The Bible tells us that when Jesus commissioned the twelve apostles, he gave them the foremost task of preaching the Good News to everyone irrespective of religious, social or economic affiliation. The aim of this evangelical duty was to ensure the salvation of humanity.

This onerous task that was hung on the shoulders of the apostles several centuries ago is still far from being accomplished till this day. Hence, many people, particularly here in Nigeria have offered to help carry out this herculean task.

In this article, we shall discuss the quality of people involved in this business and the rationale behind it.

As a matter of fact,  it is not uncommon these days to find people in different categories of employment such as teachers, electricians, peasant farmers, masons, carpenters, etc., abandoning their jobs to embrace Church business in the name of being called to Jesus’ service. Some of them claim to have received the signal in a dream while others will not hesitate to tell you that the Holy Spirit gave them the instruction albeit in an inexplicable way.

One is however tempted to raise an eyebrow on the authenticity of the so called “call” to preach the Good News. For more often than not, one finds the same man of God receiving the same call at various times and in various different ways. Does this tally with Jesus’ style of picking his apostles e.g. James and John the sons of Zebedee in the early formation of his ministry? No. Jesus called these two to his service only once and that was when they were mending their nets in their fishing boats by the shore of the Sea of Galilee and there and then they followed him.

A careful look into the religious history of these latter obedient servants of God reveals that they left one Church or the other for another Church where they allegedly heard Jesus’ voice. In my own investigation, however, I have discovered that these people did not break away suddenly from their former Church, which often turns out to be the Catholic Church; rather, they disengaged slowly.

 

Some of them started the tactical withdrawal by exhibiting traits of ability to perform signs and wonders. One of these characteristics is “Speaking in Tongues.”

Well, while one is not disputing the fact that there is speaking in tongues, it is pertinent to note that these people see this gift as something that can be acquired through mere practice. Indeed, they are so engrossed in their bid to acquire this special gift of God that they now prefer to use incomprehensible words (in the name of speaking in tongues) both in their public and private prayers.

Imagine a young man trying to teach his friend how to speak in tongues, as if that is the only condition necessary for the knowledge of God. As incredible as this may seem, this young man in question schooled his friend on the techniques of combining words like ta, ra, ba, la or la, ba, ra, ta, repeating the process back and forth and over again as the case may be.

With all the zeal he could muster, the young man memorizes this and other similar formulated prayers like a poem, and pours them out at will. Having perfected this art, he begins to distinguish himself from the faithful, and before you say “Christ is God”, he has left to form his own first, second and third Church.

Now that he has succeeded in forming his own Church, no matter the size or location, the proud pastor who may not have acquired the requisite education would one day mount the pulpit to proclaim to his adherents the gospel according to why he left his former Church probably the Catholic Church. He would tell them, for instance, that Catholics do not read the Bible, unlike in his own Church, he would claim, where he and his followers have the opportunity of searching the scriptures together, especially during Sunday service.  He would condemn in its entirety, the Rosary, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, confession to a priest and other areas of the Catholic faith he finds repugnant.

He would also preach to them that problems, especially spiritual ones could not be easily solved in the Catholic Church except in his new found Church. To prove this, he would introduce the use of certain objects such as handkerchief and oil in his systematic deliverance service. These objects are used in such a way that a psychologically unbalanced person would seem to admit they are efficacious as if they were laxative meant to cure constipation. And day-by-day, people troop to the Church to see things for themselves.

Now the question is: Is Jesus Christ not present in the former Church of these new pastors? If the answer is in the affirmative, what are they looking for in another Church?