By Moses Oludele Idowu
What is being taught on our pulpits? Is it the true and transformative Gospel of Jesus Christ or a variant of that Gospel that is lacking in power and even corruptive in its influence? I fear that we are not hearing the true Gospel frequently on our pulpits.
“This explains why despite the number of churches and religious network we still have a society whose values cannot sustain a modern economy.”
That was Yemi Osinbajo, pastor and politician, professor of Law and former Vice President of Nigeria at a Lecture marking the birthday celebration of Bishop Mike Okonkwo, presiding bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission.
The 30- minute lecture is a powerful presentation on the transformative power of the Gospel in society if properly preached.
Presented to a large and mixed audience from different strata of society including church leaders mostly from different persuasion and traditions including Abel Damina – the man who has publicly denounced and challenged some of the historic doctrines of Christianity and especially of Protestantism – the very strand of the Christian Tradition that Osinbajo used to anchor his lecture.
Speaking on a broad theme “Nigeria of Our Dreams” but with specific emphasis on The Church as a Responsible Pathfinder in Attaining the Nigeria of Our Dreams Osinbajo lit a fuse that will spark several discussions, provoke arguments, trigger conversations and even generate theological debates for sometime to come in churches, homes and even universities and seminaries for many days to come.
Already the internet is agog and Social Media is alive again as the video travels across digital space with several reactions, most of them positive.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a good speaker and a knowledgeable man. He has done an excellent job in his presentation and even in the choice of topic and emphasis. He spoke at length on the Gospel as the power of transformation and also spoke for about 5 minutes on the care of the poor and de- emphasising dishonest wealth and promoting work- based prosperity.
He has chosen as his historical context the 16th &17th century Europe and America and especially the works of the Reformers ( Luther and Calvin) and also one of the offshoots of the Reformation – the Puritans and how these, with the Gospel, transformed Europe and America between 16-18th centuries.
Judging the presentation
Osinbajo is a lawyer and a senior advocate for that matter. He has presented the case and made a sound and powerful delivery the way a lawyer would do before a judge. In the process he has emphasised certain things and made certain claims which are valid but he has also left some things that are equally more valid. But it does not end there, we must now judge what he has presented as the audience. This is where we can do much justice to the work.
However, there are also issues arising from his presentation that needs further clarifications, emendation, illustration and even interrogation for the benefits of the Church at large and the nation as a whole.
Once in a while a man comes up who tells us what we need to hear and it is for this that the Church in Nigeria needs to examine what pastor Osinbajo has spoken, the message first before the messenger.
Christianity as an Instrument of Transformation
The famous writer and Oxford Professor of English Literature, C.S.Lewis made a profound statement when he declared that “Christianity is an education.” And he gave as an illustrative example John Bunyan, a Christian with barely little or no formal education who wrote a masterpiece of literature titled “Pilgrims Progress” that stunned even Cambridge and Oxford scholars of his day. Up to that time it was believed that you must passed through Cambridge or Oxford to accomplish a worthwhile literary undertaking.
That is the transformative power of Christianity, true Christianity.
It is gratifying that Osinbajo dwelt extensively on the historical reality of the process of transformation of Western society through the vehicle of the Christian Gospel and the instrument of Protestant Reformation beginning in the 16th century.
The history of the West admits this and the role of the Bible in shaping their societies. Professor Christopher Hill has written with numerous textual attestations of how the Bible triggered the 17th century revolution in Britain. ( I shall come to this later). Most people today now forget that even the standard movable press was invented because of the Bible and primarily to print the Bible. It is why we call the Bible “the Book of books”- the one that opened the door for of other books.
People also forget that the emphasis against slavery by radical children of Reformation discouraged human trafficking, triggered the Abolition Movement and encouraged the invention of labour- saving devices leading to technological development and ultimately Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
That all these were happening around the same period was no coincidence.
People also forget that great forces that impel Western society toward change and human dignity like the Enlightenment was spearheaded by Christians.
The fathers of the Enlightenment were all Christians like Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Rene Descartes (1596-1650), John Locke (1632-1704) Isaac Newton ( 1642-1727), Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716).
It is a pity that revisionists, scoundrels and turncoats are trying to rewrite the history of the West and even the revolutionary impact of the Bible to serve globalist interest and sinister agenda.
Osinbajo’s lecture has clearly iterated the values and concepts preached by the Reformers and Puritans, their emphasis on hardwork as a basis of wealth, education, high moral value ( stewardship), duty, integrity etc.
One major instrument of transformation of Western society apart from the Gospel and going concurrently with the Gospel was education.
The Reformers emphasised education and made universal education one of their anchor because they realised literacy is essential to read the Bible and even to become useful citizens. Thus mass literacy went hand in hand with Reformation and in consequence laid the foundation for true democracy in the West.
Robert Woodberry in an award – winning paper has written exhaustively and demonstrates both historically and statistically that “Protestants heavily influenced the rise and spread of stable democracy around the world” because they were a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations etc., thereby creating the conditions for stable democracy. [ ” Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy” American Political Science Review , Vol.106, No.2, May 2012]
The Reformers also disdained wealth. They were distrustful of wealth without work or such nonsense as “anointing for wealth, miracle money alert”etc as Osinbajo noted.
Luther in his much regarded Table Talk has this to say about wealth:
“Where great wealth is there are also all manner of sins; for through wealth comes pride, through pride, dissension, through dissension wars, through wars, poverty, through poverty great distress and misery…” (153)
Then he added again to make sure his hearers got the message:
“Wealth is the smallest thing on earth, the least gift that God has bestowed on mankind…Wealth has in it neither material, formal, efficient, nor final cause, nor anything else that is good; therefore our Lord God commonly gives riches to those from whom he withholds spiritual good.” [ Luther, Table Talk , 1952:100,101]
Unfortunately Nigerian prosperity preachers rarely read old -time people like these; they are too busy in race for filthy lucre. It is no surprise that what Osinbajo said at the lecture seems so strange to many Christians and pastors based on responses on social media.
It was these type of preachers Osinbajo was referring when he said:
“Messages on miraculous wealth, messages on miracle money alerts, anointing for wealth, and various versions of the doctrine that donation or sowing seeds will automatically return as wealth. Now these type of messages do not build economies or institutions.”
The second area in which the Reformation revolutionized the West is on the infusion of a new work ethic in the mind of society. The Reformers but especially the Calvinists and later the Puritans saw work as a calling and distinguished between work and labour. It is not Work that was cursed by God but profitless labour. Work is a calling for the divine glory. Spener noted: “labour in a calling is worship to God”. Max Weber also emphasised this importance of the calling in the Puritan worldview:
“For everyone without exception God’s Providence has prepared a calling, which he should profess and in which he should labour. And this calling is not … a fate to which he must submit and which he must make the best of but God’s commandment to the individual to work for the divine glory.” ( The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1958 :160)
Thus work is worship regardless of how demeaning it may be as long as it is legitimate and contribute to the progress of society. The earlier duality separating sacred from secular vocations so notable in Roman Catholicism ( due to influence of neoplatonism) was abolished by the Reformation but most visibly by the Puritans. All vocations are sacred as long as they are offered as worship to God and for the betterment of society.
One other revolutionary impact of the Puritans which Osinbajo failed to mention was in the judicious use of time and taking responsibility for time. They frowned against idleness, sloth and misuse of time. Paul’s admonition that “whoever would not work should not eat” was taken seriously and implemented to the letter.
Richard Baxter a Puritan leader wrote: “Keep up a high esteem of time and be every day more careful that you lose none of your time than you are that you lose none of your gold and silver.” [ Christian Directory p.79] Another leader Matthew Henry adds: “Those that are prodigal of their time despise their own souls.” [ Worth of the Soul, Works of the Puritan Divines, p.315]
With these revolutionary ideas and spiritual concepts the Reformers and later the Puritans would change the society of Europe and America. With these powerful ideas and principles the Puritans would lay the foundation for development in the West making it the destination of choice to mankind.
Even the scoffers who ridicule the Bible and Christianity would struggle to send their children to Europe or America rather than the Middle East or Asia; and the traditionalists who canvass a return to the old gods of Africa and traditional religion would struggle for a visa to the West.
The Puritans precipitated a revolution in Europe first directly in Britain and indirectly through their ideas in America.
How could they achieve these monumental changes within a short time? How could they impart revolution on the social and political spaces and why is the Nigerian Church unable to do same? This is the aspect the lecturer did not emphasise enough.
In the second part of this paper we shall see how and why.
[ To be continued]
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September 13, 2025
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