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PANELISTS: Reverend Busuyi Olabode, Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu, Pastor Dimeji Elugbadebo, Pastor Fisayo Elugbadebo, Pastor Tosin Gabriel.
Moderators: Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima and Pastor David Odegbaro
Pastor David Odegbaro: Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasises the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively.
Question: Why is the concept of Humanism important and how is it opposed to faith as a system of truth?
Reverend Olabode Busuyi: The issue of humanism is an age long ideology, culture or perception of a people. We know from Genesis that God was the one who birthed the idea of man. The intention of God was what birthed what man should be. And man lived as God had intended for a long time until an intruder came to persuade them of another life where they can be independent and live as God. After the fall, though man died in his spirit, his heart still longed for God. they were still able to train their children; Cain and Abel in the way of faith. Also the other children that came after them. If they were not connected to God, there is no way they could have done that.
The fall did not take away the God connection but a seed had already been planted that found expression more in Cain. From Cain, we began to see a generation that could outsmart God in how much they could give to Him; a generation of people that saw that they do not need to give their all to God but tried their best and kept the rest to themselves. It did not start from an immediate disconnect of rejecting God but from a generation that chose to hold back because they thought they would not get the best for their lives if they gave God their all; this is the root of unbelief and distrust. It descended from a mindset and perception that did not see the need to do well (Genesis 4:7). It began from the inability to meet the standard of well-doing. That is, seeking the revealed standard of what God wants.
Man’s existence came from God’s revelation. We know we are a spirit and we have a soul because God told us. Many of the things we know about ourselves are the things we have been able to observe. Once God’s view was lost, man began to evolve his life, which prospered more in the days of Nimrod. Nimrod became one of the sons that gained the thrust to disconnect completely. Until Nimrod came, the ideologies did not prosper entirely. Cain began it, Nimrod empowered it. This is where the idea of Babel came from. Babel means they had enough strength to cut off God.
Humanism is an ideology that gained strength from disregarding God. Man got to the point where he gained strength not to retain God in his knowledge. This could be in church or anywhere. Before man found the strength to carve the humanism niche for himself; the idea of humanism was dispersed in academics, religion and tradition; all they want is the best for themselves. They are all out for what they can get for themselves using every means possible.
Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu: Humanism is enthroning self; putting self on the throne of the heart. It started subtly in Eden. Adam with his enlightenment might have not been able to really comprehend the implication of the action he took and what he would become eventually. One of its effect is its affront to God.
When God created, He saw that all He created was good. The affront against God was that someone came to say it was not really good. This is self improvement. It was man’s way of solving his perceived problems. God made man upright but he has sought out many inventions (Ecclesiastes 7:29). What Satan told man in essence is that he is not good (Genesis 3:5). Satan told man he would be as god, in other words, he should self-improve. This is the concept that has ruled man throughout all the ages. It is also the mindset ruling technology.
Man was meant to be dependent on God. For instance, Adam did not know he needed a wife. It was not his thought. The way God created him, He said it was good. If there was anything to be added, it was left to God to do so. This is also the mindset ruling technology. Satan told man that he had a problem which was that he was not wise. This is where the problem began and it is about enthroning self. This is the sin of Lucifer. Though he called it humanism, it is actually satanism. This is what brought him down— it is enthroning another god.
Question: Is humanism a journey to man becoming God? or is man just a pawn on Satan’s chessboard?
Pastor Tosin Gabriel: Humanism is rooted in the agenda of a fallen being. The fallen being was the one who shipwrecked man’s journey in becoming like God. God’s intention for man is for him to become like God. Satan came to make the same campaign but in another way (Genesis 1:26). Humanism is not the right way to be like God. Humanism is to become the enemy of God. Humanism is satanism, and his name was not satan in the beginning. His name was a bright one in the beginning, Lucifer, but he became satan because he changed God’s manual for his life.
God has a manual for every man. His agenda to become like God is the beginning of Satanism. This was not in God’s manual for him. Since he walked against God’s manual for him, he became self-dependent. He began to run his own agenda and ran into crisis. Having run into crisis, he went after the creation that God intended to gain His life; so he sold his own manual of becoming like God to man who bought into it.
Humanism cannot lead to God, rather it can only make self made gods. Every self made god has a destination— this is the program Satan is running on earth and this is what he sold to Adam. Every man born of Adam is born into it and is supposed to grow into it, find identity, relevance and fulfilment in it. However, the end of this program is destruction because it is not according to the manual God intended.
Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima
There are those who say they are self-made men. Such men are running a manual which they are bringing forth a life from.
Question
How did this opposition prosper in the early church, up till now. And how did humanity prosper in the mind of man?
Pastor Dimeji Elugbadebo
Humanism is rebranding Satanism. It is the selling of a false life to man. The root of it is to attack faith life; it is an assault on faith life. Faith life is actually God's life. God's dealing with man and man’s dealing with God can only be on the template of faith. Faith is God committing His purpose and desire to man. Man is a project of God, created by God and man should never have evolved by himself. The concept of evolution is a part of humanity which aims to disconnect man from his root and source. If God made man, it means that man is forever under God in response to His will — this is what faith is. Faith is a response to God.
In tracing humanity to church history, it began before the era in the church with God’s church in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel who were the church or people of God. The church means God's people. The highest point of humanity in dealing with the nation of Israel was to infiltrate the nation with counter culture (laws). As such, God’s problem with the nation of Israel throughout the Old Testament was idolatry, which is the worship of other or foreign gods. Idolatry is beyond bowing down to graven images, but it includes receiving foreign ideologies that are anti-faith standards for living. This is why they were sent to Babylon which was a season of punishment for them to rediscover their ways. As humanism had reduced God’s commandments to mere religion. Paul spoke of God’s commandments having righteous requirements (Romans 8:4), however, it eventually became traditions and became null and void.
Before the era of the New Testament where Jesus came, there was a four hundred year prophetic silence when there was no prophet to give the counsel of God to the nation of Israel. A sect rose up in that era called the Pharisees, who rose in defence to the laws that God gave the nation of Israel. Apparently, because of the continuous activity of humanism, the Pharisees were also found wanting and came short of the expectation of God. Right from when Jesus came on the earth to the era of the church, the greatest assault of humanity has always been to create a diversion that is anti faith, or religion — a perversion of God's original template of faith. This perversion comes through another teaching or gospel. We see this as the apostle Paul spoke to the Galatian church about them receiving another gospel (Galatians 1:6-9), and the Corinthian church about them receiving another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:3-4).
The concept of humanism in the church is to gradually divert our faith subtly from the simplicity of devotion to God or Christ. Majorly, the apostles in the epistles combated this. To a very high degree, they were able to fight this because there was so much apostolic doctrine, light, and understanding in church; as such, they could wage war against humanism through sound godly ideology.
Faith is God's ideology; it is God's philosophy for living. The apostles were able to use the gospel (sound doctrine) to push the tides of humanism against the boundary of the church. This continued for about a hundred years post Pentecost. Historically, the apostles were able to maintain a strong sense of purity in the church even in the midst of war against humanism for about a hundred years. The challenge came when the enemy began through humanism to physically assault the church, until a time came where none of the apostles were alive. As these vessels began to physically leave the earth, the enemy was able to gradually weaken the church environment by pushing his own ideology. By the era of the book of Revelation, they had weaker leadership and less people who were able to hold values of God. This continued until the dark ages.
The dark ages was a thousand and five hundred year period, where every apostolic doctrine introduced by Jesus and His apostles totally disappeared. What the enemy did was to weaken the church by persecution, then finally by infiltration. In Roman society, saints were fed to animals and this continued for about a hundred years until a Roman emperor called Constantine had an experience and stopped the persecutions and declared Christianity a state religion. At this point, it looked as though it was a God experience but the issue with it is that Satan changed his strategy from persecution to infiltration. The enemy was then able to settle well into the church. As such, the apostolic church became an institutionalised religion where the Bible was kicked out, the priesthood changed and no one could have direct access to God. This continued until a man in the fifteenth century rose up called Martin Luther. Before Martin Luther came, other men rose up but they were persecuted. One of whom is John Horse, who taught the same thing Luther taught but he was killed, however, he prophesied that he saw fire coming out from Germany in a hundred years time. Martin Luther was the mercy of God to begin restoring the truth that was once in the church that was able to stand tall against humanism.
Now, there is still humanism in the church because restoration is still ongoing. For God to totally blot the church out of humanism, it would take the full restoration of the doctrines of the New Testament. By this, the church and families are being made strong and totally fortified against every ideology of the enemy. Such that, nothing would be hidden again but we would be a church of lines where we can see through the schemes of the enemy.
Question: With Humanism, what kind of quality of men are we having?
Pastor Modupeola Thompson Ehima
One would think that with the way man is in a pursuit of an agenda of enthroning self, that the kind of men we would have are strong men. However, this is not the case as we have a lot of mental illnesses: men cannot endure, marriages are in shambles because couples cannot forbear with one another, young men and women cannot commit to a task as they have an attitude that gives up. How has humanism affected this? And churned out the quality of men and women we have?
Pastor Fisayo Elugbadebo
The reason why man was made was to respond to God. Man was not made to live on his own. There were principles/laws that were supposed to govern man. These laws can be termed as God's ideology. A new ideology came through the fall which is Satan ideology that man adopted as a way of life.
A way of life is a thought process.
Proverbs 23:7
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: ...”
Humanism runs based on certain thoughts, principles and ideologies. Some say it is a kind of philosophy. When humanism is dismantled, what has made man weak over the years is the issue of human rights. Human rights promotes self; it turns the attention from God to oneself. Due to this, we see man overtime has degraded. In the days of Noah before the flood, God said He would no longer strive with man.
Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
As man journeyed further, man became grass.
Isaiah 40:6
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
Humanism turns us to ourselves; enthroning feelings. The whole concept of humanity gives credence to our rights and self. Several years back, LGBTQ was viewed as a psychiatric illness but it became accepted through human rights. People began to advocate that the feeling of people who practice that be accepted.
Peadophilia is viewed as a mental illness but in recent times there has been movement that have been projecting that people’s feelings be respected. In some years from now, it might also become accepted.
Humanity over the years has eroded how men view life; we view life from man’s perspective. Hence whatsoever every man feels is right in his own eye is what is seen as right. People give their emotions, thoughts and actions to these things. Over time this has led to man’s degradation. Hence one of the things God wants to do when we get born again is to rewire our thinking and give us His own ideology for living; which is what He ordained from the beginning.
The reason we have so many weak people who are not resilient is because men have been filled with thoughts of self. While faith teaches us to shift the focus from ourselves unto God, humanism teaches us to focus on ourselves, the problem and the situation. Depression can be traced to this, as people who are depressed focus on their problems and their weaknesses; their eyes are not moved from their situations to God to obtain strength.
The whole concept of one being a self-made man is the belief that one has the strength inherent in him to carry out things by himself. Everything in such a person is centered on himself; his peace, his space, his world. Naturally man’s strength is failing; when people can no longer find strength in themselves, rather than turning to God, they remain focused on themselves which leads to them being down and depressed.
Humanity has a lot to do with thoughts. This is why God gives us commandments to rewire our minds and to run our lives with His own ideology.
Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima:
Question: Where would man end with Humanism?
Reverend Olabode Busuyi: There are many ways that seem good to a man but the end of it is destruction (Proverbs 16:25). We never knew who we were until God interpreted who we are to us. Man by himself can think he is just a body that has the capacity to reason; making him a man of intellect oblivious of what God made. God made man spirit, soul and body. The fact that man’s spirit died by the fall does not mean that this was what God intended man to be like. Man could not trace himself back to where he began from. Without the coming of the gospel we would not have known that man is essentially spirit. What one does not know he has he cannot pursue; when such a man loses such a thing he cannot seek for it because he is oblivious of it.
Man lost the spirit when he fell, leaving him with just the soul and the body. Subsequently, men who lived after did not look for the restoration of the spirit, rather what they were living by was what was remaining. For instance, a handicapped man learns to use the body parts he has left to make up for what he is lacking. If that man was born in a place where everyone he sees is handicapped, he would never know he lost anything. This is what man’s fall and formation looks like. The one who made man handicapped continued to derail man with the intention to get man’s heart which is a part of man that can respond to God.
Romans 10:10
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This is why Satan is not fully assured of his work in man as man can still believe and turn back to God. Satan wants to make man sure, in such a way that he can trust him to never be able to turn to God. This is the making of the man of sin; a man Satan can trust to do all his bidding. Satan has no trust in man until such a man arrives at the point of second death. Satan knows he is doomed to end up in the lake of fire. But he also wants to ensure that he takes man with him. One of the ways he can achieve that is to destroy man’s faculty of believing.
Hence what humanism is doing is to defeat man’s capacity to believe God, until man comes to a place that he does not think he is missing anything in not believing God because he has lost his sense of God. The feeling of wrong in a man is still a sign that such a person can still be called back as part of his heart can still pick that he was wrong. But when man journeys in humanism to a point, he loses that faculty. He does not feel he is losing anything; he does not have any fear of hell, instead he can even desire to head there.
The intent of humanism is to move man to a place where he does not fear God’s consequences and judgement; where man does not fear God’s intention and plan/ retribution for all. When humanity gets to that point, it sits in man’s conscience which is the most holy place of man. Once Satan sits in the conscience, he raises himself as god. Hence when a man says he is a god, it shows that Satan is sitting in his conscience. Man at this point becomes sensual and he lives completely from the realm of feeling.
At the moment, feeling has not completely taken over man; some homosexual still turn, but a time will come when men will agree that there is no better life to have than to be led by their mind. This is why there have been so many constructs to define how we feel. Today if one has any feeling in himself, he is helped to construct a definition of his feelings and then helped to find others with similar feelings with him to form a group. This is so that he does not feel alone in the matter. That sense of company strengthens his resolve. Hence man is encouraged to be himself and not be ashamed. Everything is made about him and how he feels.
Satan himself rules in the realm of feeling; he governs the realm of feeling and as such when man can move in the realm of feeling then the wisdom of Satan is complete. Satan at that point ensures that man is empty and is fully able to bear his image. Once man can bear his image, destruction is already determined.
Hence it is a progressive work done gradually. We are at the advent of the most sensual generation. As one feels more it aids the body chemistry to support such feelings hence it is not just an ideology. It might look like it is not occultic because they are not venturing into supernatural things and so people do not feel like they are idolaters. Such men can even say that they do not believe in Satan; they may even say that they are just being themselves unknown to them that the real aim is their mind. This is why in these last times, the mind is the next place of invention. Occultism has left the place of black magic and has moved into the mind. This is the depiction of AI telling man that the end and the joy of man is sensualism.
Man cannot beat Satan in this game as he is one made perfect in the realm of senses. In terms of intelligence, he is brilliant and bright. Satan lives by his brightness. Man is not supposed to live by brightness. That is why God did not give all of us the same IQ capacity. If that is our strength, God would have given everyone the same capacity.
Spirit life is our real essence of life. Hence when Satan counters that, he has finished man and emptied him.
Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima: We are moving onto the phase of exposing humanism in the various expression of the single, married and family life.
Question: Who is a single? Is a single just someone who is not married?
Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu: In general terms, singlehood is a stage in life where one is not yet married. Because marriage redefines a lot of things in one’s life. Paul spoke about this in 1 Corinthians 7:27-34, encouraging that one who is not married give themselves totally to the Lord. This means that this stage of life is one that can be used as a tool of redemption. Hence, singlehood is not a disadvantage.
A single person can use their estate to come into their inheritance in God just like the married. Hence they are not less than others. Singleness is a gift that God has given us. If we see it this way, we will know the right use of singlehood. If we only define singlehood as a state of not being married we fall short of the full definition of it as singlehood speaks of our devotion and total commitment to the Lord. Hence married people ought to also be this way. One in this estate ought to have single eyes and heart. (Matthew 6:22-23)
Pastor Tosin Gabriel: We can be single while we are married, in our devotion to the Lord. (I Corinthians 7:29). This speaks of one’s devotion in putting God first.
Singleness is a state of being without a marital partner; one whose commitment is wholly to the Lord.
Corinthians 7:32–34
“But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”
Singleness is thus a stage of life where one is not bearing the burden of being committed to a life partner. This is also one who is not under their parents. One can be single and be living with their parents but a better state is one who is working, is grown enough to leave home (his biological parents) and is able to have an intimate walk with God. Such a person can keep the commandment to remember the Lord in the days of his youth. (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima
Question: What are the expression of a single woman?
Pastor Fisayo Elugbadebo: Singleness is a state where one is not yet committed to someone on a lifetime journey. However this does not change God’s eternal configuration of a woman. A woman is made to be a helpmeet and this is not only in the context of marriage. Everything about a woman is supposed to supply help and make sure that God’s purpose gets executed. We saw that in the ministry of Jesus; there were women who followed Him. Some of them may have been single and even widowed. These women supported the ministry of Jesus.
Everything about a woman either married or unmarried is to help. Psychologically most men can only handle one thing at a time but women are made to multitask. This psychological frame of a woman is to provide support and to nurture. Physiologically a woman has a womb to carry seed and to multiply it. A single woman is also not void of the ability to be of help and to provide support wherever they find themselves; at their places of work, church and in the society, in order to see that God’s will find expression:
A single woman is a woman totally devoted to the Lord, who wants to please the Lord with everything she has; her emotions and her resources. We see this in the case of the woman who broke her alabaster box at Jesus' feet. (Matthew 14:3). This is the nature of a woman; a woman is able to love with everything and give everything. God placed the emotion in woman as a means of serving the Lord:
A woman can fulfill purpose even as a single. A single woman is able to handle God’s purpose and see to it that it prospers. For a single woman that God places in a family, she can raise children and even younger believers in that home; fulfilling purpose and executing God’s will.
Pastor Modupeola Thompson-Ehima:
Question: Is there an age range for singlehood?
Pastor Dimeji Elugbadebo: Singleness is first an estate before it can be tied to any age. As an estate singleness is a state of God. Everything about singleness means devotion, commitment and purity. The root of singleness in Greek means soundness/wholeness; properly folded/weaved together.
God is thus the first single. Hence there will be no point in a man’s life that he ought to stop being single as it is a God state that man should occupy. Hence we are single forever even when we are married. This is the only way a marriage will fulfill God’s purpose.
Ecclesiastes 4:9
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
God's concept of two is for two to become one. Hence marriage is actually singleness. Hence when one gets married and is not passionate for God or growing spiritually it is not marriage as it should be. It is not God’s concept of two becoming one.
Jesus and Paul taught on marriage, yet they were both single. Like Jesus, Paul was an effective single. Hence it is not in every case we need marriage to fulfill God’s purpose. An example is Paul. For what Jesus needed to fulfill purpose on earth He did not need marriage. Hence both our single and married people must be single. As a single person, one should be married to God. Hence singleness and married estate are interwoven and are one in the mind of God.
Reverend Olabode Busuyi: God has his mindset for raising man. Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:32-33 speaks of the distractions of a married person in serving the Lord. But these days there are even more distractions for those who are not married than the married today. Civilization has blurred the whole thing.
This is God’s heart for making the estate of singlehood; devotion to Him. This is why child marriage is an aberration as the child has not been allowed to fulfill that call of singleness. A child is meant to be allowed to grow up and become whole (one). When a child is born he is not yet one. He will have to grow up to become one. Being one is to align with the everlasting life demand.
Singleness is an estate designed to be free of distractions. This was what God gave to man in the garden at the beginning. They were made single male and female before the introduction of marriage.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 2:22
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
God followed this order to show us that they each have a calling and to everlasting life. Singleness ought to give us a space of no distraction. This is because when one marries and is raising children, mo matter how spiritual such a person is, they will be distraction. There is also distraction in demand of caring for the home that a single person is not faced with.
If not for the today’s satanic engagement that has ensnared singles, the single estate was meant for spiritual growth for the purpose of attaining to oneness. So that when they come into the estate of marriage, it will be easy to journey quickly into oneness. When people get married, they are not one yet. It takes journey to come into oneness (Matthew 19:6). There is variance in the mind of every man but the mystery of faith is that by reason of journeying together they can restore that oneness that was in the mind of the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost in the beginning. This is the full potential God wants to realise with marriage; either spouse can be hardworking, devoted and consecrated but it does not mean they have come into that state of oneness. This is why Jesus kept praying for the disciples that they are made one as the Godhead are one.
John 17:21
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
This is the state of true singleness. One who attains unto this singleness no longer becomes distracted by other things as he has gained mastery to handle every other things that distract people in marriage; marriage, raising children, family.
Pastor David Odegbaro
The dictionary gives a very substandard definition that does a lot of injustice to the definition of what a single is — it defines singleness as a state of being without a romantic partner. These standards that have been raised show us that singleness is more than just a social status. That is, one can be unmarried and yet not be single because he is not wholesome (one).
Trends/Subtle things that are ongoing regarding the estate of being single
Context:
We have a generation that is at the highest point of being in touch with their emotions but yet the least humane. For example, when there’s an accident and people are in severe distress, we see people bring out their phones and start videoing. Another example is when people are in a bad mood, and they are not wholesome enough to have conversations with those around them, rather they go to social media to talk about it. There are certain perceived rights of what it means to be single and how it makes us the most emotional generation, but the least humane as the soul is becoming more hollow.
These are things that may sound like viral things on social media, but even in church, there are those that have made up their minds that whatever pastor says is not for them as they cannot kill themselves.
Some Trends:
In the church, there are teachings that do not explicitly seem very wrong but are raising sensuality over spirituality and true leadership of the Holy Ghost. It is a strong emphasis on raising of emotional intelligence of singles in relation to choosing a marriage partner.
Questions such as: How compatible are you? What is your temperament? are asked— training and raising singles to make decisions by this. They do not necessarily deny the place of the Holy Ghost in words but by reason of the way they raise the tools of judgement as emotional intelligence, and checking for certain things such as purpose and ambitions. These things seem to be producing men who do not want to pay the price of waiting on the Lord or the Holy Ghost. Some of them have forgotten that these emotional parameters may be right today but in ten or twenty years time down the line, may not be right.
Some of these trends are:
Pastor Tosin Gabriel
These things are common to men and are also very common to the church. It all boils down to one thing which is traceable to the conversation from the beginning on self dependence and self consciousness.
For instance, one who says, he makes the rule is only trying to evade being committed to anyone and accountability.
That is, such a person is a man of himself, he charts the course of his life and carries out his biddings without anyone challenging the decisions and actions they take. These conversations stem from the manner of conversations of humanism.
Any single who has this response or approach is becoming irresponsible to God — such a person is not responding to God and is vulnerable to the adversary.
This is because we cannot make rules by ourselves. The rules we make are the formation of a man: either of the adversary or a godly man.
A godly person does not make rules for themselves. They make rules from God’s perspective. There is no isolated godly person, there is also no isolated single person. A single cannot be isolated, as a single believer is in church — he has relationships with his spiritual parents, brethren, and spiritual community. As such, he cannot make decisions by himself.
Such a person is not isolated and so they cannot make cannot make decision by themselves. In this case, such a single person cannot just approach a sister that he loves her and wants to marry her. A single believer cannot make decisions like that, such have to carry spiritual authority along. These are part of the things that have crept into the church that we do not pay attention to.
People say they have the right to choose who they want to marry but it was not so from the beginning; God chose for the man in Genesis. Even if one is persuaded about who to marry, it has to be submitted to spiritual authority to check with us. This may be difficult because of the sense of personal entitlement in the heart.
A believer cannot just make up his mind on who to marry because he has peace concerning it. Peace is a product of many things, it is product of righteousness — one must have all the right things he ought to do before he arrives at peace. Part of the right things is that we allow spiritual authority know, we pray and have been led by the Holy Spirit. The first sin of the sons of God in Genesis 6 is that they chose wives for themselves.
Genesis 6:2
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
We must allow God to choose for us, then we submit it to our spiritual pastors and parents for them to guide us. We must also know that sometimes our choices can be wrong. It is not automatic that our choice on whom to marry is approved. In the church, we can be told our choice is not right and that we can pray more, and wait more on the Lord. This is not for us to get angry and leave the church with the person when we are told to wait. These are trends that are going on that are fostering humanism as singles or married in the church.
All these trends are still expressions of humanity that is rooted in lawlessness. We have to come back to the original plan of God where we submit to spiritual authority and are accountable.
Pastor Fisayo Elugbadebo
Trend — “Listen but don’t judge”
Isaiah 5:20
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
The issue of listen and don’t judge is wanting to put darkness for light. There are some feminist groups in which people are only allowed to talk, share their experiences but no one is allowed to give their perspective on that issue. A practical example is a woman cheating on her husband and was caught, but does not want anyone to comment about that, rather goes ahead to talk about the things the guy did afterwards.
This is still part of humanism trying to gag us from proclaiming the truth and righteousness. This is one of the reasons why we have so much unrighteousness in the society. In the Old Testament, there was a plague among the camp of the children of Israel because some people were disobeying God’s commandments and it continued, until Phineas who was the third generation. Moses, Aaron and all the elders were there but could not do anything. The plague stopped when phineas took action.
Numbers 25:7-8
“And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; [8] And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.”
Humanity tries to gag the righteous people. The same thing was done to Lot — they vexed his righteous soul (2 Peter 2:8). We see this in today’s society, before president Trump came, people and even pastors could not speak about LGBTQ or certain issues on the pulpit as they would have been jailed. We have not gotten there in Nigeria but this trend of “listen but don’t judge” is leading there — to gag the righteous so that we cannot judge unrighteousness.
One of the ways we judge unrighteousness is by preaching and speaking. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and this was one of the ways through which he brought judgement on the world. When people say — we listen, we don’t judge — they are trying to gag us so that righteousness will not prosper.
In psychology, one thing that is taught is that in giving advise, the patient should be informed that if that advise would hurt them they should not do it. However, many time when we are going to do righteousness it would hurt us. This is also a means of people to choose their own peace but, this is a fake peace.
Matthew 10:34
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
There is a peace that this world gives but it is a fake peace. This peace births conversations such as — “I choose my battles”, “I choose my peace”, “I choose my space” — all of these things are still centred under humanism.
Trend — “This is my truth”.
What is truth? Truth is that which is in Christ. As believers, we need to be very careful becuase these things sometimes slip into our minds as we have heard them over and over again. As such, before we know it, our minds are being recultured. Such that, when we are being told in church that what we are doing is not right, the thought can slip in. However, our guage should be checking if it is inline with Christ.
Trend — “Baby daddies and baby mummies”
About twenty years ago, if one was in this category, he or she would have been ashamed. Now, there are celebrities who have this status and sell it, such that they are celebrated. We see single mothers who are baby mummies celebrated because of the children they raised, using natural things as the yardstick, such as how fluent the child speaks.
This shows that we have turned what is supposed to be darkness to light. Some can have extra marital affairs and not be ashamed, as long as they are taking care of all of them and has money they are celebrated. Some follow such people on social media and this is how humanism filters into our subconscious. This is why we must not tolerate, embrace or use these mantras. As righteous people, when others say such things around us, we must not turn away but confront it in not wanting darkness to be taking for light — we need to speak out. This is part of us being made a witness.
No one has their truth. There is a right standard and this is what we must enforce and support. Some of these unclean persepectives rub off on us unknowingly. As such, as Christians we must make sure that these things do not enter into us, rather, we must live contrary to them. These things are in songs, music, slangs, and we should not laugh about them and feel they are innocent as they are not. There are spirits behind those statements pushing those thoughts and mindsets, and these are coming into the church.
Reverend Olabode Busuyi
The issue is that the one who is behind all of these things has something in his mind that he is sure would always work. He knows that once he can cut a person off from the supply of faith, such a man would be sensual. This is why all these trends and languages are gaining ground everywhere. Language is a means of communication. Faith teaches that let our ye be ye, and nay be nay.
Matthew 5:37
“But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
The word of faith is clear. However, in the trend of different people having their own truth, one has to keep explaining what their own truth is. That is, such people are moving us to their world of reasoning where there is no definite or exact thing as everything is shady and relative to every person and to remove standards. In essence, this trend is to remove standards.
There is no way we can survive except the word of faith becomes our word and conversation; where there is clarity. That is, if one says he is single, all must know he is single. There is no ground in truth to accept the trend “baby mama” as a conversation. To accept it as a language of conversation shows that something has gone wrong with us. In the language of truth, a “baby mama” is a concubine. The redefinition of these things are making the language land softly and this is the first way to break down our guard.
The first thing is to not accept such languages in church. Some feel like since it’s the language of the environment, we cannot be different and thus, let’s reason with them. Such schemes are to erode from us the exact and definite point. Righteousness has boundaries that we can explore within it but, we must not go beyond it.
Ecclesiastes 10:8
“…and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”
Righteousness is a boundary of discussion. The issue of LGBTQ are outside the boundary of righteousness. However, we see from these trends that once a language is acceptable as a language of use, very soon we begin to reason along that line and our judgement on it would be weakened. It is just a matter of time, it may take years but there’s a place where the redefinition of languages is heading. The devil does not care about the pace; either we are going there fast or slowly, he is okay. As such, we are the ones who should know that the devil wants to set us on a journey. No matter how learned we are, such languages should not be accepted. For instance, new Nigerian languages because it is a common issue, such as “419” has been included into the new Oxford dictionary. However, 419 means to defraud: to defraud is an old language in the Bible.
The Bible has every term to spell righteousness and unrighteousness. While we hear what they say, we still bring the language of the scriptures as the basics. The reasoning of men is endless, the journey has just began and we do not know how long it can still go. If some of our parents saw this day, they would have said that Jesus has returned because of the rate of decadence. With the speed of changes in the world, the church must arise with great strength and wisdom. This is becuase the world wants to paint the church as archaic and old school. There must be wisdom in families to relate with their children, yet not buying fully into the world of their discuss but are able to clearly draw the line of righteousness to them.
Gradually, strength is being returned to the church. We are not the only ones discussing this but how to handle this is the issue. God would give us wisdom and understanding.
