A CHURCH ON THE VERGE OF RISING AGAIN

This piece was inspired by a tweet I bumped into. The tweet was by ‘Kennedy Tareotu’ and in the tweet, he stated his intention to write a book about the Rise and Fall of Celestial Church. I paused and thought to myself ‘Has Celestial Church of Christ Fallen?’ Well, from my slightly biased point of view, I will not agree that the church has fallen; I’ll rather say the church is on the verge of rising once again. I mean this church still has the likes of our father: Rev. Paul Maforikan, Evang. Gabriel Evans, Pro. Adebukola Anjorin, Evang. Tunde Olayiwola, and a whole lot of other anointed men and also, vibrant youths like Bimbo Osunniyi who can easily shine on any Christian stage anywhere in the world.

 Kennedy Tareotu asked for my opinion on how the church could be made better, but if I should base my response solely on that premise, I will have admitted that the church has fallen indeed, hence my resolution to analyze the present situation of the Celestial church of Christ.

THE CHURCH DOCTRINE

First of all, for those who keep questioning the doctrine of the church: the truth is that you can’t easily comprehend the doctrine of the church, except God himself reveals the mystery to you. If you don’t understand it, please don’t criticize it, and if you are a true Christian, regardless of denomination, you can ask God to reveal some of the Celestial Church of Christ mystery to you and I am sure he will.  “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding” [Prov 4:7]

Some things can’t just be understood without seeking understanding from God first, for instance:

• Why Jesus had to just spit on the eyes of the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-25), but only spoke words of healing to heal Blind Bartimaeus without spitting on his eyes (Mark 10:51-52)

• Why Jesus casted a Demon named Legion from a man into a herd of pigs (Mark 5:1-19) but in Luke 4: 35, he just simply ordered a demon out without giving it a new home.

• Why disabled people had to wait beside the pool of Bethesda till an Angel stirred the pool for them to go in and get healed, but Jesus only spoke words to heal one of these disabled people. [John 5: 1-11]

God operates in several ways, you can never know all of it, and if you are exposed to just a part of his manifestations, you shouldn’t see his other manifestations as fallacies.

Comparing doctrines of churches is just like trying to compare the operation of the sun, moon and the stars. They all provide light, but the sun shouldn’t be questioned for being very hot unlike the moon and stars who are cool. Likewise we can’t question the moon for not being as bright as the sun.  They are all doing their work of providing light, but they do so in distinct and mysterious ways.

SCANDALS

Certain careless members of the church have been involved in scandals, just like several phony Christians too. There may be several shady Celestians, but we also have several others who are upright and scandal free. The modus operandi of these scoundrels definitely contradict the doctrines of the church. It is noteworthy that most of the victims of these scandals are not Celestial members, but people who have come from other religions/denominations to seek ‘magic’ and not God. Consequently, these rogues try out their  ungodly spiritualism on them.  But I’m sure God sees them all and he knows when to bring them to book.

PROPAGANDA

The church is a huge victim of propaganda; people rarely say true things about the church again.

For instance, the first impression about Celestial church is heavy clapping and dancing, but the truth is that the church rarely claps during services; also, here is a Celestian guy that might be unable to dance just to save his own life.

They belief is that Celestian girls are generally promiscuous, whereas, for every promiscuous girl you show me in Celestial Church, I will show you five who are not promiscuous. Likewise, for every evil Celestian member, I will show you at least twenty who are not evil.

Funnily, it’s only the bad reports that get media attention; no one talks about the numerous healings, breakthrough, salvation, blessings, etc. being recorded in the church.

No one even talked of the woman who had been diagnosed of fibroid for quite over a year, but went to Olusesi Parish, located at Agbado Road, Ishaga, Lagos for prophetic counseling: After being ministered to, she felt pressed and went to the toilet where she ended up giving birth to a baby boy that same day. 

If these good reports were reported in the media as much as the bad ones, I’m sure my friend Kennedy Tareotu will not have had to write about the fall of celestial.

PROBLEMS

Funnily, Celestial Church Of Christ has nonindulgent rules &regulations, for instance it members are nixed from taking alcoholic drinks, smoking, fornicating, committing adultery, keeping late nights, dressing indecently, etc. , but the church has lost discipline as an institution, although quite a number of members still obey these rules, but there is a problem in the fact that there are no disciplinary measures to check the efficacy of these rules. The things that would have been visited with expulsion from the church in the days of Rev. SBJ OSchoffa are now being embraced by certain members.

Another problem is Illiteracy, this is a church established in 1945 according to the apotheoses of the mid 19^th century. We can’t keep doing things the way they were being done in 1945. Also, most of the present leaders belong to the mid 19^th century, and despite having one of the largest memberships in the world, these leaders still run the church just as it was being run in the 19^th century. Other churches modify their doctrines (with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) as time goes on, but that has not been the case in Celestial church. 

 The leadership has also been marred by power tussles and this has led to negligence of essential duties and a gradual degradation of the church administration.

THE RISE

The ultimate rise and reclaiming of the lost glory of the church lies in the hands of the youths, it is the youths who will sit in the presence of God and reform the administration and operation of the church. There will also be need to enforce the doctrine of the church with adequate disciplinary measures put in place for defaulters. Celestial Church of Christ is supposed to be a church of people living ready on earth for God’s kingdom, and every Celestian must conform to that model.

We have heard stories of the unrivaled greatness of the Church in the past, and I am very sure that the youths have all it takes to restore the church's greatness.