Who Is A Spiritualist, Prophet Or Priest? The Reality And Relationship Among Them

There has been a big confusion among various religious leaders regarding prophesies made by so-called men of God especially in the Christian religious context in Ghana. It is not uncommon to hear religious ministers making pronouncements about issues that affect human life and these people often termed such proclamations as prophesies.

The tension heightened recently when Rev. Owusu-Bempah claimed that President John Mahama needs special prayers to avert the death cloud hang on him this year. This so-called prophesy received condemnation from various sections of the public including Archbishop Duncan-Williams and Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare. This is not the first time that a religious leader prophesied. We have heard of the world coming to an end on 11/11/11 prophesied by a so-called man of God before.

The questions I ask are; who is a prophet? Can anybody be a prophet? How can we condone the activities of these so-called men of God? What these so-called Prophets say is it real prophesies or they are just normal dreams? Pondering on these issues of prophesies, I find it disturbing why any ordinary priest can just have a good dream in the night and come out the next morning to make prophesies.

Realistically speaking, God speaks to anybody but in different ways, through dreams, heartbeats, emotions, events, among others. But it takes a prophet to be able to understand directly what God says on issues of life.

There are many priests and spiritual leaders who get confused about their role in social life and when they had a 'good' dream they think they're prophets. God in his utmost wisdom created man with wisdom too and enables us to understand and interpret events through logic and the order of things. But let's really find out who a prophet, priest or spiritualist is in the context of theology and religion.

The Encarta Dictionaries (2009) defined a priest as an ordained (Christian) minister, responsible for administering the sacraments, preaching, and administering to the needs of the congregation.

In the same book, a spiritualist is one who with a philosophical doctrine that all reality is spiritual, not material and believes that communication occurs between the living and the dead. A spiritualist is able to manipulate objects to foretell the divinity/future of someone. And a prophet is one who is able to interpret divine will, that is, one who interprets or transmits the commands of a deity (God).

Apparently, there are many priests and spiritualists who proclaimed themselves as prophets.

What is appalling is that the activities and pronouncements of some of the so-called prophets turn to create panic and fear among the public. Perhaps, do we really understand our duties as ministers of God? We have been forewarned by Jesus in Matthew 7:20-23 that “Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord', have not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? “And I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness”.

In Matthew 24:24, “For false Christs and prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect”. Unfortunately, many are unable to determine who a true prophet is due to their hidden activities even though we're warned to identify false prophets according to their deeds.

Perhaps, many think any person who can predict the future, read and preach the gospel can be ordained as a prophet. But, in actual theological and religious principles, prophets are chosen by God. From the Islamic religious perspective, Mohammed (SAW) was the last prophet to be chosen by Allah(God), whiles other prophets that preceded Mohammed (SAW) include, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus Christ, etc (May peace be upon them all).

In Islam, any person who proceeded with the activities of God after Prophet Mohammed (SAW) can only fall in the brackets of a priest, and spiritualist even if he prophesies and perform wonders. The reality is that, prophets are chosen by God and not ordained by another religious minister.

Prophet-ship is neither heritable nor learnable. It's an intrinsic event that occurs without the preconditioning of the person in question. God appoints and commands the person to carry His message across to humanity.

To distinguish a true prophet from a false one; true Prophets are chosen by God Almighty and are given prove of their appointment as Prophets from God, Prophets are trustworthy, wise, simple, humble, sincere, and Only speak about God and convey His commandments to the people.

They show leadership and lead by example, they are kind, relentless, inspirational, and can perform miracles. They are tolerant, patient, and display great justice and are role models to their followers.

Many religious ministers in their quest to make money turn to deceive their congregations by way of false prophesy. Others pretend to be prophets, spiritualists, healers and, find all foul means to make their followers believe in them. Women, especially, are the most victims of these so-called men of God due to their gullible nature and their inability to contain little problems.

I partly agreed with Archbishop Duncan- Williams for describing some 'so-called men of God', (not necessarily Rev. Bempah), but a lot of them out there who deceive the public, as “doomsday prophets”.

It's also important to listen to the advice given by the Archbishop, that, “the things that you must always look out for when you see all these prophets prophesying all kinds of doom on the……..is to ask yourself does the prophet have honor, credibility, character and integrity?”. He added that “sometimes our own desires, wishes, personal passions, convictions, greed, and selfishness blind us to reality”.

It's time for the Ghanaian public to be educated on activities of so-called prophets and refrain from relying on them solely for solutions to spiritual and social problems. After all, Jesus said in Mark 13:6 that “For many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and will deceive many” and mark 13:32 says “……for there is one God, and there is no other but He”. Again Jesus said in Matthew 4:10 that “…For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve”.

For Islam, the greatest sin is Shirk that is, associating partners with Allah. In Islam, Muslims are obliged to solely rely on Allah alone for solutions to all problems. As religious as we are, we must be cautious enough to avoid being victims of exploitations by so-called spiritual and religious leaders who are doing everything possible to deceive the public.

The state must also start convicting 'prophets' whose activities tend to create public panic and fear. Religious leaders must also perform their obligations diligently and morally and averts actions and utterances that have the potentiality of creating public disorder, for a society without religious leaders is doomed and too much of fearful prophesies can create problems for the society.

Ibrahim Abu Azabre
NSP
0240393109
[email protected]