General Overseer, Lord’s Chosen Revival Ministries, Pastor Lazarus Mouka, has been faulted over his statement that Christmas is the doctrine of those who do not read the bible.
He said: “There is no place in the Bible that l see Christmas. What l do is taking advantage of the Christmas to preach the gospel.”
According to him, “In the first place, our programme is aimed at saving souls. Our programme is not for funfair. It is not a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
However, Father Anthony Akinwale, Vice-Chancellor, Dominican University, Ibadan, lamented the funny mentality of those who confuse terminology with theology.
“Easter, as a term, is not in the Bible. But, we celebrate Easter because it is an event and a mystery recorded in scripture.
“Same with Christmas. It is not the term or calendar date we celebrate, but the event and mystery. One day now someone will wake up tipsy on ‘anointing’ and tell me to tell him why I call myself a Catholic since that term doesn’t exist in the Bible.
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“Same folly can be extended to all churches because no church has a name that is used as a group of church members in the Bible.
“A Pentecostal church that says it doesn’t celebrate Christmas because the term doesn’t exist in the Bible, but calls itself a Pentecostal church is just a comic contradiction. Pentecost means 50th day, it was an agricultural feast that had nothing to do with the Holy Spirit until that particular year that the Holy Spirit fell on the Apostles in Acts 2.
“Even after that, there is no record in scripture that the Holy Spirit fell on other people on Pentecost day. If I wanted to be ‘an anointed idiot’ I would have been going round condemning Christians who identify as Pentecostals, quizzing them to show me where it is in the Bible that a group of believers were referred to as Pentecostals or to prove to me where any group of Christians celebrated Pentecost in the Bible.
“Yet common sense dictates that it is neither terminology nor semantics we identify as Pentecostal, but the reality and mystery of the Holy Spirit.”
