Turkey
IS NIGERIA GOING THE WAY OF TURKEY?
•Turkey is in the present day Europe and partly in Asia minor.
•Apostle Paul was a citizen of Turkey because Tarsus exists in Turkey.
•Christianity existed in Turkey for about 1,023 years while Christianity has only existed in Nigeria for 172yrs starting from when Rev. Birch Freeman came to Badagry in 1842.
•The seven churches Jesus spoke to in Revelations 2 & 3 (Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea, Philadelphia, etc) existed in the old Turkey.
•The disciples were first called Christians in Turkey (Antioch)
•Turkey once had the largest Christian auditorium in Europe called Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
•Mary the mother of Jesus was taken to Turkey by Apostle John and till date, her room has become a tourist centre.
TURKEY TODAY
•Present day Turkey now has 96%
muslims & 0.02% Christians (less than 130,000).
•The Hagia Sophia (once largest church in Europe) was taken over by muslims and converted to a mosque for over 400yrs and later used as an Islamic Museum.
WHY CHRISTIANITY COLLAPSED IN TURKEY!
•Emphasis on doctrinal differences
weakened the Turkish church.
•Rivalries amongst denominations
•Petty politics in church coupled with ethnic bias.
•The Turks were building big cathedrals instead of building men.
HOW IT HAPPENED!
•Osman Ghazi discovered the disunity amongst Christians and used it to fight a Jihad that led to a mass genocide of the Armenians, the Hellen and Turks of that day. Infact, the weapon of war used was designed by a Turkish Christian.
•Many Christian women converted to Islam to save their lives and some were raped.
•Osman Ghazi started the Ottoman empire which gave muslims political post and made it a religion of the state.
IS NIGERIA HEADING THE WAY OF TURKEY?
•Virtually all the mistakes the church in Turkey made, the Nigerian church has made it.
•We are building Cathedrals at the
expense of discipling men.
•Disunity amongst churches
•Ethnicity in the church
•Denominational rivalry, etc.
•Sharp division along doctrinal lines
MORE FACTS
•The spiritual foundation of Turkey is stronger than that of Nigeria and
Christianity existed for over 1000yrs in Turkey unlike ours which is just 172yrs but Islam Radicalism uprooted it. If it can happen in Turkey, it can also
happen IF we are not careful.
•The menace of Boko Haram has
destroyed a lot of churches in the north and it may take another 200yrs to evangelise Borno State alone.
•There is a secret agenda to Islamize Nigeria & other African nations as contained in Abuja declaration of 1989.
DON’T SAY IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, IF WE DON’T RIGHT OUR WRONGS AS A CHURCH.
SOLUTIONS!
1. HEART-FELT Intercession and Prayer.
2. Aggressive evangelism – the terrorist reached out to the youths in the norths first and gave them AK-47 and bombs, if we had reached out to them on time, they will be carrying BIBLES today.
3. Mission support:-God is holding the church responsible for Boko Haram, yet we are blaming the government. If we had supported missions and missionaries, we would have those insurgents to Christ long ago.
4. Unity of the church is key in winning this battle.
5. Christian should be actively involve in politics with God’s agenda. The last but not the least christians should be actively involve in politics. Enough of these muslims political office holder with islamic agenda.
ARISE CHURCH & LET US DO THE NEEDFUL! AS 2015 ELECTIONS APPROACH IN NIGERIA, DON’T SELL JESUS LIKE JUDAS WITH YOUR VOTE. ON THE LAST DAY, HE WILL SHOW YOU YOUR RIGHT THUMB AND ASK YOU WHAT YOU DID WITH IT.
Sent in by Dr. Charles Awuzie. Dr. Charles is a Nigerian preacher, blogger and conference speaker based in South Africa. He tweets @pastorcharlesc
SHAME: Thieves in Turkey return stolen goods and apologise to disabled woman
(AFP) – After realising they had burgled a disabled woman in Istanbul, ashamed thieves had a change of heart and returned the stolen goods, local media reported on Thursday.
“We are thieves but we have a conscience. We are really sorry. We didn’t know that you were disabled. Please forgive us,” wrote the anonymous note.
The burglars last month broke into the apartment of Emriye Celebi, a 50-something civil servant residing in the Maltepe district on the Asian side of the city and stole a computer, a camera and a video recorder.
Celebi told Sabah newspaper that she had lost hope of getting her stolen items back after not hearing from the police for a long time but surprisingly found her computer and camera late Sunday on her apartment door.
“They haven’t returned my videotape recorder. I hope they will do so soon,” Celebi said.
AFRICA THISDAY 