I wanted to pretend I didn’t read about the G.O. who said ‘Christmas’ is not in the Bible and so shouldn’t be celebrated. It’s the same funny mentality of those who confuse terminology with theology. Easter as a term is not in the Bible but we celebrate Easter because it’s an event and a mystery recorded in scripture. Same with Christmas, it’s not the term or calendar date we celebrate but the event and mystery.
One day now someone will wake up tipsy on ‘anointing’ and tell me to tell him why I call myself a Catholic since that term doesn’t exist in the Bible. Same folly can be extended to all churches because no church has a name that’s used as a group of church members in the Bible.
A Pentecostal church that says it doesn’t celebrate Christmas because the term doesn’t exist in the Bible but calls itself a Pentecostal church is just a comic contradiction. Pentecost means 50th day, it was an agricultural feast that had nothing to do with the Holy Spirit until that particular year that the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles in Acts 2.
Even after that there is no record in scripture that the Holy Spirit fell on other people on Pentecost day. If I wanted to be ‘an anointed IDIOT'(emphasis mine), I would have been going round condemning Christians who identify as Pentecostals, quizzing them to show me where it’s in the Bible that a group of believers were referred to as Pentecostals or to prove to me where any group of Christians celebrated Pentecost in the Bible. Yet common sense dictates that it’s neither terminology nor semantics we identify as Pentecostal but the reality and mystery of the Holy Spirit.
Whoever adjectivised SENSE with COMMON hasn’t experienced this generation of WHERE IS IT IN THE BIBLE intoxicated Christians, common sense is very rare. The Bible is not a dictionary or history book, it’s more of a theology than terminology. When you want to use the Bible to validate or invalidate any religious practice, you look for the biblical theology about it, not the terminology.
Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Children’s Day, etc are not in the Bible, but the Bible doesn’t have anything against their celebration. It’s only a religious ignoramus that will condemn those celebrations and get pious zombies to follow suit. If you care to know, there are many things we do in life that are not in the Bible and God isn’t angry at them all.
Traditional marriages, village meetings, cross over vigils (please ‘show me where it’s in the Bible’ folks who are addicted to 31st December Cross over vigil don’t even know it’s not in the Bible in their sense), birthday parties, wedding anniversaries etc are not in the Bible. Dr Olukoya, do you celebrate all these events?
Finally, someone needs to tell Dr Olukoya that MFM has a football club, I’ve been searching for it in the Bible and couldn’t find, abi no be MFM get that football club? Some nonsense must stop this 2022 oh, let me come and be going!
Rev Fr Oluoma Chinenye John – Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja
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