Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement we have been receiving. God will bless you too. The last edition included my article “Great kingdom of Kwararafa in the new age” in which the editor-in-chief wrote “a contributor believes that the kwararafa of the new age should have the appearance of a unified pious concept and identity. Can it be ?”
This question will be answered in this issue. I will use the story of my late grandfather to discuss a paradigm shift. Thomas S. Kuhn (philosopher of science, in analyzing the process of scientific revolutions, has proposed the theory that when new facts and situations arise within a particular area of science that can no longer be accommodated or explained by the prevailing paradigm, its proponents begin to lose confidence in the paradigm and a new paradigm is required.
A paradigm, according to Kuhn, comprises the general theoretical assumptions with the laws and methods for their application, which inform the attitude and operations of the members of a particular scientific community. Kuhn’s theory is applicable not only to the discipline of physical science but to other disciplines.
Hans Kung has applied it to the history of the Christian church and to theology. David J. Bosch has also applied it to the analysis of mission and missionary thinking. Rev. Fr. John Sigo has applied it when analyzing Christian participation in politics. While he analyzed it by discussing a paradigm shift from democracy to theocracy, a change in the tradition of relevance.
There is an organization in the US that has a new paradigm of a unified godly community that they hope will “bank” democracy.
Next is the new paradigm shift that will say goodbye to democracy, communism, or any other human government devoid of godly order.
CRCN:
The Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria (CRCN) was conceived from the SUM (Sudan United Mission) project. What concerns me most are the Reformed Articles of Faith. Four of them are very important to our discussion of the paradigm shift. The CRCN paradigm appears to be a paradigm shift from the Kwararafa kingdom paradigm. But I hope that the CRCN paradigm changes even more because of its relevance.
Article 5: a single kingdom and Lord. Unlike some other Christian traditions, the CRCN testifies that there is only one kingdom of God that includes all creation, physical and spiritual, heaven and earth. The church plays a central role in that kingdom, but it is not the whole. This kingdom is primarily created and preserved by God the Father, but at this stage in history, Jesus Christ the Son has been named Lord over this entire kingdom. Thus his Lordship covers all of life, including politics and business. The Holy Spirit empowers us to obey Him in everything we do and to overcome opposition.
Article 7: Our Task: We have the cultural mandate in Genesis 1, which instructs us to develop and rule the world as vice rulers of God. Thus, Christians must participate in all areas of life in the name of God. That is our basic religious duty. Because unbelievers cannot adequately carry out this task, we also have the great commission of Matthew 28, which sends us out into the world to preach the gospel and teach our fellow man all that we are taught in the word of God. Therefore, these two commandments have a common goal. Both must be done in the context of the Great Commandment, which is love of God and neighbor. In our present day, important aspects of this basic include a strong concern for evangelism, honesty, healing and peace, justice for all, and the environment.
Article 9: Priesthood of All Believers: While some churches have developed many almost military-style ranks and titles, the Reformed have rejected this approach. They have seen that, in the long run, rank and title have led to the abuse of power in the church. Instead of responsibility, lust for privilege took over. Therefore, there are no different ranks for shepherds. All are equal. And pastors are under the supervision of local elders, who are expected to be spirit-filled servants of God and his people. In fact, every believer has the spirit of God; Pastors do not have a monopoly on the Spirit of it. When this does not work, it is usually due to a lack of true spirituality that leads to service. Where such problems exist, the solution lies not first in reorganization but in spiritual rebirth.
Section 6; God reveals himself in three main ways. In nature, in the Bible and in Jesus Christ. Each of these is the Word of God. Nature proclaims his power and love, but because our ability to reason correctly has been undermined by sin, we need the Bible to understand nature. The Bible explains to us the meaning of creation and the whole scheme of salvation, including the role of Jesus Christ. He is trustworthy, safe and reliable in what he tells us about God and the world about him. We listen not only to the Bible but also to nature, which includes human history and experience.
ARTICLE 5: The paradigm shift in the article is seen in Daniel 2:44 about a kingdom that will crush other kingdoms and that kingdom will last forever.
The paradigm shift in article 6 is that in these end times God will be revealing himself through his holy apostles and prophets. Apart from this, God is revealed as a theophany or as a Christophany. Theophany means God being a spirit, taking different physical forms to reveal Himself to man, while Christophany means Christ taking different forms to reveal Himself to man, of which the main Christophany is Christ using His church on earth to reveal Himself to through the Five ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, and pastors.
The paradigm shift is that of theocracy, that is, God ruling the world through his kingdom on earth.
History shows that Christians have been loving and caring when the newborn faith of Islam was under intense persecution, the faithful fled to Abyssinia, what is now Ethiopia, and the Christian ruler showed kindness to them by letting them live in his territory unharmed. .
Article 9 confirms the paradigm shift of running a family religious organization with each family’s religious contribution to the larger community well recognized, because the home is the fabric of society. Gay marriage, abortion, pornography, and witchcraft actually threaten the home front. Where there are no God-fearing homes, there is no God-fearing community.
History recorded that the Roman Catholic Church rose to a magnificent prominence of power and dignity when the seat of the Great Roman Empire fell vacant. According to AC Flick’s The Rise of the Medieval Church, p. 168. The transfer of the capital of the empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 left the Western church virtually free from imperial power to develop its own organization. The bishop of Rome in the seat of the Caesars was now the greatest man in the West and was soon forced to become both the political and spiritual head.
A very important old paradigm of the Roman Catholic Church was written in the book. “What is Christianity? By Adolf Harnock, 1903, pp.269-270. Any Roman element that the Barbarians and Aryans left under the protection of the Bishop of Rome, who was the main person there after the demise of the emperor. The Roman church in this secretly propelled itself into the place of the Roman world empire, of which it is the actual continuation, the empire has not perished, but only undergone a transformation. [Catholic Church] It is a political creation and it is imposing itself as a world empire because it is a continuation of the Roman one. The Pope, who calls himself the King and Pontifex Maximus, is Caesar’s successor.”
According to Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi, former CAN state president, “God has moved the headquarters of missionary activities from the UK and the US to Jos, Nigeria, the new Jerusalem.” So our new paradigm is the new or reformed kingdom of Kwararafa. And it’s possible that what happened in Rome in the last millennium could happen in the new millennium, but the question we should be asking ourselves now is who is qualified, capable and bold enough to do it? What is it made of, where is that person? Where can we find that man who has both the ability to rule spiritually and politically? Your guess is as good as mine, let’s start or keep looking.
Former President John F. Kennedy once observed: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ consists of two characters. One means danger, the other means opportunity. Our 21st century presents a crisis never before seen, not only for the world but also for the Christianity as a whole. We are seeing a dramatic increase in civil war, violent insurrections, terrorism, natural disasters, virulent disease and outbreaks, and many other problems. Yet despite these dangers, there are also many opportunities before us. Perhaps the The greatest opportunity of this new millennium is our accessibility to information. Never before has information been as accessible to all parts of the world as it is today. National borders are meaningless and government regulations can hardly prevent people from accessing information. information anywhere on the Internet. We have the opportunity to do good even in these days of maximum evil. For o For more information, visit http://www.drgenesis.com
