Nigeria’s mercantile Christianity THIS is not a critique of the Church in Nigeria, because, I belong to the church. I belong to the church now, tomorrow and forever. This is an honest talk or complaint to my religious constituency, my own people; so let no Christian basher, or church hater smile. This is not for them, they should instead repent, and turn away from treachery in Nigeria, which is turning the country upside down. In business, politics, civil service, family and all affairs of life, they all carry a banner of religion, written and unwritten, but it is there for the discerning eyes to see. So, this is not for them. We Christians are urged by the Holy Scriptures to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, then all other mundane ephemeral things like money, fame, power, health will be added by God to us. The Bible says that money is good, because it answers many issues of life, but added that the love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money is responsible for the weaknesses, quarrels, fights and exploitations in the Nigerian Church today. In our chase for money, the enemy is killing us, destroying us, eroding our basic foundational doctrines, yet lying and deceiving us by preying on our love of money. We hop around, busy building castles, large congregations, acquiring all the good things of life for our individual selves, while overlooking the imminent dangers confronting the future of the Church in Nigeria. Turkey,Syria and Iraq were Christian strong holds in the 18 century. Most of the Churches in the Book of Revelations were located within these regions, but today Christians in those nations are less than 20 percent. This was because those early Christians embraced mercantile Christianity. They believed in big cathedrals, wealth, financial power, while ignoring political power and discipleship, thus gradually Islam grew and took over all the regions. The same mistake was made in the North of Africa. The Church in Nigeria is making the same mistake today, which means that if nothing is done, our generations to come will not know the Bible! The word ‘Mercantile’ is an adjective qualifying things relating to trade, commerce or commercial. It deals with the shift of wealth to the mercantile classes, the business people and or traders. Mercantile Christianity, therefore, can be described as the use of the Word of God, or the Bible, in a manner related to trade, commerce or commercial to acquire wealth, houses, cars, planes, fame, etc, while paying little attention to the message of salvation of the soul, and making heaven. In mercantile Christianity, people go to God because God can give them worldly things, instead of seeking God to know Him, so that good things may abide in their lives, while working hard to make heaven. People focus more on individual survival and success than the survival of the group or society. They leave governance which determines the destiny of the society in the hands of others, and non-Christians who more often than not, use the instrument of government, applying man’s principles to foster and impose poverty on the people, then you hear things like “politics is a dirty game”, “ all politicians are liars and godless” etc. Yes, politics is bound to be dirty, when dirty people are allowed to play it on our behalf. The Bible tells us that when the righteous is in power, the people rejoice, but mercantile Christianity has so distracted the Church in Nigeria, that they have no plans to take power, keep, nurture and sustain it for the people to rejoice. The Church has, therefore, failed to equip itself, to defend, maintain and ensure sustenance on to the future generations. For example, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC, after their conference in Abuja in 1989, made the Abuja Declaration in their communiqué which founded the Islam in Africa Organisation, IAO, a Nigerian statuted initiative of the OIC, with Dr. Usman Muhamad Bugaje as the current Secretary-General. Their goal is simple: To win the whole of Africa for Islam. The battle plan in the Communiqué include: “To ensure only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member nations; “To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Muslim. The word Christianity is underlined in the declaration); “To ensure the ultimate replacement of all Western forms of legal and judicial systems with the sharia in all member nations before the next Islam in Africa conference; “To ensure the appointment of only Muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations. The government of Nigeria donated $21 billion to the “Islamic Development Fund”, the communiqué confirmed. In the meantime, the Abuja Declaration has been deleted by Wikipedia, and Christians should ensure its restoration to enable more healthy discussions on the matter, and so that no one will claim one day that it never happened! It has been said that the APC is part of the OIC/IAO agenda, which their body language and modus operandi seem to confirm. It, therefore, demands that Christians of the Middle Belt and the South East must shine their eyes for 2015, as the South West is the arrow head of this agenda in the South. For the South West to be salvaged, a different party should win in Lagos State in 2015,in the best interest of all. The South East has a bigger problem. Imo State, where the Governor preaches the Bible in the Government House Chapel, and also hobnobs with the APC, all in the name of politics, gives all discerning in the state cause for grave concern. Politics must not be allowed to destroy the Church in Imo, no matter what. The biggest Islamic school in the South today, is in Ebonyi State; mosques are mushrooming in Abia State. We need an agenda by the Church leaders to stem a tide that will surely consume Christianity in the near future.Mercantile Christianity, remains the bane of our future. Clement Udegbe, a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 06:27:26 +0000
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