastors.
You need to know that we pastors specialise in telling lies in order
to “encourage” people to come to our church, stay in our church, and
give us more and more money. That is why, as in the “parable” above, we
even go as far as to use a thief to preach our own gospel. But only a
thief would employ a thief to teach the way of righteousness.
Jesus warns believers to be wary of thieves and robbers. He says: “I
am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and
robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” (John 10:7-8). Who precisely
are the thieves and robbers of whom Jesus speaks? Is he talking about
men who mug us in the streets? Is he talking about highway robbers who
snatch our cars? Is he talking about those fraudulent “yahoo thieves”
who rob us blind with a keystroke of the computer on the internet? Or is
he talking about those who break into our houses in the dead of night?
Listen and understand. The thieves and robbers that are of primary
concern to Jesus are the pastors of our churches. Jesus’ message is that
pastors and other so-called “men of God” are thieves and robbers.
According to him, we pastors have turned our churches into dens of
thieves.
Jesus says: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of
prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Mark
11:17).
Dismissed
In the Old Testament, when God speaks of pastors, it is in
condemnation. He declares: “Woe to the pastors who feed themselves
instead of their flocks. Shouldn’t pastors feed the sheep? You eat the
best food and wear the finest clothes, but you let your flocks starve.”
(Ezekiel 34:2-3).
How does God intend to remedy this situation? Solomon says we should
be wary of a situation where God is said to lead his people through more
than ONE PASTOR: “The words of the wise are like prodding goads, and
firmly fixed in the mind like nails are the collected sayings which are
given as proceeding from ONE PASTOR. But about going further than the
words given by ONE PASTOR, my son, be warned.” (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12).
Accordingly, God proclaims the summary dismissal of all pastors to be
replaced by one solitary true and faithful Pastor. He says: “I will
establish ONE PASTOR over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David.
He shall feed them and be their pastor.
And I, the LORD, will be their God.” (Ezekiel 34:23-24). He repeats
this again: “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall
all have ONE PASTOR.” (Ezekiel 37:24).
That one true pastor is none other than Jesus. Jesus says: “I am the
good pastor; and I know my sheep, and am known by my own. As the Father
knows me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I
must bring, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and
ONE PASTOR.” (John 10:14-16).
This means those of us still parading ourselves as pastors today are,
without exception, impostors and frauds. There is only ONE PASTOR in
the church of God and it is Jesus.
David says men gave gifts to the Lord: “When you ascended on high,
you led captives in your train; you RECEIVED gifts from men. (Psalm
68:18). But Paul changes this to say men received gifts from the Lord:
“When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and GAVE gifts
to men.’”
(Ephesians 4:8). He then uses this deliberate distortion as the basis
for creating the unauthorized post of pastors in churches. (Ephesians
4:11). Jesus says: “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but
climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” (John
10:1).
Evangelical rogues
A thief broke into a man’s house and held him at gunpoint. After
collecting as much of his valuables as he could, he asked the
house-owner a question on his departure: “Have you given your life to
Christ?” The miserable house-owner replied in the negative.
“I don’t believe in God,” he said. The armed robber became concerned
about the man’s salvation. So he sat back down and decided to have an
extensive chat with him. For the next one hour, he preached to him as
persuasively as he could, “the gospel of salvation.” Then he left with
the man’s belongings.
Do you think the house-owner became a Christian? If he did, what kind
of Christian do you suppose he became? Think this through with me. What
kind of righteousness can one expect to learn from a thief? Thus, Hosea
says: “The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for a
man.
Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And
they do all this evil deliberately!” (Hosea 6:9). Today, there are even
gangs of Catholic priests raping young boys.
The pastor was fed up. He had watched with dismay the brazen manner
in which the senior area-pastor converted church funds to his personal
use. Finally, he confronted him and told him, in no uncertain terms,
that he would no longer countersign any cheques with him.
The area-pastor responded in a most unusual manner. He scheduled a
meeting of all pastors and church-workers under him. Then he pointedly
challenged the pastor to repeat publicly what he had dared to say to him
in private.
However, the junior pastor refused to be intimidated. In the presence
of everyone, he detailed chapter-and-verse the area-pastor’s
expropriation of church funds. He revealed, in particular, his diversion
of $30,000 to his daughter’s wedding in the United States. As a result,
he insisted again, he would no longer countersign any cheques with him.
The other church-members present were aghast. “What’s going on?” they
demanded. “What kind of church is this?” The area pastor was completely
taken off-guard. This was not what he intended. He quickly decided on a
change of strategy. He begged the people at the meeting to pray for
him. “I am only a man,” he pleaded.
Isaiah says: “They are as greedy as dogs, never satisfied; they are
stupid pastors who only look after their own interest, each trying to
get as much as he can for himself from every possible source.” (Isaiah
56:11).
By Femi Aribisala
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
RELIGION, WOMEN AND MALE EGO
Ordinarily, men take certain actions that defy reason and logic; but the man who argues that he has God on his side while embarking on the weirdest of actions is the man to watch. Yesterday, the BBC carried a piece of news that caused me considerable discomfort- Bello Masaba from Bida in Niger State who is already “married” to some eighty-something wives is planning to take the count to a hundred. His argument remains that Allah told him in a dream to do so.
Again, ordinarily I would dismiss this Imam as a raving lunatic, but when a man clings on to serious claims relating to a Divine plot, I can’t help but get worried. According to Mr. Masaba, “a man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah”-really? As I always make clear, it would be wrong and impertinent of me to doubt any man’s claims to having an unfettered access to God’s court in his quest for salvation; however I will make haste to delve into the morality of such claims as it affects the wider society of our primate. I view Masaba’s claims as a sinful attempt to stretch the cords of hyperbole a bit too far; it is a clear testimony that men with the connivance of religion still treat women as chattels. This is immoral.
The male ego to me remains one of the most striking proofs that religion is man-made. Across all religions of the world, we see coy machinations introduced by deluded men to keep women perpetually quartered as things to be possessed and romped with glee. I am yet to see any religion that treats women as being in the same pedestal as men; in Christianity, there is still that debate especially amongst the traditional ones [Catholic and Anglican] on the roles of women. Islam stands out as the religion that amongst other unsound practices treats women as specie to be partially seen and not heard at all. This explains why women of the Islamic faith are mandated to cover up always not minding the vicious dictates of the weather, this is why countries like Saudi Arabia forbids women from driving!
The male ego remains a part of us we males would rather not ditch despite our achievements in many fields of human endeavors. Our African society uses many obnoxious ploys to continue the practice of enslaving women and denying them that right to an egalitarian existence. So many traditional practices formulated by our stone-age ancestors are still being used today by modern day Nigerians to relegate women to the background. I may find it in my heart to pardon some of the excesses of our traditional practices by arguing that they remain a dying part of our dark and primitive past, but what do you say about the institutionalized inferior status which our modern day religions have assigned to our women? As primates, we are in an eternal pursuit of excellence even though our achievements remains marred by time-constraints; it makes one sad that the foreign religions calling the shots in Nigeria remain culprits in the sin of enslaving women.
It is on this note that I find it somewhat comical that the Muslim clerics that are engaging Bello Masaba only disagrees with him on the number of women a man can keep as wives-Masaba is claiming that Islam does not make it a “sin” to marry more than four wives whereas the clerics are pointing out that it was only Prophet Mohammed that had the right to marry more than four wives. Is this not a case of men being allowed to decide on how best to demonstrate their randy nature while cherishing their primitive acquisition tendency? Why does any sane man need more than one wife if not immotarlize that “variety is the spice of life” saying? To take the case of the mundane nature of religion a step further, we observe with some tinge of shame that even the Christian Bible treats women with scorn- it stipulates when a man can divorce his wife but is conveniently silent on when a woman can divorce her husband. Religion is really the handiwork of some smart men at work. There must be something in we males that pushes us to go the extra mile to amass as much property as possible [especially women] while being stern in matters that would someday call us to give an account of our actions [like evading the EFCC].
The BBC news item on Bello Masaba ended on a comical note-some of the wives of that randy old hand took turns to debunk those suggestions that there could be some strong dose of rancor amongst them. Without any trace of shame, they all echoed that Masaba makes use of an unwritten time-table in consorting with them; this keeps mischief at bay while giving each and every one of them a periodic feeling of being consummated. To the glory of men and their tall ego, there are millions of women in the mold of Mr. Masaba’s harem who have been seduced by societal dictates [skillfully designed by men] to accept a life of mediocre existence; needless, to point out that women in Africa and elsewhere appear to be engaged in a deadly game of “self-destruct”.
Summarily, while saluting the monstrous energy and stamina of Mr. Masaba and his ilk, I find it too curious that his God chose to demonstrate some sense of humour in endowing him thus. “Allah gives me the strength…” is a wonderful boast which I am sure many randy men will be wishing to be making in this regard too. Well, women should once again come together in another “Beijing Conference” type and start formulating their own plots too- maybe then, we will start seeing lovely cases of women being able to marry up to four husbands and an occasional burst of a deranged female specie shouting that God enjoined her to marry up to a hundred husbands. Until such a time comes, there will remain randy lunatics like Bello Masaba and similar buffoons armed with some religious creeds and warped ideas rubbishing women and all that they stand for.
by John Chikadibie Okafo
Sunday, August 12, 2012
MY PEOPLE! MY PEOPLE!! THIS WITCH HUNT MUST STOP
This church is owned and led by a boyish upstart pastor who addresses himself as ‘God’s Prophet’ and as ‘Prophet of signs and wonders’. It is not clear when and how he came about these titles, but like others in the business of penticostalism, these appellations have become the trade mark of this evangelical entrepreneur. From an apartment in Calabar, Cross River State, where it started, the church has grown so rich that it now organizes its meetings in some of the most expensive hotels in the region. But the issue is not whether this ‘My Father Church’ holds its events in cheap or expensive venues but what these programs are all about.
Recently, the prophetic ministry joined the vanguard of witch hunting churches that are fueling witchcraft related abuse in the region.
In what appears to be a clear and targeted attempt to undermine the progress which government and non-governmental agencies have made in the fight against witch hunting in Akwa Ibom, the church organized in March a crusade tagged ‘Uyo Festival of Fire’ at Ibom Hall in Uyo, the state capital.
The theme of the crusade was ‘My Father! My Father!! That Witch Must Die’.
Anyone who knows the Bible could easily notice a connection between the theme of the crusade and the biblical verse-Ex 22:18- which says ‘Suffer not a Witch to live’. What is particularly disturbing is that the church staged the event at a time the state government is frantically battling to address this tragic situation. The crusade was a literal declaration of war against alleged witches and an unequivocal endorsement of witch hunting in the state.
Belief in witchcraft is very strong in the region. Witchcraft accusation is very common and witch hunting often erupts in this part of the country. Belief in witchcraft has caused many people to attack, abuse, torture, or kill their children or parents or grandparents whom they blamed for their misfortune.
In 2008, the government of Akwa Ibom came under international pressure following a documentary on the problem which was broadcast worldwide. The government hastily passed into law a bill that criminalized child witch stigmatization and took some measures to address the problem. Some non-governmental organizations embarked on programs and projects to rescue victims and enlighten the people. In the past two years, significant progress has been made in persuading the local population from engaging in witchcraft related abuses.
At a time the efforts of government and non-governmental organizations appear to be yielding positive results, the Uyo Festival of Fire which literally sanctioned the execution of alleged witches, could re-ignite these horrific abuses, erode the gains that have been made so far and roll back the wheel of progress.
We must note that similar witch hunting crusades and revivals by self-styled prophets, evangelists and apostles in the past decades turned the region into a killing and abusing field.
Sadly, the government of Akwa Ibom, as in the past, stood by and allowed this campaign of hate and violence to be staged in the state.
Local authorities should as a matter of urgency start monitoring the activities of pastors, prophets, and evangelists in the region and ensure that their so called deliverance sessions, revivals and festivals are not used to incite hatred and violence against innocent citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, in the name of witchcraft. State governments should not see this as interfering with the freedom of religion of these persons. In fact, freedom of religion does not include inciting hatred and violence against persons in the name of one’s religious belief or inflicting torture, inhuman and degrading treatment on others in the name of religion. Freedom of religion is a human right and should be promoted, protected, defended and guaranteed. But inciting abuses or inflicting harm on people in the name of religion is a crime, and perpetrators should be punished.
For instance the government of Akwa Ibom should not have allowed the organization of the Festival of Fire. Even now the program is over, the authorities could still arrest and prosecute the organizers for inciting hatred and violence or for aiding and abetting witchcraft accusation and child witch stigmatization. Local authorities should ensure that those who engage in witch hunting or those who fuel these savage crimes are made to face the full wrath of the law. Akwa Ibom and Cross River states have a long history of witch hunting. The authorities should be aware of this, and remain vigilant. They should do everything they can to ensure that the wave of witchcraft related violence and abuses that swept through the region in the past decades does not reoccur.
In conclusion, I say to the government and people in Akwa Ibom, Cross River and the entire Niger Delta: My People! My People!! This Witch Hunting Must Stop! My People! My People!! Those witch hunters must be arrested and brought to justice without delay.
For the sake of our women, children and elderly persons.
By Leo Igwe
Sunday, July 29, 2012
CELEBRATING PASTORMAS
Bishop Lanre Obembe, Senior Pastor, El Shaddai Church, Lagos was the
chairman, Lagos State branch of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
Presiding over a meeting of pastors drawn from all over the state in
preparation for the visit by Pastor Benny Hinn to Nigeria in 2005,
Bishop Lanre looked out of one of the windows of his church and pointed
to the array of Jeeps and posh cars parked outside. “We pastors are
doing well,” he declared, to the approval of all.
The bishop had the privilege of introducing a select number of pastors who were of higher “timber and calibre” than others. Having gone throu-gh the ranks of the “front-row” pastors, whom he in-troduced grandiloquently like heavyweight boxing champions, someone drew the bishop’s attention to the fact that he had overlooked a person of great distinction; a lady pastor also sitting in the front-row.
The bishop quickly apologised for this oversight and asked the woman to stand up. Then looking intently at her, he obser-ved to the gathering of pastors: “This woman is f-i-n-e!” As the rest of us burst out laughing in agreement, Bishop Lanre pressed on. “Are you married?” he asked the lady. More laughter from the “Men of God” present, with some quickly pointing out that the said lady was a married woman. But Bishop Lanre would not be denied: “I return your dowry,” he declared, as we all suitably collaps-ed in laughter.
“Men of God”
How can we listen to the teachings of Jesus and continue to entertain the pre-eminence of pastors in churches? How can we listen to him, and contin-ue to accept such vaunt-ed titles of pastors, bishops, cardinals and popes? How can we look unto Jesus and not see he completely disdained the ho-nour and glory that comes from men? (John 5:41).
Jesus is particularly sca-thing about the craze for public recognition and ostentatious titles among so-called “Men of God.” He says: “Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend’. Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates.” (Mt 23:5-8).
Nevertheless, in today’s Christian church, “Men of God” come by the trailer-load. You see us regularly on television. We are fixtures in newspapers and magazines. We always have something sanctimonious to say on the radio. We sit on the “high table” at every social gathering. We are the counsellors and prayer-gurus of Presidents, Governors and other high-ranking public officials. There is only one problem with “Men of God:” we are not likely to inherit the kingdom of God.
“Men of God” don’t go to heaven for one simple reason; the kingdom of God is not for “men:” the kingdom of God is for “children.” As a matter of fact, it is for “little children.” Jesus cautions: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Mk 10:15). Thus, he said to the chief priests and religious elders in his day: “I assure you, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do.” (Mt 21:31).
Birthday parties
Even so, in the churches of today, we lavish honour and glory on pastors. Most churches celebrate two birthdays as a matter of compulsion: the birthday of Jesus and the bir-thday of the pastor. They call the birthday of Jesus “Christmas.” I call the bir-thday of the pastor “Pastor-mas.”
On the latter occasion, congregants are usually required to pay a birthday-tax as a “blessing” for their pastor. This is either given to him in cash, or used to buy him something “fantabulous.” A study-bible used to be adequate. But as the stature of pastors grew inexorably, so did their gifts. One famous Nigerian pastor was even given a Rolls-Royce car which he did not deem it prudent to reject. Let everybody shout hallelujah!
Why should a pastor’s birthday be celebrated in church? What is so special about him? Why is the pastor honoured and not the orphan or the widow who are so much dearer to God? Jesus says: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (Mt 25:45).
Should a believer even celebrate his birthday? Not according to the scriptures. Birthday parties are carnal and worldly; therefore believers are never seen having them in the bible. Citizens of God’s kingdom should not cele-brate their lives in Baby-lon.
The prophets hated their lives in this world. Like Jesus, they were “men of sorrows, acq-uainted with grief.” (Isa 53:3). Jesus warns: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn 12:25). However, the bir-thday party is a celebration of life.
As a rule, Jews did not cel-ebrate birthdays. The Encyclopaedia Judaica is blunt and to the point. It says: “The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual.” While the dates of the deaths of distinguished fi-gures in Jewish history are recorded and comme-morated, the dates of their births are mostly unknown.
Solomon says: “The day you die is better than the day you are born. It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time. Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. Yes, a wise man thinks much of death, while the fool thinks only of having a good time now.” (Eccl. 7:1-4).
The faithful psalmist exclaims longingly: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1-2). But the birthday celebrant rejoices that he has spent another year on earth away from God.
Every reported birthday celebration in the bible was ungodly; and it resulted in either mischief or disaster. As one of the special features of his birthday, Pharaoh had one of his servants, the chief baker, hanged. (Gen 40:20-22). In similar fashion, one of the highlights of Herod’s birthday party was the beheading of John the Baptist. (Mt 14:6-12).
The experience of Job should give further food for thought. Job was afraid the birthday parties of his children were prone to ungodliness. (Job 1:4-5). True enough, God allowed all his children to be wiped out in one disaster while they were celebrating the birthday of his oldest son. (Job 1:13-19). Thereafter, now fully cognizant of the futility of life, Job cursed his birthday. He said: “Let the day of my birth be cursed, and the night when I was conceived. Let that day be forever forgotten.” (Job 3:2-4).
Worship of pastors
In a big-time church in Lagos, a particular Sunday in the year is reserved for the pastor’s birthday celebrations. That Sunday is not about worshiping God but about giving glory to the pastor. Different people come forward to give testimonies about how wonderful the pastor is and how blessed they are to be in his church. Video messages are received from parishes at home and abroad, extolling the virtues of the pastor. These are then relayed on a big screen to the en-tire church.
Let me describe here an incident that occurred during one of these “Pastor-mas” celebrations, as recalled to me by a form-er member of the church. As the recorded video messages were being broadcast, with great hilarity by all, the pastor suddenly shouted: “Stop that film!”
A dark cloud immediately came over the entire proceedings. With great consternation, someone quickly went over and stopped the video. The church became deathly silent as all eyes turned to the almighty pastor in a bid to determine exactly what could have been to his displeasure.
The pastor got up and grabbed hold of the cordless microphone. “That man,” he said, pointing to the now blank screen, “was wearing an Arsenal Football Club t-shirt. I want you to know I am a Chelsea man.”
By Femi Aribisala
The bishop had the privilege of introducing a select number of pastors who were of higher “timber and calibre” than others. Having gone throu-gh the ranks of the “front-row” pastors, whom he in-troduced grandiloquently like heavyweight boxing champions, someone drew the bishop’s attention to the fact that he had overlooked a person of great distinction; a lady pastor also sitting in the front-row.
The bishop quickly apologised for this oversight and asked the woman to stand up. Then looking intently at her, he obser-ved to the gathering of pastors: “This woman is f-i-n-e!” As the rest of us burst out laughing in agreement, Bishop Lanre pressed on. “Are you married?” he asked the lady. More laughter from the “Men of God” present, with some quickly pointing out that the said lady was a married woman. But Bishop Lanre would not be denied: “I return your dowry,” he declared, as we all suitably collaps-ed in laughter.
“Men of God”
How can we listen to the teachings of Jesus and continue to entertain the pre-eminence of pastors in churches? How can we listen to him, and contin-ue to accept such vaunt-ed titles of pastors, bishops, cardinals and popes? How can we look unto Jesus and not see he completely disdained the ho-nour and glory that comes from men? (John 5:41).
Jesus is particularly sca-thing about the craze for public recognition and ostentatious titles among so-called “Men of God.” He says: “Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend’. Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates.” (Mt 23:5-8).
Nevertheless, in today’s Christian church, “Men of God” come by the trailer-load. You see us regularly on television. We are fixtures in newspapers and magazines. We always have something sanctimonious to say on the radio. We sit on the “high table” at every social gathering. We are the counsellors and prayer-gurus of Presidents, Governors and other high-ranking public officials. There is only one problem with “Men of God:” we are not likely to inherit the kingdom of God.
“Men of God” don’t go to heaven for one simple reason; the kingdom of God is not for “men:” the kingdom of God is for “children.” As a matter of fact, it is for “little children.” Jesus cautions: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Mk 10:15). Thus, he said to the chief priests and religious elders in his day: “I assure you, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do.” (Mt 21:31).
Birthday parties
Even so, in the churches of today, we lavish honour and glory on pastors. Most churches celebrate two birthdays as a matter of compulsion: the birthday of Jesus and the bir-thday of the pastor. They call the birthday of Jesus “Christmas.” I call the bir-thday of the pastor “Pastor-mas.”
On the latter occasion, congregants are usually required to pay a birthday-tax as a “blessing” for their pastor. This is either given to him in cash, or used to buy him something “fantabulous.” A study-bible used to be adequate. But as the stature of pastors grew inexorably, so did their gifts. One famous Nigerian pastor was even given a Rolls-Royce car which he did not deem it prudent to reject. Let everybody shout hallelujah!
Why should a pastor’s birthday be celebrated in church? What is so special about him? Why is the pastor honoured and not the orphan or the widow who are so much dearer to God? Jesus says: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (Mt 25:45).
Should a believer even celebrate his birthday? Not according to the scriptures. Birthday parties are carnal and worldly; therefore believers are never seen having them in the bible. Citizens of God’s kingdom should not cele-brate their lives in Baby-lon.
The prophets hated their lives in this world. Like Jesus, they were “men of sorrows, acq-uainted with grief.” (Isa 53:3). Jesus warns: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn 12:25). However, the bir-thday party is a celebration of life.
As a rule, Jews did not cel-ebrate birthdays. The Encyclopaedia Judaica is blunt and to the point. It says: “The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual.” While the dates of the deaths of distinguished fi-gures in Jewish history are recorded and comme-morated, the dates of their births are mostly unknown.
Solomon says: “The day you die is better than the day you are born. It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time. Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. Yes, a wise man thinks much of death, while the fool thinks only of having a good time now.” (Eccl. 7:1-4).
The faithful psalmist exclaims longingly: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1-2). But the birthday celebrant rejoices that he has spent another year on earth away from God.
Every reported birthday celebration in the bible was ungodly; and it resulted in either mischief or disaster. As one of the special features of his birthday, Pharaoh had one of his servants, the chief baker, hanged. (Gen 40:20-22). In similar fashion, one of the highlights of Herod’s birthday party was the beheading of John the Baptist. (Mt 14:6-12).
The experience of Job should give further food for thought. Job was afraid the birthday parties of his children were prone to ungodliness. (Job 1:4-5). True enough, God allowed all his children to be wiped out in one disaster while they were celebrating the birthday of his oldest son. (Job 1:13-19). Thereafter, now fully cognizant of the futility of life, Job cursed his birthday. He said: “Let the day of my birth be cursed, and the night when I was conceived. Let that day be forever forgotten.” (Job 3:2-4).
Worship of pastors
In a big-time church in Lagos, a particular Sunday in the year is reserved for the pastor’s birthday celebrations. That Sunday is not about worshiping God but about giving glory to the pastor. Different people come forward to give testimonies about how wonderful the pastor is and how blessed they are to be in his church. Video messages are received from parishes at home and abroad, extolling the virtues of the pastor. These are then relayed on a big screen to the en-tire church.
Let me describe here an incident that occurred during one of these “Pastor-mas” celebrations, as recalled to me by a form-er member of the church. As the recorded video messages were being broadcast, with great hilarity by all, the pastor suddenly shouted: “Stop that film!”
A dark cloud immediately came over the entire proceedings. With great consternation, someone quickly went over and stopped the video. The church became deathly silent as all eyes turned to the almighty pastor in a bid to determine exactly what could have been to his displeasure.
The pastor got up and grabbed hold of the cordless microphone. “That man,” he said, pointing to the now blank screen, “was wearing an Arsenal Football Club t-shirt. I want you to know I am a Chelsea man.”
By Femi Aribisala
Sunday, July 8, 2012
THE MAKINGS OF A FALSE PROPHET
It is silly season again in Nigeria when make-believe prophets put on
their most expensive sheep’s clothing to make state-of-the-nation
proclamations. Every January, cacophonies of timber-and-calibre pastors
broadcast their prophecies for the coming year. We look into our
cry-stal balls and declare to lesser mere mortals God’s mind.
This January has been no exception. Many MOG (Men of God) have step-ped up to the pew to pontificate
and to “oraculate.” We have
declared, procl-aimed and exclaimed. But the question remains: to what
extent do these highfalutin prophecies have anything to do with God?
Re-branding the prophet
Jesus says: “You want to see a prophet? Take a look at John the Baptist; he is more than a prophet.” (Mt 11:9). What do we see when we look at John? He is a lone voice crying in the wilderness. He do-es not conform to popular culture. He is not afraid to tell the truth to Herod, and it results in his head being chopped off. Now that is a prophet indeed.
God gave the prophetic mandate to Isaiah, saying: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isa 58:1).
But when Isaiah told the people the truth, legend has it Manasseh had him sawn into two. When Jeremiah delivered the truth of God to Israel, they thr-ew him in a dungeon. When Stephen declared the counsel of God to the Sanhedrin, they stoned him to death. When Jesus spoke the word of God to Israel, they crucified him.
But today’s prophets in Nigeria are a completely different kettle of fish. Today’s prophets are lo-ved by the people. They are welcome in Aso Rock. They are not inclined to jeremiads. On the contrary, they are prosperity preachers whose proph-ecies are eagerly-awaited and readily received by the multitude. God is contemptuous of this. He says: “If a liar and decei-ver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!” (Mic 2:11).
In the Israel of old, the prophets were “despised and rejected by men.” (Isa 53:3). But in the Nigeria of today, Pastor Adeboye of the Redeem-ed Christian Church of God is highly esteemed by the people. As a matter of fact, he is probably the most-liked Nigerian. He was the friend of Pre-sident Obasanjo, and he is the friend of President Jonathan.
In January 2011, Adebo-ye gave his annual pro-phecy for Nigeria and declared: “There is no need for panic, all will be well.” However, all was not well in 2011. Jos remained a “killing field” all year long. The April elections ended with riots leading to the slaughter of over a million people and the burning of hundreds of churches. The country also moved closer to the precipice of civil war; with Boko Ha-ram upgrading its terrorist activities from blowing up police stations to bom-bing government offices and churches.
But rather than admit he got it terribly wrong in 2011, Adeboye has gone one step further this year. He now says: “Before this year ends, it will be said of Nigeria ‘all is well that ends well.’” Why should anyone believe this lame apology for last year’s boo-boo?
On the contrary, God counsels through Jerem-iah: “Don’t listen to these false prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for me! They keep saying to these re-bels who despise me, ‘Don’t worry! All is well.”’ (Jer. 23:16-17). Value of false prophecies
God told Pastor Chris Okotie of Household of God that he would be the next President of Nigeria in 2003. Or so he said. If indeed it was God who told him this, he need not have told anybody about it. By declaring this so-called prophecy beforehand, Okotie afforded Nigerians the means to determine the genuineness of his ministry. Oko-tie was not elected President in 2003. Undaunted, he ran for the office again in 2007 and then again in 2011; and he failed woefully every time. But it is remarkable that Okotie’s false prophecy has had no appreciably negative effect on his ministry.
This is because a false prophecy is actually good for today’s church-business. A false prophecy gets the MOG valuable publicity. As a matter of fact, the more outrageous the prophecy: the greater the publicity. Thus, Waz-iri Adio observed that: “Pastor Chris’ prophecy served its purpose. It got him air-time on talk-shows and earned him so-me newspaper interviews. But it also served another purpose: it show-ed that Chris Okotie is a false prophet.”
However, it did not matter that Okotie was shown to be a false prophet beca-use, paradoxically, people love false prophets. Jeremiah marvels that: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by the-ir own power; and my people love to have it so.” (Jer 5:30-31). When a pro-phecy fails, we can always blame it on the lack of faith of our church-members.
Or we can say it was averted because of effectual prayers. Should anyone be so bold as to challenge us pointedly, we can cow him into silence by reference to Jesus’ admonition: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For wi-th what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Mt 7:1-2).
This conveniently ignores the fact that the same Jesus statement contains the harshest injunction in the Bible about exposing false prophets and exercising personal spiritual discernment. Jesus says: “Bewa-re of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Mt 7:15-17).
Alternatively, we can defend our failed pro-phecy by drawing the critic’s attention to the psalm which says: “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” (Ps 105: 15). Never mind that our very anointing has become suspect as a result of the false prophecy itself. Never mind that God does not say “do my false prophets no harm.” We make our opponents believe if they dare expose our duplicity and shenanigans, something terrible will happen to them.
Latter-day Jonah
Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly is often the John the Baptist of Nigeria, calling public officials to repentance. But in 1999, Baka-re gave a prophecy that confounded his track-record. He declared to Nigerians: “Obasanjo is not your Messiah, he is King Agag and the prophetic axe will come upon his head before May 29, 1999.”
However, Obasanjo was not killed as Bakare predicted. Instead, he went on to rule Nigeria as President for eight years. He even tried, though unsuccessfully, to secure an illegal third term. Obasanjo is still alive to-day. Only one small facet of Bakare’s prophecy had any semblance of truth. By all accounts, Obasanjo was not our Messiah.
What went wrong? Jon-ah was not a false pro-phet. Nevertheless, he gave a failed prophecy. He went to Nineveh and proclaimed that God would destroy the city within 40 days. But that was not Jonah’s brief. God asked Jonah to call the people to repentance. But Jonah did not want them to repent because he was a Jew and the Ninevites were enemies of the Jews. Jonah want-ed the Ninevites destro-yed.
Therefore, he prea-ched a biased message of impending destruction. Unfortunately for him, the Ninevites repe-nted and God did not destroy them. Could this have been what happened to Bakare? Clear-ly, there was no love lost between him and Obas-anjo? Did Bakare’s animosity towards Obasanjo cloud his vision?
You be the judge
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD. Their visions are false and their divinati-ons a lie. They say, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled.” (Eze 13:3-6).
By Femi Aribasala
This January has been no exception. Many MOG (Men of God) have step-ped up to the pew to pontificate
and to “oraculate.” We have
declared, procl-aimed and exclaimed. But the question remains: to what
extent do these highfalutin prophecies have anything to do with God?Re-branding the prophet
Jesus says: “You want to see a prophet? Take a look at John the Baptist; he is more than a prophet.” (Mt 11:9). What do we see when we look at John? He is a lone voice crying in the wilderness. He do-es not conform to popular culture. He is not afraid to tell the truth to Herod, and it results in his head being chopped off. Now that is a prophet indeed.
God gave the prophetic mandate to Isaiah, saying: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isa 58:1).
But when Isaiah told the people the truth, legend has it Manasseh had him sawn into two. When Jeremiah delivered the truth of God to Israel, they thr-ew him in a dungeon. When Stephen declared the counsel of God to the Sanhedrin, they stoned him to death. When Jesus spoke the word of God to Israel, they crucified him.
But today’s prophets in Nigeria are a completely different kettle of fish. Today’s prophets are lo-ved by the people. They are welcome in Aso Rock. They are not inclined to jeremiads. On the contrary, they are prosperity preachers whose proph-ecies are eagerly-awaited and readily received by the multitude. God is contemptuous of this. He says: “If a liar and decei-ver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!” (Mic 2:11).
In the Israel of old, the prophets were “despised and rejected by men.” (Isa 53:3). But in the Nigeria of today, Pastor Adeboye of the Redeem-ed Christian Church of God is highly esteemed by the people. As a matter of fact, he is probably the most-liked Nigerian. He was the friend of Pre-sident Obasanjo, and he is the friend of President Jonathan.
In January 2011, Adebo-ye gave his annual pro-phecy for Nigeria and declared: “There is no need for panic, all will be well.” However, all was not well in 2011. Jos remained a “killing field” all year long. The April elections ended with riots leading to the slaughter of over a million people and the burning of hundreds of churches. The country also moved closer to the precipice of civil war; with Boko Ha-ram upgrading its terrorist activities from blowing up police stations to bom-bing government offices and churches.
But rather than admit he got it terribly wrong in 2011, Adeboye has gone one step further this year. He now says: “Before this year ends, it will be said of Nigeria ‘all is well that ends well.’” Why should anyone believe this lame apology for last year’s boo-boo?
On the contrary, God counsels through Jerem-iah: “Don’t listen to these false prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes. They are making up everything they say. They do not speak for me! They keep saying to these re-bels who despise me, ‘Don’t worry! All is well.”’ (Jer. 23:16-17). Value of false prophecies
God told Pastor Chris Okotie of Household of God that he would be the next President of Nigeria in 2003. Or so he said. If indeed it was God who told him this, he need not have told anybody about it. By declaring this so-called prophecy beforehand, Okotie afforded Nigerians the means to determine the genuineness of his ministry. Oko-tie was not elected President in 2003. Undaunted, he ran for the office again in 2007 and then again in 2011; and he failed woefully every time. But it is remarkable that Okotie’s false prophecy has had no appreciably negative effect on his ministry.
This is because a false prophecy is actually good for today’s church-business. A false prophecy gets the MOG valuable publicity. As a matter of fact, the more outrageous the prophecy: the greater the publicity. Thus, Waz-iri Adio observed that: “Pastor Chris’ prophecy served its purpose. It got him air-time on talk-shows and earned him so-me newspaper interviews. But it also served another purpose: it show-ed that Chris Okotie is a false prophet.”
However, it did not matter that Okotie was shown to be a false prophet beca-use, paradoxically, people love false prophets. Jeremiah marvels that: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by the-ir own power; and my people love to have it so.” (Jer 5:30-31). When a pro-phecy fails, we can always blame it on the lack of faith of our church-members.
Or we can say it was averted because of effectual prayers. Should anyone be so bold as to challenge us pointedly, we can cow him into silence by reference to Jesus’ admonition: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For wi-th what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Mt 7:1-2).
This conveniently ignores the fact that the same Jesus statement contains the harshest injunction in the Bible about exposing false prophets and exercising personal spiritual discernment. Jesus says: “Bewa-re of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Mt 7:15-17).
Alternatively, we can defend our failed pro-phecy by drawing the critic’s attention to the psalm which says: “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” (Ps 105: 15). Never mind that our very anointing has become suspect as a result of the false prophecy itself. Never mind that God does not say “do my false prophets no harm.” We make our opponents believe if they dare expose our duplicity and shenanigans, something terrible will happen to them.
Latter-day Jonah
Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly is often the John the Baptist of Nigeria, calling public officials to repentance. But in 1999, Baka-re gave a prophecy that confounded his track-record. He declared to Nigerians: “Obasanjo is not your Messiah, he is King Agag and the prophetic axe will come upon his head before May 29, 1999.”
However, Obasanjo was not killed as Bakare predicted. Instead, he went on to rule Nigeria as President for eight years. He even tried, though unsuccessfully, to secure an illegal third term. Obasanjo is still alive to-day. Only one small facet of Bakare’s prophecy had any semblance of truth. By all accounts, Obasanjo was not our Messiah.
What went wrong? Jon-ah was not a false pro-phet. Nevertheless, he gave a failed prophecy. He went to Nineveh and proclaimed that God would destroy the city within 40 days. But that was not Jonah’s brief. God asked Jonah to call the people to repentance. But Jonah did not want them to repent because he was a Jew and the Ninevites were enemies of the Jews. Jonah want-ed the Ninevites destro-yed.
Therefore, he prea-ched a biased message of impending destruction. Unfortunately for him, the Ninevites repe-nted and God did not destroy them. Could this have been what happened to Bakare? Clear-ly, there was no love lost between him and Obas-anjo? Did Bakare’s animosity towards Obasanjo cloud his vision?
You be the judge
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the LORD. Their visions are false and their divinati-ons a lie. They say, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled.” (Eze 13:3-6).
By Femi Aribasala
Monday, July 2, 2012
THE GOD-WHO-FORGIVES
The Lord sent me on an errand. I said: “I go, Sir,” but did not go.
He asked me to go out of town to talk to an old man about Christ. I can
never say “no” to the Lord, but I dragged and dragged my feet about it. I
debated indefinitely what to tell him. I had known the man all my life
and felt it would be presumptuous of me to talk to him. I dilly-dallied
until I was shocked to hear he was seriously ill and in hospital. Then I
became afraid. What if he died?Cost of disobedience
The Lord said to Ezekiel: “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.” (Ezekiel 3:18).
To be frank, I did not remember this scripture at the time. But I rationalised that God must have known about my reticence beforehand and would have sent a more receptive person to the old man as a backup. I kept on this debate until the man died without my talking to him about the kingdom of God. When he died, I knew I was in trouble. Even now, I am con-vinced he never repent-ed. I became so over-whelmed that such enormous responsibility was laid on my weak shoulders.
I then realised I could not fathom the depth of the love of Christ. The good shepherd comes down from heaven in search of one lost sheep. He searches night and day over the hills and the valleys and does not stop until he is found. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Why was it so difficult for me to be like him?
Covenant with death
The more the details emerged about the death of the old man, the more grievous my disobe-dience became. I was informed he had a covenant with death. There was apparently a ring on his finger that was a “death-repellent.”
As a result, he apparent-ly spent months alive but in a coma. Finally, his son came to see him and he removed the ring from his finger. When he did, the man reportedly died immediately with a snarl on his face.
I cannot vouch for the veracity of this account, but I know for a fact that people actually make covenants with death. As a matter of fact, God talks reprovingly of this in the scriptures. (Isaiah 28: 15-18). But why would anyone make a covenant with death? It only shows complete lack of wisdom because death can never guarantee life.
There is a popular folktale of the scorpion and the tortoise. The scorpion begs the tor-toise to carry him on his back across the river. “Are you nuts?” exclaim-ed the tortoise. “If I do that you will sting me while I’m swimming across and I will drown.” “My dear tortoise,” exclaimed the scorpion. “Why would I do such a stupid thing? If I sting you and you drown, I will drown with you. Now what would be the point of that?”
The tortoise saw reason with the scorpion and agreed to carry him on his back. However, halfway across the river, the scorpion gave the tortoise a big sting. As they both started to sink to the bottom of the river, the tortoise asked the scorpion in bewilderm-ent: “But why did you do that? Now both of us are going to drown.” “I couldn’t help it,” the scorpion replied sadly. “It’s in my nature.”
It is in the nature of death to kill. Indeed, death is the only thing death can guarantee. Therefore, those who make a covenant with death are foolish. The only person that can guarantee life is Jesus. Jesus says: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).
God says from his throne of mercy: “Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.” (Isa 28:18). Therefore, he sent me to raise the old man back to life. But, as a latter-day Jonah, instead of going to Nineveh, I took a boat and headed for Tarshish.
Fruits of repentance
I carried the burden of the old man’s death on a business trip to New York. I went to Kings Plaza in Flatbush, one of the major shopping centres, and sat down for a burger in one of the fast-food shops. It was time to have a serious heart-to-heart with God. I apologised for my disobedience and for my insensitivity. I pleaded that I was just too afraid to talk to the old man, but my fears could not justify my diso-bedience.
It was one long mono-logue. The Lord said nothing in reply. As I got up to leave, I remember-ed that I always have difficulty getting a taxi back to Canarsie every time I came to King’s Plaza. So I asked the Lord: “Could you please help me get a taxi?”
As I came out of the fast food and turned right, the Lord finally spoke. He said: “Femi, turn left.” I turned left to discover the swing glass doors lead-ing outside were actually there. Immediately I pushed it and walked outside, I was surprised to find a man sitting in a car, some ten metres away, beckoning to me. I looked behind me, to make sure he was not calling someone else.
But he pointed to me, indicating I was the one he was calling. When I got to him, I leaned through the window, wondering what he wanted. “Where do you want to go?” the man asked. It was only then I realised he was the driver of a mini-cab. “I am going to Canarsie,” I replied. “Hop in,” said the man.
Forgiven
I could not believe it. I asked the Lord for a taxi and I did not even have to hail one. The driver was the one who called me. I smiled in astonishment all the way to Carnasie. The Lord has forgiven me! No wonder, one of his names in the Old Test-ament is “the God-who-forgives.” (Psalm 99:8).
The next day, I took another taxi, headed for a completely different destination. Suddenly, I closed my eyes and started praising God. I said to him: “Daddy, you are such a wonderful person. I disobeyed you, and yet you readily forgave me. I asked you for a taxi and you made the mini-cab driver beckon to me. You are just too much.”
Suddenly, the Lord said to me: “Femi, open your eyes and look up.” When I did, I could not believe what I saw. I was in the taxi at the exact same spot at which the mini-cab driver had beckoned to me the day before. There was a traffic-jam and we were at a stand-still. To my right were the swing glass-doors of the Kings Plaza where I had exited the previous day. Don’t ask me how we got there because I have absolutely no idea.
“O LORD my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remem-brance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:2-5).
By Femi Aribisala
Sunday, July 1, 2012
THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT
Paul’s fruit of the Spirit is precisely the sheep’s clothing Jesus warned us wolves would wear.
Ask Joe Christian for the fruits of the Spirit, and he will answer you with Paul’s “voice of a stranger.” (John 10:5). Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). However, Jesus warns believers: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-16). Paul’s fruit of the Spirit is precisely the sheep’s clothing Jesus warns us wolves would wear.
Bogus fruit
As usual, Paul’s fruit comes with many anomalies. All Christians claim to have Paul’s fruit of the Spirit because all it takes to receive Paul’s Holy Spirit is to say “Jesus is Lord.” (1 Corinthians 12:3). This makes Paul’s definition practically useless. It ensures bad trees are deceptively confused with good trees in Christendom. Moreover, Paul’s tree has more than one fruit, which is practically impossible. James says figs don’t grow on a grapevine. (James 3:12). But they do on Paul’s tree of the Spirit. His tree has nine different fruits which he nevertheless refers to confusingly as one fruit. This is yet another example of Paul’s illogical Christianity.
Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as: “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” (John 14:17). This means unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit. However, many unbelievers have Paul’s “fruit of the Spirit.” They are loving; peaceful; long-suffering; and faithful. So how come they have the fruit of the Spirit without having the Holy Spirit? Moreover, many Christians, including those who claim to be born again, are wicked, quarrelsome and cantankerous. So how come they have the Holy Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit? As usual, Paul’s lofty dogma falls apart in real life.
Genuine fruits
Enough with Paul’s strange doctrine! According to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith,” fruits come from a man’s spirit and they are the words of his mouth. Jesus says: “A good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43-45).
With Jesus’ more practical and precise definition, we can easily identify a false prophet. We don’t have to wait for him to give a prophecy and then see if it comes to pass. We can even identify him within minutes of hearing him speak. Is he speaking the words of Jesus, or is he speaking his own words? Is he speaking the words of the good shepherd or is he speaking the words of strangers? Once we are schooled in Jesus’ doctrine, it is easy to identify a false prophet. His words are anathema to Christ. Therefore, Jesus says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27). “They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:5).
It makes no difference whether the speaker is the pope, the General Overseer of the Church of God, or the most venerable reverend. If he does not speak the words of Jesus, he is a false prophet. Once Peter contradicted the word of God, Jesus immediately identified a contrary spirit in him: “He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:23).
Jesus knew by Peter’s words when Satan was speaking through him. He also knew by Peter’s words when the Father was speaking through him. (Matthew 16:17). So the next time you hear your pastor or Adeboye, Oyedepo, Oyakhilome and other vaunted so-called “men of God” speak, identify them by the fruit of their lips. You will be amazed what you will discover.
Identification marks
How can we tell if a man is mad? We often mistakenly determine his insanity by his appearance. If his hair is unkempt and his clothing disheveled, we conclude he is mad. But that might just indicate he is poor or untidy. The precision of Jesus’ definition is clear. Just listen to him and you will soon know by his words.
How do we receive the Holy Spirit? We do by receiving the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus says: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). When the word of Jesus comes into us, it brings the life and power of God with it.
In the Old Testament, when the Holy Spirit fell upon men, it was manifest in their speech; they started to prophesy. (1 Samuel 10:9-12). In the New Testament, when a man is baptized in the Holy Spirit, he often receives the gift of speaking in unknown tongues. (Acts 2:1-4). But let me tell you an even more radical method for determining the fruits of a man’s spirit. Step on his toes then listen to what comes out of his lips. Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will speak.
Paul’s bogus fruit of the Spirit ensures we cannot identify Paul himself as a false prophet. Indeed, Paul arrogates to himself disingenuously the status of Christ. He says: “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 14:37). In short, according to Paul, a false prophet is anyone who contradicts whatever Paul says. Not true; a false prophet is anyone who contradicts Jesus.
When the high priest told someone to slap Paul, his sheep’s clothing came right off. What came out of Paul’s mouth was a curse. He said: “God shall slap you, you whitewashed pigpen.” (Acts 23:3). When told that some Jewish Christians were insisting Gentile believers should be circumcised, Paul responded with malice and hatred: “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” (Galatians 5:12). When told about a man’s adultery, Paul issued a devious directive: “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:5). These are not the words of Christ. They are not the fruits of his Spirit by any stretch of the imagination.
Solomon counsels: “A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth.” (Proverbs 13:2). He warns furthermore: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:20-21). These wise sayings are validated by Jesus. He says in agreement: “Every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37).
By Femi Aribisala
Ask Joe Christian for the fruits of the Spirit, and he will answer you with Paul’s “voice of a stranger.” (John 10:5). Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). However, Jesus warns believers: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-16). Paul’s fruit of the Spirit is precisely the sheep’s clothing Jesus warns us wolves would wear.
Bogus fruit
As usual, Paul’s fruit comes with many anomalies. All Christians claim to have Paul’s fruit of the Spirit because all it takes to receive Paul’s Holy Spirit is to say “Jesus is Lord.” (1 Corinthians 12:3). This makes Paul’s definition practically useless. It ensures bad trees are deceptively confused with good trees in Christendom. Moreover, Paul’s tree has more than one fruit, which is practically impossible. James says figs don’t grow on a grapevine. (James 3:12). But they do on Paul’s tree of the Spirit. His tree has nine different fruits which he nevertheless refers to confusingly as one fruit. This is yet another example of Paul’s illogical Christianity.
Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as: “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” (John 14:17). This means unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit. However, many unbelievers have Paul’s “fruit of the Spirit.” They are loving; peaceful; long-suffering; and faithful. So how come they have the fruit of the Spirit without having the Holy Spirit? Moreover, many Christians, including those who claim to be born again, are wicked, quarrelsome and cantankerous. So how come they have the Holy Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit? As usual, Paul’s lofty dogma falls apart in real life.
Genuine fruits
Enough with Paul’s strange doctrine! According to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith,” fruits come from a man’s spirit and they are the words of his mouth. Jesus says: “A good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43-45).
With Jesus’ more practical and precise definition, we can easily identify a false prophet. We don’t have to wait for him to give a prophecy and then see if it comes to pass. We can even identify him within minutes of hearing him speak. Is he speaking the words of Jesus, or is he speaking his own words? Is he speaking the words of the good shepherd or is he speaking the words of strangers? Once we are schooled in Jesus’ doctrine, it is easy to identify a false prophet. His words are anathema to Christ. Therefore, Jesus says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27). “They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:5).
It makes no difference whether the speaker is the pope, the General Overseer of the Church of God, or the most venerable reverend. If he does not speak the words of Jesus, he is a false prophet. Once Peter contradicted the word of God, Jesus immediately identified a contrary spirit in him: “He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:23).
Jesus knew by Peter’s words when Satan was speaking through him. He also knew by Peter’s words when the Father was speaking through him. (Matthew 16:17). So the next time you hear your pastor or Adeboye, Oyedepo, Oyakhilome and other vaunted so-called “men of God” speak, identify them by the fruit of their lips. You will be amazed what you will discover.
Identification marks
How can we tell if a man is mad? We often mistakenly determine his insanity by his appearance. If his hair is unkempt and his clothing disheveled, we conclude he is mad. But that might just indicate he is poor or untidy. The precision of Jesus’ definition is clear. Just listen to him and you will soon know by his words.
How do we receive the Holy Spirit? We do by receiving the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus says: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). When the word of Jesus comes into us, it brings the life and power of God with it.
In the Old Testament, when the Holy Spirit fell upon men, it was manifest in their speech; they started to prophesy. (1 Samuel 10:9-12). In the New Testament, when a man is baptized in the Holy Spirit, he often receives the gift of speaking in unknown tongues. (Acts 2:1-4). But let me tell you an even more radical method for determining the fruits of a man’s spirit. Step on his toes then listen to what comes out of his lips. Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will speak.
Paul’s bogus fruit of the Spirit ensures we cannot identify Paul himself as a false prophet. Indeed, Paul arrogates to himself disingenuously the status of Christ. He says: “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 14:37). In short, according to Paul, a false prophet is anyone who contradicts whatever Paul says. Not true; a false prophet is anyone who contradicts Jesus.
When the high priest told someone to slap Paul, his sheep’s clothing came right off. What came out of Paul’s mouth was a curse. He said: “God shall slap you, you whitewashed pigpen.” (Acts 23:3). When told that some Jewish Christians were insisting Gentile believers should be circumcised, Paul responded with malice and hatred: “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” (Galatians 5:12). When told about a man’s adultery, Paul issued a devious directive: “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:5). These are not the words of Christ. They are not the fruits of his Spirit by any stretch of the imagination.
Solomon counsels: “A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth.” (Proverbs 13:2). He warns furthermore: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:20-21). These wise sayings are validated by Jesus. He says in agreement: “Every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37).
By Femi Aribisala
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