Creative Church Conference Themed: Countercultural Christianity, Living Out Godly Values In A Changing Society

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, THE IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT CREATIVE CHURCH CONFERENCE THEMED: COUNTERCULTURAL CHRISTIANITY, LIVING OUT GODLY VALUES IN A CHANGING SOCIETY IN LAGOS, ON THE 20TH OF MARCH, 2025

PROTOCOLS

Thank you very much, and thank you very much for the very warm welcome. I’m truly, truly grateful. Thank you. Let me begin by thanking Pastor Wale Adenuga for the very kind invitation to participate in this Creative Church Conference. Pastor Wale is a man for whom I have tremendous admiration and respect.

He’s perhaps one of the most innovative church leaders that I have come across, and he deploys his skills talents to give expression to the gospel in new and creative ways. And I think that he has made the gospel and its teaching more engaging for the young and for us elderly folks as well, especially through his Unboxed Conferences, transformational learning experiences and Worship for Change events, and so many other initiatives. So, thank you very much, Pastor Wale, for helping us work through our Christian lives with much more hope and much more joy.

I’m to speak on the topic which you’ve seen already, and I see it’s a very fascinating topic: Countercultural Christianity, Living Out Godly Values in a Changing Society. Permit me to turn the topic on its head a little by saying that Christianity itself is countercultural. The gospel of Jesus Christ itself is countercultural. It is a contrarian gospel and I want you to take note of that word, contrarian. In other words, it is contrary to everything else. It’s contrary to our beliefs in the world. It is contrary to the way we think. It’s contrary to our beliefs in the world. It’s contrary to the carnal nature of man.

Everything about the gospel is contrary to society. It’s even contrary to what religion itself teaches. It runs contrary to a lot of what is taught today as the gospel. So the true gospel of Jesus Christ is countercultural, even contrary to the culture of the gospel sometimes as it’s taught today. Apostle Paul, warned that we must practice the counter-cultural gospel and not a politically correct version of the gospel. So he says in Romans 12 verse 2, “do not be conformed to this world,” whatever your world may be, whether it’s Nigeria or elsewhere that you function or whether you function in an office or whatever, says “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

So Paul was very clear that this gospel that we have accepted and that we propagate is countercultural, and we must not conform to the opposite of that. And my belief is that if we leave out the true gospel, we’ll actually be leaving out Godly values. And let me explain why I say that the gospel is contrarian. First, it is very simple, and it was never meant to be a religion. It was not meant to be a religion.

A religion, as you know, is a set of beliefs and practices by which those who adhere to the belief believe that if they observe the rules well, if they follow the rules well, they will end up in the hereafter happy, joyful, et cetera. Whether that hereafter is described as heaven or somewhere else. That is what religion is about: a set of beliefs. People who adhere to those beliefs believe that if we do this faithfully, if we obey the rules faithfully, we should end up pleasing God and being in the right place when we die.

But the gospel is the exact opposite of that because the gospel says that men are not saved by merit; they are saved by grace. And if you look at Romans 10, verse 3 to 4, it says, “for being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness”.

In other words, there are two types of righteousness. There’s God’s righteousness, and then there is the righteousness that we practice in religion. A set of beliefs, a set of rules that we practice. And he then goes on to say that Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. In other words, by just believing, by believing in the Lord Jesus, we become righteous. By believing the sacrifice that He made, I’ve become righteous.

Before Christ came in the flesh, there was religion, religion is not new. There’s nothing new about religion. Before Christ came, there was religion. As a matter of fact, he was born into Judaism, a very religious religion, if there’s such a thing, with several rules and regulations and observances and laws. So many! And if you read through Leviticus, if you read through Deuteronomy, there are a plethora of rules and regulations and observances. You can’t beat the Jews of Judaism for rules, for observances, for sacrifices and all that. But the scripture says in John 1 verse 17, it says, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ. So all of what Moses bestowed was the law, but the truth, the truth came through Jesus Christ, and grace came through Jesus Christ. So, through Jesus Christ, Christ came to end religion and create a relationship of father and child between God and men. Christ actually came to end religion.

A man who accepts the sacrifice that Christ made,  this is the difference between the gospel and those who accept it and any other religion. Christ came to end the law and religion, and He said himself in Matthew 5 verse 17, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. I have not come to destroy the law.  The law was actually made by God. So I have not come to destroy it. But the only way to end the law, the only way to dispose of the law, is to fulfil it.” And he fulfilled the law once and for all on our behalf because we had no way of fulfilling it. He fulfilled the law once and for all on our behalf by dying for our sins. Paying the price, as you know, the wages of sin is death. That’s the law, and He fulfilled that law by dying and paying for our sins.

I’ve come across many pious men and women in my life, and you know, slightly advanced in age now as I approach 70 with much trepidation, you know, and every time you know, my son, who is a rascal, says to me, “Dad, you’re nearly 70!”

I have come across many powerful men and women in my life, good people in my life. I have not come across one, one single one, who has no fault. I haven’t come across one, not one.

Whether they are here in Nigeria or anywhere abroad, I’ve come across quite a few people. I haven’t come across one single one who has no fault. All you need to do is move close enough. If you move close enough, you will know that they will have a fault. And many faults. That’s why scripture says don’t judge because you are probably worse than the ones that you are judging. So Jesus said that I have not come to destroy the law.

And the dictum of the law is that the wages of sin is death. I have come to fulfil that law for human beings. I’ve come to do so by paying the price, obeying the law once and for all, for all those who will accept.

And only He could fulfil the law because He had no sin himself. He had no sin to die for. So only He could fulfil that law. We could never have done so. So we who accept the sacrifice that Christ made by dying for us automatically become righteous before God. And instantly we become candidates for heaven without more. So the first man, as you know, who got the benefit of this new order was a criminal on the cross. Of course, we all remember the story of the criminal on the cross in Luke 23 verse 32 to 35.

The criminal on the cross, that’s the man who, simply because he recognised in a flash who the Saviour was, and he asked for His help. He ended up in heaven without more. No religious practices, no special classes. He was just saved by grace alone. And Jesus was the one of course, who demonstrated that story to us because he wanted to make it clear to us, a men and women are saved by grace not by any particular ritual or anything like that.

I became a Christian after becoming a Professor. I had studied and understood religion. As a matter of fact, I took time, I’ve always been very curious, and I took time to study the major religions. When I was in secondary school, I was a practitioner of, in the light of truth, the, you know, some may know that, in the Light of Truth, the Grail Message by Abd-ru-shin. My Bible Knowledge teacher was actually the one who was teaching us the grail message. He was the Bible knowledge teacher, right? So it was very interesting. I was quite fascinated by it. A few of us really took it seriously, and we studied it very deeply. We read the three volumes while we were in secondary school.

So I’ve always been fascinated by religion and read up extensively on religion. But by the time I became more adult and studied and went to university, I became a Professor of the Law of Evidence, which, as you know, is a study of proof. So for most of my adult life, I was writing and researching on proof, on how it is that you cannot accept anything unless it is logically proven, and as you can imagine, I mean to be a a Professor of proof, you do some serious work, locally, internationally, and all that. And your mind and the way that you reason will be shaped in a particular way. So for very many years, I believed very strongly. So you can imagine how difficult it might have been for one such as myself to be saved. You can imagine how difficult it might have been for one such as myself to be saved. You can imagine how difficult it might have been for one such as myself to believe in such a thing as miracles because it’s not logical. Those things are not logical. Those things don’t necessarily make sense. But God revealed to me, first by letting me know by a Professor of Law that there is a bigger dimension of proof, a bigger dimension of evidence, the evidence of things that are not seen, which is what is called faith! And He had to reveal it to me because if I had not gotten the revelation, I would never have become a Christian.

No, there’s no way. Because it simply would not have made sense. The logic of it would not have worked for me. I spent all my life, you know, looking at logic and thinking that logic is the way that all things work. Then by showing me that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He loved me enough to pay the price for my sins, including the original sin, and that I am saved and that I will, like the criminal on the cross, go to heaven without more. So to remind myself of this great love, I’ve had the words “Saved By Grace Alone” written as a signature in my email. If I ever send you an email or you send me an email and I respond, you will find those words under my name, “Saved By Grace Alone”, because I have to keep my focus. I have to understand because there are so many things going on. So many people are saying all sorts of things about this same gospel – saved by grace alone. No addition, no subtraction. Saved by grace alone!

But what are the other reasons? I’ve taken time to explain as I understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, and especially as it applies to us as individuals. But then, what are the other reasons why the gospel is said to be counterculture? Why is the gospel itself countercultural? Why is it contrarian? Why is it set to be against the way that we reason? Because it’s against our nature. It is against our inclinations.

It’s against the way that normal human beings think or act. And even the way we are taught to think or act. So for example, as to the question, how can I be great? How can I attain significance in life? What does the Bible say? It says in Matthew 18 verse 14,  “humble yourself so that you will be exalted. So to be great, to be exalted, it says, humble yourself. Now that is counter-cultural. That is against the regular belief system.

If you listen to a motivational speaker, he will tell you that to be great, to be significant, dress the part, look like a boss, talk like a boss, believe that you’re a boss, and you will be a boss. Yeah, that’s the wisdom of the world. But our faith is completely counter-cultural. It says humble yourself. It says that’s the way to be great. It says it is down to be up. He says, “Go down first to be up.” And Jesus gives an example of how to behave if you want to be great. He says, if you are invited to a gathering, don’t go and sit in the front. Don’t go and choose the best seat possible. He says, “Go and humble yourself. Sit somewhere at the back.”

But today, the life coach will tell you, be assertive. Be in front. Don’t relegate yourself. If you relegate yourself, you’ll be relegated. Even some pastors will say, don’t toy with your anointing. If they don’t respect your anointing, then leave the place. So some pastors will tell you that. But that’s not the gospel. The gospel is very clear. Jesus was the one who gave the example, who said when you even arrive at a place, give a practical example, just don’t just go and search yourself. Don’t go there, sit in front. Just come down, sit at the back. That is the gospel.

The gospel says that the greatest amongst you, Mark 10, verses 43 to 45, says the greatest among you must be the servant. It says, yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great amongst you shall be your servant. It doesn’t say maybe, it says must be your servant. So if we are the leaders, if we are the pastors, today of course, pastors are revered, you know, daddy, mommy, you know, you are the greatest, nobody’s like you. You know, that’s how pastors are regarded today, but he says that you must be the servant. And whoever of you desires to be the first, shall be a slave of all, a slave, serving. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give His life a ransom for many. This counter or contrarian gospel says that you must humble yourself. It says that you must be the servant of all.

How do we deal with enemies in this countercultural gospel? In this gospel, the true gospel of Jesus Christ, how do you deal with enemies? How should the Christian, otherwise known as a child of God, react to enemies? And Jesus told us how in Matthew 5 verse 44 to 45, I’m sure you’re all very familiar with these scriptures, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be what? Children of God, sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust alike.” Very contrarian.

That’s the counterculture of Christianity. That’s what it says. No matter what anybody says today, even if you build a whole ministry around attacking your enemies, the scripture, the scripture, the gospel, the gospel says something completely different. Even if your ministry is very successful because you pray constantly against enemies, it doesn’t mean that you’re right.

As a matter of fact, you’re wrong if we are to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ. Very contrarian. What agrees with our flesh and some current teaching is that we rain curses upon our enemies, isn’t it? That’s what agrees with our flesh. That we know that God’s teaching is that we oppose you again. That’s how we operate, isn’t it? But that’s not the gospel. The gospel is contrarian. The gospel is counterculture.

When we say the gospel is counterculture, it means that it is against current practices, current norms, even if those norms are preached in our churches. Even if those norms, even if those cultures, that behaviour, that way of doing things, is preached in our churches. Does this counter-cultural gospel say about those who do harm to us, those who harm us? Romans 12, verses 19 to 21, it says, “beloved, do not avenge yourselves. Don’t avenge yourself, don’t take revenge, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.”

How many people have fed their enemies lately? So there’s nobody here who even obeys the gospel at all. So nobody here is interested. He says, “If your enemy is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. He says, do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good.” That’s what the scripture says. What is convenient, what agrees with us, what agrees with our carnal nature, is that you will fight your enemies, that you will avenge if somebody does wrong to you, you will take revenge, find a way of revenging.

What does this gospel say about the acquisition of material things? If you look at Matthew 6 verse 31 to 33, says “therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? Don’t worry about those things. That’s what the scripture says. It says, for after all these things are what the Gentiles seek. Those are, Gentiles of course, is talking about unbelievers. For your Heavenly Father knows already what you need. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things, all of these things you are worrying about shall be added to you.”

Don’t occupy your mind with the search for material things like unbelievers do, long and short. Don’t occupy your mind with the search for material things like unbelievers do. This is completely contrarian. The focus of the gospel in many cases today is exactly the opposite. The focus today of the gospel is exactly the opposite. Because many who preach the gospel today will say, seek every opportunity to make money and to solve your conscience. They will say well because you want to become a kingdom treasurer. So, make us as much money as possible, of course, it’s not the gospel.

The gospel is very clear. It says that these material things as matter of fact if you read the gospel carefully, every time Jesus spoke about money. It was a warning. He said it’d be difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom. People have tried to modify that. Oh, you know what the eye of a needle means? It’s the eye of a gate somewhere. They say, hey, look, I’m a professor of law now.

I mean, I read, I interpret laws, I interpret everything. Even to fool me, you have to try a bit. Surely, the literal reading of scripture, and if you compare it in whatever language or whatever, it’s very clear. It says, be careful if you are wealthy. The gospel is not interested in how wealthy you are,  scriptures say, “lay up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust can destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

But today, we carry on like supermen and superwomen, we say you can go after money, and your heart will still be with God.  Not true. Where your treasure is, whether you’re a pastor or not, if you’re after this treasure,  that is where your heart is. Don’t deceive yourself. What you really worship, no matter what you say, what you really worship is where your heart is. Why? And this is why this point is so important, because Jesus Christ answered it himself. He says the reason why it’s so important is that you cannot serve God and mammon. You have to choose one.  And the only way you can choose one is where your heart is. Your heart cannot be on wealth and God at the same time. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and that the early church followed to transform the world. The focus of the gospel is serving others, serving others. That’s always been the focus of the gospel: serving others, not serving ourselves.

Today, the focus in many, many cases is serving ourselves. I remember, at times when I pastored my first church, I pastored for 15 years, Jesus Centre, and then I pastored again for another three or four years,  up until 2014.

And every time I would examine myself and examine the prayer points, the only prayer points that interest anybody are the prayer points praying for yourself. Those are the prayer points that interest anybody. Pray for wealth, pray for good health,  pray for, it has to be yourself.

Gradually, the prayer point of the believer has become self, self, self, self, self, self, whereas the gospel is about serving others. Matthew 10, verse 45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.  And so for us to be sons of our Father in heaven.”  In Matthew 5, verse 45,  it says that for you and I to be sons of God, who makes the sun to shine, causes it to rain on the evil and good alike,  the focus of the gospel has always been on others, not on ourselves.

And the focus of giving in the gospel is supporting the poor. Acts 20, verse 34 and 35, “it says, yes, you yourselves know that these hands, this is Paul speaking, have provided for my necessities  and for those of you who are with me.”

Paul was saying that I have used my hands to labor so that I’ll provide for my own necessities and for those of you who work with me. And I have shown you in every way by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,  that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Today, of course, when we use those words on our pulpits, it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Of course, we are not talking about the poor, as you know, at least usually we’re not talking about the poor. Indeed, when God said to Cornelius in Acts 10, verse 4, remember the story of Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have come up as a memorial before God.

What are alms? Giving to the poor. Yes, alms are money gifts to the poor. And God said to Cornelius, it is your almsgiving and your prayers that have come up to me as a memorial.

Christ only spoke, to the best of my knowledge, I’m sure that Bible scholars here will know it better. On two occasions when Christ spoke about people going to hell, it was people who did not give to the poor. The first was the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Luke 16.  The rich man was in his house, living it up in purple linen, eating good food. The poor man was sitting at his gate with sores all over his body, and dogs licked those sores. Scripture says that the poor man died and went to heaven.  The rich man died and went to hell.

Now, the only reason why the rich man went to hell was because he ignored the poor. The other time that Jesus spoke about people going to hell was in Matthew 5.  I’m sure we all know this.  You saw me hungry, you didn’t feed me. You saw me sick, you’re in prison, et cetera. Jesus concluded that those who ignore the poor and needy ignore Him, and that those who help the poor and needy, give to Him. Matthew 25 verse 40. “As shortly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

So here again, we see the meaning of giving to God. Whatever you do for the poorest, you do for God. Jesus then concluded that those who fail to help the poor will go away into everlasting punishment. But those who do, that is those who help the poor, are righteous and they will go into eternal life. This is the practice of the principles of this contrarian gospel. And I’m going to come to that in a moment. I’ll come to that issue in a moment, how this gospel transformed nations.

But I want to emphasize that sometimes, in the preaching of the gospel, I was listening to a particular, very well-known American preacher, who was referring to Acts 4, where he says that the brethren, those who had houses and those who had material things, sold everything they had and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and scripture then goes on to say that none lacked.

This particular, very well-known, as a matter of fact, he was here in Nigeria, preaching for another very well-known Nigerian church leader. And he kept emphasising that everybody who had belongings, everybody who had houses and things, sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet and none lacked. And he repeated, they sold everything they had and they laid it at the feet of the apostles and none lacked.

And he’ll go again, after a while, people started clapping.  You know, people like to clap. I can’t even understand that clapping thing. People just like to clap. So I was wondering, this man hasn’t, first of all, this is not even the correct representation of what that scripture says. That scripture says that, yes, they sold everything they had, they laid it at the apostles’ feet. Then the apostles shared to those who were there in accordance to their need and none lacked. So the reason why none lacked was not because they laid it at the feet of the apostles. The reason why none lacked was because they shared it.

But somehow, in a congregation of thousands of people, the man was still able to deceive everybody. He was still able to misrepresent the gospel. Those of us who are church leaders have a very important duty before God. We must never misrepresent the gospel, even if it means depriving ourselves. We must never misrepresent the gospel.

But the gospel is misrepresented today. Almost all the time, you hear people saying all sorts of things that clearly are not in the scripture or they manipulate the scripture. But let’s just go on to say that it is this counter-cultural gospel that transformed the nations of Europe and America and later on Asia, especially beginning with Japan. And let me explain how this process occurred.

The gospel was probably the single most transformative force in the socioeconomic development of Europe and America. These are the nations from which we receive the gospel. But this gospel transformed those nations. The principles of the gospel preached from the pulpits and practiced willy-nilly by those Christians in those nations completely transformed those countries. The puritanical movement, movement of Christians who observed the strict principles of the gospel was largely responsible for this transformation.

So beginning in the late 16th century in Europe and then exported to America in the 17th century through the pilgrim fathers, a great majority of these pilgrim fathers were puritans. But what were those principles? What were those principles that these people were preaching and that it led to the transformation of their nations? When I say Europe, I’m talking about the likes of Germany, England, Denmark, the European countries. All of them preaching the gospel in a manner that was true and was able to transform their countries. And then later on America, what were those principles?

One of the principles is the principles of productivity and hard work, integrity, education, taking care of the poor and vulnerable, high moral values, including trustworthiness, respect for credit and obligation.

So let’s take productivity, for example, productivity and hard work. So the Christians of that era were preaching from the pulpits in their various churches in Europe. They were preaching about productivity and hard work.

In fact, when you read some of that history, it’s just amazing how very practical the kinds of teachings that were being taught in those days from their pulpits. So they preached that hard work and productivity is how to prosper, this is how nations prosper.

They preached that God himself set the example of work and productivity at creation, that God himself set that example. In Genesis 2, verse 1 to 2, it says, thus the heaven and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished, and on the seventh day, God ended His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. So these principles, for example, they would then break it down, explaining some of the principles of hard work and productivity, preached, again, as I said, on their pulpits.

And there’s a very incisive description of this by a Christian Professor of Architecture, I’m not so sure whether you’ve come across some of his work, Professor Olumide Olusoya, a professor of architecture at the University of Lagos. Of all the creatures that God created, only man is created in the image of the creator of the heavens and the earth, and all things, both visible and invisible.

This is what was taught in those churches, that look, on this issue of hard work, on this issue of productivity, first recognise that only man is created in the image of God, and God is the creator of everything. Only man has that capacity to create like God, and is the only man of all God’s creatures, to whom the power of versatile creativity or productivity has been given. What is the power of creativity or productivity? It is the capacity to add value by the transformation of material, whether that material is abstract or physical. So, for example, the making of chairs and tables, wooden chairs and tables, from a tree, is a measure of productivity that only the human being can make. Only the human being is capable of that, because that is a gift that God has given to the human being. The making of steel from iron ore,  and then the making of cars and airplanes from that same steel, that is the kind of thing that only God can give as a gift to us.

Adding value to physical material, even the transformation of discordant musical notes on a musical instrument to a beautiful melody, that is transformation, that’s adding value, even though it’s an abstract entity. It is by adding value, by productivity or creativity, that the work of godly wealth or success is done. So the wealth of nations has never, as far as God is concerned, does not lie in the plenteousness of material mineral resources or material resources.

It is the hard work and productive capacity of human beings that gives that wealth. That is why countries that have no mineral resources, Japan and Korea, et cetera, are still some of the wealthiest countries in the world because their citizens work. They are creative, they add value.

This belief that God’s gift to man is the capacity to work,  and by such means create wealth,  is fundamental to the way that the Christians,  or what is called the Judeo-Christian construct of wealth, has always been. Those who preached the gospel in the days of the Puritans,  those who preached the gospel in Europe and America in those days, preached this transformative gospel,  that the only way by which a person acquires wealth is by adding value. It is by work, it is by diligence.

So today, when someone says that wealth would come by miracles, and people talk about the anointing to get wealth and those sorts of things, we are not preaching that transformative gospel that has transformed other societies. No, we’re not, because the wealth that, because what the scripture tells us is that wealth is to be created as a product of work,  as God’s work, line by line, precept by precept,  not by magic, not by miracles, signs and, no, no, no. That is not the way, and it’s not to say that people do not have experiences where they may prosper by some chance or the other, but the notion of God-given wealth is hard work, productivity, adding value, line by line, precept by precept.

And the reason why that transformed those countries is you will find that what then happened was that everybody who was described as a Christian, having been taught that the only way to make wealth is hard work, you would then find that they went to the factories, they invented, they did all manner of things.  The Industrial Revolution, the reason why Industrial Revolution is attributed to Christianity is because of the way that this was preached. This was the way that wealth creation was preached.

And the reason why today it’s very hard to find people who are prepared to do the work that is required is because of the way that the gospel is being preached. So, the gospel is countercultural to what is preached today. How about other gospel principles, such as integrity, honesty, forthrightness, let your yes be yes, let your no be no.

The Christian church in Germany, in the late 18th century, they had a Catechism on the Ten Commandments. Every time people were in church, when they gathered, Sunday School, Service, et cetera, they used a Catechism.That Catechism broke down the Ten Commandments.

So, if it said, thou shalt not steal, the catechism will tell you the different ways by which you can steal, the different ways by which you will go to hell.  So, it says, it’s not just that you physically go and steal something that doesn’t belong to you. No. In the catechism,  you will see that it says, if you are an employee and you use your employer’s time for your own benefit, without permission, you are stealing from the employer. If you are an employee and you are getting benefit for not working, you are stealing. They give a practical example. If you leave work, even to attend a church service without permission of your boss, you are stealing because you are getting paid without working, taking money that does not belong to you is not just physically taking the money, but cheating in any shape or form. And I’m saying to you that this is what was in the catechism that was preached in the churches.  Every time people gather, they look at the various ways by which you can do wrong.

Today, of course, if you are attending a naming ceremony or birthday during working hours without the permission of your employer,  you are stealing money, you know, because you are getting paid for work that you didn’t do.

You can imagine what sort of workers the German employee was. Can you imagine what sort of workers they were? They were not the sort of workers who thought that it was somehow a blessing for you to be able to escape from work and go and attend an event, even if it was a church service. Even if you are reading your Bible during working hours, you are stealing.

The type of worker that the German employee was, a worker, the Christian worker, was someone who was completely not just loyal, not just faithful, but who worked every day with the clear notion in his mind that I cannot cheat the person I’m working for. I must do this work right, because I’m not working for him, I’m working as unto God.

That is the gospel that was preached. That’s the gospel that was preached to people at that time. How about the principle of respect for credit and obligation? They would preach that you must repay when you borrow because the scripture says that the wicked borrows and does not repay. And they preached that consistently, that if you borrow money, whether it’s from your friend or from anybody else, you must repay. If you don’t repay, you are wicked, you are going to hell. That way, they were able to develop a credit system that worked.

I’ve been a pastor at a church, I’m sure most of us here who are pastors know that when you create, because we used to create all these funds for assisting people in churches, the people who come and borrow. I remember one particular chap in my own church,  he borrowed money from the church, then borrowed money from a gentleman who had a finance company). And he came to me himself after defaulting, not just in the particular church funds he borrowed, but also the one he borrowed from this other man.

He came to me, he said,  Pastor, I must tell you that I cannot repay and I cannot continue to come for vigils, because every time I come and I’m praying, I see this brother looking at me. I said, why is he looking at you? He explained to me that he borrowed money from him and that any time he’s praying, the man is looking at him.

I said, so why don’t you repay his money now?  He says, “hey, I don’t have money to repay. If I had money, I would have repaid him.” I said, let me tell you what. Let me tell you what, if I were the man, I wouldn’t look at you. I’ll come and meet you and say to you, pay up my money. I’ll stop praying that God will make me forget my debt.  Stop that kind of prayer. Don’t pray that witchcraft prayer.

If you borrow money, repay. That’s what you’re supposed to do.  But the way we even teach, the way we even preach, gives the impression that somehow it’s a good thing indeed that a person should borrow and not repay. I hope that somehow everything will be forgiven and forgotten. The wicked borrows and doesn’t repay.  Those people preached that gospel.

I remember years back when I was a student in the UK, I was a student at the London School of Economics at the time, and I couldn’t pay because of problems with the Central Bank not being able to remit. So I was owing my school fees, I think for the second semester or so. So I went to the counsellor at the university and said, I can’t pay my school fees. I’m waiting for money to come from Nigeria. He asked if I had a bank account. I said, yes. Which bank? I mentioned the bank right there in the university. So why don’t you go and get a loan? I said, how can I get a loan when I don’t have money? All I had in the account at the time was 50 pounds or something. And I needed to pay 600 pounds for my fees. So he said, go and talk to them in the bank.

So I went to the bank, across the counter, and I explained, my school fees are outstanding. I’m expecting it to come. When my check comes, it will come to my account and all that. I explained. And the lady across the counter said, how much do I want?  I said, 600 pounds. She said, okay. She wrote it all down, brought out my ledger, so that I had only 50 pounds in the account.

And then asked me to sign a few documents. When will you pay back? I think I said between six to eight weeks or something. Wrote it all down. Then, from across the counter, he gave me 600 pounds and I went to pay my fees. That was in 1980 – 1981.

By two years later or three years later, it was even impossible for Nigerians to open bank accounts in that same bank. Impossible. Not to borrow money but to open a bank account.

Why? Because many Nigerians had decided that, look, these Oyibos are very foolish people. So they would use credit cards, buy cars, do all sorts of things and run home. So by the time others came, like 1983, 84, they yelled, ah, you couldn’t even open an account, let alone borrow money across the counter. Impossible. Because we did not respect the principles. We don’t respect the principles and these are the principles that transformed other countries. These are the principles that transformed nations.

These counter-cultural Christian gospel principles. Indeed, if you look at the Industrial Revolution and its success, its success is attributed to the principles and ethics of the gospel practised in commerce and in social interactions in those countries, but it was not just Europe that was transformed by those principles; the gospel also influenced Asia, beginning with Japan.

I’d like you to take a look at this particular study; In 1871, the Japanese emperor, that called the Meiji Dynasty. The Japanese emperor then sent a mission to Europe and America. A mission of over 100 people. Why did he send this mission? They realised suddenly that Europe and America had advanced tremendously ahead of Asia,  ahead of themselves in Japan. Don’t forget that Japan was an ancient civilization, centuries ahead in terms of development from Europe and America. In fact, America was not even anywhere at the time. The Chinese, the Japanese were ancient cultures that were already way ahead. Suddenly, they found that these Europeans and Americans had gone ahead of them.

So the emperor in 1871 sent a mission that’s called the Iwakura Mission, I’m sure that if you Google it, you’ll find it and you can take a good look at it.  It was named after the head of the mission. The head of the mission was a man called Iwakura. And this was a mission of intellectuals, a couple of students, professionals, diplomats, and people.  Go and find out why these people are ahead of us. Go and find out. That was the whole purpose of the mission. Aside from that, there were also some issues around treaties.

But the primary focus of the mission was, how is it that Europe, people who are way behind us, how is it that America, a new world, a new country, has suddenly gone ahead of us, how? And they went to study those reasons. In particular, the question of why is Western civilization so far ahead of us? So, they realised that in order to construct a modern nation, we have to find out what other people are doing and one of the major findings, and I’ll quote the Japanese social historian called Izumi Saburo, he was one who wrote the account of this Iwakura mission. He said that the most startling discovery that they made was that Christianity was the spiritual pillar holding up Western civilization. That was the most startling discovery that these, don’t forget that the Japanese were worshipers of Shinto, they are still, you know, worshipers. But the most startling discovery that they made was that what held up this Western civilization, what was responsible for this society the way it was,  was this gospel, Christianity, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what the Japanese discovered in this Iwakura mission. They then adopted principles of it. They adopted the principle, and we’ll discuss some of those principles: hard work, productivity, integrity, respect for credit and obligation, education, all of those principles. They adopted those principles and applied them.

And every country in the world that has progressed has adopted those same principles. Now that’s a different thing from accepting the gospel itself. We know that if you do not accept the gospel,  if you do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, you cannot go to heaven, we know that. But we also know that if you accept the principles of the gospel and practice them,  your nation will prosper, and you as an individual will prosper. That we also know.

It is the diligence that people apply to the practice of Christianity that makes the difference. To live and work according to these principles is difficult because it is contrarian, it doesn’t agree with us and the way we behave. To refuse to take a bribe where there is systemic bribery will make you a target of hostility or loss. You are the exact opposite of the world. Matthew 5, 13 – 14, we are the light of the world and salt of the earth because we are the opposite of the world. The world is darkness, and we are light. We are salt and bring taste to a world that has rot and stench. Scripture says that this light must not be hidden and should be displayed to benefit everyone, whether they believe in the gospel or not. We as salt must not lose our savour, otherwise it would be cast down and trampled upon by men.

It is to you and I that God has handed the principles of the transformation of the world, and He commands us in Matthew 28:19, “go ye therefore and disciple the nations.” We cannot disciple the nations by agreeing with the culture of the nations. The only way to disciple is to teach our own culture, and that culture is this counterculture called Christianity!