In the name of miracle not Christ
MANY worshippers and pilgrims seek after pastors and prophets these days in the name of miracle almost completely oblivious of Christ. Though miracle is a vital aspect of the ministry of Christ and his most important teaching tool; unfortunately, its fundamental essence is badly symbolised in today’s church.
Nowadays, Christianity is on the spotlight for many reasons. If it is not for incessant persecution in some troubled parts of the world by Muslim religious fundamentalists and extremists, it will be from within itself. On rare occasions, it sometimes finds itself entangled in persecution of other faith( s) through the activities of overzealous Christians who sees other faith practitioners as sinners.
Beyond persecution, the church is also now under the spotlight for its rapid growth in parts of the world and its decline elsewhere. The growth in areas where it is most prevalent appears to be disturbingly unfruitful and unreflective in many vital aspects of their respective societal life, Africa being the most culpable destination.
The core essence of the Christian faith is the expansion of God’s Kingdom here on earth through soul winning and the propagation of the God’s Kingdom that is to come. The truth is that it is a huge venture and enterprise to embark upon, even Christ did not mince words over it. In fact, 16 out of the 38 parables of Christ borders on money and possessions.
The Bible contains over 2000 scriptures about money, titles and possessions which is twice the number of verses dealing with faith and prayer combined. Yet, the holy book also warns that the love of money is bad and it is the root of all evil. It also teaches that money is very capable of keeping us away from the goal which is heaven.
It is either new age pastors did not get that memo or fails to appreciate where to draw the lines between money and propagation of the gospel. In response to these pastors inordinate desire for money, many especially the rich missed the caution in Acts 8: 20 by thinking salvation and especially miracles can be bought.
Certainly miracles are vital in Christendom because it is the means that God adopt to manifest his power to his children and he gave no prophets, messenger, apostle or disciples a higher platform to showcase that power more than Christ.
It is worrying today that majority of new age preachers portray Christian assembly grounds as a circus for magic and performances instead of a place of seeking God’s face. Without doubt Jesus is an incomparable miracle worker who goes about doing good deeds and changing lives with the aim of gathering up riches in souls for heaven and not building up riches in earthly vaults.
Jesus seeks out all those who labour and are heavily laden, desires those who are heavily yoked, he beckons on sinners to come to him and he is the way to those who genuinely seek his kingdom. Today, we see at prayer grounds desperate miracle seekers as against those that genuinely seek mercy. We now see professed faithful and the redeemed as against sinners who desire making their crooked way straight. People nowadays desperately seek first the kingdom of this world and every other thing before the thought of the kingdom of heaven even crosses their minds.
This brings me to the BBC documentary on the late founder of a popular worship mission in Nigeria known as the Synagogue of All Nations founded by the late televangelist and Prophet T. B. Joshua. I often wonder why he settled for the choice of ‘ synagogue’ as against a more Christian- like nomenclature such as church, ministry, or mission.
Synagogue is synonymous with Jewish or Israeli place of worship of God in Judaism. Christ was born into that faith but those who follow in his teaching are known as Christians who worship in churches built upon the divine revelation to Peter who is regarded as the Rock upon which it is built. With this in my mind, I had immediate reservation for the Synagogue since the early 1990s as a young man when I had my first feel of it. It baffles me that the church is synonymous with miracle galore as a synagogue is more peculiar to sobriety, holiness and a community of devotees. In fact, Christ was chastised for calling the synagogues is father’s house and not necessarily for disrupting clandestine commercial activities that was at the time going on its ground. This represents one of the reasons hypocrisy is insinuated in the Bible to those who claim to be the keeper and servant of God therein.
In the same manner I see hypocrisy around the belated ignominy on the founder of the church from so called disciples. Some of us see the Ejigbo Lagos suburb church as a mixture of
Christianity and something else and that impression is further inferred from its name. Those who seek its esoteric spiritual aura must be able to live within its tenets. It beats my imagination why insinuations of all manners of atrocities have now suddenly reemerged.
I do not want to make a clear judgment so that I may not be judged as the good book warns. But the level of atrocities chronicled in the BBC documentary clearly calls for concern. Yet, it is important to mention that the kingdom of God is constantly under attack from the kingdom of darkness and its disciples. If these allegations are baseless, certainly the church will march on triumphantly after this episode. But if proven to be true, it is another indication of the manifestation of the end of time. If the incident recorded in Acts of the Apostle Chapter five on Ananias and Sapphira happen in today’s Cyprus or Israel where the incident is suspected to have occurred or even here in Nigeria, It would most likely be aired on BBC and it will most likely attracts lots of media and political scrutiny including possible investigation for coercive behaviour, extortion, mind- control, and possible homicide amongst others as required by law. Therefore men of God ought to comport themselves within the confines of the law of God and the law of the land.
For all who calls me by my name and truly seeks my face I will answer and come to their rescue in the days of trouble. This is the simple message of Christ. He is not such an impossible master to please or serve. We see all manner of acts, acrobatics, bizarre practices and inconceivable scenes in most of our churches nowadays especially in the new generation churches. One now struggles to recognise the universality of Christ teachings and messages in the conduct of these so called- churches. Even though there was an instance semblance of esoteric healing approach adopted by Christ regarding the use of mud and spit which is quite understandable in the healing of a man born blind from birth, never can that be equated with the inexplicable madness we see on our screens in the name of worship and miracle in the hands of some of these new age preachers. Christ cannot be clearer on who he is, as well as what his mission and promises represents than what he project in the assurances in the gospel according to Matthew 11: 28- 30. Indeed his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Let no man or woman represents him otherwise.