SOURCE: http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article01

The Rapture-Seeking OAU Undergraduates

Recently, some eleven undergraduate students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State were declared missing. In this era of rampant kidnapping, it was thought that unknown persons might have abducted them for whatever reason. The first day passed without the students returning or being found anywhere.

Worried by the development, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Faborode raised a search team comprising men of the school's security unit and some local hunters. They were sent out to search the nooks and crannies of the surrounding villages and forests.

Five days later, following a tip-off, the team found the students in the middle of the thick forest of Tonkere village, Ile-Ife, looking haggard, tired and emaciated! The students had voluntarily walked nearly nine kilometers from the campus into the jungle before settling down at their chosen location without anything except copies of the Holy Bible. They were engaged in aggressive prayer sessions and what they called "dry fasting" in expectation of an eventual transformation into eternal bliss in heaven.

The students, - two females and nine males - among whom were three graduating students explained that they had decided to embark on the apocalyptic journey into the jungle desperately in search of "rapture", as they were no longer interested in this sinful world. They reportedly claimed that "life is worthless" and no longer meaningful. It was later found out that the students were members of a campus Christian religious group called World Ablaze Fellowship which espouses strange views about the idea of rapture and end times.

Rapture refers to one of the events of the last days in the Bible when true Christian believers would be suddenly "caught up" in mid air to be with Jesus Christ forever as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. But since the Bible does not clearly state the details of rapture, other than that it will happen suddenly and only believers would partake of the experience, there have been several interpretations of it by Christian groups and individuals.

In 1978, James Warren Jones otherwise called Reverend Jim Jones, founded the Peoples Temple a Christian group that later became a destructive doomsday cult through which 913 members all claiming to be Christians in search of utopia committed mass suicide in "Jonestown", Guyana having drank cyanide as directed by Jones. On March 17, 2000, about 1000 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God also committed suicide in Uganda. In January 2001, six Falun Gong adherents committed suicide in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. Not quite long ago here in Nigeria, a certain Elijah at the University of Ibadan, pushed by extreme religious conviction, claiming to be a miracle worker went into the University zoo to confront a lion. He was devoured.

The strange view that self-immolation is a form of martyrdom, and a passport to Heavenly bliss has gained much currency among adherents of various religions but it is largely based on mere delusion, rather than the substance of religion itself. It is regrettable that ugly incidents in this respect have been recorded in the universities where there ought to be a greater commitment to reason. What is happening to our universities?

There are hundreds of all manners of religious groups competing for space and attention on the campuses. University campuses have become centres of religious fanaticism. The same can indeed be said of the general society. Suddenly every body is looking for God and regrettably in a desperate manner.

The truth is that there is great frustration in the land. People are seeking solace in religion because of the failure of the state to provide basic necessities of life. Economic hardship has given rise to mass suffering, and anguish and a loss of faith in the here and now. Religion has become the only source of hope for many. The university campus is an extension of the society. With incessant strikes that unduly keep students in school longer than necessary, with poverty and unemployment in the land, and the spread of anomie, it is not surprising that some students, even if they are in the minority, see life as worthless.

The way out is for government to redouble its efforts to make the system functional. Government should work to restore the people's faith in Nigeria by providing the basic things that make life worth living. The universities on their part should monitor the activities of the various religious groups on campus. Parents should not just abandon their wards on campus without checking on their activities. Counselling should be provided for young persons, on and off-campus.

There is no doubt that the Awolowo University authorities averted what could have been a disaster. Certainly, if the students had not been rescued after five days without food and water, they could have died of hunger and dehydration. Alternatively, they could have sought to end their lives, especially, when the much-awaited rapture failed to occur.

We commend Professor Faborode and his team for acting promptly. This incident shows the need for university authorities to find a way of keeping track of their students. If the universities maintain such vigilance, most of the atrocities committed by students would be prevented.

"There are hundreds of all manners of religious groups competing for space and attention on the campuses. University campuses have become centres of religious fanaticism. The same can indeed be said of the general society. Suddenly every body is looking for God and regrettably in a desperate manner.

The truth is that there is great frustration in the land. People are seeking solace in religion because of the failure of the state to provide basic necessities of life. Economic hardship has given rise to mass suffering, and anguish and a loss of faith in the here and now. Religion has become the only source of hope for many. The university campus is an extension of the society. With incessant strikes that unduly keep students in school longer than necessary, with poverty and unemployment in the land, and the spread of anomie, it is not surprising that some students, even if they are in the minority, see life as worthless.


Nothing else to say. Rapture my foot.

Dios:

The truth is that there is great frustration in the land. People are seeking solace in religion because of the failure of the state to provide basic necessities of life. Economic hardship has given rise to mass suffering, and anguish and a loss of faith in the here and now. Religion has become the only source of hope for many. The university campus is an extension of the society. With incessant strikes that unduly keep students in school longer than necessary, with poverty and unemployment in the land, and the spread of anomie, it is not surprising that some students, even if they are in the minority, see life as worthless.


Nothing else to say. Rapture my foot.

WORD!I bet a lot of naija church leaders pray daily to keep the society in a perpetual state of poverty just to keep their various congregations full with desperate,disillusioned and impoverished "faithfuls".
Who they pray to is open to debate.

But it is worse than this nowadays,

some believers are now militant about their beliefs and are ready to harm others in expressing their religious ideas

Will all these deluded goons who believe that life is worthless go and get themselves killed? They can begin by visiting countries that are full of land mines and begin to clear them. If they are killed in the process of clearing the land mine they would be killed for a good reason at least. Enough of all these stupid talk about how the world is "sinful" and "worthless", all those crying should qucikly go and get themselves killed so that they can go and be with their imaginary gods in the imaginary next life. Deluded goons.

nothing got me laughing from the poster's post as the dude who went to confront the Lion, I can bet my arse that even God will be be reeling from laughter on that one.

lol

What people should know is that faith should be tampered with reason. Because you are a "miracle worker" dosen't mean you should enter a lions den and not expected to be eaten.