Tag: Politics

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

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 ten instalments.

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 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 nine instalments.

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 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 eight instalments.

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 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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The Church and Politics (Part 2) : Heavenly Citizenship

Posted on by Leke Alder

Last week we began the series, The Church and Politics by laying the foundation for the discourse. We came to the conclusion the Church is a political organ and Jesus is a political figure. You can read more at www.myilluminare.com/the-church-and-politics/

This week we begin exploration of the concept of citizenship.

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The Order of Melchizedek

Posted on by Leke Alder

We all know Melchizedek, right? He’s become very popular of late over the issue of tithes though he had always been a celebrity. He was a king actually, the king of Salem, back in the days of Abraham. (Genesis 14:18) We really don’t know much about his background – his family, his kingdom, his accomplishments… Read more about The Order of Melchizedek[…]

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