When Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, one of his first statements was, “I want to raise a generation of young people devoid of conscience, because he who owns the youth gains the future”. And according to the respected American cleric, Dr Tony Evans, “when conscience is absent in a nation, everyone is at risk”. The government of every nation is the default bridge between morality and immorality. The unfortunate descent of a segment of the Nigerian youth population into a generation of money ritualists is a reflection of the collapsing value system of the larger society that the…
Author: Ayo Akerele
It was Bruce Shelly who once said, “Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God”. And that is exactly the core of the gospel—humility. The real gospel does not and should not produce proud people, neither should it produce greedy and covetous people. Why? Humility and greed are mutually exclusive entities and are antithetical to the values that Christ represents. As Dr Lutzer clearly elucidates, “the cross no longer humiliate us; it exalts us”. That is where things have gone wrong, and that is why the Nigerian youth is becoming rebellious…
Dr Erwin Lutzer was right when he said, “After God died in the nineteenth century, man died in the twentieth century. For when God is dead, man becomes an untamed beast.” It would therefore take an individual who considers God as dead to resort to killing another person for money making rituals. God can’t be alive in the heart of such a fellow. One of the most powerful tools used by Hitler in shaping the consciences of the Germans in preparation for his reign of terror was the media. Hitler was so good with the media that his administration invested so…
Adolf Hitler—that evil personified entity—-never went after the larger population of Christians in Germany. He went for the church leaders, and as soon as he captured the church leaders, the entire Christian community—-in their millions—-fell under the control of Hitler. And in all contemporary warfare, no smart general runs after the crowd. They go for the leaders. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, decimating the US Pacific Fleet. Thereafter, the US and Japan began their war. Yamamoto Isoroku was the Japanese general that led the attack on the US personnel at Pearl Harbor, and…
The dominant values in a society shape individual’s response to issues. I live in a country where I as a pastor cannot hide our church’s finance from the government and from the members. I cannot use church money for personal business. I cannot apply scriptural principles on the administration of church’s finances because the ministry doesn’t belong to me. I must publish our ministry’s income and expense statements through our accountant to a dedicated Government website. Despite being the founder of the ministry, I cannot go to the bank to withdraw huge amount of money without being queried about the…
“Not one naira in my money will ever enter into Nigeria again” was the lamentation in the mouth of my friend who has recently lost all of his investments to different people across Nigeria. He had just experienced another, “IKOYI”. His building did not crash—his investments were crashed by fraudulent Nigerians—who used him as baits to enrich themselves. My heart has been bleeding for the victims of the needless and unavoidable deaths of the Ikoyi Building disaster. Which nation ever progresses when her bests are cut down—needlessly and carelessly at their primes? They are cut down by kidnappers; they are…
Virtually most of the men going through marriage crises whom I have counselled said to me, “Before I married my wife, she was not like that, but after few years of our marriage, she became a beast”. I have been seriously burdened about this endemic problem among Christians that I think we will begin to leverage on every available platform to teach and mentor the younger generation, in particular about how to ensure the sustainability of their spouses. I am dealing with women today. I will be dealing with men before the end of the week. Here are some of…
In December 2005, I enlisted in a small group of tourists who visited the city of Kimberly, South Africa in the wake of a political turmoil that rocked the boat of the ANC—South African leading political party. Our tour guide—a local—escorted us round some very impressive monuments—that replicated the memory that many South Africans held very dearly of their famous heroes. Kimberley is a prospecting City famous for its quality diamonds, being the largest man-made excavation in the World and impressive variety of tourists attractions. It is the Capital City of the Northern Cape and surrounded by five of South…