When I first knew Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour the trend was completely different from what obtains today. I mean in the mid eighty’s 80’s. the question then was are you born again? And which church are you attending? once it is established that you are from a Pentecostal circle you are considered and addressed as a brother or sister. Though there were few exceptions. I mean there were pocket of churches that assumed “the holier than thou postures”.
Another conspicuous mark of born again Christians was uniqueness. One could easily spot a Christian out of the crowd by evidenced fruits of the spirit stated in Galatians 5:22-23. I am aware that there were some hypocrites as well, they are exceptions. Generally speaking, the Christians of the present dispensation cannot compare to their counterparts of the old; in terms of Bible standards of living. And exemplifying the life of Christ.
Having said that, my concern here is the way we go about to correct this decay in the Christendom. In our attempt to correct a very bad situation, it appears we are out to help God hence; we end up worsening the situation. Some have chosen the path of correcting doctrines. They end up in heretical teachings. Some go after perceived or fake preachers. Some have made going after other ministers as their mission. And yet other called apologists have gone about it in the wrong way.
There is no doubt about the dark spots in the kingdom. However, none of those approaches above has been able to correct anything rather worsens it, by breeding resentment, hardening the heart of sinners and strengthening barrier against the gospel. I am going to prove this by some of my personal experiences then, suggest effective and proven method of contending for the faith.
Some years back, one of Nigerian weekly magazines published an edition with a caption; ‘making money in the name of God’. In the said edition, there were pictures of some prominent church leaders. I had gone out casually without money. I needed to go back home to take money so I could buy a copy.
On my return all the copies had been sold to my surprise. The magazines were not easily cleared out that way. There were occasions when new copies came to meet the old on news stand. Meaning that, people without are always eager to hear bad news about the church.
Another occasion occurred in 2008. By then I have become a minister of the gospel. I boarded a min-bus. While in the vehicle waiting to take off, I sighted a soft selling tabloid with the picture of a father in the church world with a caption that has to do with money issue. I bought one and began to read. My neighbour saw the front page headlines and started raining insults on men of God. He said, “they are all thieves” and many unprintable things about servants of God just because of the news title which he never read the details. That was a typical prejudice of un-regenerated minds. After he had stopped talking I took him up and ask questions on why are people are so much against ministers of the gospel once they hear that they are living in good conditions as if preaching must be done impoverished? Are they and their family members are sentenced forever to poverty just because they are serving God? I began to explain things to him and finally he agreed with me.
We must therefore desist from washing our dirty linen in public, quit factionalism and infighting. Form a common front to engage our common enemy in a battle to wrest souls from hell fire. Otherwise, we may become accomplices in tearing down the kingdom of God.
