It is funny that sometimes in discussions with friends I do express views that run contrary to theirs and the next thing they ask is, ”please which church do you attend?” And I would gladly say that ”I don’t go to church”. Each time I say this I notice it raises some curiosity and what follows next would be a barrage of questions seeking to know why? I discover that at each moment I come across to them as a strange person.
This is the situation especially when the discussants know my background as coming from an environment where everybody is identified with the Christian religion. It is like why being the exception. One of the funny characteristics about religion and religious people is that they expect everybody to tag along with them and sparing no opportunity for you to hold a different view
I was born and bred in a Christian home and had parents who ministered to my needs of school fees based on my ability to master such Christian stuffs like our Lords prayers, Psalm 23 etc. Failure to recite all of these very well will deny me my fees and other rewards I will normally earn from my parents. That is how bad it was.
As I was growing up even as a child my curiosity about life grew and I discovered a lot of unanswered questions in Christianity irrespective of its many claims to hold the answer to everything. I sought solace in the school of thoughts of many of which today they are branded secret societies but they gave me the relief that I needed and I turned my back on the church because it is fake, a tool of Oyibo exploitation of the black world. I can defend this anywhere
Since then the dragging to return to church has never ceased and here I am asking which church I should return to assuming I make up my mind. There is a maze of confusion in the church or rather Christian religion. They will tell you their scripture said that God is never an author of confusion but what you notice is a huge contrast. The bible is replete with contradictions, confusions, falsehood, fairy tales etc
Church I discover is an unregulated activity where people move in and out and do whatever they like so it is easier to form sects or divisions and do your stuffs according to how the spirit leads you or your desire to achieve whatever objective. In the Christendom today, you have the orthodox churches, the spiritual churches, the Pentecostal churches, among others
Each of these groups is further split along other different lines. They all hold the bible, Jesus Christ, the trinity, God as their anchor but heavy dosage of doctrinal differences and practices that will make you to wonder. Why would the ways of worshipping God be different if everything truly came from him? For instance, the rituals of worship in the Anglican and Catholic churches, the two major orthodox churches are different.
The differences again widen when you stretch it further to the Pentecostal churches and the spiritual churches. While the new age Pentecostals brand themselves as living churches demonizing the orthodox as old fashioned they also class the spiritual churches as reveling in spiritism which their bible condemns.
Funnily, each hold something against the other and would readily draw attention to certain portions of the bible to justify their respective claims. When you take them on the obvious contradictions and inconsistencies that abound they would quickly want to wriggle out by saying the ways of God are not the ways of man and can never be grasped.
I cannot stop laughing at the smart attempt to escape from clear inexplicable confusion arising from the human contrivance represented by religion. I have sojourned in all of these groups and drew my experience. Experience they say is the best teacher. My discovery is that they are all at each other’s jugular in the fight for supremacy, membership and its purported claim to win Souls for God.
With each group throwing mud at the other and still claiming to worship God I am left wondering which group to attach to. Kindly advise if you know the church that will take me to God. For now I am cooling off with the spirituality of our ancestors. It is original, unadulterated, natural, maligned and abused but very potent.
Man is a spirit in human body. God himself is a spirit. Those who serve him must do so in spirit. Why should I be subjected to read books to know God? Certainly, God cannot be found in the books, same reason the bible does not talk when people swear with it and abuse it.
This is not about putting down the churches as some may interpret this piece but a sincere attempt to draw attention to the fact that religion has not helped anybody especially the black man. It is I repeat, a human contrivance designed to serve some purposes which may not fit in to linking you up to the Creator and realizing the purpose of life on planet earth
How do religions arise, you may ask? Religions emerge from the teachings of Avatars, Saviours, Messiahs or whatever they are called who comes each time manifesting in one part of the globe to bring message of salvation to the world each time the Creator felt such need are necessary. It is God manifesting himself through or in them to save man.
This is the reason the messages from Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Tao, etc never differed from each other but only in the cultures where the messages are located. Any time the Masters come do their job and exit their survivors fashion their teachings into religion and begin to spread it out.
In the effort to cascade down to other areas and given the frailties of man in the struggle for control these religions divide into sects under the control of people who breathe in their own doctrines and pull away to win others convictions. Are you still surprised that we have the Ahmadiya, Tijaniya muslim sects and within each sect there are more splits. Ditto in Christianity.
Also, in the attempt to further transmit the messages to other areas it transmits along the cultures of the environment where it took root because it is the vehicle of communication. Christianity like Islam used wars to reach here and destroy our pristine culture. It was found a veritable tool to enslave and exploit Africa.
I am still asking which Church I should enroll into its membership. Lend me your help.
