NIGERIAN CHURCH HAS FAILED THE NATION
– Concerned Ministers’ Forum
… Church not aware of the multiplication effect of its own unrepented sin
… elevation of prosperity message is patently ungodly
… recovery of Nigeria is tied to the spiritual health and power of the Church
A number of Nigerian preachers, under the aegis of Concerned Ministers Forum (CMF) have lamented the state of the nation which, according to them is dictated by the failed state of the Church in Nigeria.
In a speech titled The Heart Of God Concerning Nigeria’s Crisis: A Cry To The Church and The Prophets read by Bishop Abraham Olaleye, set man of The Pentecostal Congregation at a press conference at The Bible Guest House, Palm Groove, Lagos Nigeria yesterday Wednesday, the organisation declared with the deepest sense of responsibility that the Church, of which they are blessed to be a part, and its leadership, of which they are privileged to be a part, has woefully failed Nigeria. Below is an excerpt from his speech:
“The Church failed the nation by its careless embrace of the purely sensual messaging. The Church has turned its historic mission upside down; abdicating its sanctifying purpose and the sanitizing power of its presence, becoming rather the chief accomplice in Nigeria’s unbridled initiation into satanic pursuit of perishable material gains.
“The sickening elevation of the prosperity message that has now swallowed up the Church in Nigeria is patently ungodly and plays directly into the infernal plans of Satan for our nation, emptying the gospel, along with the Church and its leaders, of its real redemptive power while rousing gullible masses of false worshipers to satanic mental enslavement, in a deadly fantasy world that eternally hypnotizes millions of our people to an endless pursuit of a phantom miracle of material prosperity.
“The mandate to the Church is expressly manifest in scripture. Our commission is to preach the good news of salvation and deliverance from a life of sin through the redemptive work that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary. The purpose and destination is as basic, as uncomplicated and as unglamorous and unambiguous as when the Lord himself first preached it on earth. In its ruggedly unvarnished simplicity, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ remains brutally direct in its proposition: The salvation of a repentant soul from an otherwise certain eternity of perdition. While an abundant life filled with joy, power and dominion remain happy benefits of a sanctified life, crass emphasis on material pursuits are exactly contrary to the purpose of the gospel.
“The Church seems not remotely aware of the multiplication effect of its own unrepented sin. Yet we know, by the emphatic instruction of the Holy Spirit, that every physical and material manifestation is deeply rooted in the spiritual. The robust recovery of our nation from perennial political, economic and social dysfunctions are intricately tied to the spiritual health and power of the Church, the potency of its praying life and the doctrinal alignment of its mainstreamed messaging with the heart of God.
“This deadly cancer which sadly has its root deeply driven into the very heart of the present Church in Nigeria is a virulent instigator of the nation’s pervasive corruption in a few principal ways: When millions of simple minded innocents are co-opted en-mass into false and heightened expectation of financial emancipation that is not anchored on inbuilt virtues of hard and honest work, this becomes an evil contagion that raises and nurtures whole generations of the lazy and the indolent. These sadly do not possess the rational ability to establish linkage between wholesome, productive labour and material sustainability. The cultural implications, manifesting in poor work ethic, immodesty, impatience, envy, lack of care for neighbors and a pre disposition to buy into anything and everything that will bring immediate material gain, permeates the entire society, weakening the resolve of Church goers and non Church folk alike.
Responding to questions, Bishop Olaleye said other members of the association, for now, are Pastors Toyin kehinde, Oladimeji Aminashaun, Bode Orekoya and Patrick Emmanuel. “This is a starting point. We hope to build on our membership to embrace different Churches so that we would cut across properly. Olaleye added that the body is ready to play this role of oversight on the Church of God because the reality of a nation is dictated by the reality of the Church.
Reacting to the recent statement by the army chief that the security of Nigeria should be taken to the spiritual front, Olaleye said it’s an indictment on the Church. “The Church is being told that they are not doing their work well. If there is unity in the Church, all the security problem would be tackled in the spirit. Nothing happens in the physical without being grounded first in the spirit.
