Thursday 7th March, 2013
To my brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Mal. 2: 10
I am writing this article out of deep pain and anguish because of what I have seen and what I am seeing. In the past few days, I have been uncontrollably and involuntarily shedding tears. Today, in the office, as I turned to my wife and asked her, “why am I shedding tears?” I broke down and wept profusely. I weep because men have not only betrayed one another, but men have betrayed God. Men, whom God lifted from nothing and made into something, have abandoned the cause for which God called them and made for themselves gods of currency and luxury. In the process, they abandoned the covenant of brotherhood sealed with the everlasting blood of Jesus Christ.
Before I continue, permit me to introduce myself and a little bit of my background. We, my wife and I, run a media ministry in Lagos called The House of Karis. We publish Christian literature like, Karis Christian Magazine, evangelism tracts, (etc) and we also serve in a fellowship of disciples called Truth Sanctuary, Kano Assembly.
I have received grace from God to write some Christian books that are aimed at serious minded Christians. They are:
Beware of Success - 2001
Return to the Narrow Path - 2005
The 7 Signs of Spiritual Maturity - 2010
Since the problem of Boko Haram started, I have been keenly watching to see what the Church will do. I have been interested in seeing how our mega-pastors will respond the way spiritual leadership ought to respond under the circumstances. What I have observed is that the pastors are going to UK, Bishops are going to US, and Nigeria is going to pieces.
IS THE CHURCH INDIFFERENT?
At this point, someone may ask, “before coming to the social media to raise a lamentation, have you tried contacting church leaders personally, to voice your concern?”
“Yes, sir, I did and got snubbed. I have tried personally to contact leaders of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria at both the Lagos State Chapter and at the National level. I went to their offices and spoke with them, one on the phone and another one face to face. They promised to give me an appointment, and till today, they have not. I contacted one last year and another one this year.”
Perhaps, the most ridiculous experience I had in my effort to contact church leaders was an incident at Ikeja. I went to this mega church at Ikeja to see this mega pastor, with a letter and a copy of Karis Christian magazine. I got to the reception and I was informed that the pastor was not available.
“Okay, could I see his secretary, please?”
“You will have to book an appointment with his secretary.”
“I know, you just told me that. Could I see the secretary so I could book an appointment?”
“You CANNOT see the church administrator; you have to book an appointment with his secretary.”
“Wait a minute, you mean the pastor has a secretary, and the secretary has a secretary? Before I can see the pastor, I must book an appointment with the secretary to the secretary? Wonderful! Okay, may I see the secretary to the secretary?”
“No sir, you have to book the appointment at the reception!”
“Well, I am at the reception. What do I do now?”
“You can drop the letter and we shall get in touch with you.”
That was seven months ago. To date, I have not heard anything from that church.
In addition to going physically to book an appointment with church leaders, we prepared in our office twelve (12) information packs containing Karis Christian Magazine edition on Sons of the Martyrs, Newsletter from the Voice of the Christian Martyrs, DVD documentary on the carnage in the North, a brochure and a covering letter. We appealed for opportunity to bring some of the children rescued from the North to minister in song and tell their stories to the church. We personally delivered eleven of the packs to eleven mega churches in Lagos but only ONE ministry responded. This was in January 2013. The 12th pack is still in our office. We see it every day. We do not have the heart to take it out. Who will receive it?
Some of our pastors are no longer servants of the cross of Jesus Christ. They have become “rulers of the Gentiles”. Some run the church like a corporate entity; some others run it like an empire, but seldom like a family, as God intended it to be. I am sure that if I had shown up in any of the places I had gone to with the intention of donating 10 million naira, even if the pastor was sleeping, they would wake him to see me! The Lord asked for “laborers” to work in His church, what we see commonly today is Chief Executives and emperors.
A PLEA FOR INTERVENTION
Boko Haram is slaughtering my brothers and my sisters! Please, somebody help me! They are using knives to cut their throats and shooting them from house to house, even in broad daylight. Meanwhile, our mega pastors are merrily and cheerfully conducting special programs and collecting first fruits, tithes and offering, redeeming first born and building cathedrals! While the church is throwing a party, evil is multiplying in the land. Before now, the nation was contending with Boko Haram only; today, we have in addition JAMBS and Ansaru.
If you know the full detail of what is going on in the North, you will weep. If I show you pictures and video documentaries, you will be shattered. In Dogo Nahawa, 501 people were slaughtered in one night. The heads of children and toddlers were split open with machete! Innocent children were being murdered in your backyard, yet your pastor is giving you principles for prosperity and prophesying breakthrough into your life.
I have had the opportunity to travel to Maiduguri, Kano and Kaduna in October last year to see things for myself. In November 2012, I was in Gombe to see the brethren. They all have the same lamentation, “Christians in the South have abandoned us!” We were in Kano on the Sunday that St. Rita Catholic Church was bombed in Kaduna. We had left Kaduna a few days earlier. Maiduguri is a war zone. The entire city is becoming desolate, even the ground is lamenting at the blood of the innocent shed upon it.
How many of our mega pastors have gone to the North to see our brethren? Are we not all children of the same Father in heaven? How many ministries have embarked on prayer and fasting program to intercede for our brethren in the North? “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it …” 1 Cor. 12: 26
Are we in this together, or “they” are in it alone?
THE ONLY HELPER?
I mentioned the Voice of the Christian Martyrs earlier. God bless them. That is the ONLY Christian agency that is consistently and meaningfully supporting the persecuted brethren. Not surprising, for they are backed majorly by Christians in Canada, U.S.A., and Australia. Most of the Nigerian churches do not give, they only receive.
If you have money to give, please give it to the Voice of Christian Martyrs. (www.stephensng.com) They have over 325 children rescued from the North receiving free education and boarding in Abeokuta. Some of those children lost eight members of their family in one night! For some, they witnessed at the age of 3, the gory murder of their father. What is the Nigerian Church doing to support them?
Boko Haram is killing Christians in the North with reckless abandon but the real culprits are the church leaders in the South. The only thing that darkness needs to thrive is for the light to go out. The church is the light of the world and the light of this nation. If darkness covers Nigeria, it is because the Church is not shining. If there is corruption in Nigeria, first look at the Church. What is going on inside the Church? Boko Haram should not have lasted for more than one month before the Church of Jesus Christ should have nullified it. We were given power by God to cast down imaginations and hold captive every thought to the obedience of Christ, but we have lost the authority. We have lost spiritual authority on the altar of prosperity, abundance, promotion, breakthrough, and all those spiritually irrelevant things that churches are now involved in. The church in Nigeria is almost becoming a joke, a mediocrity, a spiritual nuisance and an irritation to the Almighty God. Comedians now make a living by making mockery of the Church and the pastors.
A THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
Listen to this: “Our father in the Lord, special apostle, reverend doctor, prophet, evangelist, anointed man of God, JP, is inviting you to come and receive breakthrough!” This is on Radio! Spiritual mediocrity!
I was seated in a worship service when the Bishop said from the pulpit, “I have now joined the group of elite pastors in Lagos who ride jeep.” The Bishop just got a SUV.
I saw the program of the consecration of another minister of the gospel in which Fatai Rolling Dollars and Yinka Aiyefele came to “minister” in songs!
Brethren, what is happening? Have we become so dense and spiritually blind that we have lost all sanctification and consecration? How come we can no longer separate the holy from the profane?
Some of the people parading themselves as Bishops and General Overseers are meant to be in the car park controlling traffic on Sunday morning. They left their duty post and gate crashed into the altar speaking perverse things to draw men after them. The situation in the Nigerian Church is similar to what the Bible described in the book of Judges: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Jud. 21: 25 For the sake of God, don’t we have elders anymore in the Church? Can’t someone call these carnal men and women to order? They are making a mockery of the Church of Jesus Christ!
WHO IS THE PROBLEM?
Boko Haram is not the problem. Islam is not the problem. The problem is the Church.
I heard of an incident that took place in the Borno/Bauchi axis a number of years ago. Some Islamic fundamentalists started desecrating the graves of missionaries that had labored in the area. Suddenly, a fire fell from heaven and started consuming houses. The fire would land on one house and burn it completely to the ground, roll itself into a ball and cross the street to the next house it is targeting. That was how God destroyed the houses of those that were involved. They stopped it immediately.
Why isn’t the fire falling again? The reason is that the Church in Nigeria has become a harlot church. It is a church that sells anointing for money and recognition.
The light has stopped shining so darkness has naturally taken over. In 2001, I wrote Beware of Success to warn Christians that this prosperity message is going to bring calamity upon the church. People thought that I was stupid. “Why should they beware of success; if you do not want to succeed in life that is your problem?” Today, those with wisdom are searching for Beware of Success to read. (I have placed Beware of Success and Return to the Narrow Path on our website as free download. www.houseofkaris.net)
The Lord is coming! I am particularly grieved for the innocent church members who genuinely desire to serve and worship God. Many of them do not realize that their “father in the Lord” is an insincere person whose primary business in the church is tithes and offering and not the salvation of souls. Many people are so sure that they are going to heaven not realizing that they are facing the opposite direction. Many innocent souls will go to hell not because of their personal sins, but because of the sin of their pastor.
DOCTRINE OF ERROR
I have said this before and I will say it again, “Jesus Christ did not hang on the cross to make anybody a millionaire.” (Before you spit 2 Cor. 8: 9 in my face, please check Luke 9: 23-25; 1 Tim. 6: 9 and 1 Pet. 1: 4. Balance the three passages and you will understand NT riches.) The prosperity message is a fraud. It has no doctrinal basis in the New Testament. If your pastor is always teaching blessing and prosperity, you better clear out fast. You are better off staying at home on Sunday morning and reading the Bible than placing yourself under a spiritual influence that will destroy your soul.
This is what Schofield says about this issue, “Instead of obedience bringing the reward of earthly greatness and wealth, the Church is taught to be content with food and raiment, and to expect persecution and hatred …” Today, the pastors are teaching us that the reward of our obedience is earthly wealth and prosperity. However, you do not obey God with one eye on wealth. You obey God like Jesus Christ did. He came to do the will of the Father. Your obedience is the confirmation of your sonship and you remain CONTENT with whatever your Father in heaven gives you. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” We should be teaching our people “contentment” and not keep firing “covetousness” in their souls. You are sending them to hell. If perfect obedience results in earthly wealth, how come Apostle Paul was not the richest man in his generation? How come Peter, James, John and the other disciples did not amass all the silver and gold in their days?
The prosperity message was deliberately designed by Josef Stalin (Russian atheist Communist leader) and Dr. Harry F. Ward of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, in 1920. Dr. Ward was a Communist sympathizer. If you want to read more on the subject, order BILLY GRAHAM AND HIS FRIENDS, by Dr. Cathy Burns. (The ref. I made is on page 145) Your head will spin, when you see the amount of spiritual manipulation that is going on in the world. Those that are being praised as Christian leaders are not Christians!
GOD BLESS THE REMNANT
In the midst of the gloom, God still preserves a remnant for himself. It is our prayer that the remnant of God in Nigeria shall arise and lead this nation into righteousness. Decency prevents me from mentioning the names of individuals and ministries that have exhibited spiritual integrity in the midst of the rot and decadence that has pervaded the atmosphere. To each one of the remnants, “thank you and God bless you. Please do not be discouraged, your faithfulness shall not be in vain.”
TALK IS CHEAP … TAKE ACTION
First, I wish to propose, to individual God fearing Christians, a 7 day prayer and fasting specifically for REPENTANCE so that the judgment that is imminent upon the nation can be averted. The evil taking place in Nigeria is calling for judgment! The fasting I propose should be from 6 p.m. to 12.00 noon so that participants can observe the midnight watch. It is no use fasting without having time for prayers. We pray from 12.00 midnight to 1.00 a.m. After the prayers you can return to bed and refresh for work. You can eat between 12.00 noon and 6.00 p.m.
Day 1. Personal repentance. We have all sinned. - 1 John 1: 9
Day 2 Repentance on behalf of the church. Every sin that you observe, repent. – 2 Chro. 7: 14
Day 3 Repentance on behalf of Nigeria. – Prov. 14: 34
Day 4 Intercession for Christians in the North for safety, strength, divine provision and protection. Also pray for the Muslims, for salvation and revelation of the truth. - James 5: 16-18
Day 5 Bind every blood sucking demon operating in Nigeria. – Matt. 16: 18-19
Day 6 Pray divine judgment on every individual backing, funding and protecting Boko Haram and the other terrorist organizations. – 2 Thes. 1: 6
Day 7 Pray and break every enchantment that is manipulating the Presidency of Nigeria. For over 52 years as a nation, Nigeria has not had one Godly leader! – 2 Cor.10: 3-5
Second, may I suggest that every major denomination and every ministry that is able should carry a full page advert in the newspaper in protest of the killing of Christians in the North? You cannot keep quiet; no ministry should keep quiet. God will ask you questions later! Nigeria is a secular state and it is a crime for anyone to kill another Nigerian because he does not accept a particular religion. On 6th Nov. 2012, the army chief announced that Boko Haram had killed over 3000 people! That was late last year. If all the churches start protesting, government will stop playing politics with Boko Haram and take decisive measures to eradicate them. Believe me, the Nigerian government has the capacity to wipe out Boko Haram, but politics is standing in the way.
Third, let each congregation pray for the situation in the North. Pray! Pray!! Pray!!! Let us mobilize every Christian in Nigeria to pray this evil out of this land. Instead of leading believers to pray prayers of vanity and covetousness, let us lead them to pray spiritual prayers that will transform this land for better. Pray for peace, pray for safety and pray that every thing that exalts itself against the Lordship of Jesus Christ must wither in Nigeria. Jeremiah 10: 11, 25.
ARE YOU READY?
Finally, for you the reader, are you ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus? Are you in church for prosperity or you are in church for the salvation of your soul? You cannot have both – “a servant cannot serve two masters”. What is the level of your sanctification? Are you living in sin or you are living in holiness and righteousness? Are you winning souls, or you are watching them perish? Do you study your Bible daily, or you would rather watch football and movies? The Lord is coming soon. Do not forget, hell is real.
Lo, I have told you.
Your brother in Christ,
Bosun
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