Month: March 2018

The Church and Politics (Part 8): How do we Pick a Candidate?

Posted on by Leke Alder

Welcome to this instalment of the series, The Church and Politics. If you’ve not been following the series, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/ to read the last seven instalments. In this instalment, we’re going to be looking at the question of choice of candidate in a democracy.

If you ask the average Christian that given a certain level of resources and finance which would he rather set up, CNN or TBN? Chances are he’ll say TBN. (TBN is Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian channel noted for preachers’ sermons). That’s because the average Christian talks about expanding God’s kingdom, the need for the Word to be preached and broadcast to all the corners of the earth in fulfilment of the Great Commission. Christians talk about edification of the saints, the saturation of the earth with the glory of God and so on. TBN and the like play a very important role in this regard.

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The Church and Politics (Part 7): Why the Church is not Pulling Its Weight

Posted on by Leke Alder

Welcome to the seventh part of the series, The Church and Politics. To catch up on Parts 1-6, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/

The Church has the numbers, the brains and the resources to control the political space. Yet the church struggles politically. There are many factors responsible for the church’s political struggle but at the root of it all is a misconception of roles, both of the pastor and of the congregants, and a lack of unity in the Body. The body of Christ cannot be united if the pastors can’t set the example. We sometimes forget we have one Lord and one Master. His agenda must be uppermost, not our feelings. When men of God are more men than of God, the Body suffers dislocation and haemorrhages. And it’s important for the older generation of pastors to allow the younger generation of pastors have a say, and a way. They’re more current, have fresher ideas and are more proximate to the younger populace.

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The Church and Politics (Part 6): Power of the State

Posted on by Leke Alder

This is the continuation of our discourse on The Church and Politics. Last week we looked at how God allocates power. To read Parts 1-5 of The Church and Politics, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the -church-and-politics/

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The antecedent of Satan as someone who cannot be trusted with power is very well established in scriptures. He’s always abused trust and power. He instigated a rebellion in Heaven. (Revelation 12:7-9) Satan was corrupt – traded favour and access. He was the originator of what we now refer to as “pay for play” in political circles: “But sin after sin, by your corrupt ways of doing business, you defiled your holy places of worship.” (Ezekiel 28:15-16 MSG) Consequently, Satan was exiled from Heaven: “Through the abundance of your commerce you were internally filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned. Therefore I cast you out as a profane and unholy thing from the mountain of God.” (Ezekiel 28:16 AMP)

Since Satan ideologically positioned himself as God’s adversary, it is quite logical that his son, the Antichrist would function as the antithesis to the thesis, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God: “Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction – the Antichrist who is destined to be destroyed, who opposes and exalts himself so proudly and insolently above every so-called god or object of worship so he takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) You need to understand that power to Satan is not just a means to an end, it is an end: “I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High,” he said. (Isaiah 14:14)

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The Church and Politics (Part 5): How God Allocates Power

Posted on by Leke Alder

We continue the series, The Church and Politics. Last week we looked at the rebel federation of Satan in Axis of Evil. To read past episodes of The Church and Politics, please go to www.myilluminare.com/the -church-and-politics/

When it comes to politics, some Christians view the world as a bipolarity of “saints versus the world”. It’s a completely false paradigm with no pragmatic or strategic value. Such a mind-set betrays lack of understanding about the very nature of politics, portrays lack of sophistication and parades poor scholarship of scriptures. There’s the erroneous belief God allocates power based on human goodness. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Of the 22 kings who ruled the Kingdom of Israel between 1047 BC and 723 BC, only 4.5% were determined good; 86.4% were considered terrible. (9.1% were conflicted). Yet God gave all those people political power, and we shall see why.

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