We have read, heard and watched – several "forwarded as received" messages that make Whatsapp plan on reducing forwarding of messages to three contacts from the original five, several messages from self-acclaimed pastors and I was bowled over that many of them are not seeing any positive vision anymore. They start from the fact that it is the sign of end time, then descended a bit that it is God's anger and then claim firmly that it is power tussle between two countries.
"You see, there is no way we can maintain social distancing because we have families and loved ones. You would not want to chase your cousins away when they visit you. No one would want to leave his wife or her husband or child alone to isolation or quarantine. In the church of God today, the preacher would touch the interpreter while showing examples. I have touched him already… you can see no one can protect himself!" he said further that "only God can protect us. We touch a lot of things, we sneeze many times unconsciously".
Another Clergyman, a seasoned preacher and teacher of God's words claimed that “this plaque belongs to the Egyptian, it cannot haunt whoever trusts in God”. Unlike the step taken by the Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to cooperate with the government, there was no plan for virtual services but instead, they broke services into parcels of corners.
"Let us pray for our leaders. Let us ask for God's forgiveness over the sins of our leaders that make him angry. It is their sins that have led us to this state we have found ourselves", this woman who led prayer session had called this prayer against the pandemic that we are faced with.
We have read, heard and watched – several "forwarded as received" messages that make Whatsapp plan on reducing forwarding of messages to three contacts from the original five, several messages from self-acclaimed pastors and I was bowled over that many of them are not seeing any positive vision anymore. They start from the fact that it is the sign of end time, then descended a bit that it is God's anger and then claim firmly that it is power tussle between two countries.
I have also argued with friends against being promulgators of fake news, helping them to fact check what they see as a 'plain truth' as news reporters are hell-bent on thwarting the wave-like travel of this double-headed cobra. What I can conclude on is that many, especially young folks thirst for bad news, because any good news is similitude of cover-up or lie to them, probably because of distrust in the government. Bloggers have also harvested the breaking news habit to generate traffic and buy the future into their pockets. I can recall when the Governor of Oyo state engaged this virus and tested negative after a few days, being asymptomatic and the Chief Medical Director of University College Hospital, Ibadan. People wondered if anyone can be relieved of the virus within a few days. By ordinary algebra, we can conclude this virus has been commoditized, but by now, Premium Times exclusive interview with medical professionals should have convinced our confusion about the complexity of the insiccation of the virus.
Laudable as the government of each state takes a proactive step against this fast-spreading virus and against the threat that the Director-General of the World Health Organization has received, he had said what should make my race happy and proud of what it is – "I am a proud negro". Our experience with this virus is one of the least severe in the world today and Nigerian Doctors are doing well to contain it with the support of the Ministry of Health. What about the front liners? A Health worker in New York who is an ‘ER ICU Nurse’ in a video said the government thinks they are immune to the virus but they are always exposed to people suffering from this virus. Several Doctors have died in this line because there is no provision of enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). These are people we have to be in the upper room for, because without them, we are totally vulnerable to the repeat of History. These front liners are the Soldiers of this moment and going of flat energy on dry land buries the skull alive.
From the rumour of the virus until the deep of the incident, religion is second to none among those that have been humiliated. The spiritual birthed the physical and it is pertinent to observe our spiritual exercise: we have to pray together, take Holy Communion together, praise God together and most importantly, pay our tithes and offerings so that there would be enough in the house of the Lord and "Nigerian Levites", and also an immunity against this disease without making use of any instruction. Some religious leaders are wonderful: they defy every instruction despite having the book of the perfect law. They say the devil is doing this to take the church away from us. Looking into 1 Kings 8: 27 belittles the four walls and mentality of a shiftless mind when King Solomon said “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?” This quagmire got me thinking about the force behind these people. Though Churches and mosques are closed, some are still open by breaking into fractions to gather in some secret places. They are obedient to the core of their belief that social media belongs to the devil.
Is the death of Jesus Christ a waste? Right from Isaiah 53: 7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep, before her shearers, is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth". Taking cattle slaughtering, for example, we were in practical class on that day and we paid a visit to the slaughterhouse. A cow was brought in tethered on every part of the movable joints it can use to defend itself. The cow could not move any part of its body until it was slaughtered, unable to moo, the knife staring at it for a while. That was how Jesus was. Since the death of Jesus has brought about spiritual to physical renewal, His blood, shed for the atonement of our sins and we believe that old things are passed away and all things are new (2 Cor. 5:17), I still wonder why we say this incidence of coronavirus is caused by the ocean of our sins.
Some would have gone back to the beginning of creation when God got angry. Genesis Chapter 6 verse 6, "…and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart". During this period, Noah was the only worthy man God saw and was directed by God to prepare an Ark to keep his selections. The destruction did not start until the end of the Ark building. With this, the preparation messages have rented our ears – “build your Ark” – and we have embraced it with songs of the end time while still disobeying the instruction from the government. Down to this time of grace, when Jesus Christ cleansed our sins once and for all, many men of God have made the blood useless and impotent because of lack of the understanding.
The Pastoral leadership, especially in the local churches/districts, have not done enough to draft few points for local churches to understand what to pray about for local leaders to show themselves approved in any of these discussions. That mustn't have been quickly expunged because of some unestablished thoughts! To make it easier, Paul Oyemade who is the senior pastor of The Covenant Nation and convener of The Platform Nigeria and Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Center have come to make clearance apart from the pit of hell. It is a duty call on the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and Christian Association of Nigeria to provide a manual of the twenty most deadly pandemic in the world, which had started before 400 B.C (Circa epidemic) till Zika virus epidemic of 2015 till date. The Spanish flu which overwhelmed the lives of arguably 100 million people which wiped 1.5% of the 81, 941 population of Lagos state between 1918 and1920 was most pronounced. In 1897, a smallpox epidemic hit Lagos state and spread wider, Leprosy took over Egba land between 1857 and 1859. These findings show that coronavirus is not the first plague over to beleaguer the world at large. Calling on the religious organizations is not too late. These dry leaves will sprout again, the tree can bear fruit again. We can take this bloody breast which feeds us with sourness by its horn. As very important as prayer is, God has promised that his grace is sufficient for us and this tribulation we are faced with will be done with. The blood of Jesus is not a waste and we should not prove that wrong with our actions and inactions. Pray for the frontliners: Doctors and Nurses, and essential workers.
Seyi is a freelancer from Ibadan and can be reached on [email protected]