“Praise the Lord!”

I could hear my voice echo in the auditorium. For 16 years I had been preaching the same gospel about salvation and life eternal, but it seemed the potency of the message was fading away with my physical strength. It was a Sunday and there were more people at work than in church. Everything had changed. The only thing that remained the same was my message – Salvation.

The same people had been attending Sunday Worship Service for the last 2 years. They were old, faithful and retired. Before this whole Development frenzy, I was one of the promising young pastors. ‘New Life Assembly’ was the talk of the town. I had a gift; a unique understanding of the gospel and a commanding presence. I have always been a great orator, so it was not hard getting people to listen.

To learn more about Development, listen to The Time Tales – Deep Dive here

Today, before taking the pulpit, I fought another battle inside. The same one I constantly fight at night; Is this really the truth? Is this gospel the way? Sophie had given up on me and the church about a year ago. We had argued about the foundation of the church and she simply gave all the logical reasons to believe I was wrong. Was Development a scheme of the Anti-Christ or the Heaven I had preached about for so long? I had preached about a better life as part of God’s plan but here I am, still on earth, and in Nigeria of all places on the face of the earth. Everyone else has moved to a better life. Sophie’s voice kept ringing in my mind. Our last argument left a strong impression. She even asked if I ever considered being on the wrong path.

She used the Bible, an authority I couldn’t challenge, to defend her position. She read from Isaiah Chapter 2 and it described everything Development was to her

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and all nations will stream to it.” 

Isaiah 2:2

To Sophie, Development was the “Mountain of the Lord” and the church there was the “temple of the God of Jacob”. The same passage spoke about an end to wars and a call to walk in the light of the Lord.

She showed consistency in her theory by pulling out a New Testament analogy to support her belief. “How are you sure you did not mistakenly read about the rapture and take it literally?” Sophie asked. “Maybe rapture was just a way of describing going to Dev because that place is surely a better world”.

It’s what the bible says in 1 Thessalonians;

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

1 Thessalonians 4:17

What if ‘clouds’ in the passage meant cloud as in digital space; exactly what Dev is? Could it be that rapture had taken place and I was still in ignorance and denial? Before she left she called me modern-day Moses. It wasn’t a reflection of my position as a great prophet or a Freudian slip. It was a biblical pun; I’d see the promised land but won’t get in.

The same bible spoke about renewing our strength. But I could feel my bones creak every time I climbed the pulpit stairs. On the other hand, there was no sickness, no disease, no ageing and no death on Dev. It could just be heaven! 

I had drifted into these thoughts while the church waited for me to say a word. People were getting worried. I tried to smile at the crowd, but tears were welling up in my eyes. I had carried this burden for way too long and I had to say something. 

The empty seat on the stage reminded me of Sophie. She had led the women’s ministry, which had become such a strong force before she left. They were the ones who started the church orphanage, the prison mission group and the swift relief group. When she left, the groups continued for a while and gradually ground to a halt.

It was all falling apart right in front of me and I had denied it for too long. To my right was the rusty little offering box. I recall we used to have about 15 to 20 boxes every Sunday. Last Sunday, when I called for an offering, everything put together could not even pay for the broken windows or repair the noisy ceiling fan spinning wearily over my head. The rug on the pulpit is worn and torn in several places. I’ve patched it with pieces from underneath the lectern and the back of the stage. The seats are broken and tired from neglect. The gallery is dark and lifeless. Old Jerry has pitched a tent up there and somehow turned it into his home. The old man had remained with me through the years; from new convert to usher and now full-time security. He was more of a handyman because he handled everything from carpentry to electrical work and cleaning.

There used to be a choir department and instruments, but I’ve sold them off to assist the church orphanage. Recently I even had to hand the kids over to the Right Place Initiative because I can no longer feed them. I’ve shut down my real estate business, as all the clients have moved to Dev. After years of preaching against Dev, one-world government and the coming of the Anti-Christ in the form of Tariku Negasi, I guess it’s time to quit. 

As I looked down at the bible, I felt the tears roll down uncontrollably.

“I can’t do this anymore”.

I looked at the men and women who had trusted me with direction for their lives. I could see the confusion in their eyes as disbelief from some of them. These people had held on to every word I had said, staking their lives on it and following me with the blind trust of a child. How was I going to tell them that I wasn’t sure I had led them right all these years? I mustered the courage and swallowed the lump in my throat. I raised my head and forced the words out of my parching dry mouth.

“I don’t know if I have misled all of you and I can’t deny that things look really bad now. I don’t know what I’ve done with my life and made you do with yours. I don’t know if I actually heard from God. I mean, would He sit and watch the world move on while we become obsolete and so irrelevant that we can’t speak to the people he wants us to convert? Instead of winning souls, we are losing ourselves. Today is Sunday and we have only about 20 people here. We used to be over seven thousand spread across three services.

I can’t do this again. I’ve lost everything and maybe it’s time to open my eyes to what is happening. I’m sure you have all heard and seen the growing Dev Church and how they are impacting lives and worshipping all day. When they started, I called them religious charlatans. Now they are the church. What are we doing down here? What have we become? Maybe we are religious dinosaurs and our time is up.

I don’t know what it is, but I’m done trying.”

I wasn’t ready for the questions so immediately I finished, I picked up my glasses and walked away, leaving the message outline and Bible on the pulpit.

“Church is over!” as I bowed my head and walked away from the pulpit.

Read ‘The World As We Know It‘ to follow the evolution of the world into the future.