Faith or Fear?

[By Bro. Namani J. Nharel]               

Introduction 

When the church meet in time and space to worship, it is to honour the Lord Jesus Christ. In worship members express their faith in God and their love for Christ. Faith here means the sum total of all the church agrees to be true and real of God's nature, words and works. These are expressed in songs of praises; confessed in prayers, taught in sermons and teachings and lived in everyday life.  

From the beginning, God's "{His} intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, and according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:10-12).
In view of this stated purpose, we see that the religious, public and private conducts of many Christians poses the questions: If they know who they worship; if they know the purpose of the church on earth and if members known the freedom and confidence they have to approach God through Christ.  Worship in many local congregations across Nigeria today cast doubts on , who is worshipped.
Preoccupation with Demons
Some church worship services are dominated by issues relating to Satan, his demons and their agents from beginning to the end. Preachers point the people to demons and their activities in various ways. The average Christian as a result thinks and sees demons or their influences in his everyday life. He suspects his neighbour to be an agent. Consequently he spends his time and resources fighting seen and unseen forces for hindering him from getting some sort of material benefits, comforts and status due to him for following Christ.
There is a truism that preoccupations with somebody or thing indicates a love for or fear of the person or thing. Are today’s many Nigerian Christians in love with demons or are afraid of them?  The later seems the case. Come to think of it that these fears are expressed in the presence of God Almighty, when Christians gather supposedly to worship Him. In the guise of spiritual warfare and prayers that say perceived human agents or enemies should be visited with some adversities they display their fear for the powers of darkness.
If Christians believe God is truly more powerful than the devil, then God must be very jealously disappointed when Christians gather to worship him but give more time and attention to the devil or his agents; instead of giving Him pleasure in their worship. He must be very dissatisfied with the role of fire brigademan His people have given Him when they purport to worship Him. It seems the devil is out there, powerfully setting the fires unhindered while God is asked to follow behind putting off these fires in the Christian's life at the Christian's commands.
Carried Home from the church, the fear of demons are carried home, and reflects in everyday life of the people.The meal is sanctified by the blood of Jesus to neutralize any poison instead of giving thanks to the Lord. A bird or lizard innocently strays into the room they shout the Blood of Jesus; an enemy must have  sent them. A little domestic accident or misfortune must be the enemy at work.  A child falls sick the witches and wizards are at it again. There are instances where full blown signs of AIDS are attributed to witchcraft.
At work some evil person must be responsible for lack of ones promotion. In business an evil opponent must be hindering its progress. In all these there are always known suspects who nobody including the victims are bold enough to confront. Instead names are mentioned in whispers. Sadly most alleged suspects are persons closed to the victims of this fear.
Making Business
While the generality of many ignorant "Church goers" are taught to fear the devil, those teaching them are clear about their intentions. The later seek to instil fear in order to use same to manipulate and control the former.They teach to remove the people's ability to reason scripturally and their capability to take personal responsibility for choices and consequences. Hence some of these teachers have become prayer merchants and deliverance experts. The fearful people keep coming to them to be prayed for and these merchants go home with heavy pockets.
Prayer houses are springing out here and there. Fearful Christians are rushing to those places. The proprietors of these houses are making specialised ministries out of it.
Now there is nothing wrong in someone being prayed for by fellow Christians. What becomes suspect is when an aspect of a church life like prayer is taken out of the church context and given a life not in consonant with the general teachings of the Bible.
Faulty Soteriology
Soteriology is the study of the doctrine of salvation. The salvation obtained through the finished work of Christ on Calvary is the reason for the Christian's freedom and confidence to approach and worship God as He is.
But the salvation being taught in some quarters is different from the one Jesus offers. It keeps people in of fear of satanic powers. This  salvation says Jesus saved the spirit but not the soul and body components of man. It therefore teaches that the one whose spirit is saved by Christ needs to go for deliverance by certain specialists for one’s salvation to be complete. It asks people to seek to be delivered from ancestral curses and ancient covenants. Meaning, the effects of pagan beliefs and practices of ones forefathers still lingers on or follows the offsprings even when they become Christians.
This teaching obviously contradict Christ's words. While hanging on the cross He said, “It it is finished” (John 19:30). It is finished or “Forever done” marked the completion of Christ’s atoning work for the sin of the world. Apostle Paul later reiterate that, “He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven (Colossians 1:13-14 Good News Bible). On the fullness of salvation in Christ he said: You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; he cancelled the unfavourable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession (Colossians 2:13-15 GNB). In view of these and more clear Bible passages people still teach 'deliverance' as an  after salvation necessity. What this implies is that, ‘Yes Christ died to save the spirit but his atonement wasn’t powerful enough to save the total man. So Christ needed the help of some exorcists (using his name anyway) to complete the salvation of man. Many people have fallen into this false teaching and are held captive by it. Because they chose to live in fear instead of the freedom for which Christ has set them free (Galatians 5:1)
Faith not Fear
If Christians will read their Bible correctly they will see and appreciate the complete work of Christ for salvation of man. They will live by faith not by fear. They will accept that God is who he is and can do what he says he will. They will worship God in the freedom and the confidence Christ has given.
The moment many Christians know their positions and their rights in Christ many men of God or deliverance ministers will be thrown out of job.  Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship..." (John 4:22). The church can only worship God in faith when its members know who God really is. Knowing God involves knowing his word that tells about his nature, his promises and works for mankind. If the church members know God well they will have faith in him and not live and conduct their lives in fear of the devil and his agents. Knowing the truths about God and believing them sets people free from living in fear of the devil (John 8:32)
Conclusion
The devil is real. His activities are evident at every turn. But these are not enough reasons to live in fear of his influences. For "Fear can paralyze but faith propels us to follow God". The Bible encourages, “My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world (1 John 4:4 The Message Translation).

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