Sam Eleanya: A rejoinder to Leke Alder’s piece, ‘Can a Christian artiste sing secular songs?’ (Part 1)

by Sam Eleanya

Dear Leke Alder, let me appreciate you for taking out the time to give us your opinion regarding the ongoing debate about the propriety of embracing the re-conceptualization of Christian worship/fellowship sessions so as to accommodate popular hit songs – especially ones with a few mentions of God, like “God Win”.

I was pleasantly surprised that someone like you, very highly regarded in the Nigerian branding and entrepreneurial space – not to forget a good friend of most of the major pragmatic-gospel Christian nonprofits likely to benefit from the proposed recalibration of worship-altar–temple triad – actually thought it worthwhile to pen such a lengthy response (over 3,000 words) to something you eventually dismissed as “a storm in a teacup”

That’s new but a good new. Usually, the standard response from the leadership and partners of the Pentecostal/Charismatic establishment in Nigeria is silence. Or aloofness. Or fire for fire. Either to raging scandal in its power-hubs or even to mere invitation to show good faith or prove itself an accountable complex inviting legitimate scrutiny in line with the place of the Church in this fallen culture. So, I hope you would pardon me if, like you did, I ask a few love-led questions first.

Are you the proverbial big-gun rolled out to contain what you characterized as a concerted but disproportionate backlash to a kite-flying or faux pas committed by an upscale pragmatic gospel organisation – which is yet to offer an explanation or apology? Or, is your response a strategic offense– hit while the fire is hot – to push through a more comprehensive make-over of whatever remains of traditional concepts of Christian worship/fellowship in Nigeria? Or, are you an independent crusader riding to enforce the reversal of the seeming abdication of Nigerian Church from its throne of ‘influence’ over the ‘culturo-media space’ and its slip – God forbid – into ‘irrelevance and generational obsolence’?

You see, those questions matter – especially because I do agree with you that it would really be nice to see a Church in Nigeria, obedient to its Lord, influencing the Nigerian cultural space. (Isn’t that why we recently voted out the corrupt effigy of ‘Christian’ presidency in Nigeria?) But that, I need you to note, is not all I want: I also would love NOT to be told by the lover and Lord of the Church when it matters for all eternity: “I do not know you: you worker of Iniquity”.

Leke Alder, I do not want to enforce the throne of the Church in the cultural space of Nigeria through means that usurp the throne of the jealous Lord of that Church, the integrity of His Word and the safety of His Little Ones. And I really do believe you want the same thing too – if you are half as smart as you are reputed to be. And that’s the reason why I write to point out certain foundational defects upholding your opinions which had me disconcerted –especially as we do seem to share similar objectives and Lord.

In doing that, I am glad that you have astutely identified and set up an acceptable external objective standard around which your opinions could be examined. You wrote: “When we try to morally sanitise the Word of God, we run into absurdities of reinterpretation. God is the sanctifier. He is Jehovah Mekaddishkem – the God who sanctifies. Who will sanctify the words of the Sanctifier?” I say none: you or me. So, I adopt and say Amen to a learned statement.

First, you started off by asserting that the ‘secular’ artiste – Koreded – who was invited to sing is a Christian – a status which has clear implications going by the clear standards of Scriptures. A status that cannot be asserted lightly since if you are wrong, the blood of that young man would be on your hands as one of those who led him astray. So, that one is easy to resolve. I will, in the spirit of brotherhood take your word that he is –a Christian: that you were not being presumptuous. And I give glory to God.

Your second assertion in the same paragraph, though, you must agree, attracts no similar treatment being that you humbly revealed it was based on assumptions. “One must assume that a song titled “God Win” sang in a church setting seemed most appropriate, but these are curious times,” you wrote.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I believe you can see how totally wrong that sounds. Am sure you know that there is no known standard – artistic, religious, or cultural – impaling a musical artiste to condition the lyrics, scores, performance and supervening atmosphere of his rendition to the literal meaning or even nuances discernible from the title. Tupac Shakur did the song entitled ‘Dear Mama’ – but its lyrics also included –

“I hung around with the Thugs, and even though they sold drugs
They showed a young brother love
I moved out and started really hanging
I needed money of my own so I started slanging
I ain’t guilty cause, even though I sell rocks
It feels good putting money in your mailbox”

The lyrics surely is not the sort of anthem you want the youth to perform on Mother’s Day to appreciate the God-given gift of Dear Mama. Again the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s lyrics –Born this Way – include the direct mention of God.

I’m beautiful in my way

‘Cause God makes no mistakes

No matter gay, straight, or bi, 

Lesbian, transgendered life

I’m on the right track baby

 

It’s possible that someday Lady Gaga would condescend to ‘minister’ at HICC or perhaps a hotter Christian platform – but I hope we both agree that her ‘Born this Way’ is set like a flint against the Christian notion of being ‘Born Again’. Christ’s version seeks to transform her ‘Born This Way’ – and she seeks to deny the redemptive and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Clear as daylight except to apostates.

From there, it is possible to turn that mirror of ‘curiosity’ 360 degrees to focus it on your own observations and exegetics: why should members of the body of Christ not be consternated if funds and facilities legally designated as primarily reserved for the advancement of the cause of the Church of Jesus, become deployed towards the promotion of the Don Jazzy musical dynasty and his latest rave ‘talent’? How can a seemingly ‘very important teaching’ aimed at the reconceptualisation of the over 2000 years old idea of the Christian ‘altar-temple-worship’ be kick-started, not by a well-researched sermon, summit or conference – a solemn assembly! – but by an in-your-face entertainment performance led by a youth who probably needs that ancient idea of the altar-temple-worship for his eternal and temporal health more than all the money, honour and platform he was offered by HICC to lend his name as the naive icon for the disavowal of that trinity? How could you take an emergent question in the Nigerian Christian space and dismiss it as old or recycled simply because Amy Grant had ‘faced’ it in the 1980s in a land far away (the United States) – without providing your readers the needful background as to how well or badly Amy Grant fared spiritually or reputationally in her ‘conquer the world’ forays?

More. How could HICC insensitively ignite a furore and when people respond legitimately, scripturally – like Bereans, seeking to understand or inviting a debate – you charge them with the unfair hint that ‘someone somewhere is instigating topical conundrum in generational cycles” and tar them with the scary brush of moralizing but ignorant hypocrites?” How could you go on the side of the agent provocateurs, not to explain the motives or method behind their seeming madness by bringing light to an otherwise inchoate phenomenon but rather to smother the voices of people asking that the integrity and sanctity of three ancient heritages – not be dismissed, murdered and buried with the crooning of ‘God Win’ as its only dirge? How can you bring and seek to sustain a vile charge against people lawfully responding to protect time-tested normative standards and symbols of the Christian faith? Even a charge deserves some respect for trying to protect a one-day rag-doll gifted to her from similar treatment – even if it is a defectively harmful one that needs to be urgently replacd. Leke Alder, we are talking about ideas of the temple, altar and worship that are more than 2000 years old – which have been affirmed in writing by long-gone saints in various times – saints with far more reliable testimony and fruitfulness than HICC, you or me. Martin Luther. Charles Spurgeon. R. C. Sproul. John Piper and John Macarthur (sorry, if you didn’t your favourite preachers there).

Is it possible that you or the leadership of HICC was naive enough to think that you could enact the public heist and destruction of the historical idea of the Christian altar-temple-worship and not expect a storm, at least, in the twitter-sphere? Is that how low your estimation of the signification, value, place and symbolic/sentimental attachment of the Christian to the triad is?

Let’s consider your “analytical perusal of the issues” which you believe “shows a confliction in knowledge on many levels”.

First, let’s take your idea of the altar and temple together through the Sanitizer of the Holy God: His Holy Scripture. You disavow the idea that the New Testament “altar” is “sacred” and you believe that those who think otherwise are afflicted by a “mix-up in understanding between the concept of the temple in the New Testament and the concept of the temple in the Old Testament”. Your authority for that is Jesus’ death and the consequential ripping up of the curtains of the Holies of Holy in the Old Testament temple (and I may even add, the subsequent destruction of the Jerusalem temple till date – as prophesied by Jesus). You believe that those events ushered in a new but even more ancient priestly order: the Order of Melchizedek to which Jesus belongs and into which he has initiated members of His Church. You believe that the new testament believer is a priest-king.

I believe those too. The Bible, our peremptory standard for this discourse, is unambiguous about those. And I hope it won’t surprise that the majority of those disagreeing with the HICC-Korede thingy believes that too.

But the Bible does not agree with you that there are full-time and part-time ministers: every Christian is obligated to full-time ministry in his area of calling, in and out of season – in and outside of the ‘temple’. You are on your own on the assertion that there are priests with ‘secular’ callings: Christians cannot serve God and mammon at the same time as the Scriptures commend them to do everything as unto their Lord. The Bible tells us that God gave diverse gifts to different members of His Church so that they can complement and build up each other – and that when one suffers, all suffer. Which enterprise requiring the synergy of different complements of skills contemporaneously or sequentially deployed at all times can thrive optimally on that arrangement? What earthly process strategist can accept to run a venture rescuing men from hell and into heaven on such an arrangement?

Let’s also add that you would be hard pressed to find Biblical support for your designation of ‘Pastoring’ as a special calling – a belief that has given rise to the so-called Pastor-Personality Complex (euphemism for a self-indulgent huckster who enjoy illegitimate and unlawful immunity from scrutiny, accountability-frameworks, rebuke or discipline even when he falls into public scandal or opprobrium). What Scripture did was to spotlight the place of the Pastor for many spiritually functional or utilitarian reasons– the same way the God highlights with a blessing the command to honour one’s parents under the 10 commandments without making it No. 1. According to Hebrews 13:7, Pastors are supposed to be leaders who teach the word of God with integrity while inviting scrutiny into their personal everyday lives as role models of faith that can be imitated. That is emphasized by Acts 20:28 which enjoys ‘Pastors’ toKeep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Of course, there is Hebrews 13: 17 -18 which speaks to members of local assemblies of believers thus: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things”

So, brother Leke Alder, as catchy and probably well-spread as that idea now is, the new testament idea of the ‘Christian’ or the ‘priest’ is not that of an adjective or a modifier or a hyphenated prefix – sort of like a John the Baptist – fore-running the real thing. Indeed, the radical thing about the gospel according to Jesus is this: “If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away: all things have become new”. That is why the classical book, Pilgrims Progress, has a central character called ‘Christian’.

So, Leke Alder. there are no priest-politicians in Christendom. There are Christians serving God in the Church and in the political, policy and administrative leadership of their community – whether elected, appointed or contracted. Christians serving and refusing to take on the illegitimate tags, perks and habits of the corrupt culture – standing on Jesus’ to salt the government on His shoulder according to the measure of grace available to them. There are no priest-lawyers, priest-engineers, priest-fashion designers, priest-models, priest-footballers, priest-computer-gurus, priest-accountants, priest-doctors and certainly, no, no, no: no priest-musicians please. The essence is Christ whose grace makes the Christian – not the ‘work’ of their hands, vocation or profession. Every other thing is a mist which disappears when Christ’s glory is lifted up anywhere: every other thing – vocation or possession – is held lightly, readily sacrificed or delivered to the Lord when he so wills by the true Christian.

There is also a problem with your exegesis that the Old Testament is typified by a God who dwelled or was ‘confined to physical tabernacles’ -specifically in the Holy of Hollies established under the Levitical order and formally inaugurated in the temple built by Solomon. That cannot be true, scripturally. In Genesis, God was introduced and His abode was Heaven from where he paid visits to men – especially his friends like Adam, Abraham, Moses, etc. There was in fact, no mention of a temple in the first world which was destroyed by water.

Indeed history and Bible agree that the idea of the temple did not start with the Levitical Order or the Solomonic temple. Pagan nations had temples aplenty as Joseph in Egypt showcased. Instructively, God only gave just one temple to Israel – in Jerusalem – not to box up His Almightiness and Sovereignty over Heaven and earth but to provide His people a symbol of unity and nationhood centered around their common worship of one God. In fact, that was captured succinctly in the prayer of inauguration that the man who built the most magnificent temple to God ever – Solomon – prayed:

“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.(1 Kings 8: 27 – 29).

Even more interesting is the answer God gave to Solomon concerning that prayer:

“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there...“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ’

Prophet Isaiah affirms the same thing:

“Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1)

Martyr Stephen nailed it into New Testament:

“But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.  However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:  ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet; what kind of house will you build for me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for my repose?’” [Acts 7: 47 – 49]

So, God did not start off on earth dwelling in temple. God did not at any point box himself into a temple. God’s Spirit, glory or presence has always been MANIFESTED WHEREVER AND HOWSOEVER his Sovereignty desires. In a place, altar without temple, temple with altar or in a human body. Indwelling of the saints is not a new testament blessing as the Old Testament is replete with the Spirit of God or ‘God’s glory being ‘upon people’ , ‘coming upon them’, ‘resting on them’, ‘filling them’ up: indwelling them to do what they could not do on their own. Remember Sampson? David. Or the prophets? God indwelling His people was not a New Testament phenomenon. The New Testament was only different as to its dimension in answer to the prayer of that holy prophet, Moses.

“But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? [Joshua] I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”.

A prayer that was fulfilled at the inauguration of the New testament with Peter affirming the event by quoting old testament prophet Joel: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (Joel 2: 28).

Flowing directly from that is your idea of the ‘altar’ in the old testament as it seems radically different from the ones in Scripture. An altar is not tied to a temple and so could not only be described within the milieu of defunct Solomonic temple at Jerusalem. Cain and Abel were introduced to us around the altar – with no temple. We saw Noah at the altar – and no temple. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were serial altar builders – who built no single temple. Most importantly, God gave the Israelites a very clear but relevant view of the altar under the defunct levitical order.

“Build for me an altar made of earth, and offer your sacrifices to me – your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle. Build my altar wherever I cause my name to be remembered, and I will come to you and bless you.” (Exodus 10: 24)

With that goes your sound-bite that the New Testament temple and its altar is not a physical building and that it is only in ‘people’ that God resides. The Church has both spiritual, human and infrastructural elements. The Spirit of Jesus resides in our heart, Yes, but He is also the Lord of His Church. Spiritual and temporal. A community and a movement. Invisible and infrastructural. Man-building and Church-building. Symbols and substance. Scripture says ‘He inhabits the praise of His people’. He is in the midst of two or more of them gathered in His name. He is the essence of the Church completely. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever more. And he meets with them at the altar – anywhere.

Just by following your affirmation that Jesus restored the priestly order according to Melchizedek of Salem speaks volume. Surely, it cannot be up to disputation that the Melchizedek Order had an altar. Even more importantly, the writer of Hebrew gave us a very poignant view of the New Testament Church and it is again far from the low and base picture you tried to paint:

“And so a church can meet in a nightclub, museum, hotel, civic center, tent, private residence, cinema, school, etc. The building is not the holy place, it is the people in who the holy God resides. And so the notion of “altar” being a place a secular musician cannot sing from or “minister” from is fallacious. That view does not align with New Testament realities.”

Sorry Sir, you are wrong. Apostle Paul, that pastor and mentor of Timothy (an ancient Korede in all but the blessing of God-fearing parents and a spiritually accountable Pastor) disagrees with you as evinced through the pungency of old King James version:

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. [Timothy 3:15 KJV]

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel…Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. [Hebrews 12:22-29 KJV]

As soon as God’s people gathers by necessity in a building signposted as a “nightclub, museum, hotel, civic center, tent, private residence, cinema, or school” and say let us pray – only a carnal man would see that meeting within the substance of the sign-post. Paul would not. I refuse to follow you – if you are not following Paul who followed Christ with integrity.

So, with all the foundations of your assertion as to altar and temple based as it were on faulty, or at least, non-scriptural foundation, your right to “question the prevailing notion of “ministration” “ministers” and “worship” should ordinarily be denied and repudiated for the sake of the Youth of Christ and Korede’s of this world.

But still, if Jesus tarries and I find grace to write again, I hope to respond to the other things you raised and see if I can join my voice in helping this direly buffeted young people navigate a time when even the Shepherds are endangering or eating the sheep – deliberately or unwittingly. So, expect a Part II engaging the other matters you raised. Can a Christian do secular songs? Can secular songs be used to minister to Christians? Does God require songs as worship when his people gather – at the ALTAR? Is there acceptable worship in songs and unacceptable ones? Does the leadership of HICC need to repent and apologize to Korede and to the millions of young persons they have misled overtly and publicly?

I would also try and address other incidental matters you raised. Was Songs of Songs written by a mere man as a mere man with no idea that Leke Alder and the Nigerian Church would read it someday? Is specialized consumer-centric ministration to any start-up professional or life-style segments – musicians, carpenters, doctors, prostitutes, politicians, LGBT, advertisers, teenagers, etc – the best method for today’s church? Did the impressive list of musicians you provided leave the church choir to go and torpedo their destiny and testimony in the world of decadent entertainment simply because their Pastors did not provide enough mentoring support? Is there a better, scripturally supportable answer? Most importantly, was God a failed mentor to Satan, the first musician extraordinaire? And if, somehow, He was, from where did you pluck the nerve to think that you could succeed where He failed? Is this not thinking out of the box taken to a level where it has become a box?

——————

Sam Eleanya, writer, Ethicist, Policy and Justice sector strategist is the Executive Director of Tree & Trees JusticeMedia (publishers of www’lawnigeria.com) and the Standards and Enterprise Development Center, Lagos.

 

Comments (5)

  1. Wow!
    It is good to know that we still have people who can and will stand for the truth any day anytime.
    Sam Eleanya, God bless you sir!

  2. Dear Sam , I have read your treatise , a response to Lekes positions, however I find some submissions you have made out of place based on a flawed knowledge of scripture, and not really understanding the plight of HICC as a ministry.

    Let me say here that God does not dwell in hand built temples anymore, but His prescence dwells in His people , ” your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

    If you understand clearly the issue of altars , the place of worship is the heart , not a physical altar, often times we give some much acquiescence to mundane and physical things and live the weightier matters of the kingdom.

    On the day Korede Bello came to HICC 247 souls came to the knowledge of saving grace . Paul wrote ” I have become all things to all men for the sake of the gospel. Reaching a generation through without the box strategies that messes up the colloquial culture of the old church, creating an acceptance for a misunderstood and unloved generation.

    It is funny , though , how so developed we are in our secular status and so bereft of understanding and revelation concerning the end time move of God for this generation.

    If I may ask given the rendition of grammar that has gone forth from Leke and Sam how many souls will you have as witnesses to your life on the planet when you meet your master.

    Umn. If D bang , lady Gaga, and Maheeda come to HICC they will be welcomed , they MAY join the choir, Urshers etc.
    HICC IS AN APOSTOLIC MANDATE TO A GENERATION , LIKE THE USS ENTERPRISE IN STAR TREK, I SEE THE CHURCH TAKING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM WHERE NO OTHER CHURCH DARES TO TREAD.

    WHAT U DO NOT UNDERSTAND U ABUSE, IF IT GETS TO BIG U ASSAULT . TAKE TIME OUT WORSHIP WITH HICC WITHOUT YOUR BIASES, MAYBE THEN U WILL SEE THING DIFFERENTLY.

    LETS KEEP PREACHING , TEACHING AND HOLDING FORTH

    MARANATHA.

    1. Hello Johnnie Agbaje. did you read the ‘treatise’? Because if you did, you will have found out that the idea that God ever dwelt in temples made by hand and was then ‘rescued’ when Jesus died is erroneous. He never dwelt there. So, He was not rescued. As to HICC having whatever you call an ‘apostolic mandate’, you will need to break that down – because HICC cannot give itself a task not given by the Lord of the Church. If it does that, it will be living in disobedience and apostasy. Hope you know that the first act of worship is obedience? Obedience to the Word of God as contained in Scriptures – not what HICC claims God is saying now?

    2. But, you didn’t have to shout.

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