Dimapur, October 29 (MExN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) on Saturday raised a few concerns prevalent in the state including what it termed as a ‘serious concern’ regarding “the infiltration of heretical teaching” in schools and church youth groups.
In a press release, NBCC General Secretary Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho recalled that the Council had raised similar concerns two years ago about the ‘Church of Almighty God,’ which according to him, has been “using credible Christian organizations to lure your people into their teachings.”
“It is always difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood. What the cult usually do is build their case from the truth of the Bible. But when a person shows interest in the teaching, they slowly decode the fundamental truth in the fundamental belief system and replace with new teachings to suit their interest,” Rev Keyho maintained.
The council has warned the school authorities to watch out for such groups coming and getting in touch with the students in the guise of counselling, conducting chapel and running camps for the student community. We must be on our guard, he added.
Further, the NBCC General Secretary pointed out that Nagaland is in the year of celebrating the third Jubilee year in Nagaland.
He noted that the “Gospel came to our land through the soil of the Aos,” and accordingly, the Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang (ABAM) is all geared to celebrate Sesquicentennial, the coming of Christianity in Ao Naga soil from November 1-3, 2022.
“With few days left for the celebration, the order from the government for all the AHoD and HoD to be in station for the visit of the President has created undue stress and regret at this juncture. The church will certainly not impose its program on the state in this matter. However, since the preparation for the celebration has been long planned it has created an uneasy situation where many of the ABAM members will not be able to attend the jubilee celebration,” the release stated.
Stating that the ABAM Sesquicentennial celebration is not only historic to the Ao community but also to the whole state in Nagaland, the NBCC requested the government to make a viable alternative and allow the community to celebrate free from interference.
“Christianity is 150 years old in our state and this gives us the reason to celebrate God’s faithfulness in the lives of our people and the church. We must never forget that Nagaland is a Christian majority state and we have all the reason to celebrate the history of Christianity,” Rev Keyho stated in the release.
