Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement we’ve been receiving. God will bless you too. The last edition carried my article “Great Kwararafa Kingdom in the new Age” in which the editor-in-chief wrote “a contributor believes the kwararafa of the new age should bear semblance of a unified godly concept and identity. Can it be?”
This question will be answered in this issue. I will use my late grand father’s history to treat a paradigm shift. Thomas S. Kuhn (a philosopher of science in analyzing the process of scientific revolutions has put up the theory that when new facts and situations emerge within a particular area of science which can no longer be accommodated or explained by the reigning paradigm, its proponents begin to lose confidence in the paradigm and a new paradigm is called for. A paradigm shift thus takes place when a new paradigm replaces an older one and this means a scientific revolution.
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 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 of theology. David J. Bosch has also applied it to analysing mission and missionary thinking. Rev. Fr. John Sigo has applied it in analysing Christian involvement in politics. While I am analysing it in discussing a paradigm shift from democracy to theocracy, a change in tradition for relevance.
There is an organization in U.S.A that have a new paradigm of a unified godly community which they hope will “bench ” democracy.
The following is the new paradigm shift that will bids farewell to democracy communism or any other human government devoid of a godly order.
CRCN:
The Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria (CRCN) was conceived out of the S.U.M (Sudan United Mission’s) project. What I’m more concerned with are the articles of the Reformed faith. Four of them are very important to our discussion on the paradigm shift. CRCN’s paradigm seems to be a paradigm shift of the kwararafa kingdom’s paradigm. But I hope the CRCN paradigm will shift further for relevance.
Article 5: one kingdom and Lord. In distinction from some other Christian traditions, the CRCN testifies that there is only one kingdom of God that includes all of the creation, the physical and the spiritual, heaven and earth. The church plays a central part in that kingdom, but it is not the whole. This kingdom is created and preserved mainly by God the Father, but at this stage of history, Jesus Christ the son, has been appointed Lord over this entire kingdom. Thus His Lordship covers all life, including politics and business. The Holy Spirit gives us power to obey him in all 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 God’s deputy governors. Thus Christians must participate in all areas of life in the name of God. That is our basic religious duty. Because unbelievers cannot properly carry out this task, we also have the great commission of Mathew 28, which sends us into the world to preach the gospel and to teach our neighbours all that we are taught in God’s word. Thus these, two commandments have common aim. Both are to be carried out in the context of the Great Commandment, which is love for God and neighbour. In our present day, important aspects of this basic include 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 ranks and titles almost army style, the Reformed have rejected this approach. They have seen that in the long run, rank and title have led to abuse of power in the church. Instead of responsibility, lust for privilege took over. Hence there are no different ranks for the pastors. All are equal. And the pastors are under the supervision of the local elders, who are expected to be spirit filled servants of God and his people. In fact, every believer has the spirit of God; the Pastors have no monopoly over His Spirit. Where this does not work, it is usually due to lack of true spirituality that leads to servanthood. Where such problems exist, the solution does not first of all lie in re-organsiation but in spiritual revival.
Article 6; God reveals himself in three major 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 properly has been undermined by sin, we need the Bible to understand nature. The Bible explains to us the meaning of creation and the entire scheme of salvation, including the role of Jesus Christ. It is trustworthy, reliable and dependable in what it tells us of God and His world. We listen not only the Bible but also to nature, which includes human history and experience.
ARTICLE 5: The paradigm shift in article is seen in Daniel 2:44 about a kingdom that will break in pieces 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 reveals himself either as a theophany oR christophany. Theophany means God who is 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 major christophany is Christ using his church on earth to reveal Himself through the Five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and pastors.
Paradigm shift is that of theocracy that is, God governing the world through his kingdom on earth.
History shows that the Christian have been loving and caring when the newly born faith of Islam was under intense persecution the faithfuls fled to Abyssinia present day Ethiopia and the Christian ruler there showed them kindness by letting them live in his territory unscathed.
Articled 9 confirm the paradigm shift of running a household 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 threatening the home front. Where there are no God-fearing homes there is no God-fearing community.
History recorded that the Roman Catholic Church came into magnificent prominence of power and dignity when the seat of the Great Roman Empire became vacant. According to A.C Flick’s the rise of the medieval church, P. 168. The removal of the capital of the empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 left the western church, practically 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 the political as well as the 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. Whatever Roman elements the barbarians and Aryans left under the protection of the Bishop of Rome, who was the chief person there after the emperors disappearance. The Roman church in this way privily pushed itself into the place of the Roman world empire, of which it is the actual continuation, the empire has not perished, but has only undergone a transformation. The [Catholic Church] is a political creation and is imposing as a world empire because it is a continuation of the Roman. The pope, who calls himself king and Pontifex Maximus, is Caesar’s successor.”
According to Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi, former CAN state chairman “God has moved the headquarters of missionary activities from the UK and USA to Jos, Nigeria, the new Jerusalem.” So our new paradigm is the new or reformed Kwararafa kingdom. And it could be possible that what happened in Rome in the past millennium can happen in the new millennium but the question we should be asking ourselves now is that, who is qualified, capable and daring-enough to make it be? What is he/she made of, where is such a person? Where can we find that man that has both the capacity to rule spiritually and politically? Your guess is as good as mine, let’s start or keep searching.
Former president John f. Kennedy once observed, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ consists of two characters. One meaning danger, the other meaning opportunity. Our 21st century presents a never before seen crisis, to not only the world but also Christendom as a whole. We are seeing a dramatic increase in civil war, violent insurrections, terrorism, natural disasters, virulent diseases and outbreaks and many other problems. Yet despite these dangers, there are also many opportunities before us. Perhaps the greatest opportunity of this new millennium is our accessibility to information. Never before has information been so accessible to all parts of the world as it is today. National borders are meaningless and government regulations can scarcely stop individuals from accessing information anywhere on the internet. We have an opportunity to do good even in these days of maximum evil. For more please visit http://www.drgenesis.com
