Must You Be A Christian/Muslim Before You Make Heaven?By Festus Ogun

As I have always argued and as our elders have said, this world is a market place and we are certainly going back home, at least one day. Marketers are definitely sojourners, returning home, thus, become inevitable. It is a popular argument that anyone who is neither a Muslim nor Christian will find it very difficult to make heaven, the same way Buhari finds it difficult to govern Nigeria. In fact, many of the so called believers see those who practice 'no religion', so to speak, as sinners. They believe that these set of people are ‘people of the world’ while they are people of God. This line of thinking or believe is however very fallacious!

I once asked them: is Ogun-lakaye my ancestor, who is one of the traditional Yoruba ancestral saints not going to heaven? The answer given is always in negative. I need not say anything than to laugh at religious blindness, brainwashness(if there is anything like that) and sheer ignorance.

Let's start from here: does going to Church/Mosque make you a good person? Does being a Christian or Muslim make your life a better one? What is even the essence of Church/Mosque-going? The answer to these questions is in need of address as a matter of urgency. Why? It is strictly because many of us have been brainwashed and misled by the erroneous beliefs we have about non Church or Mosque goers. The truth is, not going to religious houses, I call it, seem to be the best decision in this world. In this society of ours, it is not very uncommon to see 'non-religious' persons living good and close-to-perfect lives. The implication of this is that: going to church or mosque is only one in a million ways to make heaven.

Few hours are spent in religious houses and this minutes spent is not the visa to heaven. Let's look at the life the church and mosque goers live; then, compare and contrast it with that of the non-religious. What’s the result? Your guess, I'm sure, is as good as mine. It is expedient to note that non-religiousness is not synonymous to evil doing. People in the society have, for long, mistaken those who attend no church or mosque as dirty, ugly and evil doers. This thinking too is very misleading and far from the bitter truth. There are many of the non-religious ones who live very good lives and are very observant of God’s commandments.


In our country today, most of those caught with criminal, evil and bitter acts are religious people. We read in pages of newspapers how the so-called people of God turn out to be tool of evil. Whereas the non-religious ones are living their ‘coded’ and peaceful lives. Pastors, Alfa's, Imams, Reverend's, in fact, all categories of the “word” people of God are some of the very true evil doers and promoter of wickedness in our society.

Look! Yes, I mean, look at me very carefully. Some if what we have in this country are group of pretenders and liars hiding under the roofs of religious houses. They only pack their best cloths on Fridays and Sundays just to show the world they are believers. You see, we need to look beyond all these outward signs. How is the behavior? What’s his attitude toward his fellow men? Any relationship between the places he goes to and his character? Is there any?

See, many of those parading themselves as Christians and Muslims are not all going to make that heaven. In fact, with what holds, a large percentage of those that attends religious houses may not really make that heaven. They don’t practice what they profess. Where then is that person whom cancer has stricken the oral cavity, who can be bold enough to say that non-Christians or Muslims won’t make heaven? Making heaven or not is a choice which can only be chosen by the works of our hand and the meditation of our hearts and not going to one architecturally designed house. Yes, house!

On the final analysis, let me state here that: this piece is not written to discourage church or mosque goers – for I am a Christian, at least by birth and somewhat by inclination. It is written strictly to correct the impression that ‘those whose religious house is their hearts” will certainly not make heaven. It is not true. Going to church or mosque, I repeat, is just one in a million way of making heaven, not a visa!

Thanks.

I welcome and promise to reply only constructive criticism from someone that have read through the lines of this unreasonable( as some will say) piece.

Thanks for reading once again.

*Festus Ogun*
festusoguntv@gmail.com
08162568689


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