[OPINION] Dear Nigerian Church, Beware The Enslavers, By Moses Okezie

It's been just about 30 years now since God raised Generals like Bishop Benson Idahosa of blessed memory, Bishop David Oyedepo of living exploits and other leaders of the Church militant to lead the evangelical movement of the Nigerian Church.

In less than one generation, they have charted pentecostal Christianity out of a morass of ignorance about the things freely given her to enjoy in Christ, away from the bondage of sin, satan and scarcity into the manifold grace of the people of God.

In less than one generation too, the tormentors of the Church, and in some cases their descendants, have gone full cycle too. The same enslavers who used to despise you as 'church rats' less than 30 years ago for your self-imposed poverty and austere lifestyles are the same accusers who are mocking you today as hedonists and fat cats for enjoying your God-given prosperity.

They were refusing to get born again those days because, materially speaking, you were of all men most miserable, the offscouring of the earth, no less. To them you were the real 'children of a lesser god' because you shunned wealth and its trappings and equated righteousness with wretchedness. They declared they'd rather die than serve your 'poor god'.

Today, they are again refusing to become born again because you have been liberated from that mental slavery and blessed beyond measure. They can't endure that you now spend your years in pleasure like an eternal excellency.

They are offended because you now worship in splendour and no longer in the lean-to sheds and uncompleted buildings of yesteryears which they loved to mock. Your state-of-the-art equipment is an offence to them because they can no longer point at you during service and snigger with their friends as you vainly tried to make the melody in your heart heard by the world through maniacal clapping of your hands.

They came looking for the living among the dead and discovered to their chagrin that he is risen to gloriousness so they have now regressed to denigrating your opulent worship places, forgetting that the dimensions and costs of Solomon’s Temple were dictated by God Himself.

They mock your record breaking structures as wasteful. As if God didn't know that one day that same Solomon's Temple would be looted and burnt down by the Chaldeans and fall into ruins. In the fullness of His timing, everything rises and falls.

While you are on the stage of life and endeavour, he enjoined you to do whatever your hand finds to do with all your might. Continuing being and doing the best you can for the God of our Salvation. They put prices to buildings, let them put one to a soul, then try to match the God Who will abandon 99 to go and find the 1 that is lost.

Your worn shoes and multi-patched pants and sweaty underarms used to give them nightmares as you went everywhere repulsing more people with the Gospel than you reached. Now your private jets and splendiferous ways give them heartburn as you reach the ends of the earth effortlessly, turning multitudes to righteousness.

Unable to succeed with their blatant blackmail over the articles of your faith, especially the giving tenets, they have gone full baby now:

‘I will not go to Church again until Pastor makes education in Church-owned schools free’. It doesn't matter that Church isn't their government and that church schools provide better education and facilities than the best private schools in the country at a fraction of the cost.

‘I stopped going to Church when Pastor bought a private jet. It's our tithes’. It does not matter that she hasn't paid any tithe herself since it became a doctrine in church, and her offering for the whole year is less than the cost of a bag of bad beans.

‘I'm not going to church again until church begins to look after the poor in church.’ Meanwhile, she conveniently ignores the phalanxes of the poor who enjoy church feeding, clothing, housing, scholarships, capital for SMEs, among other charities too numerous to mention.

See, church, you can't please these people, and it is not your calling to kill yourself trying to please them. Even Jesus finally got fed up with their forerunners, and you can't have more patience than Jesus.

"To what will I compare this generation? It is like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others, ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ Yet the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved to be right by her works." Matthew 11:16‭-‬19

You'd better focus on Christ, the Author and Finisher of your faith and serve God according to the patterns shown you in the Scriptures.

Just follow them with love and wisdom and leave the rest for God. The Lord will always add to the Church such as must be saved. There is a reason God designed the Way that leads to life to be narrow, and made the Road to Hell broad. More walk the latter than the former.

Those really called of God, even though they are fools, will always find the narrow way and stay on it. As the Bible says, “...an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” Isaiah 35:8.

Those who claim your affluence is a barrier to their coming to saving faith in Christ were probably not meant for the faith at all. There are always sons of perdition, who must be lost by their own free-willed choice.

You were sent to preach the word. It's not your duty to convert anyone. I see you preach it in season and out of season in your blossoming 'church on every street corner' which they hate. You preach it in your daily services, which they loathe. You preach it in your 24/7 cable TV stations, online live streams of services, Web casts, multimedia formats of all kinds and in your endless paid slots on national radio and tv stations. You are trying, and don't let no one tell you different.

He sent you to make sure they hear, not to make sure they believe. That one is between them and the Holy Ghost. They are free to spurn Him, using your expensive pulpit as excuse. But they have heard. Even if they close their ears like Stephen's accusers, they have heard.

In God's own good time, He'll separate the St. Pauls among them from the Pharisees and Sadducees. The sheep from the goats. Like Paul later wrote, God will show mercy to those who are acting 'ignorantly in unbelief', walk them through their Damascus experience and bless them with a ministry unto Himself.

Those who were acting maliciously however, will pay full price for their errors. They will throw stones at you and continue to marinate in their bitterness over your bold ways. Eventually they will wend their ways to the Judgment Seat of Christ where they will try to explain like fallen Adam that it was actually Eve's (Pastor’s) fault. Good luck to them convincing Him who came many times to them as you ministered and was turned away as many times because He sent you of whom they do not approve.

Afterall two thieves and co-murderers hung on both sides of the Christ at Calvary. One was inspired by Him, the other became offended. Personal disposition separated them in those last minutes. One went home to Eternal Redemption, the other sank into everlasting Damnation. Choices.

Dear Nigerian Pentecostals and Evangelicals, beware of enslavement. These ones will not stop until they shame you out of your Covenant practices and send you back to the years of fruitless wandering in the wilderness. If you let them, that is.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed]. Galatians 5:1.

Be like St. Paul who would not let anyone's soulish babblings steer him away from the path shown him by God. It didn't matter too how much of an influencer the individual involved thought himself.

“But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was wrong. He had been eating with the Gentiles before certain people came from James. But when they came, he began to back out and separate himself, because he was afraid of the people who promoted circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also joined him in this hypocrisy so that even Barnabas got carried away with them in their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they weren’t acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, "If you, though you’re a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you require the Gentiles to live like Jews?" We are born Jews—we’re not Gentile sinners. However, we know that a person isn’t made righteous by the works of the Law but rather through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We ourselves believed in Christ Jesus so that we could be made righteous by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the Law—because no one will be made righteous by the works of the Law. But if it is discovered that we ourselves are sinners while we are trying to be made righteous in Christ, then is Christ a servant of sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild the very things that I tore down, I show that I myself am breaking the Law. ” Galatians 2:11‭-‬18.

He also didn't have time to explain himself to any dissembler. Instead he discerned them for what they were, cogs in the church’s wheel of progress.

“But false brothers and sisters, who were brought in secretly, slipped in to spy on our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, and to make us slaves. We didn’t give in and submit to them for a single moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue to be with you.” Galatians 2:4‭-‬5.

They are watching for your missteps. You will have them, but go ahead and quickly settle them with your God, and and ignore the rest. While they are judging you, God is justifying you. They do not know the bottomless depths of His mysteries.

"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be held up: for God is able to make him stand." Romans 14:4.

In conclusion, keep the faith. Those who prefer to keep tabs on you rather than run their own races are free to go ahead and knock themselves out.