Rev. Prof. Ben. Onyeukwu
08037346939
ATTENTION IMO STATE GOVERNMENT!
RELIGIOUS
ERROR (PART ONE)
MISPLACEMENT
OF FAITH
WRITER’S QUOTE:
“The
Best way to show the form of God is to
be godly”.
MAIN TEXT:
…”Watch
yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for
yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a
woman, or like any animal on earth”,……(Deuteronomy 4:15ff).
INTRODUCTION;
The Kenneth Barker’s
edition of the New International Version of the Bible in a commentary on the
book of Deuteronomy which is cited as the main text of this piece renders that,
“because God has no visible form, any idol intended to resemble Him would be a
sinful misrepresentation of Him, and since other gods are not to be worshipped,
as indicated in Exodus 20:5, making idol of them would equally be sinful’,
considering also that God is a spirit that must be worshipped in Spirit and
truth, (John 4:24). Based on the foregoing, therefore, the wrier draws
attention to the biblical fact that:
GOD IS
NOT WORSHIPPED THROUGH ANY FORM OF IMAGE
Dr D. James Kennedy
in a scholarly work remarks that it was a great privilege, as well as an
unforgettable experience to sit at the feet of Dr. William Childs Robinson who
he described as a great saint of God, a brilliant scholar with an encyclopedic
mind to learn that there are three uses of art, as he in turn narrates that
there is, first of all the decorative use of art which we have in our homes, on
our buildings, on our persons and everywhere around us, which we delight in. He
further notes that God is a God of beauty, and the one who has created the
beauty of the earth, the glories of its mountains and sunsets, the wonders of
its flowers with all of their manifold shapes, tints, hues and aromas.
There is also what is
call the didactic use of art, where art is used to instruct. This is well
enshrined in a famous Chinese proverbs which says that ‘a picture is worth a
thousand words’. In fact, children never forget pictures they have seen of
Samson destroying the lion, of David slaying Goliath, of Noah entering the ark,
of Jesus carrying the lost lamb upon His breast, of Jesus inviting the cost
sinners to come unto Him, and of Jesus hanging in His death agonies on the
cross…
In addition to the
decorative and the didactic uses of art, Dr. Kennedy as well cites that there
is a third use, and that is the devotional use of art, as he points out that it
is precisely this use of art that the commandment of God in focus, that is, the
making of images for worship which is idolatry, that the scripture strictly
forbids, and thus a misplacement of faith, (Deuteronomy 4:15ff).
GOD
DOES NOT REQUIRE IMAGE REPRESENTATION OF HIM IN PUBLIC PLACES
Today, there exists at the Okigwe Road
Roundabout, Owerri, and somewhere at Control Post, the Imo State capital,
religious shrines that harbour same beautiful works of art that are supposedly
the images of Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, as
well as those of two sheep, one positioned at the right side of the shrine(s)
and the other at the left. In front of the shrine(s) also is a box, which the
writer does not know its significance. Without mincing words, the second aim of
this piece is to draw attention to the problem that this new religious edifices
are likely to cause in a multi-religious society like ours, since it does not
represent the collective faith of every religious group in the state. Let it be
recalled that the administration of the late Governor Sam Mbakwe once put in
place a statue of “Ikenga” at the Okigwe
roundabout, though not at the same spot, which with time was condemned by those
who saw it as heathenish, and not just an emblem of the African Traditional
Religion (ATR) or cultural symbol. In fact, the religious pressure dragged on
till the regime of Tanko Zubairo which removed the “Ikenga” as well as replaced
it with a “cross”, which many viewed as a collective Christian symbol. However,
some caliber of Christians who saw the government’s action as influenced by the
Pentecostal movement opposed the idea of the cross, and called for its removal
as well as the return of the “Ikenga”. But, the government of Chief Achike
Udenwa on assumption of office, in a prudent manner decided to do away with
both the cross and the “Ikenga’ to give peace a chance.
The foregoing,
notwithstanding, it becomes disheartening to notice presently that those who
still carry the memory of the “Ikenga-cross” controversy in the state have
mindlessly come up with the idea of erecting religious shrines at the
roundabouts, for reasons best known to them, and what they seek to achieve by
this inconsiderate drive, only God knows. Therefore, the present government in
the state, under the leadership of Governor Rochas Okorocha should check this
religious manoeuvre and phariseeism for the sake of peace and religious
harmony, for Imo State is a multi-religious-multi-cultural state, as well as
part of the secular arrangement we call Nigeria, and should not be dominated by
any particular religious group in whatever guise, as the controversial shrines are
never at the Okigwe Road Roundabout and Control Post by the leading of the Holy Spirit, since He
says, “watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and
make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man
or a woman, or like any animal on earth,…(Deuteronomy 4).
Furthermore, the
writer is of the view that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the
Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) in the state, which are the major
Christian associations that hold many Christians together, may have had no
hands in the disputed shrine, and the writer also thinks that the present
government in the state, no doubt, has no official approval of it, but may have
played the game of compromise by allowing the shrines to remain till date,
probably in solidarity with certain religious denomination it may have favoured
un-announced.
By this, therefore,
the writer cautions against allowing religious sentiments of a particular
Christian group to override the collective interest of the people of the state,
and so, appeals to the government to advise the owners of the religious
ornaments to remove them, to avoid the negative consequences this may generate
in future if allowed to remain, for such religious symbols, if desired (but not
necessary) are better erected at the premises of the church and not in public
places, especially in a secular state, like Nigeria. However, if the government
refuses to see reason for the removal of the religious edifices, it will then
be interpreted that every religious group in the state is now free to set up
their religious ornaments in public places.
GOD IS SPIRIT AND
MUST BE WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH
The
encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well certainly reveals
God’s present mode of worship. The Samaritans believe worship must be at the
mountain side, and the Jews claim it must be in Jerusalem,
but Jesus declares that, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father
seeks”, as He also states that, “God is Spirit and His worshippers must worship
in spirit and in truth, (John 4:19-24).
In
other words, Jesus clarifies that God is not position-bound, as He is
everywhere and accepts worship from everywhere provided it is done in spirit
and truth. So, it is not the prayer/.worship conducted at the market square(s),
roundabout(s) and so on, or the religious edifices set up in strategic places
that attract the presence of God in worship or prayer, but one’s relationship
with Him through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, (John 1:12).
But,
some of you, in the words of James Kennedy, may say, “we have never worshipped
an image of any sort”. Yet, today, there are many of us who may not recognize
the images that we worship, for we don’t carve them out of wood or chisel them
out of stone. We make them in the facile factories of our own minds; we create
them in our own thinking. They are the shadows of the mind, the idols of our
minds. We produce them according to our own linking. We commit the wicked sin
of supposing that God is altogether such a one as we are, and so in that
factory of our thoughts, we fashion a god and then we bow down and worship it.
That is idolatry – just as much as when the Israelites worshipped before the
golden calf.
In
conclusion, please learn further that it is a costly religious error, as well
as a misplacement of faith to hold a devotional concept of the use of
sculptural objects in the worship of God, as it is equally wrong to allow a
misleading imagination of the mind to becloud our sense of worship, since today
God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, whom the Bible says we
should receive and serve by faith and not by sight. BEWARE OF RELIGIOUS IDOLS.
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