Epistle to the Nigerian Church by Dimgba Igwe The Sun Newspaper Reporter June 11, 20135 » If there is any verse or two that directly captures the substance of a new book by Bishop Humphrey Erumaka, ERA OF ERRORS: Rumbling in the Temple, which I happen to have reviewed, it will probably be taken from Paul’s letter to his spiritual son, Timothy,which states: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy…” (1Timothy 4:1-2) Surely, the Nigerian church or a substantial section of it, has come to a point where there is a spiritual warfare between the Biblical Christianity and a hodge-podge of strange and weird spiritual practices perpetrated in the name of Christ. It is these spiritual and doctrinal deviations that Bishop Erumaka seeks to tackle frontally in a highlyengaging epistle to the Nigerian churches. My friend, Mike Awoyinfa, whom I usually describe as Nigeria’s best headline caster alive, read the advance copy of the book and declares that it should have been entitled, EPISTLE TO THE NIGERIAN CHURCH. I agree, recalling that some of Paul’s powerful epistles like those to the Corinthian or Galatian churches or John’s vision for the Seven Churches in Asia Minor were usually responses to permeation of spiritual errors in the churches. But watch your back, Bishop, for in our clime, emotionalism often trumps truth and accuracy in these matters. Some are going to throw stones first before they even get a chance to read the book and when they read – if they ever do – some may do so with thick religious and commercial blinkers on. It is, perhaps, important to note that Bishop Erumaka and this writer belong to Pentecostal churches and, therefore, had nothing against Pentecostalism. I thought I should enter the above caveats ahead of time before the introducing this explosive book. ERA OF ERRORS, published by Global Epistle Communications & Printing Limited, is a book of 205 pages made up of 14 sizzling chapters. The author is no new comer to the trade, having written nine other books – enough to acquire the necessary gravitas to separatebetween the wheat from the chaff. The author starts by exploring thedynamics of faith and prayers, drawing out models from the life and examples of the early patriarchs, including heroes of faith like Abraham, David, Solomon, to prophets like Daniel, then Jesus and the early Apostles. From the examples of these saints, the author sets in proper perspective what prayers and faith are all about, what motivatesthe saints to prayers, how these heroes of faith prayed even in theextremity of challenging circumstances and the secrets of answered prayers. The author recommends their models for our examples, substantiating his views with deep and incisive insights that validate his calling as a great teacher of the Word. Set against these excellent biblical models, theviral pervasions, distortions and deviations from Biblical Christianity that now loom prevalent in so many of our churches come into sharp, tragic and comical relief. If Paul or any of the early Apostleswere to attend some supposed prayers sessions, sermons and sundry practices in some of the new fangled churches in Nigeria today, they may be so stunned or amused to learn that these are presumed to be part of the church that Jesus Christ died to save! But in Nigeria, things are falling apart in many of our churches in terms of doctrinal rectitude. Indeed, Bishop Erumaka’s book easily spotlights “a sea of wrong doctrines and unfathomable fables” that has seeped into the modern church. The parlous state of our economy seems to be breeding army of acute pseudo-believers, seeking either emotional catharsis or for easy scapegoats to unleash their anger and frustrations on, and some ignorant or unscrupulous spiritual merchants are exploiting such psychological traumas and feeding their failures with imaginary enemies to fight against. Prayers are turning into psycho-dramatic physical exertions ratherthan spiritual exercise. Erumaka describes this blight spreading through some churches as “dangerous prayer pattern”, culminating in “an amazing sea ofconfusion with high tempest of calamity.” Erumaka describes a spiritual parody whereby some churches have become the “arena where the fishers of men have become killers of men” in the name of prayer. Nothing, the author argues, illustrates this spiritual cankerworm in the Nigerian churches better than the growingpopularity of fire and brimstone prayers against an endless list of enemies everywhere. (article is contd in the comments)
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:28:33 +0000
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