CHRISTIANS SHOULD DEFEND THEMSELVES - By: Godday Ojore Aghedo

“And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Luke 19:40 (KJV)

When I say defend yourself, I don't mean: hate, fight or kill anybody. You don't have the right to take anybody's live including yours; but don't be a coward... Speak out!

Dear friends, today I want to share my burden for Nigerian Christians who have been the subject of incessant attacks and threat of annihilation if no proportionate steps are taken towards addressing it, by both individuals and government. I have read a lot of posts and comments criticising ministers of the gospel for asking Christians to defend themselves. Many of such criticisms came from even “believers,” and in my investigation, 99.9% of them do not live in the north, nor have they any relations over there. A recent reaction to the speech of Apostle (Prof.) Johnson Suleiman of the Omega Fire Ministry (OFM), Auchi, after there was an attempt by the DSS to arrest him, provoked my pen on paper. The writer was enraged over the fact that Christians are now resorting to defending themselves rather than ‘trusting God’ to do that, quoting Christianity as a peaceful religion. Unequivocally, If Christians were not peaceful people; there would have been a costly war epidemic that would have led to the end of ‘One Nigeria’ campaign, following the myriad of attacks on them.

But you know, Christianity is a peace preaching life, it is not a religion like most people believe. However, I have never seen anywhere in the bible where you are advised to run or fold your alms when enemies come to your house with weapons and intending to kill you. The scenario painted above is different from "...turn the right cheek, if you get slapped on the left..." as taught in the bible (Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29). The insensitivity of the incumbent administration to the increasing level of insecurity of lives and properties, glaring enthronement of: lawlessness, anarchy, injustice, sentiment, fighting corruption by corruption, gross marginalisation or sectionalism, deceit, victimisation, redundancy, blind or clueless leadership, wanton killings, celebration of administrative failure, religious bigotry or fanaticism, revenge, witch-hunting, and human right abuse, only calls for vigilance and self defence whenever and wherever appropriate.

Deliberate murder can never be justified, and no man of God advocates the killing of people whether guilty or innocent of any alleged crimes. But in a peculiar case such as ours (in Nigeria), where there is an indubitable record of institutional failure, terrorists and other culprits of various heinous offences are apparently left to the judgement and verdict of civilians. What can they do as a way of self defence? As it stands now, acting otherwise (i.e. not defending yourself under direct attacks) definitely deepens the dangers and threats one is exposed to. Every Christian should defend himself or herself in all lawful manners, seeing that there are no more credible institutions that do that for Nigerians. The available institutions have been compromised and can no longer be trusted with the security of lives and properties.

Don’t get it twisted, Christians should and will maintain peace and tranquillity at all times. However, unless we collectively and jointly speak up against the aforementioned practices, evil will continue to escalate. In my humble opinion, it is better to die FIGHTING for a just course than to die while RUNNING or trying to escape. People who should be speaking are deadly mute and in their hiding places. They don’t want to be tagged ‘carnal’ or called other ridiculous names. They prefer to be indecisive and enjoy the benefit of being honoured as loyal and law abiding Nigerians, compared to being called false names for speaking the truth. They prefer to be in their comfort zones with their families, to being chased around by DSS and other instruments of the government, for exercising their freedom of speech. This is a shame on our religious leaders!

Someone said to me, “We should not take the place of God, we should allow Him to fight for us.” No doubt, the Bible says that God will fight our battles, and He has been doing that for Christians in Nigeria (Exodus 14:14). If God weren't fighting our battles, it would have been worse. But you know, God WILL NOT DO for you, what you can do for yourself.  Moreover, He is unlikely to send physical angels to come and fight for us; rather He will use us as weapons if not as warriors. I don't support violence and murder (no matter the circumstance), but the truth remains that, the red sea never parted until Moses stretched forth his rod (Exodus 14:21-22), the walls of Jericho never fell until the Israelites matched round it (Joshua 6:20, Hebrews 11:30), even Jesus drove out the merchants who were desecrating the temple of God (Matthew 21:12; John 2:14-17)... There is always a role we have to play. WE ARE TO CRY OUT AGAINST THE RAVAGING MANSLAUGHTER, EVIL, OPPRESSION, INJUSTICE AND TERRORISM, OR THE STONES WILL DO IT TO OUR SHAME (Luke 19:40). We have to stand up, for God to stand by us.

If we are meant to hold our peace, like dumb and brainless people, why is it called "...weapons of warfare..." in 2 Corinthians 10:4? Have you not heard about "...the good fight of faith...?" (1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7). Did the apostles not command blindness on "Bar-Jesus" (Acts 13:11) all in the New Testament? If not for times like this, why did God train our fingers for battles and our hands for war (Psalms 144:1)? Truly, it is not a physical war and our weapons are also not physical; but our mouths (tongues) remain our greatest weapons. My God is not dumb, so I refuse to be dumb. He is not my servant, so He has thought me to get things done, I call on Him only when it is beyond the grace He has already given me. How can God be our slave, doing everything for us, even after Christ's death and our empowerment? I don't understand while any Christian should think like that. Gun is not our weapon, but our tongue is. After winning the battle in the spirit, we make it manifest in the physical ONLY BY ACTIONS AND CONFESSIONS. We have to also talk tough. The Spirit of faith doesn’t keep quiet; it SPEAKS (2 Corinthians 4:13). For instance, if a witch doctor comes to you and says you would die the next day, what would you do? Go home and think about it, complain or cry over it? Or you will go home to pray about it? I know you will choose the later, but that too, is not the best thing to do. You don’t need to get home first. You have to say something at that point first, to reject or counter the prophecy. If you are tough, you can even make your own decree and declaration against him in a way that is capable of even making him rescind from the intended evil. 

This is what we should be doing right now... “Talking tough” as a physical measure of defending ourselves, is inevitable.

In my next post, I will dwell more on the probable reasons the Nigeria artist; Innocent Idibia (a.k.a. 2-baba) thwarted his proposed national peaceful protest, even though “One Voice Nigeria” went ahead with it at various capital cities of the federation. But amongst other factors, it is glaring that we are in a government that is not willing to condone logical and objective antagonism. Our democratic system has unquestionably been compromised; it is least to say, we are now in a “modern” military regime. Welcome to the new era.

Finally, once the object of a demon is destroyed, the demon ceases to operate. Nigeria is under demonic attacks, and once the instrument of operation is taken away, the demon disappears. This is for those who understand, to decipher. You are entitled to your interpretation. Let me stop here before DSS comes after me.

© Godday Aghedo, 2017