Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Nneka Okumazie
The foremost thing about genuine Christianity is faith. There is no salvation or righteousness without faith. The defeating factor for most debates and controversies against genuine Christianity is that it’s a choice, accepted, personal and voluntary.
The extent of Christianity in any individual’s life is also a choice. For some, certain acts and habits are off-limits for change. For others, like generally, they have high ethics and morals in one aspect but are super gross in other aspects.
For genuine Christians it’s a continuous race, they are on the path no matter the struggles, but hypocrites and lukewarm folks continue to be the biggest losers, because righteousness is mostly a choice, it is your decision, no matter what it looks like – physical, guilt or associative force are negligible.
The controversy over the original name of Jesus, from Hebrew, spotlighted by Daddy Freeze and debated on social media and forums, excused the understanding of commands of true Christianity.
Christ Jesus commanded to spread the gospel. The Apostles were fierce on how they went about it. Holiness or righteousness is non-negotiable as stated in the Epistles. However, for sincere evangelism, there’s latitude – regarding pattern, not the same way the Apostles did the first one or did theirs.
Christ Jesus commanded His disciples to be witnesses of Him, in specific places and to the ends of the earth. He knew there were tons of languages. He also knew the power of God is boundless, sovereign and potent.
Yes, as the Scriptures say, Jesus Christ is the same. The word same does not mean acts the same or does the same thing the same way always. Holy, Righteous, Compassionate, Merciful, Forgiver, Helper, Savior, Deliverer, Healer, Provider, Protector, are some of what He His, but He reveals those – in diverse ways.
Different healings by Christ took different approaches, but He’s a Healer. Different answers, by Christ to trap-as-questions from enemies, took different approaches. All Wise One, always, but answers differently and returns combusting counter-questions.
One particular example, before Christ answered a ludicrous question, He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the Power of God.”
The power of God through faith is beyond language evolution and etymologies. The Scriptures is matchlessly potent regardless of advances in science, economics, culture and technology. Same way it is potent across languages, peoples, places and generations.
Genuine Christianity is incomparable with other religions or some other kinds of traditions where their misfortune is to do exact same stuff, the same way since inception.
So much is symbolic in genuine Christianity – including the Lord’s Supper. Miracles and healings can be by word, by hand, by contact, by handkerchief, by shadow, by rod, by water, or by anything the Healer chooses or empowers. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The Lord, He [is] the God. Worshipping – in spirit and in truth is done within those limits, but as creatively as possible.
A genuine Christian cannot know the Lord God by only one name, so even if there mistranslation somewhere or whatever, the Holy Spirit can still be present to be of help – when called, or referenced.
Discrediting Christianity
The pattern with daddy freeze is to aim lots of confusion at Christianity to grow discouragement. This debate on the name of Jesus is so that when some people see the name, or hear it, the mind will say it is not the true name, to discourage them from the name they have known, and to taper their faith.
Jesus is real and He’s Jesus. The Lord Jesus is not boxed to one language or one original name. Christ Jesus knows those seeking Him genuinely. The Messiah transcends everything any human can think, or cannot think.
Daddy Freeze enjoys his ride of confusion, antagonism, parasitic fame and fabrications. He would say Christianity is European, but so much hypocrisy in that statement. He does not accept European Christianity, but likes their technology, their clothes, their language and grammar, and goes to one of the countries to show off on social media.
So Europe everything else is good, but Christianity spread through Europe reaching Africa is bad. He attacked giving in the church, but no one is forced to – no matter what anyone says. Just like anyone can decline any giving request, so can church giving rounds be snubbed or returned null.
He repeats arguments common for years, on the popular pictures of Jesus and controversy over Christmas. He should say something else. He read all these too, never an original thought, ever. Of all the names in the Scriptures, the name of Jesus is where daddy freeze has to start from to discredit Christianity.
Smartest Nigerian—Christian Critics
Any Nigerian or African whose most thoughtful views are always on criticism of Christianity is not smart, at all. There is a way to be intelligent without trying to follow the crowd, especially with stale arguments because of bias.
A non-Christian or former Christian may choose to hate Christianity because of perceptions, but genuine Christianity does not have to be exactly validated to any individual to authenticate its effectiveness.
Daddy Freeze and many of his supporters will bring up their half-baked points in science to question Christianity. He and the rest are just full of blusters. Arguing big bang theory or origin of life, on social media does not mean any smartness. Attacking the church by a failed former presidential aide out of spite shows his own emptiness and desperation for attention with nothing sensible to ever offer.
Nigeria and Africa are full of problems, anyone who is so sure of their unique intelligence should propose workable solutions to power outages, hunger, unemployment, waste management, safety driving and riding, traffic solutions, corruption, better education, etc.
Not vague solutions, or some mention of some government excuse, or restructuring or some sham groupthink. None of them can solve anything or add any value or contribute anything, for them it is to attack Christianity, using English that came from Europe and talking points that came from Europe, against a faith they said came from Europe.
Majority of the texts and books against Christianity, are written by non-Nigerians, or say non-Africans. So they will use what they have heard or read by others, to say Christianity is invalidated.
They deal in stupid arguments, worthless agitations and are intellectual sewers. Nigeria is in a deep crisis of underdevelopment. There are so many business projects and activities but the major problems of the country are not solved, in a shared or heroic way by any group possessing equivalent capability.
The problem is always church. It is always Pastor. It is always church is hindering, church is problem. Everything else in Nigeria is perfect. There’s no poverty except those who go to church. There no traffic except where there’s church. It is only the people who go to church that are brainwashed and can’t think because they hear and accept what they didn’t question.
All these sham views are out of hate and bias. Throughout life, there are so many views accepted and believed that are not original – not just Christianity. Life itself is mysterious and there’s lots of inexplicable stuff. Science answers much, but has more unanswered questions than answered ones.
Artificial intelligence, a thrill in contemporary tech, has a fuzzy space of algorithmic interpretability or explainability. AI does stuff, but often times computer scientists can’t explain how. There are studies on transparent AI, or explainable AI on how the system does what it does, while seeking to retain great performance. But for the most part, algorithmic interpretability is opaque.
Same thing for several areas of science and tech. There have been thousands of papers on a single cell, or tens of thousands of papers on a single protein, yet there are more projects lined up, while clear answers are distant. Psychology has yet to fully understand human behaviour.
But science forges ahead. Unanswered questions in science are excused but in Christianity, where is God? Show me, all the ridiculous questions in attack. The agitation of some is one story in the Scriptures to discredit. Whereas, in their own area of expertise, there are several unknowns, and there is a chance they might not be at the cutting edge of solutions or answers: but Bible? Prove it.
God is a spirit. Genuine repentance can be great against evil, addiction, depression, grief, etc. in ways no meds might help. Following Jesus – truthfully – is advantageous to morals, ethics, decency, modesty, integrity, credibility, transparency, joy, etc.
Hedonism is the goal of some in life, hoisted as escape – robbing many of professional effectiveness. Christ Jesus in genuine Christians is the Hope of Glory.
Just like Christianity is not science, so is Christianity not for national development or whatever it is misinterpreted as. There is genuine Christianity and genuine repentance. Christ can be moved by faith.
Sometimes it is nice to remember, Mark 10:52, “And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”
