THIS IS LONG BUT WORTH READING TO THE END
TOPIC: G 26: CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE:
….A Call to preserve the Ancient Landmark (Joshua 24:15; Proverbs 22:28; Deut. 30:1-20)
A PAPER PRESENTED BY MOST REVD OLUSINA FAPE ARCHBISHOP OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE OF LAGOS AND BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF REMO ( GLOBAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION ) TO THE DELEGATES TO THE GAFCON G26 CONFERENCE IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY 5 MARCH 2026.
PROLOGUE
At defining moments in the life of the Church, history demands more than quiet reflection; it calls for conviction. Across centuries, the people of God have repeatedly faced a fundamental question-whether to remain faithful to the foundations of their faith or to surrender those foundations to the pressures of changing times. Such moments test not only institutions, but also the spiritual courage of individuals entrusted with the stewardship of truth.
It is against this profound backdrop that the *Most Rev. Olusina Fape*, Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos and Bishop of the Diocese of Remo in the Global Anglican Communion, delivered this paper to delegates gathered at the *GAFCON G26 Conference in Abuja on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Addressing Archbishops, Bishops church leaders, theologians and delegates from across the Anglican world, the Archbishop framed his message around a timeless biblical injunction: “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”
Drawing from the Scriptures in Joshua 24:15, Proverbs 22:28, and Deuteronomy 30:1-20, the address is both a theological reflection and a moral appeal. It urges the Church to preserve what Scripture calls the “ancient landmarks”-the enduring truths of the Christian faith handed down from generation to generation. At a time when debates over doctrine, identity and authority continue to reshape global Christianity, the Archbishop’s message confronts a central question: *will the Church remain anchored in its historic foundations, or allow those landmarks to be moved?
In summary he said: “As I conclude, it must be emphasised that this gathering is not merely a conversation about denominational identity or ecclesiastical structure. The deeper issue before us concerns the very soul and future of the Church of God. What is at stake is whether the Church will continue to grow as a community of believers transformed by Christ-men and women who have chosen obedience to the Word of God as their guiding principle.
“Through the emergence of the Global Anglican Communion and the Gafcon movement, there is a renewed awakening within the worldwide Church-a movement calling believers back to the authority of Scripture, to the historic faith once delivered to the saints, and to the ancient landmarks that must never be removed. It is a call to raise a generation whose allegiance is not to shifting cultural winds, but to the eternal truth of God’s Word.
The responsibility before us, therefore, is both solemn and urgent. The choices made by this generation will shape the faith of generations yet unborn. Just as Joshua stood before the people of Israel and challenged them to decide their allegiance, so too must we stand in our time with clarity, courage and conviction.
The question before us is simple, yet profoundly consequential: Whom will we serve?”
May we, like Joshua of old, rise with unwavering faith and declare-not only for ourselves, but for those who will come after us:
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
THE FULL SPEECH
Introduction
Appreciation to the Primate of the Church of Nigeria for the privilege to minister at this Conference. Thank the leadership of Gafcon at different times since its inception in 2008 when the dice was cast, and there was the separation of light from darkness.
I will be focusing on the theme of this Conference, “Choose you this day whom you will serve: A Call to preserve the Ancient Landmark.”
Joshua 24:15, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””
Proverbs 22:28, “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.”
Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”
The Creation of Man in the Original Plan of God
The creation of the world was at the instance of God, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Before God created the world, He had the overall picture of what He wanted, because He is God of order. From the two accounts of creation in Genesis 1:3-28 and 2:4-23, two things stand out.
First, God created mankind for fellowship, and He was on a regular fellowship with Adam and Eve until the rebellion against God through disobedience, and consequently, sin entered the world, and man lost that sweet fellowship with God as recorded in Genesis 3:8-9:
“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?””
God created man in His own image for fellowship since only the deep can understand the deep according to Psalm 42:7, “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me.”
Secondly, the original plan of God for man was, and still is, to live eternally. There is no place for empty words in the Bible. When God said in Genesis 2:16-17, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” it naturally follows that the original plan of God for man was to live with Him eternally.
It was disobedience that took away from humanity life eternal after his creation. That mankind could live eternally should not surprise us, if God could prolong the life of an individual till almost one thousand years as seen in Genesis 5:27, “So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.”
From the creation accounts it is very evident that the original plan of God, was to create an assembly of people to be in eternal fellowship with Him, and not only Adam and Eve. This could be inferred from the blessings of procreation bestowed on Adam and Eve:
“So, God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:27-28).
The original intention of God was very clear, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.” This is where the error of the revisionists and ungodliness of same sex marriage first appeared. Same sex marriage is a negation of the original plan of God for fruitfulness. God’s declaration of fruitfulness would mean multiplication that would result in the filling of the earth with amazing population of those who should live eternally in fellowship with God.
Unfortunately, disobedience and the entrance of sin truncated man’s destiny with the attendant curses of broken fellowship, spiritual and physical deaths (Genesis 3:1-19).
The Place of Obedience in God’s Redemptive Plan
If obedience was a requirement to fellowship with God before the fall of man, obedience is also the hallmark of every intervention of God at bringing man back to fellowship with Him. With Abraham, a new community was inaugurated base on obedience, a response of faith to whatever God commanded (Gen. 12:1, 4 cf. Heb. 11:8). From Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob; and to the twelve patriarchs, obedience was the watchword and landmark.
Shortly after leaving Egypt, and crossing the Red Sea, God established a covenant with the children of Israel at Marah rooted in obedience in Exodus 15:26, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
If there is any place in the Bible where obedience is made the hallmark of God’s dealing with the new community of those in a covenant relationship with Him, it is in Deuteronomy 28 as we read:
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (Deut. 28:1-2, 15).
Deuteronomy 28 could be placed side by side with Genesis 2:16-17, where God presented the choices of obedience and disobedience together with the attendant results to Adam.
Regardless of the disobedience of the children of Israel, God always preserved a remnant who would always obey Him in continuation of His eternal fellowship with mankind. This is the context in which our theme: “Choose this Day whom you will Serve” emerges in Joshua 24:15. Through Joshua, God had fulfilled the promise to bring the children of Israel to the Promised Land.
The Necessity of the Charge of Choice and Obedience to the Children of Israel
The Book of Joshua is the first of the twelve historical books from Joshua to Esther. The Book takes up the narrative from the death of Moses, and follows it up to the point where Joshua led the children of Israel to the Promised Land, and divided the land to them. One obvious message in God’s redemptive plan is the presence of individuals who walked in obedience with God, and lived godly life.
From one generation to another, God has always preserved a remnant for Himself. Thus, from the Old Testament time, to the foundation of the Christian Church in the New Testament time, through to our present generation, the continuation of the Church, the ecclesia of God, has always been dependent on the presence of godly generations.
At every stage of spiritual complacency from the Reformation in the 16th century to the emergence of the Church Missionary Society in 18th Century (1799), and the establishment of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) in the 21st century in 2008, God has always raised a godly generation at critical points to refocus and call His Church back to repentance and path of righteousness. God does this to ensure the continuity of eternal fellowship for which mankind was created.
For Joshua, having led a new generation of the children of Israel successfully to the Promised Land, he knew the danger ahead. Joshua was aware of the disobedience of the past generations. As Moses Assistant, he remembered clearly the inconsistency of the Israelites and how the people had wandered away from God, especially being aware of the farewell speech of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
From Joshua 24:1-13, Joshua rehearsed to them their history, beginning with the call of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the birth of Jacob and his twelve sons (the Patriarchs); how they went down to Egypt and their miraculous deliverance which led to their journey in the wilderness, where nations and kings mightier were defeated until God handed over to them the Land of Canaan as promised to Abraham.
Joshua, in his valedictory speech knew their ways of life, and how easy it was for their forebears to reject the ways of the Lord. He remembered the unchanging nature and character of God as a jealous God, and that He would not allow the worship of other gods with Him (Joshua 24:19). Right from the time God chose him to assist Moses (Ex. 24:13 cf. Joshua 1:1), Joshua had learnt obedience. He had walked in obedience and faith, which enabled him and Caleb to declare that, they could conquer and possess the Land of Canaan as promised by God in Numbers 14:6-9.
Now, this Joshua was at the end of his ministry, he had led the children of Israel to the Land of Canaan as promise by God, and had raised a godly generation that knew God, and could boldly say, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
What Joshua was saying here is instructive for us as we meet at this Conference. There are three points to note very quickly. First, Joshua had a living faith rooted in obedience to the word of God which was the ancient landmark, that must not be removed; and had committed same to members of his household. Joshua could be seen as embodying the Hebrew Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-7, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.”
This is another area where the revisionists are missing it today. Anglicanism is not built on human rights declaration, but a way of life rooted in the Scriptures. It has a foundation, and that foundation cannot be negotiated, as rightly noted by The Rt. Rev. Prof. Alfred Olwa in his talk yesterday. That is the reason the revisionists cannot claim to be Anglicans when they have removed the ancient landmarks of Anglicanism as reflected in the Anglican formularies: the 39 Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal, all of which contents are rooted in the Scriptures, and acknowledged in the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration.
Secondly, on the one hand, the charge of Joshua to the entire nation to choose whom to serve in Joshua 24:15a was because of a track record of their inconsistency as seen in Joshua 24:14, “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!” On the other hand, he could vouch for members of his own family in Joshua 24:15b, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” In other words, Joshua knew the Lord he was serving.
Although Joshua was very much concerned about the children of Israel, but he knew that he and his family must live by their faith in God. He would not base his resolve to serve God on the decision of the majority, the children of Israel. He was willing to stand by his faith against the worldly allurements to serve other gods. Joshua knew whom he believed, and together with members of his entire household, could boldly say, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Beloved, at time like this, we must resolve personal as individuals and make a choice of whom to serve. While it is good to belong to the Gafcon family, but as individual, are you still hob nobbing with the revisionists by going to them for financial support, one leg in Gafcon, and the other leg with the revisionists. Choose this day whom to serve.
Thirdly, Joshua was not making a statement about the present, but he was making a commitment that would make his entire household relevant in fellowship with God from one generation to another. Joshua was standing in the gap, making a commitment that would sustain the faith of his future generation in the living God of Israel.
Only a godly generation can contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Only a godly generation can sustain the growth of the Church of God. The fear today is that after the exit of the present generation of worshippers in the Anglican Church, are we confident of adequate replacement? We thank God for calling us together at this holy convocation to decide or choose whom to serve. My brother and sister, who will you serve at this critical time in the life of the Anglican Church, when, according to 1 Timothy 4:1, “Some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”
Joshua was a man who knew that the only thing that could bring life was obedience. Joshua knew the danger of not obeying God in the years ahead. Joshua knew that the ancient landmark of the Israelites was obedience, and he knew the danger of removing it as it was later seen after his death in Judges 2:10 when the ancient landmark was defiantly removed by a generation that did not know the Lord emerged:
“When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger” (Judges 2:10-12).
Why man has continued to disobey God
It is very evident that from what we are witnessing today in the worldwide Anglican Communion among the revisionists is a generation which has arisen that does not know what the fathers of faith did in the 16th Century in England and in the 19th century in America. One aspect of God’s character that continues to spring surprises is, His longsuffering nature, which those in disobedience and rebellion often take for granted, not knowing that it is because God does not wish that anyone should perish. Because of God’s compassionate character, many have continued to rejoice and celebrate sins. This is where the revisionists seem to be hiding. That is why they have aggressively pursued same-sex marriage. But then, the scripture says,
“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:3-4, 8-9).
Through the emergence of Gafcon, God has preserved a remnant for the growth and continuation of His Church on earth by advancing the Great Commission. Through Gafcon, a new generation of obedient children of God has been raised. This is a generation of those who will hear the words of God, and obey the same. This is a generation of those who have resolved to keep the words of God in their hearts in other not to sin against God (Psalm 119:11).
This is the generation of those who believe access to heaven is not through Canterbury or instruments of Communion that have failed no preserve the ancient landmark of obedience and faithfulness to the word of God. Therefore, brothers and sister, choose this day, life over death, and blessing over cursing. In so doing, continue, “To contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Conclusion
As I conclude, I like to make it clear here that as we gather at this Conference, we are not just talking about mere denominationalism. We are not just talking about the name of a Church. What the Conference theme is mainly concerned with is the growth of the Church through the addition of children of God, who are new creation in Christ. Those who have made obedience to the word of God their watchword.
Through the Global Anglican Communion, Gafcon movement is raising a generation of those who have made obedience to the Scripture their watchword, and could say, with great conviction, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”⁰
