CHRISTIANITY: WHERE IS IT HEADED? by Eneji Matthew

Christianity is the world largest religion with an adherent of 2.4b, next is Islam (1.9b) it is the fastest growing religion currently, Hinduism (1.2b), atheism/agnosticism/unreligious (1.1b) and the world current population is 7b. I'll come back to why Islam is the fastest growing.

Yearly a lot of people drop from being serious christians to norminal, atheists or change religion because of books they've read. Almost all the best books these days have atheistic undertones. And almost all the world's best scholars are atheists and an interesting number of them are Israelis (20% Nobel prize winners are Israelis). Take for instance Harari Yuval (who considers all religions to be stories creatively coined to unite society) is considered by many as the most influential modern scholar. His book Sapiens was on top-3 for 96 consecutive weeks. And what do serious christians do? They avoid or "forget" these books because they are "controversial". I'll come back to this point.

Christianity was creating a huge waves around the world for 7 centuries before Islam came on stage. How did Islam manage to grow that fast? Come to think of it, Christianity is one religion that tells you about a miraculous incident in the past and still perform the same miracle for you in the present. How did Islam grow that fast? Apart from the initial conquest/jihad, AN AVERAGE MUSLIM CAN CONVINCINGLY TELL YOU ABOUT HIS FAITH. Stay with me.

An atheist's major weapon is science, science is known for two things

1) it invents

2) it gathers and presents information in a systematic format.

You'll agree with me that the world is more systematic in approach now than ever before. Almost every information is presented these days in statistics or percentage because it tends to make them more real. Yesterday unemployment/underemployment became more real to me when I learnt that 1 in every 6 Nigerian youth is unemployed or underemployed. Even Buhari approved 10b for a census recently. Why systematic approach and how powerful is it? This approach is quite logical and very convincing. Paul the most influential of the apostles used majorly this method, check his letters, of course you won't find statistics there they weren't invented then. 

Christianity spread like wild fire in the days of the apostles for two reasons

1) signs and wonders

2) convincing logical explanation of the faith (1 Peter 3:15)

Tradition tells us of how Paul will go to the market place and spread his table in order to argue his belief, that was how to sell an ideology then. A careful look at the above corresponds with the approach of science, the signs and wonders were the practicals of the religion you can't deny them and the teachings were logical non-fictions.

The best weapon christians have against atheism and the like, is the return of the miraculous, with them, you barely need an argument. And now, more than ever before we need the systematic approach. The reason is this, unlike the days of the apostles where the gospel was taken to unbelievers, a sizeable number of those, Christians preach to these days are those that have backslidden due to more convincing arguments, (little wonder why Africa is now taking the gospel back to Europe). And this is why Islam is growing rapidly. Let's face it, Muslims can give you more convincing reasons to accept Islam than Christians can. This is partly because of their origin, Islam came when Christianity was a dominant force and they needed to develop a more convincing way of presenting their faith. Christians on the other hand have been on top for so long they've become dormant.

These days more people are coming up with more genuine reasons to be atheists, racism is one of it especially among blacks as Christianity is seen as the religion of the colonizers, science is seriously weakening the believe in afterlife and hell, they get these arguments convincingly and systematically written in books and what do Christians and Christian leaders do? They never read them and dissuade others from reading them. Unbelievers get these books and read them and become hardened and also have better lines of arguments than Christians. When Christians come with their usual approach in evangelism they are considered fanatics. (Don't tell me about the spirit convincing the unbelievers, Paul knew all about those when he wrote: to the gentiles I become like them in order to win them to Christ) and if you don't have people who consider your approach fanatical then chances are that you've been preaching to only Christians. Unfortunately, too many Christians can't give a single reason why they're christian apart from the Bible, the big question is: what if the person doesn't believe in the Bible? Did I hear you say you'll leave it to the spirit and go pray?🤣🤣🤣 My friend God will judge you for nonchalance. Since the days of John the Baptist...and only the violent take it by force.

During the height of the pandemic pastor Chris was able to reach 3.5 of the 7b world population, check out pastor Chris's approach in preaching the gospel. One other minister that I believe have the carriage to go that far and beyond is Selman. If your preaching is not adopting their systematic approach then it's time to reconsider except if you want your influence to never go beyond the shores of Nigeria, because Nigerians are the one set of people who are so religious they can accept anything but that too won't be for long.

 

 About the Author.

Matthew Samuel Eneji is a graduate of the prestigious Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is a Barrister in view, a public speaker, leader and a writer whose impact has been felt by many. He has a very strong passion for reading and writing which have driven him to write several published articles and stories (both fiction and non fiction), Etc. While on Campus he held several positions at distinct levels, just to mention few: He was the Editor in Chief of the publication unit for two years, the editor in Chief of the Creative Writers Club, ABU Zaria Chapter, He was the immediate past FCS Kongo Campus ABU Zaria President for 2018/2019 Spiritual Session, after which he served as the ELCOM Chairman that brought in the present FCS central exco. He is the current editor in Chief of the Well of Excellence (WEx) Global.

  Other Works by The Author:

But by My Spirit by Eneji Matthew