The word of the Lord came to me: O Mortal, speak to your people and say to them: If I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take one of their number as their sentinel, and if the sentinel sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if any who hear the sound of the trumpet do not take warning and the sword comes and takes them away, their blood shall be upon their own heads. They heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; their blood shall be upon themselves. But if they had taken warning, they would have saved their lives. But if the sentinel sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any of them, they are taken away in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at the sentinel’s hand. So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Ezekiel 33:1-9
STORY
The Saturnalia Carnival of Brazil is celebrated for five days before Ash Wednesday. The carnival is the most popular holiday in Brazil and unifies the country. It is celebrated throughout the country, but most noticeably in the coastal cities. On display is Brazilian culture with parades, bands, costumes, dances, and street parties known as bloco. The festivities are intense, day and night. The climax of the festivities occurs on the afternoon of Ash Wednesday, when the floats, dancers, and musicians march down the center of the Sambadrome stadium, which was purposely built for the Rio de Janeiro carnival. Saturnalia Carnival is a celebration of the Greek god Dionysus – the god of wine. In 2018, Rio de Janeiro’s carnival alone drew 6 million people, with 1.5 million being foreigners.
In recent years the church has used the carnival as an opportunity to evangelize the secularized and unbelieving revelers, with an alternative “Gospel Carnival” in cities. As public debauchery is ever present, churches also organize spiritual retreats to remove children and teenagers from cities.
One of the most active Gospel Carnival groups has been Jovens com uma Missao, known as JOCUM, the Brazilian branch of the U.S. organization Youth With A Mission. According to Thiago Oliveira Carvalho, a missionary who has been working with the group for 25 years, the Carnival is “a great opportunity to announce the Gospel to people who need a genuine encounter with Jesus. People go to those parties looking for happiness. But all the Carnival offers is a temporary joy. We understand that sick people are the ones who need a doctor. That’s why we decided to be present there.”
In cities JOCUM organize a Christian bloco, with festivalgoers who sing and play typical Carnival instruments but represent the church. While most blocos feature marchers wearing sexy outfits and drinking alcohol, everybody with JOCUM bloco wear T-shirts and show no sign of inebriation. Carvalho said, “People don’t expect that somebody will talk about Jesus amid that party. But that’s what Jesus used to do.”
This evangelical strategy was behind a major incident at this year’s Carnival, which ended on Wednesday, February 14, that occurred in the coastal city of Salvador, when Ivete Sangalo, a star of axe, a music genre that combines reggae and samba, among other rhythms, saluted Baby do Brasil, a rock legend from the 1970s who converted to Evangelicalism in the 1990s.
Interrupting the concert in full swing on her trio eletrico, a parade float with a powerful sound system, Sangalo turned the mic over to Baby, who unexpectedly, to Sangalo’s surprise, called on the audience to repent of their sin when she announced, “Everyone must pay attention because we are getting closer to the apocalypse. The rapture has everything to happen between five and 10 years. Seek the Lord while you can.”
When atheist Sangalo replied, quoting her hit “Banging,” that her fans would “bang” the apocalypse, a video of the brief exchange went viral, with some Brazilians criticizing Baby’s speech as inappropriate for Carnival, and others calling Sangalo disrespectful of Christians.
The next day, an accident involving Sangalo’s float injured two people, which some evangelicals deemed an act of divine justice.
DEVOTION
As I was reading the Bible this morning as a part of my morning devotions, I read the story of Ezekiel being appointed as a watchman over the Hebrews. I realized how apropos it was for the devotional I was composing today. It is a story that is rarely associated with evangelism, when in fact, in this case, the prophet is an evangelist. He is summoning the Hebrews to reintroduce God into their lives and make the Creator foremost in their society. Failure to do this will result in God’s judgment upon the chosen people, when in fact, we know, as a result of apostasy, the Hebrews were actually judging themselves.
Baby do Brasil was being a watchman when she called the humanists in the coastal city of Salvador to repent.
As Christians we are appointed to be a watchman over the small environment in which we dwell. I realize that I have little to no impact on national or world affairs; though, in Florence where I dwell, in the Baptist church where I fellowship with other men every Wednesday morning, at the Salvation Army where I currently worship and study, in my neighborhood of Foxcroft, and in the local establishments that I frequent, I can make a difference.
Beyond voting for Nikki Haley in this coming South Carolina’s Republican primary, I am unable to quiet the bombastic and uncouth voice of Donald Trump, nor can I give Joe Biden a moral compass. A hemisphere separates me from the war in Ukraine, and I have no influence to end the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Perhaps I have a more substantial pro-life voice than I am aware of, though, for the most part, my declaration that life begins at conception will go unheeded. Yet, to those who daily brush against my elbow and know not the name of Jesus, I can be a watchman calling them to repent for the apocalypse is nearer, perhaps nearer than we realize.
George Bowen was born in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1816. He was an American missionary, newspaper man, linguist, and translator in India. He was known as “The White Saint of India” for his resemblance in manner and dress to a Hindu holy man.
As a young man, Bowen was an infidel. After eleven years feeding his mind with atheist literature, he was deeply impressed by the joy he saw in a young woman who discovered Christ on her deathbed. He prayed that God, if there were a God, would show him what to do. Shortly afterward, a librarian gave him William Paley’s book Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity by mistake, as he had requested another book. He read a little, was impressed by the power of Paley’s arguments, and finished the book. His arguments against Christianity crumbled and he yielded to Christ, renouncing his wealth and becoming a missionary in Bombay, where he lived in absolute dependence on God.
In 1873 he published a devotional book tilted Daily Meditations. Reflecting on the scriptural passage Matthew 18:20, which reads, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them,” the missionary wrote: We cross the sea and land to visit holy places. We exult to look upon the wretched city that bears the name of the place where Christ was condemned to death. We say, “This stream he crossed, this mountain he stood upon, this valley he traversed, this shore he visited, in this town he was born, in this place he was brought up.” But the question, Where is Christ to be found now” is far more important than the question, where he once was.
Let us stand atop the float that parades though the communities where we reside, taking the microphone, proclaiming, “Everyone must pay attention because we are getting closer to the apocalypse. Seek the Lord while you can.”