Wear sackcloth and ashes

Bishop Blair joins calls for Jamaica to repent

Founder of the Deliverance Evangelistic Association Bishop Herro Blair has reinforced the urgency for national repentance as Jamaica strays further away from God to pursue other gods, including the gods of material wealth and worldly pleasures.

“God says my people must get down in prayer and fasting, in sackcloth and ashes,” he told the congregation at the Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre in Kingston on Sunday during a sermon in which he lamented how depraved societies have become.

The senior clergyman pointed to the need for personal repentance and for people to walk in obedience to God’s voice. This call has come from other members of the clergy in recent times.

“Now it would appear as if we have forgotten God, and it is just the very few that will lift up their eyes to the hills from whence cometh their help, and I implore you to, as a country today, return to God,” the pastor pleaded.Wear sackcloth and ashes

Bishop Blair’s sermon resonated as a backdrop to Jamaica’s 62nd year of independence celebrations. He noted that God has blessed the country materially, geographically, and in academics. He called for Jamaicans to get back to the Biblical principles upon which the country was founded and to reject the false gods so noticeably present in society today.

Pointing to the disgraceful Paris Olympics opening ceremony, which, among other things, saw Jesus and his 12 disciples being represented by a woman and members of the LGBTQI community, Bishop Blair said he hardly wanted to watch the games. The clergyman also pointed to the mainstreaming of the LGBTQI ideals in the games, referencing the gender row involving Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whose opponent, Italian Angela Carini, withdrew from their match shortly after entering the ring. The International Boxing Association (IBA) maintains that Khelif is biologically male, but the International Olympics Committee said he was eligible to contest in the women’s boxing competition.

“I never knew I would live to see this kind of acceptability in the world, where a man just get up one morning and say, you know what, I stop wearing brief; give me a panty to put on. I guess you understand me better. Sorry to go down that lane, but that is what is happening in the world,” he said before declaring, “Somebody is going to answer to God for the depravity, for the acceptability of the decadence that is in our nation.”

“I’m not going to tell you that it’s an earthquake, I’m not going to tell you that it is going to be a storm, I’m not going to tell you that it is going to be World War 3, but somebody is going to pay the consequence for allowing that woman to sit down there and represent Jesus Christ at the Lord Supper table,” he said.

Bishop Blair confessed that he had allowed his congregation to watch the Olympics during church, but just as he was pondering whether to do this again, he found out that star sprinters Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had pulled out of their races. This resulted in Tia Clayton being the sole Jamaican participant in the 100-meter final. The pastor noted that the teenager did “excellent,” to which the congregants applauded. Jamaica did not medal in the race, which it dominated in the past.

“We have come to the place where we idolise athletic excellence, and I’m not saying this is the reason why they [didn’t] win…But you see, when we take our athletics and our athletes to the place where we switch them [for] God, sorry to say it, but God say thou shall have no other gods before me. I hate to say it, but any time you switch your worship, God is going to do something to your god,” he said.

Bishop Blair said material wealth has also caused many to reject the God that has blessed us as a nation. Instead of worshipping God, people have started to worship the money they have been blessed with. The god of worldly pleasure has also crept into the church. He lamented that many find it difficult to attend services, prayer meetings, and Sunday school. Given access to online services through the YouTube platform, there are those who find it challenging even to attend church, and hinted at changes he intends to make at his church given this reality.

“Lock it down and come to church. I don’t care what anybody wants to stay; I’m going to stop live broadcasting,” he declared.

Although Jamaica is in a main earthquake zone, the pastor noted that the country has been spared the levels of destruction meted out to other nations. Jamaicans, he advised, should never forget that to whom much is given, much is required.

“God is using this country in many ways, but unless we return to the Biblical principles upon which this nation was founded, we may have already witnessed the high water mark of our national glory!” he said.