Odoemena: The Great Commission

IN the January 20, 2015 issue of The Guardian, a contributor from New Bodija, Ibadan wrote an article entitled “Jonathan and his Orwellian transformation.” As anyone who read the piece could attest, the author rode smoothly on the Jonathan topic, until for a reason best known to the author he veered off, dangerously! saying “Today, more than 50 years after “independence”, African peoples worship gods decreed by Roman emperors presiding over Christian councils in the early 4th and 5th centuries A.D. Some proportion of African spirituality is also tethered to the Arab version of the same Judaic faith from which Christianity was fabricated. Our political and intellectual leaders cannot just see how stultifying this wholesale adoption of alien cultural, religious, and spiritual ideologies is to African socio-economic development and vital moral, cultural and spiritual values.”

    Atheists will stop at nothing to deceive Christians, even if it means wearing the gab of “traditionalists” who are “preserving African values.”

   The author used the term “gods.” Only he knows the “ones” he is talking about. I am also sure the alien “things” to us Africans the author meant do not include the use of the internet, the use of telephones, the use of cars, flying in an airplane, shopping at malls, infrastructure, modern medicine, state of the art hospitals, and money!

    I might not really have bothered one bit about the said article, but after a relative who grew up from a good Christian home travelled to Germany and came back home to question the existence of God, all because “they proved it” to him, I thought it right to intervene, lest impressionable minds and simpletons begin to get wrong ideas, especially when they glean information from articles published in an “authoritative” newspaper.

     To let the author know, Christians serve one living God who sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us by dying on the cross and rising on the third day. It is this Jesus who died more than 2000 years ago that we follow and His message will continue forever. That we have embraced Christianity in Africa has nothing to do with docility. The people of the world MUST do so! For at the mention of the name of Jesus, every knee MUST bow!

    Let’s get it clearer. After Jesus Christ’s resurrection, He mandated His disciples to spread His teachings to all the nations of the world. “Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19, 20). He also said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

    Later, the body of Christ suffered great persecution because of their work. This made the believers to be scattered “abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.” (Acts 8:1). Those of them who went away from Jerusalem took with them the Good News of Jesus Christ and they ensured the spread of the gospel outside the confines of Samaria.

   As one writer puts it “no geographical barrier, either imaginary or real, could possibly hold it back.” Early enough, Jesus had the gentiles in His plans when He said in John

    10:16 “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” The Gospel eventually reached the gentiles in a subtle manner. And when I say gentiles it includes us Africans!

   Peter was a Jew, and was initially hesitant to preach to non-Jews, because Jews then saw gentiles as unclean. But after Jesus appeared to Peter in a vision, Peter went to preach to the gentiles.

    Just after the vision, three men were looking for Peter, and the Holy Spirit directed Peter to them. The men said to Peter, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say.” (Acts 10:22). When they got to Cornelius’ home, Peter spoke about Jesus as the Saviour of the world. As he spoke, the Holy Spirit came down on the gentiles. Then Peter baptised them.

After this, the gospel continued to spread among the gentiles. Even those who were persecuted preached the Word at far-flung places, including Cyprus, Phoenicia and Antioch, which was where the word “Christian” was first used to mean a follower of Christ (Acts 11:19, 21, 26).

After Paul was converted, Jesus told him, “Arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:16-18)

    In his missionary journeys, Paul won souls for Christ from many gentile nations, among them Cyprus, Corinth, Berea, Derbe, Malta, Iconium, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Ephesus, Crete, and Rome, where his work ended after he was martyred.

    Despite persecution, the Gospel continued to spread. By the second century, it nearly covered all of the Roman Empire, and by the fourth century, persecution stopped and Christianity became the main religion of the empire after Roman Emperor Constantine himself was converted to Christianity, and issued his edict of toleration in 313. From then further spread through church work and colonization. That was how it got to us in Africa and in Nigeria. It had nothing to do with our politicians. Even if they tried, they could never stop it! It was God at work!

Nigerian Christians are mandated like other Christians to continue to spread the message of Christ. This we do not just in words but by our actions. Jesus taught His disciples God’s ways. We should also live the way Christ lived so that our actions will talk for us, so that non-believers will see the benefits of living the way God wants us to live.    Those who steal or cheat are not spreading the gospel of Jesus. Corrupt public office holders are not spreading the gospel of Jesus. Those who maim and kill innocent people are not spreading the gospel of Jesus.

    The elections are now at hand. And we are called to maintain peace. Anyone who would be planning violence because he or she did not win elections, or their candidates did not win will not be spreading the Gospel of Jesus.

    The “great commission” to Nigerians is that they must work for a peaceful election, and hoping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also does its job right, as Jesus who is known as the Prince of Peace would want us all. When we have done what Jesus asked us to do out of love for God and our fellow Nigerians, the Master will say to us, as in Matthew 25:21 “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

• Dr. Odoemena, medical practitioner, lives in Lagos.