The theme of the 2015
Standing Committee Meeting of the Church of Nigeria holding at the Cathedral
Church of St. David's, Akure, "Look and live" has far reaching
implications for Nigeria and Nigerians, it has been affirmed.
The affirmation was made
by the Bishop Theologian for the Church of Nigeria, Rt. Revd. (Prof) Dapo
Asaju.
According to the cleric,
it is important that Nigeria as a nation retraces her step back to God and
forsakes her sinful ways so that there can be true development.
Bishop Asaju compared
Nigerians to the Israelites in the bible who sinned against God, but obtained
His mercy upon repentance.
According to him, ‘the
major implication of the theme of this meeting is that Nigeria has sinned like
the Israel did and Nigeria is being bitten by several economic, political and
spiritual serpents. People are dying by the day in their thousands and
millions. Therefore, as the serpent was
raised upon the pole in the wilderness, and the Israelites were told to look
and live, this theme is telling the whole of humanity, not Nigeria alone, that
the only hope that we have left is Jesus Christ’’.
Bishop Asaju stressed
that "America is lost, Britain is lost, government is failing, people
everywhere are lost, governments are failing, economies are collapsing,
politics is unstable, Christ is the only available hope for the human race, and
he is the only one that can offer salvation".
He harped on the
importance of the church civilisation saying the church has facilitated a
number of life changing programmes in the society.
"Do not let us also
forget that every good thing in the society today emanated from the church of
God. The church fought for the abolition of slave trade, many nations of the
world gained independence through the effort of the church.
He reiterated that the
theme of the conference serves as a wakeup call for Christians adding that
there is a need for all to go back to the foundation of life.
This conference is a reminder for us to go
back to the basics, unite and effect the needed change.
Meanwhile, Prof Asaju also described religion and
politics as two inseparable issues that shape the human society.
The Bishop noted
that politics is practised mostly by the wrong people today because, as he puts
it, Christians do not know what they are doing.
He opined that it
is the duty of Christians to register their religious presence in the political
landscape of the country and make a difference.
According to him:
"One cannot really separate between religion and politics. It is only that
the Christians do not know what they are doing.
"In Islam,
there is no distinction between religion and politics. That is why they insist
on Sharia and that is why anywhere they find themselves, they promote their
religion and their own gods. Christians have to emulate this.
“In the olden
days, we had theocracy, that is rulership by God. Democracy is not in itself an
absolute and excellent system of government. It means a government of the
people, by the people and for the people. God is not involved in this kind of
government".
He called for a
culture of tolerance among Nigerians and warned against a situation whereby
human rights are unduly infringed upon.
"It is when
religion is abused to the extent that others are denied of their fundamental
human rights to religion that problem arises in the society.
"We need a
level playing ground for religion to be practised and politics to be played for
the equation to be balanced.
"We cannot
also push aside the role of God in governance. Politics is about the governance
of the society and the society is created by God", he said.
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