VOODOOISM AND CHRISTIANITY; THE DISAPPEARING FAULT LINES...

Who are these so called “Prophets”, “Apostles” and Miracle Workers of God and who trained them?

This is the mind boggling puzzle that battles my spirit each time I watch or listen to these preachers on TV and on radio advertise their prowess as if they acquired them from unknown lands and can use them to manipulate the spirit of God. No wonder many church-goers (not Christians) are terribly frustrated as their cravings for the 24 hour-lifeline-miracle sponsored by these mountebank preachers never happen anyway.

Recently, I heard one prophet announce on radio that his area of specialization was in the use of a special “rod” cum the scriptures and that whoever visits his church will feel the true healing power of God and will never walk out the same. He went a step ahead to liken his rod to the “rod of Moses” as a surety to place value on wherever that rod came from.

Another tells us that his oil is called “back-to-sender-oil” and that whoever buys this oil will be free from witchcraft, “kooko”, spiritual marriages and all manner of allergies. It reminds me of an Ejisu-based herbalist I encountered a few months back on board a VIP Bus en route Kumasi. The man had the effrontery to watch me in the eyes and said that a birthmark under my eyelids was the early stages of piles (kooko) and that I should buy his concoction for GHc 5.00, store it in a bottle of gin and takes it 3 times daily. I smiled and questioned his basis for his conclusions?

Lately, many of us are falling prey to power-thirsty preachers, prophets, prophetesses and spiritualists who pump fear and panic into their unsuspecting victims with some extracted biblical verses to back their ignorance and selfishness. What will soon follow is the direction to his church or to a private meeting.
It is at this point that the real deal is unraveled. Either one will have to bath naked by some stinking lagoon , or buy the “back-to-sender oil “ or fasted forty (40) days and forty (40) nights to seek solutions to one’s problem.

The stock of the vulnerable ones are mostly women, especially on marital issues and these charlatans masquerading as servants of God, will stop at nothing in taking advantage of them. They are exploited emotionally, physically and sexually. Some even hypnotize their victims so as to keep them under their spell especially if it turns out that that very man or woman is wealthy.

Cars, shops, clothes etc are now objects that are being prayed over , exorcised and anointed by these so-called prophets.

The King James Bible warns us in Joel 1:11-21 “And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. 12. And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. 13. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. 14. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. 15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16. Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18. The likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19. And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20. But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. 21. Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

The question then arises that if “Holy water”, “Back-to-sender oil” perfumes, incense, rods, sticks, crucifixes are the totems that Christians should possess, purchase and trust in before God listens to their prayers, what difference then exists between the voodooist that consults his idols as his medium to reaching the Supreme God and the Christian who pays money in exchange of water, oil, perfumes crucifixes and body massages and even sexual intercourse as means of reaching God?

The crooks and charlatans in Christendom must be exposed for the harm they are causing to many Church-goers and Christians in search of solutions to their worries. We are thus constantly on the urge as we are scared of the next prophesy or revelation or vision that the man of God might be receiving from God which mostly includes accidents, accidental deaths, broken marriages and witchcraft attacks.

Church is now even getting scarier than the voodoo shrine as the word of God that is supposed to be a soothing balm to our bruised souls is now a weapon for fueling heart attacks, hypertensions and High Blood Pressure due to such quack revelations and revelations from these so-called prophets, pastors and Bishops.

God might deny us our ill-motive and ill-inspired prayers while we keep jumping from one prayer camp to the other, from one pastor to the other, from one prophet to the other messing ourselves and cutting short our blessings , happiness and our very existence lives in the name of spiritual exercises.

It is completely unbiblical for any Christian to transfer his or her belief and trust from the Great God Elohim unto objects like oil, water, sticks, rods and crucifixes for the performance of miracles and the answer to prayers.

The Christian Council, instead of getting too much involved in political, economic and pseudo-political debates should be more focused on the issues that are destroying the church, morality and society.

The disappearing fault lines between paganism, voodoo worship, astrology and Christianity is getting rather disturbing and many supposed Christians are losing their faith and belief to these ersatz entrepreneurs called servants of God.

God save our homeland Ghana.