EVANGEL AFRICA

Hermeneutics is a big word that simply describes the rules we follow in trying to correctly understand what the Bible teaches. It is a good thing to carry a Bible, but how do you read it? Anything that comes to mind when you read a Bible verse develops into an understanding of what you think it is talking about. That is called interpretation. Your interpretation develops further into your practical life; how you live or do things based on that understanding of that verse. That is called an application . Therefore a misunderstanding of a Bible passage (bad hermeneutics) will lead to a wrong application, even something that harms people’s livelihoods. Just to be clear, the basic doctrines of the Christian faith are clearly taught in Scripture without any difficulty in understanding. However, in the same Bible, there is something called difficult doctrines or controversial issues. These are the cause of fierce debates and divisions in the Body of Christ. Even worse, these issues can easi...

Africa is always the victim. Diseases and poverty, yes even wars had always found a good breeding ground long before me and you were born. Enter the 2000s and another clown entered the stage; the 'prophetic'. Dressed in holy clothing, tongues sweet as honey, possessed with mighty power that shook the masses to their frenzy – finally, all the African problems were saying their goodbyes, God had remembered us hallelujah – at least that is what they told us . Indeed, the servants of the Lord who spoke under the office of the High declared that joy was coming in the morning – reality check: nothing changed . It took us a whole decade to realize that we were still getting poorer; still unemployed, still hungry and still sick. If there is anything like change, it is on the part of the “anointed Papas” themselves. They are the ones boasting of new cars and big homes to add on top of flashy suits. Something…does not…make…sense… Actually, it does make sense if you realize that we have b...

The history of Bible interpretation The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language while the New Testament is originally in Greek. To understand how it came to be the Bible we have today, let’s take for example Paul’s letter to the Romans. After he had hand-written it, it was sent to the churches in Rome as intended. After this, they made many copies of that original letter to share with other believers in other places. As time went by, so increased the number of these copies, reaching to where ever the Gospel reached. Those who did the coping were called Scribes and the copies became known as the  manuscripts . So far, there are more than 25 000 Bible manuscripts that have been discovered. A collection of these manuscripts is what produced books that were later compiled into one book called the Holy Bible. The final process is when these learned men translated the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek languages to many languages that the Bible is written in today. ...

A personal supernatural event, feeling, sight or sound can be defined as a spiritual experience. It is something unexplainable by natural or scientific means, something that has the ability to leave us shaking, fearing, excited, confused or aghast with amazement if not all of the above. It doesn’t matter how small it is, as long as it cannot be explained by the laws of nature, it is defined as a spiritual experience . A large number, if not everyone claims some spiritual experience one way or the other. Stories abound from an atheist who died and saw himself floating to a pastor who appeared in heaven and had tea with Jesus. From a girl who dreamed the death of her mother to a man who woke up naked outside his home. There is also a wide range of these occurrences; common to unusual and strange to worse than bizarre.   As much as we are all thrilled by our individual encounters with the supernatural, we must also deal with the fact that t hese are a cause of concern to those wh...

I sat stone-cold at a train station on my way home from work. Not that it was cold but because I had no words to answer to what I was hearing from a group of youth that were just behind me. For once in my life I didn’t want to be recognized as a Christian because “these foolish Africans like us had abandoned their traditional beliefs to embrace the religion of the white oppressors” – I heard them say. According to them, Africa was a lot better until oppressors and colonialists came with their Book that they used to brainwash innocent Blacks so they could control and take them away from their gods and the African way of doing things.  Is there a God of the Africans only? Yes, there are gods of the Africans, they are called the ancestral spirits, however, there is only one true God and Creator – the Almighty. It is Him who is, therefore, the content of the Bible, and because He deserves all glory alone, far be it from Him that He shares the glory with the so-called other gods of th...

But we have this treasure in jars of clay , to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us - 2 Corinthians 4:7 A treasure is an extremely valuable item; something very precious and costly. Something the men of old would go down the deepest of dungeons to search for; losing their lives in the process. On the opposite side, we have something as lowly, ordinary and ugly as a jay of clay . Even more unlikely is the idea that treasure can be stored inside clay: God forbid! Costly material must be locked away and heavily guarded with dear life. Yet this is what Paul seemed to be suggesting in our passage above. Just what is he getting into? Paul is rightly using the treasure analogy to remind us about the beauty of the Gospel. English being my second language I just cannot think of the right words that correctly define the wonder of this Good News. Perhaps amazing and marvelous might do half the job. We are talking about something that cost the life of the Son of God. The ...

Discover your history, discover yourself - unknown It’s very easy to think that this Christian faith we have now is something new. S omething that was begun by us – perhaps. This would mean that we are the center of attention in the books of history. Fortunately, that is not the case because already we are sitting on top of 2000 years of Christian history. There is indeed a very long line of brothers and sisters of faith; that cloud of witnesses who have come and gone before us. For that reason it is for our benefit if we are to know the kind of people they were; the challenges they endured and the pleasures they enjoyed. This will help us to reflect upon ourselves, as we correct their errors and shortcomings while being challenged by their virtues and excellencies. Our last article was a summary of our Christian history from the time of the Apostles to the present-day Church age. Today we are going to get the lessons from all that. Let's take it away... Lesson # 1 God's purp...