Defeated Christian:Can a Christian be defeated?

Standard People
Paulo Coelho once stated: “Only he who gives up is defeated, everyone else is victorious”, and this quote perfectly strikes a chord in Tererai Maposa’s debut literary offering titled Defeated Christian — A Great Paradox.

Author:Tererai Tinashe Maposa

ISBN:978-1-77925-977-6

Launched: June 2021

Paulo Coelho once stated: “Only he who gives up is defeated, everyone else is victorious”, and this quote perfectly strikes a chord in Tererai Maposa’s debut literary offering titled Defeated Christian — A Great Paradox.

Maposa is a born-again Methodist Revival Church pastor, engineer and entrepreneur running LADS Africa —a tech-centred firm working with local authorities in Zimbabwe. His book Defeated Christian — A Great Paradox addresses fundamental issues that affect many Christians.He defines a “defeated Christian” as a born-again Christians who is still living like a non-believer.

Undoubtedly, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted not only in the physical closure of places of worship, but also posed one of the greatest litmus test to the entire Christian religion all over the world. To make matters worse, companies shut resulting in retrenchments, loss of jobs and livelihood to many Christians. While Christianity is the dominant religion in Zimbabwe and most part of the world, most Christians are mere church goers who might be undergoing several challenging times with God.

At the beginning of the book (in Chapter One), the author capture’s the reader’s attention through the parable of the prodigal son,an essential literary technique, which arouses the reader’s interest in the book as he turns the parable into a sermon,

The son ship status did not change because he had wandered away.It is only that he had departed from his father’s presence and the father could not fellowship with him.Same with you,you might have stumbled but God is still your father and he is waiting for you with open arms (pp2)

The book lays out the characteristics of a “defeated Christian” which include being ignorant of the Word of God, holding onto the past, wrong focus, bitterness and prayerlessness as some of the traits, which need to be addressed if one is to emerge as a“victorious Christian”.

Moreover, the author also bares his soul and intertwines his personal experiences and message and in the process reveals that although he is a minister of the word of God, he too was once “defeated” before being born-again towards the end of 2002,

I was born-again during the third term of 2002 around November. I was doing my Lower 6 at a boarding school called Mount Selinda High School in Chipinge. It was during the evening Scripture Union session when a guy called Mlambo preached about “The reality of hell”.  I was so terrified it was my first time to hear about hell and I told myself I needed to mend my ways. By then I was a naughty boy, I would sneak out of school with my crew to do all sorts of mischief. I gave my life to Christ that evening. (pp 22)

Maposa’s main message in the Defeated Christian — A Great Paradox proves that there is no perfect Christian nor do we have a “defeated Christian”, but that as long as one has “truly accepted” Jesus Christ as their personal saviour, there is no way that one can be defeated. He further states that the moment a Christian think they have achieved it all is the moment they start falling.As such, everyday is a continuous learning process. He summarises this philosophy by quoting Michael Scott who said: “The day we stop learning is the day we die.”

As such the Defeated Christian — A Great Paradox is a book for three types of Christians.

Firstly, the “trapped in transition” Christians — those who once belonged to the world and have come to light although their mindset keeps impeding them. It is a call for them to truly accept Jesus Christ as their personal saviour.

Secondly, the “sincere miserable” Christians — those who have heard about Christ, accepted him, but suffers from ignorance and do not know the arsenal and authority at their disposal. It is a call for all to shun ignorance and to invest in reading God’s Word.

Finally, the “victorious” Christians — those who live a victorious life commanding adversity out of their way and are a living testimony of the goodness of the Lord.

The writer Fungayi Sox is a Harare-based communications consultant specialising in book editing, education, personal development, digital media technologies and publishing.

He can be contacted on +263 776 030 949, follow him on Twitter @AntonySox or connect with him on LinkedIn on Fungayi Antony Sox.

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