Christianity Was In Africa Before Europe

Christianity spread to North Africa less than 150 years after the death of Christ. Christian beliefs were introduced by missionaries from Jerusalem and spread among the Jews of Alexandria, on the Egyptian Coast, some time in first century AD or second century. There, the new faith was adopted by the Greek community from the Jews. Christianity spread west, and was taken up across North Africa. It reached as far as modern-day Morocco, where it was enthusiastically embraced by the Berber people. Christianity came to Africa before it came to Britain and other regions in Northern Europe.

Once in North Africa, Christianity spread slowly West from Alexandria and East to Ethiopia. Through North Africa, Christianity was embraced as the religion of dissent against the expanding Roman Empire. In the 4th century AD the Ethiopian King Ezana made Christianity the kingdom's official religion. In 312 Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

In the 7th century Christianity retreated under the advance of Islam. But it remained the chosen religion of the Ethiopian Empire and persisted in pockets in North Africa.

In the 15th century Christianity came to Sub-Saharan Africa with the arrival of the Portuguese. In the South of the continent the Dutch founded the beginnings of the Dutch Reform Church in 1652.

In the interior of the continent most people continued to practice their own religions undisturbed until the 19th century. At that time, Christian missions to Africa increased, driven by an antislavery crusade and the interest of Europeans in colonising Africa. However, where people had already converted to Islam, Christianity had little success.

Who was the Apostle Mark?

His name was John, as the Holy Bible says: "He came to the house of Mary, the
mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together
praying" (Acts 12:12). He was the one whom the Lord Christ, to Whom is the glory, meant when He said: "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, The Teacher says, 'My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples'" (Matthew 26:18).

This apostle was born in Cyrene (one of the five Western cities, Pentapolis, in North Africa). After the ascension of the Lord Christ, Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas to preach the gospel in Antioch, Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, and Perga Pamphylia, where he left them and returned to Jerusalem. After the apostolic council in Jerusalem, he went with Barnabas to Cyprus. After the departure of Barnabas, St. Mark went to Afrikia, Berka, and the five Western cities. He preached the gospel in these parts, and on his account many believed. From there, he went to Alexandria in 61 A.D.

QUEEN OF SHEBA
The most popular story connected to the region is the ancient account of the Queen of Sheba. As told in the Old Testament, she travelled from Aksum to Jerusalem to meet the famed King Solomon (King of the Israelites) in Jerusalem.

"And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart."
1 Kings, 10, v.1-2, Old Testament.

SPREAD OF ISLAM
In the 5th and 6th centuries the scriptures were translated into Ge'ez. The ancient forerunner of the Ethiopian language Amharic. With the spread of Islam in the 7th century the Ethiopian Church fell into something of a decline, although there was a revival in the 13th century. In 1621 the Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos became Catholic. With his abdication however, links with Rome were abandoned and Jesuit priests were banned.

Although autonomous in its rulings, the Ethiopian church remained connected to the Coptic Church until the mid-20th century.

THE NUBIA
Christianity spread South from the North of Egypt to Nubia (modern day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan) some two hundred years after the collapse of the powerful Nile Valley kingdom of Meroe in the 4th century AD. It was brought by traders from Egypt and by travelers from Aksum.

Archaeological remains suggest that Christianity was a religion of the poor people to begin with and only later became popular with the elite. A missionary who came to Nubia from Constantinople found everybody well versed in Christian doctrine in 580. Initially the Nubian Church developed under the control of the Egyptian Coptic church. When Islam swept through the North of the continent in the 7th century, the Nubian rulers sought help from the Christian Emperor in Constantinople.

The Arab forces did their best to conquer Nubia but were forced back by the skills of the Nubian archers.

"One day they arrayed themselves against us and were desirous to carry on the conflict with the sword. But they were too quick for us and shot their arrows, putting out our eyes. The eyes they put out numbered 150. We at last thought the best thing to do with such a people was to make peace."
-The Arabic writer al-Baladhuri-

The Arabs agreed a peace treaty with the Nubians, which allowed the Nubian kingdoms to flourish as a Christian state for 700 years. The two northern kingdoms, Nobadia and Makuria merged into one - Dongola. Dongola entered something of a golden age; the bible was translated from Greek into Nubian and beautiful churches were built throughout the Nile Valley.

The Church in Nubia finally yielded to Islamic conversion in the 14th century and the massive Cathedral in Dongola was converted into a mosque in 1317.

While the Nubian church dissolved, with only a few architectural remnants to recall its former glory, the Ethiopian Church not only persisted but acquired great significance outside the Horn of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The ancient nature of the church, combined with the Ethiopian defeat of the Italians in 1896, gave hope and inspiration to the anti-colonial movement in South Africa, and the Gold Coast, as well as to African-Americans suffering from prejudice and segregation.

Christianity Timeline

29, 30 or 33 - Crucifixion of Jesus

100 - 2nd Century - Christianity comes to Alexandria from Jerusalem

180 - 12 Christians executed for beliefs in Carthage

181 - In Carthage Perpetua refuses renounce Christianity and is sent to the lions

182 - Emperor Diocletian launches great persecution against Christianity

4th Century - Collapse of Meroe kingdom

5th-7th Century - Scriptures translated into Ge'ez in Ethiopia

311 - Donatist split

312 - Constantine makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire

333 - Ethiopian King Ezana makes Christianity official religion

451 - Schism (divide) with Rome on nature of God, marks the beginning of separate Coptic Church I in North Africa (taking Monophysite line, i.e. Jesus is not human as well as the son of God)

6th Century - Christianity comes to Nubia

639 - Islam comes to North Africa, displacing Christianity on a large scale

1317 - Nubia turns Muslim; Dongola cathedral converted to Mosque

1490 - First missionaries come to Kongo from Portugal

1621 - With the abdication of Emperor Susenyos, the Ethiopian Church is restored as the official church, after a period of Catholicism

1652 - Dutch settle in the Cape; beginning of Dutch Reformed Church

1706 - Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia becomes Catholic; Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, of Kongo, is burnt at stake having claimed to be possessed by spirit of St. Anthony

1737 - Moravian Brethren set up in South Africa

1799 - London Missionary Society (LMS) set up in South Africa

1804 - Protestant mission in Sierra Leone

1807 - British declare abolition of slave trade

1839 - Pope Gregory XVI issues Papal Bull condemning slavery

1840 - David Livingstone arrives in Africa

1865 - Samuel Ajayi Crowther became first black Anglican Bishop in Nigeria

1868 - White Fathers Mission Society established by Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers. Dedicated to mission work in Africa

1882 - Nehemiah Tile's Ethiopian church founded in South Africa

1892 - Mangena M. Mokone's Tembu National Church founded in South Africa

1886 - Execution of Christian pages in court of Buganda by Kabaka Mwanga

1921 - Simon Kimbangu founds EJCSK (Eglise de Jesus sur la Terre par le Prophete Simon Kimangu) or Church of Jesus on Earth through the Prophet Simon Kimangu

1927 - Dimi Ya Roho (Holy Ghost Church) founded in Kenya

1939 - 1st African Catholic Bishops: Joseph Kiwanuka of Buganda, and Joseph Faye of Senegal

1960 - Dutch Reformed Church expelled from the World Council of Churches

Source
The Story of Africa| BBC World Service

Once in North Africa, Christianity spread slowly West from Alexandria and East to Ethiopia. Truth23 wrote 'Through North Africa, Christianity was embraced as the religion of dissent against the expanding Roman Empire. In the 4th century AD the Ethiopian King Ezana made Christianity the kingdom's official religion. In 312 Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.'


Actually your European sources do not accurately describe the history correctly.

Exiled Egyptians: the heart of Africa - Google Books ( read especially from page 91)

In 312 CE Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman empire. The Romans ruled Egypt at the time. A short time later the Roman empire split. Egypt became part of the Byzantine Empire from 323 CE. Constantine's declaration to make Christianity the official religion of the empire had two immediate effects on Egypt:

Firstly it allowed the church to enhance the organisation of its administrative structure and to aquire considerable wealth.

Secondly it allowed Christian fanatics to destroy the native Egyptians religious rights, properties and temples.

Here a few examples of the Christian rampage in Egypt.

During a visit to Egpyt in 385 CE Maternus Cynegius, closed the ancient Egyptian temples and forbade sacrifices to Min-Amen.

When Theophilus was made Patriarch of Alexandrai in 391CE he displayed tremondous zeal in destroying ancient Egyptian temples. A wave of destruction swept over the land of Egypt. Tombs were ravaged, walls of ancient monuments scraped, and staues toppled.

In addition to the violation of ancient Egyptian temples the fanatic christians adopted a new script called the Coptic language - basically demotic Egyptian written in Greek characters...


There was unrest and riots, short of civil war in the Delta. The Egyptian refugees at Ta-Apet (Thebes) were active against this virulent bigotry; and frequently attacked the Byzantine strongholds in western oases and Upper Egypt.

_________________________________________


Wherever christianity has appeared in Africa it has resulted in destruction of peoples culture/history and political autonomy.

We haven't even started to talk about King Ezana and his destruction of Meroe the last capital of Kush. The amount of ancient scientific knowledge, architecture, and human history that has been lost in Africa because of Christians /prior to European contact is a tragedy.

The Meroitic Origin of the Oromos, and the Christianization of Africa

Since that Axumite Abyssinian king usurped the name of Ethiopia in order to offer himself the basics of a royal propaganda justifying the christening of Abyssinia, it was obvious to the subjugated Ethiopians, the Meroites, that they would be forced to Christianity. The foreign invader had found in the famous Biblical excerpt about Kush (‘Ethiopia’ in the Septuaginta Greek translation of the 70 Elder of Alexandria) a supposed prophecy about accepting Christian faith. This is all irrelevant of course, but one can understand that what mattered to the Meroites - Ethiopians at that time was to reject a faith that had already been imposed with disastrous impact in Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire. Christianity as imposed religion in Egypt was well known to the Meroites of Ancient Ethiopia (through contacts, reports, etc).

We actually know that acceptance of Christianity by illiterate, uneducated, fanatic, low social level masses in Rome, in Egypt, in Greece, in Anatolia, in Syria, in Judea and elsewhere throughout the Roman Empire prompted the rise of religious fanaticism, intolerance, and barbarism; it actually led to the destruction of thousands of temples, sanctuaries, libraries, scientific laboratories (of those days), observatories, museums, palaces, theaters and all sorts of centers of culture, education, knowledge and erudition.

The rise of Christianity brought about an unprecedented racial discrimination and an ulcerous Anti-Semitism; for three hundred years of Christian rule over Aelia Capitolina – Jerusalem not a single Jew was allowed to enter that city! It is only normal that the highly civilized Meroites - Ethiopians of the Ancient Sudan, who were still building pyramids at Meroe, present day Bagrawiyah in Sudan, wished to escape the fanatic and intolerant rule of the Abyssinian king Ezana.

We have to add all this that, what the Meroites may also have known (but has not survived in any sort of documentation until today) is the setup and the circumstances of the christening of Axumite Abyssinia. Perhaps that was also an alarming waning for them!

Modern scholarship is aware of the famous story about the Syrian monks Edesius and Frumentius, Keddous Faramanatos, who traveled, accompanied their uncle Metropius, to Abyssinia, and when their ship stopped at one of the harbors of the Red Sea, supposedly Adulis, nearby the present day Eritrean city of Massawa, people of the neighborhood massacred the whole crew, with the exception of those who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. By then, they were young boys, but they managed to gain the favor of the king, who made them free citizens of his country.

After the death of the last pre-Christian king of Axumite Abyssinia, the widow queen convinced them to remain at the court and look after the education of the young prince Erazanes. This was done, and especially Frumentius used his influence to spread his Christian beliefs and ideas. They built the first Christian churches to address the needs of the Christian merchants who were coming to Axum. Following the young prince’s accession to the throne, Frumentius became even more eager to convert Abyssinia to Christianity, and ultimately moved to Alexandria, and requested Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, to send a bishop and priests to Abyssinia. St. Athanasius considered Frumentius as the most suitable person and consecrated him as bishop of Abyssinia. Then, Frumentius returned to Abyssinia, built up the first cathedral of Axum, baptized King Aeizanas, around 340 – 345 CE, and spread Christianity throughout Abyssinia. All this is a nice Christian legend, a myth that we cannot accept at face value, since we have no other non-Christian documentation left, and we are not able to crosscheck sources for a better understanding.

It may well have been a more brutal and excruciating reality, with palatial plots, patricide, conspiracy, bloodshed across the country, with the involvement of foreign merchants and sailors of Christian faith. All this may well have been known to the Meroites of Ethiopia as an evil and atrocious act, and they may have wished to avoid such disastrous adventures, by abandoning their country and moving to quasi-uninhabited areas that would permit them to preserve the basics of life, arable land, cultivation, pastoral life, with less trade and stressed isolation – we must admit.

At this point, it must be stated that modern scholarship has good reasons to believe that the Christianization of Abyssinia involved a lot of blood and even terrible fights among theological fractions and ideological groups. Just before the attack against Ethiopia and the destruction of Meroe (370 CE), the Roman Emperor Constantius addressed a letter to King Aeizanas and to his brother Saizanas that dates back to 365 CE.

Now, we are certainly on historical ground, distancing ourselves from the otherwise pleasant Christian myth of a peaceful christening for Abyssinia. In his letter, Constantius demanded Ezana to substitute the Arian bishop Theophilus for Frumentius (Athanasius, "Apol. ad Constantium" in Patrologia Graeca, vol. XXV, 631). Now, if we only transplant at the area of the Axumite Abyssinia the virulent and venomous fights and polarizations between Arians and their opponents within Christianity, as we know them in Egypt, in Rome and elsewhere, we realize that terrible fratricide fights took place in Axum as well, at the eve of Ezana’s attack against Meroitic Ethiopia. It is even plausible that a Roman letter asked this in the hope of consolidating the situation in the south of Egypt. In the middle of the 4th century CE Christian power in Egypt resided mostly in the north, in Lower Egypt, and non-Christian Egyptians were prevailing in Upper Egypt, Thebes (Luqsor), Syene (Aswan) and further on to the Dodekaschoinos and the Triakontaschoinos buffer zone areas. Nubians and desert nomads like the Blemmyes had made the Christian Roman rule even more unsure and unstable throughout Upper Egypt. All anti-Christian elements could find an excellent shelter in Meroe - Ethiopia, the vast area of the present day North of Sudan. So, the Romans had to eliminate the Meroitic kingdom of Ethiopia that was not Christianized. Busy with their inner problems, and with the wars with the Sassanid Empire of Iran, the other superpower of those days, they may have demanded Ezana to do the job. If this was the case, again the Meroites knew that they had to move away, if they were to avoid forced christening.

Christianity enters Africa through the already conquered Roman outpost of Egypt. This is how the Egyptian Coptic church was formed. With rivers of blood and destruction of ancient knowledge. The following facts can be verified in a multitude of sources.



389 to 390 All non-Christian calendars and dating-methods are outlawed.
Hordes of fanatic hermits from the desert flood the cities of the Middle
East and Egypt and destroy statues, altars, libraries and pagan temples, and
lynch the pagans. Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, starts heavy
persecutions against non-Christian peoples, turning the temple of Dionysius
into a Christian church, burning down the Mithraeum of the city, destroying
the temple of Zeus and burlesques the pagan priests before they are killed
by stoning. The Christian mob profanes the cult images.

391 On 24th February, a new edict of Theodosius prohibits not only visits to
pagan temples but also looking at the vandalized statues. New heavy
persecutions occur all around the empire. In Alexandria, Egypt, pagans, led
by the philosopher Olympius, revolt and after some street fights they lock
themselves inside the fortified temple of the god Serapis (the Serapeion).
After a violent siege, the Christians take over the building, demolish it,
burn its famous library and profane the cult images.
392 On 8th November, Theodosius outlaws all the non-Christian rituals and
names them "superstitions of the gentiles" (gentilicia superstitio). New
full scale persecutions are ordered against pagans. The Mysteries of
Samothrace are ended and the priests slaughtered. In Cyprus the local bishop
"Saint" Epiphanius and "Saint" Tychon destroy almost all the temples of the
island and exterminate thousands of non-Christians. The local Mysteries of
goddess Aphrodite are ended. Theodosius's edict declares:

"The ones that won't obey pater Epiphanius have no right to keep living in
that island."

Intresting posts B.T, much appreciated.

My solemn point is the fact that Europeans didn't bring christianity to africa as most have adopted into their ideologies, rather the fact of the matter is that christianity has been in africa prior to european contact. Furthermore *bredder* What you have layed out here is history mostly pertaining to the *Roman empire*...Now before you could use the touch of a mouse and pen down this which you call knowledge there was a man way before your life time that saw the Might of the Roman empire...I believe his name was Daniel...his dream is found somewhere Between "DAN 2:31 & 45"...in the dream Daniel saw the Roman empire typified as the legs and feet. But wherein the former kingdoms were typified as pure minerals (pure gold, silver and brass) this last empire was pure iron only in the legs, for when it came to the feet it was a mixture of iron and clay, and mineral and soil. The Roman Empire of iron signifyed power and great destructive force against opposition & was to be made of two main divisions. The empire split into two-East and West. Both were very powerful, crushing all before them. Rome took on a new face when Constantine joined church and state and backed the union by force. After the Nicene Council the power of political Rome to the church seemed unstoppable, the name Christian, which originally brought persecution, now became the name of the persecutors. It was this age that "Augustine Hippo (354-430) set forth that the church ought and MUST use force if necessary and that it was in Harmony with the Word of God to kill the Heretics and apostates. Many have done horrible things in The name Of God....presenting themselves as christians...just because someone says that they are something doesn't mean it is true....it's called freewill and ones own interest...

I'm not sure if this is accurate either.

For when folks speak of xianity being brought to afrika by europeans, 9.9 times out of 10, folks are talking about xianity being brought to, forced on rather, enslaved afrikans that were brought to the western world.

I definetly agree with you on that point *Raptor*...however in the spirituality forum i have sensed that most tend to think that europeans brought christianity to africa, this is rather an absurd viewpoint that most like to bring up. Yes they played a role in the spread of it, and many of them dressed up as christians for their own self interests and political purposes, but everything in scriptures/bible is opposed to everything they did against africans....corrupt man will do all to corrupt the Truth with their own ambitions and ideologies...

Freewill and ones own interest! The christian will and interest showed itself and is very consistent. From Roman times to European colonisation the same destructive force was unleashed. Im not really interested in christian myths.

But I knew you'd bring the old argument that these people were not 'true christians'. Much like the slave owners of old were not the 'true , normal decent Europeans' or the christians that reaped destruction in the name of their religion on the original inhabitants of the Americas resulting in mass genocide were not real christians. Islamists responsible for slaughter and slavery in West Africa? Its not real muslims. Missionaries who denigrade African culture. Its never the real christians is it?


What I have learned in the process of my posts is the following points:

1) Christianity in Africa was only able to flourish after one of two /or both things happened:

a) The part of Africa in question was under foreign domination
b) The society in question is destroyed. Literally in every aspect.

2) The oldest church in Africa (The Egyptian Coptic Church) was founded after the people had lost their independence and forced to adopt Greek/Roman elements into their life (such as language). Hence the oldest Church/ Christian sect in Africa was as a result of Europeans institutionalising the religion and punishing any resistance with death. Europeans brought Chrsitianity to Africa no matter how you look at it. With the same destructive results as their descendants 1900 years later. And the evidence suggests that indigenous Africans always resisted this alien cultural imposition. The evidence was there for them to see in the Middle East and in Egpyt what would happen after their were forced to become christians. The Kushites and African Egyptians had over 200 years of christian intolerance and murder to look at and make their conclusions. No people with a sane mind would of embraced the christian doctrine after seeing the consistent results it produced.

3) Christianity is remarkably consistent in the effect it has on its adherants. It bred in antiquity and in the recent era an intolerance to other cultures and inspired many to willfullly destroy, murder, lynch in the name of their god , based on nothing else than the ignorant and political claim, that its the 'only true religion'. Noticably the only other religion to make this claim ( Islam) resulted in the same murder, destruction etc in North Africa after they drove out the christians. It can be concluded that any religion to make this claim results in intolerant and murderous behaviour. It cant just be coincidence.

They were the real christians Truth. Please do not insult people's intelligence with this 'they were not the real christians'. Tell that to our ancestors.

Christianity is solely a European invention. Phat Out!! -- Truth is, Africans embrace European Christianity so passionately "only" because it loosely resembles a much older form of spirituality that originated from The GODDESS -- since most of 'em have even forgotten that!!

Then of course you're going back to the discussion you and I had in the other thread of yours... that the vast majority of Africans who are christian use the King James version of the bible or some other european model and not the Ethiopic version. So its not that we assume that Europeans brought it to Africa, they did, they brought the Roman, council of Nicaea, translation of certain texts from the middle east that suit THEIR climate and political agenda and its that that African christians perpetuate on the continent and in our countries, conflicting with our traditional values and way of being.

Feature Article of Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Religious Intolerance in Africa

By Dr. Charles Quist-Adade

Abstract

In this paper, I will trace religious conflicts in Africa and propose that some African politicians, like their former colonial masters, have cynically exploited religion in their quest for power. Part of the problem I argue is that Christianity and Islam, the mainstream religions in Africa today were imposed on Africans by outsiders while Africa’s own religions were destroyed through cultural genocide.

Religion and politics are a dangerous mix the world over. Africa is no exception. From Nigeria to Sudan, from the Ivory Coast to the Gambia, and from Egypt to Swaziland, religious conflicts have left in their trail death and destruction. The ongoing Darfur crisis on the Sudan is the latest in the long saga of religious conflicts in Africa. The most notorious religious conflicts are in Nigeria and Sudan. In Nigeria, intermittent clashes between Christians and Moslems in the northern states over Sharia (Islamic fundamentalist laws) crises have claimed the lives of thousands of Christians and Moslems. According to United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “since 1999, a disturbingly large number of Nigerians; 12,000, if not more; have been killed in sectarian and communal attacks and reprisals between Muslims and Christians.” The most recent examples of this strife, in the city of Jos and in parts of the Bauchi state, have resulted in hundreds if not thousands of deaths as well as 10,000 or more Nigerians displaced. The Sudan conflict, which has been raging for more than two decades and has claimed tens of thousands of lives, was ignited by the dominant Islamic North’s hegemony over the largely Christian South. What makes Africa’s case even most tragic and ironic is that none of the religions that are causing antagonism and wreaking havoc on the continent are indigenous to Africa, at least not in their current forms! The question is why two Nigerians who speak the same language and share the same substrate culture are slaughtering each other in the name of alien religions. The answers are legion. I shall try to explain some of them.

In Africa, a curious conspiracy of factors, including the colonial legacy, geopolitics, machinations of ruthless politicians and pervasive ignorance, accounts for this sad situation. The most important factor, I insist, relates to African political economy, i.e., the intersection of politics and economics in African governance. The so-called tribal-religious wars in Africa are masked economic wars. In other words, religious conflicts are struggles over scarce economic resources and scrambles to control political power. Religion and “tribalism” are mere fronts for deep-seated grievances over economic deprivation. Politics is the concentrated expression of economics, as one social philosopher rightly noted.

The colonizers of Africa employed several methods to conquer, control and rule Africa. Divide and rule was one. The British were the most adept at this. They not only divided African countries along ethnic lines, they also created artificial schisms along religious lines. For example, in the then Gold Coast, now Ghana, the British turned the Moslem north into a labour trove for the Christian south. While southern Ghana was relatively ‘developed’, the north was largely ignored. The few social amenities and infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and hospitals, the British introduced in Ghana were set up almost exclusively in the south.

The introduction of a cash crop economy in Ghana meant that the northern population was turned into hewers of wood and drawers of water for the southerners – a seasonal labor force, migrating southwards to work on the cocoa plantations. With time, the northerners acquired a sort of ethnic specialization; they came to be regarded as ‘labourers.’ With ethnic specialization came negative stereotypes and prejudice. The same pattern was repeated in Nigeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast, and other African countries. The pattern created by British and other European colonizers did not end with the political independence of African countries. With time, the colonial legacy led to a class of relatively well developed, well educated, more urbanized southerners, many of whom worked in the newly established bureaucracies, firms, and businesses. The northerners were mostly drawn into the military and police forces. It is not difficult to understand that in Nigeria, for example, almost all the military coups were plotted by northerners.

Islamic-Christian antagonism

The North-South religious divide in Africa is the offshoot of the Islamic-Christian antagonism that dates back to the Crusades. Africa was the staging ground for Arab-European rivalry for centuries. The religious map of Africa today is testimony to this fact, with northern Africa being largely “the spoils” of Arab conquest and Africa south of the Sahara populated largely by Christian “converts.” The introduction of Islam and Christianity into Africa has been described as the beginning of the “cultural genocide” of Africa: the best way to conquer a people is to control their “cultural mind.” Thus Africa’s colonization, partition and neo-colonization were accomplished first through religious and cultural enslavement.

Religion has always represented the essence of a people. In Africa, religion is synonymous with tradition and is inextricably linked with culture. Even in the so-called advanced Western industrialized countries that claim to have separated the state from religion, religious beliefs are, in fact, the central fulcrum around which moral and legal laws revolve.

Thus when a people’s religion is destroyed, their traditions die and culture atrophies. In his book, Africa and the World, Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois described the destruction of African culture in graphic terms: “…The old religion was held up for ridicule, the old culture and ethical standards degraded or disappeared, and gradually all over Africa spread the inferiority complex, the fear of colour, the worship of white skin, the imitation of white ways of doing and thinking, whether good, bad, or indifferent.”

“By the end of the nineteenth century,” Du Bois continues, “the degradation of Africa was as complete as organized human means could make it. Chieftains, representing a thousand years of thriving human culture, were decked out in second-hand London top-hats, while Europe snickered.” African American historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke was equally incisive in his analysis of the cultural warfare on African culture by the European colonizers. He noted that in the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans not only colonized most of the world, they also colonized most of the information regarding the world. Part of the war on the cultures of non-European people was the colonization of imagery, especially the image of God. Most of the people in Asia and in Africa under European domination dared not address God in a language of their own creation or look at God in the image created by their own imagination.

Dr. Clarke therefore called on African scholars to pay proper academic attention to the impact of the rise of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries on the mind of the non-European world. Europe’s greatest achievement during this period, Dr. Clarke acknowledged, was not the enslavement and the military conquest of most of the world, but the conquest of the minds of most of the people of the world.

European conquest of the non-European world was achieved not by mere brute force or “brawn power” but largely by “brain power,” he observed. He wrote: “By the end of the 19th century, Europe effectively controlled or influenced most of the geography and people of the earth. In spite of the military advantage, the Europeans mainly having guns and their victims mainly without guns, there still were not enough Europeans in the world to have effectively taken over most of the world. What they did not achieve militarily, they achieved through propaganda. He called this achievement the manifestation of the ‘evil genius’ of Europe.”

Dr. Clarke continued: “When Europe found itself and shook off the lethargy of the Middle Age, after the disaster of the Crusades, they began to propagate false concepts that reverberate to this day.” The most damaging of these concepts are:

• That the world was waiting in darkness for the Europeans to bring the light of culture and civilization. As a matter of fact, in most cases, the truth was the contrary. The Europeans put out more light and destroyed more civilizations and cultures than they built. • Another European concept that is still with us, doing its maximum damage, is that the European concept of god is the only concept worthy of serous religious attention. In most of the world where the Europeans expanded, especially in Africa, they deprived the people of the right to call on God in a language of their creation and to look at God through their own imagination. They inferred or said outright that no figure that did not resemble a European could be god or the representative of god.

• The European concept that the invader and conqueror is a civilizer. Conquerors are never benevolent. In nearly all cases they spread their way of life at the expense of the conquered people.

• The myth of the European as discoverer is still with us more than 500-years after Christopher Columbus’ alleged discovery of America. This is one of the most prevailing myths in history, because Christopher Columbus discovered absolutely nothing. Conversely, he did help to set in motion a pattern of European expansion, slavery and exploitation that left its scar on most of mankind.

Dr. Clarke emphatically called on Africans to “regain their self-confidence and the image of God that they had originally conceived him or her to be.” And the late Afro-Guyanese historian, Walter Rodney made the same point when he wrote that: “What we need is confidence in ourselves, so that as Africans we can be conscious, united, independent and creative. A knowledge of African achievements in art, education, religion, politics, agriculture, medicine, science and the mining of metals can help us gain the necessary confidence which has been removed by slavery and colonialism.”

In the words of Mohamadou Kane, when religion dies, tradition can no longer find the energy to enable it resist the various assaults of the innovative and contesting forces that brew within it. This is precisely why some have argued that the invasion of foreign religions – principally Christianity and Islam -- is tantamount to a cultural genocide. The two religions have robbed Africa of the “assertive forces” that used to regulate and affirm the African people’s identity.

As Professor Daniel Mangera notes, the cultural genocide of Africa began in the seventh-eighth century AD, when the Arabs forced Islam and slave trade on Africans. The Arabs were followed by their arch rivals, the Europeans, in the 15th century. Under the pretext of checkmating Arabic slave trade and saving African heathens, the Europeans introduced Christianity to the continent. Professor Mangera further points out that Africa’s indigenous religions, unlike their Christian and Islamic counterparts, were not proselytizing and never led Africans to use force to convert or impose their beliefs on others. According to another African scholar, Professor Ali Mazrui, of the three principal religious legacies of Africa – indigenous, Islamic and Christian – the most tolerant is the indigenous tradition.

Africa did not have religious wars prior to the introduction of Christianity and Islam. This is because indigenous African religions (and therefore cultures) were neither universalistic – seeking to conquer the whole of the human race – nor competitive – in bitter rivalry against other creeds. The grant designs of Christianity and Islam, the two most universalistic religions in the world, have always been to convert the entire world according to their images. The crusades and jihads that tore apart Europe and other areas of the world for centuries testify to the incredible thirst for conquest and domination that has characterized both the Christian and Islamic creeds. For instance, the Bible’s Old Testament prods Christians to embark on imperialistic conquests of other nations and even to incite racist sentiments in the following lines: When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to occupy and drives out many nations before you (…), when the Lord delivers them into your power and you defeat them, you must put them to death (…). (…) you must not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons. (Old Testament, Deuteronomy, 7: 1-3) Africans, unlike the Arabs and Europeans, developed community religions that left so much freedom of association to individuals that most of the religious practices remained community-based, familial or even individual, and did not, in most cases, expand beyond village, ethnic or tribal constituencies. When they did expand, indigenous African religions did so, more in the form of borrowings than of cultural impositions.

Sadly, Africans abandoned their tolerant tradition and instead embraced religions of intolerance that now turn them against one another. Africans abandoned their own gods and embraced false gods. They bought into the nonsense peddled by European missionaries that their religions were heathenish and that they did not know God until the Europeans introduced the concept to them! Regrettably, the deadly religious clashes in Nigeria, the Christian-Islamic war in Sudan, the North-South schism that led to the civil war in the Ivory Coast, plus numerous other religion inspired conflicts in Africa today, are damning testimony to the fact that Africans have now integrated the cultural aggression and intolerance characteristic of Western and Arab holy warriors and missionaries.

A Mau Mau commentary on European missionary activities in Africa could not emphasize Africa’s cultural void and religious vacuum better: “They asked us to close our eyes in prayers, and when we opened our eyes, our gold and other treasures were gone.” In fact, it is not only our gold and other treasures that disappeared; our culture disappeared as well!

The main point remains, however, that the so-called religious wars in Africa are mere excuses for sorting out economic and political injustices. Otherwise why should a seemingly innocuous opinion by an ordinary journalist about a hypothetical reaction of the Prophet Mohammed to the Miss World pageant in Nigeria lead to a bloodbath between Christian and Moslem Nigerians?

About the author: Dr. Charles Quist-Adade a Sociology professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, British Columbia in Canada. He teaches race and ethnicity, sociology of religion globalization, social justice, among others. He is the author of In the Shadows of the Kremlin and the White House: Africa’s Media Image from Communism to Post-Communism (University Press of America, 2001).

The Truth About Jesus

By Charles Gilmer

When you hear the name "Jesus" what images and thoughts come to mind?

Devotion to Jesus has been a large part of the African-American experience. The black church has been and continues to be a powerful force in the African-American community. But many are questioning the propriety of African Americans following Jesus. Should we, as black people, follow this Jesus?

Some suggest that Jesus was a foreign deity forced upon our forefathers and mothers. Others suggest that worshiping Jesus has been nothing more than a psychological narcotic to deaden the pain of our oppressed existence. Still others contend that our forefathers' worship of Jesus was merely a mask for the expression of more ancient religious practices, a cover for the practice of "traditional" African religions.

How should we view that influence as we approach a new chapter of our history? Much is being said, yet is what you've heard the truth? Let's, you and I, examine some of these perspectives about African Americans and Christianity.

The best historical record of Jesus' life is found in the Bible. One of the most frequently posed challenges is directed at this book.

Is the Bible credible? Isn't it just a European book that has little to do with our people?

The answer to the questions are, "Yes, the Bible is credible," and "No, it isn't a European book that has nothing to do with our people." Black people are referred to and appear on the stage of biblical history many times. Several works have been done to chronicle these instances.1 One notable biblical character was Zipporah, Moses' Midianite wife. This means that Zipporah's father, Jethro, was also black.2 In the New Testament, there are several characters whom scholars believe were likely black due to the location of their home cities. The most undeniable instance was Lucius' comrade in Antioch, Simeon, who was called Niger. Niger simply means "black." African nations and African people are quite prominent in biblical times. To say that the Bible is the white man's holy book or to suggest that it is European in origin or nature, is simply not taking into account the facts.

Isn't Christianity a late arrival in Africa? Isn't it a foreign religion to Africa and Africans?

In his book, The Early Church in Africa, Dr. John Mbiti outlines the fact that the message of Jesus penetrated Africa before it ever reached Europe. "Christianity in Africa is so old that it can be rightly described as an indigenous, traditional and African religion," says Dr. Mbiti.3 The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch described in the Book of Acts predates the apostle Paul's first missionary journey into Europe by a number of years. There is clear, historical documentation of the church in Africa by the third century. Christianity was the dominant religion in North Africa and most notably Egypt.

Egyptian and North African scholars such as Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and Athanasius are widely recognized as fathers of the church. By the year 300, Egypt had more than a million Christians. In the sixth century, Christianity spread to the Nubian Kingdoms, soon becoming the dominant religion. The Christian Nubian Kingdoms survived for 700 years, resisting attempted domination by Muslim conquerors for 600 of those years.

The Egyptian Coptic Church in the Sudan and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church still exist today. Though persecuted, their presence is testimony to the historicity of Christianity in Africa.4 There is growing evidence that the long-standing presence of Christianity in the Nile Valley and in present-day Ethiopia provided a base for the introduction of Christianity in Southern and Western Africa. In summary, the assertion that Christianity is the "white man's religion" is neither historically accurate nor currently true. The first African Christians were not American slaves. The Christian heritage in Africa goes all the way back to the days of the Bible itself.

Well, didn't Christians start, perpetuate and defend American slavery?

First of all, slave trading was not introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa from Europe. Arab Muslims had been conducting a slave trade for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived on the west coast of Africa. Second, the slave traders themselves seldom claimed to be devout men, even though they came from "Christian nations."

In contradiction to this perception stands the life of a white Englishman named William Wilberforce. He led the fight against the slave trade in Parliament because of his commitment to Jesus Christ. His is an incredible story of sacrifice and dedication to truth and justice for African people. While it took his entire life to win this victory, win he did.

“Perhaps we can conclude that God did not turn a blind eye to the sufferings of the slaves”

In the United States, Christians reacted to slavery in a substantially different way. While there was vocal Christian protest against the slave trade and much of the abolitionist movement was spear-headed by Christian people, there were also many Christians who defended slavery. The issue of slavery grew more divisive, and eventually most of the major Protestant denominations divided over the issue. This actually set the stage for the Civil War.

While many factors contributed to the onset of the Civil War, no one can argue that slavery was not a principle cause for the split of the nation, South from North. Many rightly contend that Abraham Lincoln's original objective in the war was not the removal of slavery from the South. Yet it is clear that as the war dragged on, he began to sense the larger drama that was being played out via the conflict. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln spoke eloquently of his growing belief that God was judging the United States for indulging the wicked institution of slavery.

It is intriguing to note that our nation lost more lives in that one conflict than in all its other wars combined. Perhaps we can conclude that God did not turn a blind eye to the sufferings of the slaves, nor did He wink at the conduct of those who oppressed African people in America.

What was the attitude of the slaves through all of this? How could our forefathers embrace the religion of their oppressors?

Part of the rationalization of the slave trade was to "civilize" and "Christianize" the Africans. Missionary efforts among the slaves were allowed because owners assumed that Christianity would make slaves better workers. In the course of this instruction, the slaves discovered something. While the Bible did teach, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear," it also said, "And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both your Master and theirs is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him."5 They discovered that the slavery alluded to in the Bible was substantially different from what they were experiencing. Too many masters wanted their slaves to submit to the commands of Scripture but were unwilling to live by those commands themselves.

The slaves discovered this contradiction but did not allow that to interfere with receiving the transcendent truth of the Bible. In its pages they found hope, courage, strength and comfort. The Negro spirituals are the legacy of the faith of those who, from an earthly standpoint, had cause for despair. This faith enabled our forefathers to endure trials and hardships that we can only imagine. This faith inspired leaders to respond courageously to the problems of our people. These leaders were the likes of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and the thousands of former slaves who enlisted in the Union Army to fight for their freedom. The liberating dynamic of the Bible caused the Southern states to place restrictions on missionary activities among the slaves, forbidding reading instruction and limiting preaching by slave preachers. They also began to put restrictions on slave worship services.

The spiritual "Steal Away" signaled the calling of a worship service to be held in the "hush arbors" outside of the scrutiny of the master or his overseers. In these hush arbors (gathering places in the seclusion of the woods) our forefathers and mothers could revel in the truth that they were not brute beasts with no more value than an ox or an ass. No, the Bible taught them that they were children of the Most High God, citizens of His heavenly kingdom, and that they had inherent value as humans. When they entered into prayer and worship, they experienced a fleeting but galvanizing foretaste of an eventual eternal reward.

The slaves who turned to Jesus knew the difference between some of the versions of Christianity they were seeing practiced and the Christianity they were hearing described in the Bible. Hence the line in the spiritual, "Everybody talkin' 'bout heaven ain't goin' there." They chose to follow the Jesus they saw in the Bible. Jesus provided the hope and power they needed to survive slavery.

What happened to our "Old Time Religion"? Why does the African-American church struggle to gain the allegiance of the emerging generation?

The evolution of the Civil Rights Movement set up young African Americans for a collective crisis of faith. The post-World War II thrust for civil rights found no better incubator than the black churches of the South. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference was the most visible manifestation of the Christian presence in the Civil Rights Movement. Those early mass meetings were characterized by prayer, the singing of hymns and spirituals, and an orderliness of conduct that revealed the Christian influence of the attendees.

Dr. King's appeal was to the moral conscience of the nation, based on its Judeo-Christian values. Yet, the white church failed to support his pleas for justice, freedom and equal treatment. It took the emerging electronic media's coverage of atrocities in the South to finally shame a reluctant federal government to get involved. It was the government, not the white church, that secured the rights for which so many had prayed, marched and shed blood.

This opened the door for those who wanted to disparage the Christian message. Many progressive whites befriended the Civil Rights leadership, becoming our allies in the struggle. Youthful leadership emerged, enraged by the cowardice and hypocrisy of the white church, to declare the need for new thinking. The new allies were quick to provide alternative ideologies, like dialectical Marxism, radical feminism and political liberalism. The patience of the previous generations began to be interpreted as weakness -- a weakness often attributed to the gentle nature of Christianity.

A generation of African Americans began to drift away from the church. These first recipients of the benefits of desegregation were facing new challenges, choosing from previously unheard of opportunities and experiencing unprecedented freedom. The nation had grudgingly removed the obstacles to broader exploration and the younger crowd was ready to wander. The black church struggled to effectively speak to those who had left its confines.

What has been the outcome? Those who have not had access or failed to capitalize on the new opportunities are left without hope for a better future. And the popular notion that Jesus has nothing to offer created a vacuum of moral authority. No longer do we look to God as the one to whom we are accountable. We are our own authority. Some even teach that "The black man is God." If this is so, then we can define our own morality, establish our own standards of behavior, and sit in judgment of everyone else. But we have failed because we are not God. No wonder drug trade is seen as an understandable and too often an acceptable career choice. No wonder teenage pregnancy continues to rise and sexually transmitted diseases are approaching epidemic proportions.

And those who do get an education or establish themselves in legally acceptable jobs are not free from concern. There are still obstacles to acceptance by the mainstream society, and the children of the middle class often get caught in the undertow of sexual and chemical enticements. It almost seems that African-American culture is being overrun by a pathological pursuit of self-aggrandizement, sensuality and prosperity at any cost.

The poet and educator James Weldon Johnson proved to be prophetic when he wrote the last stanza of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in 1921. This work came to be known as the Negro National Anthem and was sung daily after the Pledge of Allegiance in many black schools up until the time of desegregation. His lyrics warned us of the potential for our current predicament:

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast led us thus far on our way,
Thou who hast by thy might led us into the light
keep us forever in the path we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Sadly, too many of our feet have strayed. Too many of our hearts are drunk.

What should we do now? How can we honor our history, respond to the present, and build a viable, vibrant future for our people?

It is not too late. We can still return to the God of our fathers. You can select from a number of eras to find African people to consider your "fathers." You could choose the ancient African Christians, who laid the foundations for much of modern Africa. You could identify with those slaves who prayed in the hush arbors. Or you can honor the perseverance of those Negro Christians who washed floors and swept streets to feed and clothe your grandparents. In any case, it starts with an individual choice. You must choose Jesus for yourself.

Choosing Jesus prepares you to be a real agent of change in our community. We have had enough leaders who have experienced some success, but who got off track somehow. These sidetracks have taken many different forms, from sexual and financial scandals to a constant pursuit of acknowledgment from the white community. Too many of our leaders have compromised our spiritual heritage in order to gain political or economic allies. A vibrant relationship with Christ will give you the power to govern yourself and live according to what is right, not according to what is expedient.

Those of us who discover the power of a relationship with Christ and who see the need for spiritual transformation in our community must band together to build a new future. We must give our brothers and sisters a reason to turn away from the traps that surround them. Jesus is that reason. We must tell the truth about the challenges we face and develop an agenda for overcoming those challenges. That agenda emanates from Jesus. Then we must forge the strategies that will allow our people to make the kind of broad-based progress we all long for. Those strategies will come from people who have the mind of Christ. In the Book of Proverbs in the Bible it says, "Righteousness exalts a nation..."6 If we allow the righteousness of Christ to flow through us, and thereby through our community, we can turn the tide.

“We can honor their memory by rediscovering the faith that allowed our forbearers to survive. We can build on the legacy they have left us by carefully following the one they followed -- Jesus.”

We have been looked down on so long and so pervasively, and our people disappoint us so often, we can begin to wonder if the negative stereotypes are really true. In this vulnerable state we are susceptible to the persuasiveness of eloquent orators like Louis Farrakhan or anyone else who will tell us that we are the best, brightest, most noble people on the earth. It is easy to buy into ideas that lift black people above all others. Our righteous anger is easily manipulated to get us to buy into theories of a white conspiracy to hold us back. It feels good to hold someone else responsible for our struggles. Of course, there is plenty of racism remaining in this society, supplying fuel for those who would stoke the fires of rage and resentment.

Jesus, in what he taught and what he modeled, provides a different perspective. He teaches us that those who have oppressed us will be called to account for their actions. He also directs our attention back to our own responsibility. We will be called to reckon with our own choices. Jesus spoke a message that echoes across the landscape of time and penetrates to the heart of our predicament.

"I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:34,36

All the problems we face as individuals and as a people can be summarized in one word -- sin.

Sin is the biblical word for those actions and our general state of non-conformity to the will and design of God. God made the universe to run on certain principles. When we step outside the bounds of these principles, we enter into sin. This definition helps us understand Jesus' teaching that all sin is harmful. If God designed things to run and function a certain way, whenever we step outside of those design boundaries, we are likely to experience negative consequences. Black people's suffering is either because of someone else's sin or due to our own. Yet, Jesus promises to free us from sin.

You see, God is holy. As such, He cannot tolerate the presence of sin. It is contrary to His nature. So, sin must be dealt with, or judged, and punished. Yet, God is loving. How could He be both just and loving toward us rebellious, sinful human beings? He resolved this dilemma by taking on human flesh Himself, walking this earth, and dying a painful, humiliating death to pay for the punishment of our sin. How could one man's death pay the penalty for the sin of billions of humans? Because He is God, both infinite and eternal. He created an infinite and eternal payment for sin by submitting Himself to death. How do we access this freedom that Jesus purchased for us? By personally accepting him as Savior and Lord.

This is the freedom our forefathers found in the midst of slavery. The freedom to transcend their circumstances. The freedom that comes from living on the basis of a higher reality. This is the freedom that ignited the activity of so many who have fought for the freedom and dignity of our people. This is the freedom that you can experience if you will place your trust in Him.

We have an extraordinarily rich spiritual heritage. And Jesus is central to that heritage. We can honor their memory by rediscovering the faith that allowed our forbearers to survive. We can build on the legacy they have left us by carefully following the one they followed -- Jesus.

You have the opportunity to live out an incredible, eternal transcendent purpose -- a purpose rooted in an eternal hope. Many are involved in seeking to bring about change in the black community. Yet, without an eternal perspective, without a hope fixed on a God who is just, loving, and who offers eternal life, all our striving has to be measured by its effect here and now, in our immediate experience. There is a lot of noble talk about needing to bring about change for the sake of the next generation. But without an eternal perspective those who live on the margins of society have little reason to hope. They have little power. They have limited opportunities. Why should they turn away from the temptations and enticements that offer them quick rewards and a short-term escape?

A relationship with Christ offers not only hope, but the power to do what is right. This is another implication of Jesus' statement, "the truth will set you free." Jesus, in all His power, promises to take up residence in the life of those who place their trust in Him. He gives us the power to resist temptation and to live a godly life. In other words, He gives us the freedom to do what is right instead of being enslaved by our own desires and passions.

Don't let the lies being told about Jesus keep you from knowing the truth. Watch out for those who will play to your emotions, provide pseudo-intellectual arguments, but have bizarre notions built into their beliefs. Like so many of our forefathers, you will find in Jesus a kind, compassionate, powerful friend. One who can give you a new life and set you free from the penalty and power of sin. Then and only then will you be able to see the world clearly, according to truth, and find the purpose for which God created you.

The truth about Jesus is that He is our only sure and lasting hope. Black people were not an afterthought, nor has He relegated us to some secondary position in His kingdom. African people have been a part of His working from the beginning. He is the Savior of all mankind and He will work in the midst of any people who place their trust in Him. The history of African Americans is an illustration of this fact. And He awaits our response to manifest His love and power to us once again. God has a purpose for African Americans. We were created for a noble, yes, even a divine destiny. As we follow Him, we will fulfill that destiny. A destiny of eternal significance. A destiny of present impact on our community. A destiny that maximizes the potential God built into you when He created you. There is no higher calling, and no better life.

"At times we may feel that we do not need God ... There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God..These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart.

"Only God is able. It is faith in Him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Great two paragraphs there, is strange how its only Christianity and Islam that are expansionist in their ideals... the Jewish aren't intrested in having others venerate their God, no other groups are intrested in using their so called ''religion'' to subordinate others, both of their texts are based on the Jewish/Hebrew texts... guess that they both had too much to contend with, the europeans had to find a way to do away with their old traditions, aggress against them to put them under the dominance of the church and subsequent dark age that genocide brough about and Islam had other contenders to deal with through out the middle east bring about the dark age many islamic states are in today...

Authority of the Bible

By Pat Zukeran

There are many books today that claim to be the Word of God. The Koran, the Islam holy book, claims to be the Word of God. The Book of Mormon claims to be the Word of God. The Hindus believe the Bhagavad Vita is the source of eternal truth. Karl Marx, with his atheistic world view, claimed his writing, The Communist Manifesto, was the ultimate truth.

We Christians believe the Bible to be the Word of God and the eternal source of truth we live by. How do we know the Bible is the Word of God? Can we actually prove that the Bible is truly the Word of God? The answer is yes.

Before I begin this discussion of the authority of the Bible, let me first quote the words of Jesus found in John 15:18. Jesus warns his disciples about the attitude the world will have toward those who follow Him. Jesus says, 'If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own As it is you do not belong to the world. That is why the world hates you. 1 Peter 5:8 states, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

What is vital to understand from these passages is the attitude of the world toward God. The world is in rebellion against God, and worldly people under the influence of Satan seek to destroy your faith.

In the light of the times we live in, it is important for Christians not only know what they believe but also, why they believe what they believe.

I once heard an astounding statistic. It indicated that 80 percent of the college-bound students who profess to be Christians leave for school and return home no longer believing in Christ. One of the reasons is this: when a student sits in class and hears the professor discredit the Bible, the student doesn't have a defense and is easily deceived into believing the Bible is no longer credible. This happens too often because Christians know what they believe, but not why they believe it.

In my experience, there is no book that is criticized and attacked more than the Bible. Many intelligent scholars have written books that attempt to discredit the authority of the Bible. This is one of Satan's goals: to get man to doubt the Word of God.

To counter this attack we will study some of the evidence in the case proving the authority and divine origin of the Bible. This knowledge will enable us to make a solid defense of the faith when we are attacked.

There has not been in the history of man a book that has rocked the world as has the Bible. The impact it has made is phenomenal. Some hail the Bible as the Word of God; others criticize and condemn it. With the Bible facing such great opposition today, and with many other works claiming to be the "word of God," how do we know the Bible is the true Word of God? Let us take a look at the evidence.

Internal Evidence
The evidence for the authority of the Bible falls into two major categories: internal evidence and external evidence. I mean by internal evidence, the evidence that is found within the Bible itself. By external evidence, I mean evidence that is found outside the Bible, such as archaeology, science, philosophy, and ancient manuscripts. Let us first consider the former, the internal evidences.
Self-proclamation

The first fact is that the Bible claims to be the Word of God. The authors knew they were writing the words of God, even though they often did not fully understand what they were writing. 2 Timothy 3:16 states, "All scripture is inspired by God." 2 Peter 1:21 states, "No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Jesus himself viewed the Old Testament as authoritative and quoted from it throughout his ministry.

Holy Spirit

Second, the Holy Spirit confirms to us that the Bible is the Word of God. John 16:13 states, "But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth." The Holy Spirit who convicts the world of sin also assures the believer that the Bible is God's Word.

Transforming Ability

Third, we have evidence concerning the transforming ability of the Bible. Hebrews 4:12 says, "The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit." Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The Word of God and the Spirit of God actually transforms the lives of people. The Bible has changed the lives of murderers, drug addicts, top government officials, business people, and students, to name just a few people from every walk of life who have been transformed by the Bible. No other book can make such a claim. This is because the Bible is not a mere book on good living but is literally packed with power. It is the Word of God with the power to change lives.

These are only three internal evidences supporting the authority of the Bible. These of course are not the best arguments to use in a debate, but they are evidence. In the next section, we will study what I believe is the best internal argument.

Unity

We have studied three internal evidences that support the authority and divine inspiration of the Bible. In this section, we will study the fourth internal evidence: the unity of the Bible.

The Bible covers hundreds of topics, yet it does not contradict itself. It remains united in its theme. "Well, what's so amazing about that?" you may ask. Consider these facts. First, the Bible was written over a span of fifteen hundred years. Second, it was written by more than forty men from every walk of life. For example, Moses was educated in Egypt and became a prophet over Israel. Peter was a simple fisherman, Solomon was a king, Luke was a doctor, Amos was a shepherd, and Matthew was a tax collector. All the writers were of vastly different occupations and backgrounds.

Third, it was written in many different places. The Bible was written on three different continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. Moses wrote in the desert of Sinai, Paul wrote in a prison in Rome, Daniel wrote in exile in Babylon, and Ezra wrote in the ruined city of Jerusalem.

Fourth, it was written under many different circumstances. David wrote during a time of war, Jeremiah wrote at the sorrowful time of Israel's downfall, Peter wrote while Israel was under Roman domination, and Joshua wrote while invading the land of Canaan.

Fifth, the writers had different purposes for writing. Isaiah wrote to warn Israel of God's coming judgment on their sin, Matthew wrote to prove to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah, Zechariah wrote to encourage a disheartened Israel who had returned from Babylonian exile, and Paul wrote addressing problems in different Asian and European churches.

If we put all these factors together, the Bible was written over fifteen hundred years, by forty different authors, at different places, under various circumstances, and addressing a multitude of issues. It is amazing that with such diversity, there is such unity in the Bible. That unity is organized around one theme: God's redemption of man and all of creation. Hundreds of controversial subjects are addressed and yet the writers do not contradict each other. The Bible is an incredible document.

Let me offer you a good illustration from apologist Josh McDowell. Take ten contemporary authors and ask them to write their viewpoints on one controversial subject. Would they all agree? No, we would have disagreements from one author to another. Now look at the authorship of the Bible. All these authors, from a span of fifteen hundred years, wrote on many controversial subjects, and they do not contradict one another.(1)

It seems one author guided these writers through the whole process: the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 2:21 states, "No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." The unity of the Bible is just one more amazing proof of the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible.

External Evidence
In our study on the authority of the Bible, we have studied the internal evidences, which are found within the Bible itself. Except for the unity of the Bible, most of these arguments are subjective in nature. Now we will study the external evidences of the Bible, that is, evidences found outside the Bible.

Indestructibility

The first external evidence is the indestructibility of the Bible. The Bible is the most well-known book in the history of the world, and no book has been attacked more than it. Skeptics have tried to destroy the authority of the Bible for the last eighteen hundred years. It has undergone every kind of scrutiny possible from archaeology, science, philosophy, and computers. Yet, despite all these attacks, the Bible proves itself to be true again and again. Each time the skeptics have been wrong, and the Bible has proven itself true. Just the fact that the Bible has remained steadfast in its authority after two thousand years is another piece of evidence supporting its divine origin.

Archaeology

The second source of external evidence comes from archaeology. Middle Eastern archaeological investigations have proven the Bible to be true and unerringly accurate in its historical descriptions. Nelson Glueck, a renowned Jewish archaeologist, states, "No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.''(2)

Dr. William Albright, who was not a friend of Christianity and was probably the foremost authority in Middle East archaeology in his time, said this about the Bible: "There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament."(3)

Here are a couple of examples of the historical accuracy of the Bible. A good example is found in Genesis 14. The Bible speaks of Abraham's victory over Chedorlaomer and five Mesopotamian kings. For years, the critics stated that these accounts were fictitious and many people discredited the Bible. In the 1960s, however, the Ebla tablets were discovered in northern Syria. The Ebla kingdom was a powerful kingdom in the twentieth century B.C. The Ebla tablets are records of its history. Thousands of tablets have been discovered. What is important is that many of these tablets make a reference to all five cities of the plain proving the Genesis 14 account to be accurate.(4)

Another example is the story of Jericho recorded in the book of Joshua. For years skeptics thought the story of the falling walls of Jericho was a myth. However, in the 1930s, Dr. John Garstang made a remarkable discovery. He states, "As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely, the attackers would be able to clamber up and over the ruins of the city." This is remarkable because city walls fall inward, not outward.(5)

The March 5, 1990 issue of Time magazine featured an article called, "Score One For the Bible." In it, archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon claimed Jericho's walls had fallen suddenly. Many scholars feel this was caused by an earthquake which may also explain the damming of the Jordan. Additionally, grain was discovered, which shows the city was conquered quickly. This find adds credence to the biblical account. Further study by Brian Wood found the date of the fall of Jericho to match the Bible's date.(6)

Here are just two great examples of archaeology authenticating the historical reliability of the Bible. No book is as ancient, and at the same time, as convincingly accurate as the Bible.

Indestructibility and archaeology are two external evidences for the Bible.

Prophecy

There are many more external evidences for the Bible, but I'll just cover one more: evidence from prophecy. The Bible contains hundreds of prophecies which have come to pass. No book in history has ever come close to the Bible when it comes to fulfillment of prophecy.

The prophecies in the Bible are very specific and accurate. Nostradamus claims to have made hundreds of prophecies that have come true, but if you read his prophecies, you will find them to be vague and unclear. His symbols and language can be taken to mean a number of historical events. Unlike many such prophecies, biblical prophecy is very specific.

Here are some examples. In Ezekiel 26, which was written in 587 B.C., Ezekiel prophesies that the mighty city of Tyre would be destroyed. Tyre was made up of two parts, a mainland port city and an island city half a mile off shore. Ezekiel predicted mainland Tyre would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, many nations would fight against her, the debris of the city would be thrown into the ocean, the city would never be found again, and fishermen would come there to lay their nets.

In 573 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city of Tyre. Many of the refugees of the city sailed to the island and the island city of Tyre remained a powerful city. In 333 B.C., however, Alexander the Great laid siege to Tyre. Using the rubble of mainland Tyre, he built a causeway to the island city of Tyre. He then captured and completely destroyed the city.

Today, Tyre is a small fishing town where fishing boats come to rest and fisherman spread their nets. The great ancient city of Tyre to this day lies buried in ruins exactly as prophesied. If we were to calculate the odds of this event happening by chance, the figures would be astronomical. No, it was not by coincidence.(7)

Here's another example. There are over three hundred prophecies made of Jesus in the Old Testament. Prophecies such as His place of birth, how he would die, His rejection by the nation of Israel, and so on. All these prophecies were made hundreds of years before Jesus ever came to earth. Because of the accuracy of the prophecies, many skeptics have believed that they must have been written after 70 A.D.--after the birth and death of Jesus, and the destruction of Jerusalem. They have thereby tried to deny that they are even prophecies.

However, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These scrolls contained the book of Isaiah and other prophetic books. When dated, they were found to be written from 120 to 100 B.C.,(8) well before Jesus was born. It would have been an incredible accomplishment for Jesus to have fulfilled all three hundred prophecies. Some say these prophecies were fulfilled by chance, but the odds for this would be exceptionally large. It would take more faith to believe in that chance happening than in the fact that Jesus is God and these prophecies are divinely inspired.(9)

No book can match the Bible when it comes to prophecy. Understand that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of additional proofs for the Bible, yet I have only mentioned a few. I hope this study has aroused your interest to further study the Word of God.

This post is full of opinion but no hard facts. More Christian apologist eurocentric nonsense.

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I thought this thread was about the story of Affrican christianity. How did it morph into christian indoctrination. The external evidence as you term it is extremely poor and does not include any sources outside of the Bible. Where are the external Roman and Greek manuscripts that document the events of the Bible. Where is there evidence of a man living in a whales belly. Of a boat being built that housed every species of animals/ plant? You speak of external sources and go back to quoting the Bible.

More Christian lies and weak arguments. How does anyone fall for this shit.

For those who seek the truth about the origin of Christianity: Based on facts that can be cross referenced.

Download Zeitgeist: Episode 1 for Free. Watch Zeitgeist: Episode 1 Online with Other Documentary Films and Free Movies.

click the bottom 'watch now'. Lets deal with facts not biblical dogma.

I know right....it's why you branched of on a tangit about the roman empire...as far as your other remarks come back when you on that Real talk bredder...

Bredder Tukoma,

The article was/is a good read that pretty much sums up how afrika was underdeveloped.

I had to copy that piece and in my files.

Good stuff.

A mascalero apache by the name of frederick peso was correct when he said:

"The surest way to kill a race is to kill its religion and ideals. Can anybody doubt that the white race deliberately attempted to do that? This is to kill the souls of a people. And when the spirit is killed, what remains?"