A scripture teacher, Rabbai Chukwunweike Ugochukwu, of the City of Messianic Kingdom of Yahweh Ministry has attributed the major conflicts and challenges in the society to too much religion.
Ugochukwu took the stand while addressing the media in Enugu on Thursday as part of activities to mark the commencement of a New Year by the Messianics across the world.
He said rather than being spiritual, the society was filled with religious people, describing it as the major cause of hatred, conflicts and all manners of ills.
According to him, “The role the ministry is playing is to tell the world the truth; a lot of us are religious people but not spiritual.
“Messianics help you to be spiritual; to read in between the lines but not to profess religion- it goes beyond the issue of I’m of this congregation, this sect and all of that; how do you relate with your neighbour; how do you relate with the society, how do you help your neighbour who is in need, there is so much suffering around; people are wailing, people can’t eat, how do you help to make things better
“Leave the issue of whether you are a member of one religious sect or another- I don’t want to call the names of various groups, how do you relate with people who are from other sects?
“The problems in the society, acrimony, fights are because people are not spiritual, they are just religious people. If you look at Messianics the way they are, we interact with everyone very well, this is because we are spiritual.”
While throwing more light on the New Year celebration, he said a lot of facts in the scripture had been distorted in the course of transliteration.
“There are Messianics all over the world; we believe that Y’shua is the king of the world; we tell people the truth; we are not religious.
“People modify things to suit their own ministry but we say it the way it is kept by the King of the Universe, Y’shua and his father Yahweh.
“By the Jewish calendar, we are celebrating the New year, we are not following the regular calendar which we have now- 2023.
“What we follow is the Jewish calendar; which is the calendar of old, from the creation of the world till now and we are about to enter a new year, 5784.
“If you look at the gregorian calendar, you will see that the normal calendar is 3761 years before the gregorian calendar; of course all of us know how the gregorian calendar was formed in Rome.
“So, we are entering a new year called 5784 and there is a celebration that usually comes; just like when we enter the new year, everybody is always happy; it is coming up from the sunset of 15th of September to the 17th of September,” he said.
The scripture teacher urged the members of the society to “be spiritual not religious; be at peace with your neighbour. Y’shua has come to help his people.
“But we have to work, you need to work for six days, but on the 7th day rest and He will come to give you grace; whatever you do, every man will get the result of his actions.”