I am sorry that the concluding part of this article which was published three weeks ago, on August 18 had not come up. It was Mr. Jide Gbadamosi (080 – 3354 – 7100) who drew my attention to it last Wednesday. What is left are the two questions I have to ask the Heavenly Father on the two religions.

The first is why it took five hundred and ninety years to six hundred years after Christianity came in 32AD before the Lord raised Prophet Muhammad to bring Islam (622 – 32AD). This is more so because the Arabs after death of Ishmael the son of Abraham who brought Judaism to them were said to have returned to worshipping idols.

The second issue I will raise with Almighty God is the statement in Chapter 5 verse 51 in the Qur’an. This is where it is written: “O ye who believe! Take not the Jews (Judaists) and Christians for friends. They are friends to one another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongful folk.” I will ask the Lord whether this has anything to do with His statement in Genesis 16:11 – 15 that the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac will be against themselves eternally.

But the answers of the Ancient of Days to these enquiries will come up in a book in which I will report on the things He explained to me on some issues in the Christian Holy Book. There are a number of them but the one I am showcasing here are two issues in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament I will ask the Sovereign Lord the precise year He created the Earth, Adam and Eve. And with them being Jews how come then that we now have people of different races and colours in the world that is, Africans (or Blacks), Caucasians (Whites), the Arabs, Asians and others. Or did this happen because like Adam and Eve, the Lord created other couples in the other races. In other words, that instead of Adam and Eve as the only ones God created in the Old Testament that other couples were also created, though this is not in the Scriptures.

The second issue I will raise with the Most High is to find out the exact age of King David. This is because in 2 Samuel 5:4 he was said to have mounted the throne at the age of 30 and that he reigned for 40 years. This means that he died at 70, but in I Kings 1:1 – 4 it is reported that he was a very old man that his servants had to cover him with blanket to keep him warm.

How could David have been too old for this to have happened to him at the age of 70? When the Ancient of Days in Genesis 12:1:4 called Abraham at the age of 75 and he moved from Israel to Egypt and other places and died at 175 (Genesis 25: 7 – 9). There is also the fact that Moses  at the age of 80 led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land (Israel) on a journey that lasted 40 years and died at the age of 120 (Deuteronomy 34: 1 – 7).

What I think happened was that King David as a warrior who fought many battles might have been wounded or in a physical condition that made him require special care. He could not have been too old at 70 years to do things or unable to sleep with his last wife, Abishag (I Kings 1:1 – 4), when Abraham had his first – born, Ishmael at the age of 86 (Genesis 16:15) and the second son, Isaac when he was 100 years old.

Another issue I will raise with the Lord are the unknown authors of some Books in the Old Testament and person who wrote the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The first are the Books of Second Samuel, First and Second Chronicles which Ezra is ascribed as their author but with a question mark after his name, which means that it was not certain he wrote them.

Issue is also raised on the authors of the Books of Ezra, First and Second Chronicles where there is question mark after the name of Ezra as the person who wrote them. It is also not known if Jeremiah was the author of First and Second Kings and if Mordecai was the author of the Book of Esther and Job the person who penned the Book of Job.

With regard to Hebrews it is not known if it was written by Apollos an aide to Paul (whose name appears in I Corinthians 3:22, and 16:12) or Barnabas a disciple of Apostle Peter (whose name is in Acts of the Apostles 4:36, 11:22 – 25) and later an aide to Apostle Paul (Galatians 2:1 and Colossians 4:10).

Apostle Paul who wrote the 13 Books before Hebrews is not thought to be the author of the Book. This is because as he did in the Books from Romans through Philemon Apostle Paul did not introduce himself. He started each Book with: From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ and an Apostle chosen and called by God to preach the Good News.

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10 topmost immigrant Lagosian – Scipio Vaughan, of Egba ancestry

A prince of the Owu kingdom Scipio Vaughan who was born in Abeokuta in 1784 and died in 1840 at the age of 56 was the most sophisticated and wealthiest of the immigrant Lagosians whether from Abeokuta, Oyo, Ilesa or elsewhere. His family is also the most unique in that it has members in Nigeria and the United States who still keep in touch with themselves.

He was captured in Abeokuta in 1805 by European trans – Atlantic slave traders and shipped from Badagry port to Camden, South Carolina in the United States where he was sold to a white master, Mr. Wiley Vaughan whose surname he adopted to become known as Scipio Vaughan.

Scipio was an ironmonger (a dealer in hardware) before he was taken to America. A few years after he arrived in Camden he established a reputation as one of the best in his profession in the town. His master valued him so much that he soon granted freedom and gave him tools to practice his profession. He also left one hundred dollars for him in his will.

In 1815 Scipio Vaughan married Maria Theresa Louisa Matilda Conway, the daughter of Bonds Conway, a freed slave and wealthy businessman and landowner. They had nine children, two sons and seven daughters. Although he returned to live in Lagos in the 1830s he visited the United States regularly to visit his relatives who did not return to Nigeria with him.

On his deathbed in Lagos in 1840 he told his sons to return to Nigeria in order to restore their lost dignity, pride, wealth, power and security. Twelve years after his demise his eldest child Burrel Churchill Vaughan who was 24 years at the time and his younger brother, 12 – year James Churchill Vaughan decided to return to Nigeria.

They left Camden in 1852 and arrived in Liberia the following year. They were there for two years, leaving for Nigeria in 1855. This followed the offer of employment by Thomas Jefferson Bowen, a missionary of the Southern Baptist Convention and his wife who needed them in spreading the Baptist faith in Nigeria.

During the Ibadan – Ijaye war of 1861 – 62 James Vaughan was captured but was fortunate to have escaped to Abeokuta. But when the missionaries were driven out of Abeokuta in 1867, he and other Christian refugees resettled in Lagos, where he established a successful hardware business and became a wealthy and prosperous merchant.

In 1888 James Churchill Vaughan led a revolt against white missionaries and with his supporters established the Ebenezer Baptist Church at 50A, Campbell Street on Lagos Island. It was the first indigenous church in West Africa. He went to South – Carolina in United States a number of times to visit members of his family who did not return to Nigeria with them. He died in 1893.

Next week: The story of James Churchill Vaughan Jr. the son of James Churchill Vaughan and the reunion of the Vaughans in Nigeria with the Vaughans in America where there are more than three thousands of them.