#Final episode
• Accountability and Corruption
The Bible is useful for rebuking and training in righteousness – 2 Tim 3: 16; this verse is no longer used as a guide for accountability and corruption in the house of God. The foundation of Spiritual growth is the understanding of God’s word. Churches grow best as they combine Obedience to the Bible in the context of close ‘Accountability Relationships’ – Galatians 5: 16 – 26. Christians should be known for the good works they do within the community. What service project or act of kindness could one do as an individual, as a group, or with other ministries of the Church to demonstrate Christ’s love tangibly?
Nevertheless, in reality, church overseers and leaders push their congregation to bring money called harvest into the house of God without a care to the source of the money. Even some church leaders convert Church funds to personal uses. The congregation becomes leaner, and the Pastor becomes fatter. The monetary issue has divided many ministries. Some leaders have sold their souls to the devil due to corrupt enrichment. This challenge is for theologians to proclaim to all the teachings of Jesus Christ on wealth accumulation and speak openly against corruption. Church leaders must be accountable and try to emulate the Master.
• Embezzlement and Mismanagement of Funds and Resources
These social vices have crept into Christendom; the theologians must preach against them and eradicate the vices before they consume the Church.
• Leadership and Succession Problems in Church
Like the change in political leadership, religious leadership sees it as a ‘do or die affair. Some religious leaders use blackmail, kill, or destroy those they consider obstacles to achieving their goals. The elections into religious leadership positions are defaced with charms, manipulations, and verbal assaults that affect the spiritual lives of the church members after elections. Religious leaders use politics and religions as potent tools of deceits for Power.
A church that is supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit has put the Holy Spirit in the backbench while inordinate ambition takes over the front row. People are no longer waiting to hear from God or being called by God. Church Ministries are the alternative for unemployment and retrenchment, and the service of God is being treated like any employment. Spiritualism is no longer in effect; some even resort to consulting Ifa Priests’, Alfas’, use of Talisman and any Traditional armor to gain the upper hand in the Church of God. There are cases of fighting throwing overboard the fundamental teaching of Christ in loving one another.
Conclusion/Recommendations
John’s vision makes it very clear at several points that all citizens of New Jerusalem started as citizens of fallen Babylon. The Lamb ransomed people for God through the cross from every tribe, language, people, and nation (5:9). John then sees this group standing before the throne of God and the Lamb and worshipping (7:9-12).
Whenever the Church forgets that the Gospel is for the world, it forgets its primary purpose in the world. The Church is not only the proclaimer of the Good News; it is also called to be incarnate of the Good News. The Good News for citizens of Fallen Babylon is that there is a way of life, a mode of being, a realm of existence in which can find healing for brokenness, the forgiveness of sin, cleansing of ungodliness, liberation from bondage, and transformation to wholeness. The true Gospel is that of ‘Salvation.’ Salvation is the work of God, for God in mercy has withheld the deserved punishment for our sins because Christ has paid the penalty for human beings, Romans 9:10-15, Titus 3:4-7.
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Notes
Note 1. Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible Book by Book, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 426
Note 2. James Hastings, Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, (New York: Hendrickson Publishers Inc.
2001), 797
Note 3: Hastings, 798
Note 4; George Eldon, Ladd A Theology of the New Testament: Revised Edition, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 670
Note 5: George Eldon, Ladd A Theology of the New Testament: Revised Edition, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993, 672. A few interpreters tried to adapt the Preterist view to a conservative approach. See A. Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (1943, 1954); R. Summers, Worthy Is the Lamb (1951). Also see G. R. Beasley-Murray in The New Bible Commentary (ed. F. Davidson; 1953); that combines the Preterist and Futurist methods. L. Morris, Revelation (1969); G. E. Ladd, Revelation (1972).
Note 6: Fee and Stuart, 209
Note 7: http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/book_of_rev elation/commentary/htm/
Note 8: Http.www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/book_of_reve lation/commentary/htm/ accessed on June 18, 2016
Note 9: M. Robert Mulholland Jr. “Oral lecture”: West Africa Theological Seminary (WATS), an affiliate of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2006; Revelation: Holy Living in an Unholy World.
Michigan: Zondervan Press, First edition (April 1990)
Note 10: Leech, 1985, 391
Note 11: Robert M. Mulholland Jr., “Oral lecture”: West Africa Theological Seminary (WATS), an affiliate of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2006; Revelation: Holy Living in an Unholy World. Michigan: Zondervan Press, First edition (April 1990)
Note 12: David, Barret, World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions in the modern world, second edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 1982
Note 13: Pejorative nicknames have been attached to the theology, including “name it and claim it” and “blab it and grab it”
Note 14: Kenneth Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity, Fort Worth, Texas: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1974, 19
Note 15: Copeland, 41