FEW ARE THE TRUE LABOURERS (one)

 

One man of God, the well-known General Overseer (G.O.) of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E. A. Adeboye has told the world that God did give him the mandate to plant a local assembly of Christians in every five houses in Nigeria. My initial responsive outburst was, “What! Is that feasible?” An RCCG adherent query was the Lucan report of Gabriel’s assertive, “Can anything be impossible with God?” With God nothing shall be impossible, is a truism. We do not, unfortunately, study the word of God to have a good understanding of it. We merely perform a ritualistic, literal reading of God’s Bible. When Gabriel said, “nothing shall be”, he was quoting God’s exact words of Genesis 18:14, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” The Bible says in Luke 2:19, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

 

 

 

The word, ‘nothing’ in Luke 1:37 comes from: i. ou (oo) the absolutely negative adverb; no or not (in direct questions expecting an affirmative answer); ii. pas (pas): ‘individually: each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything’; and iii. rhēma (hray’-mah): ‘an utterance (individually, collectively or specifically); by implication a matter or topic’. Put the Greek definitions of ‘nothing’ together and you have ‘not any of the whole word’. As for ‘these things’ of Luke 2:19, we have (A) rhēma (hray’-mah): ‘an utterance (individually, collectively or specifically); by implication a matter or topic;’ & (B) tauta (tow’-tah) {Nominative or accusative neuter plural of (he, she, it, this, that)}; these things’. In Genesis 18:14, ‘thing’, dabar (daw-baw’) means: ‘a word; by implication a matter (as spoken of) of thing; adverbially a cause’. Prophet Jeremiah’s famous, “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: [Jeremiah 32:17]; also has ‘nothing’, with three definitions of: I. dabar (daw-baw’): ‘a word; by implication a matter (as spoken of) of thing; adverbially a cause’. II. kol (kole): ‘all, the whole’. III. loh (lo): not (the simple or abstract negation)’. It is not different from that of Luke 1:37 and the thing is about what actually comes from God, verbally, He will do it. Whether it is dabar kol loh, ou pas rhēma or rhēma tauta as far as the revealed theology of scripture is concerned, ‘things’ God can do are the express revelation of scripture. This makes the evil or unscriptural expectations of human projections of God absolutely improbable possibility. A classic example is the Pauline, “…which God, that cannot lie, promised…” found in Titus 1:2. Amen!

 

 

 

Will God say to the G.O., “Build in every five houses”, when there is no rhēma to support it? The Lord Jesus was very emphatic when He said, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few”; Matthew 9:37. Jesus went on to tell them to pray so that God will, “send forth” which is actually a forceful “thrust forth” as it comes in the Greek. Are all called, will so many be called to pastor Churches? Why would Jesus use agricultural terms to explain Church business? Remember that Jesus used crops in Matthew 13:24-30 to teach about the kingdom of heaven. Part of verse 30 is, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and …… say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares … but gather the wheat into my barn”. The reapers are similar to the ‘labourers’ (of Matthew 9:37) which is ergatēs (er-gat’-ace): ‘a toiler; figuratively a teacher’. The ‘labourers’ are actually teachers of His word! The word ‘harvest’ is therismos (ther-is-mos’) Thayer Definition: ‘harvest, the act of reaping a. fig. of the gathering of men into the kingdom of God b. referring to time of reaping, the final judgment, when the righteous are gathered into the kingdom of God and the wicked are cast into hell for ever’. Strong’s Definition: ‘reaping, that is, the crop’. Can all G.O.s sincerely say, from the deepest heart of their hearts, that every person heading every one of the branch of churches is truly called of God to head those churches? Does the famous G.O. of RCCG know all his pastors? I believe he does not recruit all his pastors personally, neither does he test their credibility and ability to head his churches. Who knows, some of the heads of small churches probably do not speak in tongues, making them, at least some of them, unqualified to pastor his so many (tens of thousands) churches? So, how does a very few available labourers get multiplied to be thrust forth to keep the vineyards that spring up in every fifth house in all the millions of streets in Nigeria?                    (…to be continued…)

to read part two click here