By Abdu Rafiu
For some years, concern has been expressed in many countries over sermons either in churches or on crusade grounds. It is believed that many clergy men exploit human weaknesses and sometimes desperation for material well-being to neglect the all-important talk and guidance about inner development, better referred to as spiritual development, which is the development of the inner being. The gaze of congregants is not turned upwards, to what is high and noble. By so doing, the multitude are led away from the proverbial narrow road onto the broad road.
I do not wish to get involved in firing criticisms or get judgmental. We are firmly admonished: “Judge not so that thou may not be judged.” It should also be recognised that each person will act within his limitations and light. What strikes me is the story of a renowned preacher, Benny Hinn, that I read in the social media. Pastor Hinn is an Israeli Televangelist. In the report captioned ‘Prosperity, sowing of seed and monetization of Gospel’, Pastor Hinn said he would like to apologise to his members over his ‘false teachings on prosperity, sowing of seed and monetizing the gospel.’
Here is an excerpt of the report on his address to his audience who are also shown in a video: “Pastor Hinn pleads with the entire Christian body to forgive him, saying he does not want to be rejected in heaven on the last day. He also went further to say that he had wanted to say this a long time ago but couldn’t.
“Pastor Benny Hinn says he’s truly sorry for all these years of false teachings.” In his words: “Please, forgive me and do away with my messages on prosperity and sowing of seed.”
It takes a great and humble heart to recognise one’s errors and own up publicly. It takes courage and strength of character to say to the world that he had misled his hearers and they should discard all his teachings because they are false, and forgive him; he was sorry. Mr. Hinn has taken a giant step indeed in recognizing that he had led his audience into the wilderness. The second step is to lead them out of the jungle. This is possible only if he is well equipped, and he has all the strength and all it takes to embark on the task. Those misled too have responsibility for themselves to find their way out of the dungeon which they allowed themselves to get into. They chose freely to follow their supposed guide into the wilderness. The equipment with which the pastor is to fortify himself is true knowledge. His recognition is coming at a time the unique and higher knowledge, which answers all questions of life and existence, is spreading on the face of the earth, wholly bathed In the Light of Truth. There are two possibilities. The misled audience does not necessarily have to wait for Mr. Hinn to lead them out. They individually bear personal responsibility for their lives. Mr. Hinn, however, must consciously and with the zealousness of his soul, lead everyone out of the wilderness and to the right road into which he has plunged them. We learn from the higher knowledge that there is no ascent for anyone until the person he has misled receives new enlightenment and he drops the errors. Those misled also spread the errors, sometimes with troubling vehemence. The errors and consequences are compounded. It is one thing to bring the new light to one who may have been misled; it is another to accept it. Thus the connecting thread remains taut and as inhibitive as ever—as it was before the new enlightenment.
Creation is governed by adamantine Laws of Nature. They bear the Will of the Almighty Creator. It is His Power that unceasingly activates the Laws. They are the automatic and self-enforcing mechanisms with which He governs the whole of Creation. Such is it, we are told, that the Almighty Creator does not at all directly intervene in all small and great cares of men whether it is wars, misery and other earthly matters. This is because His Perfect Laws have been woven into Creation from the very beginning ensuring that they automatically carry out their incorruptible work. In the outworking of the Laws, they permit of no preference, injustice nor prejudice. All is accurately fulfilled, forever taking effect uniformly.
Words form speeches and make the contents of writings. The words are precipitations from the sacred Word of the Most High. When we use words, we are drawing from His Power from which stream these precipitations, and we are accountable for the use to which we have put what we drew. This should suggest to us that we cannot afford to misuse words. We must know fear that we have misapplied the grace. Yet we do so unceasingly such that we speak boastfully that the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit or even more commonly the Almighty Father Himself has spoken to us, mistaking helpers or guides as the case may be for the Light Beings. Knowledge of the structure of Creation will prove to us how impossible this is and how sacrilegious any such pronouncement is. No one can bear Their mere approach. The person can be burnt no matter how faintly we may consider the approach to be. The words we speak have consequences shaping destinies on earth and at the same time, they are anchored in another sphere of the World of Matter in the Beyond, called Medium Gross Matter, awaiting the author’s arrival.
Pastor Hinn can see how much he has to gain retracing his steps and apologizing to his audience. He said in the video to show that the spirit of atonement has set in: “Giving makes me sick. Do not give anymore.” The next step would be to genuinely and prayerfully seek the Word of Truth; it is a promise fulfilled in the Law that he who seeks finds! It is the only help he can give to himself!
Where lies hope for peace?
The fatality figure in the Ukraine-Russian war is uncertain. The United Nations Human Rights Office says in the first month of the unwarranted hostilities that 1,035 civilians from Ukrainian side alone were killed and 1, 650 injured. In war, apparently so that the spirit of the fighting forces is not dampened, casualty figures are played down. The UN figure is thought to be inaccurate. It is argued, for example, that at a mayor’s office where Russia bombed a maternity hospital on 09 March, nearly 5,000 were reportedly killed in that place alone. US Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, says that the war has cost Russia the lives of 15, 000 of its troops.
Russia is the aggressor, and it does not take much to see that Ukraine is the party that is at the receiving end. And what about mindless and terrifying destruction of properties Moscow has inflicted on Ukraine!
I have brought this up to remind us of the devastation that war brings on nations and peoples. The aggressor moves in triumphal swagger, and with glee. Because of the ignorance into which mankind has been trapped despite the sacrifices and exertions of the Teachers of Mankind, and the Prophets sent by the Creator to bring enlightenment, it is little realised that every soul that is killed or wounded, however inconsequential we may think he was, will have to be accounted for from the outworking of the Laws. It is the same Laws Which are in operation also in Nigeria and the whole wide world, watching and weaving to the minutest details the activities of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, their ilk, and their backers, no matter where they may be. They are all linked. Ignorance does not protect from the consequences of the outworking of the Laws.
The horrors the perpetrators will find themselves confronted with what will make them want to run back to the earth. Alas it will be found to be too late. Through the Law of Spiritual Gravitation, they sink to the region of torment. And should any of them find their way back to the face of the earth, the burden of vicissitudes of life would make death a preferred option, again compounding matters. A majority of mankind believe that what it entails to saunter into a community of peace in the Beyond is some prayers uttered by priests. The Lord cannot be mocked. We are now in the period of Light Pressure bringing acceleration and intensification, closing cycles for all human beings. In effect, no human being has any hiding place any more.
Mr. Putin is reported to have publicly dismissed Ukraine’s right to function as a sovereign nation, separate from Russia. He has cut gas to Poland and Bulgaria, describing them as unfriendly buyers, who are not paying for the product in Russian roubles. The crux of the matter is his stubborn resolve to bring Ukraine under the suzerainty of Moscow, again demonstrating how limited we human beings could be in the arrangement and organization of nation-states. The immutable principle is that a union can endure only if it gives joy and fulfillment to the parties in it. As it is in friendship, clubs, associations, companies and marriages, so is it with nations.
As I once pointed out, all blunders and the resultant atrocities have arisen because a majority of human beings see themselves as being in the centre of life, all knowing and subject only to their own will. There is hardly any introspection, hardly any private questioning in closets, on what this life is all about after all except in moments of crushing travail, harrowing experiences. Yet until we ask questions, arising from personal reservations about life, there can be no progress, nor national harmony. The neglect of the principles, that is the Laws, has led to needless wars and bloodshed as we are witnessing in Ukraine currently. Limited knowledge is being used to govern our world. We are in the midst of pitch darkness but as it is given to us to know today from enlightenment of these times, a majority of us do not give a damn as to how our world is to be run. What must govern our relationship with our fellow men? What must govern relationship among nations?
The principles cannot be from our will, nor as we prefer them to be, but according to the Will of the Creator.
Mr. Joe Biden has just nominated an envoy to Ukraine, Ambassador Bridget Brink, who is reputed to have an extensive experience and knowledge of the East European politics, having served as ambassador to Slovakia. She is described as versatile and accomplished. So much hope is pinned on her to bridge gaps, reconcile nations and engender peace in the much troubled region. She can achieve this if she buries herself in introspection and seek guidelines of Nature to open her up and through giving recourse to her intuition, enrich her overall knowledge.
The Guardian
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