Few months ago in Nigeria, around the time the constitutional conference was going on in Abuja, an audio message by a certain Pastor Bosun Emmanuel, who represented the Christian Association of Nigeria at the conference, began to make the rounds within and outside Nigeria.
The audio message, amongst a number of things, described General Mohammadu Buhari, who was running for President, as an Islamic fundamentalist who, if elected, would Shariarize Nigeria.
It also shared that, like in Turkey (ancient Ephesus), Christianity in Nigeria is on its way to obliteration through Jihad. Bosun claimed that Christians and Christianity are in trouble because Muslims are strategizing to Islamise Nigeria and that Christians should be vigilant.
Bosun’s voice reverberated as the message received massive listening and distribution. The leadership of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a mother Church to the assembly that hosted Bosun had since dissociated itself from the message. Most Christians who received the message frantically peddled it some, giving it more millage. But alas, it was a mere propaganda that ought to have been discountenanced, partly. Most people, including Church leaders who are ignorant of Church history, will tell you that this propaganda was correct. Those who know better will cry foul and correctly call it the ranting of an alarmist that it really was. History says it all.
Bosun, in any case, was correct to share that the Nigerian Church, rather than focus on raising disciples, is busy raising “millionaires”. He added that the Nigerian Church needs repentance because it has gone the wrong way.
Nothing can be truer. He also said that the Church in Nigeria is at war and needs to foster unity. Correct! He continued as he presented videos of some gory details of massacred Christians in the north eastern Nigeria by boko haram. This little write up is to educate and inform our people, correcting the incorrect parts of Pastor Bosun’s message and emphasising some truthful things he shared.
Indeed, a careful perusal of history reveals subtle and obvious relevance of the Nigerian Church in today’s world.
The Gospel of Christ and the message of Scriptures have been considerably spread globally by Nigerians. This is hardly contestable because out of every four black Africans, one is Nigerian. Nigerians are everywhere human beings live, even in Siberia and they usually migrate with their religious beliefs handy. Most Christians become emergency missionaries, therefore. These unending emigrationsare largely due to many years of gross misgovernance and mismanagements of national resources. If properly appropriated and managed, Nigeria can comfortably fend for a large portion of Africa. But then, the opposite is the case. A large number of her citizens struggle to live on less than a couple of dollars a day. Things have been pretty bad! The process and eventual results of the just concluded presidential elections would attest to the fact that it will never again be business as usual in our Nigeria. Change is here!
Although, my people have become the scumof many societies of the world,yet millions of my people remain very proud and, if you may, arrogant Nigerian green-passport carrier for many reasons. Firstly, we are very communal. We are a warm people who welcome strangers and visitors into our space, gladly sharing our means, even our meagre means. We are never xenophobic! Even when Ghanains were sadly excused from Nigeria way back in 1983, there were no losses of lives or properties, to the best of my knowledge. Many foreign nationalshave since made Nigeria their base, expatriating proceeds of their sweats (or through connivance with our leaders) to their respective countries. Secondly, my people have contributed immensely to the GDP of societies where they live around the world.Ask around, there is always a Nigerian lecturing in some University,Technicon, High school, or doing legitimate businesses all over the world.And ofcourse, like in all societies, a lot of bad examples of our people avail.
Now, not a few Nigerians were wrongly sensitised and alarmed by Pastor Bosun’s “revelations”.You see, like hordes of severally mispreached sermons, majority of Christians in my country usually overlook the seven most important letters authored personally by Jesus Christ. A crash course at the feet of Bro Wole Owolabi, handed me a re-evaluation of Bosun’s message. For many reasons, these seven letters, comprising Chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation, are probably the most important part of this book for Christians.Although, there were many other Churches at that time that would seem to be more significant than the seven that Jesus addressed: the Churches at Jerusalem, Rome, Galatia, Corinth, and Antioch for example. Why did Jesus select just these seven: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea?
Investigations by Graham Brodie explain at least four levels of application to these letters: Firstly, it had a local application. These were actual, historic Churches, with valid needs corroborated by archaeological discoveries. Secondly, it was admonitory as each of the letters appears with the key phrase, “Hear what the Spirit says to the Churches”. Note the plural, Churches. Each of the letters applies to all Churches throughout history. If we understand the sevenfold internal structure, the uniquely tailored messages, and the specific admonitions in each of the letters, we discover that any Church can be “mapped” in terms of these seven composite profiles. Thirdly,homiletic: Each of the letters also contains the phrase, “He that hath an ear let him hear…” Doesn’t each of us “have an ear”? Each letter applies to each of us. There are some elements of each of these seven “Churches” in each of us. Thus, this may be the most practical application of the entire Book of Revelation. Fourthly, it was prophetic. This, by far, is the most amazing application. These letters describe, with remarkable precision, the unfolding of all subsequent Church history. If these letters were in any other order, this would not be true!It is on this historical backdrop of these letters as expounded byWole Owolabi and Graham Brodie that we must analyse the message Pastor Bosun brought to the Nigerian Christians, warning them against a Buhari presidency as conduit for Islamic agenda.
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