God’s Laws in Modern Times

GOD’S LAWS IN MODERN TIMES

By: Deji Yesufu

I have been watching Big Brother Nigeria (BBN). In the past few days I have been staying at a house where the people love to watch the show, so I get to see a few of the things that go on in the Big Brother house. It is true that many of the things that go on in the house offend the senses of a religious persons like me but I think there are greater problems with the show. This is what I think: all the women in that house will make for good girlfriends but none of them can be worthy wives for any man. The same goes for the men; although there are exceptions. I was particularly impressed by the gentleman called “Whitemoney”. He appears to have etched a nitch for himself in the house. He loves to cook and has great interpersonal relations with many of the housemates. My folks where I stay tell me he has not had a spat with any of his colleaques in the house and has never been nominated for eviction.

While our ladies frown at cooking and home-making, it is men like Whitemoney that are winning the hearts of their mates and fans by cooking. I think you can understand what I mean when I say the ladies at the BBN will make for good girlfriends and not wives.

I have long argued that modern societies should remain secular. I make this argument because I think that one religion should not be made to dominate other religions. So society should not be led by one religious persuasion – even if this religion is Christianity. I want to state unequivocally that this thesis of mine is wrong and I have now renounced it. I now hold the position that the Christian religion and the laws of God that are enunciated in it, should govern the society that we live in. I want to use the rest of this article to explain how I reached this position and then I will tie it all up with BBN and this matter of finding a wife for a good home.

In my free hours I spend time to watch Dr. James White on the DIviding Line broadcast on Youtube. Dr. White is arguably the smartest evangelical alive today. He is known for his debates with numerous religious groups, ranging from Roman Catholics, Mormons and Muslims. In recent times Dr. White has been harping on the dangers of imposing a mask mandate on all the world in the guise of fighting the Coronavirus pandemic. Dr. White argues that it is all a Leftist angenda to impose a liberal and Marxist agenda on the nations. James White sees this as the coming of a new world order. A careful replacing of the Christian worldview, that gave us the progressive society we have today, with an Antichrist, Leftist and Marxist worldview. I have listened to White’s argument long enough to agree with him and it is one of the things that has helped me to realize that an ideology must govern the world – there is no soceity that is truly secular. Every society will either be governed by God and his laws, or by the devil and his demons.

As I listened to White, Afghanistan happened. It is important that we understand that the fall of the Afghan government to Taliban forces, following the twenty year rule of the United States of that country, is a turning point in the history of the world – just as 9/11 has been. Understand that the Talibans seeks to govern Afghanistan by Islamic laws. It is interesting to note that even the Taliban and their fellow Muslim ISIS are not agreed on the theological framework that should govern a country. So while the Talibans have the US as an enemy, the ISIS fighters are even more of a threat to their government than the Americans. But that is a digression. My point in this essay is to show that the conflict in Afghanistan is a conflict over the reign of an ideology. The Americans had sought to impose a democratic system of government on Afghanistan. In the process of doing so, a liberal government took over power in America and allowed the Talibans to come to power. The Talibans will now rule Afghanistan by Islamic laws.

Christianity has a long history of its romance with secular governments – this is called sacralism. One other reason why I have always sought to oppose a Christian government is because the history of “Christian nations” are not a very palatable history – sacraslism has not always worked. They are the ones that gave us the Crusades and the inquisitions. In the name of defending Christ, the state has done more harm to the name and cause of our Lord throughout history. How then do we see God’s laws govern a society without degenerating to the pit holes of sacralism? I will conclude this essay with an answer.

The state is to be governed by politicians and not by the Church. A society should however have a functional government that has three independent working arms. These are the judiciary, legislators and the executive arms. The legislators make the laws; the judiciary enforce the laws; and the executive arm of government ensure peaceful running of society. It is in the exercise of the freedom of the various arms of government that the Christian Church comes into play. While the Church must not be an arm of government, the Christian Church must be given the freedom to speak to every arm of government – the Church should influence government positively. The Church must remind government of the laws of God and help the people in the legislative arms of government to remember that the laws that they make must be in tandem with the laws of God in the Bible. The same goes for the judiciary and the people in the executive arms of government. The Church does this by bringing the word of God to society through the faithful preaching of scriptures every Sunday to God’s people. In the process the people develop a conscience that bows to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and they go about their daily duties in the fear of God. The Christian Church leads society indirectly and never directly.

So as I watched BBNaija, I realize that the show is simply a depiction of the depravity in our society. What those young ladies wear in the house is what our young girls wear on our campuses. The same way the house is depending on a man to cook for them and make their home for them, is the same way many women are abandoning the making of the home for the man – all the name of being a career woman. The casual sex scenarios depicted in the house is at the root of the sexual revolution in our society today and the bludgeoning of abortion clinics because casual sex lead ultimately to unwanted pregnancies.

The solution to all these is bringing society to realize that it must be governed by God’s laws. Our society must be governed by the laws of God as stated in the Bible: “thou shall not kill”; “thou shall commit adultery”; “thou shall not covet”; and so on. Nothing else will fix a society. Unlike in the days gone by, the Christian Church should not rule over a society but rather influence society by the preached word and by the upright living of Christians within her. There is no secular society in any world today. Every society is ruled by an ideology. The dominating ideology in the West today is an Antichrist and Leftist worldview. Afghanistan and other nations like her have fallen to the direct rule of Islam. My argument is that a society that will know God’s blessing and thrive in our day must be ruled indirectly by a Christian ideology through the faithful preaching of God’s word in the Church today.