Of the remnant, false prophets and Elvis Mbonye

As I was musing over them and their implications and hoping that someone would respond to generate some debate, I read another interesting article in the Observer newspaper dated November 29,2023 from a Ugandan scholar based in Australia. I was elated. He was writing an intellectual response to the thesis about false prophets that Mbonye had put across. He remained academically respectful and I could say intellectual. Hurray!

My joy stems from the fact there was, (and how I pray it continues) an intellectual debate in the mainstream media platforms about important issues of faith and practice. What we have been treated to and is most common has been pastors and Religious leaders berating each other in public aided by social media or using their personal owned mediums like radios and TV’s to tear down each other, most of the time with not much logic or intellectual content.

This coupled with other factors to do with practice have led to Christianity generally being viewed as not having any important things to say to the world on significant issues of life.

I am one of those who still believe that in spite of emergence of other platforms, the mainstream media still has the upper hand in informing and shaping society. This dilemma for the most part lies on us the Christians who have not done service to our king in representing him well as his witnesses (acts1:8).

The Jesus we follow still remains the brightest man by furthest to have ever lived. And I mean intellectually! And our faith is based on reason, fact and reality. So whatever causes ridicule to our faith does not only threaten our faith but society as well which will be forced to disregard or ignore Christ in their quest to answer its pressing questions of life. Then as Jesus is no longer given as the answer or the best option possible, darkness grips us with strongholds in systems that have evil sources.

Having said that, I would like to join in on this important debate and offer a few thoughts. You never know, I might be invited to a debate with Mbonye about life in Christ the false ideas that have been propagated by today’s fake prophets.

First and foremost, in Mbonye’s first article about the remnant, which was a good piece by the way, I felt that by singling out a group and labeling that group “the remnant”, with a definite article, it becomes exclusive and therefore a fallacy.

Like Elijah found out, the prerogative to declare one a remnant rests in God alone because only He alone knows those who are His, those that have not bent their knee to Baal so to speak.

Secondly, it cannot be that all who come to a particular fellowship are part of the remnant of God because there are even non-believers and other people who may identify with a particular small group for other reasons other than God. So then if the prerequisite for being called a remnant is identifying with a certain group, then surely that will not be the remnant of God. Usually this is a good environment for cultic tendencies where the definition and identity is limited and narrowed down to what the leader or a small group says and not necessarily what God says. History has examples!

Let me provide a few biblical examples of the remnants. It is true that God has a remnant whenever there is great apostasy or sliding away from God.

The first one that we see is Noah who listens to God’s voice and builds an ark at the time when no one was listening (Genesis 6:8), then we have Job, of whom God said there was none like him on earth at the time, and he endured untold suffering but stayed true to God even when the wife thought it was pointless to trust God (Job 1:8), then Elijah and the 7,000 in Israel when most of Israel was into idol worship (1 Kg18:22), then you have Daniel and his friends (Dan1:8-16) and then the unnamed in Revelations 3:4.  These chapters are powerful and insightful as regards false teaching, false prophets and living a lie in the name of God and how the remnants look like!

There are key features of God’s remnant that we can draw from the rich list below:

First and foremost, they are keen on God’s glory and seek to honor Him with everything they are and have. Secondly, they are not seeking their own honor or vain glory for that matter. They are not pointing to themselves but away to Christ and God Acts 14:14.

Thirdly, they are not seeking for material benefit, comfort or profit but are willing to sacrifice these and even their own lives for the sake of God.

 Sometimes like Elijah, we are tempted for many reasons among which may be human pride and our tendency to self-exulting to think that we are the ones, the only ones! But like God taught Elijah, that assumption is likely to lead us to wrong conclusions about ourselves and how important we are and even about God and what he is doing.

Or like Jesus points out in Mathew 7:21-23, it is possible to be calling him Lord-to prophesy in his name, cast out demons in his name and do many mighty works or miracles when he does not know you. This of course puts in perspective whether prophesies and miracles would prove whether one is a remnant or true prophet. Jesus says that it possible for workers of lawlessness to do these and therefore descend in a delusion, self-delusion of course! Sadly, it seems the kind will only be awakened by the master denying knowledge of them at the end.

But there is a question that still lingers in my mind as I conclude, who are the spiritually questionable according to Mbonye? He seems to point out legalism as the main feature of this fallen church, and I agree that this was a great problem right from the early church which the Apostle Paul fought to correct in Galatians and other letters. But there is another pitfall and extreme which is antinomianism- basically the opposite of the legalism that apostle John fought in his first letter as did many of the other New Testament writers. Here people are against law, any law of God and end up living in disobedience. Jesus put it simply that those who love him will obey his commandments. It seems to me that character and the people we become would be the best test of whether we are questionable or not, on whether we are on God’s side on not and on whether we are the remnant or not.

I would be glad if Mbonye would shed some light on the “questionable spiritually” because I think therein lies the difference.

The author, Kafuruka Bamanyisa, is a pastor, bible scholar and social worker)