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Facing your Pharaoh. Praise Assembly of God
Right from the go, we
knew COVID-19 would provide globalists their long-awaited opportunity to
push hard for a global government. As
aptly described in the second Psalm, the heart cry of this humanism-based
global government is to change the existing “old” order, casting off God’s “restraints”,
values, and systems. The intolerable concepts
include the insistence that there can be only two discrete stable states
allowed for gender (strictly male or female); ascribing superiority to Man over
other life forms co-habiting the planet earth; considering the earth itself as an
estate made for man’s well-being, rather than a goddess whose well-being trumps
man’s existence; and at the bottomline, holding that all of creation is the
completed product of the ingenuity of a
benevolent omnipotent Creator-God, rather than a still-evolving self-existing purposeless
entity.
The two institutions promoting and tenaciously
upholding the values blocking the emergence of the “new world order” are the
Church, and somewhere in the wings, the State of Israel. The battle to supplant the existing godly
Judeo-Christian values with those of the New Age movement is therefore a direct
conflict primarily with the Church. Unfortunately
very many members of the Church are totally unaware of the magnitude of this
unfolding final clash, dulled by a philosophy that sees “nothing new under the
sun!”
As soon as the COVID-19 lockdown measures came rolling
out, it was clear to us that they had little to do with maintenance of public
health but more about asserting authoritarian control over the people, and
subtly changing the values by which society is run. This led us to
conclude straightaway that the farcical local rules being churned out in
Nigeria (and elsewhere) were inspired by globalist new age agents out to
curtail their ancient foe, the Church. We hesitated to make this latter point
reasoning that so long as the rules apply uniformly to all the sectors in
society, government could be given some benefits of doubt in that regard.
Now the jury is in.
Having stretched society to breaking point via the
various lockdown measures, and having exhausted all options that could somehow
be covered by reason, government had no choice but to start opening up the
various sectors. While the government in Nigeria adamantly stuck to the timelines
specified in the global template, elsewhere various adjustments were being made. The Ghanaian president for instance threw
in the towel after three weeks of partial lockdowns and said his people
could no longer bear the draconian “one-size-for-all” measures handed down by
globalists. Similarly, mindful of approaching summer and the lucrative tourism
industry, Europe
also announced that tourists could start flying in as from mid-June. This is a big quantum jump in the re-opening
protocols and brings in view a near normalization of society which is not supposed
to happen until, according
to the globalists, there has been a COVID-19 vaccine developed and produced for
every one of the 7 billion of us living on the planet.
However, as we also warned,
it would be naïve to expect that the globalists would give in so easily in a
battle they had spent decades preparing for, even if things are not turning out
exactly according to their well-rehearsed
plans. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently limping
following America’s ongoing withdrawal of her membership (with at least two
other countries, Brazil and Madagascar,
threatening the same action). All this
will considerably erode the credibility and authority of the organization which
is then exposed as essentially just another Bill Gates institution. Similarly the
spooky agenda to sneak in mandatory vaccination and with it chip implants, is
now out in the public domain, and is being massively denounced all over the
world. Laughably, Mr Bill Gates is averring
that the nanochip-based vaccination project ID2020 does not exist. Yet, launched with boisterous funfair last September,
details about the Project are still conspicuously displayed for all to see on
the internet
with Gate’s signature all over it! (https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/id2020-and-partners-launch-program-to-provide-digital-id-with-vaccines). Another spanner in the wheels of the envisaged new
world order would be the report that the COVID-19 virus is disappearing
so fast in the UK that Oxford scientists fear they may not have enough infected
subjects to trial their vaccine when it eventually becomes ready! These and many other setbacks for the
globalists, yet we knew the battle is still far from ending. Not the least in
Nigeria!
We have often explained that Nigeria is the ideal
launch-pad and soft target for globalists’ pet new world order projects. This is predicated on her attractive large
population size, weak central government, wavering commitment to nationhood on
the part of the component ethnic groups, cynical easy-to-manipulate selfish elites,
and not the least, the tremendous influence – formal and informal – Nigeria
exerts on other countries on the African continent. All these mean that there could be no retreat
from the desperate plans of the globalists until the battle has been decided in
Nigeria.
And the point we are trying to make here is that this
battle in Nigeria is specifically against the Church!
One of the aces in the globalists’ war chest as they
systematically prosecute the current conflict is their reserving to themselves
the right to ascribe “essentiality” to various sectors in society. In line with their desired changes in societal
values and mores therefore, they declared health (dubiously defined to exclude
mental and emotional health) together with such sectors as agriculture and the
economy as the high priority ones which must be opened up as soon as possible.
Not surprisingly, religion is relegated to the very bottom of the ladder and
could as well remain locked down perpetually!
The education sector apparently had to be co-joined with religion so as
to douse any outcry from the public on the classification given to the latter. Moreso that the lockdown in the education sector
would bite less on the elites whose children, (where they are at all resident
in the country), have continued
to receive educational instructions through various online platforms.
So, at long last, it became the turn of the religious
sector to be opened up, and the utter contempt with which the globalists and
their local pawns hold the Church can hardly be hidden.
It is not at all difficult showing that in Nigeria,
the lockdown measures directed at the “religious sector” are actually primarily
directed at the Church. In a video that
went viral on social media, a government official was seen respectfully
appealing to an Islamic cleric to comply with lockdown measures at his mosque;
while in another scene later, the same
government official, who incidentally claimed to be a Christian, was shown
lambasting a Pastor caught flouting the same lockdown regulations. The Pastor was later whisked away for further
interrogation. Stories of such double
standard abound here and there, all across the nation. However making the front pages of several
national dailies was the flagrant defiance of the Presidential Task Force’s directives
by hundreds of moslems in Kano and Nasarrawa States as they
gathered to mark the end of the Ramadan with the traditional prayers on
Sunday 24th May. There was no recrimination at all of any sort.
The traditional religions are of course an absolutely
off-limits zone for the authorities.
Why, here in Ile-Ife, Osun State, traditional religionists actually gave
notice that everybody (presumably including government security agents) should
be off the streets while they go around doing their rituals, lasting all day on
Thursday April 2. That was right in the midst of a supposed “total lockdown”. In like manner, it is highly doubtful that the
Lodges, Freemasons, and other occult spiritual groups are using Zoom for their
meetings and rituals even at this period!
So, the lockdowns against “religion” are actually
directed against the Church; and as we approach the climax of the current
battle, the camouflages are off, and the bare-knuckled bashing of the Church in
Nigeria has begun!
In the newly released guidelines,
Churches are now required to buy infra-red thermometers (costing about N25,000)
with which they must monitor every one desiring to come worship God. Even more outrageous is the requirement that
anyone with elevated temperature (cited at 38oC) must be turned away
and advised to go find a doctor! Apparently,
healings are not to be sought in the Church anymore! In fact, in handling down the protocols for
re-opening religious centres at the
FCT, the authorities actually stated that its supposed magnanimity in allowing
Churches to re-open is in recognition of “the importance of places of worship
in our social and cultural way of life.” Pointedly robbing religion of any
claim to spiritual value.
The rules declared that Church services are to be
concluded within one hour: worship, prayers, teaching/preaching, fellowship,
everything must end within sixty minutes!
Of course, Sunday School is proscribed.
So also are night vigils. The question is what has all this got to do
with public health, knowing that the same population who come to Church mix
together endlessly in the market, on public transportation, and of course on social
visits, as most of them are neighbours! In
the FCT, Pastors are actually “discouraged” to pay “religious visits” to their
members in their homes! Thus, a Pastor may
visit in some other capacity, but not as a cleric!
While most states in the federation largely endorsed
the bad-enough guidelines from the Presidential Task Force (PTF), the sister Southern
states Osun
and Lagos felt tougher measures were needed! Shifting the subject from “public health” to “safety
of lives and properties” Lagos insisted that Churches must first be registered
with the State Safety Commission before they could be considered for post-coronavirus
re-opening. Then congregation size at
any time is pegged at 40% of the building’s approved occupancy limit, and in
any case cannot be more than 500 no matter how big the auditorium is. Under the instructions of her globalist
handlers, Lagos State government declared that people under 15 years, and those
above 65 years are not to be allowed in Church; eerily replicating Pharaoh’s insistence
that Israel could only be allowed to go serve the LORD if they went without
their “..young and (their) old” (Exo 10:10-11).
There are other
nauseating conditions in the general guidelines, such as the designation of the
“Midweek service” as a “non-worship” activity
(Guideline 9a) - which apparently does not apply to Moslems who are recognized
as needing to meet for corporate worship 5 times a day, 7 days a week! Similarly, regulation 9c requiring that “food
offerings (communion)” are not to be “shared from common dishes” amounts to a
technical proscription of the Holy Communion – a fundamental element of the
Christian faith.
The Lagos regulations are to be in place for up to 6 months
before they would be reviewed. By that time, the dubious
COVID-19 vaccines currently
being mass-produced even while testing is only just beginning, would be ready. If the globalists can get away with the nauseating
measures they are ramming down the Church’s throat at the present time, it will
require special miracle to stop our folks from rushing to embrace the vaccine in
6 months time, if offered as the single condition for getting back their right
to freely worship the Almighty!
It is difficult for the government to convince anyone
that all these stifling prescriptions are really meant for public health sake,
and not really to please the globalists who are probably wielding both carrot
and stick to force government in line. The
earlier lockdown measures for the general society had been full of ingenious
absurdities and contradictions. For
instance, following general outcry and tumultuous social situations, government
“magnanimously” permitted “lockdown-free days” that permitted unfettered public
interactions to be followed by other “full lockdown days” each week. Did the authorities actually expect that the
COVID-19 virus would observe a “ceasefire” on those designated free days simply
because government authorized it? Would the feared community transmission of
the “deadly pandemic” be suspended even as the masses thronged themselves in over-crowded
market places and other public spaces, as they jostle to complete some essential
transactions before the “full” lockdown resumed? Of course not! It’s like bringing out your growing yam for a
brief inspection once a week, immediately covering it back with soil thereafter
for the rest of the week, and still expecting to get a good harvest after 8
months, simply by citing the number of hours the yam had cumulatively spent in
the soil!
There was actually the hilarious informal report of COVID-19
patients at an Isolation Centre in one of the northern states being released to
go celebrate the Eid el Fitr festival at home, and to return to continue their
quarantine thereafter! The story is quite
plausible, in the prevailing circumstances. However the global dimension of COVID-19
lockdown hypocrisy is well captured by the factual story
of CNN’s Chris Cuomo who took an extended break from his well-advertised
COVID-19 lockdown to spend time and drive around with his family at Easter. And
the
CNN covered for him even while furiously lambasting people who were complaining
about the harshness of the lockdowns!
Well, given the above background, isn’t it outrageous
that the government in Nigeria would insist, with a straight face, that the
“deadly coronavirus” situation, (and presumably government’s utmost concern for
the welfare of Church members) has given it the right to prescribe how the
Church may now practice her faith? Yet,
what all this boils down to, in our opinion, is that the Church is being challenged
to prove that she is essentially different from the other organizations she is
being lumped with: Event Centres, Night
Clubs, and others in the “Entertainment Industry”. Donald
Trump made the case for the Church in the United States, while John
Magufuli did the same in Tanzania. The
Church in Nigeria is being challenged to prove her essentiality!
And this would seem to us indeed a legitimate
challenge! As the Prophet Elijah would probably have put it, it is time the
Church in Nigeria stopped vacillating between two opinions and settled the
question of whether or not she is actually under the commission and authority
of the Living God! If indeed the Church
in Nigeria has a Divine Head to Whom she is answerable, then answering the
essentiality challenge would be trivial. Summoned to the king in an insulting manner by
an army captain, Prophet Elijah had retorted: “If I be a man of God, then let fire come down
from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.” (2 Kings 1:10).
If the Church be a servant of God, truly transforming
lives, healing bodies, souls and spirits as well as families and communities;
if the prayers of the Church indeed count for anything in holding back the
hordes of hell in our nation, then notwithstanding that she is bearing her
valuable treasures in “earthen vessels”, we should expect something to break in
the coming weeks or even days as the showdown begins.
Naturally, many sections of the Church have already
indicated that the Lagos re-opening rules are not acceptable to them. Church Arise! hopes this situation could be
the eye-opener for the Church as she breaks the satanic spells that has kept
her divided so far. As we wrote earlier,
one of the tragedies of the Church’s formal representative in Nigeria, the
Christian Association of Nigeria, is the abject neglect of the numerous
Christian resources that ordinarily should be harnessed to defend and promote
the interests of the Church in Nigeria. Being not “Church-based” should not
preclude bodies like the Nigerian Christian Elders Forum/Nigerian Christian
Social Movement, the Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship, the Intercessors for
Nigeria, the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship, and dozens of other
Christian Fellowships – Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers, and so on, from having a
formal channel to contribute to CAN’s businesses. Afterall
none of them is spared in the ongoing globalists’ assault on the faith.
Beyond a re-working of the external structure for the
Church in Nigeria through a re-engineered CAN however, the ongoing assaults
should make the Church re-evaluate her priorities viz-a-viz Kingdom values and the reality of the soon-coming of our
Lord and Master, Jesus. How come
Christians should suddenly begin to fear diseases to the point of relinquishing
our core values and commission? Why, we
are mandated to destroy all the works of the devil on the planet, while we
remain here as salt and light! Diseases
are certainly not excluded from the list.
Similarly, it is disheartening to see the Church considering enslavement
as a “prudent” option to avoid bloodshed.
Why do nations go to physical wars if not to preserve their cherished
values? Why did Bishop Andini give his
neck to the Jihadists’ scythe if not as a fight for the truth, for liberty and
conscience? Why indeed is teenage Leah Sharibu not at home with her parents and
peers at the present time if not to maintain her religious convictions? We make a mockery of these and countless
other saints who have and who continue to pay the price for religious liberty,
when we go into panic mode over the 324
people who supposedly have succumbed to coronavirus in Nigeria since the
beginning of the “plandemic”. This could be compared with the 790
Nigerians (fathers, pregnant women, babies, and the elderlies) that have
been brutally slaughtered during the same period by those who would have us
give up our Christian faith and liberties. The same liberties we are about
handing over to the globalists on a platter of gold over COVID-19 spell-fueled
panic. Presently in the UK, the authorities have conceded that the street
protests in sympathy with the human rights violation in far-away United
States merits the suspension of COVID-19 social distancing and lockdown
regulations. Here in Nigeria, we are
conceding to throw away our most-cherished liberties under the bogus threat of
COVID-19. Tragic!
Yes, our faith requires us to be law abiding as much as is
possible. But certainly not at the
expense of that faith itself! The Bible
is full of several examples, such as Daniel and his three friends, Mordecai and
Esther, and countless others who by clinging to their faith “changed the king’s
word (Dan. 3:28), subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, and stopped the mouths of
lions” (Heb 11:33). As the Apostles aptly put it to those trying to shut
down the Gospel by appealing to “God-given authorities”: “Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (Acts 4:19).
In concluding this article, we emphasize again that though
the Church is eminently deserving of a special status on account of the
invaluable tangible and intangible contributions she sacrificially makes to
Society, she should actually not be asking for such. Our request should be a call for a level
playing field with fixed goal posts, even if we are to be treated as no
different from Night Clubs or Shopping Malls.
If for instance, the 30,000 capacity auditorium of the Deeper Life Bible
Church in Lagos is not to have more than 500 people at a time (and none outside
the 15-65 age bracket) for a maximum of one hour, the same should apply to the
Novare Lekki Mall. If it is all about public health and nothing else, what is
good for the goose should be ok also for the gander.
As for the question of the Church’s “essentiality”,
Church Arise! believes that can safely be left to the Head of the Church to answer.
Church Arise!
Ile-Ife, 8th
June, 2020
