An Assessment of the Doctrine of Salvation in the Assemblies of God Church, Nigeria and Her Challenges in the 21st Century

Abstract

ASSEMBLIES OF GOD CHURCH is one of the Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria which emphasizes the gift of the Holy Spirit and doctrine of salvation. The paper sought to find out why such a Church known for Spiritual gift and salvation is experiencing pronounced leadership crisis and moral decadence. The objectives of the paper therefore was to consider some of the challenges the Church is facing in the 21st century and its effects on the spiritual life of her members. This paper adopted historical and analytical method of approach to achieve the objectives in order to analyse the unpleasant issues and challenges faced by the Church in the 21st century. It was discovered that some of the issues confronting the doctrine of salvation in the Church included, ethnicity, misunderstanding of the issues raised by the Frontiers (Body of Ambassadors) and various charges levied against Rev. Paul Emeka, the General Superintendent of the Church. Again, that loss of focus on spiritual matters, misappropriation of Church funds, lack of trust among the leaders, witch hunting, and lack of sense of accountability. The effects included fighting and rivalry among top leaders, internal schism and break into splinter groups in the Church, distrust among leaders, decline in spiritual fervency of the members, lack of respect for the Church and the name of Jesus Christ by non members of the Church.The paper concluded that the Church should act fast in getting to know that only the beginning of any crisis is known; but no one knows how it will end. hence, the Frontiers should come to an agreed terms with other members of the Church, so as to allow peace to reign. The issues at stake should be quickly and properly addressed by the Frontiers and other key leaders. Lessons should be learnt from the crisis and the Church leadership must be proactive and ensure that a reoccurrence is avoided. The paper recommended that crisis could be resolved by revisiting the Church constitution; that leadership should have a well written articulated consensus; also that major matters of the Church and issues of ethnicity should be well addressed. It was also recommended that there should be a working committee of elderly and spiritually filled individuals within and outside the denomination that would ensure dialogue between the warring parties. The constitution of the Church should be reviewed to accommodate righteousness, perseverance and uprightness. There should also be clarity of ambiguities; and encourage the members to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and not to the leaders in words only. Keywords: Sin, Salvation, Assemblies of God, Leadership Crisis