Yes, We Proclaim That Christ Is God

 

IfeanyiChukwu Afuba I December 26, 2024

ANAMBRA, Nigeria – This year will be remembered as a Christmas season trailed by religious provocation. In spite of climate change, the cool, hazy harmattan had set in with robust energy, early December, igniting the smell of Christmas in the air.

With hope, zest and gaiety, Nigerians, or if you will, Christians made preparations for Christmas. No, not even the hardship from Nigeria’s skyrocketing inflation could dampen the morale to celebrate the birth of the Redeemer.

All over the world, the thrill unfolded with music and colour, streets lit up with Christmas trees, buntings and customary red apparel of the festive season. Then, bang! A series of religious controversies erupted.

A banner placed in front of a mosque in Lekki, Lagos yelled that “Jesus is not God.” A sub note below further screamed: “He was a prophet and messenger of God.” What was the outburst all about? No explanation seemed forthcoming. But following public backlash, the initial banner was replaced two days later with a recast of the same message.

The new banner read: “Allah is the Lord of Jesus Christ.” While speculations reigned over the anti Christ sloganeering, the car ramming incident at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany in which fifteen lives were lost, took place.

The German authorities considered the plunge into the festive crowd deliberate. On Monday, December 23, 2024, the news broke of a planned inauguration of a Sharia Court for “Oyo State and environ”.

Expectedly, the announcement triggered vehement voices of opposition in an area believed to have Christian majority population. Just a month ago, Nigeria, a non Islamic and non Arab State participated at the Arab – Islamic summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Shortly before that, Hon Aliyu Misau of the House of Representatives saw nothing wrong in seeking a broader recognition of Sharia law in Nigeria’s Constitution. Mercifully, there were enough members of the House with sense of equity to put down the domination – inspired bill.

However, it’s on the Lekki mosque banner that this discourse focuses. In what seemed an afterthought, authorities of the mosque tried to rationalise the offensive outing.

According to The Guardian of Sunday, December. 22 2024,     the Chief Imam of Lekki Central Mosque in Lagos, Ridwanullah Jamiu said the banner was displayed to educate Muslims.

“It was not placed there just yesterday. It has been there for about two months or thereabout. We are peace loving people, we don’t provoke anyone. We only propagate our name.”

He continued. “If you don’t believe in Jesus, you are not a Muslim. We are Muslims and anything we believe must be in consonant with the Quran and the Quran says Jesus Christ is not God, he’s a messenger of God. We quoted this verse in the banner. Is there anything wrong if we paste what we believe on our territory to educate our congregation? It’s a verse of the Quran. This is freedom of religion, freedom of speech,” he said.

We note imam Ridwanullah Jamiu’s emphasis on freedom of religion and freedom of expression as justification of Islamic denial of Christ’s divinity. It would be interesting to see the conclusion of this logic. What if tomorrow, another religion claims that Muhammad was not a messenger of Allah, but perhaps, only a follower. Would the Lekki imam welcome that as exercise of freedoms of religion and expression?

It does not add up to say that a banner hung outside, by the road, serves the purpose of educating muslims. Is the road plied only by muslims? Were Christians passing by supposed to close their eyes? How were Christians who believe that Christ Is God, expected to receive such public mockery of their faith?

Since the attempted negation of Christ’s divinity is premised on the value of education, let’s take the propagators of this denial on a short trip at some of the defining truths about Christ established on reason, faith, history and science.

Islam started in 610 AD, that is, approximately 600 years after the earthly life of Christ and founding of Christianity. In that span of seven centuries, Christianity experienced phenomenal growth in converts and geographical spread even in the face of fierce persecution.

The embrace of Christianity, under the pain of death, was facilitated by the fervent witness of the early disciples to the salvific mission of Christ; a testament further bolstered by the great works of the Church. It’s important to observe that the reference to Christ as mere messenger does not come to terms with this substantive narrative of His being and work.

In not placing a hand on the distinctive revelation of Christ 600 years earlier, the denial of His Godship is a mere assertion. The claim is no more than a wishing away of experienced reality.

Consistent with God’s systematic ways, Christ’s taking of human flesh was prophesied long before it happened. Isaiah, Hosea, Micah among other old Testament prophets and passages expressed the revelation that God would assume human form to come and lead man back to God.

The climax of this long – standing prophecy was that “a virgin shall conceive a bear a son.” Who else was his coming foretold in such instructive manner? And to be sure, John the Baptist, a public figure in space and time, who had been chosen to prepare the way for Christ’s coming, openly confirmed the Messiah’s identity.

Beyond religion and faith, it’s a fact of history that Jesus Christ was condemned to death under the Roman colonial Governor, Pontius Pilate. The principal charge brought against him was that He claimed to be God.

But Christ did not just say that He and God were one. He demonstrated His divinity by the wisdom and authority of His words; by the revolutionary nature of His teaching; by His miracles and by the power of His Resurrection. Which other “messenger” of God rose from the grave? Christ’s death and resurrection were prophesied and fulfilled, rendering them at once facts of faith and history.

It was on the foundation of His Resurrection that Christianity flourished. Does imam Jamiu need to be reminded that Turkey, India and much of north Africa were once bastions of Christianity? It was the unassailable impact of Christ’s persona that defined civilisation in the time frames of BC and AD.

Even today, in Israel, a Judaism majority country, there are preserved sites of Jesus’ epic passage. Similarly, remarkable features in the life of the early Church that proclaimed the risen Christ are there to behold in Rome, parts of Spain, Greece and Turkey.

Jesus the Lord who has always been continues His everlasting reign. One of the ways to confirm the Godship of Christ is His words that “I will be with you (the Church)till the end of time.” Consider the spectacle of the one Church handed over to Peter enduring till this day. There is no other that has existed from the time of Christ to this date. This unbroken continuity is the first sign of divine presence.

The Eucharistic miracle which takes place everyday at the hands of every validly ordained priest is another proof. Subscribers to the ridiculous notion that Christ is not God are invited to read Joan Cruz’s book, Eucharistic Miracles. They will find in the over 300 page compilation, cases of Eucharistic miracles that satisfied external scientific investigations in validation of transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

They are further requested to see the incorruptible remains of some saints of the Church, including that of Saint – Pope John Paul II, our own contemporary. If they avail themselves even a casual knowledge of the rigorous process of sainthood, it will suffice to appreciate the divine power of the Church of Christ.

Admittedly, the concept of the Trinity may pose some difficulties of understanding and acceptance. But worshipping God is a journey of faith. We can learn some things about God but some mysteries will remain, God being infinite. An individual’s disposition is therefore very important in making a success of the journey.

There have been atheists who made a turnaround and later believed in God. There have been muslims who later converted to Christianity. And some Christians have lost the faith too. Believing is not enough. It has to be followed with continued striving to live out the faith principles. Yet, the truth could be rejected for other reasons. Religious truths are often resisted out of pride, stubbornness and reluctance to accept change.

For Christians with a sound grasp of their faith, nothing has changed. The divinity of Christ is an ever living one; it neither seeks nor needs the acclamation of religions for it’s transcendental power.

Christmas celebrates the mysterious incarnation of Christ, nonetheless an experience overflowing with the love of God for His creature. In that love, Jesus is born to ransome us from captivity of sin and death. Because He is God, He gives us new life, the opportunity of eternal life; Paradise restored. In the right spirit of total submission to Him, the world has every cause to rejoice. Merry Christmas.