Isaac Boluwatise

The Christian Faith is not Political

April 4th, 2022

The Christian faith is not political. Not at all.

Christians can participate in politics. The faith however has no business with politics. It will be smearing on our mission when we make that mistake.

Would you organize a bloc against those you are assigned to win?

The lane or the course of the Faith is to make disciples of all nations, anything beyond this can be injurious to the great commission when we think it will help

The best we can do is to represent Christ well if we have opportunity there. We can’t make politics His business. His kingdom is not of this world.

This extra curricular takeover stuff is only part of the human horizon. It is man flexing himself. The Lord did not feature politics in the agenda we call the great commision.

It is spiritual to train believers to hear God and make the right decision; it is human and manipulative to artificially force a Christian political bloc. To do that is to put the cart before the horse of our mission.

Making disciples
Teaching them to observe Christ’s commands.
This is the major reality in Christian horizon.

Efforts to help the mission with politics is only humans attempting to help God.

Selah!
To Curses or To God and The Word of His Grace?

March 12th, 2022
“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Acts 20:32 (NIV)

The Old Covenant came with blessings and curses; the New comes only with blessings.

As ministers of the New Covenant, the calling is to lead God’s people with God’s word [in response to the assignment, “Feed my sheep”] and not with curses. It is either the Word or nothing. The rebuking aspect of the ministry has no business with curses.

The word of God teaches, rebukes, and corrects. We set for the people the boundary of God’s will with these.

When we still set boundary for people with curses alongside the ministry of the word, we should be sincere that something apparently is still wrong or missing.
- Human nature is either still prevailing, and/or
- We cannot totally and confidently commit the people we have taught to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build them up and give then an inheritance among those who are sanctified [by the word].
- Our estate of leadership is more important to us than the people.
The ministry of the New Covenant is 100% spiritual. Wherever the word prevails, it transforms.

When the priority of the people is charted to respect boundaries set with courses, the word has not prevailed over them and neither can curses transform them or take them into their high calling in Christ.
‘Christian’ Is Now a Generic Label’ – George Barna

September 13th, 2021

Stephanie Martin’s recent article, as published on churchleaders.com, titled with a quote from George Barna – ‘Christian’ Is Now a Generic Label’ – raises serious concern for contemporary Christianity.

She wrote…

Courtesy: church leaders.com

According to a new report from Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center (CRC), just 9% of self-identified American Christian adults hold a biblical worldview. Even fewer (6%) hold a biblical worldview and consistently apply biblical principles to their lives.

The CRC says findings from its latest American Worldview Inventory show the need to nurture what the center calls “integrated disciples” of Jesus. “‘Christian’ has become somewhat of a generic term rather than a name that reflects a deep commitment to passionately pursuing and being like Jesus Christ,” says CRC research director George Barna. “Too often, it seems, people who are simply religious, or regular churchgoers, or perhaps people who want a certain reputation or image embrace the label ‘Christian,’ regardless of their spiritual life and intentions.”

Self-Identifying as Christian Isn’t Very Telling

Of the 2,000 U.S. adults surveyed, 69% self-identified as Christian. Yet of that group, 72% say people are basically good, 64% say all religious faiths have equal value, 58% say people can get to heaven by performing good works, and 57% believe in karma. The broader group of self-identified Christians also tends to reject several biblical teachings; for example, only 46% say God’s plan for marriage involves one man and one woman, and only 32% say premarital sex is morally unacceptable.

About one-third of survey respondents identify more specifically as either born-again or evangelical Christians. “Despite using different terminology to identify themselves,” Barna says, “self-identified born-again and self-identified evangelical Christians possess nearly identical views on most of the beliefs evaluated.” Yet even among those believers, 62% say the Holy Spirit is symbolic, not real; 61% say all faiths are equally valuable; and 60% say people can get to heaven by performing good works.

Only the 6% of “integrated disciples” can be described as having a biblical worldview, says Barna. These believers “assimilate their beliefs into their lifestyles” and most closely reflect “biblical principles into their opinions, beliefs, behaviors, and preferences.”

Almost all (99%) of integrated disciples “believe that the Bible is the accurate and reliable words of God, believe that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, and just Creator of the universe who still rules,” and “say they have a unique, God-given calling.”

Takeaways of These Findings

Inventory results show that U.S. adults tend to “dilute and distort the cultural understanding of what constitutes Christianity,” Barna says. Labeling people broadly as Christians becomes problematic for politics, for example. “Political polling, in particular, may mislead people regarding the views and preferences of genuine Christ-followers simply based on how those surveys measure the Christian population,” he says. Integrated disciples who truly possess a biblical worldview tend to be more conservative than the broader group of self-identified Christians.

Len Munsil, president of Arizona Christian University, says survey results emphasize the urgency of training young Christians in integrated discipleship. And outreach opportunities abound, he adds. “Fragments of biblical truth are still embraced by the overwhelming majority of American adults, which means that each of the estimated 176 million self-identified Christians has a starting point of belief that can be built upon and refined into a mature, consistent biblical worldview.”
TO DECREE OR TO PRAY?

August 17th, 2020

Job 22:28
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee:
and the light shall shine upon thy ways. KJV

Job 22:28
What you decide on will be done,
and light will shine on your ways. NIV

We have corrupted the art of prayer. When we should sue on a matter in prayer, we arrogate to ourselves making decree concerning them.

Jesus, as the Son of God, shouldn’t even have prayed at all while he was in the flesh, if it is the we way we arrogate these things to ourselves these days.

Maybe He should have made decrees against Rome, when He was here. That was actually what the people expected of His Messianic responsibility. That was, of course, not the reason He came.

You shall decree things within your sphere, not beyond your sphere. When a government issues a decree, it is with immediate effect. If it issues a decree and it is still not effective afterward, it is making itself a joke.

Sovereign exists, not to sue but to command. However, when you have authority above you and you are not primate over all things, you must learn to separate between what you command and what you sue to higher authority.
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Why do we bastardise the use of words and go all over the palace decreeing everything. It is arrogant when we do not know what is within our sphere. A government doesn’t decree beyond its boundary.

The pulpit cannot decree against governmental stipulations. If the government is wrong, we file the case to God, not to issue parallel decrees and fire people up in arrogance against civil governance.

At the time when the opposition from sinners is rife, the scripture teaches us to run our race with carefulness and not to fight their contradictions (Heb 12)

Why do we teach people to run around ejaculating I decree and declare on same matter for years with no effect, on matters that should be commited to God.

We do not ask questions when Christian leaders make decree (on matters they should pray about) and it is still pending years after.

Being charismatic should not mean being arrogant.

When believers pray, according the Lord, it should be to ask for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. He alone is our Sovereign.

The theology of kingdom mentality would be violating divine eschatological arrangement if it is not understood as submission to Him in this age.

We need to check the context of “we shall reign over the earth .. ” before we run with every wind of doctrine.

The early church respected governmental authorities; prayed for the government; and taught the people to submit to rules; not as those in bondage but as those who are free.

Christian leadership is not in any way parralel to civil governance. Christian leadership is not ruling and dominance. It is impunity when we misrepresent our Lord and His teachings.

I have my fears these days when pastors are now being represented or treated as Royals over Church Nations and worshipped beyond due respect. Prominence is not parralel to governance. If it is interpreted that way, it amounts to lawlessness.

Soul winning and discipleship tripled when the church began to be controlled by the state and were largely forced to go underground somewhere in Asia.

Our liberty shouldn’t be abused because we are in a free state. The exploits of the church in terms of the objectives of the great commission is more prominent in states where there are restrictions.

Thank God for free states.

Matthew 10:16
“I am sending you out like SHEEP among wolves. Therefore be as SHREWD as snakes and as INNOCENT as doves.

His SHEEP are SHREWD while maintaining their INNOCENCE.

Methinks civil reactions may in certain ways conflict with the great commission.

We change the world now; not through decrees from the pulpits; or civil actions from or outside the Church; but by serving in obedience to the great commission; to transform societies and not landscapes; by changing lives

The influence of Christ in the days of His flesh was in the lives He changed and in the godly examples and instructions He gave

Bless your church Lord and build it your own way.
THE CHURCH CANNOT BE ON A LOCKDOWN

May 7th, 2020

Image credit: thelily.com

When pastors are far from the reality that members live in, they will pontificate on issues that have little or no effect on themselves.

I drive to church in a car that is air-conditioned and that does some filtering to the air before it gets to me and I consider it as grossly inhuman to have no consideration for the risk that my members will go through to get to church in public facilities with those who care less for their own safety?

This is the extent it gets after testifying to the people of the divine health we have enjoyed for decades while we covertly undergo health check annually. Many of them cannot imagine that the leader that is immuned to ailments does health check.

This is how far it gets when we tell them that the Lord who has been our keeper will keep them also but we move around with the security of an army that can serve at war front.

If we are angry because churches cannot meet, it is not about the church (the people) because they can meet in the homes, it is about ourselves.

There is still balm in Gilead, I cannot deny. Whatever happened however in pre-covid19 situation where not all were healed and we used hospital.

If we are angry because public meetings are under ban, what happens in the nations where public religious gathering, as part of an intentional move against the church, has been banned?

Playing god in human affairs is an insult to our God. ‘I am he‘ is one the end time phenomena that Jesus said we should watch out for.

We haven’t seen trouble and we are crying wolf. What will happen when real conspiracy as Christ said we should expect happens.

Some day, none of the stones of our physical buildings will remain on each other, as they will be of no use while the church continues.

We have preached for ‘here and now’ too much that we cannot stand any threat to the earthly investments.

At the time when the Spirit and the bride should be saying “come Lord Jesus”, we are still busy prophesying ‘the coming wealth’.

This has been done for decades that the church looks forwards to more money than to the coming of Him that is coming for those who love His appearing.

If we cannot meet in the homes without feeling frustrated and support such meeting with the nascent technologies, it is because we have been building vanities that cannot stand in the time of crises.

May be we are the god for the people and apart from us they can do nothing. Why must temple meeting be compulsory when synagogues are possible in neighbourhoods at a time like this.

Thank God for the necessary mega buildings; however, the current situation is a prophecy that glory in them is vain and that one day they shall become unnecessary and unuseful.

The temple and the homes must go hand in hand. The real church however is not the theater but the fellowship in the homes.

We have been so inundated with celebrity ministry that the normal has become the new abnormal of the last days.

God is not angry with the lockdown, his church marching on. The comfort of faith that we have been used to and our ego are the oppressor of our minds.

Let’s go ahead and canvass for the lockdown on markets and for the opening of Church meetings since the church can answer to much more than food.

The churches and the mosques are restricted from public meeting, victim mentality says it is an agenda against the church. May the real agenda never come? What will be the song at such time?

It would have impressed me more if the concern is because of the inability to run public gospel crusades.

True Christianity can cope with simplicity of ministry.

Channels for frequent communication has not been locked down. Media has not been locked down. Homes have not been locked down.

The church is still and will always be marching on, even if things are worse than this.

The Christian Faith is not Political

To Curses or To God and The Word of His Grace?

‘Christian’ Is Now a Generic Label’ – George Barna

Self-Identifying as Christian Isn’t Very Telling

Takeaways of These Findings

TO DECREE OR TO PRAY?

THE CHURCH CANNOT BE ON A LOCKDOWN