Stewards of the Kingdom: A Call on Followers of Christ to Take Back Their Kingdom

By Ikechi P. Ihejirika

First-century followers of Christ (representatives of the Kingdom of God on earth) lived in accordance with what they preached. Many laid down their lives rather than compromise Kingdom values. For them, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was more than words; it was about imitating Him.

There is utter confusion in the twenty-first century Christian world because unfaithful stewards over the centuries added to the gospel of Christ. Their creation--a new Christianity ("Religious Christianity")--commingled Kingdom and worldly values, shut out the Holy Spirit from His Church, and undermined Christ's teachings. The result: many Christians cannot differentiate the wheat from the chaff, the truth from the lie, the gospel of Christ from the false gospels, biblical churches from syncretistic churches, good stewards from bad stewards, and Kingdom values from worldly values.

Stewards of the Kingdom takes away the grey, brings clarity, exposes centuries' old conspiracies and lies, and calls on followers of Christ (Kingdom representatives) to rise up and take back their stolen Kingdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490830315

Ikechi P. Ihejirika

Ikechi P. Ihejirika, author, preacher, and teacher of the word, is the Coordinator of Worldwide Evangelical Ministry. Though he calls both Toronto, Canada, and Lagos, Nigeria, home, the former oil executive with a Master of Divinity degree from Tyndale University College and Seminary has at one time or another resided in other countries around the world. Married and blessed with five children and five grandchildren, the 2012 recipient of Tyndale Seminary's Dr. Ross and Carol Bailey Theology Award has for many years been calling churches to go back to the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Copyright © 2014 Ikechi P. Ihejirika.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reservevd.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Url: worldwideevangelicalministry.com

Email: [e-mail]

Other books by the Author:

The Threat of Darkness: Conterfeit Christianity Exposed

Oily Waters

Countdown to Eternity

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-3030-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3032-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3031-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905172

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/9/2014

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The World of Eden

1.1 Stewards of Eden

1.2 After Eden: A World in Chaos

1.3 That Good Steward called Abraham

2 The Kingdom of God and the Story of Jesus

2.1 Birth of Jesus

2.2 Early Life of Jesus

2.3 Public Ministry of Jesus According to Mark

2.4 Death, Resurrection and Ascension

3 God’s Mission and the Church

3.1 Launch of the Church

3.2 Early Church leaves its comfort zone

3.3 Church meets Roman Empire

3.4 Church meets Classical Thought

3.5 Church neglects Holy Spirit

4 End of an Era

4.1 Protestantism

4.2 Colonialism

4.3 Modernism/Post Modernism

4.4 The Gospel in the Twenty-first Century World

4.5 Gospel and Certainty

5 Pentecostalism and the Word-Faith Movement

5.1 The Azusa Street Revival

5.2 The Word-Faith Movement

5.3 Teachings of the Word-Faith Movement

5.4 Exegesis of Mark 11:22 and Hebrews 11:3

5.5 The Prosperity Gospel

5.6 Early Pentecostalism, Word-Faith Movement and Prosperity Gospel

6 Culture and the Gospel

6.1 Culturally Conditioned Gospel and Slavery

6.2 Culturally Conditioned Gospel and Racism

6.3 Overcoming Culturally Conditioned Gospels

7 Politics and the Gospel

7.1 Church and Roman Empire

7.2 Churches and European Empire

7.3 Churches and American Empire

7.4 The Church, the Clergy and Politics

7.5 The Steward and Politics

8 Wealth and the Gospel

8.1 Fallen Stewards and Wealth

8.2 The Steward and Money

8.3 There is always a Choice

9 Ethics of the Kingdom

9.1 The Good Steward

9.2 The Bad Steward

9.3 The Low Information Steward

10 Recovery of Biblical Teachings

10.1 Resurrection

10.2 The Kingdom of God

10.3 Heaven and Earth

10.4 The New Creation

10.5 The Image of God

10.6 The Necessity of the New Birth

10.7 Salvation

10.8 Grace

10.9 Holiness

10.10 Sanctification

10.11 Priesthood of Believers

10.12 Witnessing

10.13 Spirit Baptism

10.14 Spiritual Gifts

10.15 Gifts Have Not Ceased

10.16 Ministries in the Church

10.17 Fruit of the Spirit

11 The Christian Leader and the Mission of God

11.1 Unadulterated Gospel—Still the Remedy

11.2 Spiritual Empowerment and Ministry

11.3 Fight the Good fight for the true Faith

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

All the credits for the inspiration, writing, editing, and publishing of this work goes to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I dedicate this book to faithful stewards of past ages. They swam against the currents of apostasy, endured ridicule, and suffered persecution for the sake of the gospel.

Special thanks to Anne, my wife, who helped to edit this work.

Introduction

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6 NLT)

N o one will argue that the twenty-first century world is more complex and more technologically advanced than the previous worlds before it. And yet, despite its unprecedented technological achievements—improved living standards, infrastructure enabling human beings to communicate with each other over long distances and to see events happening in real time, and reduced travel times—many citizens of this seemingly overachieving world go to bed at night hungry.

On reflection, why should assessment of humanity’s advancements through the centuries be limited only to physical achievements? What about the spiritual component and should it not be part of the conversation? Science has conditioned human beings to equate progress with physical achievements (because they are supposedly measurable) and to discountenance non-physical or spiritual achievements (because they are supposedly not measurable). Instead of buying into this flawed hypothesis, followers of Christ should insist that spirituality is indeed measurable albeit with different set of instruments. We should argue that because the spiritual drives the physical, it should have greater weighting in any assessment of human progress.

The present world celebrates its great physical achievements, and sees itself as the greatest age since the advent of human beings on earth (a questionable assumption when one considers human progress as comprising both the physical and the non-physical). Rather than celebrate, it should weep at its continuing neglect of the poor and at its paucity of God-breathed spiritual knowledge despite easy availability of God’s word. God’s revelation of the birth of Jesus to the three wise men from the East (Matt 2:1-2) is an example of God-breathed spiritual knowledge. Those three wise men, just like many others in that world, were aware of God and His creation (Rom 1:18-20). As it was then, so it is now—many in our time are oblivious of God and His plan of salvation even as many were at the time of Christ’s birth. Though there is paucity of God-breathed spirituality today, we cannot say the same about dark spirituality.

Satan-breathed dark spirituality has been gaining strength since the advent of the modern world when people began to see science as the cure-all for all humanity’s ills. Having made inroads into churches, its mists of deception have led, and continue to lead, many Christians astray. Satanic assaults have gone largely unchallenged because churches (especially those belonging to Religious Christianity) are powerless. Sadly, churches belonging to Biblical Christianity, and who know how to wage spiritual warfare, are themselves becoming increasingly powerless. Since only God-breathed spirituality can obliterate the dark spirituality currently enveloping our world, Bible-believing-practicing churches must wake up from their slumber, reconnect with God, and engage the enemy before it is too late.

Lest I am misunderstood, I wish to emphasize that the Church the Lord commissioned before His ascension into the heavens is alive and active. This Church comprises those communities of believers who look to the Holy Spirit for guidance in all matters. These communities of believers (biblical churches) know that the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers believers, and that He is at worship services as well as at the table i.e., at church councils and membership meetings where matters affecting communities of believers are discussed. But such biblical churches are in the minority in our twenty-first century world. Some believers in biblical churches are growing weary because their cross-centered and unworldly messages appear not to be gaining traction in a world filled with worldly and cross-less messages. Biblical churches have two things going against them: their messages are too hard for a carefree world and they lack the resources to compete with assets-rich, and well-connected, human-constructed denominations and church organizations. On the other hand, religious churches have two things going for them: they are rich and their messages (which are mostly carnal) hardly prick consciences. Religious churches rarely ask their adherents to refrain from sin and live right for God; in fact, mentioning the word sin is like uttering a four-letter word.

Please do not be discouraged if you are a follower of Christ. I know you are in the minority. Rest assured that Christ’s Church will remain until He comes back to earth irrespective of what the backslidden majority do or not do. A true believer’s task (preaching the gospel of Christ and embodying it in daily life) is actually simple because of God’s presence. Christ’s promise gives hope and that hope gives strength:

Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. (Rev 3:21-22 NLT)

Fear, spiritual ignorance and hopelessness far outweigh the twenty-first century world’s certainties and hopes; in fact, the former could swallow the latter many times over. The number of those joining the ranks of the hopeless and the fearful continues to increase with each passing day. Here is the irony: science that helped human beings conquer space (even if it is just a bite of it), decode the human genome, and develop cures for many diseases, has also created environmentally unfriendly products that have been implicated in the increase of such deadly diseases as cancer. Pollution from industrial processes and products have contributed to changes in weather patterns, caused the rise of the oceans, and increased coastal flooding. No one seems to be sounding the alarm on the dangers of humanity’s over-reliance on the products of science and technology. We see long lines of people waiting, sometimes for days, for the launch of new gadgets. Human beings love entertainment. Perhaps they mistakenly believe that it will fill the void in their hearts and help them forget the futility of living a life without God. But the more hedonistically they live, the greater the hopelessness. Many still haven’t figured it out; gadgets and entertainment are not the answer.

Though the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only remedy for a sin-ravaged world, can we honestly say that most twenty-first Christians believe this? And among those that believe, can we say they are truly representing the Kingdom of God in their communities? The early Church, which believed and knew the import of the good news, used the gospel effectively to draw people to God. It was not accidental that these early adherents succeeded in turning their world upside down in a very short time after Christ’s ascension (Acts 17:6). They had a net positive impact on their world i.e., their world knew that something out of the ordinary had happened on the cross.

For twenty-first century Christianity to compare favorably with that of the first century, people must know that something extraordinary happened on the cross two thousand years ago. I submit that rather than having a positive impact, twenty-first century Christianity’s gospel (the way many church leaders have been presenting it and the way the majority have been practicing it) has compounded twenty-first century world’s problems, created more uncertainties, and allowed Satan and his cohorts to confound many with their dark spiritual manifestations.

There are so many stories about the true way to eternal life floating in print, media and blogosphere. Some of these have the imprint of Satan and his demons. Many of them have made it into movies with some becoming blockbusters. Christians ask unbelievers to discountenance all these stories and to believe only the Story of Jesus. But the confused and the hopeless wonder why they should believe the Jesus Story and not the other fables and stories, some of which are satanically-inspired; they doubt the truthfulness of the gospel because they see a disconnect between the messengers and their message.

Just as the gospel of our Savior and Lord was the remedy for the world’s problems at its first pronouncement by the Lord Himself, so it still holds the cure for the ills plaguing our world. But the gospel cannot be that remedy if it is no longer the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but that of human constructs wrapped in Christ coverings proclaimed by compromised messengers with mindsets and values that are almost identical to that of the world it seeks to change. The gospel that saves, frees captives, and empowers, is the biblical gospel (no additions and or deletions) and those that proclaim it embody it in their daily lives. With too many churches and denominations, each with doctrinal beliefs primarily anchored on pre-understandings and presuppositions of the dominant cultures in existence at the time of its founding, it is not a stretch to say that many Christians, even leaders, have forgotten