NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
MARATHON PRAYERS
Monday 17th - Sunday 23rd March 2025
A CHURCH OF TWO OPINIONS
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word (1 Kings 18:21).
We received with concern the news that the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) joined Muslims to break the Ramadan fast in Abuja in March 2025. If the information had been otherwise received, it might have been dismissed as fake news, but it was on TV, with the CAN President making his supportive remarks. Our first concern is for our Church leaders, because not everyone might be entirely aware of the spiritual significance of some of their actions.
Some liberalist Christians might be persuaded that there is nothing wrong in a Christian breaking the Ramadan fast with Muslims. We acknowledge that a Christian is free to eat in the house of anyone, whether a Muslim or traditionalist. We also recognize that Section 38(1) of the Constitution provides freedom of religious conviction for all citizens. We do not condemn any religion. However, when it comes to worship, a line must be drawn. When Muslims fast, they do so to Allah. A Christian engaging in that religious rite with Muslims implicates that person as a worshipper of that deity. It is for the same implications that a true Christian would not break kola nut with a native doctor in his shrine, for he becomes a worshipper of the god of that native doctor. Maybe that is an extreme example, but if an apex Muslim leader such as the Sultan should partake in the Christian sacrament of Communion or submit to public water baptism, does it not make an open announcement of his faith in the God of the Christians? A Christian leader at a Ramadan rite is an uncomfortable public statement.
Many Christians are ignorant of the Islamic doctrine of taqiyyar, which allows that an ‘infidel’ could justifiably be deceived, so far as the lie promotes the cause of Islam. Such a lie would not be a sin.
There are two taqiyyar forms in the public space: 1) that Islam is peace, and 2) that we all serve the same God. Taqiyyar is a form of jihad, a stealth jihad framed as “civilization.” It is what has given radical Islam an inroad into Europe and USA. Unwary Christians come under the influence of stealth jihad, and they act against their own interest. CAN appears to have become a victim of stealth jihad.
Whenever it suits their purpose, Muslims usually claim that they and Christians worship the same God. Otherwise, they proclaim that there is no God but Allah. It is taqiyyar. The same God created all humans (Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Christians, and witches), but all humans do not worship the same God. For example, the one whom the Muslims worship has no Son, because they insist that God would have needed a wife to have had a son, and God has no wife. They condemn the doctrine of the Trinity as the idolatrous worship of three gods. They reject the Sonship, Lordship, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those are pillars of the Christian faith.
If Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God, why do Muslims wage violent jihads to destroy Christians? Over the years, in Nigeria and in several other countries, millions of Christians have been murdered by various vicious Islamist insurgents. The global persecution of Christians by Muslims is highest in Nigeria. Thousands of Christian places of worship have been destroyed, and hundreds of Christian communities sacked by Muslims, yet we worship the same God? Taqiyyar.
If Christians and Muslims worshipped the same God, why was Leah Sharibu compelled by her Islamist abductors to renounce her Christian faith and confess to becoming a Muslim, as the condition for releasing her along with the other abducted Muslim girls? Do the terrorists read a different Koran or serve a different Allah from those with whom the CAN President held a banquet? There are many religions in the world, but there are only two contending spiritual forces, each demanding worship. To which of the two is either of Islam or Christianity connected? Your answer says much.
We are enjoined in 1 John 4:1-3 to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” and in 2 John 1:7-8 to be careful because “many deceivers are entered into the world” and whoever “confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” is “a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Religious meals are spiritually significant, because they indicate covenants. For instance, the Holy Communion is a covenant meal, and 1 Cor. 10:21-22 warns: “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” In the Old Testament, non-Israelites were forbidden from the Passover meal, unless they were proselytes or the property of a Jewish family.
It might be argued that the objective of CAN was to build tolerance and mutual respect, which is a commendable objective. However, the style in the present case is not consistent with the Scriptures, neither is the timing appropriate, especially as Christians are at the moment protesting three significant actions initiated by Muslim leaders in the country:
1. the suspension of Sunday worship in the Aso Villa Chapel while mosques continue to meet regularly in that Presidential Villa,
2. the closure of schools in Kano, Katsina, Bauchi, and Kebbi states because of Ramadan, which even CAN condemned and threatened with a lawsuit,
3. the death sentence by the Supreme Court against Mr. Sunday Jackson for defending himself against a Fulani Muslim attacker on his farm.
These are apart from the countless Christians in IDP camps and the uncountable others in mass graves all over the country, all of them victims of brutal Islamist insurgency. We support tolerance and understanding amongst the various groups in Nigeria, but spiritual Communions have their unpleasant implications.
There are paths to understanding and mutual respect with other faiths in the country without subscribing to their rites. That explains why, in 2015, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) produced a Strategy Document for CAN so that the Church could build structures to strengthen Christianity in the country as well as promote democracy. To date, that has not been implemented, even though it was accepted and approved by the NEC of CAN. Also, a plan of action was presented to CAN, with strategies for funds to implement the Document as well as provide resources to cater to persecuted Christians. That initiative was destroyed by those to whom it was handed over to in 2016. Another strategy meeting was held by CAN in November 2016 to supplement the initial Strategy Document of 2015. The resolutions of that meeting still await implementation.
If the Church is left without credible action plans to defend itself and promote democracy, Muslims will continue to have a field day in the country. Power respects counter power. It does not respect tears, pleas, or solicitations for ‘peaceful co-existence.’ Power respects power, institutions listen to institutions, and structures obey structures.
Church leaders in Nigeria cannot leave the Church powerless, without plan or structures, hoping that Islamists will have mercy on them and agree to peaceful co-existence. Sharia forbids it. This is not to judge anyone, and none is the custodian of all spiritual knowledge, yet we can look ourselves in the mirror to be better presentable. That is the perspective from which we worry, because the participation of the CAN President in that breaking of Ramadan fast is generally interpreted by Muslims not as a gesture of mutual respect and goodwill but as a sign of weakness, a public admission of the weakness of the Church to Islam.
This tricky drift of the Church towards Islamism was heightened in the past CAN administration, whose lack of veritable support frustrated the Christian political consensus, but brought Muslim presidential candidates into the National Christian Centre for electioneering consultations. When the Islamic Council of Ulama meets to decide which Muslim candidates should receive Muslim support at the polls, do they invite any Christian candidate? The same immediate past administration brought Miyetti Allah into the National Christian Centre, twice, for a conference. Did their conference stop the Fulani ‘herdsmen’ (terrorists) from killing Christians? Taqiyyar.
We sense with concern that the CAN President may have been under great political pressure to do as he did, especially to give the world a ‘positive’ image of Christianity in Nigeria particularly now that the country is coming under a strong global searchlight for Christian persecutions. We cannot compromise the chance to let the world hear our cries. We cannot, by such religious and political subterfuge, join the wicked media to lie about peace in the land when there is none.
If Christians do not wake up and demand accountability and spiritual responsibility from their leaders, they could wake up one day to discover that the Church has been completely compromised. As watchmen, on behalf of the nation, we at the National Prayer Altar join voices with other intercessors to ask the mercy and forgiveness of God for the Ramadan Communion, and to dissociate the nation and the Church from any unholy covenant that may have been activated by that meal and other similar subtle seductions. We pray that God would grant our leaders greater discernment, and make them strong leaders, not men pleasers, for “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).
PRAYER POINTS
1). Jer. 3:12-14
Confess the backsliding of the Nigeria Church and ask God for mercy and forgiveness.
2). Ezekiel 44:6-8
Repent of the pollution of the sanctuary by Church leaders who brought non-Christian politicians into the National Christian Centre. Pray that God would not count that against the entire Church in Nigeria. Plead the blood of Jesus to cleanse the Nigeria Church.
3). Mal. 2:1-4
Pray that the God of Balaam would appropriately visit every Christian leader who places personal interest above the interest of Jesus Christ in the Nigeria Church.
4). Mal. 2:7-9
Pray that God would execute His judgments upon every political and church leader misleading Christians or the nation and manipulating the Church for personal advantage.
5). Joshua 24:15
Renounce and dissociate from every agreement and covenant of Church leaders with other gods. Declare that the Nigeria Church shall only serve Jehovah. Declare that you and your house shall only serve the Lord.
6). Jer. 3:15
Ask God to give the Nigeria Church shepherds after His own heart, to lead the Church like Jesus Christ.
7). Joel 2:28-29
Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit of God for revival and the restoration of Nigeria.
JOIN US AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER ALTAR
DAILY INTERDENOMINATIONAL PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA
Started since 18th April, 2022
TIME: 9:00pm – 10:00pm daily (Nigeria time)
VENUE: ZOOM
ZOOM link:
https://zoom.us/j/96806190505?pwd=K2RqcUN3YjRwQzEzRDZaMUt2N1ZsUT09
Meeting ID: 968 0619 0505
Passcode: 024184
LINK TO MARATHON PRAYERS ZOOM ROOM
https://zoom.us/j/94064259957?pwd=bm13eDlSNTMrZWhVdTl5bmNRRlBHQT09
Meeting ID: 940 6425 9957
Passcode: Altar