₦airaland Forum

A Tragedy and a Witness

By: Deji Yesufu

Amber Guyer was a police officer with the Dallas Police Department. On September 6, 2018, she had concluded work late into the night as usual and headed home. She took the lift that leads to the floor of her home in the high rising building she lives in and was already contemplating a good night rest, when she noticed something unusual. The door to her apartment was wide open. Someone was in her house watching a game of football with the sound of the television tuned almost to the highest volume. Sensing an invasion by a burglar, Guyer removes her gun from its strap and walks quietly to the door. She sees an African American man seated on her couch, watching a game on TV and drinking ice-cream. Out of panic, she call out: “who are you and what are you doing in my house…” The man turns to her and before he could utter a word, Guyer had shot him in the chest. The bullet tore through his heart and he was killed immediately. Guyer walks closer to the thief and it was at this point she realized that she was actually not in her own apartment. Guyer had taken the lift to the house that was just above hers in the building. Guyer had killed an innocent man in his own home. Immediately, she called 911 to explain the tragedy. The operator, while testifying at the court, said that Guyer had mentioned that she was in the wrong apartment no less than 91 times during that call. The man that was killed was Botham Jean, a 26 year old accountant.

On October 1, 2019, Amber Guyer was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the murder of Botham Jean. In the case that was brought against her, prosecutors sought to prove that Guyer killed Botham in a premeditated fashion. Guyer’s defense chose to show that the killing was clearly a mistake. A jury that listened to the case agreed with the prosecution and convicted Guyer for murder, but the Judge chose to give her a lesser sentencing because the defense were able to show that the killing was not premeditated and that Guyer had no history of such violence. The Dallas Police Department had fired Guyer for excessive use of force and in response to the outcry against the killing of another black man by the black community in the United States. But the high point of this case was the testimony that Botham Jean’s brother, Brandt, gave after Guyer had been convicted. Here are Brandt’s words:

“If you truly are sorry… I forgive you, and I know that if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you… I’m speaking for myself – but I love you just like anyone else. And I am not gonna say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I presently want the best for you… I don’t even want you to go to jail, I want the best for you, because I know that’s exactly what Botham would want you to do. And the best would be to give your life to Christ…”

After saying this, Brandt turns to the judge and request if he could hug Guyer. The Judge gave him permission and the two of them ran into each other’s arms and hugged for close to two minutes. Brandt can be seen saying some comforting words into the ears of Guyer, while she wept profusely. Ironically, the Judge would also give Guyer a copy of the Bible, indicating that it would help her find peace as she does time in prison. Guyer is eligible for parole in five years.

I have chosen to title this piece “a tragedy and a witness” not because I am convinced that Guyer did not kill Botham in a premeditated fashion, but because of the opportunity for the gospel to be heard in the whole case. This case had attracted the attention of the whole world; particularly a liberal and godless America. And when Guyer was sentenced and a member of the deceased family was given an opportunity to speak, very few people expected what would follow will be a testimony of God’s grace in forgiving sinners. If Brandt had wished the worst for Guyer and prayed that she also meets the same gruesome end that had befallen his brother, no one would fault him. But rather, in an unprepared speech, and still reeling from the tragedy of losing a brother, Brandt forgives Guyer and takes the step to even comfort her in the prospect of her facing time in prison. Brandt was convinced that Botham would have wished he does that. Clearly Brandt and Botham are Christians.

When I read this story, I could not but marvel at the Christian witness that exhumed from it all. America, for some years now, has been troubled by the crisis of white law enforcement officers killing young black men and this was clearly an opportunity for them to draw blood from the whole situation. Unfortunately for those who wished this, Brandt Jean did not give them this pleasure. Rather, what we witnessed was Christian forgiveness and prime time news outlets having no choice but publishing to the world a witness to the power of forgiveness in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If anyone is in doubt as regarding why Jesus Christ died, they should look no further than the story of the tragic death of Botham Jean. There remains a place where the innocent lays down his life so that sinners may find forgiveness with a just God. Men and women who have experienced the grace of forgiveness do not rate sin anymore. There is not one sin greater than another; all sins are equally offensive to God and all of them merit his eternal displeasure. Thus having been forgiven much, we can forgive others. Brandt forgiving Amber Guyer is a manifestation of the grace of God. It is a picture of a person relishing the grace of God and being able to extend it to others. This story also gives much opportunity for the gospel of Christ to be proclaimed to a liberal and godless world.

The three minutes testimony of the power of God to forgive sinners, that was delivered by Brandt Jean in a US court which had convicted Amber Guyer of murder, maybe the reason why Botham Jean was killed in the first place. With this incidence, the gospel has been proclaimed and God may give one or more persons who hear this message grace to believe in Jesus Christ. If this happens, Botham Jean would not have died in vain.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/a-tragedy-and-a-witness/

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Where Daddy Freeze and Reno Omokri Got it Wrong

By: Deji Yesufu

In the past week, Daddy Freeze told his listeners that Jesus was the invention of Europeans. That the letter “J” was only introduced to the English lexicon in the last four hundred years. His question was this “where then did the word ‘Jesus’ come from?” His argument was further heightened by Reno Omokri who said that “Jesus” is unknown to the scriptures. He said what the Bible talks about one “Yeshua” and not a “Jesus”, whom he also agrees is an invention of modern day Christendom to defraud people. Omokri went further to say that Jesus Christ was not God. In all of this it has been an interesting week in Nigeria’s social media theological climate. My quest in this piece is not even to defuse the theological errors of Freeze and Omokri. A lot of people have done that. What I wish to do here is to draw our attention to the implication of those who inspire us to learn: our teachers. After which, I would point out the errors of Omokri and Freeze.

A man is not more than what he knows. And there is no human being that comes to the earth with ready-made knowledge of the issues of life. What we know is a product of our environment, our upbringing, our formal education, the providential circumstances in our lives and the people we meet each day. The Christian gospel recognizes the essence of knowledge and thus pays great attention to the subject of who one’s teachers are. The Bible goes a step further to state that eternal life is having a knowledge of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:3). The Bible would not give us knowledge of modern politics, astronomy or the various fields of science. However the Bible would give us knowledge of how human beings may be saved from the wrath of God to come on the earth. Therefore the Bible is quite particular about those who teach people the Christian message. Because what you know about the Christian message may either save you or damn you.

When Paul the Apostle was rounding off his ministry, he left extensive instructions for the pastoral ministry of Timothy, his son in the faith. One of the things he told him remains quite instructive for the churches today. He said: “keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16). This verse is telling us that the eternal destinies of men is hinged on what they know; what they have learnt. For this reason the Christian churches that take the careful discipling of souls seriously are quite particular about who teach the people under them. Even further than this, they know that we are essentially what we know.

In the history of the world, there has never been a time when the world has got so many contending life philosophies as today. When Christianity makes the exclusive claim to eternal life, people very easily debunk this claim by saying: “what then would other religious philosophies lead to?” The Christian message has no apologies in saying that there is no other way to God’s kingdom except through genuine faith in Jesus Christ. One hundred years ago, this claim was even less contended against. But today besides religious philosophies, Christianity must also contend against other secular philosophies. Brilliant minds are daily churching out ideas about this life and the afterlife – so much that anyone that is still professing a two thousand year old philosophy like Christianity is looked upon as anachronistic.

This is the reason we all must be careful about what we are reading and who we are learning from. We all must be careful about who our teachers are. The reason the message of the Bible is true is because the Bible reflects the holiness of God upon the person that adheres to its message. The Christian message states that God is holy. It also states that man is sinful. But it calls us to a relationship with a holy God through our Savior Jesus Christ. Those who come to faith in Christ are accepted as children of God. And as these children of his grow into maturity, they reflect something of the nature of God, particularly his holiness – a testimony to the world that God wishes for all men to come to him.

All of these was made possible after God had sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the redemption of all humanity. Christ needed to be man to be able to identify with men’s needs. He however needed to also be God to able to solve man’s need. Jesus Christ died – he suffered the penalty of sin which man had brought on himself in his rebellion to God. He however rose again from the dead, defeating death. The only way Jesus Christ could rise from the dead was if he was God. Only God could defeat death. In the process Christ obtained eternal salvation for all who believe in him. And the Christian message remain that only in Christ shall all men obtain eternal life.

So when Daddy Freeze was refuting a lady, who had claimed that salvation is exclusively Christian, by saying that Jesus was the invention of Europeans, Freeze was only revealing his own ignorance and exposing the falsehood in his teachings. Jesus Christ is God and in him alone is salvation for all humanity. Daddy Freeze is deceived; Reno Omokri is ignorant. It is true that the letter “J” is new to the English word. But any kindergarten student in Europe and the Middle East would know that the letter “J” and “Y” are usually interchangeable. This is the reason why “Joshua” is “Yeshua” in the Old Testament. And why the same word is translated “Yesu” in some other languages. In the original Greek “Jesus” was originally “Iesous”. “Iesous” was further translated “IESVS” in latin. It was “IESVS” that was used for the name of the Lord in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate for many centuries until further development in languages led to the same word being pronounced “Jesus” after the “I” and “V” had undergone development in their pronunciations . “Jesus” is the result of language development but its meaning is nothing short of what the Hebrew word “Yeshua” originally meant it to be: “God saves” (Matthew 1:21).

The Christian message needs no editing for modern times. It is modern men that must renounce their pride and submit to the truth of the word of God. And as we pursue this ideals, we all must beware of those who are teaching us. If what you are learning is not leading to greater sanctification of life, you are being deceived.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/where-daddy-freeze-and-reno-omokri-got-it-wrong/

How Buhari Empowered Sowore’s Revolution

By: Deji Yesufu

The Omoyele Sowore led #RevolutionNow protests commenced on Monday, 4th August, 2019. Quite expectedly Nigeria security officials were all over the streets of Lagos to quell the protest. Reports have it that not up to 100 hundred youths made it to the protest venue. The protests failed to hold in most other cities in the country where they were scheduled to hold largely because their leader, Sowore, had been arrested by men of the Department of State Services (DSS) the previous Saturday in a hotel somewhere in Ikeja, Lagos.

On the Monday the protests were to commence, my father-in-law had called me to request that I do not join the Sowore led protest for revolution. I explained to him that I had no intention of doing such. As far as I was concerned the call to protest or revolution was simply not popular enough to warrant my staking my neck in it. I had not read any of their manifesto on the protest and I was not particularly sure that it should be Sowore leading a revolution at a time like this, just six months after he had lost an election. I was totally not interested in fighting another man’s fight. So I was not going to join the revolution.

However the manner with which the Buhari led government clamped both Sowore and his fellow protesters in detention and slamming them with charges of trying to overthrow government, has made me change my perception of Sowore’s revolution. Perhaps this country is already overdue for a revolution; perhaps Sowore and his boys are right after all.

Another thing that has led to my change of mind on this matter was the response of the government’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, on this matter. Shehu said that Nigerians did not come out to support Sowore because Nigerians voted in and support a Buhari government. When I read those lines, I was pissed off. One would think that Shehu is the spokesman for the Buhari government; when did he begin to speak for all Nigerians also? Like Abimbola Adelakun wrote in her Thursday piece in The Punch newspapers, Nigerians did not come out to protest with Sowore’s people not because they support a Buhari government but simply because they are simply tired of this country. Most people are either trying to survive the country or they are seeking to get out of the place. Who has time for revolution?

Besides, the Buhari government is quickly developing a reputation for imposing a martyr and celebrity status on people who normally should not have them. When Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB goons started their protests, very few people knew who they were. The Buhari government launched them into popularity by arresting and detaining Kanu. The same with the leader of the Shi’ite group, El-Zakzakky. His movement was largely inconsequential until the Buhari government made him and his followers the next potential terrorist group in the land. I can bet that very few people would have heard of Sowore’s revolution if he was not arrested last weekend. It is time that security operatives in this country begin to act more on intelligence than operating with the use of brute force. What has led this country to where it is today is because our security operatives are too trigger happy and too quick to arrest dissenters.

Democracy is an institution that allows the people of a country to elect a leader to lead them for a period of time. In a working democracy there must also be a viable opposition. The Buhari government must understand that while they have the power to rule, the people have the right to protest and voice their opinions against issues that they are not comfortable with. The moment, in a democracy, dissent is being stifled, we no longer have democracy in our hands. Rather we have a kind of autocracy. This is the reason why Noble Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in the wake of Sowore’s arrest, said that the things happening under the Buhari government are reminiscent of Abacha days. Most Nigerians agree with Soyinka.

The Nigerian government has now secured a court injunction to detain Omoyele Sowore for at most forty-five days pending when he would be charged to court. The government would do well to bring Sowore before a law court and argue their case before a judge. But as the legal luminary, Femi Falana, has said: government is not likely to win the case against Sowore. They are going to lose and in the process they would have made Sowore popular and thereby empowering his call for a revolution in the land.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: https://www.facebook.com/1505609702848568/posts/2278570525552478/

Marriage and Religion

By: Deji Yesufu

In my undergraduate days I had a friend who was in a relationship with a Muslim girl. My friend was a Christian; a professing born-again gentleman, yet he had fallen in love with this girl and both of them were madly in love with each other. Their relationship was however challenged from day-one because neither of the partners was acceptable to any of their friends. The girl’s Muslim friends were against her and the guy’s Christian fellowship would not have anything to do with the relationship. Somehow the two love-birds endured this difficult situation until their final year. Both in the same class, the reality of their separation became more and more real to them.

My friend told me of how, one night, as they contemplated their imminent separation, they both got carried away and fell into each other’s arms in hot romance. The Muslim girl is the hijab type, so my friend was already peeling off the cloths in one of those Ahmadu Bello University gardens that evening. My friend laid his girlfriend on the ground and was already letting down his trousers when the girl, somehow having recovered from the situation they had both plunged themselves into, pleaded with him not to do it. My friend’s sincere love for this girl would eventually restrain him. He pulled his trousers up and they spent the rest of the night in each other’s arms talking, crying and contemplating the reality of a future without each other. Their eventually separation was difficult; it nearly cost the young girl her senses but as far as I can remember this girl would eventually get married almost immediately they finished school. My friend also settled down a few years after that incident.

I remembered this story, which happened some 20 years ago, when I saw a thread on Nairaland where someone was asking whether there was a future for him (a Christian) and his Muslim girlfriend in school. After reaching out privately to such enquirers on Nairaland in the past and getting no fruit out of it, I had long ceased to throw out my advice to such public enquirers. I would be using the rest of the essay to discuss the place of different religion in a marriage set up.

Practically and naturally speaking, there is nothing wrong with people with different religion getting married. Absolutely nothing. I have not said that it what I would recommend; I am however saying that the things that make for a good marriage go way beyond religious tenets. I hold this position because I think that what would make any marriage work, whether they be pagan or religious, is for a man to love his wife and for a wife to be submitted to her husband. I am one hundred percent certain that people of different religions can practice these basic tenets in a marriage and their marriage would work. I am also sure that if a woman would treat her husband like thrash and the man thinks the woman is the devil, it does not matter what religion they both profess their home will crash.

Besides love and respect, another thing that it is important in a man and a woman coming together in marriage, is the matter of what both partners in the relationship regard as vision for their home. Children are often the product of a marriage. The questions a couple may wish to ask are these: what faith do we wish to raise our children in? What are our ultimate goals for our own lives? What do you think of the afterlife? What are our views of heaven and hell? If a couple hold to a liberal position about these things and they think what either religion teach about these do not oppose each other, by all mean they can get married. The truth of the matter is that many couples have had flourishing relationships and have never had to argue over the matter of faith because despite being of differing religions, they hold similar views concerning such spiritual questions as the above. My own parents were of different religions and not once did I witness them argue over the matter of faith.

If this is the position of the couple before entering into marriage, I believe that their marriage could work and there would be no problem at all amongst them.

This is however not usually the case. There have been instances where the man is a Muslim and the lady is a Christian. In the heat of love, the man promises the lady to convert to Christianity when they are married. In fact to cement his commitment, he follows the lady to church once or twice. Some of them even answer an “altar call” and gets everyone in the lady’s church rejoicing. Following wedding, which would usually hold in a church, the man reverts back to his religion. There have been cases where the man even insists that his children be raised Muslim. The woman finds herself in a quagmire. That’s deception and such a home is already being set up to fail. What then is a way forward in matters regarding different religions in a marriage?

I think that there is no one shoe size that fits all in this case. But certain principles must be adhered to. It should be clear to the couple in the days when they were courting whether religion would play an important factor in their home. There are some men that are liberal in their thinking. They find themselves in a relationship with a woman from another religion. Such men could enter into marriage and yet allow their wives to raise their children in the other religion. This was the case with my own parent. On the other hand, if religion would play a major factor in a marriage, by all means the couple should both espouse the same religious persuasions if they would be married. In fact, if they are Christians I would advise that they be of the same denomination or else there would be problem.

What I have stated in the above is an admonition to the natural man. The man who does not regard religion as a supreme factor in his living cannot make religion the basis of his home. For the born again Christian, it is different. Christians can only marry Christians. In fact the kind of person one marries is a reflection of the values one has. For me the worship of Christ as Lord is my foremost value. I desire to please God in everything I do in this life. I desire to raise children up who would know God as Father and serve him, regardless of whatever vocation they choose in life. Therefore when I was going to get married, of a necessity I had to marry a Christian. And despite marrying a Christian, I am having to spend the rest of my life discipling my family in the way of Christ and showing them that whatever else we do in this life, the purposes of God being fulfilled through our lives are the most important things for us as a family. It is a lesson I am endeavoring to teach my wife and these are values I am trusting God my children would imbibe as adults. If I must achieve this, I would have to marry a Christian.

So, again, I am convinced that anyone may marry anybody they please – regardless of religious persuasions and their marriage would work if the couple would simply love and respect each other. The person you marry is not a reflection of your religious persuasions; it is just a reflection of your values.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He may be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/marriage-and-religion/

Always a delight to read MuttleyLaff

Who Will Pastor Your Children?

By: Deji Yesufu

A few days ago I pasted the above question to my Facebook wall. The responses I got has elicited this article. The near unanimous responses from friends on my wall was that they would pastor their own children themselves. One of my friends, who I called up to discuss the matter, said that the reason everyone ought to be concerned about pastoring their own children was the basic scripture admonition that says to train a child in the way that he/she should go and when they are grown they would not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). I told her that I understood that point but that this response totally misunderstands my question. Therefore to make my point abundantly clear, I needed to explain how I came up with this question.

I was at the wake keep for a friend’s mother. The minister leading the program was an Anglican Priest. At first I was impressed with the timeliness of the program and the fact that quite a number of priests came out for the program. Obviously, my friend’s mother was very committed in church before her passing. I would however become alarmed when, during the sermon, the Priest made a remark that implied that Christians and Muslims worship the same God and thus are going to the same place in eternity. I was taken aback. I had expected an evangelical message and the opportunity to press the gospel message on the myriads of people who had come to bid this woman goodbye. Instead, what I saw was an ecumenical appeal and a call for people to do good so that they may be well spoken of when they pass. I was disappointed and right there at the burial service I pasted the question to Facebook to warn against poorly trained pastors in the days to come.

The question regarding who would pastor our children became important to me when I began to listen to Christ Arzen’s “Iron Sharpens Iron” radio program. One of his guests had raised the question to draw attention to the need for pastors in the future. When we ask “who will pastor your children”, we are not necessarily concerned with the biological children of each person. Rather our concern is regarding what would be the state of religion in our nation in another, say, one hundred years from now. At such a time, even our own children would be dead and so the question has regards to what would be the state of religion in the lives of our descendants.

One of the things that studying historical Christianity would bring out to one is how orthodox Christians were usually very concerned with what their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren would believe. On the other hand, false Christianity was only concerned with now and now alone. It is even worse today: there is a kind of Christianity we practice now that does not envision the future. These Christians have a warped eschatological perspective that Jesus is coming so very soon so there is no reason to prepare for the religion of the future. In fact some of these Christians have an aversion for death and cannot fathom the fact that a day would come when they would no longer be alive and yet there would be a religion that their children would be practicing.

The need to discuss who pastors our children in the future is even more urgent in the light of rising false religion in our day. I have mentioned the ecumenism that sees Islam and Christianity worshipping the same God. There are hundreds of others. Perhaps the greater challenge of our time is not even those of religion but the fact that that there may be no religion in the future. We must be concerned that the doctrine of the LGBTQ is making such pervasive inroad into churches and leading many astray. Recently a leading Christian writing and pastor, Josh Harris, came out on Instagram to renounce his faith. He had also earlier announced that his twenty-year marriage to his wife had ended. In the post he made about renouncing Christianity, he apologized to the LGBTQ community and renounced whatever ill statements he may have spoken about them. While he did not say this, I would not be surprised if this once fine Christian pastor comes out tomorrow to announce that he is gay. This is the future of religion in the days to come and Christians ought to be prepared for it. We ought to have pastors who are sound enough to contend against these anti-Christian philosophies in the future.

The question “who will pastor your children” is important because the pastoral ministry is a Christian calling and a professional duty. While we all as parents ought to teach our children the ways of God, a true pastor is trained to uphold God’s word in a changing society: a pastor speaks God’s eternal truths to a world bound by sin. The state of religion tomorrow is wholly based on the minds of our pastors today. Most people that I know are not raising their children for the ministry. Many of the sound Christian assemblies that I know do not have the kind of resources to sustain a pastor in full time ministry. What this portends is that in the days to come, we would have less and less people going into Christian ministry and we would have less financial support for it. This is a very grave situation indeed. As it stands, there are less and less churches committed to preaching sound doctrine. I do not know what tomorrow would hold.

If we would have people who would pastor our children tomorrow, the following things must be done:

First, the Christian churches today must be committed to an orthodox statement of faith. The greatest immunity against deviation is for Christians to realize that along with their Bibles there is the need to subscribe to an official statement of faith. For me it is the 1689 London Baptist Confessions. Other Christians have confessions they subscribe to. But what these confession do is that they give the church what we would bequeath to generations to come; a guideline as to what our fathers believe. If the children are committed to historic statements of faith and do not deviate from them, the possibility of falling into heresies would be reduced.

Second is the need to train pastors NOW! In Nigeria, Christianity was done a great disservice forty years ago when certain men thought they were too anointed to go to seminaries. They abandoned their seminary training and branched into ministry. Their sons and daughters are the leading purveyors of false doctrine in the nation today. Pastors must be trained. Every man that would go into ministry must have an institution that trained him. A trained man, like any trained professional, is equipped with tools to do his job. If there is one thing that seminary trains men to do is to read and it also teaches them what to read. This way our future pastors can bequeath to our children an orthodox gospel. It would be the collective failure of all of us Christians if we succeed in raising doctors, lawyers, engineers and accountants but we do not have trained pastors in our churches.

Third. There is the need to pay pastors and to pay them well. The reason why those propagating the false gospel of health and wealth are doing very well in the business is because they have succeeded in hoodwinking people’s resources through tithes and offering. Those of us who do not believe that Christians should tithe today have the double duty of bringing God’s people to appreciate the importance of gospel ministry and help them to understand why they ought to commit much resources to supporting it. While Christians may not tithe today, there is the need for genuine Christians to give generously and constantly to whatever local assembly they belong to. Every kobo committed to church life is helping to elongate it some more. And those of us who appreciate sound doctrine must give more to support it. No one would take up the job of a pastor when he realizes that he would either be paid a pittance or nothing at all. And if we would have men commit their time to prayer and study so that they may bring forth the word of life that would do our souls great good, somebody would have to pay for it. And part-time ministry would not do this; the job of a pastor, if it is going to be done well, must be full-time.

These are just a few ways we can sustain the ministry of pastors today and make them thrive tomorrow. Let us realize the fact that none of us would be around in another 100 years but what we sow as seeds today would determine whether it would be the gospel that would be preached in the days of our children or the proliferation of a false message. In fact there may not be any gospel at all or another gospel may have overrun our cities and our nation. We should remember that once upon a time most of the Middle East were Christian nations. Today much of what exists in those places is Islam. I am made to understand that in 1910 25% of the Middle East were Christians. In one hundred years, that statics has reduced to less than one percent.

We all must be concerned about the state of religion in our nation not just in our day but in the days to come. We all must be concerned about those who would pastor our children.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/who-will-pastor-your-children/

Pentecostal Churches’ Aversion to Scrutiny

By: Deji Yesufu

Abimbola Adelakun, a weekly columnist with Punch Newspapers, was detained at the Commonwealth of Zion Assemblies (COZA), Abuja, last week Sunday. A few weeks ago, in her Thursday column, Adelakun had written an article titled “What Does Mrs. Fatoyinbo Know?” She had explained in the article that in all the stories emanating from the allegations of rape around Biodun Fatoyinbo, the chief executive of COZA worldwide, Mrs. Fatoyinbo had featured prominently in all of them and therefore she ought to know something about it. Adelakun had shed light on a perspective to these allegations that many people had not thought through before that time. By writing that article, she did not know she had courted enemies in COZA.

Adelakun visited COZA in pursuance of her research on Pentecostal churches. She had come to my office only two weeks ago and we spent no less than two hours discussing the Nigerian Pentecostal phenomenon. I was very happy to divulge my over twenty year experience with these churches and how I reached the point of renouncing Pentecostalism as a religion without renouncing the Christ of the Bible. In her column last week, Adelakun wrote about her research and visit to COZA:

“…My quest was a purely academic one. I study Pentecostalism and Pentecostal culture, and I transverse different churches everywhere to see if the observations that I make about trends and practices are generalizable across the spectrum…”

This was what this dear lady was doing when the security at COZA would have her detained in the church for hours. Her phones were ceased and in the processing of forceful collecting them, her fingers were sprained. She would eventually be taken to a police station in Abuja where one of the officers on ground threatened to charge her to court for “criminal trespass”. It would be the first time anyone in the world would be charged for trespass because they went to a church – which is supposed to be a public gathering by the way.

What Adelakun experienced at COZA is what I would call Pentecostal churches’ aversion to scrutiny. Abimbola’s wishes to know through research whether some phenomenon in these churches can be generalized. I wish to state quite firmly that one of such general phenomenon in most Pentecostal gatherings, especially the established ones, is an aversion to scrutiny. And the simple reason why these churches cannot withstand the light of scrutiny or investigation is this: there is a lot of evil going on in these churches and any kind of unveiling would let out a can of worms.

In 2007, the United States of America’s Senate decided to carry out investigations into the finances of some leading Pentecostal churches in that country. These investigations followed multitude of allegations of financial impropriety levied against many of these churches in that country. The ministries of Benny Hinn, Paula White, Eddie L. Long, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland were investigated by Senator Chuck Grassley and his team. Of the six ministries mentioned, only Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer cooperated with investigators. The other ministries claimed that only the United States’ IRS could investigate their finances. Some of them also claimed their first amendment rights – insisting that it gives them immunity on how they use church finances.

A similar kind of investigation in Nigeria is long overdue.

In recent times many people have begun to question the motive behind the ministries of many wealthy churches around the world. Not a few churches in Nigeria have been hit by this movement. The unfortunate thing about this development is that many young people, because of their ill experience in Pentecostal churches, are renouncing the Christian religion altogether. These people do not have enough discernment to put Jesus’ words to practice. Jesus said: “Beware of false prophets… You will recognize them by their fruits…” (Matthew 7:15-16).

The leading fruit of a false prophet is that he or she possesses an aversion to scrutiny. Why? Because the Christian gospel and the Christian life it births in an individual is LIGHT. Jesus Christ is the light of the world and whatever bears his name would bear the spirit of truth and would withstand whatever scrutiny it is brought under. I dare to say that a Christian ministry, run in a Christian manner, would not demand the kind of suspicion and doubt that would lead to people calling for investigation into how it is run. The moment there is the need for such, a lot of wrong is already going on underneath.

At a point in his life, Paul the Apostle needed to raise money from the Gentiles, who were his own field of ministry, to render help to believers in Jerusalem after Jerusalem had been hit with drought. Paul said of the money he raised for this purpose:

“…We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man…” (2Corinthians 8:20-21).

Christian ministry demands that pastors do whatever they do honorably in the sight of the Lord and also, and particularly in a time of skepticism like ours, in the sight of men. No one should be telling churches to publicize their finances. That these churches cannot stand any kind of scrutiny is a testimony to the fruit of falsehood that runs through their moral fabric. Jesus calls them false prophets and those who have eternity in mind ought to avoid these churches.

By arresting and detaining Abimbola Adelakun, COZA is saying that they cannot withstand scrutiny. They are saying they cannot stand an independent mind in their midst; they would rather that those who attend their churches be people whose ability to think have been taken away from them. These churches forget, however, that the end of time will bring all men to the judgment seat of Christ and would demand that all men give an account of all they have done in the flesh. People who cannot withstand the simple scrutiny of men would not be able to stand before the fiery judgment of God. This is just one out of many reasons why anyone who wishes to practice the Christian religion should find his way far away from the modern Nigerian Pentecostal type.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com.

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/pentecostal-churches-aversion-to-scrutiny/

Oresegun Olumide is a Nigerian artist whose speciality is in drawing water on human skin. See his latest painting: SLAVE

https://www.nairaland.com/5314060/abimbola-adelakun-punch-correspondent-detained

I just got this in an email:

"Just got informed that Dr Abimbola Adelakun is being harassed right now at COZA, Abuja. She is being detained for attending the church service and she'll be handed over to the Nigeria Police. I guess she's being taken to be an "anti-COZA".

Our colleague, Dr. Adunni Adelakun, is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a popular columnist with Punch newspaper. She recently wrote a column on the Biodun Fatoyinbo rape scandal.

The COZA cult and their police accomplices are on notice. They should not hurt our colleague. She will not succumb to harassment or intimidation.

If a so-called church operates like a mafia organization, it loses all pretenses to being a church.

I just got this in an email:

"Just got informed that Dr Abimbola Adelakun is being harassed right now at COZA, Abuja. She is being detained for attending the church service and she'll be handed over to the Nigeria Police. I guess she's being taken to be an "anti-COZA".

Our colleague, Dr. Adunni Adelakun, is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a popular columnist with Punch newspaper. She recently wrote a column on the Biodun Fatoyinbo rape scandal.

The COZA cult and their police accomplices are on notice. They should not hurt our colleague. She will not succumb to harassment or intimidation.

If a so-called church operates like a mafia organization, it loses all pretenses to being a church.

Your Sins and You

By: Deji Yesufu

In my parent’s home there was this book titled “Your Health and You”. It was published in two series and it contained all kinds of diseases that are common with people. While growing up, my brothers and I found the books a bit interesting because in describing the diseases that people had, the books’ pages were littered with pictures of all kinds of diseased body parts. In one hand we found the book hard to read because of the gory sight of these diseases but on the other hand our inquisitiveness would continually draw us to the books. I have drawn from the title of this book to discuss the subject of sin, especially from the perspective of how human beings view individual sins.

I find it important to shed light on this subject because in recent times I have had to begin to dig at the foundation of the profession of faith of many professing Christians. I have made claims like these: that some notable Christian leaders in this country are not Christians and to justify my position I find it important to examine the heart of the Christian witness that many people profess. I am convinced that it is impossible to do this without examining how people view sin. And we have not begun to talk about sin until we examine sin in our own lives – individually. It is clear from the testimony of the Bible that until we see sin as it really is, we would not appreciate the redemption that Christ wrought to deliver men from sin.

Like the sight of diseased bodies, sin is not a good sight to behold. In fact most of the time human beings tend to belittle their sins. We have perfected the art of whitewashing our sins; so that we tend to regard ourselves better than other people. The best place to begin an examination of sin is to look first on the holiness of God.

When we say God is holy, we mean that God is absolutely free from every stain of sin. God’s holiness is made even more pronounced in the light of the sins of men. People talk glibly about “making heaven” because they do not know the holiness of God. The thought that anyone can make heaven betrays an error in thinking that says going to heaven is by sheer effort. If by some given hypothesis, a human being is born and lives all his life without committing one sin; one would expect that such an individual would make heaven, abi? Well, by God’s standards that person would still go to hell. Why? Because that person was born by sinful parent and bears the original sin of Adam (Romans 5:12). When he gets to heaven, the holiness of God would reject him and banish him to hell. Yet, there is no human being born of a woman who does not sin. By the holiness of God, every one of us are sinners deserving of hell.

The holiness of God condemns every man as a sinner. The holiness of God shows us that there are no grades in sin as far as God is concerned. A mere lusting after a woman in the heart is equal to committing adultery by God’s standards (Matthew 5:28).

The best description of your sin, sir or ma, is that you are a wretch before God. This is why the hymn writer wrote:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now I’m found

I was blind but now I see…

A generation that knows little of the glorious grace of God that saves sinners have now decided to change the “a wretch” in that hymn to “someone”. It is a testimony to the loss of the glorious gospel in our churches. Gospel preaching has been replaced by an accursed gospel called the Prosperity Message, which has as its fulcrum a positivism that is nowhere found in scriptures, so that Christians are no longer wretches. They are now “someone”.

The Bible describes sin as a disease. It is a disease situated in the soul and it is despicable. The Bible says the hearts of men are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Paul said:

“No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God… Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouths is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their path is ruin and misery… there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10-18).

When Paul made this statement it was in the middle of describing the type of religion that Jews and Gentiles practiced. In other words, even among pious individuals we would find wickedness.

While human being can look on diseased human bodies in a book like “Your Health and You”, no one can look on the human heart and see the extent of deformity that sin has caused there. Yet sin is a disease to the soul. The extent of the damage that sin has caused to the human spirit can only be described by the Holy Spirit. This is a subject that would be taken up in another essay.

It would suffice to say here that only those who have been blinded by the god of this world, the devil, and those who are blinded by their own self-righteousness would think that they possess any good in them to make heaven. We are all candidates of hell; we are all heading to an eternity without God without Christ… if we do not know the true nature of our sins.

The good news in the Christian message is that Christ has come to deliver humanity from the cause and tyranny of sin. However, we cannot know deliverance from this tyranny until we see sin as it truly is: despicable.

Every human being is a sinner. Every human being is deserving of eternal separation from God. There is no one living on earth who can make heaven. There is nothing in us that can keep the righteous standards of God. We are vile and wretched before a holy God. Your sin will ruin you.

However, thanks be to God for redemption in Christ Jesus. Amen.

… to be continued.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the books Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached one newdejix@gmail.com.

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/your-sin-and-you/

Redoil:
Who are we to listen to deji yusuf or those been castigated

Those who have ears to hear listen...

MuttleyLaff:
"For it is the time for the judgment to have begun from the house of God;
and if from us first, what will be the outcome of those disobeying the gospel of God?"
- 1 Peter 4:17

VBCampaign, knows he can rely on me to type an objective tell it as it is, comment, to his write-ups.

I find it grating when those who should know better, start asking questions wanting to know the reason for you being critical of this and that Christian denomination. Some even go to the length of claiming one insults and castigates every preacher, that insults are hauled on pastors who are at helms of prominent fellowships, and disregarding them being seniors, but when they point their bony little wagging finger to say something in those lines, I think to myself, what planet are they living in or what rock/stone are they under living? Arent they aware of 1 Peter 4:17 above ni? Dont they know that Jesus is not coming back to the Church that isn't without spot or wrinkle ni? Most, the likes of Biodun Fatoyinbo, Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Enoch Adeboye and a host of other pastors in Nigerian Pentecostal churches, if not already Pharisees, are increasingly becoming and behaving like a Pharisee, trying to entrap and trip up people, craving for and/or coveting the widows' mites. They are the the 21st century equivalent of the biblical Pharisees. Aside needing deliverance of this 21st century Pharisaical spirit inside, they each and all need the occasional kick up the jacksie, where the sun dont shine, for getting all the priorities wrong.

In all my entire time, of reading the Bible, over and over again, I have never once come across reading Jesus ever condemning any individual, but with the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes etcetera, it is a different kettle of fish. There is no love lost between them and Him. Jesus didnt have their time, He at every opportuned time was at loggerhead with them, even until the day of His death on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus never minced words with any of them. He insulted them, sent them message home to their father. He at one time and in a sitting cursed them 7 times in one go

I think, its Albert Einstein, who said: "We cannot solve our problems, with the same thinking, we used when we created them" Most of the problems, in the church are self inflicted brought on ourselves from bad teaching, deceitful doctrines, doctrines of demons etcetera and walking/playing into the hands of deceiving spirits. The trappings of power, wealth and the greed for filthy lucre plus merchandising the gospel solely for immediate personal benefit and comfort are other regular source of the problems plaguing the church

Everybody likes to talk about a good weather but nobody wants anything said about it, when bad. No one, whether senior or not senior, should expect to be painted golden, when in fact they are black, ugly and dark inside. When you provoke a reaction, it might be because a thought struck someone and caused them panic enough, to start to be asking questions, wanting to know the reason for you being critical of this and that Christian denomination. They seem to forget, that no matter whose ox is gored, things need to be said. No one is a sacred cow. No one is an institution, held to be above criticism nor be unreasonably immune from criticism.

Very well said

MuttleyLaff all the same

A Tale of Two Conversions

By: Deji Yesufu

A few days ago I was visited by Dr. Adunni Adelakun and we spent close to two hours discussing various themes on Pentecostal/Charismatic religion. Dr. Adelakun is researching an aspect of Nigerian Pentecostalism and her visit to me was to get my perspective on this. She particularly wanted to know why I was a lot critical of this Christian denomination. My discussion with her, being an academic, helped me to think through my disagreements properly and in answering one of her questions, I was able to pin point a fundamental problem with modern popular Charismatic churches in Nigeria. I would be talking about this in this article but rather than turn it into a theological discuss again, I wish to tell a story of two conversions that I have witnessed and then draw certain conclusions.

Jeremiah Saint is a man I know very well. He had grown up at a time of severe economic challenges in Nigeria and understood how many Nigerian used religions as a means for economic survival. Jeremiah was however different. He grew up in a middle class Nigerian home and was relatively unaffected by the economic downturn that the Nigerian nation witnessed under the government of Ibrahim Babangida 1990/91. In 1998, at his third year in the University, Jeremiah encountered the Christian gospel and began to attend a new generational church opposite his university campus. Not less than three months after joining this church, it became clear to Jeremiah that the messages he was hearing in this church were not doing his soul any good. The pastor, a graduate of Benson Idahosa seminary, centered his preaching on healing and prosperity. These were not Jeremiah’s needs.

Jeremiah needed solution to a major problem he had. He realized that though he had “given his life to Christ”, he was still challenged by many sins. He knew his heart and the messages he was hearing in church were not teaching him how to deal with his besetting sins. By God’s providence, Jeremiah would begin to read books and one of the books that left a great impression on his heart was Dr. R. T. Kendall’s “Worshipping God”. After writing extensively on what the Christian ought to do to live a life of worship, Kendall concluded his book by teaching a concept he called “The Joy of Doing Nothing”. Kendall said that the highest worship we could offer God was simply being in awe and wonder at what God has done; such awe that could make even saying “thank you” very inadequate. Kendall went on to write about the great doctrine of justification by faith. How the grace of God saves sinners and God requires nothing from us in return. Kendall had mentioned that these theme was threshed out in the writings of Apostle Paul. Thus Jeremiah spent most of his final days at the University studying these great themes of justification and the historical Christianity that taught them. Jeremiah believes today that his coming to Christ was not when “he gave his life to Christ” as such; rather, it was when he understood the gospel of the grace of God to sinners.

The second conversion story that I wish to talk about here revolves around the testimony of a well-known Nigerian minister. This Pastor actually talks about his conversion experience too. Only that it was also one of those “giving your life to Christ” situation that is prevalent in Nigerian Charismatic churches. This pastor’s genuine encounter with God would however revolve around healing. For the sake of anonymity, we would call him Pastor X. Pastor X believes that he inherited migraine headaches from his mother. From his testimony, he said he had become addicted to pain killers. However, when he became a Christian he felt that he needed to get God to heal him of these headaches. So he stopped using those drugs and believed God for healing. In the process of waiting for his healing, he had the worst headaches of his life. In fact he testifies of how he once blew his nose while taking his bath and out came a flow of blood with mucus. He simply laughed at the devil and claimed his healing. Pastor X says he is not sure when he eventually got healed. All he knows was that the headaches just stopped. He no longer uses drugs of any kind and the headaches are totally gone.

Today, Pastor X and Jeremiah Saint are in the ministry. Two of them claim to preach Jesus Christ but they proffer different solutions to two different problems in the Christian life. Pastor X believes that when a Christian has given his life to Christ, he can now trust God to bring healing and prosperity to him – all by faith. Jeremiah disagrees vehemently with Pastor X. Jeremiah believes that the central problem that God has with humanity is sin and that gospel preaching must be tailored to help sinners understand the grace of God that has come to all sinful humanity. He believes that genuine Christianity begins when a sinner comprehends his need for God’s justification and when he spend the rest of his life pursuing sanctification, with his hope fixed on the glory of Christ to come – his glorification. Pastor X believes these things too. He only thinks that the emphasis of the Bible, following conversion, is that Christians should live the good life. A sick Christian should claim healing for his illness and a poor Christian should give to God long enough to enter prosperity. Jeremiah believes that Pastor X preaches a false gospel. Pastor X thinks Jeremiah belongs to a cult.

This story forms the basis of my contention with modern Charismatic churches. So when Dr. Adelakun asked me what was the fundamental problem I have with these churches. I explained that it was in their not correctly identifying the overarching need of man. I told her that when Jesus was born, his mandate was simply to save men from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Sin is the fundamental need of fallen humanity; not sickness or poverty. Christ did not come to make men healthy and wealthy! Jesus Christ’s healing ministry was a pointer to his apostolic calling as one bringing God’s message to humanity and every time God sent an apostle, he gave him signs and wonders to authenticate his message. This was the case with Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha and the Apostles. Besides these ones, no one in the Bible had such miraculous ministries. Besides, as much as Christ healed people, he never promised anyone a life of wealth and ease. Rather, he told his disciples “…in the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33).

I have been writing against the prevailing prosperity themes in Pentecostal churches for a very long time but I would confess that I have never received as much backlash from readers as I received when I published “These Men Did Not Begin Well” last Sunday. In that article I made the claim that Biodun Fatoyinbo, Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Enoch Adeboye and a host of other pastors in Nigerian Pentecostal churches, in preaching a gospel of health and wealth, are not preaching the Christian message. They are not Christians because their testimony, like those of Pastor X, do not reflect persons who have encountered the gospel of Christ. They may have experienced healing and are today flowing in prosperity, but they have not encountered a gospel that can save them from their sins and thus they do not preach such a gospel. They simply cannot preach what they do not have. They have no genuine foundation in Christ and quite naturally the fruit of their lives and ministry would reflect the scandalous message they believe.

The Bible warns against faulty foundations. It all starts at how we all began. Chris Arnzen, of “Iron Sharpens Iron” radio, spends a great deal of his time trying to extract the conversion experience of his guests. He does this because whatever else we would all do as converted Christians would be premised on the Christ we encountered at the point of our conversion. Paul teaches that there is another Jesus that people preach (2 Corinthians 11:4). When you teach that Jesus died to make people healthy and wealthy, you are effectively preaching another Jesus. You may claim to be a Christian but you are not a Bible Christian.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo and Half a Millennium. He can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: http://mouthpiece.com.ng/a-tale-of-two-conversions/

Remembering SirJohn truth about Christ Embassy. The most successful thread on Nairaland ever!

Possibly the most popular thread on Nairaland. SirJohn I hail o .

Thread now on Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1769830829969058&id=100008264737265

MuttleyLaff:
What I call the naivety, ignorance, over-trustfulness, lack of suspicion(s) and sheeple spirit

MuttleyLaff the writer was a child... 14 years old when it happened

Facebook post...

The Busola Dakolo in All of Us

By: Ayo Adene (Culled from Facebook)

Backstory: Busola Dakolo is an alumnus of my secondary school.

That was where she was when she first knew Biodun Fatoyinbo.

At the time, Busola was a school fellowship leader.
Like Busola, I had been a student fellowship leader in the same school.

Back in Busola’s home town, Fatoyinbo was a fellowship leader.

Nowadays he is the senior pastor of a popular, youth-oriented church, COZA.

Busola’s exposure to Fatoyinbo led to a series of sexual violations.

The interview where Busola speaks for the 1st time about her experience, has led to a public debate, including whether she should have spoken up, or whether she can be believed.

***

When I was 12 years old, I didn’t know a lot about sex, except that it was forbidden.

I was raised in an environment where it was not okay to say the word penis.

That was a bad word. So we used euphemisms instead. Like, kòkòrò.

Yes, we conflated sexuality with morality.

Then one sunny afternoon, in the Staff School at Ibadan, Mr Boadi broached the subject of puberty to my Primary Six class.

As he described the sex organs and their changes, the boys sniggered and the girls blushed.

Then one boy at the back of the room, Sola, who was bigger than the rest of us, whipped out his kòkòrò.

When the other boys who sat on his row, saw how big Sola’s kòkòrò was, they burst into excited laughter. Some girls saw it too, and squealed.

That’s how my generation was raised. To be awkward, ashamed & dismissive about sex.

By the time I was 14, I had moved on to the School for Gifted Children, that had just been established in the federal capital territory. The same school Busola Dakolo would later join.

Our set was the pioneer class, and many had never been so far from home.

Boys and girls stayed in separate boarding houses, and from the window of my room in the dorm, I could see Aunty Dupe’s home.

A slim, dark young woman, with a scarf over her demure perm, Aunty Dupe was the boarding house mistress, who lived beyond the mechanical water pump, facing the girls hostel.

At the time, I had become the leader of the students’ Christian fellowship. Aunty Dupe was a prominent elder there, among the teachers who regularly participated in the fervent prayer and worship sessions we had twice a week.

On Sundays and Wednesdays, Aunty Dupe was a deeply spiritual woman who spoke in tongues and received prophecies direct from heaven.

But, during school hours, she was also my Economics teacher.

Under Aunty Dupe’s tutelage, I would become the star student, who always scored the top grades in Economics tests. So much that whenever Bimbo or Justin overtook my first place, I’d get upset. I felt I knew Adam Smith and Inelasticity of Demand & Supply, like the back of my hand.

And at night, Aunty Dupe taught me other things.
Things that were not in our textbooks.

See in those days, the new school had yet to be connected to electricity. We operated a stand by generator, which was switched off after prep every evening.

And after all students had retired to the dormitory, I would get a handwritten note, delivered by anyone of the girls, who lived in the dormitory right next to Aunty Dupe’s house.

That she wanted to see me.

And I went.

I would walk the short distance between my hostel, past the mechanical water pump boys often used for testing their muscles. I would knock on the door to Aunty Dupe’s bungalow.

She would open, and let me in.

Inside, it was dimly lit.

A rechargeable lamp with a bulb that had seen better days, a flickering candle on a table in the corner, and that was all.

At the door, I could make out a dining table, with 2 chairs. And in the distance, a soft sofa.

Someone sat there. It was Mark ( real name withheld).
Mark and I had grown up in the same university campus as children, but he had gone off to school in Ilorin, and now we were together again in this gifted school.

He was friend, confidant and brother all at once.
And he sat there, in the sofa, in the dark.
I said Hey. Mark said Hey.

And Aunty Dupe sat smiling, at the dinner table.
In front of her, an open bible. The big, black type, with many appendices and colored bookmarks.

Aunty Dupe pulled a chair for me, and I sat with her.

Silence.

Awkward silence.

Feet shuffling.

Crickets chirping.

Mark coughed.

I have to go he said.

He got up.

“Ok, Mark. God bless you”, she said.

And my friend was gone.

And the teacher and I, were alone.

Then she told me things.

About the Holy Spirit.

She’d had her eye on me, she said.

She knew I was gifted with the things of The Spirit, she said.

But I need to go farther, you see.

I needed to develop a deeper discernment of The Spirit, you see.

“Pull your chair closer to mine” Aunty Dupe said.

I drew closer.

“No, closer” she said
And I did, until we were face to face.

The candle flickered.

The crickets chirped.

I smelt her fragrant talc, and her misty breath.

And she leaned in to my face, and asked: “Do you trust me?”

Why not. In this dark house. In the middle of nowhere.

With other students and staff fast asleep in their beds.

Yes, I trusted this woman. She was a mother in Israel, and she wanted to help me develop my spiritual gifts.
“Yes, of course” I answered.

“Good”, she said. “Now I’m going to teach you to fully trust the Holy Spirit: “Open your mouth”
She gazed into my eyeballs. The flickering lights from the candle became a blur as I accommodated her dimly lit face in my field of view, and blocked out everything else.

Obediently, I said “Aahh…”

Then she leaned into me, and slowly, began to insert her moist tongue into my opened mouth.

I flinched.

“Don’t,” Aunty Dupe chastised, drawing back.

“I’m sorry” I said.

Then she smiled. “You have to relax, and let the Lord use you”.

Again she repeated, “Do you trust me?”

I nodded.

She leaned in, and inserted her tongue farther, exploring my buccal cavity.

Silence. Crickets. A flickering candle in the corner of my eye.

I closed my eyes, and felt how open I had become to the Holy Spirit. Or Aunty Dupe. Or the Holy Spirit. I wasn’t sure which was which any more.

And my heart beat faster with each gentle flick of the teacher’s tongue inside my open mouth, but I was doing what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do.

Time became a blur, until my teacher withdrew her tongue, leaned back, and smiled.

Her big black bible still lay open on the dining table, so she took it and flipped a page or two. She read out some verse I needed to meditate upon, until our next meeting.

She escorted me to the door, and I crossed the road. The crickets no longer chirped, and the stars above had gone to bed. And so I did I.

And on other nights, there were other meetings.

***

If I had wanted to tell a teacher, or my parents, how would I describe what happened?

In those days, difficult discussions would often close with, “now let us commit such-and-such into the hands of the Lord”.

That’s not the kind of culture that helps a child to open up.

Until this year, and until therapy, I hadn’t even known that the action performed on me by a trusted Church leader when I was 14 was not spiritual at all.

Which is why, what Busola Dakolo has done, years after it happened, takes growth.

And, when one person’s outspokenness exposes the unhealed traumas of very many others, there are bound to be those who shout her down, to avoid confronting their own repressed truths.

One person’s honesty can also help others.

When I told my friend Tola ( real name withheld), about my nights with the teacher, she shocked me with her own revelation … that the boarding house master who lived across the road from Aunty Dupe’s house, had sexually assaulted her too.

***

I have one picture of me in Aunty Dupe’s house.

Even though the photography is no longer clear, there’s a lot of body language to interpret.

My teacher leaning into me.

Me crossing my hands and legs defensively.

And my face, the innocence, the naïveté.

I didn’t see it clearly when I was 14, until recently, with some help.

Likewise, all the Busolas out there will never open up, without at least one person telling them it's okay to do so.

What makes adults who exploit positions of power over children unstoppable?

Silence.

If you’re reading this, you know that as Nigerians, the way we think about how the world works, and the conversations we have about sexuality, and sexual abuse, need to change.

Attached picture: Ayo as a student with Aunty Dupe

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2429724103979724&id=100008264737265

Anas09:
Deji Yesufu, the man Jehovah seeks counsel from on matters of earth.

Deji Yesufu, the man who instructs Jehovah on what actions to take and which men He shd elect as His servants.

Deji Yesufu, the Man who knows who is a Christian and who is not.

Deji Yesufu, the man who knows what is contained in the Covenant and what to be done to inherit them.

But, this greatest man of God and the best Christian who has ever lived since Jesus Christ does not know that, there are two Dimensions to Christ, As in, earthly realities and heavenly realities. He only projected the heavenly dimension and realities and totally left out the earthly.

Does Deji Yesufu still realises that Christ created man to live and inhabit the earth, not heaven?

Does he still realises that everything he has condemned here as being preached by the Evangelical pastors are the things Jesus created for His people to enjoy on earth had Adam remained Faithful to God?

Does Deji Yesufu still realises that the death of Christ on the cross restored all what Adam lost to satan in Eden which begins with eternal life and ends with every other thing he stands against?

Does Deji wish that we receive Salvation from sin but remain under the bondage of sicknesses and diseases?


Wld Deji wish Christians to be Holy in their Souls but remain weak in fear of elements and failures of life?

Wld Deji wish for Christians to be Sanctified but remain defeated in their life's endeavours?

Wld he wish that Christians remain Failures, hopeless ans helpless when it comes to the earthly things?

Does Deji know what these words Redemption, Justification, and substitution means?

When I read what men who seem to be intelligent like Deji Yesufu writes, in my small corner I shudder. This man takes a position of judgment everytime against others yet postulates what if one is not informed, will believe to be true.

Pls anyone who can reach Yesufu, shd let him know that he is riding on a dead horse.

After Jesus had Redeemed, Justified and subtituted himself for us, he still wants us to keep living on earth in Victory over all of those things he preaches against, until he comes back. Even when he comes, it is still here on earth that He Himself shall live with Us reigning and ruling over the earth, not heaven.

Those names he mentioned preaches Redemption, Justification and substitution and the New Covenant Realities (Full package) which he is against.

Someone shd pls tell Yesufu that God did not create earthly material wealth for satan and his thugs. He created them for Man. Although man lost them to satan once, but Jesus by redemption, has now restored Man back to the place of Dominion, power and Victory.

Yesufu is a scriptural illiterate. He lacks insight into the Divine Design and It's underlying realities.

Deji will respond to you if you will respond to the content of what he wrote. Take a few of his point and attempt refuting them, then Deji will attend to you.