₦airaland Forum

By now you must have heard that a group of Northern Nigerian youths have issued an ultimatum to Ndi'Igbo resident in the North of Nigeria to quit the region in three months or face dire consequences.
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The President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, handed down the ultimatum in company of his cohorts at a well attended conference the Arewa House, in Kaduna, on Tuesday June 6th, 2017.

This same Alhaji Yerima Shettima is also one of the mischievous individuals who, in an interview with the Sun Newspapers on Saturday June 3rd, 2017, falsely accused the acting President of appointing mostly his Yoruba kith and kin as well as members of his Redeemed Christian Church of God Family.

Said Yerima in that interview, "why should somebody, a professor of law, former commissioner, a pastor of a highly reputed church like the Redeemed Christian Church of God, will descend this low to appoint people from one side in a multi ethnic society?"

After the the acting President published his staff list to prove that Yerima's allegations were false, Yerima and his band of fallacious rumour mangers did not think it wise to apologize.

And this is the character that has given what in essence is a quit notice to people who have only added value to the economy of the North in the decades that they have lived there.

What many Nigerians have not noticed in the whole melee is that the press conference where Igbos were asked to quit the North was held at Arewa House.

If Nigeria had a perspicacious press (thank God for ThisDay that tries) the media would have dug into how the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum was able to secure such a venue with its strong ties to the Kaduna State Government in particular and the nineteen Northern States in general.

To those who do not know what Arewa House is, go and research it. It is almost impossible to hold a press conference at Arewa House without the knowledge of the Kaduna State Government. Is someone flying a kite?

Could Alhaji Yerima Shettima have been flying a kite to gauge the response of the Nigerian public to the inner intents of the hearts of his sponsors?

This antic, coming so soon after the very successful sit at home order by Nnamdi Kanu which paralyzed economic activities in the Southeast on the 30th of May, 2017, cannot be a coincidence!

Could it be that someone somewhere is rattled by the feat Nnamdi Kanu pulled off and wants to counter with their own response?

Yes, many leading lights of the North including the Kaduna state Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, have 'condemned' Yerima and even called for his arrest, but talk is cheap and getting cheaper by the day in Nigeria.

How Alhaji Yerima Shettima and his cohorts are treated following their misadventure will determine to a large extent whether what we have just witnessed from him is a case of the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau!

That being said, In 2015, Nnamdi Kanu was jailed by the Buhari administration for two years and charged with treason because he called for an independent state of Biafra. In 2005, Asari Dokubo was jailed for two years by the Obasanjo administration and charged with treason because he called for self determination of the Niger-Delta. In 1993 and 1996 the Abacha administration jailed Gani Fawehinmi for months and charged him with treasonable offenses (holding a political rally against the government). Nigerians are waiting to see if the same treatment will be meted out to Alhaji Yerima Shettima, President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, who has also committed an act of treason by declaring war on Nigerian citizens of Southeast origin when he and his group ordered them to leave Northern Nigeria. If he is treated with kid gloves then we will know that President Buhari meant what he said about treating 97 percenters differently from 5 percenters.

How South Africa must be laughing at us for condemning their xenophobia when we practice an even worse xenophobia Internally in Nigeria!

If you want to show you have influence, do not give ultimatums. Simply declare your own sit at home and see if people obey you like Kanu was obeyed. Leadership is influence. If you have to threaten people to show your influence, then you have no influence. Those with influence do not threaten. Influence is when people willingly obey you even when you have no position, no money and no army. Influence is when people obey you because they believe in you.

Anybody that denies the fact that Nigeria needs restructuring is living in a fools paradise. Open your eyes! A young Igbo man without any formal authority gave a directive and the entire Southeast of Nigeria was shut down!

Last Independence Day, according to Google analytics, more Nigerians followed the Platform Speech of Peter Obi than the Independence Day broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nationwide, Fulani herdsmen are killing mostly Christians with impunity yet it is IPOB members who are not killing anyone that our military are sent after. And Nigeria, the leading nation in West Africa, boycotted an ECOWAS meeting just because Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu was there! Can't you see what is happening here? If we do not reform Nigeria, Nigeria will keep getting deformed.

And our system has gotten so deformed to the extent that the Buhari administration no longer feels ashamed to lie!

The other day, on Tuesday the 6th of June, 2017, Presidential spokesman (spooksman?), Femi Adesina had the guts to say that President Muhammadu Buhari only Kade three promises to Nigerians during the 2015 Presidential campaigns.

His exact words were "what are the promises the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari made before they came into power? Of course, they were three. The campaign was on three major planks: secure the country, fight corruption and restore the economy. And two years down the line, I can confidently say that those promises are being fulfilled."

What a big lie!

The ironic thing is that on the same day Femi was lying to the Sun, Boko Haram was carrying out a daring raid on, wait for it, Maiduguri!

They were not raiding some backwater village, they were raiding the Borno state capital! After shooting at citizens and entering the city, they boldly went to Giwa barracks and engaged the army in a shoot out!

Femi Adesina and his master have just proven one thing to be true which is this: When a man is desperate for sex or for votes, do not trust what he says because he will say anything to get both of them. Instead of trusting what he says, look at his past.

Take Donald J. Trump for example. He has spent his life creating jobs. Is it any surprise then that four months after he was sworn in the US has its lowest unemployment since 2001? Take Muhammadu Buhari for example. He has never succeeded in any of his private businesses. Is it a coincidence then that Nigeria went into recession just months after he was sworn in? Can you give what you do not have? Focus on what cannot lie. This is the lesson that Nigeria has to learn ahead of 2019.

But back to the issue. That Nigeria badly needs reform is obvious. Even President Muhammadu Buhari's morganatic wife has said as much in public much to the dismay of her achievements challenged consort who has announced to all who care to follow that her audacity has earned her "other room" arrest!

The question is no longer whether we will reform Nigeria. The question is who will reform Nigeria? For sure, President Buhari will not do it. He has already indicated that his future ambition is to consign the report of the 2014 National Conference to the dustbin!

You see, Nigeria needs reform and only one person has been consistent in advocating and promoting the type of reform Nigeria needs to get out of the cesspit that Muhammadu Buhari has put her in.

Bola Tinubu had been championing structural reform and preaching true federalism for decades, but when he finally saw an avenue to power through Muhammadu Buhari, he jettisoned his almost life long principles and fought against the 2014 National Conference, the very thing he had been calling for, dismissing it with the question "National conference is by whom, for whom, and at what stage? How many level of deception?"

Only former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been consistently supporting these ideas. He has pushed for true federalism, arguing that that is the only way Nigeria can thrive. And I must say that his prompt response in condemning the Igbo quit notice by Yerima and his band of sectionalists has endeared me to Atiku.

And he is living proof of the fallacy that true federalism will impoverish Northern Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar is the largest employer of labour in Adamawa state, employing more people than the state government. However, not one of his multi faceted business interests depends on the state.

He is into agriculture all the way through the value chain. He is inti education, he is into port logistics and he is into manufacturing.

With or without the monthly federal allocation paid to Adamawa state, Atiku's business will continue to thrive.

If one man, Atiku Abubakar can achieve this, why can't a state, a region or a country?

The yearly budget for Atiku's American University of Nigeria in Yola compares favorably with the budgets of many Nigerian states. And the beauty of this is that the student body cuts across Nigerians regions, religions abs ethnicities.

You see, in 2019, only a Northerner can convincingly make the argument that Nigeria needs to reform on the basis of true federalism and merit because the North will be suspicious of any such argument from a Southerner and it is certain that Muhammadu Buhari would never make that argument. He is as status quo as they come.

As 2019 approaches, the usual suspects who have fed on the status quo will begin to retool their arguments against Atiku in the media, but the man is the most investigated man in Nigeria alive today. Surely, if there was evidence to back up their claims, it would have come out by now!

And not only has Atiku demonstrated through his personal life that he has fidelity to the principles of reform which he preaches, he has actually enhanced the reform movement in government.

Almost all the people in Nigeria's public life that we know to be reform minded were recruited by Atiku. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nasir El-Rufai (who betrayed him, but then, who has El-Rufai not betrayed?) and others I would not want to mention were recruited by Atiku into the Obasanjo administration.

And now let me talk about Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, a man I personally knew during my first stint at Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

Onukaba died on the 6th of March, 2017 as he returned from Abeokuta after attending former President Olusegun Obasanjo's 80th birthday party.

Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo did not go for and neither was he returning from an Atiku function when he had the encounter with robbers that led to his death. In fact, he had traveled for the 80th birthday of Atiku's arch foe.

After his death, the person who he had gone to honor did not even pause from his celebrations to issue a statement after Ojo's death and his world just moved on.

But Atiku did not move on. He mobilized mutual friends and held a memorial for Adinoyi at which he first eulogized him the best endowed an education fund for the late journalist's children with a substantial sum of his own money.

Ironically, the man who most feeds this false narrative of Atiku as tainted was the person whom Ojo had just visited to celebrate with him on his birthday. It is this same man who carried on as if nothing happened after Ojo died on his return journey. It was the man who he regularly attacks that did the honorable thing.

President Obasanjo waited until he was attacked in the media for his callousness before issuing a grudging condolence nine days after Onukaba's death!

So I ask you, who between the duo of Obasanjo and Atiku is really the villain?

If Ndi'Igbo and Omo Oduduwa are tired of being played against each other and want to chart a new and better course for their future and their children's future, they should look no further than their in law (Atiku is in-law to both the Yoruba and Igbos).

Reno's Nuggets:

Don't marry a slay queen, marry a pray queen because you can't slay life's challenges with beauty but you can with prayer. If the pray queen can slay, all the better for you, but the priority is pray not slay. And, marry someone that will compensate for your weaknesses instead of marrying someone that will complain about your weaknesses. And finally, look for happy, positive people and befriend them. Attitudes are contagious. You will act like the people you hang out with #RenosNuggets

Reno Omokri is a Christian TV talk show host and founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and the Helen and Bemigho Sanctuary for orphans. He is the author of three books, Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, Why Jesus Wept and Apples of Gold: A Book of Godly Wisdom. His upcoming fourth book, Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies, is set for release in June.

NIGERIA: WHAT'S GOD GOT TO DO WITH IT?

"Our country is about people that God put together"- Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, 8th June 2017.

I am sorry Mr. Acting President but I humbly and respectfully disagree. We must not use God's name in vain. Worse still you have based your assertion on a false premise. I am afraid that you got it completely wrong. The truth is that our country is about people that the British, not God, put together.

They did not just put us together but they rigged the system and designated those of us from the south and Middle Belt as slaves and "rich wives" whilst the core north were designated as the master race, the slave-masters and the "poor husband".

Since then the people of the Middle Belt, the northern minorities and the south have been bruised, battered, raped, sodomised, cheated, humiliated, ethnically cleansed, subjected to genocide and hatred, hopelessly marginalised and turned into servile and grovelling serfs in their own country by invaders and vandals from a distant land.

I know the history inside out from day one and the Holy Spirit reminds me of it every day. No Mr. Acting President, do not bring God into it. This is not the work of God, it is the work of the devil.

Permit me to go furthrer. It is instructive to note that in the British general election which took place on Thursday 8th June, no less than seven Members of Parliament, all of southern Nigerilan heritage and extraction, were elected into office.

They are Chuka Umunna representing Streatham. Bim Afolami representing Hitchin & Harpenden. Fiona Onasanya representing Peterborough. Chi Onwurah representing Newcastle Central. Kate Osamor representing Edmonton. Kemi Badenock representing Saffron Walden. And Helen Grant representing Maidstone & The Weald.

They have all made us proud yet not one of them is from the northern part of Nigeria or a member of Nigeria's "born to rule" master race.

That says a lot about southern and northern Nigeria respectively. In a sane, decent and civilised society where merit is the watchword and justice and equity is the foundation southern politicians excel.

In a society that is mired in deceit and fear and that wallows in intellectual barreness, abject poverty, social deviancy, spiritual harlotry, debilitating bondage and racial, religious and regional hegemony and discrimination northern politicians flourish whilst their counterparts from the south live in fear and trepidation and remain in subjugation, never achieving their full potentials.

The truth is that if any of those British/Nigerian MP's had chosen to practice politics in this country as opposed to the United Kingdom, they would have been regarded as nothing more than field hands, errand boys and slaves by the northern ruling elite and, simply on account of their faith, region and tribe, they would have struggled very hard to have been considered as anything more than appendages, quislings and lackeys to the owners of the geographical space called Nigeria.

This is despite the fact collectively they constitite and represent some of the brightest minds in the world and each and every one of them is capable and more than qualified of being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

That is how bad the plight of southerners are in Nigeria today: no matter how eager, bright, intelligent, dedicated and patriotic they are, they cannot lead without permission and a blessing from the core Muslim north and they cannot flourish or excel in the political arena without the tacit support of the master race. We are indeed living in insufferable bondage.

This Mr. Acting President, is not the work of God: it is the work of the devil.

And quite apart from the historical woes and sorrows and avoidable tragedies of the last 103 years which we have discussed, analysed, written essays about and debated "ad infinitum" what has the rulership of the almighty north and their mystical, indestructable, all-knowing, all-powerful gap-toothed Mahdi offered us in the last two years? All we see is chaos, all we feel is pain, all we shed are tears and all we taste is blood. Let us look at it critically and honestly.

2.1 million Nigerians lost their jobs in 2016. Fulani hersdmen have flooded childrens schools with their cows in Edo state, chased the kids out and put their cows in the classrooms.

A strong coalition of Arewa (northern) youth
groups have threatened the Igbos of south-eastern Nigeria and asked them to leave the north within three months.

The Northern Elders Forum led by Professor Ango Abdullahi supported their call and repeated and reiterated their threat and quit notice to the Igbo. Boko Haran has attacked and entered parts of Maiduguri.

The President has vanished into thin air, gone AWOL and disappeared and no-one seems to be sure what is wrong with him, where he is or whether he is alive or dead.

Federal Ministers that were cleared by the Senate over 6 weeks ago have not yet been sworn in.

The Buhari administration has not had a Secretary to Federal Government (SGF) running and coordinating its affairs for months now.

The 2017 budget has not been signed even though we are 6 months into the year. Nigeria is in deep economic recession and people are suffering.

Thousands of innocent men, women and children are being slaughtered by Fulani militants all over the country.

Genocide and mass murder have been committed against IPOB youths in the east and Shiite Muslims in Zaria by security forces.

Nigerians are on their knees begging for crumbs and millions of them have been turned into second class citizens and slaves.

Human rights are being abused and civil liberties are being violated in the most vicious and brazen manner whilst leaders of the oppposition and their families are subjected to nightmarish and endless criminal investigations and politically-motivated and malicious criminal prosecutions.

Government officials are not only incompetent but also hopelessly corrupt yet they act with impunity because they are considered to be above the law.

A dark, evil, sinister cabal of religious bigots and ethnic supremacists have held the Acting President captive and they are running our country even though they were never elected and most Nigerians don't even know their names or what they look like.

Apartheid is alive and well in Nigeria where the "master race" of northern Muslims head every single military, security and intelligence agency except for the Navy.

The Government has encouraged a culture where cattle are regarded as being more important than human beings and where Christian leaders, clerics and the Church are subjected to humiliation, insults, shame and all manner of indignities.

The National Assembly is being harrassed and the Judiciary is being intimidated.

Nigerians are divided, hungry, fearful of the future and very angry.

The Igbos of the south east and the Niger Deltans of the south south are so marginalised and disgusted that they are agitating for secession and the creation of the sovereign and independent nations of Biafra and Rondel respectively.

The Yoruba of the south-west are so distressed and alarmed that they have turned the word "restructuring" to their battle cry and warned that if it does not come sooner than later the disintergration of Nigeria will become inevitable the Republic of Oduduwa will become a reality.

The people of the Middle Belt and the northern minorities, historical victims of the most barbaric and pronounced form of oppression and supression from a relentless and unforgiving master, for the first time in our history, are crying that they are not part of any Arewa north and that if the south insist on going they would rather leave with them rather than stay in bondage and as slaves and appendages of the core north for another 100 years.

The Niger Delta militants have demanded that all the oil blocs owned by northerrners must be returned back to the people of the Niger Delta.

The Northern Elders Forum have aaid that the whole of the south, including the oil wells of the Niger Delta Area, were developed by money from the north and that the oil in the Niger Delta does not beling to the Niger Deltans but to the people of the north.

All we see and hear everywhere are claims and counter claims, confusion, strife, acrimony, violence, threats, anger, bloodshed, breakdown, failure and fear.

What a mess Buhari and his APC have put us in. They are a curse. They are the greatest evil that has EVER befallen our country and by 2019, by God's grace, we will flush them down the toilet where they belong.

Nothing speaks to our situation better than the profound and reassuring words of Chief Osi Asika, a respected diplomat and a seasoned and experienced political commentator. A few days ago he wrote the following:

"It is naive for man to try and change certain forces and phenomena or the way they impact on our lives and ourselves individually. Seasons come and seasons go, as do empires and civilizations. Winters today are not what they used to be. Rome has long fallen as have many other man made empires. For any to believe that the Fulani will be any different amuses, nay titillates. Pass the popcorn please!"

He concluded by saying,

"Talk about the Berlin wall, the disintegration of the USSR with a laid down history that can be traced back 1000 years, economical and political structures that defined the state and some joker is talking about a 100- year old contraption being unassailable in terms of disintegration or restructuring? There is always a paradigm shift of thought, exposure and perception between the field Negro and the house Negro."

These are edifying and prophetic contributions. Asika is absolutely right. No matter what our adversaries and oppressors may say, do or throw our way, the time for glorifying themselves will soon be over.

Freedom and liberty will come in its due time and season to all those that insist on it and fight for it and no oppression or oppressor, no matter how powerful, awesome relentless, vicious, insidious or cruel, lasts forever.

One day, sooner than later, the emperor shall fall, the chains shall be be shattered, the bars shall be cut, the gates shall be broken and the empire shall crumble.

For He that is high and lifted up, whose train fills the Temple is with us: we have no fear.

For the Ancient of Days, the Lord of Hosts, the El Shaddai never abandons His own and never fails: we shall prevail.

For the Elohim, the Adonai, the Mighty One in Battle, the Man of War has promised it and so it shall be.

May the God of all flesh and the Lord of the Universe heal and deliver the defenceless, the weak, the voiceless and the oppressed in our land.

May He tear down the citadels of the wicked tyrants and strip them bare for all to see.

Our nation may be plagued, haunted and afflicted by monstrous and horrendous terrors and filled with fear but stand firm, stand strong and always remember this: no matter how dark the night, joy comes in the morning.

.

We shall decimate and destroy the gates of our collective adversaries and tormentors and we shall defile and desecrate their shrines, temples and holy places.

In this struggle nothing stands in our way apart from the iron gates of trepidation. It is time to shed our fears and shatter those gates.

If you are not ready to die for something, you are not worthy of living for anything. Our Lord paid the price so march into battle with courage and strength.

Fight a good fight and know that we cannot be defeated because the Holy one of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Blood of the Sprinkling, the Lord strong and mighty, is with us! All honor, all glory and all praise be unto His name forever

ISISs:
Lol. Ohhh pride steps in?
What stops me from applyn UI.
U are just starting bro. Fact I rep UNIZIK dosnt confine me to a particular thread... Morevover, u neva had an Idea how this thread started.. U were only privileged to be here coz u simply applied UI, which I could do in less than a day too. U have ur priority so do I..
What makes me a lesser human?
Coz I had 307 and applied unizik and u scored 271 and apllied U1?
I repeat, dnt rursh sir.

The funniest thing I have read in a long time is the warning by the Nigerian Police Force to the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum to "to desist forthwith the ultimatum"! Can you imagine that? Did the Nigerian government ask Nnamdi Kanu to 'desist' or did they arrest and charge him?

So why warning Arewa Youth Consultative Forum and its leader? When people commit treason you arrest and prosecute them, you don't warn them to desist.

Or is it that there is one law for Nnamdi Kanu, Asari Dokubo, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Kuti and co and another law for Alhaji Shettima Yerima and his Arewa Youth Consultative Forum?

It took less than 24 hours for the man who named his dog 'Buhari' to be arrested. But all that the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum gets after 48 hours is a warning by the Nigerian Police Force under President Muhammadu Buhari.

Police in Zimbabwe says two men were sexually assaulted after they were offered lifts by seven women in two separate incidents in Harare.

The first victim was held up with a gun, forced into the bush, raped and then drugged while the other was knocked out by a drink and abused while unconscious.

Police are now investigating rape case and have also urged members of the public to be vigilant when they are picked up by women.


The Herald reported that Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi said one of the two recent victims, aged 37, was picked up in Harare on May 27 by a car containing one man and two women.


A woman who came aboard at the same time, the policeman said, pointed what seemed to be a pistol at the man after the driver had taken the car on a detour.


Chief Supt Nyathi said the woman force-marched the man into the bush, adding that: 'One of the females forced the complainant to have sexual intercourse with him without his consent while another female accused forced the complainant to drink an unknown liquid which left the complainant unconscious.'


The other man also boarded a car in Harare, this one containing five unknown people, before being offered a drink by a woman which knocked him unconscious.


Chief Supt Nyathi said: 'When the complainant gained consciousness he discovered that he had been abused.'

Last year police were on the lookout for four women alleged to have sexually abused a 29-year-old man after offering him a lift in the Zimbabwean capital.


In 2015, another man also aged 29 was allegedly raped at gunpoint after being given a ride from Magunje Growth Point.

The northern youths must be warned and told in very clear terms. This is not 1966. Any pogrom or slaughter of Igbos in the north will lead to a swift, immediate and devastating retaliation throughout the south.


Those that gave the Igbo quit notice in the north are playing with fire and that fire will consume them. They are opening the gates of hell and they will enter that gate.


They are plunging us into darkness and we shall enter that darkness together. Nigeria belongs to us all.


I urge the core Muslim northern elders and leaders to call their youths to order before they spark off a series of events and a crisis that may not only lead to a second civil war but will also lead to the end of Nigeria.


This time around the Igbo are not alone. An attack on them is an attack on every southerner and every Middle Belter. And such an attack will have grave and unfathomable consequences.

humeeh:
so you mean as I tendered neco for jamb fill in,I can choose tender gce for screening??



and by the way, is mathematics required for all courses in u.I especially CLA dept??


ajet001
condomsir
rursh
babablogger

Oluwainnie:
What about 2 sitting for mbbs?

News went viral yesterday, on how indigenes with bonfires prevented contractors from uprooting a tree interfering with the commencement of a road dualization project at Odo Oja area of Ikere Ekiti.

Babasalami.com exclusively obtained the letter writen to Ekiti state government by the palace of Oba Ayodele Ganiyu, the king of Odo Oja, Ikere.

The letter contained the cost of sacrifice and others it will take to relocate the sacred tree and believe when i say the price is not negotiable.

RealHaute:
All the mods in the romance section are mad; but I have a cure for their madness: they should find a big cucumber and sit on it until they've had their fill. Bunch of nonentities. I already typed too much for such irrelevant people. *spits on their empty skulls*

humeeh:
slide in and get bounced out #winks

humeeh:
Father father
you'd read some posts at times ehh,fear go dey catch you..
with the kind of hot brains I'm seeing here so,can't wait to meet you all....I doff my hat great scholars

Rursh:
Good evening everyone here. You guys are really trying. Thumbs up to Ajet001, Bobola, Vimma, Oldfoolsnigger, condomsir, holuwajobar and a host of other right thinking guys and gels. To the silent viewers (ghost readers), guests and other non-MBBS aspirants, I greet you all.
I am Rursh. A UI MBBS aspirant since 2014.
I got 271 in the just concluded 2017 UTME. I got A1 in all my 5 required O'level subjects (i.e Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.) and from the guide you guys gave about the points/aggregate calculation, I got 83.875. I hope am here-UI to stay this time around. It is my sinscere prayer that you guys with 76+ end up being favoured with this year's MBBS admission cut-off in Jesus name. Amen
Once again, I greet all of una. I hope am welcomed?

jiggaz:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Mt 5:29-30)

I doubt there’s a Christian alive who hasn’t been troubled by this verse at some point in their lives. It’s one of those things you read that causes you to do a double-take. What?! Did Jesus really say that? Was He serious? I’d better ask the pastor.

I’ll guess the odds are ten to one you came away thinking that Jesus wasn’t being serious. Afterall, Jesus is the kindest person there is. He healed people. Surely He doesn’t want us to go around maiming ourselves. Then you looked around your church and saw that no one had actually chopped off their hands and so you took comfort in the fact that everyone thought the same way as you did. There’s safety in numbers.

No doubt this is an uncomfortable pair of verses. Maybe you don’t think about them that much. But your interpretation of Jesus’ words is extremely important! So let’s cut to the chase with this question: was Jesus being figurative or literal when He made this statement? If you think He was using a figure of speech, how do you know that He wasn’t speaking metaphorically all of the time? Do you just assume that anytime Jesus said something that was tough to swallow that He was speaking figuratively? Or if you think Jesus was being literal, what are you going to do about it? Have you done what He said or have you ignored Him? Hmm. It seems your choice is presumption or disobedience. This is a tricky one. Let’s look more closely at the arguments for each conclusion.

Was Jesus speaking figuratively?

Jesus loved metaphors, especially when describing the kingdom of heaven. “It’s like a mustard seed” and “it’s like a treasure buried in field” and “it’s like a pearl of great price.” Jesus often used word pictures to convey revelation.
I guess the default view is that Jesus is making another metaphor when He tells us to gouge out our eyes and chop off our hands. “Jesus is using strong words to convey something about the seriousness of sin. He’s not really preaching self-mutilation but self-denial. What He means to say is we must be sensitive to sin and renounce it and run from it and do whatever it takes to avoid it.”

Does this sound familiar to you? It should, for this has been the standard interpretation for most of church history. But there are two fatal flaws with this conclusion. First, it assumes that Jesus was exaggerating and Jesus never exaggerated. Preachers sometimes exaggerate to make a point but Jesus always meant what He said and said what He meant. He is Truth personified. It is inconceivable that He would play with words for the crude purpose of ramming home a lesson. When Jesus spoke in parables He did so to conceal truths, not to stretch them (Mt 13:13). In any case, the passage above is not part of a parable. The context is the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus has just been speaking about anger and lust. His language is plain because the issues are serious. There is nothing metaphorical about His choice of words.

The second flaw with this interpretation is that it suggests we can do stuff to save ourselves from hell. Maybe we don’t have to self-amputate, but we can do things like confess, abstain, renounce and what have you. There’s nothing wrong with these things; the error comes in thinking we can save ourselves by doing them. No doubt it is better to enter eternal life handicapped than for your whole body to go to hell. But it does not follow that you can do things to earn eternal life.

Was Jesus speaking literally?

Most people think Jesus was speaking figuratively because they cannot conceive for a second that He meant what He said. But what if He did? Does it then follow that He actually wants us to chop off our hands? Of course not! We are
sanctified by the blood of the Lamb , not our severed limbs (Heb 10:29). Self-mutilation does nothing to deal with sin for sin is conceived in the heart not the hand (Mt 5:28). Besides, if you chop one hand off you’re left with another. You can still sin!

So what’s going on here? Why would Jesus tell us to do something He doesn’t really want us to do? He’s doing it so people will realize the absurdity of trying to impress God with their acts of self-righteousness. He’s preaching law on steroids not so that you will try to keep it but so that you will give up pretending you are.

It is hard for some Christians to grasp the idea that Jesus could preach both grace and law without confusing the two, but He did. Jesus is the perfect physician. He knows exactly what medicine you need. If you’re broken and hurting you’ll get grace, but if you’re self-righteous and religious you’ll get law. A self-righteous person is one who thinks he can impress God with his religious performance. The only language he understands is law. He says, “all these commands I have kept from my youth, what else do I lack?” And Jesus responds, “Okay, you asked for it, here it is – receive some more law.”

Why preach the law?

The law is not a standard to live up to, but a mirror that reveals our faults. The law was not given to help you overcome sin, but to help sin overcome you (Rms 7:8-9). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus was preaching to people who thought they would be judged righteous if they kept the law. But instead of being silenced by their inability to do so, they had watered it down making it easier to keep. In Matthew 23 Jesus gives some specific examples of how the Pharisees had diluted the law, but in Matthew 5 He sets about raising the standard of the law to its proper level. In other words, He was polishing the mirror.

Why did Jesus do this? Why did our gracious king spend so much time preaching the law? Because some people will never appreciate the good news until they’ve heard the bad news, which is this:

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20)

The law is holy, righteous and good, but try to live by it and it will condemn and kill you (2 Cor 3:6,9). The purpose of the law is to bring man to the end of himself and reveal his need for a Savior (Gal 3:24). If you are self-righteous, you will never appreciate Jesus until the law has done its job and plowed the pride out of your smug little heart. I’m a decent person, you say. I’ve never killed or committed adultery. Not good enough, says Jesus. God knows your heart. If you’ve entertained murderous or lustful thoughts you’ve as good as done it. You’re in danger of hell-fire. This is a serious business, says Jesus. If you persist in this pathetic course of self-reliance, you had better be prepared to go the whole way even if that means sacrificing an eye and a hand. (Paul says something similar in Galatians 5:12 .)

And knowing there would be some religious wackos out there who might miss the point and actually go to such extremes, Jesus hits them with this:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48)

God expects perfection and nothing less. If you’re not perfect, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’re in serious trouble. Now here’s the good news:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17)

Jesus fulfilled all of the requirements of the law on your behalf. You are not perfect, but thank God you have a perfect high priest!

“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” (Heb 7:25-26)

Why did Jesus make such a big deal about the law in Matthew 5? He did it to prepare our hearts for the good news of God’s grace . Jesus is saying you can either trust your own law-keeping performance or you can trust His. But what you can’t do is dilute the law to some standard lower than perfection and think that impresses God.

Jesus wasn’t foolin’

Jesus was born under the law and fulfilled the law to redeem those under the law so that we might receive the full rights of sons (Gal 4:4-5). Because of what Jesus has done we are no longer under the law but the grace of God (Rms 6:5). The good news is that His righteousness far surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees and He offers it to you as a free gift (Rm 1:17).

To the answer the question at the top of this post – was Jesus serious? – yes, He was deadly serious! He was so serious that He suffered and died to redeem you from the curse of the law that He himself preached. So the next time someone tells you that Jesus was playing with words, that He didn’t really mean what He said, don’t let them get away with it. Don’t let them water down His words to suit their own religious performance. Jesus was not exaggerating to make a point. Neither was He using fear to motivate us to pursue dead works of religion. He was telling us that God expects nothing short of perfection and that He – Jesus – is the only hope we have.


https://escapetoreality.org/2011/04/07/chop-off-your-hand/

enilove:
God has His ways and plans , Satan also has his ways and plans. All roads do not lead to the same destination.
It is your duty to find out which is the right way that God Himself set up for us to follow.

I have faith in Christianity for many reasons;

1--- The God that could divide a Sea must be the maker or creator of that sea.This event truly happened , that is why the Egyptians are not contesting the occurrence of the event.

2----I wouldn't have believed Christianity but God Himself healed me of an infirmity of more than 22 years when I went to church. It was in 1997 or so when I went to RCCG convention and there was a pastor preaching and he asked us to put our hand on any place we had infirmity, this I did and since that time till date I have not experienced the sickness again. It was a sickness an herbalist saw and sent me out of his sight because he was afraid.
Thre are other several testimonials that make me to know that Jesus Chist is really the Son of God and God and my Creator.

3--- The bible makes me to understand that sinner cannot make heaven unless they repent from those evil. The bible did not say we should be 99% holy but 100%.

4---- I was a Muslim and I can tell you that there are so many things wrong with that Islamic religion. The first step to know this is by reading the English Quran or Hadith. There is no need to argue , just take your time read for understanding only , it will surprise why a sane person should follow it. When you compare the historic account and Hadith account of Muhammed with Biblical account of other prophets of the Bible, you will say and know that he was a FALSE PROPHET indeed. Jesus performed miracles and performed many in my life , Muhammed did not perform any miracle instead he killed many innocent people and instructed his followers to do the same, which is why muslims are about 98% of the number of terrorists arround the world.


If you read the Bible from Genesis to revelation, you will know that there is not other way of salvation outside Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:12 KJV
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

vybzkartel:
You don't understand

godslaw:
please house, I just accessed this group on nairaland late, just discovered Pharmacy isn't gonna be considered this year in UI. I scored 250 in jamb.

please I need advice as to how I can change my course or Any suggestions to change of institution if I don't have a choice...

Does UI admit candidates to less competitive departments of one does not meet up requirements to high competitive departments..

tobbiedejie:
good afternoon , g want to study medicine in ui . I was cle to get 290 in utme but i have heard theres no more post utme is there any form i need to obtain or any information i need to put my ears on d ground for. I am just in d dark and i'll hate to lose out just because i dont hav d right info. Thanks in advance