**CRS 001: OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES**
**Question 1**
Narrate how the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms and list the immediate causes.
**Question 2**
With copious examples, explain the significant features of the Minor Prophets.
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**CRS 002: NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES**
**Question 3**
Mention SEVEN and discuss any FOUR of the characteristics of Mark.
**Question 4**
(a) Do a critical analysis of the following religious personalities:
(i) Pharisees
(ii) Sadducees
(b) Indicate their points of disagreement.
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**CRS 003: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN WEST AFRICA**
**Question 5**
Clarify the term African Indigenous Churches (AICs) and state how they differ from the Mainline Churches.
**Question 6**
(a) What do you understand by proliferation of churches?
(b) Critically discuss FIVE of the factors that cause proliferation of churches in Nigeria.
(c) List THREE effects of proliferation of churches in Nigeria.
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**CRS 004: RELIGION AND SOCIETY**
**Question 7**
From individual and social points of view, what are the functions of religion?
**Question 8**
(a) Examine the effects of corruption on the Nigerian society.
(b) State FOUR Christian responses to corruption.
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## ANSWERS
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### CRS 001: OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES
**Answer 1 — Division of Israel into Two Kingdoms**
**Background**
During the reign of King Solomon, the people of Israel were subjected to heavy taxation and compulsory forced labour to fund Solomon's ambitious building projects, including the Temple, his palace, and other state structures. Upon Solomon's death, his son Rehoboam was set to succeed him.
**The Northern Tribes' Petition**
The southern tribe of Judah readily accepted Rehoboam as king. However, representatives of the northern tribes assembled at Shechem and presented a formal petition: if Rehoboam would reduce the burdens imposed by his father — the heavy taxes and forced labour — they would loyally serve him. Rehoboam asked them to return in three days while he deliberated.
**Counsel of the Elders**
Rehoboam first consulted the elders who had served Solomon. They advised him to respond to the people with kindness and accede to their request, arguing that a king who serves his people earns lasting loyalty.
**Counsel of the Young Men**
Rehoboam rejected the elders' counsel and turned instead to his young companions and peers. They advised a harsh, provocative response: that his little finger was thicker than his father's waist, and that whereas Solomon chastised them with whips, Rehoboam would chastise them with scorpions.
**The Rupture**
When the northern tribes returned on the third day and heard Rehoboam's contemptuous reply, they rejected his kingship with the cry: *"What portion have we in David? To your tents, O Israel!"* (1 Kings 12:16). They withdrew, recalled Jeroboam son of Nebat from Egypt — where he had fled Solomon's wrath — and crowned him king over the ten northern tribes, forming the Kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam retained authority only over Judah and Benjamin in the south, forming the Kingdom of Judah. This division took place around 930 BC and fulfilled the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings 11:29–39).
**Immediate Causes**
1. Rehoboam's outright rejection of the elders' wise counsel.
2. Rehoboam's harsh and arrogant reply to the northern tribes' legitimate petition.
3. The inflammatory advice of the young men that provoked the northern assembly.
4. Long-standing tribal discontent arising from Solomon's heavy taxation and forced labour policies.
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**Answer 2 — Significant Features of the Minor Prophets**
The Minor Prophets are the twelve prophetic books at the close of the Old Testament canon — Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They are termed "minor" not because of lesser importance but because of their shorter length compared to the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel). In the Hebrew Bible they form a single scroll, *The Book of the Twelve.* Their significant features include:
**1. Call to Repentance**
A dominant theme across the Twelve is the urgent summons to Israel, Judah, and surrounding nations to turn from sin and return to covenant faithfulness. Hosea called Israel to repent from spiritual adultery — their abandonment of God for Baal worship — framing God's relationship with Israel through the metaphor of his own marriage to the unfaithful Gomer. Joel, responding to a devastating locust plague, called the entire nation to solemn fasting and lamentation: *"Rend your hearts and not your garments"* (Joel 2:13).
**2. Condemnation of Social Injustice**
The Minor Prophets were bold critics of social sin. Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, thundered against the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy classes of Israel — merchants who used false balances, sold the needy for a pair of sandals, and trampled the heads of the poor into the dust (Amos 2:6–7, 8:4–6). Micah condemned dishonest rulers who hated justice and built Zion with bloodshed, as well as false prophets who led the people astray for financial gain (Micah 3:9–11).
**3. Warning of Divine Judgment**
The prophets pronounced the imminent judgment of God on nations that persisted in sin and rebellion. Nahum delivered an oracle of doom against Nineveh, capital of Assyria, cataloguing its cruelty and predicting its utter destruction — fulfilled in 612 BC when Babylon sacked the city (Nahum 3:1–7). Zephaniah's dominant theme is the *Day of the Lord* — a terrible day of wrath and distress — as divine punishment for Judah's idolatry and moral corruption (Zephaniah 1:14–18).
**4. Message of Hope and Eschatological Restoration**
Despite their sombre warnings, the Minor Prophets consistently close with oracles of hope, restoration, and future glory. Haggai encouraged the returned exiles to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, promising that the glory of the latter house would surpass that of Solomon's (Haggai 2:9). Zechariah, the most messianic of the Twelve, prophesied the coming of a humble king on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9 — fulfilled in the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus), the piercing of the shepherd (Zechariah 12:10), and the establishment of God's universal reign. Malachi pointed to the coming of Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible Day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5), a prophecy the New Testament identifies with John the Baptist.
**5. Use of Vivid Symbols and Imagery**
The Minor Prophets employed striking symbolic language and enacted parables. Hosea's own marriage to the prostitute Gomer was a living symbol of Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness to God and God's persistent, redeeming love. Zechariah received and recorded a series of eight night visions rich in apocalyptic symbolism — a man among myrtle trees, four horns and four craftsmen, a flying scroll, a woman in a basket — conveying divine messages through visual imagery (Zechariah 1–6). Amos employed rhetorical questions and images drawn from his rural background as a shepherd and sycamore-fig farmer.
**6. Emphasis on the Covenant and Covenant Obligations**
The prophets grounded their entire message in Israel's covenant relationship with God established at Sinai. They presented Israel's sins as covenant violations and her punishments as covenant curses (cf. Deuteronomy 28). Malachi specifically accused the priests of desecrating the covenant of Levi by offering blemished sacrifices and teaching falsehood (Malachi 2:1–9). Micah distilled covenant obligation into its essential moral demand: *"To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God"* (Micah 6:8).
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### CRS 002: NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
**Answer 3 — Seven Characteristics of Mark's Gospel; Discussion of Four**
**Seven Characteristics**
1. The Gospel of Action — frequent use of "immediately" (*euthys*)
2. The Messianic Secret — Jesus repeatedly commands silence about his identity until after the resurrection
3. Written for a Gentile (Roman) audience using simple, direct Greek
4. Strong emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit
5. Emphasis on the necessity of faith as a condition for healing
6. Emphasis on the importance of prayer in Jesus' ministry
7. Vivid, eyewitness-style detail suggesting Petrine source tradition
**Discussion of Four**
**i. Gospel of Action**
Mark's Gospel is characterised by relentless movement and urgency. The Greek adverb *euthys* ("immediately," "straightway") appears over forty times, giving the narrative a breathless pace. Jesus calls disciples and they immediately leave their nets; he casts out a demon and the fame of his power immediately spreads; he heals and the news immediately travels. This action-centred presentation of Jesus as a man of power and deeds — rather than of extended discourse — distinguishes Mark from Matthew and Luke.
**ii. The Messianic Secret**
A distinctive feature identified by scholar William Wrede is Mark's pattern of Jesus commanding those who witness his miracles and identity to remain silent. After healing a leper, Jesus sternly instructs him to tell no one (Mark 1:44). After Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus charged them to tell no one about him (Mark 8:30). Demons who recognise him are silenced (Mark 1:25, 3:12). This secrecy is lifted only at the resurrection (Mark 9:9), when the full significance of Jesus' identity can be properly understood in light of the cross.
**iii. Written for a Gentile (Roman) Audience**
Mark consistently explains Jewish customs that a Jewish reader would already know — for instance, explaining that the Pharisees and Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:3–4). He translates Aramaic words and phrases into Greek (e.g., *Boanerges* in 3:17, *Talitha cumi* in 5:41, *Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani* in 15:34). He uses Latin loanwords and Roman military terms. His is the only Gospel where the Roman centurion at the cross utters the climactic confession: *"Truly this man was the Son of God"* (Mark 15:39) — a fitting climax for a Roman readership.
**iv. Emphasis on Prayer**
Despite being the shortest Gospel, Mark gives notable attention to Jesus' prayer life. Jesus withdraws to pray before dawn after a full day of healing (Mark 1:35). He prays in Gethsemane with profound intensity before his arrest, using the intimate Aramaic address *Abba* — Father (Mark 14:36). He teaches his disciples about the relationship between faith, prayer, and answered petition (Mark 11:24). Prayer is presented not as a religious exercise but as the source of Jesus' power and dependence on the Father.
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**Answer 4 — Critical Analysis of the Pharisees and Sadducees**
**(a)(i) The Pharisees**
The Pharisees were a prominent religious sect and lay movement in Second Temple Judaism. The name likely derives from the Hebrew *perushim* — "the separated ones" — reflecting their meticulous separation from anything they regarded as ritually impure, including Gentiles and non-observant Jews. They emerged as a distinct group during the Hasmonean period (2nd century BC), partly in reaction to Hellenising influences threatening Jewish identity.
Unlike the Sadducees, the Pharisees were not exclusively from the priestly class; they were drawn largely from the educated middle class — scribes, tradesmen, and craftsmen — giving them significant influence among ordinary people. They accepted as authoritative both the Written Torah (the five books of Moses) and the Oral Torah — the tradition of the elders — which they regarded as an equally binding body of law transmitted orally from Moses alongside the written text. This Oral Law enabled them to adapt the Mosaic code to contemporary circumstances.
Theologically, the Pharisees affirmed the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels and spirits, divine providence, and the afterlife — doctrines that brought them into direct conflict with the Sadducees. They were the dominant sect in the synagogues and exercised wide popular influence through their teaching role. Jesus frequently clashed with them — not because their doctrinal positions were fundamentally wrong but because of the hypocrisy he identified in their practice: ostentatious public prayer, meticulous tithing of herbs while neglecting justice and mercy, and the elevation of human tradition to the level of divine command (Matthew 23; Mark 7:1–13).
**(a)(ii) The Sadducees**
The Sadducees were an aristocratic priestly sect associated primarily with the Jerusalem Temple establishment and the high priestly families. The name is most plausibly derived from *Zadok*, the high priest of David and Solomon, from whose lineage the legitimate Judean high priesthood claimed descent. They are first mentioned in the Hasmonean period.
The Sadducees accepted only the Written Torah — the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) — as the authoritative basis of Jewish law and religion. They explicitly rejected the Oral Torah and all traditions not grounded in the written text. Consequently, they denied doctrines that the Pharisees derived partly from oral tradition and extra-Pentateuchal sources: they denied the resurrection of the dead, denied the existence of angels and spirits, and rejected any notion of divine rewards or punishments in an afterlife (cf. Mark 12:18; Acts 23:8). Their theological conservatism aligned with their social conservatism.
Politically, the Sadducees were collaborative with Roman rule, recognising that the continuation of Temple worship — the source of their power and income — depended on political stability. They held dominant influence in the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council. Despite their institutional power, they were far less popular than the Pharisees with the common people. Following the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the Sadducees as a sect effectively ceased to exist, since their identity was inseparable from the Temple system.
**(b) Points of Disagreement**
| Issue | Pharisees | Sadducees |
|---|---|---|
| **Scripture** | Written Torah + Oral Torah (tradition of elders) | Written Torah (Pentateuch) only; rejected all oral tradition |
| **Resurrection** | Affirmed bodily resurrection of the dead | Denied resurrection entirely |
| **Angels and Spirits** | Believed in the existence of angels and spirits | Denied the existence of angels and spirits |
| **Afterlife** | Affirmed rewards and punishment after death | Denied any afterlife |
| **Social Base** | Middle class, tradesmen; popular among common people | Priestly aristocracy; elite and wealthy; dominant in Temple |
| **Political Stance** | Cautious or resistant toward Roman rule | Cooperative with Rome to preserve the status quo |
| **Worship Focus** | Synagogue teaching, moral living, prayer | Temple ritual and sacrificial system |
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### CRS 003: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN WEST AFRICA
**Answer 5 — African Indigenous Churches (AICs) and their Differences from Mainline Churches**
**Definition**
African Indigenous Churches (AICs) — also called African Independent Churches or African Initiated Churches — are Christian bodies that were founded by Africans, are led by Africans, and have deliberately incorporated elements of African culture, spirituality, and religious expression into their worship, doctrine, and organisational life. They arose primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as reactions against the racial paternalism of European missionary Christianity and the cultural alienation that accompanied it. Examples include the Aladura churches in Nigeria (e.g., the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Church of the Lord Aladura, Christ Apostolic Church), the Zionist churches in Southern Africa, and the Ethiopian churches.
**How AICs Differ from Mainline Churches**
1. **Origin and Leadership:** AICs were founded and are governed by Africans without foreign missionary oversight or institutional connection to European ecclesiastical bodies. Mainline churches — Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist — were established by European missionaries and for much of their early history were led by foreign clergy, with indigenous leadership emerging only gradually.
2. **Cultural Integration:** AICs actively incorporate African cultural forms into Christian worship — drumming, dancing, clapping, indigenous musical instruments, colourful vestments, and prayer in African languages. Some tolerate polygamy, viewing it as consistent with Old Testament patriarchal practice. Mainline churches historically opposed African cultural practices (including polygamy, traditional music, and naming ceremonies) as incompatible with Christianity, imposing European liturgical and cultural forms.
3. **Biblical Emphasis:** AICs tend to draw heavily from the Old Testament — practices such as worshipping barefoot (cf. Exodus 3:5), wearing white garments, observing dietary laws, and emphasising the Holy Spirit's charismatic gifts. Mainline churches organise their liturgy and homilies primarily around the New Testament and the Gospels.
4. **Healing and the Supernatural:** AICs place strong emphasis on divine healing, prophecy, visions, speaking in tongues, deliverance from evil spirits, and the use of holy water and prayer items. These practices respond directly to African spiritual concerns. Mainline churches place greater emphasis on sacraments, formal preaching, and doctrinal instruction, with less formal space for charismatic gifts.
5. **Doctrine and Structure:** AICs do not share a uniform doctrinal standard or hierarchical structure — each church defines its own doctrine, worship order, and governance. Mainline churches have formally codified doctrines (creeds, confessions), standardised liturgical orders, and clearly defined denominational hierarchies.
6. **Self-Governance and Self-Support:** AICs operate on principles of self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation — the three-self formula — entirely independent of foreign financial or institutional dependency. Many mainline churches historically relied on foreign missionary societies for funding, personnel, and direction.
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**Answer 6 — Proliferation of Churches in Nigeria**
**(a) Meaning of Proliferation of Churches**
Proliferation of churches refers to the rapid, large-scale multiplication of Christian denominations, ministries, and congregations — particularly the frequent formation of new independent churches, often by individuals breaking away from existing bodies. In Nigeria, this phenomenon has been especially pronounced from the 1980s onward, producing thousands of registered and unregistered churches ranging from large Pentecostal denominations to small neighbourhood prayer houses.
**(b) Five Factors Causing Proliferation of Churches in Nigeria**
1. **Economic Hardship and Unemployment:** Nigeria's persistent unemployment crisis and economic deprivation have led many individuals to establish churches as a means of livelihood. Prosperity theology — which promises material blessings, financial breakthroughs, and healing in exchange for tithes and offerings — attracts large congregations of people seeking divine solutions to economic problems. The church has become, for many founders, a viable economic enterprise rather than a purely spiritual vocation.
2. **Doctrinal Differences and Theological Disputes:** Disagreements over points of doctrine, worship style, or biblical interpretation have repeatedly produced breakaway groups that establish new churches claiming doctrinal purity or a more authentic form of Christianity. What begins as internal theological debate frequently ends in schism and the formation of a new denomination.
3. **Leadership Conflicts and Power Struggles:** Personal rivalries, disputes over authority, and competition for control of church resources frequently fracture existing congregations. Associate pastors who feel overlooked for promotion, or who develop their own large personal followings within a church, often leave to found independent ministries. Claims of divine calling and prophetic mandate are frequently invoked to legitimise such departures.
4. **Absence of Regulatory Oversight:** Nigeria lacks a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework governing the establishment and operation of religious organisations. Churches can be registered with minimal requirements and face no meaningful doctrinal, financial, or pastoral accountability to any external body. This low barrier to entry enables virtually anyone to establish and operate a church without qualification, training, or accountability.
5. **Desire for Personal Autonomy, Fame, and Financial Control:** Many church founders are motivated by the desire to escape institutional accountability and exercise independent authority over a congregation's finances, doctrinal direction, and governance. The social prestige associated with the title of "General Overseer," "Bishop," or "Apostle" — and the significant income that a successful ministry generates — makes founding one's own church an attractive prospect for ambitious individuals.
**(c) Three Effects of Proliferation of Churches in Nigeria**
1. Wider geographical spread and penetration of Christianity across communities.
2. Widespread misinterpretation and distortion of Scripture by untrained or self-serving preachers.
3. Unhealthy competition among religious leaders for converts, financial offerings, and public prominence.
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### CRS 004: RELIGION AND SOCIETY
**Answer 7 — Functions of Religion from Individual and Social Points of View**
**Social Functions**
1. **Moral Community Formation:** Religion establishes shared ethical standards and norms that bind members of a society together. By defining what is right and wrong in light of divine command or cosmic order, religion creates a moral framework that undergirds social cohesion and collective life.
2. **Behavioural Regulation:** Religious teachings, backed by the authority of the sacred and the threat of divine sanction, shape and constrain the conduct of individuals within society. Fear of God and accountability to a moral code deter antisocial behaviour and reinforce prosocial norms.
3. **Promotion of Peace and Social Harmony:** Religious institutions — through their teachings on love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the equal dignity of persons — contribute to peaceful coexistence within communities. Interfaith dialogue and religious philanthropy further these peacebuilding functions.
4. **Cultural Preservation:** Religion preserves and transmits a society's heritage, values, stories, art, and identity across generations. Festivals, rites, sacred texts, and religious art encode cultural memory and maintain continuity between generations.
5. **Social Solidarity (after Durkheim):** By gathering people in collective worship and shared ritual, religion reinforces the bonds of community. Émile Durkheim argued that religion's fundamental social function is to unite members of a society around common symbols and practices, strengthening group cohesion.
**Individual Functions**
1. **Identity and Sense of Belonging:** Membership in a religious community gives individuals a stable sense of who they are, where they belong, and what their life means. Religious identity provides existential grounding in a complex world.
2. **Rites of Passage:** Religion marks and sacralises the major transitions of human life — birth (baptism, naming ceremonies), adulthood (confirmation, bar mitzvah), marriage, and death. These rituals give meaning to life's transitions and integrate the individual into the community at each stage.
3. **Mental Peace and Existential Meaning:** Religion addresses the deep human questions of suffering, mortality, purpose, and ultimate meaning. Belief in a providential God, a meaningful cosmos, and life beyond death equips individuals to face adversity, loss, and death with equanimity.
4. **Emotional Support and Comfort:** In times of grief, crisis, failure, or anxiety, religious belief and community provide emotional sustenance, consolation, and hope. Prayer, fellowship, pastoral care, and the assurance of divine presence are powerful sources of psychological resilience.
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**Answer 8 — Corruption and Christian Responses**
**(a) Effects of Corruption on Nigerian Society**
1. **Institutional Decay:** Systemic corruption erodes public trust in government institutions — the legislature, executive, judiciary, and security agencies. When citizens perceive that institutions serve private interests rather than the public good, legitimacy collapses and governance becomes dysfunctional.
2. **Infrastructure Deficit:** The embezzlement and diversion of public funds meant for roads, hospitals, schools, and utilities results in chronically poor infrastructure. Nigeria's persistent deficits in power supply, road networks, and healthcare are in large part attributable to corruption in public procurement and project execution.
3. **Poverty and Economic Underdevelopment:** Corruption diverts resources away from development programmes, discourages foreign direct investment, distorts public spending priorities, and entrenches a culture of rent-seeking over productive enterprise. It deepens inequality and perpetuates mass poverty despite substantial national resources.
4. **Political Instability and Electoral Manipulation:** Corruption in electoral processes — vote buying, result falsification, manipulation of institutions — delegitimises democratic governance and breeds political resentment, instability, and sometimes violence.
5. **Moral and Social Decay:** When corruption is visibly rewarded and integrity is penalised, it normalises dishonesty across society. A "get-rich-quick" mentality takes hold, particularly among youth, eroding the work ethic, academic integrity, and the general social trust upon which civilised life depends.
6. **Insecurity and Insurgency:** The diversion of funds allocated to the security sector — through ghost workers, inflated procurement, and outright embezzlement of defence budgets — weakens military and police capacity to address terrorism, banditry, and other security threats, contributing directly to Nigeria's insecurity crisis.
7. **Educational Decline:** Corruption in education — examination malpractice, certificate racketeering, ghost teachers on payrolls, and the diversion of education funds — degrades academic standards and produces graduates unfit for productive employment.
**(b) Four Christian Responses to Corruption**
1. **Personal Integrity and Transparency:** The Christian ethic demands honesty in all dealings — professional, financial, and civic. Christians are called to refuse bribes, render fair judgment, and conduct their affairs with transparency, embodying the character of Christ in public life (Proverbs 11:3; Luke 16:10).
2. **Prophetic Denunciation of Injustice:** Following the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, Christians are obligated to speak out publicly and courageously against corrupt practices and unjust systems, whether in the workplace, government, or religious institutions. Silence in the face of injustice is itself complicity (Isaiah 1:17; Micah 6:8).
3. **Intercessory Prayer for Righteous Leadership:** Christians are instructed to pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1–2). This includes specifically interceding for honest, God-fearing leaders to emerge and for corrupt officials to be exposed, reformed, or removed. Prayer is not passive but an active spiritual engagement with structural evil.
4. **Exemplary Christian Living as Social Witness:** By living visibly righteous, uncorrupt lives — refusing to participate in bribery, nepotism, or dishonest practices even at personal cost — Christians demonstrate that integrity is viable and challenge the fatalistic assumption that corruption is inevitable. The Church's collective witness, when consistent, carries significant moral authority within Nigerian society.