Photizo

Posted on May 27, 2018June 29, 2018 by Leke Alder

There is a very curious piece of scripture you’ve probably read several times but probably not paid much attention to. It has a depth of meaning unimaginable, and it helps us to understand the world. It is John 1:1-9.

John 1:1-9 NLT: “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, WHO GIVES LIGHT TO EVERYONE, was coming into the world.” John 1:1-9 NLT. […]

The Church and Politics (Part 16): The Christian President

Posted on May 20, 2018May 18, 2018 by Leke Alder

We continue 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 fifteen instalments.

Christians naturally want a Christian on the dais of power, just as adherents of other faiths want their faithful on the dais of power. There is a significant desire among Christians for a Christian President therefore. The advantage of a Christian President to the Christian community is obvious. He or she will protect the faith. And some imagine such a President will proclaim Christianity state religion as the political resolution of the great commission. This is of course impossible in a true democracy without trampling on rights. Besides, the idea of proselytization by compulsion is alien to Christian doctrine. […]

The Church and Politics (Part 15): Another Trinity

Posted on May 13, 2018May 11, 2018 by Leke Alder

We continue 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 fourteen instalments.

As we noted in the 11^th instalment of this series, God IS government. He’s government because he regulates creation, he’s government because ALL power is resident in him. He is all powerful. The Psalmist put it succinctly: “God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you.” Psalms 62:11 NLT. God is a power native. […]

The Church and Politics (Part 14): The Four Freedoms

Posted on May 6, 2018May 5, 2018 by Leke Alder

We continue 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 thirteen instalments.

The paradox of Christianity is that it is at once an inclusive and exclusive concept. The inclusivity of the Christian worldview lies in the fact that God threw an open invitation for salvation to the whole world: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that NO ONE need be destroyed; by believing in him, ANYONE can have a whole and lasting life.” John 3:16‭ MSG. And he backed that initial invite up with yet another invite, like some sort of confirmation: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NLT And so in Christianity everyone is welcome – the rich, the poor, the tired, the weary, the socially disadvantaged, the intellectual, the simple, the troubled, the depressed, the messed up… everyone is welcome!‬‬‬ […]

The Church and Politics (Part 13): The Money Factor

Posted on April 29, 2018April 27, 2018 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 twelve instalments.

However much we hate the fact, money is the lubricant of politics. Money gives you a seat at the table. There’s an economic cost attached to changing people’s perspective. If you want to change a point of view, or cause people to switch allegiance in a democracy, there’s required spending. Man responds to his material makeup. He responds to images because he’s made from an image. He responds to words because he’s made from words. Genesis 1:26-27. Imagery and words are tools of political persuasion. They cost money, a lot of money. Media costs money. The richer the country the more expensive media is. But the poorer the people the cheaper it is to persuade them to vote a particular candidate. They’re focused on survival. They’re desperate. Third world politicians know how to exploit this factor. And so the people cast their vote in a particular direction in exchange for something as basic as a loaf of bread. It’s Esau Syndrome – the trading of birth right. The Bible calls such foreign exchange transaction profanity. Hebrews 12:16 KJV. Some ingeniously label this “stomach infrastructure.” It’s essentially vote in exchange for food – an intestinal affidavit of poverty.

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The Church and Politics (Part 12): Christian Economic Philosophy

Posted on April 22, 2018April 20, 2018 by Leke Alder

It’s not unusual for Christians intending to participate in politics to get conflicted about the position of the Bible on policy matters for the modern state. That confliction can portend danger to the Christian faith since an ignorant Christian in power has the potential to turn people against the faith. He’ll damage opportunities for aspirant Christians.

Some wrongly believe the Bible advocates socialism as an economic philosophy. This is biblically unsupportable. The Bible encourages individual ownership of means of production as well as enterprise. The wrong notion is probably drawn from certain stories in the Bible, one being Jesus telling a rich guy to sell all he had and donate proceeds to the poor; and some point to the communalism practised by the early church. Mark 10:17-27, Acts 4:32-37.

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The Church and Politics (Part 11): God’s Day Job

Posted on April 15, 2018April 13, 2018 by Leke Alder

Christians have different concepts about God. And some of the concepts beggar credulity. The most incredulous tend to be those based on man-centric definition of God, as if God’s life and very existence revolves around man. It’s why some wonder what God was doing before he created Adam. The simple answer is that he was running his government in Heaven and continues to run a government. In actual fact, God is Government – capital “G”. God is government not just from the perspective of law and order, but because all political authority reside in him and emanate from him. ALL power proceeds from God. Psalms 62:11.

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The Church and Politics (Part 10): Extant Imperatives

Posted on April 8, 2018April 20, 2018 by Leke Alder

One of the arguments advanced against Christians participating in politics is the fact the apostles never did. That is a curious argument considering the Roman authority regarded Christians as the radical opposition. Christians were a political threat to Rome. It’s why Rome went after them, viciously. That was the whole purport of the latter part of Hebrews 11, the part we choose to ignore in our definition of faith. Many were slaughtered on political calculation. They “were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35-38 NLT) They were victims of political persecution.

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The Church and Politics (Part 9): Salting the Earth

Posted on April 1, 2018March 30, 2018 by Leke Alder

If you’re an amateur dabbler in watercolour painting you might have come across the term, “painting by numbers”. It is the application of a specified paint colour to a specified area on a canvass. What is curious is that the life of Jesus was like painting by numbers. His was “living by numbers” or “living by prophecy.” He lived to fulfil particular prophecies. Everything he did was motivated by prophecy. As it is written, “You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7 NLT)

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

Posted on March 25, 2018April 20, 2018 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 March 18, 2018March 16, 2018 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 March 11, 2018March 9, 2018 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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