THE ABSOLUTE GOD

Pastor Martin Ssempa of Makerere Community Church – Uganda has once again reiterated his call for societies around the world to embrace godliness and beware of the dangers of abandoning God as severe. He particularly called upon the western nations like America, Canada, France, Netherlands and other European nations to turn back to God. “You shall have no other gods before me,” is the first commandment in the Ten Commandments given to Moses to bring to the children of Israel after their deliverance from the land of captivity (Egypt). This law formed the basis of pastor Ssempa’s sermon on Sunday 17th January 2010. According to pastor Ssempa, many societies around the world today have no regard for God. “They do this because they do not have the absolute anywhere in the universe and without the absolute, one can not really have anything as morals. For them, everything is relative; they have no real circle of law.” There’s therefore no circle inside which is right in contrast to that which is outside.” This is not true to Christians who strongly hold it that God does exist and he has a character. There are things which are outside the commandments he has given us as the expression of his character.

Quoting from exodus 22:20, he emphasized that the consequence of worshipping other gods as death. This serves as a strong warning to the world which has increasingly distanced itself from God by embracing relativism. He defined God variously as:
¨ A being of supernatural powers or attributes believed in and worshipped by people.
¨ A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, originator, and ruler of the universe, the principle object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.
Capitalizing on the Ten Commandments he said that society needs laws to check on human excesses. Man when in absolute freedom is bound to ruin him self and therefore the need for necessary checks and balances which can only be brought to life by the recognition of an absolute God who bears the ultimate truth about our existence. He compared human behavior to a wild horse that is out of control and needs to be bridled in a given direction by establishing necessary laws. “For instance, marriage is the proper circle for sexual relationships. The relative morality has no absolute and no legal circle and so find no set boundaries,” said the aggressive Pastor Ssempa. To rid the world of this madness that is reflected in many perversions like adultery, fornication, corruption, homosexuality among others is to come back to God and live in accordance with his word.

Pastor Ssempa also regretted that many Christians today do not want to identify themselves as Christians. They are ashamed of their God. He admired a Daniel type of Christians who can not abandon their God despite thee difficulties they go through. He admired a model of Christians who are willing to defend the truth up to the bitter end even if it means death. He reiterated his resolve to fight homosexuality and never to cowardice despite the much pressure on him to give up the war against sodomy. In Uganda we celebrate on 1st of June martyrs day – a day in commemoration of young people who defied the orders of the king of Buganda to engage in homosexuality as a normal human practice. As if he had been motivated by these, he continued to express his convictions as to why he should continue doing what he is doing. Indeed most operations of the church are out touch with the social realities and have not adequately addressed the social needs of the people hence being irrelevant. Referring to the late king Martin Luther junior he said, “I refuse to be part of an irrelevant church.”

Commenting on the Christian – Muslim relationship that has gone sour in many parts of the world like Nigeria and Sudan he said it’s not necessary. Christians and Muslims preach different faith but can find grounds of commonality especially when dealing with issues that threaten out moral fabric as a society like homosexuality. “We learn from each other,” said pastor Ssempa. But in fulfilling the great commission, we should preach to them and encourage them to know Christ. We should also listen to them and hear from them what they want to tell us about their faith. The frequent chaos in northern Nigeria between Christians and Muslims are totally unnecessary.