Come On, Folks, Which Bible Do You Read?

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Revelation 22:19)

Three photo messages that I have seen on social media over the two weeks are really disturbing. These photos have really got my ire as a Christian. I am therefore going to town today, with my King James Bible (unless otherwise stated), Sunday school robes and all!

In the first photo, a preacher in Tanzania is carried on the backs of some members of the congregation because according to the caption, this preacher must never touch the earth until he has delivered his sermon. So he is carried around the church as he speaks.

The two other instances both video clips, in fact, came from Ghana. In the first video clip, a man who supposedly runs a church was arrested after an affray following his inability or refusal to pay a “juju man” from whom he had bought or hired a deity to help him improve the fortunes of his new church. And in the second video clip, a self-proclaimed bishop of a church claims he can turn into snakes and other wild animals to bite and devour people!

There is a racist saying in Europe and North America that “If you want to hide something from the Black person, put it in writing.” What it means is that as a people, we do not like reading. There are millions of stark illiterate adults in every country in Europe and the Americas. I have personally completed forms at post offices and written cheques for lots of people in Europe and North America in my travels. Just last week, here in England, I met a man in his late 60s who boasted that he had never read a book of any kind or ever bought one, not even the books of his trade. He is a self-employed artisan.

Fear of the written word

Much as I have always argued against that axiom, I know in my heart of hearts that it is quite true of us in Africa, North and South America and practically everywhere one finds a large concentration of Black people. We do not read, and we do not even try to hide it! On any commuter train anywhere in Europe, as soon as the train moves from a station, all other people go for their newspapers or story books to read, every Black person, old and young alike, goes straight for their headphones, often blaring cacophonic music to the annoyance of other passengers. Anyone who protests is sure to receive the worst barrage of four letter insults.

Nowhere is this dread of the written word more glaring than the Church of Christ. The Bible says in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”.

Where in the Bible does it say an ordinary mortal preacher must not touch the ground as he delivers a sermon and must therefore be carried by fellow human beings who are also “fighting for their salvation with fear and trembling?” Would any of those men actually carry this rogue of a preacher if they had ever read the Bible?

Service with humility

In John Chapter 13 (KJV), after Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, he told them in verse 14, “You call me Lord and Master and that is what I am. If I your Lord and Master have gone down to wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” That was a great lesson in humility. Today around Africa, pastors and ministers defend their obscene extravagance on the backs of their impoverished congregations by claiming that Jesus would ride in a private plane if he were preaching in our world today. As if there were no kings who possessed golden chariots at the time Jesus rode on a lowly donkey for his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. How very illiterate of us to buy such nonsense from our twenty-first century charlatans!

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, behold I am with you always, even till the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) This is our great commission. If a person really believes that they have been called to preach the world of God, (and it is a calling), why would they need power from any other mortal or creature when the Lord the Creator has already given us His Holy Spirit the Helper and Counsellor, to guide and help us in all we do.

I am the LORD! That is my name! I will not share my glory with anyone else, or the praise due me with idols. (Isaiah 42:8, NET) So, how does a church that derives its authority and power from a deity glorify the name of Almighty God? And to think that some people (usually majority Sisters) actually attend this person’s church? I will bet my bottom penny that this scoundrel of a preacher has given “prophetic messages” to loads of Sisters and fleeced them of their hard earned cedis, dollars in some cases, actually!

Who do we actually serve?

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly (John 10:10). He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9). The fact that Jesus was born a Jew and lived among human beings in Palestine is a historical fact. The great Roman historian, Tacitus, confirms the New Testament accounts of Jesus, his life and ministry in Palestine. The first century Jewish historian Josephus describes James as “the brother of Jesus.” Josephus was writing at a time people were generally described by the names of their fathers. However, according to him the name of James’ father, Joseph, was so common that the only way he could properly describe this important Bishop of the Church in Jerusalem had to be reference to his more famous brother, Jesus.

There is nowhere in the Bible that Jesus is mentioned to have turned into any other creature, let alone a roaring lion or snake. Jesus’ life was one of service and a pointer to a gracious and merciful father God. Jesus was friend to the poor and down trodden. He came to save that which was lost, to pay the ultimate price to reconcile God the Creator to His creation.

He sent His Holy Spirit to help us in our earthly journey and to make clearer to us the things he taught his followers that were too difficult to understand. He loved His own to the point of dying on a crude wooden cross that we might be saved from the wrath of God that was hanging over our heads, as the sons and daughters of disobedience. Why would my wonderful Saviour turn into a snake or lion to frighten or bite me? What would be the purpose of His excruciating pain and death on the cross? What is my hope of redemption if the Saviour who paid the debt I owed but could never pay suddenly decides to exact recompense for my wrongdoing for which He is already pleading on my behalf before the Father?

Come on folks, let us begin some basic reading and stop making asses of ourselves! It is for the same reasons that some very low level politicians are taking us for apes on the continent.

I shall return with my beaded gourd, God willing.

Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected] , or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.