THE Bible is the oldest book that humankind knows.
This book has been used to manipulate, colonise and has changed lives of so many people.
In almost every Christian household, you will find the Bible. When one dies, the Bible is there to accompany him/her to eternal life.
It has a multitude of uses, but when it is used to turn people against each other, is it still serving its purpose?
It is common in the current set up that politics and religion don’t mix, but is that because humanity has learned not to mix the two or because every time the two are mixed, there is a problem?
However, today, with the proliferation of Pentecostal churches and self-proclaimed prophets, we are faced with times of extreme crisis that have caused people ‘to look for someone to deliver them’.
Today, the desperation is worse and good judgment is compromised.
They are not selling God or Christ, they are using God and Christ to establish regime change in most African countries, through fake prophecies.
Western nations hostile to Zimbabwe have co-opted the Church as an important institution for regime change.
In Zimbabwe and Africa, there are many prophets who have emerged and these have not only focused on the deliverance of poor African souls from bondage but have also gone a gear up by prophesying changes in leadership in some countries.
They have also predicted war if certain leaders are not removed from power.
Because of desperation and fear of the unknown, thousands of congregants have voted good leaders out of power much to the amusement of Western powers that want to see certain leaders in Africa removed from power.
Perhaps one notable prophet and a suspected Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent is the Nigerian Synagogue Church of Nations (SCOAN) leader known for his wayward prophecies. Temitope Joshua prophesied on the outcome of last year’s November 8 US presidential election where he said Democrats candidate Hillary Clinton was going to win the election ahead of Republican Donald John Trump.
Some theological studies on the means to success in world politics show how these evangelists and prophets, by the use of less aggressive language, are able to solicit and obtain the co-operation of their congregants more readily.
It is this ‘soft power’ which works through undue influence and co-option which has largely been used even within the United Nations (UN) machinery to effect seemingly attractive provisions given by the so-called prophets.
The use of God in political power is seen on the American dollar bill.
When you flip it, you have the national motto: ‘In God We Trust’. But there is no definition of God in this sentence.
Is it the biblical God or African God?
No! It is the god of America.
Then you have the symbol of the ‘Great Seal’, ‘the Pyramid’, ‘God’s eye’ above the sacred triangle and two Latin sentences by Roman Poet Virgil: Novus Ordo Seclorum (A new world order) and Annuit Coeptis (He has approved our undertakings).
These are typical of the Roman prophecy of the coming of the saviour.
The birth of the US was compared to the birth of Jesus Christ. Both were events to save humankind.
So these are religious elements, but they are related not to the God of the Bible or the African or Muslim God.
They are related to the American people and entity.
Yet we have prophets who are still looking at the US as a saviour of the world.
There was so much noise coming from Africa during last year’s US general elections when these same prophets tried to outdo each other predicting a new president for the US because they would benefit from the generous financial rewards that come with the correct prediction of the right candidate.
Some were offside, while others wildly predicted that President Donald Trump would win, and indeed they are benefitting from the American dollars.
The money has strings attached though.
These prophecies have swayed most politicians into believing that these are truly men of God, but the underlying truth is they are regime change agents paid to cause mayhem in their respective countries by their false prophecies.
Although it is generally acceptable that these evangelists were spawned from the founders of colonial imperialists, it is worth noting that they hardly owned up to such sinister activities by colonialists.
It is justifiable to argue the scramble for Africa and in Africa was exacerbated by missionary activities.
According to the book, A History of Christianity in Africa from Antiquity to the Present by Elizabeth Isichel: “The clergy did more harm than good to the progress of Christianity among the African people… Most of them spent more time in trade and connived in or participated in the slave trade.”
This intended then, and subsequently, to entrench both moral and religious superiority of their own European dominance and culture over tribal cultures and to implant in indigenous people a high level of inferiority complex.
Today’s prophecies are meant toderail productive creativity among congregants as they believe God will provide good leaders from the West.
Colonial practices of oppression and injustice have become so insidious and pervasive that even African independent governments have fallen prey to the belief that African indigenous people cannot execute any meaningful cultural programmes without the blessing of these men of god.
Although the prophets’ task is to make people accept the Bible and its teachings, they have turned Christianity into an ideology used to convince people not to resist white domination.
Religion is being used to legitimise, sustain and even promote tyranny and oppression by the white people.
Regardless of claims by some prophets that they regard themselves as opposed to the colonial ideology, they are part of the colonial structure as they are using the colonial master’s religion as they have failed to differentiate between their faith and their own culture.
These same so-called prophets have treated African religions as evil.
They believe traditional religious beliefs and practices are inferior and traditional customs must be done away with before the acceptance of Christianity.
It is this social-religious gospel of the 19th Century that drove hundreds of Christian missionaries from Europe abroad to win the ‘pagans’ over to the ‘salvation of the Kingdom of God’.
The missionary was undoubtedly the forerunner or frontrunner of subsequent infiltration by the colonialist who was eager to carve an empire in Africa for purposes of exploiting African resources for his own good.
Pursuant to exploiting African resources, the early religious missionaries were to open up Africa for a more secular missionary whose travels to other countries was not for the Bible, but other documents of conquest such as dubious treaties, guns and trinkets to lure the unsuspecting African.
Today, the prophets often align themselves to the powerful in order to achieve their prime objective of ‘saving souls’ more rapidly.
It is these prophets who are preparing the ground for later waves of colonial agents in Africa.