THE BOMBARDED FALLACY. (PASTORS, THE AUTHORS OF CONFUSION IN CHRISTIANITY.) Episode 2 By: Abdulkabeer ibn Tijani.

For quite some time now, a lot of controversies and criticisms has evolved in the Nigerian churchscape as regards false doctrines especially, the issue of tithe. There's no doubt, doctrines that have no biblical origin  and are feasibly unrealisable must be outrightly dispelled. It is in the light of this that some lingering questions surfaced on my mind and they all seem to put a question mark on the claim of Christians believing they're one body in Christ.

Very quickly, let's take a look at the factors that made me to come to this weird conclusion. Pastor WF kumuyi, pastor DK olukoya and the Jehovah's witnesses  believes Christmas is a pagan tradition, so it's not celebrated in their Churches. Whereas pastor E.A Adeboye of the RCCG,  pastor David Oyedepo of living faith church, and millions of pastors around the world readily embrace and celebrate Christmas. Also, unlike other bibles, the Jehovah's witness Bible has the word "God" replaced with "Jehovah" in its entirety. The kumuyi's deeper life bible church on the other hand, believes king James version of the holy bible is the most unadulterated, hence it's preferred to other bible versions. Another funny thing is that unlike other churches, the Jehovah's witnesses don't close their eyes to pray. I was even told some don't pray at all, yet we all claim to be Christians.

The issue of dressing has caused a lot of traffic on the media, both reasonable and unreasonable responses were given to support different ideologies. Deeper life members, especially ladies can easily be spotted out without stress, owing to her long pleated skirt, her thick well wounded hair tie or turban, and her bogus top clothing. But the same can't be said of the ladies in pastor David Oyedepo's Church. Ladies dress in tight trousers, some wear sleeveless tops and appear sexy even on Sundays. They believe true worship is in the heart and not the garment. Same goes for many other churches in Nigeria.

The Catholic and Anglican churches share certain doctrines in common, but the differences are also worth looking into. Catholics, unlike other churches pray through Mary the mother of Jesus using the rosary. Also they believe the use of contraceptives such as CDs even after marriage is ungodly. They recommend menstrual cycle method which is a nice but socially unrealisable idea. Neonatal baptismal practice is another concrete Catholic practice that differentiate them from other churches.

The message of spirituality and spiritual possession is not far from the reach of garment wearing Christian churches. Unlike other Christian churches, white or multicolored garment uniformed Christian churches employ the services of multicolored candles, holy perfumes "turari", holy water, staffs and all sorts of "holy" equipment. Funnily enough, these set of Christians believe its sheer display of ignorance and disrespect to march into the sacred ground of worship with your shoes on, hence they walk barefooted to church.
However, these hasn't stopped people from referring to all these leaders as men of God. Does it mean God speaks with both sides of the mouth? Definitely not!

My candid advice to the pastors and religious leaders is that they should come together to discuss the doctrines, dispel unprofitable ones and uphold biblical and socially realisable ones. Until Christians have one doctrine and speak in one voice like the early churches did, I still don't see any prospect of moving Christianity forward in Nigeria.

©I'm Abdulkabeer.
#Mr Africa.

Artwork By; Edgar Payne