By Itoro Godwin
General Overseer of the Four Square Gospel Church, Rev Felix Meduoye, has called on Nigerians especially Christians not to retaliate or take up arms in the current fight against Christianity but rather indulge in using their religion to promote peace in the face of adversity.
He said this in Lagos at the church headquarters to herald the 2017 International Conference for Ministers and Leaders tagged “The mind of Christ.” He said: “Our religion which is Christianity talks about peace and not war. We are not suppose to kill no matter the situation on ground but we can act on self defence in shooting to scare our enemies from killing us.”
On the murder of Deaconess Eunice Elisha of the Divine Touch Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pipeline area of Kubwa, Abuja. A mother of seven, he said “the grave is not the end of life” as the killers might assume. Elisha was cut in the neck and stabbed in the stomach.
According to him, the present economic, social and security situations in the country call for concern and “as such we believe the government, the Church and the citizenry have roles to play in restoring the society to the right order. As a collective responsibility, the Church will never relent in teaching, training men to be the light and the salt of the earth.
“One of the problems of the country is as a result of lack of vision and not seeking for directives for our future plans and to correct our past mistakes. We are always looking for blames from our leaders and when they right things are done we do not ponder on it but the evil.
“Our major challenge concern as Christians is to win souls for the Kingdom and propagate the word of Christ to the dying souls because our journey on earth is brief and like a vapour will fade away only what we stand for while on earth as pilgrims will speak for us.”
He acknowledged the present administration in fighting insurgency to a standstill and also encourage Christians never to see the killings of its counterparts a new thing but rather “every believer will pass through persecution as the Master commands.
“Book Haram we are witnessing today will soon be a thing of the past as everyone has its own peculiarities in difficulties. If we should draw our reference in the Bible we as Christians should understand that a son of a bondwoman has put everyone in bondage and in captive and as such we must know our stand and role in defending our nation when such perilous times approach.”
On the debate that Christians should be in politics, he warned: “Before you venture into politics ask from God to direct your paths. Know if actually He wants you to go. If He gives you the go ahead then go, but if He does not then stay put.”
On the issue of gay marriage, he said it was the intervention of a fellow Christian who was in politics and overruled the act that Nigerians should not be involved in such law: “Assuming there were no Christian voice there to speak, may be, we would have been in woes.”