Having lived for almost 14 years in Israel I decided a few months ago that it was time to get to know a bit more about the country and signed up for Israeli history studies. An important part of Israel’s history is closely linked to Christianity and I was intrigued about how successful Christianity has been in spreading The Word across the world. Today 33% of the people on the world are Christians.

Jesus himself had some nice marketing moves up his sleeves. Healing the sick and the blind, telling them to keep it a secret is of course a great way to get rumours going. But still Saint Paul was the main responsible for bringing His Word to the rest of the world.

Saul of Tarsus (later to be known as St Paul) was a Jew born a few years after Jesus in the year 5 AD in a small city, in what today is known as southern Turkey. He started out as a fierce antagonist and prosecutor of early Christians, and even participated in the stoning of the first Christian martyr St. Stephen. He had a change of heart when he was send to Damascus to bring back the Jews who left their faith and turned to Christianity.

On his way a strong light hit him. He falls from his horse onto the ground and goes blind. Suddenly a voice speaks to him. “Saul! Saul! Why are you so cruel to me? “Who are you?” Saul asked. I am Jesus,” the Lord answered. “I am the one you are so cruel to. Now get up and go into the city, where you will be told what to do. The Lord sent Ananias, a healer, to make him see again. Saul converted and became a believer.

St Paul (Saul) returns to Jerusalem and meets with Jesus’ students. In 50 AD the apostles hold a Conference (the Counsel of Jerusalem) where they do some serious strategic thinking. Since Israel as a Beta market had disappointing results, the Jewish people were unwilling to buy their ideas; they decided it was time to focus on different markets. They made some important adjustments to their “service”, knowing their mostly pagan target groups abroad do not like some of the original ideas, mainly in regard to circumcision and kosher food.

Paul is the perfect candidate to be VP Marketing and Sales.

As a man of the world he travelled the Roman Empire and was born and raised amongst their new target group. He is familiar with their traditions and experienced conversion first handedly; he knows exactly what is to gain and how to sell. When it came to spreading the message effectively, Paul’s mastery of Greek and Hebrew learning and his political acuteness were to prove extraordinary tools, which he used to great advantage. He was so utterly successful that no trace today remains of those who believed that Jesus Christ, rather than founding a new religion, had tried to progress the teachings of an existing spiritual tradition.

From that point forward, he travelled the Roman Empire (Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Spain, etc.) preaching to mostly pagan worshippers about how to live a Christian life. His persistence played an important part in Christianity taking hold outside of the land of Israel and undoubtedly earned his title. Life as a VP marketing Christianity wasn’t easy at the time. As he writes in 2 Corinthians 11:23b-38, “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.”

Since Paul couldn’t be everywhere at the same time, He started blogging; writing letters back and forth with groups of Christians abroad. Giving advice concerning problems they encounter and bringing great content about how to become good Christians. His letters are called epistles and where found so important by the church that today’s bible consists of 14 of his letters that amount to almost 30% of the new testament’s content.

Every marketing executive could learn a thing or two from St. Paul about reaching the “tipping point” and how to adjust offerings to the marketplace.

St. Paul is said to have been beheaded during the reign of Roman emperor Nero.

“Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away,” wrote Arthur Golden.

Isn’t this the story of Christianity and the mighty Roman Empire? Rivers of living water flowing out of the lives of Christians eventually overcame the mighty dam of Roman persecution. Within a few hundred years, the small and often persecuted movement called Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe and the Western world.

“Anyone who teaches you about God is breathing life into your spirit,” says Zack, 12. “Jesus helps our spirit grow in truth, knowledge and strength.”

Zack has captured the essence of Christianity. When the truth of the gospel of grace is spoken and hearers believe in Jesus Christ as their savior, God breathes his very life into their spirits. Law, including the 10 Commandments, can never transform a person from the inside out. Only God’s life can do this.

In writing a story for the Washington Post, I interviewed Pastor John Woods, the executive director of Washington’s 150-bed Gospel Mission: “We believe anyone can put a new suit on a man, but only the grace of God can put a new man in the suit. A gospel mission is the only place a guy can come in blind drunk and retire 25 years later as its executive director.”

Water is essential for life. You can live three weeks or longer without food, but you can live only three or four days without water. If you’re in a desert where it is very hot in the middle of summer, you could die in three or four hours without water.

By using the metaphor “rivers of living water” flowing out of the inner lives of his followers, Jesus is also saying that without him you won’t be satisfied. You’ll hop from one relationship or thing to another looking for a way to quench your thirst. If Jesus is the author and restorer of life, you’ll be frustrated with all attempts to find life apart from him. Even expensive attempts by the wealthy as featured on television shows and magazine articles will result in dryness. Guaranteed!

“I think that the more you pray, the more of God’s river flows through your body to your brain,” says Thomas, 10. “When it goes to your brain, you think of God.”

If you’re a Christian, you may have noticed that the flow of God’s life through you varies depending upon your closeness to God. Yes, even Christians can experience spiritual dryness if they are not walking closely with the Lord. Consider yourself blessed if you have regular fellowship with a Christian who is overflowing with God’s river of life.

The Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of the New Jerusalem’s center: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” (Rev. 22:1). Furthermore, the water of life is offered freely to all who thirst: “And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely,” (Rev. 22:17b).

Think about this: Jesus, as the water of life, wants live-giving water to flow freely through his people to a thirsty world.

Memorize this truth: Revelation 22:17b previously quoted.

Ask this question: If you have drunk of the water of life, are God’s rivers of living waters flowing freely through you to the thirsty people you encounter every day?

God created Adam from the dust of the earth. After he had formed the dust of the earth into man, he breathe in the air of life into his nostrils so that he become a living human being (Genesis 2: 7). The theory of human evolution is based on primate evolution. After God had created Adam, he created Eve. He created Eve to be the companion of Adam. Eve was created by using one of the ribs of Adam. God made Adam fell asleep so that he can take out his rib and used it to create Eve (Genesis 2:20 – 23). God created human in his image (Genesis 1:26 – 27). Human beings have features that resemble God. Human beings have a spirit but animals don't have. The spirit is the real you. The body is only a shell for the spirit. The spirit lives forever. After you die, your spirit will either go to God or end up in hell depending on whether you fully obey God's commandment while on earth. This is contrary to the human evolution theory, which claim that human beings are derived from apes.

Some Christians claim that there is no need to follow the commandments in the Old Testament because it has become invalid when the new covenant become effective after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through the blood of Jesus, our sins are atoned so that we no longer have to use the blood of animal sacrifice to obtain the forgiveness of God (Hebrews 9: 6 – 7). The new covenant allows us to get saved and inherit eternal life by putting faith in Jesus. In the Old Testament, the people get saved by obeying and doing God's commandments. However, the new covenant does not render the Old Testament as invalid.

1 Timothy 2:13 – 15 states that Adam was formed first and then Eve was formed.1 Corinthians 15:45 states that the first Adam was made a living being and the last Adam, which is Jesus is a life-giving spirit, so that all who believes in him will have eternal life. Luke 3:23 – 38 is an account of the genealogy of Jesus from Joseph to Adam. Romans 5:14 states that all men will die because of the sin of Adam, for disobeying God's commandment to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 1 Corinthians 15:22 states that we die through transgressions, which stemmed from Adam and Eve's sin and we are born again when we put our faith in Christ and abide in him.

I remember taking issue with The Philadelphia Trumpet magazine's frequent use of the term "Palestine" when they were referring to the Holy Land of Israel.

Both Gerald Flurry, editor-in-chief of The Philadelphia Trumpet, and his son, Stephen Flurry were guilty of using the loaded term of "Palestine."

Gerald Flurry quoted Shmuel Schnitzer lamenting the new Jewish people who are "preparing to deny our [Jewish] rights, both the divine promise and in terms of REFERRING TO THE LAND BY THE NAME OF ITS PEOPLE," The Land of Israel '- a land which belongs to the Children of Israel, from then and to eternity … " [emphasis mine] and then, himself, continues in" Israel Lost Vision "blind to his own hypocrisy," Let's look back at Palestine's recent history. "

Yes, let's look at what name GOD gave the land as an inheritance of all Twelve Tribes of Israel . GOD named it after our patriarch ISRAEL. Satan inspired the Romans to mock God and dishonor our Father by attempting to erase Israel's name off the map! "They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more'" (Psalms 83: 4). Why join with the enemies of God and Israel? Why give credence to an ILLEGITIMATE name? God forbid Israel ever becomes "Palestine"!

Since I truly believe they wanted to go by the Bible, I encouraged them to do so and properly refer to the Land of Israel by its GOD ORDAINED NAME – Israel!

In fact, I made a public issue of it only after I saw they persisted in their error by writing "An Open Letter to Stephen Flurry Concerning 'Palestine'" in the November / December 1996 issue of The National Messenger. It appears they now refer to "Judah" or "Israel (biblical Judah)" instead of the accursed "Palestine." Hallelujah!

Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God

The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah

Many students of the church have observed Africa's crucial role in the evangelization of the world. Nowhere in the world is Christianity rapidly spreading like wild fire as it is in Africa. Churches are planted in their hundreds in the year across the once heathen nations. Missionaries are sent to once mission sending nations from Africa, and many exciting phenomena.

The above notwithstanding, the Sierra Leonean church has grave problems. The character of the church community has left many thinking if this is all there is to Christianity and whether they want to be identified with such a life style. How is it possible for a nation like Sierra Leone that was the first to receive the gospel in Africa South of the Sahara to be plagued by enormous vice? Is Christianity in the Sierra Leonean church a mile wide but an inch deep? It is incontrovertible that several things have gone wrong.

1. Negative characteristics, practices and attributes of the church

Central to one's observation are fundamental or root causes (problems) that find manifestation in various forms. To solve the problems the church firstly needs to identify them.

a. Lack of proper theological training: The African church is plagued by grave ignorance. It is generally assumed that Christian workers do not require balanced training. At worst, it is the misfits of the society who should be Christian workers. Consequently, the church is considered to be privileged to have a trained accountant as its pastor having graduated from a University, even if s / he does not have some theological bearing.

b. Lack of commitment to Biblical holiness: There is confusion over the doctrine of holiness. Some have taught the standard so low that they are comfortable with sinful behaviors. Others look at holiness as a goal they have attained and need no progress. Yet another is the assumption that holiness is unattainable in the present life. So beside the commitment is the lack of knowledge and clear teaching of holiness. Even the little, muddled up, that is known is not lived. Pastors have also contributed to this demise. They contradict by lifestyle what they teach. There is a great lapse in the church. Believers are accommodated to sin.

c. Lack of proper teaching: Chinyere Madugba is right when she observed that people who are not ready for discipleship are not ready to be pruned. Unfortunately people are taught to acquire such things as will promote their prided and greed. Is it not ironic to have several Christians in Freetown yet be plagued with so much crime? The church is inevitably a contributor. Central to the problem is the lack of proper teaching. People cannot profess to be Christians who are not ready to be guided by Christian ethic. Christianity is not a 'Sunday gown' to be worn to church on Sundays and abandoned throughout the weekends.

d. Spill over: One could reasonably state that the above issues could be the core to the problem of the church in Africa. However, in manifestation, various forms are evident.

i. Pride: Pride is the esteem of oneself to be superior, through some false measure, to others who are considered inferior. Pride is a symptom of an unbroken self. The lack of teaching on the discipline of the Christian life leaves an untouched part of human being that exposes itself in pride. This could be seen in the much desire and attachment to titles, positions, acquisition of unwanted property and certificates. It is incontrovertible that it is presently an unrebuked sin in the Sierra Leonean church.

ii. Self-centered prayer: The populous teaching on prayer in African churches has a lot of African Traditional Religion (ATR) intrusion: the progress of oneself and the destruction of his enemies – 'back to sender', 'fire for fire', Holy Ghost pursue them '. They believe that all answers to prayers should instantaneous.

iii. Misunderstanding of revival: Revival is generally considered as one of the annual church scheduled programs when believers are called to be serious with the Lord. The Biblical meaning of revival is missing. The sense of revival as being moral and essentially coming back alive to God is not the understood sense of revival.

2. Characteristics, practices and attitudes needing transformation

It is sad to note that the African church may neither have nor sustain a revival until the minimum revival conditions of God are met.

a. Trained personnel: Africa is in need of Biblical theologians, pastors and Christian workers trained in both doctrine and practice of Biblical Christianity. These are to set the standard for practical Christian living. A pastor that will be used of God in bringing revival to his congregation must be knowledgeable in doctrine and experience of sanctification. The pulpit is central to revival and there cannot be revival until the man of the pulpit or some section of his congregation is transformed.

b. Commitment to holiness: The African church needs to be re-taught that the claims to be Christian carry with them responsible Christian living. Revival could easily come when people are not ignorant in doctrine and the pursuit of Biblical holiness. If holiness is the product of salvation, then not being holy is to deny salvation.

3. Agencies for a continuous revival

The church must be committed to teaching. The basics of Christianity and the Christian walk should be made as clear as possible: the way of salvation, the fullness of the Spirit, how He can be obtained and the necessity of Christian discipline. In the context of revival, Christians should have a biblical meaning of revival, how it should be sought and the condition under which it must be sought. People should also be taught about the gravity of sin and its consequences. Holiness is God's desire for His people, and to walk in holiness is to walk in God's will and pleasure.
In addition, Christians should know that seeking God involves a process. They must seek the face of the Lord in humility and consecration. Surrender or consecration is not a performance of will but a perfection of devotion of love. Revival will come when God's conditions are met. It comes in the context of clear teaching of sin, salvation, fullness of the Spirit, repentance, total surrender, appropriation of the gift of faith and in prayer and fasting.

4. Conclusion

It is with deep regret that we state that Sierra Leone might not have a genuine biblical revival and cannot sustain it even if it should be experienced until there is a refocus on the need for genuine repentance and prayer, training of church workers, knowledge in doctrine and ethics, and as a church committed to the Biblical teaching and practice of holiness.

Isn’t it bizarre how differently people deal with adversity? Some people seem to get crushed very easily with the slightest thing against them, and yet others’ defences seem almost impenetrable — they accept the worst, deal with it, and appropriate the truth about themselves into their very beings. And there are a multitude of responses in between those two great extremes.

T find this is a key difference between those who choose the genuine Christian life and the rest — though Christians don’t have a mortgage on this sort of resilience. For Christians however, faith and surrender means placing our trust entirely in God’s hands for him to dictate to us our moves, through prayer and his Word. Why do so many go the wrong way, and so often?

This can be explained many ways, but one theory that’s worthy of exploration is locus of control. In short, an external locus of control suggests ‘stuff happens to me,’ ‘don’t blame me, it’s not my fault,’ and ‘how could I succeed in these circumstances?’ An internal locus of control however, is the opposite: ‘I failed the exam because I didn’t prepare adequately enough,’ ‘I create the stuff that happens to me,’ and ‘I know there must be a way of succeeding in these circumstances.’

Without getting into the psychological theory of Julian B. Rotter (1954) and others, I think we’d all agree that having more of an internal locus of control i.e. being more responsible about our own role regarding the impact of things on our lives, is preferable to having a predominantly external locus of control that sees other things and people attributed for our success or failure.

The interesting thing for Christians is this: we need to have a semblance of external locus of control. God creates things via his will and so circumstances generally occur because of his will. We attribute things and goings on to him, or to the devil, pure and simple. There’s at least a partial spiritual realm attribution.

Where we come in however is our response to the things that occur in our lives, notwithstanding this attribution of God’s activity in the world. At one point we accept it, but if we have a predominantly internal locus of control we don’t rest on a spiritual realm attribution alone.

Now, it seems to me to be a plain thing that most people want to blame others for their misfortune. It’s a rank folly and a deceit for people to believe this. If we fail, more often than not it is our fault and no one else’s, at least partially, and we should be able to see that. We should then learn from the mistake if at all possible. That’s a demonstration of internal locus of control — for the person to ‘take on board’ ownership, problem-solve, and then search for solutions to adverse life situations. Moreover, if things happen to us and they are unfortunate, and they genuinely had nothing to do with us, we need to have the resilience to cope; live to fight another day.

Christian people of all people should be past-masters of this trade. They should’ve been discipled and mentored to such an extent that the true gospel message of repentance is firmly entrenched — yet how few reach this ‘halcyon’ level? It is disturbing that many claim to be followers of Christ, and for many years, and yet still struggle with this elementary factor of faith.

“Deem it pure joy brothers and sisters,” James says, “whenever you face trials, tests, and temptations of many various kinds.” (My paraphrase of James 1:2) We must expect them and not be surprised by them. This will assist us in taking these ‘on,’ ensuring that we, as much as possible, can continue in glee with the thing still bearing down on us — because we know that the LORD is with us and for us. It is for him that we can assume ownership of all things that come our way. This is not just theory; we must be put into practice. We must resist the pity party.

The prize accorded a predominant and healthy internal locus of control is maturity; of faith and of personality. It’s what others see, and the Spirit of God in us, that is the key. As the writer to the Hebrews suggested, “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.” (Hebrews 6:1-3 NIV) This maturity is hard work, but nonetheless necessary. Let’s not shirk our responsibility for the things that occur to us.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

The Absurd Faith of Abraham

Abraham’s faith allowed him to do something on Mt. Moriah with respect to the sacri­fice of Isaac which defied all reason, logic and moral sense. But Abraham, because of his faith in God above all, believed in that absurd instruction and was prepared to do it based solely on faith. Obviously, to any reasonable definition, this was blind faith since there were no available justifications in the sense-perception realm.

In his little book Fear and Trembling, the opening part of which addresses Abraham’s faith on Mt. Moriah, the Danish theologian Kierkegaard used the much misunderstood and maligned phrase, “the Impossibility Possibility.” By this, Kierkegaard meant that the promise had to come through Isaac and that would obviously be impossible if he sacrificed Isaac. But Abraham believed in the possibility of this impossibility.

If this had to be done, God could raise Isaac from the dead, be­cause that was where Abraham got him from to begin with. That this was Abraham’s reasoning is verified by St. Paul in Romans 4:16-21. It is simply nonsense for anyone to claim that this request, or obedience to it, was not absurd from the ra­tional, logical, mortal point of view. Abraham could only do this because his belief in God (as to His wisdom, His good­ness, His love and His character) took precedence over every other consideration. Of course it was impossible and required a blind leap of faith. But this leap was not into the blackness and despair of nihilism; it was into the arms of a loving and faith­ful God.

Age of Reason Theology Denies the Biblical Concept of Faith

In denying this and by taking an adamant stand against any concept of a blind leap of faith no matter how it is defined, Apologetic Theology has failed to face up to the real issues here.

Neo-Orthodoxy

But this phrase meant something quite different when Barth and the Neo-Orthodox crowd got through with it. They saw their dialectic theological views as being advanced by the phrase “Impossibility Possibility” and twisted Kierkegaard’s views to make them conform to their own. It is not necessary to try to justify Kierkegaard’s stream of consciousness in the rest of his book (things which can hardly be understood much less accepted) in order to observe that in commenting on Abraham’s faith, he never had anything in mind like that which as been attributed to him by Barth and the Neo-Orthodox.

The Philosophical Apologists

Philosophical Apology, that seeks to rationalize away the transcendental reality of God (In Orthodoxy God is transcendental in that He can only be known by revelation and not by reason), has fared little better. To them, truth is a truth of philosophy, reason, science, religion, and experience. A case can be made for belief in the existence of God and His actions as revealed by the Bible without involving a faith in revelation–a faith that believes thought it cannot see or understand why.

It hardly needs to be said that Kierkegaard’s view of Abraham’s faith on Mt. Moriah was at complete odds with Philosophical Apologetics. For this he has been unfairly condemned by religious humanism. Apparently Francis A. Schaeffer never was able to comprehend Kierkegaard, though he did acknowledge, in How Should We Then Live, that he may well have misunderstood Kierkegaard. The real problem lay in the fact that Schaeffer subscribed to a theology that was a truth of reason, science, and philosophy and did not require a faith that could believe without sight. Unfortunately for the modern church which found his books so very attractive, Schaeffer’s theology, like that of C.S. Lewis before him, had its roots in the Enlightenment and Western thought and was not Orthodox.

That is the popular and, thank God (if you’ll pardon the use of the G name) the politically correct feeling among most Christians today. You will recall that in the second book of the Potter series, The Chamber Of Secrets, Harry Potter alone heard the voice of the basilisk. When he confided in his two friends about it, one told him that even in the wizarding world, hearing voices is not a good thing. Like art imitating reality, can’t we say that even in our non-wizarding world, it’s not a good thing to be hearing voices. Whether those voices be God’s or someone else’s voice.

Most of us would agree that hearing voices in your head, voices that aren’t there, this is indeed a bad thing. In fact it used to be a sign of being crazy. But what if the person claims to be hearing God’s voice? How can we know if God is speaking to this guy such that we can’t immediately lock him up in the looney bin?

The obvious answer is that we, the non-Harry Potter-hearing-voices-people, have to recall the eleven different ways that God speaks to mankind. Some of those ways are observable and objectively verifiable. Others are not observable but they can be verified. Examples in the first category are the times that God spoke to Moses out loud and all the other Israelites could hear their conversation. Or when God the Father spoke to Jesus during his baptism, and the others gathered around heard that talk. Or when the wayward prophet Balaam had a talking to by his donkey. Makes you wonder who the dumb animal was at that time, doesn’t it?

Only daring men and women choose to hear God’s voice today. Many christians don’t hear God because they don’t know what exercises to do that would enable them to hear his voice. While other christians choose not to hear God out of fear of what their friends will say about them. They will likely be considered to be crazy, religious fanatics, and attempting to glorify themselves. Worst yet, those christians will be imposing their morality on the rest of us because they claim to have heard God. Right?

The value of hearing God is that it saves lives. I recall the time that God told me to pray for a certain Dee Jay (Strawberry Jan) that used to be on KEZY 1190 AM. He told me that she was in danger and I was to pray for her often. So I did, even though I didn’t know her, and knew nothing of her personal or professional life. Six years later she was nearly killed by a drunk driver on the freeway. Finally about 15 years later I met Strawberry Jan in person. I am certain that my prayers were central to God’s plan to save her life in that accident, prevent certain injuries and lessen others during the years.

If you are courageous and want to hear God, then contact me toll free at (877) 230-0100 or by email at sgtrepo@comcast.net

Christianity has been of the greatest importance to the USA since the time when the first settlers stepped on the Plymouth Rock. Ever since the USA has upheld the Christian values ​​teaching them as mandatory in schools and even conducting witch hunts. At present the church is separated from the State to assure the normal functioning of other religions, while being no longer mandatory, but rather optional for studying. In the following essay I am going to speak about the Christian education as always being the option for the citizens of the USA and to explain the importance of Christian education and the role it plays in our society.

Christianity has constantly played a great role in human education in Europe as well as in the USA. The first schools in both Europe were Catholic that taught high moral standards and compliance with the God's rules. After the Protestant reformation, the role of Catholicism was drastically reduced. When the first settlers arrived to the USA, the religion they were teaching in schools was Protestantism. Christianity educated people in schools while placing certain limits on the human development. Unlike Catholic and Orthodox churches that highly believed in God's dominance and written scrutiny and therefore rejected various sciences that are anti-religious (genetic engineering, nuclear sciences, etc.), protestant churches considered good deeds and helpful behavior to be of the ultimate importance to God. Protestant churches believed that God created any sciences possible; therefore it was a human duty to study as much as possible as well as proclaiming God and expressing God in all human achievements.

Christianity if taught at schools leaves a great stigma on the students. The statistics say that students who study Christianity and Christian values ​​at school are much less likely to engage in illegal activities such as underage drinking, promiscuous sex, and carrying arms. In US schools from all students who engage in the illegal activities only 12% of them are students studying Christianity or are engaged in Christian schools.

On a more personal level I believe that Christian education is of great importance to the whole country. Students in their teens are only forming their future character and certainly need various people to take example from. It is no wonder that in poor schools and in what we call bad neighborhoods, the crime rates are much higher – children that grow up in violent environment are in my opinion are going to be violent. It is a common fact that boys that grew up in families where fathers beat up their wives are more likely to also beat up their future spouses like their fathers. All these examples indeed show us the importance of education in the early years of human life and make us understand that education should be of great value to the society. Christianity on the other hand discourages arms, sex before marriage, as well as drinking. When exposed to Christian morals, students are more likely to develop personal attitude that would allow them to resist the peer pressure, engage in profound studying and strong desire for excellence. This shows the important role of domestic security that the Christian education provides for the society that promulgates Christianity in schools.

At the same time, Christianity being only optional provides the necessary freedoms to students of other religions, or even atheists who do not want to be influenced by the religious thought. The freedom or choice, makes the Christian teachers compete for the students and therefore not to abuse the Christian moral as it happens in areas of the world where Christianity is dominant (eg in Serbia and Horvatia Christianity prompted the people to eradicate the Muslims from the Christian land).

In conclusion I would like to say that the Christian educational option in fact provides a wonderful complementary material to students in the USA. The statistics that show reduction in violence, loose behavior or engagement in illegal activities corroborate the practical importance of Christian education, while the separation of church and state assures that no single religious leader can take control of the political life in the USA. The role of being the crime reducer that the Christian education represents the true need of such education in the society.

INTRODUCTION

Since the mid-1950s, African theologians like John Mbiti, Edward Fashole-Luke, Desmond Tutu, Vincent Mulago and Harry Sawyerr, Bolaji Idowu, Byang Kato and others have made it their mission to bring the gospel to bear on Africans' lives and thought -worlds – to make Christianity indigenous on a continent that first heard the gospel in New Testament times. It would therefore be a misleading oversimplification to state that Germany, America, Britain and Africa respectively created corrupted, corrected and copied theology. Africa has something meaningful to offer. This provides supportive evidence for a realistic assessment of the issues and trends of the Church in Africa.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

The term contextualization could be defined as simplifying, clarifying and giving ownership to the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a specific community of faith. If the system for doing so is therefore only understood by the stranger or alien, then one has closed the channels for incarnation of the Word. The researcher was impressed when he visited several churches in Lagos, Nigeria during a field study and noted areas of contextualization. The Anglican and Aladura churches have some programs in the native language. Even the Catholic church is no longer conducting the service in Latin but English. African instruments were used and African choruses were ministered. Dancing and clapping are not uncommon. An assessment of Christianity from the Portuguese explorations in the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventh century reveals that there was a relative failure on the part of the missionaries in the presentation of the gospel. They did not take the culture of the people into consideration. The Roman Catholics demanded monogamy from their converts, but they did not show how the unwanted wives could be resettled. Christianity was portrayed as a European invention. Usry and Keener (1996) provocatively titled their text Black man's religion: can Christianity be Afrocentric? It is so titled, not of course to imply that non-Blacks are excluded, but to point out that biblical Christianity is a Black religion as much as a white one. The issue of slavishly accepting or rather adopting any thing from the west should be treated with caution. The article, Halloween in a cross-cultural perspective, is a passionate account of the vulnerability of children which the Harry Porter series is taking advantage of. The new repacking of witchcraft in a fictitious novel is attractive to children (and adults) since it is user friendly.

Schreiter (1985) presents an excellent and very relevant text that clearly teaches how one can understand culture so that the gospel message takes root. Ownership of the Bible must be given to a community of faith in a given place. For instance, an Igbo and by extension, an African, will clearly understand the humiliation Christ went through since the writer clearly expresses that to humiliate someone who is either popular or rich is worse than to kill him, a message which the African understands. The cultural sensitivity of Dan Wooding in Blind faith in cross-cultural perspective, Part 1, enabled him to reasonably establish intercultural rapport in the men's breakfast meeting at the Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene. In responding to this invitation and willingly giving generously, an individual eventually received five fold merely out of his blind faith rather than a display of supernatural acts like speaking in tongues.

ISSUES

Corruption

Boer (2003) identifies two major issues which are affecting the Nigerian church; "the first is corruption which has penetrated every level of society …" (Boer 2003, 31). One must however note that corruption is an issue facing both developing and developed nations. The church continues to be guilty of many of the kinds of corruption which characterize the society as a whole, an issue that shocked Dr. Eze as he observes in his article Worldview issues on corruption …. He realistically argues however that "the survey of CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) on the levels of corruption in countries they researched is not based on hard empirical data … ( but) on the experience and perceptions of those who are most directly confronted with the realities of corruption "(Eze 2004, 1).

Islam

The second issue facing Christian spirituality according to Boer is Islam. The subject of his book Nigeria's decade of blood, vol.1 is Christian-Muslim relations. "If corruption has demonized Nigeria", Boer argues "Christian-Muslim relations have bedeviled it" (Boer 2003, 1). He steers Christianity and Islam into positive channels for national building and suspects that there is a great risk that Nigerians will grow tired of religious riots and either return to a sanitized form of traditional religion or to an African version of secularism. Every Christian should read his text and note that Christians in western nations are now fighting the very secularism they produced through their infighting.

African Traditional Religion

Any realistic attempt to do theology in Africa must take into consideration the influence of African Traditional Religion in the lives of the people. Dr. Eze did a very relevant study of several manifestations of God among the tribes of Lardin Garbes. The assumption that God was introduced to Africa by the Europeans is a misleading oversimplification. In addition to the family and village deities, the Kamwe people believe in a transcendent and universal God. Dr. Eze (2004) argues that Africans knew about the Creator or the Supreme God inspite of their polytheistic understanding and used his grandfather, Mr. Muogbo Eze as supportive evidence. Even though they have the faulty notion that He is far away thus justifying appeasing the lesser deities to reach him, the concept of the way to the Creator is still present among them. Paul uses the belief in the unknown God to minister to his audience. Christians should also use this concept of the way to the Creator already present in the worldview of the Kamwe to present Jesus to them. God amazingly works within human cultures (irrespective of different language, race or ethnicity) to unfold His plans. This is in consonance with the philosophy behind the phrase 'redemptive analogy' which is so-called because it facilitates human understanding of redemption within human culture. Its God-given purpose is to precondition the mind in a culturally significant way to recognize Jesus as Messiah. Outside of Scripture, it appears that God's general revelation is the source of redemptive analogies worldwide. It is relatively easier for one to use the supernatural orientation of the African to win him to Christ.

Growth of cities

Perhaps the most urgent issue facing the church in Africa today is the rapid growth of cities. The clash of cultures, and religions, desperate poverty, AIDS, horrific numbers of street children, pressures on traditional morality, problems of temporary and unstable work, and the lack of training for what few jobs there are brought home to the reader in moving and perceptive accounts of the people with whom Shorter has direct contact. A case in point is the city of Lagos whose population of over twelve million is more than that of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia combined.

Numerical growth of the church

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was estimated that about three percent of the people on the African continent professed to be Christians and that this number significantly increased to about fifty percent towards the end of the century. There is every reason to believe that the church will continue to record significant growth. Ajah (1996) even attributes this 'swollen membership' to the church's wise use of music which is seen as an outstanding highway into the hearts of most Africans. All the churches visited by the researcher during the field research were packed full. During the researcher's stay in Nigeria (2002-2005), it was observed that churches with more musical instruments and skilled instruments generally attracted more worshipers than those with few.

Prosperity

A contemporary trend to avoid suffering at all cost has led to the 'Prosperity Gospel' which stresses faith in claiming blessings as they name them. At the risk of oversimplification and distortion, this gospel teaches, among other things that:

1. Every Christian is created to be materially and financially buoyant.

2. Christians who are in a state of prolonged financial predicament are ignorant of God's design.

3. For the manifestation of the reversal of breakthrough, the aspirant must demonstrate his expectancy by blessing the 'man of God' first.

Christians are therefore encouraged not to accept suffering as their portion. Anyone who is suffering is either living in sin or is not standing on the promises of God for his showers of blessing. This teaching was reflected in the Pentecostal church visited during the field study. The number of offerings raised in the Pentecostal and Anglican churches was astonishing.

Training of church leaders

The church in Africa has made amazing progress during the twentieth-century. It has grown from just a handful of training institutions to hundreds of seminaries. This is an indication that the African church in the twenty-first century is going to be much more educated church. In the churches covered in the field study, the researcher observed that the pastors of the Aladura and Pentecostal Churches visited, Superior Evangelist EM Babatunde and Rev. Mike Ohiorenoya, are doctorate holders. It is indubitable that Catholic and Anglican priests are academically trained.

The role of women

The central message of the Christian mission is that of salvation, and by implication, liberation. With this message, the church should take cognizance of the 'imbalance' in the male-dominated African culture. In the second part of The agony of the 'passion' in cultural lenses, Dr. Eze (2004) analyzes the concept of a theology that is culturally driven. He realistically argues that any image of manhood outside the Messiah is culturally driven and misleading. The church should learn the African concept of muntu, that is, person. Societal changes demand that the church make some modifications in women's role. The dynamics which women now exhibit in the wider society and in the Aladura church visited in particular have challenged the subordinate roles offered by some other churches. The researcher observes the role of women at West Africa Theological Seminary where they serve in very important capacities such as Registrar, Missions Director, Ag. Director of Spiritual Formation and lecturers. More and more women are going to become pastors as more seminaries are opening doors to more female students and lecturers. With the ascension of women into leadership positions, perhaps the church will see a gentler and softer style of church leadership.

TRENDS

Mediocre spiritual growth

Indubitably, a visible trend is a continuous and explosive growth of the African church. However, there is a very big challenge associated with it. This has already started manifesting itself in contemporary Christianity. The problem is numerical without a corresponding spiritual growth. For instance, the dressing of church members, if not checked, would lead to serious problem in the church. In the Pentecostal church visited, the researcher was so happy when he was moved from the seat he was occupying to a special seat reserved for visitors since the dressing of the lady sitting in front of him was indecent. She was putting on a bandless trousers which exposed a significant portion of her pink underwear. The preaching was very loud and emotional but devoid of substance. The church must resist mediocrity with the same commitment that it resists compromise. The researcher observed that the churches visited did not have a very clear discipleship training program. Winning souls for Christ without a systematic discipleship program is to some extent equivalent to begetting sons for the devil.

Fanaticism

In several churches today, the service is incomplete without a few prophecies, a healing or two, and a few demons cast out. Churches and ministries 'compete' with the most dramatic advertisements such as 'Divine Explosion', 'Mountain of miracles', 'Supernatural sensation' and similar expressions. Though it is good to stress the supernatural, the African church must realize that the daily occurrence of miracles is not the focus of the Bible. Building the church in Africa around the miraculous may tend to lead to a wrong emphasis. The primary commission of Jesus was to preach the gospel. Leaning on the miraculous in every service could therefore lead to fanaticism and deviation from the truth. In the Celestial Church of Christ visited during the field work, the researcher was called out of the service and taken to the back of the outside altar where visions and revelations, mostly untrue, from a prophetess about him were penned by a recorder. For instance, the prophetess observed that the researcher's wife sometimes suffered from stomach ache. The question in one's mind then is: how many normal women do not normally suffer from bellyache?

Rationalism

The education of the church is steadily improving. There are many Bible colleges and seminaries in Nigeria alone. Many of the universities and colleges of education have departments of religious studies. However, as more and more Africans are exposed to re-packed western ideas, African Christianity should fight very hard to avoid the anti-supernatural rationalism of the western church. Starting with the 'Age of Reason', the western church has gradually been more and more influenced by an anti-supernatural bias which arises from rationalism. Even though this has not yet really become a serious problem, a serious note of caution is that African Christians need to balance faith with reason.

Syncretism

In an attempt to 'protect' the Gospel, European missionaries under contextualized the message. As the church is now becoming more African, care must be taken so that the message is not over contextualized which could lead to syncretism (the mixing of religious beliefs). For instance, the overstress on visions and dreams in the Aladura church. Contextualization without syncretism is one of the major challenges facing the African Church in this century. The typical African, unlike his western counterpart has a supernaturalistic orientation. The African society gives more attention to religion while the west emphasizes on economics and material culture. One of the reasons why Pentecostalism has been well received in Africa is because many of the basic tenets are consistent with the African worldview. Some of these includes the supernatural, demons / evil spirits, divine healing, and emotional and physical expressions of worship. Dr. Eze clearly reveals that the Kamwe / Mubi in Nigeria (including Christians) go to animist priests. As he noted, "felt needs for supernatural power for solving certain problems that defy solution still drive people to animist priests" (Eze 2005, 5). The lesson to be learnt is the attitude of the Christian community that prayed for rain (with God honoring). This is a clear manifestation of the fact that the Christian God is alive or active in the affairs of men. If theology in Africa is to be meaningful, this point must be seriously noted otherwise the church will not be relevant and would be like Rip Van Wrinkle, the legendary character in Gulliver's Travels who slept for decades only to wake up to find a completely changed world .

Domination

An unfortunate tendency within Christianity throughout church history is that whenever Christianity has achieved the majority status within a culture, it has become intolerant and sometimes abusive of other religions. The Crusades in the 10th century onwards could testify to this. The thin line between evangelism and tolerance of other religions has been a tightrope which Christians have not always walked very well. Several writers encourage tolerance between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Although Boer for instance blamed the latter for most of the religious conflicts, he also argues that there are some instances in which the former sometimes started later riots. The essence of his message to Christians and Muslims is respectively wholism and pluralism. Christians need to repent of their flirtations with the language and concepts of secularism in an environment shared with Muslims and move away from it by developing a more comprehensive worldview. Muslims, on the other hand, need to update their sense of pluralism. Nigeria is marked by a pluralistic situation that no longer allows the domination of one religion over all the people. Boer argues that the situation calls for changes in the attitude of Christians and Muslims? they need to move from hostility to respect.

THE OUTLOOK OF THEOLOGY IN AFRICA / OPPORTUNITIES

Any attempt to do theology in Africa must seriously take note of the afore-mentioned discussion. From the foregoing, it could be argued that not all the issues and trends are negative. Although care should be taken to avoid a church that is heavily inclined towards rationalism, prosperity, syncreticism, to mention but a few, the African church must be commended for its conscious effort to contextualize the Gospel and emphasize on training of its clergy. However, the rest of the paper further discusses several opportunities which must be wisely utilized for theology to be meaningful in Africa.

The age of the church

A significant proportion of the contemporary church is made up of young people. The estimated average age of churches visited during the field work is thirty. There is a possibility that this trend is not going to change. The church in Africa will continue to be a young church. This age group is going to continue to give to it much energy and enthusiasm. It will enable the church to have the strength to evangelize and impact the society. However, it could also make the church more susceptible to fanaticism, intolerance and unwise decisions. One must not forget that Nigerian proverb which states that the child on top of the tree cannot see what the elder sitting on the ground can see.

The church and the theological school

An increase in the number of theological institutions is a welcome development. However, the church and theological school have to work as a team to impact society since "the position between the two has almost become that of the church versus the theological school" (Turaki 1991, 31). Turaki evaluates areas of strengths and weaknesses in the assumed roles for each, and the theological implications of the dichotomy, together with the resulting competition, isolationism and assertions of autonomy to doing theology.

Curriculum development

It is necessary for theologians to revisit the curriculum in the seminary. It is questioned whether African seminaries should review, retrieve the history of western thought and the western church or instead launch into the depths of their own culture and tradition and correlate Scripture and tradition with African culture, roots, sources and riches. There are areas where the west could also learn from Africa. It is against this background that it is observed that "instead of competing or claiming superiority for various approaches, we need to exchange and share experiences, we need to understand one another and learn from each other" (Turaki 1991, 29). It is reasonably argued that, contrary to popular thought, Africa has had a definitive and significant effect on the development of the ecumenical movement in general and its mission made in particular. It was against this background that the Edinburgh Conference in 1910 introduced the idea of ​​the whole Gospel by the whole church to the world.

Emphasis on justice

Justice is one of the most fundamental concepts of Christianity (and Judaism). It is a theme that must receive more emphasis in the African church. A society cannot be healthy without justice. In 1995, a group of Nigerian leaders became concerned about the injustice in the Nigerian society. This led to the Congress on Christian Ethics in Nigeria (COCEN) which took place in Abuja in November 1997. It was stressed that Christians are also guilty of ethical violations. Christian principles must be properly contextualized for Africa. There must be a clear understanding of the close link between religion and social / political issues, and faith and justice. The social teaching of the Church must not only to be studied and known, but also applications to the myriad problems facing Africa must be formulated and tried.

Respect for individual human rights

The rights of individuals must be protected. Refusing to grant a person a job because he or she is from the 'wrong' ethnic group is a violation of that person's fundamental human rights. The researcher has observed for instance that Christians don't normally come out in a unified force to clean the environment when the government gives the command every last Saturday in Freetown and Lagos. Night vigils can be conducted without necessarily using loud speakers that would disturb the peace of citizens who are resting.

Assistance to the needy

The teachings of the church should not unnecessarily emphasize on giving from congregation to the church but the other way round. One of the clearest teachings and examples of Jesus was related to compassion for the poor. It must be viewed as a fundamental responsibility of every culture to take care of its weak and needy members. Just giving a little money to a poor person must not satisfy Christians. Christianity must be involved in identifying the causes of poverty and addressing these problems. God has not called all Christians to be rich. Prosperity teachers must take note. However, He has called us to help meet the needs of the poor. Helping the needy require adequate housing is not just a governmental responsibility but also a responsibility of the church. The researcher was impressed when an appeal was made to assist the poor in the Aladura church visited. Free computer training was offered which enabled several youths to be empowered. The entire congregation was fed after the service. The researcher learnt that this is a regular occurrence.

CONCLUSION

A biblical fact of which theology must take account is that if God indeed is concerned with all peoples, then there is a theological continuity between the people of Israel and others (including Africa).

If the Christian faith is to have any real effect on African life, it must accept and address the spirit world. A Christianity that has no place for the supernatural speaks in alien tones. The culture of Africans must be realistically studied if any meaningfully impact could be made. Kalu brilliantly quotes PO Ajah's summary of the expectations of the theology of the African church:

African theologians should program towards realizing answers to what African theology has to say concerning witchcraft, black magic, demonic influences, occultism, spiritually induced sicknesses, spiritual guidance through divination or future predictions, divine healing, deliverance from and casting out of demons and evil spirits , appreciation of cultural values, liberation of the oppressed, relief from poverty and deprivation, human rights, democratization, ozo title and secret societies, reincarnation, death and the resurrection, the last judgement (Kalu 1978, 123).

WORKS CITED

Books and articles

Ajah, Paul. 1996. An Approach to African theology. Uburu: Truth and Life Publications.

Boer, Jan H. 2003. Nigeria's decades of blood, Vol. 1. Belleville, Ontario: Essense Publishing.

Eze, Herbert. 2004. The agony of the "Passion" in cultural lenses (part two).

Available (online): http://www.assistnews.net/stories/2004/s04040016.htm . 9th March 2005.
_____________. Halloween in a cross-cultural perspective. Available (online):

http: www.assistnews.net/stories/2004/s04040016.htm. Accessed 11th March 2005.

Kalu, Agwu. 1978. The lights and shades of Christianity in West Africa. Umuahia: Charity Press.

McCain, Danny. 2000. The church in Africa in the 21st century. Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology.

19 (2): 105–130.

Schreiter, Robert J. 1985. Constructing local theologies. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.

Turaki, Yusufu. 1991. The quest for cooperation, renewal and relevance in theological education. Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology 10 (1). 29-38.

Utuk, Efiong S. 1989. A reassessment of the African contribution to the development of the ecumenical

movement: Edinburgh, 1910. Africa Theological Journal 8 (2): 85-103.

Participant observation

Celestial Church of Christ, Mafoluku, Parish I, Wulemotu Agbo Road, Off International Airport Road,

Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. St. St. Paul's Anglican Church, 1-9 St. Paul's Church Paul's Church Street, Mafoluku,

Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 1st May, 2005.

Church of God Mission International Inc., Victory Miracle Center, 10 Oludegun Street, Off International

Airport Road, Mafoluku, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 10th April 2005.

St. Jude Catholic Church, 47 Old Ewu Road, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. St. Paul's Anglican Church,

1-9 St. Paul's Church Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by researcher on Sunday 24th

April, 2005.

St. St. Paul's Anglican Church, 1-9 St. Paul's Church Paul's Church Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, Nigeria. Visited by

researcher on Sunday 17th April, 2005.

© Oliver Harding 2008