MATTERS ARISING. from Fada Oluoma

MATTERS ARISING. 

Fr Eze Celestine's responses to some points from the Letter to Mathias Ezeaku. He actuallywrote them on Fr Kevin Ugwu's wall. I'm posting it here to make one or two points. 

1. The first and most important point I'm making from his responses is the choice of words. Notice that he didn't insult, disparage or used libellous terms against me or Fr Kevin. He stated where he disagreed and why he disagreed, where he concured and where he added some clarity. Most importantly, he didn't misrepresent or miunderstand the original post. 

This is scholarship, intelligence and civility. This is how people grow in knowledge. This is how to have conversations as intelligent and civilised beings in a public space. Keep your emotions away and attack the points made, not the person. It's actually retards that insult people instead of offering intelligent counter arguments. 

Let's go to Fr Eze's submissions. 👇👇👇

You actually got this quote from Fr. Oluoma’s first letter to one Matthias Ezeaku. I will also add few other lines in that same letter and make my responses.

MY RESPONSES:

1) “Jesus didn't die to make anyone financially wealthy”. Fr. Oluoma.

I agree with FR. Oluoma on this. But we should also remember to teach that he didn’t die to make us live in penury and abject poverty either. 

2) “There's no one in the bible that Jesus Christ made rich…” FR. Oluoma.

Is there anyone in the Bible that he rendered poor? Jesus was a well balanced man, who related with both the rich and the poor. He may not have directly made anyone wealthy since his focus was not economics but evangelism. But his healing of the sick and other miracles he performed empowered those who had become economically irrelevant to regain their health/strength and earn a better living. To emphatically declare that there’s no one in the Bible that Jesus made rich, is, to say the least, mind boggling. It’s also limiting the power of God to change life in different ways. It simply means that no one should ever pray to God for material wellbeing. This statement, in a subtle way, goes against the Christian tradition and faith, and I beg to differ. It also goes against the Gospel (John 21:25).

3) “So all those who preach a Jesus that solves peoples existential problems by miracles or any other spiritual means are charlatans, and we have many of them” Fr. Oluoma.

To say this means that we are all charlatans including Fr. Oluoma himself. What then are we doing? The fact that people have abused the Christian tradition and heritage doesn’t mean, we should throw away the core of our faith. The Jesus of the Gospel solved different existential problems. That ppl abuse a whole lot doesn’t mean nothing is real anymore. This statement above seem to reduce Christianity to mere science. The word “charlatans” is not civil as far as addressing preachers is concerned. I would rather go with St. Paul in this regard (Philippians 1:18-20). Christianity without miracles is like creation without Incarnation. It’s likened to a Good Friday without Easter Sunday, or apostolic life in the Upper Room without a Pentecost. It’s like bones without flesh.

4) “If their prosperity by miracle works, they should have made everyone in their villages wealthy by now, but check all of them that preach that fake gospel, they always look for lands in big cities to build ministries…” Fr. Oluoma.

I stand with you on this. There are many business centers that call themselves churches now. But that doesn’t mean that one’s ability to turn around the economic fortunes of his villagers is a proof of one’s genuineness, and vice versa. Not even Jesus healed all the sick in Galilee; so, even if prosperity was always possible through miracles, such preachers would still not be able to make everyone around them rich. 

5) “The Bible and the church make it clear that a well organized society with competent political and civil leaders are what a country needs to prosper and live in peace. A country where hard and honest work is rewarded, opportunities created, is where prosperity happens, not a country with big church auditoriums and miracle crusades taking place everyday” Fr. Oluoma. 

I agree with Fr. Oluoma on this, but not in entirety. Granted, prosperity doesn’t happen by mere, “I receive it in Jesus’ name.” The faithful recipient must also be productive and follow other laws of nature and economics. But that’s not all. There are people who do more than their best in all that but  to no avail. I speak from experience. You cannot tell them that God can’t help them either, because He truly does. To take the God-factor completely out of our economic context is unchristian and unrealistic. 

It’s good to be realistic and condemn exaggerated rhetorics in the Christian religion. In this, I stand with Fr. Oluoma. Be that as it may, we have to be careful trivializing the Gospel and our Christian heritage.

My Response

1. I totally agree with his point 1.

2. When we say there's no one in the bible Jesus made rich, it's a statement of biblical fact. It is not an evaluation of the power of Jesus, just a statement of fact. Anyone who wants to counter it should provide a contrary biblical fact. It is also not limiting God's power. Stating what God didn't do or hasn't done is not same thing as saying God cannot do it, it just what it is. The only way to counter it is to provide an evidence of the contrary. 

3. I probably didn't contextualize very well, so I agree with Fr Eze that I made an extreme statement by generalizing or speaking absolutely. When Jesus healed the sick, he solved an existential problem by miracle. Ill retain the terms charlatans for some who are, not all. 

On 4 and 5 we seem to agree fundamentally. 

Thank you Fr Eze Celestine and to others with constructive criticism, let's keep learning.