By Abdu Rafiu
It is evident that this year’s Christmas Festival will go down as about the most sombre in the last 50 years that I have consciously experienced the wonderful Yuletide Season. It is a season of great expectations, of light and purified air. It is a period you feel so light, swept off your feet you want to fly. What is driving you is inexplicable. You just want to catch the next available flight to the moon and fetch it. What with Christmas carols rending the air! At every corner you turned it was Noel, Christ the King is born. Step forward, Kingsway Stores, Marina for the prize; step forward Kingsway Stores, Dugbe, Ibadan. Stand up and be counted, UTC; Ditto Chellarams! It is a season of love and kind words of care, a time of backslapping. The simple shepherds in the field put mankind in everlasting mood of a glorious expectation. It is written:
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” (Luke 2: 8-15 –Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible).
The joy of something spectacular brings an awakening and the resultant singing, dancing and rejoicing, for all of the more than 2,000 years after the departure of the Saviour from this earth. On the Holy Night of the birth, the waves swept through the entire universe, with Heavenly hosts bowing in worshipful adoration of the New Born King, Christ the Lord. There was jubilation in the spheres. Today, the unique glitters of Christmas trees and light decorations aided by modern-day technology adorning the streets, high rise buildings, public and private and the accompanying fun have dwindled. Where one finds a few, they strike one as no more than a parody and they do not grip the soul. The first sign that our world is in trouble is the wearing of face-masks. Get to anywhere on earth, everyone is in masks—the mighty and the lowly. Sometimes the man behind the mask is hardly recognisable. Mr. COVID-19 has defied appeasement; it has disarmed mankind by silencing the arsenals of the powerful and proverbially invincible nations. Presidents Trump of US, and Macron of France, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and Trudeau of Canada have all tested positive. US records 3,700 deaths daily from coronavirus affliction, up from 3,656. Altogether the pandemic has claimed 370, 501 lives in the US since its emergence. Nigeria has recorded 80, 922 cases with 1, 236 deaths. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was fined $3,500 for posing for a selfie on a beach near his home in the town of Cachagua. The country has recorded 581, 115 infections and 16, 051 deaths, according to online reports. Here is enemy No.1 you need a powerful microscope to behold. Scientists have stretched themselves to their wits’ end; they are yet to agree on the most efficacious strategy to do battle with Mr. COVID-19. Mankind has been humbled. This is the atmosphere in which Christmas is being marked this year in all Christendom and in all lands.
According to higher knowledge spreading on earth today, at the time of the herald of the Birth of the Lord Christ, the shepherds were made temporarily clairvoyant and clairaudient to behold the Omnipotence of God made manifest on earth. The bandage was removed from their spiritual eyes so they could bear witness to the greatness of the happening and spread it. At the time there was jubilation in all spheres of Creation. Today, it is sorrow over what our earth has become.
The purpose of Christ coming was to bring back mankind from out of our wandering in the wilderness in which we had nestled, on the roads leading to perdition, and point the way to our salvation. He said to mankind: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” From the highest Height he could survey the entire universe which had darkened from the wrong living and wrong beliefs of mankind. At the behest of His Father, out of Love and the Truth and Life that He was and still is, the Lord Christ had to come to show the way to Paradise and everlasting life. He taught men how to think, speak and how to act so we do not entangle ourselves any more in sins and wrong doing. Since sins do not exist in Paradise, it is imperative that whoever longs to get there should learn to avoid them. And no one can speak any more authoritatively about it than a Part of the Almighty Creator Himself Who is Truth and Life, Part meaning Son in spiritual language. In other words the Lord Christ brought enlightenment from out of the Truth that He is an embodiment of on how we are to live as well as on the mechanisms that govern life and living.
To the chagrin of the world, His pronouncements were deep and comprehensive, new and all embracing. So disarming were His Teachings that His listeners asked, though scornfully: “Is not this the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Jones, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” The political and priestly establishment finding the Teachings irksome and in their wanting to prove they knew better, began to instigate hate against the Lord instead of opening themselves to His Divine Wisdom. They paved the dreadful path of suffering for the Him until it ended at Golgotha. They set traps for Him and invoked ridiculous articles of their laws to get rid of Him physically. Consider Article 6 which Caiaphas, the High Priest blasphemously read out for the Great Sanhedrin to invoke in order to convict the Lord Jesus: “The Great Sanhedrin in the Temple of Jerusalem dispenses justice in the full authority of God. God Himself respects these judicial decisions.”
Article 52 reads: “A pseudo-prophet is a renegade preacher who seeks by means of visions, illusions, false oracles, magic, exorcism, hallucinations or genuine miracles to seduce Israel to apostasy.”
Article 55: “A pseudo-prophet must be judged by the Great Sanhedrin, and be executed in Jerusalem.”
Article 76 goes on to say: “The President of the Great Sanhedrin has the right in exceptional cases to pass over any obstructive regulations in order to put a swift and radical end to apostasy. Such an action is called Horaath Schaah, an action according to the need of the moment.”
Article 82 reads: “Even the execution of an innocent person can serve in the maintenance of law and order, and the salvation of God’s people.” And Christ Jesus was crucified!!
There is a groundswell of unease in the world over in the present time. There is coronavirus; there is unmistakable climate change giving us in the southern part, for example, unusual rain in December which is accompanied by lightning and thunder to indicate its storming nature. Such was an erstwhile feature of March and September resulting from the clash of atmospheric currents of the tropical and the temperate regions. There are mindless killings in Nigeria. There is kidnapping and there is banditry. Most countries have entered the second phase of the coronavirus, said to be more vicious. There is also a new variant that is even worse in its ruthlessness.
That there are renewed restrictions on economic and religious activities even during Christmas as a result of coronavirus pandemic is proof that the way mankind has carried on has been wrong, even in the act of worship. It is thus increasingly getting clearer that as time goes on, man will find himself being compelled to re-examine already accepted concepts and practices. None will stay any longer that is at variance with the demands of the higher Order, the Will of the Creator Who has woven His Laws into Creation. It is these Laws Christ came to enlighten human beings about. Every activity of man is a seed, be that activity in form of speech, thought or deed. These are what shape the world and determine the condition in which it will be at any given time. Every thought takes on form from its inherent energy, tended and woven in inconceivable devotion and accuracy, and minutely by beings, the executive servants of the Almighty Creator. The thought that has taken on form moves away from its originator. It attracts a similar thought and together forms a homogeneous power centre. The centre gets strengthened with further deposits of similar thoughts.
Coronavirus is a manifestation of the rottenness of the collective thoughts of all mankind. From the rottenness emerges all manner of worms scientists call virus. This can be likened to a typical physical rubbish dump. Rubbish dump produces worms from the decay of deposits. This is saying that wrong activities produce rotten fruits, too, in the end and lofty thoughts upliftment, good health and blessings. At the moment, in the acceleration of these times, fruits arising from concepts, speeches and activities are being driven to ripen faster than was the case before, in consequence of Light governed End-Time which was long prophesied but which is now here. With the increased pressure of the Rays of Power of the Holy Spirit, driving the End-Time, the spirit of man, hitherto asleep, is being awakened. All that is dead is animated and it comes to life to reveal itself. This includes weaknesses, propensities which have been dormant in a person. A man suddenly discovers that he is in fetters. Similarly, strengths are driven to the fore, to be uplifted. Obviously where weaknesses outweigh strengths, the man is bound to be in harrowing tribulations as the Natural Laws seek to ensure equilibrium. He may even have his life shortened. Governments built on such weakness or wrong thinking is bound to collapse. It is important to note that nothing that emanates from a man is lost, however insignificant he may think it to be. In the ripeness of time, as it is said, every fruit returns to its author for harvesting. Since most actions have been wrong, either by governments, nations or individuals, it is to be expected that surprises spring before us every other day.
Welcome, the changing world. It is Christmas mankind cannot spread their wings. It is Christmas mankind cannot unwind. It is one everybody has to cover his face. It is a Christmas with strict restrictions. It is Christmas that invites a deep reflection in the closets. It is a sombre Christmas.
The Guardian
