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Is Rev. King Also A
Christian?
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
“They profess that they know
God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate”
Titus 1:16
As I look around each day and
see so many people out there claiming to be born-again,
children of God, Christians, Gospel ministers, pastors
or bishops, as I observe their lifestyles, and the
things they propagate and endorse, the inevitable
question I am forced to ask is: where then are the
sinners and unbelievers? Indeed, if all these people,
whose nearly every conduct and preoccupation constitute
grave offence to God are all “Christians,” “born-again,”
and “men of God,” then I can confidently bet you that
non-Christians and unbelievers no longer exist! The
clear demarcation between the two camps may have since
collapsed. Everything has been muddled up, and there is
confusion everywhere, to the juicy delight of the devils
-- although, in the midst of the confusion, those
holding on to the genuine thing are not ready to let go!
Now, the devil has one major
objective in this world, namely, to stop multitudes of
people from having genuine experience of salvation from
sin, living worthy Christian lives in this world like
the Apostles did, and making heaven at last. Having
forever lost his place in heaven due to pride and
rebellion, he is so desperate to get so many people to
suffer the eternal torments of hell with him. No matter
whatever else he does in this world, he does not lose
sight of this singular objective which is very dear to
his murky heart. He pursues it with unequalled
dedication, resilience and meticulousness, and appears
to succeed so marvelously, whenever and wherever he
succeeds in making people indifferent, oblivious or
doubtful of his activities and definite mission.
The devil’s savage battles
with believers has raged for ages, but, seeing that he
has not made much progress with frontal confrontations,
he has added a more subtle, but much more insidious
strategy. This time, what he has embarked upon is
mass-production of counterfeits and parodies. These
counterfeits may look every bit like the genuine one,
but they are not. Only those with scanty knowledge of,
or indifferent to, God’s standards as revealed in the
Bible are hoodwinked and entrapped. And many, most
unfortunately, are today!
The major attraction of these
counterfeits is that they offer “made-easy” and “modern”
Christianity to all and sundry. They do not offer
solution to the problem of sin and worldliness. They
instead sanction, rationalize or even justify them; they
simplify everything and offer limitless freedom, so much
so, that even after a night of sexual immorality and
sundry sins, one can still enter the Church the next
morning, and “speak in tongues”, do “miracles,” and
deliver wonderful “sermons”.
The other day, I stumbled on
an interview with a certain Ms. Gloria Doyle, who I
understand is a musician or something. The interview was
published in Saturday Independent,
February 25, 2006. Even on a whore, the dress she was
wearing would still be considered extremely indecent.
Indeed, if you were working in a reputable company and
you tried to download those photographs of Ms. Doyle’s
on your system, your network would, no doubt, filter
them as nudity, and you could be reprimanded by your
employers. But then, here was this lady, in this
Jezebelic outfit, claiming to be a “Gospel artist”, and
declaring that she used her music to “win (read: damn)
souls.” What do these people really understand by the
Gospel and “soul-winning”? What do they really take God
for?
Ms. Doyle also claimed in
that interview that she is a Gospel minister,
spirit-filled, speaks in tongues, lays hands on people,
and prays for them in her Church. Then the reporter
asked her whether she endorses fornication, that is,
pre-marital sex, and she said yes. In their Church, she
said, it is not that they endorse promiscuity, but when
a boy and girl are in a serious relationship which they
believe would most likely to lead to marriage, they can
go ahead wallowing in sexual immorality. For her, that
is the real meaning of courtship. When the reporter
asked her what would happen if the boy dumps the girl
after he had had his fun, she replied that life is full
of risks!
The final question Ms. Doyle
took from the reporter was this:
Reporter:
“Once in a while you need male attention
intimately, how do you handle such?”
Doyle:
“I have intimate friends and when the need arises, we
will find solution to it”
So, am I to take it that this
one, too, is a “Christian” and “minister of the Gospel,”
and whatever she does tomorrow would provide incentive
for some people who are totally ignorant of the meaning
and practice of Christianity to cast aspersions on the
most holy faith? Ms. Doyle, a divorcee, had told the
reporter that the legacy she would want to leave behind
is for people to be saying after she had gone: “She was
a renowned woman of God.” Indeed, other “women of God”
like her abound in the world today, damning the souls of
men and women and attracting a smear to the most holy
faith. I was totally appalled at the way she was dishing
out those hell-guaranteeing blasphemies with amazing
authoritativeness. Make no mistake about it: if tomorrow
you hear that she is “performing miracles” in one corner
of the city, multitudes will throng her services. That
is the world we are in today. But God’s Word in 2Timothy
2:19 is clear: “Nevertheless the foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them
that His. And, let everyone that nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity.”
The point I am making is that
if you are “born-again” and the experience was not able
to kill the appetite for sin in your life, then, you may
have got the fake version. You must investigate what you
think you have; either you have lost what you once had,
or you never had it in the first place. Something cannot
be new and old at the same time. (2Corithians 5:17).
Conversion means, changing something from what it
was, to something entirely new and different. It is
real, and many people have experienced it. If you do not
have it, you do not have it, no matter what your
posh-speaking pastor may be saying to you to assuage
your mind, in order to retain you.
I have heard some people say:
I am a Christian, but I am not born-again. That
is a huge contradiction. Just like someone saying: I am
a physician, but I did not go to medical school! You are
either a Christian or not, no matter the name you bear,
and the Church you attend. In Ezekiel 36:26, God
promises to give us a new heart and new spirit, after
taking away our old heart. That was exactly what Jesus
was telling Nicodemus, a prominent religious leader, in
John Chap. 3. Jesus had told him that he must be
born-again, if he must inherit the Kingdom of God. The
aim is for the person to regain the original nature with
which Adam was created (in the image and likeness of
God) which he lost when he sinned against God.
You see, because of this
nature (not the sin he committed) that we inherited from
Adam, the first man, the natural man is always full of
sinful desires, which make him to indulge even in some
things he dislikes. Many are trapped in very dangerous
habits today because of this depraved, Adamic nature we
were all born with. (In Romans 7:14-17, Paul relates his
own experience in this regard). We can’t help ourselves
out of this situation, but when we sincerely repent of
our sins, and invite Jesus into our lives, He will come
in to destroy this sinful nature, and as we continue to
live for Him in daily communion and fellowship, we are
able to maintain that which we have received, and
nurture it.
As this world winds up with
incredible speed, the Church is fighting a big battle
against the confusion the devil has unleashed in the
body of Christ, to blindfold men and women, keep them
entrapped in places of false religious teachings, and
damn their souls eventually. Too many people are
preaching too many strange things these days, and yet
performing astounding miracles. It took the T.B.
Joshua/Chris Oyakhilome open and undenied ministerial
romance the other day to alert us to the extent of the
enemy’s infiltration, and the seriousness he attaches
to this business of misleading the unwary. It was in
Nigeria also that a “Church” was openly accused of
receiving a huge sum of money said to have been stolen
by a staff of a prominent hotel in Lagos, and the
Church’s “miracle-working”, fashionable, “modern”
posh-speaking “pastor” did not deem it healthy to
quickly isolate and denounce the action and culprit and
return the money immediately.
Yet despite these clearly
ungodly stances on a matter as grievous as this, human
beings still throng the place. Most pitiably, these
hapless people lack the discernment to discover that
there must be something terribly suspicious about this
show of power without purity. It has even
been reported that thugs that guard some “pastors” have
beaten up some people at some places in Lagos. What
about that? Well, only recently, a certain preacher was
told that he was in serious error, and he fired back: if
really I am in error, why am I still able to perform
miracles?
A naïve question, if you ask
me. Maybe, this preacher may have to go back to the
Scriptures and read Jesus’ account of what would happen
on the last day (see Matthew 7: 22-23): “Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils?
And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.”
The truth is that the devil
is not bothered by whatever you are doing and number of
miracles you are performing, so long he is assured that
you are living in error, and that you will join him in
hell eventually. The “miracles” you are performing are
serving a great purpose for him. It is helping to
blindfold people, and hinder them from seeing the
ungodly pre-occupations you may be wallowing in. Jesus
had warned us that we should distinguish false preachers
by the fruits (of unrighteousness) they manifest (and
not the gifts they are able to flaunt). They devil can
perform miracles too. Have we forgotten the case of
Pharaoh’s magicians in the Old Testament and Simon the
Sorcerer in Acts Chap 8? These two were miracle workers,
but they were not children of God.
Now, all these female Rev.
Bishops and Pastors laying hands on people and praying
for them with micro-minis, body-hugging clothes that
emphasize their delicate parts, and low-neck blouses
with boobs threatening to spill out, so they are also
worshipping the holy God? The strangest thing I have
seen in this age is the futile attempt by people to
worship a holy God in a most ungodly and
unholy manner. Some “pastors” of “modern churches”
encourage their members to wear horribly revealing
dresses to Church (weddings have turned into breast
exhibitions!), and some men in the Church have been
seduced by these ungodly displays and lusted in their
hearts, while some others have gone to commit
fornication, after ogling them.
All happening in a place they
claim is the house of the holy God! Now, Jesus’
word that a man who looks at a woman to lust after her,
has committed fornication with her in his heart, also
has some implications for women. If a woman, by her
revealing dress seduces men into immoral thoughts and
acts, she too is guilty of the same sin. It takes two to
commit fornication. Moreover, Jesus’ words that whoever
causes one of those people that believe him to offend,
that it would better that a millstone is hung on the
person’s neck and he dumped into the sea, is one of the
most popular Scriptural verses.
Unfortunately, many of the
people we call pastors and preachers today are mere
motivational speakers who just manage to spice up their
lectures with some Scripture verses. Others are mere
magicians in active business. They hardly know anything
about how a man can be saved from sin and prepared for
the coming of Christ. In fact, that is even not in their
agenda. But the consolation is that before the trumpet
sounds, God, in answer to the prayers of His genuine
children, will overthrow many places of false religious
practices and rescue the multitudes trapped there by
miracle exhibitions or teachings about Godless
prosperity.
In that vein, the recent
predicament of the General Overseer, of one prayer house
in Ajao Estate, Lagos, Nigeria, His Holiness, Most
Honourable Dr. Rev. King, can only be seen as the move
of God to clean the augean stable. There are several
others like him out there still doing their thing.
Very soon, the east wind of the Lord will equally reach
their dark crannies to blow them out, and not only
expose them for what they are, but cause them to close
shop and leave town. It is a matter of time.
* *
* * *
Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye
is a Columnist and Member Editorial Board, Independent
Newspapers (www.independentngonline.com
) /
scruples2006@yahoo.com
posted 9 October 2006 |
