MY PROBLEM WITH GARMENT CHURCHES
The topic of interest is the garments church sects, mainly those under the umbrella of the Zion church of Southern Africa (Amazayoni), the 12 Apostolic Church, and the infamous White Garment Apostles Church (Masowe/Mapostori). Just to give you a definition: a sect is a church group that has deviated from the original truth of Christianity, created its own practices and doctrines, while still holding on to the Christian title. Although these are different dominations, with varying practices, I will, unfortunately, paint them with one brush. Because I have reason to believe that they have many things in common. Before I do that, let me give you a brief history of their foundations.
Zion Church (Amazayoni)
(Not to be mistaken with ZCC of Engenas Lekganyane), the Zion church group is one of the largest Christian denominations in Southern Africa, with its influence in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, Matabeleland region. According to my limited research, their foundations point to Daniel Nkoyane and Pieter Louis Le Roux, a former missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, who was later inspired by John Alexander Dowie, the American faith healer. Their style of worship involves bright coloured uniforms (mostly green), dancing to the drum in circles (Umkhalanga/Ukudressa), personal prophetic messages, overnight special services (Umlindelo), river cleansing ceremonies and a few more. In some parts of Zimbabwe, they are the go-to church for removing goblins (Tikoloshe) in people’s homes and some affected schools.
The 12 Apostolic Church
They are often called Amasabatha (not the SDA) because of their Sabbath observance. Sometimes they are also confused with the white-garment Apostolic sects, yet they are very different. Their history and foundation is rather vague, considering there is not much information online. However, according to my little digging, they have their roots in Plumtree, Zimbabwe, under the leadership of a man called W. Magabha Ndlovu. Regardless, they have since spread their influence to most of the Matabeleland regions, South Africa and Botswana.
White-Garments Apostolic (Masowe)
This is, by far, the dominant church denomination in the Mashonaland region of Zimbabwe. Their roots are traced back to two men: John Marange and Shoniwa Masedza (also known as John Masowe). Both of these men claimed to have had a supernatural encounter with God, in the similitude of John the Baptist. Therefore, from them came a new Christian movement that is what we know today as Mapostori. Their worship services are strictly outdoors, preferably on the mountain tops. They mostly worship on Saturday. They are famous for their white garments, bald-shaven men and white scarves on women.
Points of concern
1.) An absence of the Gospel - This, of course, is debatable, based on your understanding of what the Gospel is. Regardless, the Gospel begins by telling men and women that they are lost in sin. There is no one who does good, not even one (Rom 3:10-23). Hence God has, in the person of Jesus our Lord, died hanging on the cross for our sins and paid for them in full. That anyone who believes will be forgiven freely and completely. That message goes on to invite and to call men to repent and believe in this Jesus to receive the sin pardon. I tell you the truth that this message is almost never heard across these denominations. And I stand to be proven wrong. According to my experience inside these churches, to “repent” is when a visitor makes the decision to join the local assembly. For example, if you have been visiting that church for some time, then one day you decide to be a fulltime church member, that process is called “repenting”, according to their theology. Therefore, since the Gospel is absent in these groups, the major reason why unbelievers attend their worship services is to receive help in the form of healing, prophecy and cleansing from dark spirits. That is sad enough, in my opinion.
2.) Ancestral beliefs - As you already know, the traditional African beliefs are anchored on the belief that when a person dies, they continue on the other side as a spirit that can still interact with the living. Believe it or not, the Zion and these Southern African Apostolic movements hold that belief within their ranks as well. Those who come for prophecies are sometimes told about a departed relative (Idlozi/Mudzimu) who is the source of their problems. That, of course, is a direct violation of what Scripture says about the dead.
3.) The law-based system of worship - As I have hinted above, the doctrine of justification is absent from these sects through and through. Their version of the Gospel is based mainly on the law of Moses – sort of. Hence members are taught to circumcise their babies, to shave their hair, to pray while facing the East, not to wear jewellery, to remove shoes when entering a place of worship, to abstain from unclean foods, and more rules of what one must or not do to enter heaven. Members who fail to follow these rules are encouraged to confess them publicly or follow the process of the cleansing ceremonies.
4.) Rogue prophets - The centre of worship in all 3 of these denominations is the belief in what they call “umoya” (the spirit), which, according to them, is a prophetic spirit that directs how God must be worshipped. In fact, their whole doctrinal foundation is based not so much on Scripture, but on what “umoya” says at a particular time. There are no moral or biblical qualifications for one to have the spirit of prophesying. Anyone, and at any time, can stand up and claim to have heard from the spirit; redirecting the congregation. Sometimes, this prophetic spirit comes in the form of dreams, while some appeal to what they call “Is’thunywa/Mutumwa”, which is a personal angel-like being that inspires their prophetic gift. Even more bizarre is the fact that there is no criteria for discernment whatsoever. Everyone receives whatever is said as truth, with no questions asked. These so-called prophecies are very similar too – almost predictable. That is, it’s all about witchcraft; i.e. “Your aunt in the rural areas is bewitching you”, or “the spirit left by your grandfather is the source of your problems.” To remove these dark spells, sometimes members are instructed to travel to mountains to bathe with stones, holy water or even herbs (Iziwasho). Now, let me ask, does that sound anything like Biblical Christianity in any way?
5.) Low moral standards - As you can imagine, where there is no transforming power of the Gospel of salvation, the flesh remains sinful and self-centred. For these reasons, the so-called prophets of these church sects are famous for sleeping with women in the bushes, in the name of praying for them. In all fairness, sin is present even among the best of churches, however, it is more common among these “umoya” churches for a leader to openly live in sexual immorality and still be regarded as a prophet of God. That is how low their moral standard is.
6.) Cult-like - This is true mostly with the Masowe Apostolic sects. They are the ones who have strict control of what their members do. At first, they are forbidden from critiquing or even leaving the church. They are told to abstain from hospital medicine, conventional schools, etc. In some cases, old men have multiple wives, including underage girls. As I have hinted, these groups claim allegiance to the Christian Gospel, while in reality, it’s something else. Therefore, they can be classified as Christian cults.
My concluding remarks are simple: By the above analysis, I do not, by any means, claim that there are no true believers who are part of these groups, because salvation is an individual experience based on one’s faith in Christ alone. However, the practice and the doctrinal stance of the garment churches is nothing close to the true, biblical Christian message. Hence, I must, in the strongest of terms, discourage you from attending these churches. I understand again that in most areas, these are the only available churches. Either way, I stand by the fact that they are not a good source of Christian truth. The challenge is on you to do your own Biblical test on them.
Sinothi Ncube
Related Content...
Comments
Post a Comment