Tuesday, July 19, 2022

The Tsunami and the Watchman’s Burden (CA! Vol 8 No 1, 2005)

 The world will certainly not forget in a hurry the devastating December 26 tsunami that left behind some 150,000 people dead and 500,000 others injured last year. Yet millions of others were rendered destitute and homeless as trillions of dollars worth of property perished in a matter of minutes. 

           How did it happen?  The physics of a tsu-nami (Japanese word for habour wave) is described in lay terms in the article by Prof. Bolaji Aluko (www.dawodu.com/aluko107.htm). Following an earthquake under the Ocean, the sea bed is pushed upwards several meters.  This results in an overflow of a huge amount of water which together with the waves, surge towards land at an incredible speed that could be up to about 800 km/h, comparable to the speed of a commercial airliner.  The current tsunami is an example of what can result from such a phenomenon.

        Now, why did it happen?  Why did so many – mainly children -  have to die so violently, so suddenly?  Here science breaks down, and religion and philosophy comes up, many of them showing their abject bankruptcy and total hopelessness.  In a study carried out by BBC News (Jan 3: An Act of God?), the views of various religions were sought to explain the tsunami and the associated great loss of lives.  Rani Moorthy, a Hindi actress and  writer offered:  “The tsunami brings into question both  personal and collective destinies for Hindus. In terms of the latter, we are born in an age of destruction, known as Kali Yuga, an age that lasts for perhaps 1,000 years. This says that we must go through a series of set-backs, obstacles, suffering, eg AIDS, and a propensity for natural disasters as nature shows its malevolent side. Mankind goes through this to be renewed. As for my personal destiny, there is no central text in Hinduism as there is in other religions so it's up to each of us to formulate our own understanding”….The`outlook of Bhuddism is not much different: “What might have precipitated the tsunami was a lot of people coming together who had the karma for a short life and, to an extent, this is perhaps a reflection that these areas were over-populated”, reflected an adherent. 

It is instructive that people hardly consider the possibilities that God might actually have reduced the possible impact of the event (see Matthew 24:22 to confirm the consistency of this with His character) or that He might not really have wished the event to have happened at all. (See also Luke 13:1-5; Ezekiel 18:32).

     Of the many lessons that could possibly be drawn from this incident, Church Arise!, will  want to soberly point out a few.  If learnt, then at least those saddening loss of lives would not have gone entirely in vain.

        First, is the ephemeral nature of materials and utter helplessness of man.  The energy of the tsunami was estimated as greater than 10 times those of the atomic bombs unleashed on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.  We may guard all we can against terrorism, war etc, but no amount of resolution-passing at the UN can stop such, well, “acts of God”.

.      Second is the suddenness of it all.  One fact that struck most eye-witnesses was the brevity of the whole incident.  One moment, calm and camaraderie, a sudden gale of water, and 2 minutes later, all calm again, this time, a ghostly calm. The Bible says the coming of the Lord will happen “in a twinkle of an eye’.  One moment, it will be business as usual, the next, it will be all over and the world will never be the same again!

The above  leads to the point on the urgency of preaching the Gospel.  Unfortunately the vast majority of those who perished in the tsunamis did not get to understand that through Jesus Christ, they could have a solid hope for the eternity. Most eastern religions teach a hopeless future of repeated reincarnation till one day one may earn enough good works to break the cycle.  And to think they only needed to know the Truth to have had a gloriously different destiny.  Now for these, it’s too late to preach!

         Lastly, and perhaps most critical, is the problem of getting people to respond to otherwise unpalatable realities. Virtually everyone knows that the fault lines are there and that the Tsunami could, indeed MUST, one day happen.  Prediction systems exist to warn people ahead of a developing tsunami, but with these rushing in typically at a speed of 800 km/h, the real challenge is to get people to respond to this warning either on time, or at all!   According to a BBC analysis: “An operator sitting in an early warning centre in Jakarta might know about an impending tsunami, but how does he warn the fisherman in Sumatra, the sweet seller in Sri Lanka, the tribesman on Nicobar island?” 

          The challenges of accurately predicting that a particular quake under the ocean will develop into a harmful tsunamis are rather daunting that but for the most advanced (and expensive) systems such as the Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting (DART), three in four tsunami alerts turn out to be false alarms  (newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6839).  Evacuations in such cases are very costly and can damage a delicate industry such as tourism.   The inevitable resultant is complacency or wishful thinking on the part of the majority!  Clearly there are some events for which preparations for possible escape must not be delayed till they commence.

      Certainly, the saddest (and least told story!) about the whole Asian Tsunami is the fact that there were professional scientists who seeing clearly the handwriting literally shouted themselves hoarse hoping somebody will pay attention. The Newscientist article already cited above, quietly mentioned the story of Samoth Dhammasaroj, a meteoroligcal expert in Thailand.  Soon after the massive ocean quake, he realized that a deadly tsunami might be on the way, but he was “unable to contact government officials to raise the alarm”.   Even more pathetic is the story of Kerry Sieh, distinguished professor of geology at CalTech, who several weeks before the event repeatedly warned Indonesian officials that an earthquake and tsunami would soon strike their shores.

         Prof. Sieh, who has studied the region for nearly a decade, was so frustrated in his attempts to get the attention of Asia's leaders that, in desperation, he began handing out fliers, posters and brochures to residents of the islands worst hit by the waves.  He spoke at churches and schools – wherever people gave him audience.  According to a report in WND (Jan 9, 2005), his appointment to discuss with Indonesian officials, about a month to the catastrophe, “was reportedly canceled at the last minute by the officials”.   According to Sieh, "No one can predict exactly when an earthquake will happen, but it was clear that this area was at relatively high risk and such an event would definitely happen one day," he said after the devastation. "We told them it would kill people, wreck infrastructure and destroy livelihoods. But our warnings were falling on deaf ears. My team and I decided to bypass the national and local government and start warning people directly. I hope our efforts saved some lives."

       The sad story shows how little things have changed since the times of Noah or Lot! It takes great courage to warn people to flee from the danger to come, especially when that means asking them to change comfortable lifestyles, religions, professions, practices they have been comfortably entrenched in.  And with many satanically-inspired doomsday date-setters periodically springing forth, it is easy for men and women to brush aside sound clear Biblical warnings with a wave of  “we’ve heard all that before”. 

    But then how can anyone, like Prof Sieh, possibly see the unmistaken signs of a great tsunami approaching – unprecedented rot and immorality, including sexuality education taking deep roots in society, increasing turning against God as people pay lip service to righteousness and embrace various cults directly or indirectly, systematic and clear efforts to zombifie the entire populace via many simultaneous efforts including microchip implantation, using basic obvious baits, etc – how can one see all these, understand the clear implications, and not warn the unwary to depart from doomsland, no matter the cost?  Afterall what does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his life? (Mark 8: 36?)  Even when one knows a priori that most will either outrightly scoff, or politely ignore, can one but keep on shouting?  The Lord has given the Word, who can keep quiet!  This is the watchman’s burden – such as is borne by ministries like Church Arise!  Mat 25:41 makes it clear that although many will end up in hell fire, none is actually required to!  The Word of God is clear.  Disaster is coming upon the world that will make the recent tsunamis look like a picnic.(see Rev. 16:1ff).  Genuine faith in Jesus is the ONLY way out (1 Jhn 5:4-5).  NOW, is the time to escape for your life (Gen. 19:17). Come out of all ungodly relationships and associations today! (2 Cor. 6:17, Rev. 18:4).  Remember Lot’s wife!

To download past editions of Church Arise! newsletter, please go to the Archives at www.churcharise.org

Monday, July 18, 2022

CONGRATULATIONS OSUN, THE NEW NIGERIA BECKONS!

 

“…Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be

of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt

not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.” Esther 6:13b

 

The desperate political subterfuges, deep spiritual enchantments, and downpour of naira-rain (a.k.a.  “dibo-ki-o-se-obe”) all failed woefully to hold back the counsel of the Almighty as the Fulanization agenda in Nigeria ran into the brickwall we had predicted awaited it at the Osun Gubernatorial election of Saturday 16th July.

 

Church Arise! heartily felicitates with the good people of Osun State and the Governor-Elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke for this landmark good success.  We pray that the State will go forward as a trail-blazing model to lead others into the new Nigeria we have all been praying for all these years.  We also congratulate the outgoing governor, Mr Isiaka Oyetola for the freedom now to be his own man, relieved of the hatchet-man job he would have been required to play in the fulanization script towards 2023. Such as were required of the Lagos governor during the EndSARS protest, or what is currently going on in Imo state. 

 

Our biggest congratulations of course go to the indefatigable praying and hopeful Church.  We can take this landmark victory as a token that the relentless prayer-chains by the Saints across Church denominations, both within Nigeria and in the diaspora, have come to the attention of the Almighty God.  Yes, we can be encouraged and assured that the appointed time to show mercy on Nigeria and favour her has indeed come.

 

Going forward, after the order of Haman before Mordechai, we see the Fulani agenda irretrievably unravelling and the purveyors committing one fatal error after the other as they try to grapple with the unimaginable that had befallen them. While their evil counsel proceeds to the appointed perdition, Haman and sons go to the gallows and the people of God secure rule over all those who had decided to hate them without any cause! (Esther 9).

 

Of course, it is not time for the Church to seek repose.  Disingenuously, some folks are trying to cast the “Christian-Christian” ticket popularly endorsed by the good people of Osun in the same mould as the Moslem-Moslem (actually Moslem-Boko Haram) ticket that the Church is staunchly resisting at the Federal level.  The short response to this childish joke is contained in the statement by former SGF, Babachir Lawal:

“Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Muslim presidential candidate (Lagos), Muslim Vice Presidential candidate (Borno), Muslim National Chairman (Nasarawa), Muslim Deputy National Chairman (Borno), Muslim President (Katsina); Muslim Senate President (Yobe); Muslim Speaker (Lagos); Muslim Deputy Speaker (Plateau) e.t.c.

 

We may add that the Muslim Speaker from Lagos actually had to convert (back) to Islam, before he could be put forward for the office!  At the present time, the largely lame-duck office of Vice President, is the only one left in the APC basket with a Christian occupier; and the Islamists apparently cannot stomach even that token. As the Kabba helicopter crash showed, were it not for divine intervention, beloved PYO was supposed by now to have gone the way of Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State!

 

Perhaps we should simply just ignore these comedians who think Nigerians can’t see beyond their noses to confuse the situation in Osun State with what the APC is doing at the national level.

 

Meanwhile while we all await the appropriate signals and pronouncements from the CAN and PFN, it is clear that the only practical option left for the Church in the march towards the 2023 presidential election is via the Obidient movement.   We accordingly recommend the movement for the embrace of the Church as we heed the Lord’s command that we occupy till He comes. 

 

Hopefully,  very soon.

 

Church Arise!

Ile-Ife; 18th July, 2023

Thursday, July 14, 2022

CALL TO DISRUPT THE FULANI AGENDA IN NIGERIA WITH OUR VOTES AT THE OSUN GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION THIS SATURDAY.

 1. In the past 7 years, a Fulani cabal has acquired unprecedented and incredible power in Nigeria. With elections due in less than a year, they are desperate to cling to this power by every means possible.

2. The endless kidnappings for humongous ransoms, the carnage at St Francis, Owo, and the audacious Kuje Jail break, are recent demonstrations of the desperation and capacity of this group of Fulani in this respect.

3. Under this ambience, it is child play for the Fulani to steer the 2023 elections to their desired outcomes, and with the legitimacy conferred by these, proceed to implement even more drastic changes in structure of the polity to literally consign other nationalities to the status of slaves.

4. In all these, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) has proven to be a formidable Outsider and has stubbornly frustrated the planned emergence of 2 Fulani moslems as the presidential candidates Nigerians can choose from.

5. To weaken and emasculate BAT, the smarting but smiling Fulani are isolating him from his natural allies who could have adopted him to champion the battle to wrestle power off the Fulani. They have successfully pressured him to blatantly disregard the clearly expressed concerns by the Church that he balance his presidential ticket with any capable Christian of his choice.  His eventual Moslem choice further turned out to be one with well-known sympathy for Islamic insurgents, as well as vehement opposition to any restructuring of the nation towards true federalism.

6. Amazingly, apparently blinded by ambition, BAT imagines he will not only win the election with this bizarre configuration (that could not fly even in 2014); he thinks he will furthermore be spared the MKO Abiola treatment and  allowed by the Fulani to form a government, where he can implement his personal ideas for the country. All these are pipe-dreams!

7. The gubernatorial election coming up in Osun this Saturday 16th July, 2022 (which in reality is all about BAT), might be able to help open his eyes!  He could be made to see that Christians can indeed mobilize to vote against him, if that is the only way to demonstrate that they are not willing to continue with the current polity of endless kidnapping and terror.  This could help him retrace his steps from blind subservience to the Fulani.

8. More importantly, the resulting situation will catastrophically disrupt whatever schemes the Fulani are banking on, to keep the masses dozing and spellbound while they go about perfecting their evil plans for us.  We don’t have to fight this battle according to their script and timelines!

9. The Church in Osun State has the capacity to bring about this massive disruption of the Fulani agenda - if we would unite and VOTE OUT the APC from government in our state this Saturday. 

10. Church Arise! urges that brethren prayerfully consider the scenarios described and act accordingly.

Shalom.

Church Arise!  14th July, 2022

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Osun Gubernatorial Election is the place to checkmate raging Fulanization drive

Church Arise! has traditionally encouraged Christians to be actively involved in the political process in the country, by participating in every legitimate shade and hue of partisanship  - rather than forming a “Christian party” for example, as often advocated (out of sheer frustration) by other well-meaning Christians.  Ordinarily, such diverse and active participation should be sufficient to ensure that the Church is not short-changed, whichever party is in power, and it makes it unnecessary for us to endorse one party or the other in a general election.  The notable exceptions to this general position had been the elections of General Mohammadu Buhari in 2019 which we stridently warned against for reasons which are now clearly manifest for everyone to see (heightened insecurity and extreme nepotism); and earlier in 2014, that of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola whose first term as governor of the land of the virtuous people, had been marked by rabid Islamism combined with state-sponsored idolatry.

However, never before is an election so crucial to the survival of the country as an entity, and even more so the preservation of the Church, than the Osun gubernatorial election scheduled for Saturday 16th July, 2022.

It represents the first and possibly the last opportunity for the Church to resoundingly respond to the Muslim-Muslim ticket recently announced by presidential aspirant Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT).  Not only is such a ticket a direct affront and utter disregard to the clear and categorical counsel of the Church (through both the CAN and PFN), it is the worst Muslim-Muslim ticket imaginable.  As pointed out by several outraged commentators in the public space, not only is the chosen candidate strongly implicated in the support, nurturing, and protection of Islamic insurgency over the years, he is the official voice against restructuring of Nigeria.  In one particular outburst, he decried the call for restructuring of Nigeria as “madness”.

It should be clear to all that such a choice by Mr Tinubu was an imposition on him by the invisible sinister “kingmakers”, and it is instructive that he considers it a must-tread route to attain the office he desperately seeks to occupy despite the obvious backlashes such a choice was guaranteed to produce.

As we have affirmed over the years, the primary requirement to ensure Nigeria fulfils her God-ordained glorious destiny is that the current evil-imposed constitution must be discarded.  The Fulani agenda seek not only to sustain the constitution, but to work it out to its logical evil conclusion of subordinating other ethnic nationalities to the Fulani, using Islam as a cover. This subjugation had been accomplished over the decades in the northern region of Nigeria, all the way down to the Yoruba city of Ilorin using subterfuges and brute force.  The constitution was crafted and imposed in 1999 to proceed with the evil agenda in a somewhat more civilly manner.

Evidences stare us starkly in the face of the renewed desperate vigour to conclude this business at the present time.  For instance, it is no longer news that there are, right now, thousands of sleeper terrorist cells lurking in southern cities and forests, waiting to unleash similar carnage as is ongoing in northern and middle-belt regions.  The dastardly massacre of dozens of worshippers at St Francis Church Owo on Pentecost day, June 5, established that reality beyond any doubt.  As authoritatively revealed by Dr Obadiah Mailafia of blessed memory, the Fulani main plan is to start a civil war in Nigeria this year.  Failing that, the Plan B would be the handing over of the reins of government to the Fulani mujahedeen via a staged military coup, as happened in Afghanistan.  Dress rehearsal for this was the sacking of the medium-security Correctional Facility right in the Federal Capital Territory, in an operation that lasted hours, with no response coming from the all-moslem controlled security forces.

Elections therefore amount only to Plan C in the Fulanization scheme.  And their main use is to distract the Church from the glaring impending doom, numbed into inertia with the wishful hope that somehow, something might still spring out for the better; thus allowing the evil Schemers the direly-needed time to put in place critical elements of their dastardly plans. Of course the Church must prepare hard to meet the Fulani at the polls, even as She plans to checkmate their evil Plans A and B.

The election this Saturday in Osun state is NOT about the incumbent, who under ordinary circumstances deserves some fair consideration. (Hopefully, there would be plenty of opportunities for him to further contribute in the soon-to-emerge glorious Nigeria.)   But it is undisputable fact that he came into office solely on the strength of BAT; and he is patently helpless to work against the core interests of his benevolent godfather and Uncle. The election in Osun state, more than anywhere else, is every whit all about BAT; and this might be not only the place to show him the implication of his daring insult and assault on the Church, but even more importantly, the right place to frontally confront and stop the fulanization drive.

That would be history repeating itself, as the dreamt march of the Fulani to the atlantic was checkmated at this same Osogbo in 1840.  

Just as a toad could stay and be boiled to death in a jar of water being steadily heated to produce gradual stepwise increase in the temperature, the success of the Fulanization agenda requires that Nigerians remain passive, gradually adjusting to the increasing temperature in the polity -  until it becomes too late to jump out.  The time and place to fight for the emergence of the new restructured Nigeria promised by God; to fight for the deliverance of our children and generations yet unborn from certain bondage and relegation to third-class citizenship; and even more importantly, to defend the Christian faith from suffering the fate of Turkey  (in the late nineteeth century) and more lately, Lebanon ( in the 1970s), is to vote the APC out of office this Saturday at Osogbo.

This would produce a clear signal to all, and would compel many sleepers (on both sides of the divide) to spring to action precipitately, ahead of what had been schemed.  As the Lord Jesus told Judas Iscariot, “that which you do, do it quickly”.  Forced to launch prematurely before vital components are firmly in place, the Fulanization agenda could thus proceed to the perdition appointed for it by the Lord of Hosts.

To execute the written judgement against this satanic move, the honour is given to the saints of God in Osun State.  Let us all troop out massively on Saturday 16th July 2022 and disrupt the Fulani agenda with our votes cast against the APC.

Shalom.

Church Arise!

Ile-Ife, 13th July, 2022