As said before on this humble corner of the web, nominal Christianity is in a very fluid state of change.
Pope Francis is reaching out to different groups in a way, it seems, no pope has done before. His conciliatory positions have led people to describe him as “the people’s pope” and “a pope for everyone”.
More and more denominations are endorsing and/or performing same-sex marriages or civil unions.
Mega-churches that have no firm doctrines, but mainly serve as social and community service hubs for attendees, have become popular.
Many churches are changing their teaching of hell, transforming it into an ethereal “state of mind” of eternal separation from God’s love.
Polls conducted in recent years by the Pew Research Centre revealed surprising results; 38 percent of Christians polled say Jesus Christ definitely or probably will never return to earth; only 33 percent of Christians polled believe that the Bible is the Word of God and to be interpreted literally.
65 percent of Christians polled believe that there are multiple paths to eternal life. Among this group, 80 percent believe at least one non-Christian religion (such as Judaism or Islam) could lead to eternal life.
Essentially, Christianity is heavily impacted by the social and cultural trends of today’s world and mainstream Christianity has clearly evolved within the last few decades.
In Africa, issues like homosexuality, the second coming, eschatology and other various conventional theological issues have not posed serious threats to the Church.
However, issues to do with sexual scandals, anointments, baptism conflicts, healing and other miracle-working practices have rocked most contemporary evangelical churches and divided opinions and left tongues wagging.
Just when we thought we’ve had enough, another charismatic cleric is in the spotlight for some bizarre reasons.
While we normally observe baptism with water – at least this was what people thought – a pastor believed to be Nigerian stunned many people recently when he challenged this norm by using soft drinks to baptise his disciples.
In a video which has since gone viral, the relatively young unidentified man of the cloth stood on a podium while his church members walked up to him one after the other. They presented him with bottles of soft drinks and he poured him right on their bodies.
The members came prepared to the church premises as they are putting on flimsy clothes.
The pastor even had an assistant who helped him baptise his folks with these carbonated liquids.
One can not make this up. Watch the video below.
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