By PATRICK  CHAPOTAMO –

THIS year marks 23 years since the late president Chiluba, led by the spirit of God, declared this country as a Christian Nation. Oxford Dictionary defines a declaration as a “formal or explicit statement or announcement: Example, a declaration of love or a formal announcement of the beginning of a state or condition.”
Since that time late President Chiluba declared Zambia as a Christian Nation, the euphoria that followed was of a divided pattern.
On one hand, some non-religious intellectuals argued on the premises that the mere declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation would disadvantage most of the non-Christians in the nation. They didn’t like it. They campaigned to have the declaration reversed.
On the other hand, the Christians from every corner of this nation had a feeling of total victory in all areas of human endeavour. Many believers were quick to quote Romans 8:31: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us.”
Some went to an extent of thinking when we lack, the Lord will deliver us, as He did in Exodus 17 vs.6 when He told Moses that “behold, I will stand before you there on the Rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”
Numbers 20:11 records how Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and how the community and their livestock drank.
In Zambia, to this day, all that was wished for in terms of the Lord’s provisions has not manifested as was expected in line with what God did with the children of Israel, leaving many to ask if the declaration alone was worthy or it has made us worse than before.
A search on Christian literature revealed that quite a number of countries are dominated by Christians. Meaning, the average person in those countries believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is having a relationship with God; the relationship with God which comes through God’s generosity towards us in Jesus.
Some of the nations of the world today standing as “Christian nations” includes Armenia, which happened to be the first nation in the world that accepted Christianity as a State religion in 301 AD. Roman Empire accepted Christianity in 313 AD, and Georgia was the third country. Others include Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Greece, Venezuela, Grenada, Vatican City, Moldova, Italy and Ukraine but to mention a few.
To understand the purpose a nation can be declared “Christian” is maybe to borrow from the nation America that was founded upon the Christian and biblical principles, whose values, society and institutions have largely been shaped by those principles in the past. Though there’s no argument that the same Christian principles that America was founded on are widely ignored now.
What then is the expectation of the nation whose Lord is God? A Christian Nation?
Walking in the dealings of God to Old Testament Israel brings us to the lessons that will be of importance. These lessons will be viewed in two dimensions. How the Lord God treats His children when they obey Him and how He treats them when they stray away from Him.
The word of God in Leviticus 26 vs.3 continues with the Lord’s promised rewards for obedience to His people when they walk in His ways.
He says “if you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. 5. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. 6. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and sword will not pass through your country.7. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by your sword before you.
From these promises, we can conclude that the nation whose Lord is God is surely protected and provided for by Him alone. They won’t lack because He cares for all of them and His protection covers them.
Yet again the Old Testament is full of situations pointing to Israel’s repeated failure to obey God and refusal to keep God’s commandments and statutes.
The Bible in Psalm 78 vs. 40-41 is telling us how often the children of Israel provoked God in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! It goes on in 41 to say “Yes again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy one of Israel. 42. They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
Looking at verse 40 itself, you will realise that these people were in the wilderness. And in the wilderness like any other place or situation where you cannot figure out the way out, the total dependence can always be placed on the one knowing and leading the way out. In this case, they needed to depend on God for not just their supplies but also their directions in all areas.
This same God they provoked. Not once, they did it many times. And many times His patience with them was surpassing their provocation. Who can sincerely count the many provocations that we subject our God to as a Nation? In the way we treat His people in our communities (the poor)? In the way we talk on any issues affecting us? In the way we conduct ourselves?
Are we far off as a nation Zambia, from the very things that He says He hates in Proverbs 6:16-19? These things He says are detestable to Him.
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in community. We can quickly make an assessment of our actions, the language we use and the thoughts we harbour in our minds. Is Zambia today guilty of this sin?
The word of God in Hebrews 13 vs. 8 says “Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do we expect God to have double standards? Does He deal with others with the different scales and yet again use other scales on us?
The declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation by our Late President Frederick Jacob Chiluba in December 1991 was the best thing to have dawned onto this nation. But it’s not the end itself. The nation needs to cry to its Lord who’s God.
The nation needs to repent of its sin. The nation needs to be ready to be led by God. The nation needs to be obedient to God and only then will this declaration make sense.
In Deuteronomy 10:12, Moses speaking to Israel says “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, to love Him, to serve the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

(The author is a Pastor at Gospel Sowers Ministries, Kwacha Kitwe)