For quite some time now, a lot of
controversies and criticisms has evolved in the Nigerian church scape as regards
false doctrines especially, the issue of tithe. There’s no doubt, doctrines
that have no biblical origin and are feasibly unrealisable must be outrightly
dispelled. It is in the light of this that some lingering questions surfaced on
my mind and they all seem to put a question mark on the claim of Christians
believing they’re one body in Christ.
Very quickly, let’s take a look
at the factors that made me come to this weird conclusion. Pastor WF Kumuyi,
Pastor DK Olukoya and the Jehovah’s witnesses believe Christmas is a pagan
tradition, so it’s not celebrated in their Churches.
Whereas Pastor E.A Adeboye of the
RCCG, Pastor David Oyedepo of living faith church, and millions of pastors
around the world readily embrace and celebrate Christmas. Also, unlike other
bibles, the Jehovah’s witness Bible has the word “God” replaced with “Jehovah” in
its entirety. The Kumuyi’s deeper life bible church, on the other hand,
believes King James version of the holy bible is the most unadulterated, hence
it’s preferred to other bible versions.
Another funny thing is that
unlike other churches, the Jehovah’s witnesses don’t close their eyes to pray.
I was even told some don’t pray at all, yet they all claim to be Christians.
The issue of dressing has caused
a lot of traffic on the media, both reasonable and unreasonable responses were
given to support different ideologies. Deeper life members, especially ladies
can easily be spotted out without stress, owing to her long pleated skirt, her
thick well-wounded hair tie or turban, and her bogus top clothing.
But the same can’t be said of the
ladies in pastor David Oyedepo’s Church. Ladies dress in tight trousers, some
wear sleeveless tops and appear sexy even on Sundays. They believe true worship
is in the heart and not the garment. Same goes for many other churches in
Nigeria.
The Catholic and Anglican churches
share certain doctrines in common, but the differences are also worth looking
into. Catholics, unlike other churches, pray through Mary the mother of Jesus
using the rosary.
Also, they believe the use of
contraceptives such as CDs even after marriage is ungodly. They recommend the
menstrual cycle method which is a nice but socially unrealisable idea. The
neonatal baptismal practice is another concrete Catholic practice that
differentiates them from other churches.
The message of spirituality and
spiritual possession is not far from the reach of the garment wearing Christian
churches. Unlike other Christian churches, white or multicoloured garment
uniformed Christian churches employ the services of multicoloured candles, holy
perfumes “turari”, holy water, staffs and all sorts of “holy” equipment.
Funnily enough, these set of
Christians believe its sheer display of ignorance and disrespect to march into
the sacred ground of worship with your shoes on, hence they walk barefooted to
church.
However, these haven’t stopped
people from referring to all these leaders as men of God. Does it mean God
speaks with both sides of the mouth? Definitely not!
My candid advice to the pastors and religious leaders is that they should come together to discuss the doctrines, dispel unprofitable ones and uphold biblical and socially realisable ones. Until Christians have one doctrine and speak in one voice as the early churches did, I still don’t see any prospect of moving Christianity forward in Nigeria.
0 Comments