Since the founding of the Christian faith over 2000 years ago in Jerusalem by the Lord, Jesus Christ, it has grown in leaps and bounds. Those who adhere to it make the rapid spread possible in obedience to the Biblical injunction that admonishes them to go into the world and preach the gospel to the whole world.
According to Laurence E. Sullivan, an American professor and former director o he centre for the study of word religions at Harvard university; “Christianity is a major religion that stems from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century CE. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of more than two billion believers. Its largest groups are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Protestant churches”.
Despite the submissions of Sullivan, the fact remains that the Christian faith has experienced tremendous transformations since the 19th century. The result of this is the birth of so many denominations within it, particularly among the Pentecostals. Many church founders created their own doctrines based on their different understandings of the Bible – the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. In an encounter with pressmen many years ago, the then Catholic Bishop of Lagos stated that he was not in a position to explain the reasons behind the proliferation of churches in Nigeria. According to him, only one church broke out from the Roman Catholic but since that event, the rest have been breaking out from themselves. From the time of Okojie’s assertions till date, many more churches have been founded by more Nigerians. While some of these are striving, others are merely struggling to survive or diminished after the death of their founders.
Until the arrival of African churches and their Pentecostal counterparts, Christian messages were mainly focused on character moldings that guaranteed believers’ place in heaven. The bringers of the message of Christ, the missionaries complemented their sermons with the establishment of schools to ensure a more rapid spread and provision of education as a tool to accomplish this while also imparting skills on adherents.
As the body of Christ indeed spread like wild fire, it began to receive attacks of all sorts, including violent ones from opposing religions such as Islam and the African religion. All these are aimed at stopping the propagation of the gospel. In spite of the frustrations, the church continued to wax strong in Nigeria, with many of the Pentecostals founded in the country now wields domineering influence over other congregations around the world. Just like others of similar messages, these organisations with roots in Nigeria remained focused on not just salvation as preached by the foreign missionaries but also on healing, prosperity, deliverance from satanic oppressions and eradication of idols.
However, in what appears to be a departure from external attacks to internal ones, members of the body, including their leaders has now become antagonistic with each other. On daily basis, social media fans around the world receive messages from content creators among Nigerian Christians who are either mocking pastors or condemning many of the messages preached by pastors of Nigerian origin. Their grouse is always hinged on the veracity of miracles claimed to have been recorded by some pastors in the areas of healing, financial breakthroughs and deliverances.
Many unscrupulous elements among the followers of Christ are not even helping matters as many of them have actually been known to have perpetrated so many kinds of evil in the society.
The stain brought into Christendom by fraudulent members notwithstanding, those criticising pastors and Christians are often the cause of what they are fighting against. For example, if one of the reasons people stay attached to churches is for God to intervene and resolve the challenges they face. So, if a man falls sick and does not get solution to it while serving the Almighty in a particular church, the tendency is for him to look elsewhere. He, naturally therefore will begin to fellowship with brethrens in the place where he finds solution instead of dying in a perceived powerless Church.
On the whole, attacks and counter attacks on pastors and Christians are not healthy for the growth of Christianity. They rather aid people, including souls already won in staying away from churches. God is not so handicapped that He cannot reward evil dowers appropriately. In fact, Revelations chapter 22:19 has already placed a curse on those misleading others with the Bible.
The solution to wrong teachings remains for all believers to begin to study the scriptures for themselves. And as correct knowledge spreads, all anomalies will be corrected by the society.
