The Sunday Mail
Last week, the chairman of the Council of African Apostles, Bishop Tudor Bismark addressed the African Union Heads of State at a prayer breakfast meeting.
Below are excerpts from the speech.
John 8:30-32 KJV “As he spoke these words, many believed on him. Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word,then you are my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Knowing the truth without living the truth is experiencing a lie because truth makes you, truth shapes you and truth designs you. But knowing the truth and living the truth is evidence of total liberty from bondage and limitation. Continuing in the word of truth is evidence of conversion.
This is true in any discipline, in medicine, in law, in education and in religion.
Plato the great Greek philosopher said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” — Plato
Alfred Sauvy (31 October 1898 — 30 October 1990) was a demographer, anthropologist and historian of the French economy. Sauvy coined the term Third World (“Tiers Monde”) in reference to countries that were not unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War.
In an article published in the French magazine, L’Observateur on August 14, 1952, Sauvy said:
“. . . because at the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate (term used by Moa Chinese Head of State), wants to become something, (car enfin, ce Tiers Monde ignoré, exploité, méprisé comme le Tiers Etat, veut lui aussi, être quelque chose)
The idea was that another option that had possibilities of innovation creativity was emerging/ the term Third World was not thought of as nations characterised by poverty and the challenges associated with poverty.
Contemporaneous
There is a Grape Vine in Covet. Gardens in London, England that is said to be over 200 years old and has stretched its branches over 200 feet 75 meters. The evidence of the authenticity of the vine is in its fruit at the very end of the vine. What comes from the roots is transported through the branches and manifested in the fruit, the grapes.
When the angel announced the arrival of the Messiah, the Christ saying in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. The angel was actually saying “to men of goodwill.”
Areas of conflict most times remain unresolved because men are not men of goodwill. Struggles with prolonged poverty is because men are not men of goodwill. We pray for men of goodwill to be given to our continent in significant and prominent places. Men of goodwill are individuals that pursue “truth”.
Great nations and churches develop based on the depth of their institutions, quality and experience of it’s leaders and long term vision, developing infrastructure and a skilled workforce, innovation and research and in this case, openness to revelation knowledge.
Being able to diversify that is not depending on commodities, (what’s in the ground) but to develop the services industry, utilising the best minds that a nation has to offer.
The world is changing so quickly and the danger is that Africa and religious institutions seem to be left behind, not being able to comprehend and keep up with trends.
Pursue truth and identify error and what is false. Lord Byron said “truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.”
Truth is a term used to indicate various forms of accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal.
The opposite of truth is falsehood, which, correspondingly, can also take on logical, factual, or ethical meanings.
There are differing claims as to what constitutes truth, what things are truth-bearers capable of being true or false, how to define and identify truth, the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play, and whether truth is subjective or objective, relative or absolute.
In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Act I, scene ii, ) Cassius speaks, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Cassius, a nobleman, is speaking with his friend, Brutus, and trying to persuade him that, in the best interests of the public, Julius Caesar must be stopped from becoming monarch of Rome. Brutus is aware of Caesar’s intentions, and is torn between his love of his friend Caesar and his duty to the republic. Cassius continues by reminding Brutus that Caesar is just a man, not a god, and that they are equal men to Caesar.
They were all born equally free, and so why would they suddenly have to bow to another man?
After Caesar was assassinated in the senate, Brutus speaks to Mark Anthony and the crowd wants to hear Brutus’ explanation for Caesar’s death. He says, “It’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”
What he is saying in the line is that he was friends with Caesar. He is trying to tell the people that he loved Caesar, but that Caesar was bad for Rome. Because Caesar was bad for Rome, and because Brutus loved Rome more than he loved Caesar, Brutus decided that it was necessary to kill Caesar.
The church as a whole is greater than a single church and an individual ministry or individual pastor. That does not negate the right of ones’ opinions or expressions and statements, but never at the expense of division or schism that bring damage to the church or nation at large.
Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) lectured about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group such as the Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Trade Unionists, or Communists.
Niemöller lectured during the early post-war period and spoke extemporaneously in a number of settings. He was making the point that Germans in particular, and the leaders of the Protestant churches had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people.
Pastor Martin Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation,
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Socialist.”
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Ladies and gentleman, brothers and sisters, members of the 2015/16 faculty, we have been afforded significant levels of truth based on facts from scripture and testimonies of those past and present.
We must apply the truths and tenants of faith that have been imparted to us. These truths must be applied in our personal lives and in the ministries we are part of and have been entrusted with. Theory must be converted into deeds and actions.
For the sake of the Church and its future we must stand for truth.
For the sake of the “African Church”, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of leaders who gave their lives for the truth, we must stand for truth.
For the sake of future generations, we must stand for truth.
For the sake of Africa and its promising future, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of your sacrifice, your convictions and commitment, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of destiny along with the complications of 21st century demands, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of millions yet to be touched with the gospel of Christ, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of future ministers of the gospel, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of righting injustices perpetrated on human being around the world, we must stand for the truth.
For the sake of affording every human being on our planet their rightful rights and privileges, we must stand for truth.
For the sake of exposing and destroying corruption, we must stand for the truth. For the sake of eradicating poverty, illiteracy, killer diseases and numerous human maladies, we must stand for the truth.
And finally for the sake of a prosperous Africa, we must stand for the truth.
God bless you. God bless The AU. God bless our great continent Africa.
