{"id":57802,"date":"2022-05-26T07:36:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T07:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=57802"},"modified":"2022-05-26T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T07:36:07","slug":"the-trial-of-faith-the-nigerian-the-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=57802","title":{"rendered":"The trial of faith, the Nigerian, the Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE TRIAL OF FAITH<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Namani J Nharrel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us be clear, faith here talks of Christian principles and practices taught by Jesus and His apostles, while trial is the opposition of these teachings by pain and suffering inflicted on Christians. Another form of trial is by questioning the teachings of the Bible in the face of trouble.<\/p>\n

Whether by adversity from foes, or by doubtful questions from Christians, the Christian Faith is put on trial. The trial of faith in this piece, dwells on questioning clear biblical answers to vexing situations Christian face today. That is, questioning the validity or relevance of these answers in view of trial by adversity.<\/p>\n

Tasking Issues\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is becoming difficult to be a Christian because of the\u00a0 painful trial of faith by adversities. This is making\u00a0 some ask, if the New Testament’s recommended responses in the face of adversities like persecution, maltreatment, and killing of Christians\u00a0 are enough for today’s Christians, shouldn’t\u00a0 Christian go extrabiblical to respond appropriately? They ask.<\/p>\n

New definitions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trial of faith by questioning its teachings, want us to redefine Christianity in Nigeria. This is not as a result of new theological discovery, but immediate circumstances. Circumstances are making some Christians look at Christianity different from Scriptural presentation. This is not because the Bible has changed or its teachings abrogated, but because people are changing their theology; and as a result of changing their God. Popular redefinitions wants Christianity to be more physically militant, retaliatory, reactionary and hostile to match those of its unbelieving enviroment. It wants Christianity to match fire for fire and vile for vile.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The attempt at redefining Christianity is due to several considerations linked to self preservation.<\/p>\n

1. The need to balance the\u00a0 Christian’s dual citizenship. Being Nigerians, for example, with every rights enshrined in the constitution; and at the same time being a citizen of heaven living on earth, the two cultures sometimes contradict themselves. Christians\u00a0 have to continually make delibrate choices, which of the culturaI\u00a0 principles to guide their lives.<\/p>\n

2. The need to balance between reality of survival\u00a0 and obedience to absolute commands of the Bible Some think and preach the ideals of the Bible are unrealistic, unreasonable and unattenable in the face of life threatning persecutions.<\/p>\n

3. The need to balance being politically correct and identifying with a faith that gives no room for compromise as it touches Biblical absolutes.<\/p>\n

4. The need to balance between\u00a0 trust, accepting God’s way of doing things\u00a0and using carnal means and\u00a0 man’s reasoning and efforts to protect or defend himself. Many think employing both is necessary whether their specifics are in harmony or not.<\/p>\n

In view of these considerations and the natural inclination to self preservation, many Christians have inadvertently put their faith on trial.<\/p>\n

The Charges<\/strong><\/p>\n

The charges in this trial of faith are the questions:
\n\u25aa\ufe0eIf the Bible really meant that Christians should not retaliate\u00a0 when pushed to the wall;
\n\u25aa\ufe0eif the Bible’s recommended ways of responding to adversity are applicable and relevant for today’s realities;
\n\u25aa\ufe0eif as citizens of their country, Christians are not entitled to fair treatment;
\n\u25aa\ufe0eif there shouldn’t be a time Christians should say enough is enough to their persecutors and fight back with physical weapons.
\n\u25aa\ufe0eif it is right to strictly adhere to the teachings of the Bible in the face of contrary realities.<\/p>\n

From the foregoing, therefore, Christianity and it’s teachings stand on trial; to be or not to be, the faith, that was once delivered to the saint (Jude 3).<\/p>\n

The accusers here are Christians and the judges are the Christians. Only they can free Christianity from false charges.<\/p>\n

Current Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

That the Christian faith is under threat is no news. The increasing intense opposition, from the enemies of Christ are current realities. Then there are other troubles that comes to every man. In all these, the Bible urge Christians to rejoice (James1:2). These realities are unavoidable. Christians are by nature wired to suffer adversities (2 Timothy 3:12).<\/p>\n

The Concern<\/strong><\/p>\n

The concern here is the Christian’s response to these current realities. Many rather than appeal to God’s faithful promises, to keep from danger, want to\u00a0 use physical weapons and human reasoning. Consequently they ask questions they should not. They make wrong choices, deny outrigtly, plain biblical truths and\u00a0 insists their ideas, opinions and judgements should define what constitute true practice of the faith.Thus they accuse and charge the faith guilty by their actions and utterances.<\/p>\n

Great Danger<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is danger in re-examining\u00a0 and re-defining Christianity to fit the Christian’s chosen course of action or reaction to adversity.<\/p>\n

They bring doubts that makes the Christian unsteady. He doubts the Bible and goes astray. Doubts begin by asking: How can? How come?\u00a0 How long? Why not?<\/p>\n

From doubting, the Christian goes to denying\u00a0clear biblical stand on certain issues. He denies it couldnt be. He denies biblically ways of confronting hardship. He denies his faith while holding to it’s form. He denies doubting and denying biblical truths. Finally he denies Christ in words and deeds. Then comes disobedience to God and his word.<\/p>\n

A doubting, denying and disobeying Christian is a great threat to himself and Christianity.<\/p>\n

The Verdict<\/strong><\/p>\n

In re-examining his faith, in re-defining his faith, in doubting, denying and disobeying the teaching of his faith, he passes a verdict that Christianity is not what it claims to be.\u00a0 This is not a true and fair verdict. It is unacceptable to the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ, and all his faithful followers.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The basic reason Christianity is put on trial by Christians is the desire to fit God and His ways into their own thinking, instead of adjusting their own thinking into God’s ways and plans.<\/p>\n

It is nobody’s fault that God’s ways of doing things sometime appear unreasonable and foolish to man. However we have to accept that all men and their ways are not trustworthy: and that only God and His ways can be trusted. If we need to remain true followers of Christ, we need to accept that, “This so-called \u201cfoolish\u201d plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness\u2014Christ dying on the cross\u2014is far stronger than any man” (1 Corinthians 1:25 The Living Bible).<\/p>\n

\u25aa\ufe0e Nharrel, a Christian worker, is based in southernKadunaa, and <\/strong>\u00a0reactions to this material should be\u00a0 sent by WhatsApp or Telegram to 08022198060; or by e-mail to info@everyday.ng.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE TRIAL OF FAITH By Namani J Nharrel Let us be clear, faith here talks of Christian principles and practices taught by Jesus and His apostles, while trial is the opposition of these teachings by pain and suffering inflicted on Christians. Another form of trial is by questioning the teachings of the Bible in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772],"tags":[3601,443,201],"class_list":["post-57802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","tag-christian","tag-faith","tag-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}