This article titled 'AFRICAN TRADITIONS Vs SCRIPTURES' is a series that will be done by Pastor Sam Oluoch of 'Grace Baptist Church-Kisumu- Kenya'. Be on the look out!

Introduction

The life we live in today has many competing interest, people are tossed up and down at the whims of life situation. Due to uncertainty in what the following day may bring, people generally live in fear, and in African context, this goes further to uncertainty of life after death. Because of this, many communities, in fear, have created stories and painted pictures or beliefs to hang on so long as this will satisfy their ego and personal security. Uncertainty is strongly built in many cultures that when one who has been brought up in such an environment get converted to believe in Jesus Christ as his Saviour he still feels the forces of the old beliefs drawing him or her to succumb to the old practises of idolatry. In a bid to synchronise his new belief with the old one (normally this is because of fear of promised death in violation of the traditions or any form of misfortune that comes with breaking such ancestral laws), some Christians are ready and glad to identify with Christ Jesus as Lord when the weather is fair but when under pressure, succumbs to traditional unchristian practises which the Scripture has no other description for other than idolatry.

I write this piece of work as a born again Christian who has been in faith for the last twenty one years and a believer in the authority of the Holy Bible. In this work, I intend to point out to my fellow Christians, beloved people of One and Only God, especially in Africa and other communities who are bound by traditions and ancestral homage, the joy and freedom we have forsaken in Christ when we still hold to fear and practice of traditional beliefs that go contrary to the Scriptures. We have a duty to stand firm in circumstances as this and defend our faith lest we confuse observers that Christianity is acceptably synchronistic. God hates double standards. Not only that, He hates rivalry, He will not share His glory with any other god. Like Joshua in Joshua 24:15 we must choose whom we will serve. If God be God serve Him and if Baal be god then serve Baal. No fence sitting in this matter. This work will therefore help the reader to make this important choice as I intend to throw the light of Scriptures at this matter. The pages you are about to read are intended to demonstrate why a professed Christian has no alternative in matters of worship but to fully dedicate his life to total worship of God, in life and in death. This is what pleases God.

1.       Life of Israelites before God called Abraham.

When God called Abraham in Genesis 12 he was to start a unique nation separate from any nation on earth at that time. This nation, Israel, was to be a community in which the glory of God was to be displayed to the world. Israel was expected to worship one and only God, Yahweh.

Casual look of Deuteronomy 7:1-6, God in no uncertain terms orders the chosen nation to do what appears to be a cruel act on inhabitants of Canaan at that time, a land that they were to conquer and live in. The instruction reads in part: ‘Destroy them totally, make no treaty with them and show them no mercy’ (vs. 2). One can ask, ‘what is God trying to protect by issuing such orders?’ He comes back in verse 4 and gives the reason for such a mass destruction of mankind: ‘For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods.’ This instruction was to keep the people of God to Himself, that they be distinct and true worshipers of Yahweh without confusion as to their allegiance to God.

Taking a glance at the Canaanite gods reveals a lot. We find their origin in one of Noah’s children, Ham who was cursed for lack of honour and respect to his father (Gen. 9:20-25; 10:6, 15-18). It is the linage of Ham that lived a very wicked life which did not please God hence attracting judgment upon them (Gen. 15:16; Deut. 9:5). Because of their idolatrous life, God rejected them and their land bequeathed to Israel through the plans of the Lord God almighty. The Hamites, in terms of objects of worship were seriously off target with God’s plan and design. They are described as a people who had ‘extensive pantheon’. Number one on the list of their many gods was Baal, then Dagon, Asherah and many more. Offerings to these gods included human sacrifices and other animals. Libation was a common practise in appeasing the angry gods. I have no time to cover Canaanites religion in to details in this book but what I have presented above gives a glimpse of what worship was during that time.

The Canaanites life here sounds like a forerunner to common practises we find in idolatrous nations today those in Africa included. In all this, God told His people, ‘do not join them’, for such an alliance pits one between choosing whom to worship, Yahweh or Baal. God calls this adultery and can divorce anyone who chooses the way of worship of other gods (Jer. 3:1-9). He clearly declares to Israel that He is a jealous God and will not share His ‘wife’ (Israel) with any other god (Exod. 20:4) and the divorce spoken of in Isaiah 50:1 and 54:4-6 came about because of the waywardness and idolatry of Israel. The wonder is that this same God in Malachi declares unequivocally that He hates divorce yet when it comes to sharing His people with other gods He is ready to divorce. This shows the seriousness of syncretism in the eyes of God. Mixing worship of God of the Bible and traditional worship of ancestors and ancestral beliefs is not acceptable to God almighty. When Israel insisted in going their own way in this matter, God eventually abandoned them to the degradation of captivity with the northern Kingdom going to Assyrians and southern Kingdom to Babylonians (2Kings 17:7ff). God draws pride in owning His own people and doing so alone. In Isaiah 44:6-11 he declares: ‘I am the first and I am the last, apart from me there is no God. Who then is like Me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before Me what has happened since I established My ancient people, and what is yet to come-yes, let him foretell what will come…All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant to their shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame, craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.’

Surely His glory He will not share with things crafted by the hands of men or in the minds of men. Neither will He share His glory with created things which have come from His very own hands. God’s glory is important and must be given to Him alone. The word “glory” itself has a connotation of many closely knit meanings. In our context it means opinion deserving respect, honour and credit. In this, one has a choice to make. He can decide to form his own opinion on a thing or a person and end up giving it or him all the glory. If it is traditional beliefs and ancestral worship that gives one some opinion that draws him to worship such as to, respect and honour them, it will be fine for him to do that. However, when it comes to the respect, honour and credit to God, He declares in no uncertain terms that ‘I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or praise to idols’ (Isa. 42:8). Again He says: For My own sake for My own sake, I do this. How can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another (Isa. 48:11). Hence the call in 1 Chronicles 16: 28-29 ‘Ascribe to the Lord, oh families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.’

Consider a family situation where a responsible father buys gifts for his dear son, provides him with good education and does everything the son ever expects his responsible father to do to him. The father derives pride in his son and expects him to recognise him as the best father in the world. Imagine a situation where each time the man does good to his son, the hobgoblin son, instead of giving thanks to his dear beloved father, takes this glory to the father of his friend in the neighbourhood and praises him for the good gift. This would be ridiculous and the greatest height of ungratefulness. In the same way, God, who is the creator of all, giver of all and our protector, (and for Christians the Saviour) will obviously suffer our mischief when we turn to worship other gods.

As we further walk through the Old Testament, and in to the New Testament, we meet the same thread of call to honour none but God. This demonstrates that the same God of the Old Testament is in the New Testament and demands the same glory and honour as in the Old Testament. Beginning with Habakkuk 2:14, we read the prophetic declaration that: ‘The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ Obviously this prophecy foresees salvation brought to the Gentiles on equal terms as it was provided to the Old Testament saints. We serve the same God and He is unchanging. Paul the Apostle in Galatians 6:16 gives his blessings to ‘all’ ‘even to the Israel of God.’ If this is read within the context the Apostle’s arguments in the entire letter, the ‘all’ here obviously includes you and me who are not of Israel by tribe but true children of the promise to Abraham, Christians (Gal. 3: 26-29). One can easily argue from these passages and many more that all believers in Christ Jesus at any time are the true Israelites. If this be the case, it follows that the glory due to God in the Old Testament stands today. There is to be no sharing of His glory even among the Gentile believers, not in any form. Be it in the worship of ancestors or even of a pastor of a church who behaves as if he is the total head of the church thus attracting all the glory to himself leaving the one whose glory he has robbed standing somewhere amongst the congregation! In urging Roman believers to run away from their depraved mind and community, Paul gives a clear imperative that they stop worshipping the created but worship the Creator. To stop transferring the glory of the Creator God to the created snakes and other things! In fact, the Apostle saw such a swap of glory as serious misdemeanour against God that will definitely meet with the wrath of God at the appointed time (Rom. 1: 18-32). Man remains the same all over the world and at any time in as far as rebellion from God is concerned. In my own country many communities are known to have given the worship due the one and only true God to gods like Sun god, mountain gods, spirits, trees and reptiles (the infamous ‘Omieri’ python). These are condemned on equal terms as we saw in the Old Testament and even here in New Testament. Christians (who are the true Israel) have a duty to fly the flag of Jesus Christ at all times, in season and out of season. To be precise, Apostle Paul brings to us this part of Scriptures to develop the argument on the righteousness of God which he has previously been discussing in Romans 1:16-17. Verses 17-32 is to help his readers to appreciate that all men under the sun have sinned and can only depend on the righteousness that comes from God through Christ Jesus for their salvation. According to Paul, to prove that they are already living in sin and need this mercy of God, they might as well look at their objects of worship. This is sin. Christians need not take God’s glory to any other thing save God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It does not matter whether it is an art of appeasing the ancestral spirits, bowing to a mountain or worshipping some reptile or traditions. If this is done we are not different from the mischievous boy in the hypothesis above who transfers the glory due to his own dad to his friend’s dad...TO BE CONTINUED.