The NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR

MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 2nd - Sunday 8th September 2024

THE HYPOCRISY OF A FATHER

Years ago, in Germany, there was a young Jewish boy who had a profound sense of admiration for his father. The life of the family centred around the acts of piety and devotion prescribed by their religion. The father was zealous in attending worship and instruction and demanded the same from his children. While the boy was a teenager, the family was forced to move to another town in Germany. In the new location, there was no synagogue, and the people all attended the Lutheran Church. Suddenly, the father announced to the family that they were all going to abandon their Jewish tradition and join the Lutheran Church. When the stunned family asked why, the father explained that it was necessary to help his business. The youngster was bewildered and confused. His deep disappointment soon gave way to anger and a kind of intense bitterness that plagued him throughout his life.

He left Germany and went to England to study. He sat daily at the British Museum formulating his ideas and writing a book. In that book, he started a movement designed to change the world. In the book, he described religion as the “opium of the masses." Today, billions of people live under the system invented by that embittered young man. His name was Karl Marx. The impact of his father’s hypocrisy is still being keenly felt around the world (R. C. Sproul, Objections Answered)

Today, we agonize in Nigeria over the dismal condition of the youths. All manner of perversions are common amongst them: sexual immorality, drug addiction, cultism, ritual killings, cybercrime, armed robbery, insolence, etc. The very painful part of the malaise is that most of those youths are from Christian homes. The question has therefore been asked repeatedly, “What is happening to Christian families?”

Generally, children learn by imitation. “Do as I say, not as I do” does not work with them. They will do as their parents, or the elders around them, do. Therefore, if the problem of rebellion among youths is going to be solved, it is necessary to look beyond them to their foundations. How children are brought up, and by whom, become critical questions to be answered.

In this generation, nearly all the structures and institutions that should guide a decent society have collapsed; a collapse not caused by the youths but by their parents. The youths are not the ones running the country, neither do they head critical institutions. Their fathers do. Most of those fathers are Christians. Every Sunday, they report in church and piously worship. On Monday, they return to work to supervise the collapse of the economy and the compromise of moral values.

There are Christian fathers in INEC when INEC supervises election rigging. There are Christian fathers in the Judiciary when their “lordships” pervert judgment to favour the highest bidder. There are Christian fathers in the universities where lecturers demand sex for grades; in the civil service where they share budgetary allocations at the expense of public projects, and in Customs where fathers return home every month with millions of Naira received from smugglers. The same can be said of the Police, the Army, and of course, the National Assembly and the Presidency. 

In every critical institution in Nigeria, in the public and private sectors, there are Christian fathers and mothers, men and women called by the holy name of the holy God, but their character is of the devil. At the slightest opportunity, they would throw their religion in your face, but their deeds belie the faith they profess. In all of these, the children are watching, and unfortunately, learning how to be hypocrites.

To be fair to the parents, one must dig deeper to understand what happened to this generation of Christian parents. The answer would be found in the Church, right at the pulpit. Jesus commanded Peter in John 21, “feed my sheep”. What food did Jesus have in mind? The Master spelled it out in Matthew 28: 20: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:” Are pastors teaching their congregants to observe "all things" that Jesus taught His disciples? The answer is, No.

A common evil in churches today is pastors asking donations for "special projects," pressuring the people to "come forward and pledge" or "sow a seed" of some humongous amount that some of those members have to compromise ethics at work place during the week to be able to "give" on Sunday. The society and Christian values become the casualties, and everyone suffers it.

Christianity in Nigeria is reeking with the foul odour of hypocrisy. Churches are filled on Sundays yet Christlike character can hardly be found in government, in educational institutions, and in our legal system. A few weeks ago, we published a prayer call in which we asked, “Where are the men?" the men with integrity, like Jesus Christ Who could say, "the prince of this world cometh, but he has nothing in me". Where are the men with a perfect heart towards God, like David? Where are the men like Daniel who refused to defile himself with the king’s meat? Where are the men worthy to be called “Christian men”?

The hypocrisy of the father of Karl Marx gave birth to Communism, a godless political ideology that has taken millions to hell, and still is taking. The religious hypocrisy of many Christian fathers in Nigeria has done more damage to the country than Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen combined.

If Nigeria is going to change, the men must change for the better. For this to happen, the pulpit must be sanitized, and sound doctrine must proceed therefrom. Enough of the doctrines of covetousness that have defiled the sanctuary of God. It is time to do away with teachings that do not promote self-denial and carrying the cross of Jesus. Our covetous messages of 'abundance,' 'promotion,' and 'prosperity' are unlike  what Jesus Christ taught His disciples to observe. Those disciples warned against covetousness and greed.

It is time for pastors to repent and quit inflaming hypocrisy in Christian men. It is time for the Church to build structures to monitor and sanction false doctrine from the pulpit. If Nigeria is going to change, the men must change their value system. Christian men must adopt integrity and faithfulness as the epitome of masculine character. For the men to change, the spiritual food that they are served every Sunday must change. This demands that church leaders call themselves to order. The hypocrisy of the fathers has almost destroyed the country. May God deliver His Church from hirelings in the sanctuary who have led a generation astray. Amen.

PRAYER POINTS 

1).    Isaiah 54:13
 Pray for Christian youths, that even where the family and the Church have failed to bring them up properly, the Lord would teach them Himself.

2).    Mal. 4:5–6
Pray that the hearts of the fathers shall turn to their children to bring them up in love and Godly discipline. Pray that Christian fathers shall be determined to set good examples. 

3).    Neh. 5:14–16
Pray that God would raise Christian men with Godly character into positions of authority in the Church as well as in the country.

4).    Neh. 13:29
Pray that God would purge the sanctuary and execute judgment on ministers who fail to teach what Jesus commanded His disciples to observe.

5).    1 Tim. 6:6 -7
The father of Karl Marx became a religious hypocrite because of gain. Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, that fathers shall pursue godliness with contentment and shun hypocrisy because of gain.

6).    1 Cor. 6:2–5)
Pray for God’s intervention for the Church in Nigeria to build structures to maintain discipline and order amongst ministers of the gospel.

7.    Matt. 28:20)
Pray for revival in the Church, that the churches would return to the teachings that Jesus commanded His disciples to observe